On Sunday, April 5th Sister Hatfield and I needed
to take more face masks to missionaries in the South St Louis Zone. So, we decided we would attend the morning
session of General Conference with them in the St Louis Hills building. Six elders had set up a TV for watching in
the young women’s room. We took our
supply of white handkerchiefs and helped the missionaries participate in the hosanna
shout. It certainly was a memorable
conference both for the messages, and for the social distancing practices that
made remote attendance mandatory for everyone.
While we typically have office staff meetings on Fridays, this week we
held staff meeting on Monday, April 6th. I presented President Bell with a report of
our vacant apartments, now numbering about 23.
I had a tentative plan for giving notice to terminate a number of the
leases. At the end of the meeting,
President Bell was not feeling particularly sure about the situation, having
very little information about what expectation we should have for missionaries
returning to the mission. He decided
that we should call Elder Sam Wong, First Counselor in the North America
Central Area Presidency. Elder Wong
counseled that we should continue to make contingency plans and suggested that
we start closing apartments judiciously.
But he acknowledged that he didn’t have any more firm information than
we did about missionary returns. I
prepared notices to terminate and decided to send them out on April 7th. On the evening of April 6th, the
day before I was to send notices, I received an email from the Missionary
Department. It instructed me that we
should not close apartments. If that
message had come a week, or even a day later, I would have put in motion legal
notices to terminate leases that might have been impossible to reverse, and at
the very least embarrassing to the Mission’s reputation. I felt relief for the direction from the
Church, just at the moment I needed it. The
process of caring for many empty apartments and getting them ready again for
missionaries that will be sent to the Missouri St Louis Mission will be a big
job. I am grateful for the office staff
and missionaries who share the burden with me.
In the end, I feel confident that we are being led by leaders that
operate with inspiration. The Lord’s
Work with go forward even better suited for our world than before. It is a blessing to be a part of it.
April 8th was a special day, not because the work
was unusual for me, but because Sister Hatfield joined me and the housing
assistants in it. It was a long day
setting up beds for new companionships in far corners of the Champaign zone, together
with other chores that we could do along the way. With a few more missionaries leaving for
COVID-19 concerns the day before, some further adjustments had to be made in
the mission companionship organization.
I take the responsibility of having everyone in a bed just as quickly as
possible. The task this day was to
gather up furniture we already had in empty apartments and get it moved to
where the missionaries needed it. It started
with a visit to the apartment left by a senior couple in the Hazelwood zone,
the zone just north of St Louis. We
packed up an enormous wood table and chairs, and some desks and chairs. I took advantage of RaDene being with us to
do some planning as to how to button up this apartment and turn it back over to
the landlord, a decision made and notice given some months ago. Then we headed across the Mississippi to
Illinois, and in the Shilo East area of the O’Fallon zone, picked up beds and
brought in garbage cans in another empty apartment. Then we turned north to Mattoon. This small town is presently the teaching
area of two sisters for whom we had some mail and masks. It seems we are taking masks to everyone we
see lately. After a short visit and a
prayer, we went past Champaign to the town of Mahomet, where the sister
training leaders for the zone live and have a new threesome. They had asked for a kitchen table, which
they admittedly needed. They had been
making due with a folding table, and with three sisters locked into their apartment,
they needed some table space to be their creative selves.
Somehow, our timing was not right, and we got their before
the sisters got back from grocery shopping.
And sadly, I had forgotten my key.
That is always a mistake. We
thought we would get a jump on things and start unloading the bed and table and
chairs and lights, and so forth, while we waited for the sisters to return. Just about the time we got the furniture all
unloaded, the heavens opened, rain descended, and the wind and lightning chased
us back into the truck and the entry stairwell.
Midwest storms have a power to them that we don’t often get in the
Mountain West. We looked kind of funny balancing
furniture on the stairs in precarious positions. But the sisters came and we set them up. Except the table would not fit around the
corner and in the door at the top of the stairs. While two of us held it, one of us started
unbolting legs and supports. That
landing and stairs was the wrong place to be disassembling, but we did it.
The dryer in Mahomet has been on the “fix it” list since
before I came to the mission in December of last year. Generations of sisters have complained that
it did not dry. At first I didn’t feel
ownership of the problem because it didn’t start on my watch. So, I had a local member look at it, I called
the apartment maintenance staff, and I even paid an appliance technician to fix
it. No luck with any of those, except
that the technician confirmed that there was nothing wrong with the dryer, it
simply wasn’t getting any exhaust airflow.
So, now, I decided it was time.
Armed with the mission shop vac, we went to work to see if we could find
a clog in the dryer exhaust line. In
apartments, it isn’t so easy to find the exhaust ports, especially on for the
second story. I stood on chairs in the
back planters, hung over balcony rails, and got plenty of funny looks from
other residents. But we simply could not
find the exhaust port. Finally, we stood
back and saw something on the roof of the apartment that looked like it could
be it. I have never seen a dryer vent to
the roof, but we were out of options. We
didn’t have a ladder, much less a second story ladder, much less permission to
go on the roof. There had to be another
way.
How about an attic access?
We searched the apartment, with no luck.
But, back out on that small stair landing, there it was. The tell-tale square frame in the sheet rocked
ceiling. I got a chair, but was still
well shy of the access. So, Elder Schumann,
our wiry new housing assistant, stood on my shoulders and I boosted him through
the hole. We handed up a flash light,
and he thought he saw a pipe snaking through the ceiling about where our dryer
was. He acrobatically swung through the
rafters, avoiding stepping through the ceiling, and we banged and listened from
above and below. We were convinced we
had found the exhaust pipe. But how
would we clear it? I decided that was
someone else’s problem. I instructed
Elder Schumann to disconnect the pipe at an elbow he had taken a picture of for
me. It was a bit tedious, but he was
successful, and we left the pipe dangling from the roof top. Sure enough, the clog was past the elbow, and
the dryer exhausted very nicely. The next
day I told the story, complete with sketch, and sent it to the apartment
manager. I bet they don’t get many
tenants doing HVAC work in their attic, but I was not going to leave with the
dryer not working.
Well, that put us behind schedule. Lucky for the housing assistants, RaDene
insisted we get a burger at McDonalds before pressing on. That was a good call. The take out food options were all closing
and we hadn’t eaten all day. I haven’t
had a Big Mac in years. You know, they
taste pretty good on a day like this one.
We headed away from Mahomet, which is north of Champaign, and west to
Springfield to set up our last three some arrangement. We didn’t stay long, because we still had a
two and a half hour drive back to St Louis.
Again, luck for the young elders, they had Sister Hatfield along on this
trip, so we had lively conversation. We
only broke curfew by an hour and a half this day—9 am to 11:30 pm.
Later that week, on April 10th we participated in
the worldwide COVID fast initiated by President Nelson. That was an amazing experience to join with
people of all stripes in a common spiritual cause. He really is the Lord’s Annointed for the
world. The next day, I had a COVID
experience of a different kind. I had to
queue up at the drug store, the grocery store, and last, with RaDene and two
missionaries at WalMart. I have never
stood in line in the United States like this once, much less three times. It is strange. We were at WalMart to by the elders a laptop
that the Church had authorized for online proselyting. These smart young missionaries are displaying
their skills, talents, and obedience by continuing to press ahead with the work
against all odds. We feel like the
skills we are gaining in this isolating time is teaching online skills that
will be a powerful tool for the missionary work long after the social
distancing is over and done. Strangely,
the virus is hastening the Work by forcing us to gain needed skills for the
time we live in. People don’t respond to
knocking on their doors. They do respond
to Facebook.
April 11th started with some rolling up of the
sleeves and taking of my own Housing Coordinator medicine: we straightened and cleaned our apartment
like good missionaries. I did a little
shopping and went to a former senior missionary apartment in the area and
started the process of cleaning out, cleaning up, and packing. Knowing how scarce a commodity storage is,
and how distracting and burdensome extra, non-essential “stuff” is to
transitory missionaries, I have gotten really good at donating and throwing
away. I also like to be the first one in
so as not to scare others when the fridge or toilet have rainbow colors growing
in them. RaDene worked hard in the
office all afternoon, catching up on baptism reports and many other projects
that start to press as we get close to another transfer. I use that term advisedly, because all we
have done for some time is send people home, not receive. But, we hope that will change after
missionaries make their elections by April 30th to be reassigned as
soon as health circumstances permit travel.
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