MSLM Photo memories of COVID 19

Our first of many Zoom Zone Conference - March 19, 2020
Sister & Elder Jacob, Elder Hatield, Sister Everton, Elders Newbold and Kelimb

The St. Louis branch of the rapidly formed MSLM Travel Agency - Tuesday March 24, 2020

The Utah Branch / Core of the MSLM Travel Team - Kamie Hubbard shown here at 5am Thursday March 26th

                                   

Lovely Ladies in Masks -first departing group March 26th

All 14 members of the main departing group on Thursday, March 26th

First arriving group (MTC Evacuees - Friday March 27th

AP's say goodbye to Elder Scott, (last flight out) and the office on Friday, March 27th

Calendar of Events in the Church and Missouri St. Louis Mission - March 11th - April 20th 2020

A Calendar of Events March 11 - April 20, 2020

So we don't forget... all the incredible, unprecedented moments during 
the COVID 19 Pandemic in the Missouri St. Louis Mission:

March 11^th   - in the Missouri St. Louis Mission

·         New Missionary Orientation for 9 new missionaries

·         Mission Wide Transfers  (changes in Mission leadership?....

·         Received Notice that 5 missionaries from Korea had received temporary Assignment to MSLM anticipated arrival on March 23rd

March 11^th –  Church Announcement:

·         Restrictions on Stake and Leadership Conferences.  Weekly Church services held under the direction of Local leaders.

March 12^th –  Church Announcement:

·         Gatherings of Church Members Suspended worldwide, branch, ward, or stake activities

MSLM impact – Zone Councils were scheduled for that day. Zone conferences were scheduled for 3 days in the following week – March 17-19, Stake Relief societies were planning meals for 50-70 missionaries each day.

March 13^th –  Church Announcement:

·         Temples would be closed except for living ordinances

Friday, March 13^th –  church group email system ‘broke’ .  

Church worked to release a new system, in time to start communicating regularly with parents regarding COVID 19 notices/information.  It was probably related to the fact that the church was revamping it's Missionary portal and asked that all of our mission documents, letter templates etc be transferred to Google Drive... without much instruction or technical support to do so!  It was a huge project that coincided with all that was happening due to COVID19 - 

March 15^th – First at home sacrament meetings

MSLM impact - we had 9 new missionaries and many transferred missionaries who were in new areas for the first time and did not have relationships with members or priesthood leaders to support their work... they had to find other ways

March 16^th – Church Announcement: COVID-19’s Impact on Missionary Service

·          young missionaries with health issues and senior missionaries may be released from service

·         Missionaries who begin their service and are unable to travel to assigned mission may be temporarily reassigned to another mission

·         Missionaries who would complete their mission on or before Sept 1 2020 may be released after they have served for 21 months

March 17^th – LDS provide disaster relief to Tennessee Tornado Victims  (was this the storm where mission vehicles were damaged?)

March 18^th – Earthquake in SLC damages Angel Moroni statute

March 18^th – MSLM – 9pm President Bell received initial list of missionaries who ‘out of an abundance of caution’ would need to be released.  He called staff and asked us to prayerfully consider who should go home.  We were 'flexing' to have our first zoom zone conference the next day - and would have to include a staff meeting to discuss and decide

March 19^th

·         1^st Mission Wide Zoom Zone Conference,

·        1^st young missionaries and Senior missionaries contacted to and told they were being released

·      Pres & Sister Bell in conjunction with Mission Medical council began painstaking work of identifying others who were at risk, Elder Hatfield & I served on the council for 2 hours during the this day

Elder Hatfield made phone calls to Stake Presidents as names were decided upon, I started preparing departing materials, certificates of release, letters, etc.

Friday, March 20^th

·         Received Email from MTC that 6 missionaries who had calls to foreign countries had received temporary assignment to MSLM

March 20^th  Church Announced: More Temporary Adjustments made to Missionary Work

·         Coming weeks substantial numbers of missionaries will need to return to their home nations to continue their service

·         14 day period of self-isolation and may be assigned to serve within their home country

·         MTCs will not receive missionaries – training will take place through technology

Saturday, March 21^th – State of Illinois Stay at Home Order effective beginning at 5pm

MSLM impact:  No one would be able to be baptized in Illinois. (3 full zones, 2 partial zones impacted)   Missionaries would not be able to gather at church buildings – even in small groups.  (5 zones were impacted by this order  - all of the areas in O’Fallon, Champaign, Springfield, part of the areas in Hazelwood and Cape Giradeau)

·         First of the Senior missionaries started for home (Thomsons & Emmersons)

Monday, March 23^rd – St. Louis County Stay at Home Order effective at 5pm

MSLM impact:  Baptisms could be conducted if fewer than 10 people were in the building at the time.  Must observe social distancing practices.  People could gather at church buildings for sacrament meeting – if 10 or fewer people were in attendance and observed social distancing while there.  (parts of 3 zones were impacted, St. Louis, So St. Louis, Hazelwood)

·         We expected the arrival of 5 missionaries transferred from Korea, they did not arrive

Tuesday, March 24^th

·         Mid morning received an email from Missionary Department directing our office to make the travel arrangements for all of the missionaries were to be released

·         Sister Bell, Sister Hatfield worked in conjunction with Sister Hatfield’s sister, Kamie Hubbard to begin booking trips

·         Learned 2 more missionaries would be evacuated from the MTC to our mission, for a total of 8 new arrivals on Thursday, March 26^th.

Wednesday, March 25^th

·         More missionaries received notice of releases

·         Flurry of activity in the office to prepare all the departing packets and welcome notebooks

Thursday, March 26^th

·         18 missionaries departed, beginning at 6am, rolling departures/reassignment of companionships

·         6 pm learned that the flight for 8 incoming missionaries had been cancelled

Friday, March 27^th

·         7 missionaries departed,

·         8 missionaries arrived transfers occurred in Mission Office Parking lot

Saturday, March 28^th

·         New Missionary Orientation conducted via Zoom

March 31^st – Church offers new Options for Missionary Service by April 30^th

·         Impact on MSLM:  the 6 Korean missionaries and the 3 new missionaries we were expecting on April 21^st will be delayed

Thursday, April 2^nd

·         3 more missionaries depart

Friday, April 10^th

·         1^st New Missionary training via Zoom for 17 missionaries (9 from planned transfer in March, 8 from

Monday, April 13^th

·         4 more missionaries depart

Monday April 20^th

·         3 more missionaries depart

Church at Home with Nana & Papa Begins!

It's been over a month since I first posted the following photos on Blogger.  I haven't had a moment to get back to adding captions/explanations.  And truth be told, I don't have a moment today!  It's Sunday and we are at the Mission office.  President Bell is conducting zoom interviews with the 19 missionaries who we got word on Thursday would be arriving in our mission on Tuesday - yes, 5 days later!  In other words - life as normal - transfers every other week - in the Missouri St. Louis Mission during COVID 19 Pandemic.... But I digress....

Here are photos from our first Google Hangout Church at home with Nana & Papa on Sunday March 22nd.  

Super heroes can stand for the Right

We can be gardeners planting seeds in the Lord's vineyard - like missionaries!

Sunday afternoon chat with his folks while he watches big fluffy snow flakes fall and papa with his hands full of the 'fruit' he harvested from the tree while our grands watched ("Silly Papa - taped oranges on the tree)

My friend Eva sent me a photo from Easter 2019 standing outside my house... my house 2020

Like Swans on a Lake & The Case of the Missing Peanut Butter Sandwich

The following are the articles that were included in the 18 page COVID19 Special Edition of the Mission Newsletter, published on April 24, 2020

Like Swans on a Lake by Sister Hatfield

That’s how I described it to someone who asked how things were going in the MSLM office during week 3 of the “COVID19 transfer”.

On Tuesday, March 24^th President Bell received a “Major Process Change” email from the Missionary Department directing our office to to make all the travel arrangements needed to get the 27 missionaries who had been identified home ASAP.  

A few minutes after President Bell gave me the news, I had the thought to post it on my family GroupMe thread.  I pushed the thought away a couple of times, but finally, still feeling like I shouldn’t take time to give my family a frivolous update - I stepped into the back office where I wouldn’t be overheard and dictated a quick text.  At the end of my texted I quipped “anybody want to help me book tickets?”  before I was able to sit back in my chair, my sister Kamie texted “I would love to” followed by a text from my niece, “that’s my mom’s dream job”. 

Minutes later I had my sister on the phone.  As soon as she was able to open her computer, I shared with her a google doc listing the names, birthdates, and hometowns of all the missionaries who we needed to get home. And Kamie got to work.  Not long after, Sister Bell arrived at the office and the three of us made quite the team.  Sister Bell searched and found the best priced flights and Kamie worked with the airlines to book the tickets.  I managed the communications between the mission, the parents and stake presidents and started orchestrating all of the typical departing processes.  Despite the fact that several more missionaries were added to the flight pool and almost a third of the flights canceled and had to be rebooked – somehow, miraculously, within 72 hours of posting an inspired message on my family’s group text, 26 of Missouri St. Louis’s finest missionaries were safely home or on flights soon to be home.  Like swans on a lake.

The case of the Missing Peanut Butter Sandwich by Elder Hatfield

Many of our departing missionaries left with very little time to prepare.  One sister called after she arrived back at home.  She said when she was on the plane and couldn’t find the sandwich she was sure she had packed - she had the thought that maybe she had left on her apartment kitchen counter.  Late one evening a day or two later I stopped to check.  Although the apartment was otherwise neat and clean, sure enough, on the kitchen counter was a peanut butter and Nutella sandwich, right next to the open peanut butter jar!   Fortunately, the food was found before any great infestation occurred.

Meanwhile, I had plenty of other empty apartments to consider.  I talked to President Bell and developed a plan to start closing apartments, trying to maintain what I thought we would need.  I prepared notices to terminate and decided to send them out on April 7^th.  On the evening of April 6^th, 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.