Have to register all Americans with US State dept including documentation, temple missionaries to go home immediately but need to be registered plus arrange tickets, Housemans spent the night getting family off as late flights were canceled, they were informed MTC change means 11 coming early, as in tomorrow, and they need to have no contact with any of us, sequester 14 days, be provided a place to live plus three meals a day. How? where? emergency office staff mtg called. It’s not the virus that worries us, it’s adding complications to already impossible situations. I can’t imagine what it’s like in SLC right now! And most there working from home (plus an earthquake in the bargain)
We did a viagem by taxi to three stores (but one was closed, maybe because it’s also a restaurant and they have shut down). No popcorn but stocked up on pretzels, likely to feed missionaries a lot but didn’t find hamburger. Haslams (temple missionaries) offered leftovers but I’m hoping we can get the eleven newcomers into temple apartments and they can use any food. I think we should pay someone to drop off a big almoço since our ward can’t even find someone to feed our elders twice a week.
Update: turned into eighteen coming in and we did get them into the temple housing which was perfect, a secure place with no one else there, a room for training. Durk and I went to a store early Monday morning to find things for their breakfast. Sadly, the stores website showed a lot more lovely breakfast pastry than the store actually carries.
In the midst of all this, the president was notified that all Americans would be going home. All the missions in the area were trying to find seats on flights to get to Sao Paulo in time for chartered planes out on Thursday. Poor Elder Raney was searching and Elder Harrison came in to help out.
Durk had been training Elder Brammer in a crash course on finances in case they said seniors and those with health conditions had to leave, but of course he's American.... So Elder Lopes, from Guatemala whose border was closed, went in to train. After Elder Lopes got in a couple of days training they said all non-Brazilians would leave, so in came number three.....
Plus someone had to work with all the missionaries who needed transportation in from their areas out in the interior and they had to start right away. One group was a problem until, we thought, Miracle! a bus company said they could get them all and bring them in that afternoon. Then they said oops, the road is flooded, no can do. Turned out the missionaries got themselves transportation and came in just fine and then we found that the flood was a lie! there was one some ways away but the bus people just didn't want to drive it that day.
Meanwhile I was very grateful to have Elder Brammer became my assistant. We had to prepare to send about half our missionaries home almost immediately, figure out who was being released or temporarily isolating before being reassigned, and what we could do to get their paperwork together, etc. And when we had a few minutes after leaving the office we tried to sort all the things in our apartment - some belong to the mission home, the mission, or the apartment owners, others we could give away.
Elder Raney got lucky when a flight got added from Recife that would fit almost our whole cohort, he grabbed tickets and we started making plans to get everyone in to Recife. The public transportation was getting iffier all the time and since it was looking like we'd have to leave for the airport in the wee hours of them morning, the plan was to get everyone to the chapel where the office is at about six p.m. Wednesday, allowing time for transportation glitches and so they could weigh and reorganise their suitcases and we could do the checkout process with each of them, making sure we had everything we needed from them and they had what they needed. So by Tuesday everyone was getting messages to pack up and prepare.
Warning: way too much detail about the trip home, continue at your own risk. One tiny piece of "The Great Missionary Migration of 2020"
Wednesday morning, we weren't really surprised but very disappointed to find the flight most of us were on had been canceled. We had to be out of Recife early the next morning to make it to the chartered flights out of Sao Paulo, which were the only sure way to get out at all.
Fortunately there were some (President Houseman's) connections to those in high places in Azul airline and we ended up with a miracle when they said they would send a plane (planes?) to get missionaries from our mission and the area office got involved to bring others as well. So we knew we would have transportation but not exactly when. Missionaries were basically being told to pack their bags and sit on them because they might have to leave on a moments notice. I went home from the office Wed. morning to finish our packing so we could be ready also if it had to be really fast.
Remember, during all this, there were still those 18 missionaries at the temple housing needing to be trained and cared for and fed! And now there were also about 23 (who had come in from far areas to make sure they were be here if we found flights out) that were staying in a pousada and who had to do something during the day, and eat. One of the (Brazilian) APs that was supposed to be heading home this transfer was willing to stay on longer, thank goodness. The APs had pretty much put together a mini-MTC for the 18 in isolation.
We prepped for all the Americans to leave and had another box of stuff organized for the other Latin Americans because they were to go next, as their borders opened or flights were available.
Wednesday afternoon word came that we would fly out in the morning so the missionaries started coming in to check out --and Durk and I got the blessing of going back to our apartment to sleep for a while. I had to put the sheets back on the bed but was glad to! Housemans pulled an all-nighter and some of the missionaries stretched out on benches, we joined them about 4:30 a.m. for the bus.
We had two big busses headed to the airport. The streets have been pretty empty the last couple of weeks, mostly a few food delivery bikes/motorcycles and the occasional car.
People in Recife are taking the quarantine very seriously, one guy in our building yelled at us about it though we're not sure why, maybe because we stood next to each other and got on the elevator together instead of one person at a time?? We weren't even within ten feet of him.
We got to see the sunrise from the bus, for maybe the first time in Recife, it gets light by five a.m. all year. We made really good time since the streets are fairly empty.
Ours was the first flight going out that morning from our airline but they wouldn't check us in yet. Sister Houseman sent the APs to find food, we had seventy-some missionaries and all their luggage waiting in line. They found breakfast sandwiches, I didn't want ham-egg-watsit so I got the "toast" which turned out to be a smashed-in-sandwicheira cheap hamburger bun, basically, The others had that but with filling. But everyone enjoyed real orange juice!
Finally our plane was on its way to Maceio to pick up a large group from that mission, a 25 minute flight. They rushed around giving us a bottle of water and pack of bacon-flavored sort of flat puffs made from flour. I was surprised how many more people got on the plane there, it didn't seem that empty or that big. It wasn't all missionaries as they filled in with others, a few in Recife and several more when we stopped. There had been just one that got off in Maceio. After we finally took off again for the longer flight I expected some other food, but it was another round of the same thing. No worse than the presunto-flavor cheerio-shape puffs we got flying to Fortaleza but that trip had choices, like cookies and peanuts.
When we arrived in Sao Paulo things seemed quite organized. We got our luggage and were herded into an area to wait and were told it would take patience because for now we had to stay there because they had over 1000 missionaries moving through that day and they would have to line everyone up and go through figuring out which to fly on the plane to LA, the one to SLC, and maybe Atlanta. There was only one small food place nearby but they promised we would eventually get moved to the other terminal with lots of food. We all hung around for some time and eventually, when the line went down we decided to go ahead and get a snack there at Bobs Burgers (fries and small shake because there wasn't much else) then the line got super long again and just as we started eating they said, "quick, get out to the busses!" It was a fair drive aroundabout to the other terminal, which wasn't far really as the crow flies. We went in and they said hang out here but leave space for people to get through down the middle.
Well, that didn't really work so well so soon they moved us again, I imagine they had just moved another group out of the corner they moved us to. At least it was near the restrooms :) and again they said stay here and be ready to move, but if you really need food let someone know. So many headed off but most real food places were not even open. Lots of McDonalds bags started showing up. It was getting well into evening by now we knew we weren't on the late afternoon flight and not likely the first evening flight. We were told they had changed to the plan of all three big jets going to LA and all the mission going together. I think it became unrealistic to think they had manpower and time to sort through everyone individually.
I was messaging with Sister Houseman, posting updates on FB and following comments from parents and fortunately was able to actually send photos of or messages from some right then and there to their parents who had asked about them. It was definitely worth spending on 24-hours of internet through the airports!
I saw a couple of elders with lovely fruit cups and asked them to run me over to the source so I could grab some quickly, and when we got back they had everyone gathering up to move again, Durk was wondering where I'd gotten lost to. We were glad though, as we never did get another chance to get food.
As we lined up to move and airport employee came and really yelled at us to get our arms out and put arm's length between everyone. Since we had been together on planes and busses all day and were about to spend twelve more hours in close quarters, it seemed a bit excessive, but we tried to spread out. We snaked our way through the airport in a long line including some upstairs and downstairs with luggage on escalators which spread us out naturally, and eventually were in the international terminal in a long line next to another mission's group. This was the one time we saw another senior couple. One of the organizers came and took our (seniors') names and what airport we were heading to as our final destination so they could "make sure we were on the plane".
All along we kept hoping we would sometime be able to know our flight and itineraries and be able to relax a bit and just wait for the flight, or even find real food without worrying about being left.
Yet another upstairs then downstairs with our long line of missionaries and luggage, finally to an actual check-in line. There were fifteen check-in counters going plus the one around the side they took us to.
Well, since the church organized the planes, they had me down with my middle name when all my documents have my maiden name, which the ticket agent did not like, and neither did the federal police when we got there (not to mention my passport still says I got a visa for one day instead of one year). So despite being pulled when halfway through the line, we were not ahead of many of our group coming through security. We found that some, mostly later ones, were not on the same flight but on one that was already announcing final boarding! so we tried to help everyone check their boarding passes to see who had to run to the other gate. We also found that some had not been allowed to check in, joining the group we had seen in the corner from other missions that somehow weren't on the right list. Elder Maxwell had been the caboose person to make sure everyone got through so he knew who hadn't, but he had been one who had to run to the earlier flight so we didn't have access to that list. A couple of them were sisters who did get sent through at the last minute and made our flight. So basically, I felt really bad that I couldn't message Sister Houseman and say we were all on the plane! I could tell her the numbers of the two flights that most of us were on - and some were not. And we didn't even know what time we were to land. (I think it was about twelve hours being herded about the SP airport.)
Like our first flight, random missionaries got put in first class. I was feeling rather cranky about that since we were in bulkhead seats that I dislike and I was very tired and uncomfortable and feeling very "senior". Two young sisters offered to trade but we didn't feel we should take their seats as they'd been up all night already. Durk went to check on whether the attendants could help us figure out who didnt make the flight and they immediately moved him to first class and then me - hurray! We had the seats that can go completely horizontal for sleeping! and comforters! (It was a VERY cold plane). I think it was about 1 a.m.-ish when we took off. We did get a small plate of ravioli for dinner, some of those poor elders probably inhaled it on two bites. I had to check my watch and phone to make sure the time in the morning, since all was kept dark well into the day. I assumed they'd bring some sort of cheese roll breakfast like on the flight into Brasil but they tossed us a plastic bag with a bottle of water and a packaged chocolate thing sort of like a small twinkie. A while later they came around again with another bag, second bottle of water and a cheesy and bit of ham sandwich - a large rectangle without crust with bread more like panettone.
So we landed in LA. We had been given a health assessment form when we boarded and warned that there could be big fines if it wasn't filled out 100%. We had heard of others who had about five hours of lines to get through the health assessment when they landed. Well, we didn't end up having one at all, no one wanted our forms even. We did have a very long wait for luggage and three of our four bags were about the last ones of the whole group. Our big flight was the only one in the entire cavernous baggage claim. There were two people at baggage claim with connecting flight information. They told us we had a direct flight to Columbia MO on American at 5:40. We knew that couldn't be so but they insisted. Many not on the list were told to go out and head to the right. There was a big group there working with a mission president and church travel to get them flights. Durk's phone started working when we landed so we let missionaries use it as needed. With the crush to get flights for hundreds of missionaries, several were wrong which added to the excitement - like having a flight to Philly when they lived in CA. There was a number given for help with connections and it worked, and people were being helped.
We found our way to the right terminal where the ticketing agents were quite used to missionaries coming up with insufficient information and/or needing things fixed. Since there was almost no one else in the whole place they had time to deal with it. We had been scheduled on flights to Chicago and St. Louis and they had been canceled and we had another in the middle of the night, but she searched and worked on it until she got us a flight to Dallas and then Columbia MO. We found a nice looking eating place near our gate but when we went in they said sorry we just closed. There wasn't much else but we found one that had four menu items currently available and we got what we could - Durk's was "curry" but didn't seem to have any actual curry sauce. It was interesting to be running into missionaries all over the airport from various missions in Brazil, some of them insisted on speaking to us in Portuguese. There weren't many other people anywhere in the airport, it was strange to think this was Los Angeles where its usually quite full all the time.
In both LA and Dallas there were announcements that the flights would not have the usual food service, it would be "limited" so find food if you are hungry. One flight the only thing available was foiled-sealed cup of water or Coke0.
When we arrived in Dallas it was even eerier - lots of emptiness. Many eating places with signs on the table saying "we are not serving in the dining area but we are open for take-out food" only they were closed. We did find some food
and our flight did go, even though there were only about 12 people on the entire plane.
Evn was waiting for us when we arrived in Columbia. Fortunately the giant hailstorm missed us, as I think it happened about the time we were leaving the airport! Overall it was forty-some hours in transit.
We hadn't talked a lot about coming home since we had more than three months left, but when we did it was about how wonderful it would be to drive out to a restaurant in just minutes, and to drive to the store where they would have everything we expected in stock - and then stop another store if we wanted, but instead we are doing the self-isolation thing and getting groceries delivered. It takes a bit for the little things to kick in - to stop reaching for the wrong sort of light switch, oh, I remember those bowls! Where is the cooling rack kept, anyway? I enjoy using an actual box with cutting edge for plastic wrap (and its thick and strong!), we really appreciate Evan's homemade bread and having varieties of apples. We're cold even though the thermostat says 70, wearing sweaters and socks - actually the first day my feet were really irritated by wearing socks, could only wear them a few hours at a time, but I got over it. You can buy applesauce here!
Things continue to change in the mission. The Hispanics who were to leave started going and then were told they could stay if they wanted, which was a boon to have some strong experienced ones still around, but a week later that changed again to leaving whenever their borders opened. What happens next, who knows! Brasil is not issuing visas right now so our possible replacements and even the new mission presidents maybe end up changing arrival dates. We pray for the Housemans!!
Durk has been having zoom meetings with the new financial secretaries, who he says are super smart. We continue to get messages on whatsapp from our friends and ward members in Recife. That's a good thing, I think, because it was hard to not have a chance to say goodby to anyone besides the next door neighbors.
So, an early end to the blog. I never did get the chance to go out and get my calligraphy scanned and printed to give away,
perhaps there will be a way to do it from afar .... and I might finish the other one I was working on.
With three days (full of office work) to prepare and leave, there was no souvenir buying for kids and grandkids, no photo excursions to get pictures of places we often passed by or went to but hadn't been able to photograph, so maybe there was reason for those random street shots, that's all there is!
And yet again, the wall being built around the parking area to see the fine craftsmanship:
Another shot of the building down the street, finally being really finished while schools are out -
The poor Brazilians have had to learn not to hug and that is hard, but they are taking the virus seriously so we hope things go well, though we hear the crime rate is up - there are so many poor people who live day to day by selling food they make or bottles of water on the street, etc. and that simply isn't possible.
I'm sure there are all sorts of things left out, but if you read these blog posts thanks for your attention and I hope it was interesting. We give thanks for the marvelous opportunity we had to serve the Lord and work with the missionaries. We were impressed with the obedience of the missionaries and their faithfulness, and they were great examples of how being super obedient strengthens and blesses not only themselves but everyone around them. The Housemans are an amazing example of keeping going under all sorts of conditions and complications with such love and patience, and I don't think they could even survive it all without the constant help of the Lord. It was a great privilege to spend fourteen months in the Recife mission.
We did a viagem by taxi to three stores (but one was closed, maybe because it’s also a restaurant and they have shut down). No popcorn but stocked up on pretzels, likely to feed missionaries a lot but didn’t find hamburger. Haslams (temple missionaries) offered leftovers but I’m hoping we can get the eleven newcomers into temple apartments and they can use any food. I think we should pay someone to drop off a big almoço since our ward can’t even find someone to feed our elders twice a week.
Update: turned into eighteen coming in and we did get them into the temple housing which was perfect, a secure place with no one else there, a room for training. Durk and I went to a store early Monday morning to find things for their breakfast. Sadly, the stores website showed a lot more lovely breakfast pastry than the store actually carries.
In the midst of all this, the president was notified that all Americans would be going home. All the missions in the area were trying to find seats on flights to get to Sao Paulo in time for chartered planes out on Thursday. Poor Elder Raney was searching and Elder Harrison came in to help out.
Durk had been training Elder Brammer in a crash course on finances in case they said seniors and those with health conditions had to leave, but of course he's American.... So Elder Lopes, from Guatemala whose border was closed, went in to train. After Elder Lopes got in a couple of days training they said all non-Brazilians would leave, so in came number three.....
Plus someone had to work with all the missionaries who needed transportation in from their areas out in the interior and they had to start right away. One group was a problem until, we thought, Miracle! a bus company said they could get them all and bring them in that afternoon. Then they said oops, the road is flooded, no can do. Turned out the missionaries got themselves transportation and came in just fine and then we found that the flood was a lie! there was one some ways away but the bus people just didn't want to drive it that day.
 |
| As Durk said, when we arrived the Benevides captured our hearts with a pudim, when we left they broke our heart with another. I am especially sad that Jessica was just really getting going on learning keyboard with me, hope she keeps at it! |
 |
| Jose called Durk "Duke" which made me the Duquessa, so he would make this deal about kissing my hand so I had to get a photo, sorry its not a good one. |
Meanwhile I was very grateful to have Elder Brammer became my assistant. We had to prepare to send about half our missionaries home almost immediately, figure out who was being released or temporarily isolating before being reassigned, and what we could do to get their paperwork together, etc. And when we had a few minutes after leaving the office we tried to sort all the things in our apartment - some belong to the mission home, the mission, or the apartment owners, others we could give away.
 |
| The file drawers seemed pretty empty after we pulled everyone who would be leaving. |
Elder Raney got lucky when a flight got added from Recife that would fit almost our whole cohort, he grabbed tickets and we started making plans to get everyone in to Recife. The public transportation was getting iffier all the time and since it was looking like we'd have to leave for the airport in the wee hours of them morning, the plan was to get everyone to the chapel where the office is at about six p.m. Wednesday, allowing time for transportation glitches and so they could weigh and reorganise their suitcases and we could do the checkout process with each of them, making sure we had everything we needed from them and they had what they needed. So by Tuesday everyone was getting messages to pack up and prepare.
Warning: way too much detail about the trip home, continue at your own risk. One tiny piece of "The Great Missionary Migration of 2020"
Wednesday morning, we weren't really surprised but very disappointed to find the flight most of us were on had been canceled. We had to be out of Recife early the next morning to make it to the chartered flights out of Sao Paulo, which were the only sure way to get out at all.
 |
| Elder Raney burned out and worn out, in the Sao Paulo airport (Elder Harrison alongside with the smile) - I hope he has recovered after some home cooked meals and lots of rest! He learned some good skills in a tough job working in the office. |
Remember, during all this, there were still those 18 missionaries at the temple housing needing to be trained and cared for and fed! And now there were also about 23 (who had come in from far areas to make sure they were be here if we found flights out) that were staying in a pousada and who had to do something during the day, and eat. One of the (Brazilian) APs that was supposed to be heading home this transfer was willing to stay on longer, thank goodness. The APs had pretty much put together a mini-MTC for the 18 in isolation.
We prepped for all the Americans to leave and had another box of stuff organized for the other Latin Americans because they were to go next, as their borders opened or flights were available.
Wednesday afternoon word came that we would fly out in the morning so the missionaries started coming in to check out --and Durk and I got the blessing of going back to our apartment to sleep for a while. I had to put the sheets back on the bed but was glad to! Housemans pulled an all-nighter and some of the missionaries stretched out on benches, we joined them about 4:30 a.m. for the bus.
 |
| bus at 4:30 a.m. |
We got to see the sunrise from the bus, for maybe the first time in Recife, it gets light by five a.m. all year. We made really good time since the streets are fairly empty.
 |
| the Recife airport, waiting for the first flight |
 |
| landscape near Maceio |
 |
| You can see where our mob didn't make it easy to keep a walkway down the middle, though we didn't see many people in the airport other than missionaries. By his point most of the missionaries were either zombies or hyper and needed a serious meal and rest. not to happen for hours yet. |
Well, that didn't really work so well so soon they moved us again, I imagine they had just moved another group out of the corner they moved us to. At least it was near the restrooms :) and again they said stay here and be ready to move, but if you really need food let someone know. So many headed off but most real food places were not even open. Lots of McDonalds bags started showing up. It was getting well into evening by now we knew we weren't on the late afternoon flight and not likely the first evening flight. We were told they had changed to the plan of all three big jets going to LA and all the mission going together. I think it became unrealistic to think they had manpower and time to sort through everyone individually.
I was messaging with Sister Houseman, posting updates on FB and following comments from parents and fortunately was able to actually send photos of or messages from some right then and there to their parents who had asked about them. It was definitely worth spending on 24-hours of internet through the airports!
I saw a couple of elders with lovely fruit cups and asked them to run me over to the source so I could grab some quickly, and when we got back they had everyone gathering up to move again, Durk was wondering where I'd gotten lost to. We were glad though, as we never did get another chance to get food.
As we lined up to move and airport employee came and really yelled at us to get our arms out and put arm's length between everyone. Since we had been together on planes and busses all day and were about to spend twelve more hours in close quarters, it seemed a bit excessive, but we tried to spread out. We snaked our way through the airport in a long line including some upstairs and downstairs with luggage on escalators which spread us out naturally, and eventually were in the international terminal in a long line next to another mission's group. This was the one time we saw another senior couple. One of the organizers came and took our (seniors') names and what airport we were heading to as our final destination so they could "make sure we were on the plane".
All along we kept hoping we would sometime be able to know our flight and itineraries and be able to relax a bit and just wait for the flight, or even find real food without worrying about being left.
Yet another upstairs then downstairs with our long line of missionaries and luggage, finally to an actual check-in line. There were fifteen check-in counters going plus the one around the side they took us to.
 |
| A tiny piece of the check-in line snaking back and forth |
Like our first flight, random missionaries got put in first class. I was feeling rather cranky about that since we were in bulkhead seats that I dislike and I was very tired and uncomfortable and feeling very "senior". Two young sisters offered to trade but we didn't feel we should take their seats as they'd been up all night already. Durk went to check on whether the attendants could help us figure out who didnt make the flight and they immediately moved him to first class and then me - hurray! We had the seats that can go completely horizontal for sleeping! and comforters! (It was a VERY cold plane). I think it was about 1 a.m.-ish when we took off. We did get a small plate of ravioli for dinner, some of those poor elders probably inhaled it on two bites. I had to check my watch and phone to make sure the time in the morning, since all was kept dark well into the day. I assumed they'd bring some sort of cheese roll breakfast like on the flight into Brasil but they tossed us a plastic bag with a bottle of water and a packaged chocolate thing sort of like a small twinkie. A while later they came around again with another bag, second bottle of water and a cheesy and bit of ham sandwich - a large rectangle without crust with bread more like panettone.
So we landed in LA. We had been given a health assessment form when we boarded and warned that there could be big fines if it wasn't filled out 100%. We had heard of others who had about five hours of lines to get through the health assessment when they landed. Well, we didn't end up having one at all, no one wanted our forms even. We did have a very long wait for luggage and three of our four bags were about the last ones of the whole group. Our big flight was the only one in the entire cavernous baggage claim. There were two people at baggage claim with connecting flight information. They told us we had a direct flight to Columbia MO on American at 5:40. We knew that couldn't be so but they insisted. Many not on the list were told to go out and head to the right. There was a big group there working with a mission president and church travel to get them flights. Durk's phone started working when we landed so we let missionaries use it as needed. With the crush to get flights for hundreds of missionaries, several were wrong which added to the excitement - like having a flight to Philly when they lived in CA. There was a number given for help with connections and it worked, and people were being helped.
We found our way to the right terminal where the ticketing agents were quite used to missionaries coming up with insufficient information and/or needing things fixed. Since there was almost no one else in the whole place they had time to deal with it. We had been scheduled on flights to Chicago and St. Louis and they had been canceled and we had another in the middle of the night, but she searched and worked on it until she got us a flight to Dallas and then Columbia MO. We found a nice looking eating place near our gate but when we went in they said sorry we just closed. There wasn't much else but we found one that had four menu items currently available and we got what we could - Durk's was "curry" but didn't seem to have any actual curry sauce. It was interesting to be running into missionaries all over the airport from various missions in Brazil, some of them insisted on speaking to us in Portuguese. There weren't many other people anywhere in the airport, it was strange to think this was Los Angeles where its usually quite full all the time.
In both LA and Dallas there were announcements that the flights would not have the usual food service, it would be "limited" so find food if you are hungry. One flight the only thing available was foiled-sealed cup of water or Coke0.
When we arrived in Dallas it was even eerier - lots of emptiness. Many eating places with signs on the table saying "we are not serving in the dining area but we are open for take-out food" only they were closed. We did find some food
 |
| This was the busiest it got in Dallas, look at all those people! |
Evn was waiting for us when we arrived in Columbia. Fortunately the giant hailstorm missed us, as I think it happened about the time we were leaving the airport! Overall it was forty-some hours in transit.
We hadn't talked a lot about coming home since we had more than three months left, but when we did it was about how wonderful it would be to drive out to a restaurant in just minutes, and to drive to the store where they would have everything we expected in stock - and then stop another store if we wanted, but instead we are doing the self-isolation thing and getting groceries delivered. It takes a bit for the little things to kick in - to stop reaching for the wrong sort of light switch, oh, I remember those bowls! Where is the cooling rack kept, anyway? I enjoy using an actual box with cutting edge for plastic wrap (and its thick and strong!), we really appreciate Evan's homemade bread and having varieties of apples. We're cold even though the thermostat says 70, wearing sweaters and socks - actually the first day my feet were really irritated by wearing socks, could only wear them a few hours at a time, but I got over it. You can buy applesauce here!
Things continue to change in the mission. The Hispanics who were to leave started going and then were told they could stay if they wanted, which was a boon to have some strong experienced ones still around, but a week later that changed again to leaving whenever their borders opened. What happens next, who knows! Brasil is not issuing visas right now so our possible replacements and even the new mission presidents maybe end up changing arrival dates. We pray for the Housemans!!
Durk has been having zoom meetings with the new financial secretaries, who he says are super smart. We continue to get messages on whatsapp from our friends and ward members in Recife. That's a good thing, I think, because it was hard to not have a chance to say goodby to anyone besides the next door neighbors.
So, an early end to the blog. I never did get the chance to go out and get my calligraphy scanned and printed to give away,
With three days (full of office work) to prepare and leave, there was no souvenir buying for kids and grandkids, no photo excursions to get pictures of places we often passed by or went to but hadn't been able to photograph, so maybe there was reason for those random street shots, that's all there is!
And yet again, the wall being built around the parking area to see the fine craftsmanship:
I'm sure there are all sorts of things left out, but if you read these blog posts thanks for your attention and I hope it was interesting. We give thanks for the marvelous opportunity we had to serve the Lord and work with the missionaries. We were impressed with the obedience of the missionaries and their faithfulness, and they were great examples of how being super obedient strengthens and blesses not only themselves but everyone around them. The Housemans are an amazing example of keeping going under all sorts of conditions and complications with such love and patience, and I don't think they could even survive it all without the constant help of the Lord. It was a great privilege to spend fourteen months in the Recife mission.
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