Week 40: OOHHH WE'RE HALFWAY THERE!

Manna (Brownies) from Heaven!

On Thursday I hit my 9 month mark, which means -- HALFWAY! And we are DEFINITELY living on a prayer. Everybody always talks about having a mid-mission crisis. Apparently mine is covid-19. We aren't confined to our apartments (yet) but the missionaries in Calgary are so we're pretty sure we know what's coming. Luckily general conference is this weekend! There's no better time to be trapped inside your apartment than for general conference. And there's no better time to hear the words of the prophets than in the middle of a pandemic! 

Last Thursday we had transfers, so we took a quick road trip to Lethbridge, which is about two hours east of Medicine Hat. Everything was mostly alright except for 11 areas in the mission closing due to the fact that we lost all of the elders who had been out for 21 months AND no new missionaries could come in from the MTC in Provo. But then, on Friday, we had -- TRANSFERS PART 2! We found out that all of the international missionaries were being sent home, quarantined for 14 days, and reassigned to missions in their home countries. Luckily the US of A is not quite international enough for the Church to start chartering us planes home. We lost a few dozen more missionaries, but some of them can't even go home because the borders of their home countries are closed! Things change every day, and every day missionaries get moved around. But I'm still here! Partying it up!

We haven't been able to go into people's homes for a couple of weeks now, but luckily the members of the Medicine Hat 5th ward are literal ANGELS sent directly from the presence of God to feed my companion and I a ridiculous amount of sugar. On Thursday morning, our relief society president hung a bag on our door with a puzzle and a roll of frozen cookie dough; on Saturday, a member dropped off TWO PANS of frosted double-chocolate brownies (one gluten and dairy-free, for Sister Bueno, and one full of butter and flour, for me); the stake president's wife gave us dinner on Monday and included a 5-pound bag of sour gummy dinosaurs (dino-sours, they're called) and homemade chocolate chip cookies; and last night our doorbell rang at 8:00! It was (if you can guess!) a sweet member of our ward walking her dog in the snowstorm. She gave us some kit-kats and mike & ikes and told us to stay safe. Basically, if I get sent home because of the coronavirus, don't be surprised if I'm looking a little chunkier.

Yesterday we were supposed to have MLC (mission leadership council: a big meeting with all of the zone leaders and sister training leaders in the mission) in Calgary, but CLEARLY that was NOT going to happen. So instead we had a big zoom call! So many of the missionaries have gone home since the end of February, when we had our last meeting, that it was kind of crazy to see all of the new people! But life goes on. And we thank heaven for technology! We've been able to have so many lessons with members and people we're teaching through hangouts and zoom and messenger and google duo even though we can't meet with people in person! For the longest time, everybody would always talk about how God prepared this technology to hasten His work and I didn't really buy into it. I thought it was great that we COULD use technology to do family history work and share the gospel, but there was no way that could be its primary purpose. And look where we are now! Thanks to the devices we have in our hands and the years of experience that we've had with social media, we're going as strong as ever! President Keung even started posting on Facebook! Which is a miracle all of its own!

At the end of last week, the zone leaders had a little bit of a rocky relationship with some of the companionships in our zone, so they decided to take a page out of the Relief Society book and offer up some baked goods. We tried to teach them how to make cake mix cookies but instead of following the recipes we sent them they just followed the recipe on the cake box, so they made a bunch of mini cakes. Which is exactly what you'd expect from two 20-year-old boys. They called us, very concerned about their cake-cookies, and then decided that they would still be an acceptable apology offering if they were frosted. But they didn't have stuff to make frosting. So Sister Willis got to make chocolate frosting for the zone leaders, who showed up to our apartment with the cookie-cakes ("they taste like clouds!" they said), and we all stood in the doorway frosting the treats. I think the missionaries forgave them, so it might have been worth it.

This morning I read Doctrine and Covenants 128:22, which is taken from a letter written by Joseph Smith and says, "Brethren, shall we not go on in so great a cause? Go forward and not backward. Courage, brethren; and on, on to the victory! Let your hearts rejoice, and be exceedingly glad." I am so immensely grateful to be part of so great a cause! And it is powerful to me to recognize that where most of the world has shut down, we are still working hard and going strong! In this battle we're fighting we already know who wins! And so we're still girding up our loins and getting to work. It's a HAPPY time to be a disciple of Christ! And it is SUCH a happy time to be a missionary!

I love you! Take a little extra effort to be a missionary today!

💙💙💙

Sister Willis