Week 41: House Arrest

General Conference Breakfast

Last Wednesday night we got a call from the mission nurse saying that if anyone had any symptoms we needed to let her know immediately. And I had kind of a sore throat so I told her that and we were IMMEDIATELY brought into a 10-day isolation in case I had the coronavirus! We spent all week inside our apartment. I have spent upwards of ten hours every day on the couch. And because Canadians don't wear shoes inside, I haven't put shoes on for almost a whole week! My sore throat was all gone by Sunday, so I was like, HA! I DON'T have covid! And then yesterday I woke up and my throat was hurting again and last night the mission nurse called and left a message saying she wanted to check in and potentially lift our isolation, and I was like, oh HECK. My sore throat is back! There's no way we're getting out of isolation now. Anyway, we called the nurse and explained the situation. I was very confused because normally sore throats don't leave and then come back. And then, all of a sudden, the nurse was like, "Sister Willis, have you had your tonsils removed?" And I told her that I have not had my tonsils removed and she made Sister Bueno check my tonsils in the light and sure enough, they were nice and inflamed! So that was super fun. The nurse came over to check it out last night and she said that I for sure have infected tonsils and that the infection is spreading to my lymph nodes! So the good news is that I do NOT have coronavirus and we're not in isolation anymore! The bad news is that instead I have TONSILLITIS! The nurse is trying to get me some antibiotics to kill the tonsillitis. Hopefully that works out soon. 

Nutell-2-Go from the food bank

This week has been a lot of sitting. Sitting during meetings, sitting watching conference, sitting during lessons. The good news is that we've had a lot of lessons! Without travel time and with the video call breaking up, it's pretty easy to keep our lessons short enough to squeeze a bunch together. We spent the end of last week talking with a lot of our members about the restoration to get everyone nice and prepared for general conference. Which was AMAZING! Everybody always asks what everyone's favorite talk is and every time someone mentions a talk I'm like, that's it! That's my favorite talk! Because they were all so good. But I really really liked Elder Renlund's talk about the new heart and Elder Uchtdorf's talk about video calling the missionaries! You're bored, your local missionaries are bored, and they would love a referral! Go to comeuntochrist.org to get in touch with them 😉. And it really hit home when Elder Holland quoted the returned missionary who said "I didn't come this far to only come this far." We had a mission-wide meeting on Monday (over zoom) and President Keung talked about the children of Israel and Lehi's family who were on long and difficult journeys but who decided that they had not come that far to only come that far! It's helpful for me to remember that I am on a journey with a destination! We have come so far and we have so much farther to go. So we're just going to keep finding joy in the journey.

We played phase 10, watched some pioneer movies, and I worked on our puzzle. We had two good lessons with our friend Rafael and he asked us how someone would join the church and so we explained the importance of baptism and invited him to be baptized on April 25! He said he'd think about it. And we got a text from our friend Jasmine who was going to be baptized on April 12 saying that she didn't think she was ready yet. That was kind of sad, but we had a good lesson with her last night and were able to talk more about God's love for us and how we can find strength. She's super sweet and I'm proud of her and hope she can find peace!

April 10th Day of Fasting Infographic

I have been thinking a lot these last few days of how mindful God is of us. On Saturday I was having a Rough Time and right after the evening session of general conference our zone leaders showed up on our porch with a whole pan of nanaimo bars. So I kind of unloaded on them. (In our defense, we'd been inside for THREE DAYS STRAIGHT).  They were super sweet about it and they came JUST at the right time. And then the next day they showed up with some mail and asked me if I wanted a priesthood blessing. I was in isolation so I wasn't sure if that was allowed but I called the mission president and he said that I could go to the church if I wanted a blessing. For my friends not of my faith, when you get a blessing a priesthood holder puts his hands on your head and speaks the words that God gives him. You can get different kinds of blessings, but this one was a blessing of comfort and counsel. And in my blessing, the elders told me that I would be able to see God's love for me as I read the scriptures (and I was like oh yeah, okay, I already knew that, I'm doing everything I need to be) and then they said that I would ALSO be able to see evidence of God's love if I took time to look around me. And all of a sudden, I remembered so many times in the last few days when people had showed up and reached out and said just the right things at the moment when I needed it! For example, during the Saturday Evening Session of general conference (side note: 4 women speakers! that's a record!), I was struggling and then at the end of his talk, President Eyring said "The Lord has a plan for your service." And I felt like he was looking me straight in the eyes and talking right to me! There are messages from God all around. We just have to look for them!

Medicine Hat Missionaries taken before isolation

And on that note: Doctrine & Covenants 64:33 says "Wherefore, be not weary in well-doing, for ye are laying the foundation of a great work. And out of small things proceedeth that which is great." I am trying so hard to not be weary in well-doing and trust that the Lord can take my small efforts and make great things. I am so excited to see miracles this week!

I hope you are all well! Happy Easter! #Heisrisen!

Love,

Sister Willis

President Nelson has invited us to join in a worldwide day of prayer and fasting for relief from covid-19 on April 10, Good Friday. If you're interested in uniting your faith with ours, check out the infographic!