Anyway, Tuesday was business as usual and we were getting ready and we actually had a super awesome day planned when all of a sudden we get this email from President saying "all missionaries are now under voluntary self isolation and should not go out and proselyte". So awkward. Sister Mahan was freaking out a little. She had a tiny panic attack and was talking about how this was her first transfer and they were in quarantine and she just didn't want this to be happening and how are we supposed to work? I literally just sat there and I smiled at her and I said, "I'm not bragging or anything, but you have the perfect trainer for this moment." She was like "uh, how" and I told her that at Temple Square we teach online and that now we would just call all our lessons and it would be the same as in person, just over the phone. I told her that we could be more effective with our time and instead of driving out to appointments for them to not be home, we can just call from here and not waste the time and the miles. She calmed down a little bit after that. Our first day of self isolation went super awesome. We had a bunch of lessons and we even but someone on date for baptism!!
Wednesday we had district council over Facebook chat and that was kinda weird because we weren't all there in person and because every time you would ask a question everyone would just be silent because they were on mute and yeah. Just so awkward and kinda funny. The downside of proselyting online is that if your appointment cancels you can't just be like oh that is okay we are in this area for a reason, let's just knock and do some finding. Nope. If your appointment cancels online, then you have a full hour and nothing much to do to fill it. We have been calling members in our spare time and sharing scriptures and going through all of the inactive "stopped teaching" records in our area book though and calling all of them to fill in some of the gaps. I will say, even with all of that to do, we do have free time. So, we have done various activities such as watching corny church movies, learning how to paint, drawing, having Taylor Swift dance parties (that is mostly just me and my companions watch), getting really pretty for no reason, baking (that one is dangerous), building a robot out of all of our recycled stuff (that one was also just me), learning how to do handstands, making parodies of songs, and so much more. We are almost a week into the isolation so I am excited to see what we come up with the more and more bored we get.
On Thursday we had a zone call with President Stratford and the Assistants to follow up on what we had learned during Zone Conference. We ended up not talking about Zone Conference at all and just talking corona and different things to do with that. Basically, President said "some of you are looking at this like it is a vacation, it is not. There are still a lot of things to do. If you are not working, repent and get to work". Big roast right there to most of the missionaries in our district. We share the ward with the Zone Leaders and we have heard them and they have told us that they are not really doing much all day because they think there isn't anything to do, which is FALSE. There is so much to do!! I literally told one of my Zone Leaders to stop being lazy and to call some people and he just shrugged his shoulders. Oh well. I guess boys will be boys. Also, just a side note, there are people going home left and right here in the mission and that seems wild to me. Seriously, people are going home everywhere. I haven't heard of any sisters going home early though so I think mostly this whole "some missionaries will get released from their service early" just applies to the dudes because they serve for longer anyways.
Okay, I don't even what even happened on Friday and Saturday because everything is blurring together, but one of those days we had 9 mmv (member missionary visits) in just one hour! Yay for online work, am I right? It's SO effective. Honestly, for all these missionaries that are saying that it doesn't work and it isn't the same, don't knock it until you try it. We have been having more success and have been seeing more progression in our people since we have been in self isolation than before. We have put two people on date for baptism this week via technology and one of them is super solid!!! Her name is Nancy. We knocked into her a few days before the isolation thing came out and she was just a normal door honestly. We shared a scripture with her and she was totally open for us coming back. We called her instead and we taught her the restoration over speakerphone and she literally said that she believed that Joseph Smith was a prophet and kept her commitment to download the Book of Mormon and start reading it. She said that she felt bad because she wasn't understanding what she was reading on her own but then she proceeded to tell us the whole story of Nephi and it all made sense and she even had some of the names down so we were like, uh Nancy, you totally got it. We video chatted her for our second lesson after adding her on Facebook and she is so cool!!! We taught her the plan of salvation and we taught her about baptism. She didn't seem too sure about it at first but she did tell us that she had been thinking that maybe she should be baptized again because her first baptism was a long time ago. We talked about priesthood authority again and we talked about getting the gift of the Holy Ghost after she was baptized and we asked her to get dunked on April 18th to which she replied "that is my birthday!" and we were like "NANCY THAT IS A SIGN ARE YOU KIDDING ME" and she was like "yeah, I will get baptized then" and we were like yasssssssss. She is super prepared. And boom. All done over the phone. Don't knock it until you try it.
Yesterday, we had four people attend church digitally and everyone loved it. One of the people that came was Crystal who we have been teaching for fiveever and has never been able to make it to church but was able to this time around because it was virtual. Nancy came with her daughter Olivia and that was awesome. I think potentially Olivia could get baptized too, we just need to establish more of a teaching relationship with her. Also, Cynthia Poole was there (it was at Brother Poole's house). We got to take the sacrament when we were there and I seriously almost cried when they were blessing the water and man I just really needed the sacrament. It was super quick but I loved how I could feel the spirit even though it was fast. I love Jesus. Man.
Basically, this week has been good and full of some dope miracles. I'm grateful to be a missionary!!! Also, I will be in Ohio for at least one more transfer because of corona so that means when I go back to the square (or if I go back) I will only have one transfer left when I get there which is not what I like. I would rather just finish my mission here than just to go back for one transfer, but I guess I just need to go do what God wants me to do. I feel like I probably will go back to be honest, so I should really prepare myself for that. Kinda funny how conflicted I feel about everything right now. I'm just going to try to not think about it and trust in the Lord and know that wherever I serve is where God wants me to be. Also, if I go back to the Square, all of my friends will be gone and that is that.
Okay parents, I love you and I miss you and I will talk to you soon!!!!
Love
Em
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