Thoughts on quarantine
Glynis here: This post will contain 2 letters from Elder Neves. In fact, this post will contain the LAST 2 letters from Elder Neves. That's right! He's coming home!!! In fact, he will be with us in just a couple of days. After posting his letters, I will add the rest of the information.
Hey, I just wanted to give you guys a few updates on the situation I'm in right now.
So first off, I am doing fine, Peru is still in a quarantine state and nobody is allowed to leave their houses. The quarantine was supposed to end this upcoming Monday but the president of Peru just extended it for another 2 weeks, so until April 12th.
We did get the news that all the missionaries need to return home to their own countries, and because I have little time left on the mission once I'm home I'll be released from my missionary service. I was pretty sad when I first got the news but I have come to accept it. I'll go where the Lord wants me to go, and if that means to my house then that's where I need to be. Because of the quarantine we don't know exactly when I will be coming home, but the area is waiting for a window to open up to send us home. If no window opens, then it will be after the quarantine at some point. So don't worry about me just yet.
I love you guys so much. I know that our Savior lives and that He is in charge here, He is at the wheel and we just got to trust Him. I'm excited to see all of you so soon!
Have a great week!
-Elder Neves
I'M SO EXCITED FOR GENERAL CONFERENCE!
Good morning everyone,
You're probably wondering why I'm writing this on Friday and not on Saturday. Well, the president of Peru just came out with an announcement that during this quarantine, the men can go out on certain days and the women can go out on certain days (kind of weird but whatever) so we can't leave our apartment tomorrow so we came today instead.
We still have no news about when or how we are going to go home, we just know that it will happen at some point. In the meantime, we are just going on with the work. In our mission it is really hard to do this, because we don't have technology in our mission. That makes things like working over Facebook and stuff like that impossible. All we can do is call our investigators and members to help cheer them up (That's only if they have a phone too). When it all falls into place it works out, and I feel like we are able to minister efficiently in that way. And it gives us the challenge of coming up with creative ways to do the work.
The lack of technology means that watching General Conference tomorrow is going to be a little tricky. The plan is that President Parker is going to have a group phone call with the whole mission and he will put it on (one call in Spanish and another in English) so don't worry;
we will be able to listen. I am so excited to hear the words of Jesus Christ through our dear prophet. I am excited to receive revelation for my personal life and decisions that I need to make soon.
I love you all and I hope you have a great conference weekend.
Con mucho cariño,
-Elder Neves
Glynis again: This has been a whirlwind couple of weeks for us. Since the outbreak of Covid-19, we have been so worried about Jacob. We hoped that because he was in Peru, and in the jungle, that would help him stay away from the virus. The President of Peru took action quite early, and as soon as the virus was detected in Lima, he put restrictions in place. Within a few days, the borders were shut down, and no one was allowed in or out. Thousands of tourists were stuck at the airport in Lima, with no way to get out of the country.
Next, the citizens of Peru were put on a 2 week quarantine; much like here. Jacob told us that they were allowed to go to the grocery store and that was it. Since the mission office was on the way to the market, they would stop in there to check in with President Parker. They had to stop missionary work, and that was very hard for them. Jacob has been living in an apartment with 5 other "office" missionaries. Together, they tried to keep each other motivated. They studied together, played games together, had paper airplane contests together, and prayed together. Jacob began reading the Old Testament, as it was the only book of scripture that he hadn't finished on his mission. He set a goal to finish it before quarantine was over.
The 2 weeks went by so slowly, he said. It was tough on the morale of the missionaries to stay put in their homes. By the end of the 2 weeks, they were ready to be done! Then came the announcement from the church that all "foreign" missionaries would be sent to their homes. Jacob was devastated! He has loved his mission so much, and loves the people of Peru. He wanted to finish out his time in Peru. He was hopeful that because he had so little time, he would be able to, but it was not to be. We spoke to him, and he expressed his sadness at the mission ending, but he was resolved to accept the Lord's will and come home.
Before travel preparations could be made, however, the president of Peru announced another 2 weeks of quarantine. This time the military was brought in to patrol the streets, and make sure that no one was out without a good reason. It became much harder for the Elders to get to the mission office. However, they managed to sneak over there a few times. Luckily, they were never caught by the military. Jacob continued his reading of the Old Testament, and he was positive that he'd be able to finish it before he came home, since the quarantine was extended to April 12.
This week, Alan and I were invited to a Zoom meeting with President and Sister Parker. This call was amazing! 100 parents, and the Parkers! Quite a gathering. They told us that the Church had been trying to work with the Embassy to get the missionaries out, but the Embassy was being less than helpful. The Church then decided to charter flights to get all the missionaries out. At the time of the Zoom meeting, most of the Lima missions (there are 5) were already out, and the missionaries from Arequipa, Chiclayo, and Huancayo were waiting in Lima for their flights. We were told that the Parkers were working to get all the missionaries in the Iquitos mission back into one of 3 cities with an airport: Iquitos, Tarapoto and Pucallpa. The Iquitos mission is HUGE and a lot of the missionaries were several hours away from those cities. Because the military was in charge, anyone traveling had to have special documents, and the Parkers were working on getting those documents for the "gringo" missionaries in the outlying areas. They told us that realistically, we shouldn't expect our missionary home before the 12th. After the meeting, we felt such peace, knowing that they had things well in hand.
The next night, Sister Parker reached out to the families again, via Facebook, and let us know that the windows of Heaven had opened and that there would be a charter flight in Iquitos on April 8 to take the 21 missionaries in the city to Lima. There, they would deliver all the passports for the rest of the missionaries to the church travel department, and then they would be placed on a charter flight from Lima to the states. So, for those of us with a missionary in the city of Iquitos, we finally had a light at the end of the tunnel! We were able to call Jacob and deliver the good news to him. We had a great conversation, and Jacob told us that he was almost done with the Old Testament.
Since then, we have been in daily contact with the Parkers. They reached out, asking us all to pray for the missionaries in the outlying areas. The church had arranged charter flights on April 8th for Iquitos, Tarapoto, and Pucallpa. They just needed to get the few elders left in the jungle areas into the cities without issue from the military. The Elders from Moyobamba were able to get to Tarapoto with only slight interference. They were being driven in, and the driver stopped in a small town to get lunch, but the military looked at their papers, and ordered them out of the village. They were allowed to go through, but not to stop for food. However, they made it to Tarapoto! Then there were only 3 Elders left. They were in a small village called Nauta. They needed to get to Pucallpa ASAP! It didn't look like there would be any way for them to make it, as it was too far to walk, and none of the members could drive them. (None of them have worked for almost a month, so gas money was non-existent). Just when it looked like they wouldn't make it, the bishop volunteered to take them. We don't know where he got the money, but he made sure all 3 missionaries got to Pucallpa.
So, every gringo missionary is where he/she needs to be in order to catch their flights. What looked like it would take a couple of weeks to achieve, only took a matter of days. Truly a miracle! So, all the Iquitos missionaries will meet up in Lima at 12:30 on Wednesday, April 8, 2020. They will then board a charter flight and all 64 missionaries will join an entire plane full of missionaries on their way to Los Angeles. There will be 194 missionaries on that plane! They will land in LA at 9:30 tomorrow night, and some will be picked up, some will make connecting flights, and some (Jacob included) will be put up in a hotel. At 11:30 Thursday morning, he will board another flight and head to Salt Lake City. The plane will land at 2:12, and he will have faithfully served the Lord for 20 months.
We were able to talk to Jacob just this afternoon. He was proud to inform us that he completed his goal of reading the Old Testament! During his mission he has read all 4 of the Standard Works, plus he has read the Book of Mormon and the Doctrine and Covenants multiple times in Spanish! We are so excited to see him, and hear all his adventures. We will be quarantined with him in our home for 2 weeks, so we will have plenty of time to hear all about it. We are grateful to all of you for supporting him and praying for him. Please keep those prayers coming until he's home, safe and sound, Thursday afternoon! We are looking forward to having him home again!
