It’s a strange new world out there. Alisa is still in America, she had a good
time visiting new grand baby Redd Grant Smith and family, and is now in northern
Utah visiting the rest of our kids. She
will attempt to fly back to New Zealand Sunday night and should be allowed back
in. Since she left, the US has blocked
travel to all of Europe due to the coronavirus pandemic (as well as to China
and much of Asia), the Church has canceled all Sunday services, closed temples,
restricted travel internationally, and sent home senior missionaries from much
of Asia and Europe, and Utah and many states have cancelled school. BYU and other universities have cancelled
classes and encouraged students to return to their homes to finish out the
semester classes online. Ed just
informed us this morning that his graduation from dental school next month will
be cancelled in favor of an online ceremony, so at least Alisa and I can remotely
attend that! So far the 3rd
and 4th year dental students will continue in their clinical
experiences through the end of the semester, although classes will be cancelled
for 1st and 2nd year students, or will be done remotely. Granddaughter
Cora’s elementary school has cancelled classes until the end of April! I also read that Guatemala and other South American
countries are now blocking travel from the US. President Trump just declared the coronavirus a national disaster. With all of the foregoing happening just this week, that is why I’ve
been concerned about whether Alisa could get back to NZ. I’m even going to make a prediction now. If this situation keeps ballooning, I believe
there is at least a 50/50 chance that senior missionaries from around the world
will be sent home soon (similar to Sacrament meetings being cancelled around
the world even though NZ doesn’t have a coronavirus problem, yet!). I don’t usually consider myself a “senior”
missionary as I am younger than most and still enjoying tremendous health, but I suspect that I would
be sent home to either SLC or to our actual home to finish up my mission as an Associate
Area Legal Counsel. (I’ve been told that
the AALC’s from Asia and Europe who were previously sent home are now working
from the Church administration building.) The silver lining is that I’ve been
out on this mission long enough (9 ½ months) that I’ve gotten really good at what
I do and have become valuable. All of my
files are paperless, and I could do my legal work remotely with my laptop and
the other technology that I’ve learned here.
However, I’ll keep plugging along at what I do until given further
instructions.
Monday evening was a FHE for the senior missionaries at the
area offices here. The Reynolds spoke to
us about doing family history, and we had a pot luck dinner. Tuesday was pickleball and I played very well
for a change. Afterwards, the McMurray’s
had a plate of food for me for dinner. Wednesday
evening I washed my whites, I believe the first time I’ve done my own laundry
since my first mission to Japan 40+ years ago, I’m a little ashamed to say. But I didn’t shrink anything at least! The rest
of the week was just office time, and jogging and reading at home in the evenings. I had been looking forward to attending
Pasifika on Saturday, which is the annual big Polynesian festival in
Auckland. It was cancelled last year due
to the NZ Mosque shootings, so I thought it would go forward this year. But they even cancelled that on Friday. With
nothing else to do, and with Alisa gone, there wasn’t much else for me to do
but to go to the office all day on Saturday.
I went through the rest of the 25+ litigation files I’m taking over for
Elder Low who is leaving to return to American at the conclusion of his mission,
and updated the notes and records on them.
One of the more unusual ones is that I’m now working with the mission
president of the Perth Australia mission.
A cyclone came through in February and took the roof off of one of his
missionary apartments. The landlord didn’t
make the necessary repairs timely, so we moved the missionaries out to live
temporarily with a local Church family while a new apartment is located. Also, the mission home in Port Moresby PNG has
sewer and security issues, so we’re moving the mission president, wife and 15
year old son out to a secure apartment complex and giving notice to the old
landlord of our termination due to failure to repair. Saturday evening I walked
to the grocery store to buy a few supplies.
Since there are no church services today, I will try to busy
myself appropriately. I took an early
morning walk along Takapuna beach for exercise and to get some fresh air, then
I fixed myself a Sunday morning breakfast fancier than I usually do (cantelope,
raspberries, tomatoes, boiled eggs, spam, enoki mushrooms, sourdough bread with
tangerine marmalade, and milk). I’ve
been reading in Jacob and will do Come Follow Me in a little bit. Then I’ve been invited to dinner at the Poll’s,
and then a farewell for the Williams, who are leaving a week early for some reason. I’ve noticed that I’ve been getting a lot of
dinner invites from other senior missionaries who apparently think I don’t know
how to cook in Alisa’s absence. I like
to kid with them that I’ve done very well thank you, I’ve at least warded off scurvy
so far!
I’m supposed to fly down to Wellington tomorrow evening for a
Tuesday appellate court hearing unless the Church restricts that also.
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