President Hammon's Update on Missionaries Trying to Get to Germany

 January 25, 2021 Update

 

I wanted to share with my family and close friends a few things about our missionaries that have inspired me.  As I have mentioned, we have received 81 missionaries in Germany in just the past 5 weeks.  We were supposed to receive 91 and I wanted to tell you about the other 10.

 

24 missionaries arrived in England on December 16^th, some directly from the online MTC at home experience and some who had been reassigned to other missions in the US.  Of the 10 missionaries, 8 are sisters and 5 of them were already serving in the US.  Most of them have been serving for 6 months now and therefore only have 12 months left to serve.  One of the 2 elders has also been serving in the US.

 

Those missionaries serving in the US had finally become comfortable with being a missionary in their reassigned missions in the US.  They were then received notification that they would be leaving for England in just a few days.  They also knew that 67 missionaries have preceded them and had all safely made it into Germany.  They were told that they would be in quarantine on Christmas day but then would be flying to Germany on December 28^th.  But after arriving in England, on December 23^rd they were notified that Germany had closed its borders to England because of a new and more virulent strain of COVID that was found.  You can imagine that they were very disappointed.

 

This was their first Christmas away from home for all of them, and for all the sisters, it will be their only Christmas on their missions.  They would be away from family and none of them had Christmas presents because they were either sent to their old missions in the US or sent to Germany for their expected arrival on December 28^th.  

 

On Christmas day, they were allowed to get out of quarantine, so some of the sisters got up very early and ran to the Preston England temple from the MTC where they were quarantined.  They celebrated the birth of their Savior by watching the sunrise on Christmas morning at the temple.  I spoke with them and asked them about their Christmas.  Here are some of their responses:

“It was my favorite Christmas ever.”  

“I have never felt the spirit stronger.”  

“It was the most amazing spiritual experience of my life.”

This shouldn’t surprise us, because wouldn’t the Savior make sure His missionaries would be taken care on this special day.

 

Germany announced that they would re-evaluate their travel restrictions on January 5^th and the missionaries anxiously awaited the new information.  On January 5^th, Germany announced that their restrictions had not changed, and I sadly arranged a Zoom meeting to inform the missionaries that they would not be coming to Germany as we had hoped.  The Church Legal Department reviewed the wording from Germany, however, and felt there was a way to get them in.  On Thursday morning, January 7^th, they flew 2 missionaries from the Germany Alpine mission from England to Frankfurt as a test, with plans to fly 2 of our missionaries here Thursday night if these two made it in.  As these 2 missionaries were in the air, the government regulations came out in writing and based on this, the missionaries would not be let into Germany.  The church cancelled the flights for our missionaries on Thursday night.  What about the 2 missionaries in the air?  There was a shift change at the airport, and they came in right at the transition and were allowed to come into Germany.

 

Thursday night, we had another Zoom call with my 24 missionaries in England, you could see the disappointment on their faces. We tried to build them up, but it was a tough day for all of us.  The next day, Friday at 1 pm, I received a call that we would “possibly” have 2 missionaries flying in on Friday night.  The legal department found a way to get them in the country, legally but they needed additional documents and were scrambling to put these together.  Friday night, 2 elders made it into Germany, and we were thrilled.  We were then told that 4 sisters would be flying in on 2 separate flights on Saturday.  They scheduled 14 more missionaries to fly in on 5 different flights on Sunday.  8 of the missionaries made it into Germany on Saturday but 6 were not allowed to board in England.  They were so close because they had checked in and they had taken their bags, but they did not get past customs.  The documentation was in German and the Customs agents were not clear that Germany would allow them into Germany.  The other missionaries made it through because their Custom agent found a German speaking agent to review their documentation.  We had made 4 trips to the airport on that day alone and were so sad that we didn’t get all our missionaries.  The paperwork was tweaked, and we were given a schedule where we would fly in the remaining 10 missionaries on 5 different flights on Monday.  As I drove home from the airport on Sunday, I just did not have a good feeling.  Our missionaries again arrived at the airport in England and checked in.  During this time, Germany changed the rules yet again and the missionaries were told that they could not fly to Germany after all.

 

We were truly emotionally devastated and physically exhausted because of our last few days with minimal sleep trying to arrange for housing and stocking apartments with 2 weeks of food so they could quarantine while still running a mission with 14 missionaries coming out of quarantine and arranging a major transfer to accommodate for them. In addition, the missionaries only had 30 days left on their visa’s and were at risk of being sent back to the US.  In addition to being told that they were not flying to Germany, they were also told that they had been temporarily reassigned to missions in England.   I texted the missionaries and expressed my heartfelt disappointment.  Here are the responses I received:

 

-       “Thank you, President!  We are sad we won’t be there yet, but we are excited to find out why we are needed here first.”

-       “Thanks, President!  It’s all in the Lord’s hands.”

-       “We are OK!  Of course, we would love to be on our way right now, but it doesn’t matter what language our nametags are in, we are happy to serve where He calls us!  Thank you for everything you do for us!

-       “Thank you!  I know it will work out, somehow!  We love you guys too!”

-       Four of them sent me a video where they said in unison, “In the Germany, Frankfurt mission, we know how to do hard things.”  

 

When Debbie and I watched this video, I cried.

 

I tell all our missionaries frequently that I am actually glad that this mission is so difficult, because life is difficult, and I want them to know how to do hard things because then they learn how to rely on the Savior to get them through the most difficult times.  Their missions are like Zion’s Camp, namely, to help prepare them for future trials and challenges.

 

I was so proud of these missionaries and thought of this scripture which I shared with them.

Mosiah 3:19 “. . . Willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him, even as a child submits to his father.” I didn’t know why they were going through this but felt that it was for a “wise purpose”.

 

I was asked not to maintain contact with them because, they had been reassigned to another mission and that mission president had the Priesthood Keys for them.  This was like losing 10 children.  In addition, 7 of the 10 had served previously and the majority of the 14 that we received, had not, and therefore we received the least experienced missionaries.  I truly do Trust in the Lord, but January 11^th was one of the worst days of my mission.  To make matters worse, COVID in England is so bad that every nation has cut them off from travel and I didn’t know if I would ever see these missionaries.

 

What has happened to those missionaries who were taken from me?  I received an e-mail on January 22^ndthat there was a possibility that they could fly to Croatia on Monday January 25^th.  They only have one flight each week and therefore, a lot of planning needed to take place – very quickly.  Every missionary had to be sent from their current mission back to the England MTC in Preston.  Each missionary needed to have a Covid test, and it had to be negative and we had a total of 42 missionaries.  Housing needed to be arranged in Croatia including food and then we needed to arrange a teaching and training schedule for them as well.  It is now 3 days later, and everything has been arranged.  Sister Hammon and I just had a Zoom meeting with our missionaries, and they fly out tomorrow night at 6 pm.  Please pray for these missionaries.

 

In this group of missionaries are 2 sisters, who flew to Slovakia during the same time 2 weeks ago when we were flying missionaries into Germany.  They made it into Slovakia, but these 2 sweet sisters were told that they had entered the country illegally and were put in jail for 3 days before being deported back to England.  Debbie, as you imagined, was horrified because she knew how scared they must have been.  She wanted to fly to Slovakia and give these good sisters a hug.  The Czeck/Slovak mission normally has about 70 missionaries and they are now down to about 30.  6 of these 42 missionaries are going there and that will be a wonderful blessing for their mission.

 

What happens after they arrive in Croatia?  Coming from any other country in the world, you quarantine for 7 days but since they are coming from England, they will quarantine for 14 days and then we will get them into Germany where they will have to quarantine for 10 days.  We do not know at this time exactly how we will be getting them into Germany, but at least they are out of England, the Covid hotspot.

 

Why did I share this with you?  I know that we are all going through difficult times and I just wanted to share something that might put some of our problems in perspective.  These missionaries have been through so much and after they arrive in Germany, they will be in a new country (their 4^th of their mission), they won’t understand anyone or be able to speak German, new food, new culture, and the sisters only have 11 months before they go home.  Pray for all our missionaries at this difficult time and remember that it is through Jesus Christ and His atonement that gives us hope during our most difficult times.