WHAT a week! I will be starting with the normal part first, then we'll get into the absolute ride the last 60ish hours have been.
Last Monday we went to Thor's Well, which was SUPER cool! First image attached below (if these don't go through in order, I'm sorry). It was epic!
Tuesday was once again spent doing service at the clothing exchange. I took a sweater (everything is free at this exchange so we're allowed to take anything we like which is wild). Hermana Hawkins always takes home a load because thrifting is her passion. We spend the whole day sorting and hanging up clothes. It's actually exhausting, and my feet kill by the end of the day. Also we work with these older people (and somehow we (the 20 year old missionaries) are the ones that wear masks. Anyway the older people have us take a break and eat lunch before 11 a.m. which is painful.
Wednesday we had exchanges, which apparently means you exchange companions with the STLs (Sister Training Leaders). It was pretty cool, the STLs were hyped to see the coast. One of them made a sandwich with ranch dressing, Doritos and pepper-jack cheese. Our ward mission leader (BP) fed us after. Then when it came time to go home, they lost their keys. Which lead to us frantically searching (after praying obviously) all over town for over half an hour. They ended up being in her purse! Which was actually pretty hilarious.
Thursday I had my first Zone Conference. We got to drive along the coast to Eugene, and it was so pretty!!! After Zone conference all the sisters in our zone (4 sets) went and got food and ate them in our cars because we couldn't eat inside. The only downfall of serving on the coast is that we're in what Sister Mitchell likes to refer to as "banishment". We're so far from the rest of the zone that we don't really know them that well. One the way back us four Sisters jammed so hard to Disney music I couldn't talk for 12 hours after. 10/10 experience, you'll never hear a group of people try to sing along to words they don't know as us during the non-English part of "Circle of Life".
Friday morning we had district council, which isn't special except this time the Elders were sick and didn't tell us. I didn't notice anything in the moment except when Elder Arriola popped a cough drop. Which was brave to do in a public place during a pandemic. Sister Peterson and I had a great day living in ignorance; but after our lesson with the Seversons (which is the only family we see in person ! Which turned out being fine, because Brother Severson got exposed at work anyway, he's a cop) we saw a message from the Elders saying some of them were sick. We had a video call as a district and an Elder really had the audacity to drink out of a milk jug on camera as we were talking about the potential spread of a virus. I was awestruck!
Saturday morning my comp (Sis Peterson) was feeling pretty stressed over all the things we needed to do, and she asked in our morning prayer for time to finish everything we needed to do. God really does answer prayers let me tell you. Within a couple hours, we had called almost everybody in the mission, and our entire lives got shut down. We had my first non-member lesson scheduled for that afternoon, and WE had to cancel on HIM. That was kinda rough. Just to top of our day, both of our member lessons decided to cancel on us that night too; so it was kind of a rough day.
We went insane for a hot second, and drew the most epic diagram of how far this could spread! We were in hysterics by the end if the night, because we just kept connecting dots and we found the comedy of it all (see chart attached below). For those of you who have forgotten, a positive test would be rather bad, because we live in a retirement community. Luckily we aren't allowed to really be in contact with people over sixty much.
Since we have to quarantine, Sister Peterson and I moved in with the Sister Mitchell and Hawkins. The other sisters will kill me for saying this but it's been a good time, then again it's been less than 72 hours. There are a lot of details we're gonna need to figure out (the most pressing one currently is groceries), but the rest of them (like when to reschedule our lessons with Geoffrey Austin and Teresa Sperry, the nonmembers Sister Peterson and I had lessons with but can't meet with now *sad face*) we will be waiting to answer until the Elders tests come back (image of one of them crying after below).
Our ward shut down (after only one week in person) since we had been in the building for District Council. So the only week they've been in person (last week), I had the pleasure of speaking! Hermana Hawkins was supposed to talk in church this week, but she God took pity on her I guess. The ironic part was that our ward joined the Newport ward instead (online). WHICH IS WHERE THE SICK ELDERS LIVE?!?! The logic was definitely not there on the stakes part, but it's okay.
For obvious reasons this will be a week filled with Facebook finding, which is cool because then we will find some new people to teach!! We are praying for negative tests, but we won't know the results until Wednesday, because the Elders managed to find the worst test in Oregon, they're wrong for that.
Anyway the rest of the pictures are of us at the absolutely gorgeous places that are casually right next to where we live! The mission is so cool, hopefully all of this was just a scare and we can get back to normal (and our board won't come to pass)!
I finished the Book of Mormon this week, which was awesome! Now I'm back in First Nephi and it feels like talking with an old friend. The Book of Mormon is SO amazing every make sure to read it every day!!
Much love from my quarantine home,
Hermana Shelton
PS: Elder Arriola hasn't been in the last three video calls we've had as a district and I'm convinced drinking out of the milk jug actually killed him. Send prayers!
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