COVID-19 is affecting much of the world, and missionaries are no exception. Missionaries for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from countries around the globe are being sent home or assigned to different missions. Early on March 21st, a Saturday, a group of more than ten young men in the iconic white shirts and ties returned to the Salt Lake City International airport from Madagascar. Three of these young missionaries shared their experience and feelings regarding the unexpected change to their mission plans. Elder Cottle from Virginia, Elder Maguet from Kentucky and Elder Wehner from Indiana stopped at at Salt Lake City International on their way to Fort Worth-Dallas and eventually home.
COVID-19 is a recent problem for Madagascar. The missionaries spent about a week making preparations for the possibility of an outbreak, despite no confirmed cases on the island. Then, the church evacuated every missionary from the island. Elder Maguet said, "When we left Madagascar two days ago, there was no coronavirus. So when all church meetings were cancelled last week, it was difficult to explain to people why church was cancelled. We said it was because of coronavirus, but people were confused because there was no coronavirus in Madagascar at that time."
The first case of COVID-19 on Madagascar was confirmed only the day before this interview, on March 20th.
Some missionaries are being reassigned to other missions, while others are being sent home early, having completed their missions. A mission is a profound experience for Latter-day Saints. Each missionary has a different reaction to these changes. Elder Maguet said, "I'm ok now. When I first found out I was sad that I had to leave three months early, because I knew I probably wouldn't ever be coming back to Madagascar."
Elder Cottle returned home six months before his expected return date: "It hasn't really sunk in yet, I think. I was really sad about it at first for sure. ... I was really hoping to spend those six months in Madagascar, but I'm really excited to see my family."
Elder Wehner expects to be reassigned. After a few months serving elsewhere, he received his visa and served nine months in Madgascar. He said, "It's really weird because when you go on a mission, you know that you're going to go and serve for two years. ... I've been on my mission for about fourteen months. And knowing that I have this ... problem in the middle of my mission, and coming home and having to see my family and all that, I don't know. It's a little bit different than a typical missionary would expect."
Each missionary shared insights relating to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints' reaction to and preparation for the recent pandemic. The church recently suspended church meetings across the globe. Elder Maguet said, "It was really hard to explain and help [people] understand that this is a worldwide church led by the prophet, and that everything we do is by revelation. But I feel like that did help them understand, maybe, more about modern prophets and apostles ... even though there was no coronavirus there at the time. ... Like I mentioned, they didn't really understand why there was no church at first, but the district president ... said you just have to obey. It came from the prophet, so we can't figure out ways to get around it and figure out loopholes, we just have to obey even though it doesn't seem applicable for us."
Elder Wehner shared thoughts on other changes the church has enacted within the last couple years, such as a home-based church curriculum and individualized "ministering" assignments: "It's really nice to know that several years ago the prophet said to have us do ministering ...and now there's a huge push for ministering and a huge push for these other things outside of church that will help ... Madagascar ... since there's not a lot of church there.
Although formal missionary work faces limitations at the moment, the work of the Lord continues. The three missionaries agreed that member work is the greatest way to support missionaries during these times. Elder Maguet said, "Members could ... ask the missionaries how they need help on Sundays. Maybe invite people to your house to have some sort of study of Come Follow Me. ... The people that are going to be helping people look into the church are the members, that are gonna stay there no matter what. That makes all the difference." Elder Wehner supported this statement, saying, "One thing that ... members should do is ... go out and teach their friends the church. We always pray for member support."
