Week 16 (Coming Home)

This week has been a long and CRAZY week! I am not able to write my usual email this week, due to Sãn Paulo being in somewhat of a lockdown, similar to what you all are experiencing at home. Because of this, the internet cafes are closed, which is where we go to get internet access each Monday. So, my mother asked me for a timeline of events that have led up to the crazy news that we just found out, which is that all missionaries that are not Brazil citizens are being sent to their home country. Everything has happened SO fast, as you can see from the following timeline:

• Thursday, March 12th - Church announces that church meetings worldwide will be suspended until further notice due to Covid-19 virus. Brazil only had around 75 cases of the virus at that time.
• Wednesday/Thursday this week (March 18th or 19th) - missionaries were told to avoid coming in contact with the elderly and anyone else who might be more susceptible to illness. Brazil had around 613 cases of the virus at this point. (The first death was reported in Sãn Paulo on March 16th.)
• Friday, March 20th - missionaries were quarantined to their apartments, brought food, and given a schedule and list of ideas of activities they could do from their apartments. However, they could still go out to buy more food and supplies. There were about 952 cases reported at this point.
• Saturday, March 21st - missionaries are under a 2-week quarantine and the MTC (missionary training center) in Sãn Paulo will be closing. We're told to expect to temporarily house 4-8 new missionaries who will need to be moved from the MTC and eventually reassigned. At this point, there were 1,158 cases and 18 deaths reported.
• Sunday, March 22nd - all foreign missionaries are told that they will be going home very soon and they should be packed and ready to go. Initially parents were told that they wouldn't be able to communicate with their missionaries as they usually do on Monday, since they don't have smart phones and have no internet access. (My parents were not happy to hear this.) However, they were soon given the phone numbers of their missionary so that they could call by phone. (Thank goodness!) At this point, there were 1,519 cases and 25 deaths.
• Monday, March 23rd - my parents informed me (I hadn't heard the details yet) that the missionaries going home to the US would be flying out on Wednesday evening. (Wow!) Missionaries with less than 6 months left in their mission would be released and those with more than 6 months left would be reassigned. However, upon arriving home, they are to be under a strict self-quarantine for 14 days. By the end of the day this day, there were about 1,891 cases and 34 deaths reported in Brazil.

So, yeah, what a CRAZY week! I'll be home soon, but I won't be able to see anyone, due to being quarantined (and I hear you have a stay-at-home order by the governor anyway). 

Until next time - stay safe everyone! 

~Elder Lightheart