By Ken Jarvis, Area Media Specialist
“I loved my mission! I loved the wonderful people of the Ivory Coast and I was devastated to know that I would have to leave them.” That’s how Elder Henry Livingstone felt when he was told he would have to evacuate his mission and return to the United States.
But not many of us have had a chance to hear him, or any other evacuated missionary comment on their experiences. As a matter of fact, unless you have a close personal relationship with one of those missionaries, you probably have no idea what they’ve gone through.
For those of us “back home” one of the first indications that the Corona Virus was something to be taken seriously was reading the announcement that many missionaries would be evacuated from their mission areas, returned to their homes to be quarantined and await further assignments.
Three missionaries from the San Antonio region were willing to share with us the very personal experiences and feelings they had as they left members and investigators behind and journeyed home.
Sister Clair Horn served in the Guatemala Retalhuleu Mission for eight months. Elder Daniel Conner served the first eight months of his mission in the Liberia Monrovia Mission in West Africa. Economic instability in Liberia made it necessary to temporarily close the mission and transfer the missionaries to several different missions. So Elder Conner was sent to the Ghana Accra West Mission for about six weeks. Elder Henry Livingstone was serving in the Côte D’Ivoire Abidjan West Mission, also in West Africa. He had been out just under nine months.
When Sister Horn first heard about the Corona Virus she said, “We never ever thought that we would be sent home. We just thought it was something that was going to just go away. Something that would pass.”
At first, they were simply confined to their apartment. “Being stuck in our houses was extremely hard because we didn’t have smart phones so all we could do was call investigators and less actives on the phone and sometimes read the scriptures with them. Other than that, there wasn’t much we could do in terms of work.” She continued, “Waking up and studying together as companions was a special time though. And every night, our mission president held a mission wide phone call so we could all listen to a conference talk and hear testimonies of other missionaries.” Sister Horn said that was a special time.
Elder Livingstone said, “About 3 days after being transferred into a new zone I got a call from the mission president, letting us know that we would be heading back home by the end of that week.” He was shocked and upset with the news.
He didn’t have much time to dwell on that, however, since he had to pack his bags to go home on a flight leaving in a couple of days. He added, “The flight that I was supposed to take was cancelled. And the flight after that, and the one after that. Eventually, after a LONG week of quarantine in an apartment close to the airport, we were put on a charter flight. We flew from the Ivory Coast to Sierra Leone, where we picked up another large group of missionaries, as well as U.S. citizens not of our faith.” After that they were finely homeward bound.
Elder Conner and his companion got a call from the zone leaders saying that all of Africa was getting evacuated. “We were told we had 5 days to wrap everything up. Then the next day we were told that my companion was actually leaving in two days.” They had been working way out in a bush area so they quickly packed their bags and made the five-hour trip into the capital. “When we got there, he got his flight and I ended up waiting about five days in apartments and just moving around as we waited. Finally, the charter flight, arranged by the US Embassy, arrived and we were able to go.”
“It was difficult to leave,” Elder Conner added. “I had become very attached to the people and loved the culture. I was happy I could spend 2 years with them and I was very sad when we left.” He then remarked that the only place he could find comfort was in the Book of Mormon. “There is a scripture in Jacob chapter 4 verse 9. It talks about The Lord working with his own hands. He has a plan for us and that brought me comfort.”
Sister Horn said, “Then the dreaded day came when we received a text from the mission offices that gave us the heart wrenching news that we had all suspected was coming. This text message felt like a physical blow. As my companion and I tearfully read the information in the text, we didn’t have much to say. Never in our lives did we really think this would happen.”
She said there was so much uncertainty and frustration. However, in the midst of that there was something that brought her much peace and comfort. “It was the firm hope and trust we had in the inspiration of the leaders in this Church. That didn’t mean that this process was going to be fun, easy, or joyful, but it did mean that we were doing exactly what the Lord wanted us to be doing and there was peace and comfort in that knowledge.”
Elder Livingstone said the trip home was mostly uneventful. “There weren’t too many hiccups. It was bizarre, however, to see less than 20 people in each respective airport that we passed through, which helped me realize how serious this pandemic really is.”
He said the usual post mission reunion with family was “bittersweet”. “My mother informed me that I would be released from my calling as a missionary as soon as possible. This news devastated me. I had built up such a peaceful and a sweet, loving relationship with my Father in Heaven and my Savior over the past 9 months. I did NOT want to lose that.” Nevertheless, he added, “I knew that it was the Lord’s will which came forth from the mouth of His prophet, so I had faith that everything would be OK.”
Like Elders Conner and Livingstone, Sister Horn had grown very attached to the people she was serving. “They have nothing. No money, no hope and no love.” She was concerned that there would be no one to minister to them now that the missionaries were gone. But that’s when she learned just how wonderful the members were. “When they found out we were leaving they asked for names and addresses of the people we were teaching so that they could go and keep checking on these sweet children of God because that is how important missionary work was to them.”
She added, “We left these dear souls in the hands of valiant servants of the Lord and I could not have been more pleased. I felt so much comfort and hope. And hope is something that is hard to feel in these times.”