Mission Email

 

Dear Parents,

 

Christmas was wonderful in Kansas. The missionaries gathered on Christmas day and enjoyed good food and friendship. December has been a busy month and the people in Kansas, Colorado, and Oklahoma have been served, prayed for, caroled to, given hundreds of cookies, and many have been baptized.

 

2020 for all of us here in the mission field and for you at home has been a unique experience. Those original missionaries who stayed here in Kansas during the early months of Covid remember the days of hardship and confusion. Days and weeks of trying to figure out how missionary work could possibly go on in these circumstances.

 

Then there were those missionaries who were sent home from all over the world. There surely must have been hard questions and frustrating days. Then there was lots of waiting.

 

During those months we would never have thought that we would all be together here in Kansas and looking at such a bright present and future. Sure, there are challenges in the work. There have always been challenges in the work. But the successes and miracles far outweigh the challenges, and with those challenges we are learning, growing, and seeing the hand of God in the gathering of Israel.

 

So, we invite you to join us in looking forward to 2021 and what it will bring as the work accelerates and we continue to prepare the world for the second coming of our Savior.

 

One such evidence that the missionaries are adjusting to current circumstances is a change in the communication policy from the Missionary Department. When Covid began missionaries were allowed to call home on Friday in the hope that additional conversations and encouragement from home would help them get through the isolation and frustration of Covid. It was a blessing to many. That policy has been updated. Here is an email we received from the Missionary Department.

 

Dear Parents,

 

Missionaries are blessed to have weekly communication with you through letters, emails, text messages, online messaging, phone calls, and video chat. With love and gratitude for your flexibility, we are now reemphasizing the standard of weekly communication found in Missionary Standards for Disciples of Jesus Christ. As noted in the handbook, your missionary should initiate all text message conversations, online messaging, phone calls, and video chats on his or her preparation day. Should you need to contact your missionary first, however, please contact the mission president beforehand. We are deeply thankful for you and the wonderful support you give your missionary.

 

We shared this return to p-day only calls with the missionaries last Saturday. Please help them follow the policy with exactness and joy. We encourage you to speak positively of the change and help your missionary see the blessings and benefits of focusing our calls on p-days.

 

In addition, there has been a change in the policy of missionaries teaching families and friends. They are currently allowed to teach only immediate family including grandparents in weekly video lessons. If they have others outside of immediate family that they want to teach, that must be cleared by President Ernst.

 

Thank you for your support in these adjustments. If you have any questions please feel free to contact me.

 

This week we say goodbye to Sister Camryn Adams, Sister Kellie Fitzpatrick, Sister Brieann Ingles, Elder Jack Holmes, Elder Jacob Peterson, Elder Benjamin Williams, and Elder Jackson Hill.

 

We are grateful for the consecrated service of these wonderful missionaries.

 

Happy New Year,

Sister Ernst

316-308-7245