Goodbye Elder Maximo, Hello Coronavirus Border Closures

Well, it's been a wilding few weeks. We've been teaching some really cool people. It's so much fun to be back in my first area. I love this ward so much! I don't remember if I wrote this in my last email, but everyone has been so nice and so excited to see me again. Everybody has been saying "Welcome home!" I love this area. Missionary work has, until very recently, gone by normally. Meeting with members, having good lessons, contacting around, it's been a great time.

My companion is super great. His name is E. Maximo, he's from Brazil, and his Russian is insanely good.

Now things getting crazy. Obviously, things have changed a lot with the new coronavirus. Things have only just barely become serious in the last couple of days here in Ukraine. There was only one recorded case for a considerable amount of time here in Ukraine of the coronavirus. The problem is - Ukraine is not testing people. Other European countries have put Ukraine on the same danger level as Italy, China, and South Korea, meaning that some high medical people are not confident that Ukraine's low infection number is accurate. So here's what happened:

Sunday morning comes around and me and my companion get a call from President. He involves me and my companion individually that we both have the option to be sent home if we choose. We both have preexisting medical conditions (me with a certain weakness towards respiratory diseases stemming from my childhood medical history). We were instructed to make contact with our parents and come to a decision as to whether we should stay or not. I decided very quickly to stay. My companion's decision took a lot longer because they were unaware if he would be able to make it home on his arrival date due to it not being far away. Eventually, he decided to stay here as well, but unfortunately, the decisions did not last long.


Today, having a relaxing P-Day inside, we received a new call from our mission President telling my companion, E. Maximo, that he has 2 hours left and he needs to pack. It was very sad and such a strange feeling. We packed him, got into the car with the mission driver, and I got dropped off at the assistants' house as my companion and my old companion, E. Prolo, were sent home a little earlier right before the Ukrainian borders were closed. The area presidency was concerned that they would not be able to be sent out on time so they were shipped off 4 hours before the borders all closed. So very sad.

Anyways, it's been an absolute rollercoaster. We shall see what happens. Apparently, the situation in Ukraine is very serious. Cities are getting shut down, entering into emergency mode, and public transportation is being proposed to be completely shut down. We shall see.


The work of the Lord continues to roll on. I will now be training an elder whose training began with E. Prolo. I am super excited and cannot wait to continue to find a way to be productive in this new temporary state of strange missionary work.

I know the gospel is true. I honestly think it's very amazing that this is happening. This year is a testimony builder that the gospel is true. We need it now more than ever. I love the Book of Mormon. I am so glad we have a living prophet. I know Jesus Christ is our Savior and that God loves us. Love y'all. Have fun with the pics.

The pictures are of us with members, us with our district, the huge group is the little P-Day birthday celebration. I love serving the Lord.

Facing coronavirus with a brave face.