12 April 2020

Two Weeks of Miracles

                                                                 Well, I have learned a few things these past few weeks. 
                                     1. Miracles still happen
                                     2. My coping skills are not as great as I thought they were
                                     3. You really can love someone even if you have only known them for a few months
                                     4. If ye are prepared ye shall not fear
                                     5. God IS in the details
                                     6. It is possible to feel peace and calm without joy

 

This is our new office in our living room. We are on day 19 of lockdown. Essential travel only. Which means leaving the house only for weekly groceries or a doctor's visit.  

What used to be a 20K mission has now turned into a 30 K mission. Thank you lockdown for giving me time to bake again...
The past few weeks have gone something like this:

Monday, 16 March

 9:00 am

MIRACLE #1

Weekly staff meeting with President Erekson, Sister Erekson, Assistants, and Office Staff. It was determined that we should purchase a two week supply of food for each missionary companionship to be put on their shelf in the event of a lockdown. Food was ordered and most companionships had their food storage by Wednesday, 18 March. 

Store Shelves--19 March 2020

Tuesday, 24 March 2020
7:30 pm

     We had been home from the office about 20  mintues. My phone rang and I heard President Erekson, "Sister Clayton, can you and Elder Clayton meet me at the office? We need to send an email to Parents and Missionaries. It's going to be a long night." Something was definately wrong, but we had no idea what lay ahead of us. 

     President had received a letter from the South Pacific Area Office that all foreign Missionaries were to be relocated to their home countries. He composed two letters, I typed them up and we sent it out to the missionaries and their parents with heavy hearts.  We didn't know when the exodus was going to start, but we were told to be ready at a moment's notice. Elder Clayton checked his email while I was typing and emailing. We had an email from our landlord letting us know we needed to be out of the house we were currently living in by Friday.  Our landlords were being sent home from their mission at the Polynesian Center in Hawaii and had no where to go as they needed to self isolate for 14 days upon entering New Zealand.

We had no sooner digested the news that we had no place to live, when the emergency broadcasting system alarm went off on our phones--(I'm here to tell  you it really is for emergencies, not just for testing to see if it works) New Zealand had just gone from 6 cases of Coronovirus to 42 and we went from level 2 alert to level 4 lockdown Wednesday night. Our night ended a little after midnight.

Wednesday, 25 March 2020
7:30 am

   

The next morning, we walked into the Mendenhall building where the mission office is located.

Our Mission Office is located on the second floor. These signs greeted us. 

     The facilities manager came into our office and told us the entire building was going into lockdown and the outside doors were going to be locked. We were told that a lady that worked in the building was being tested for Coronovirus. He told us he would leave our keys activated in the event we needed to get into the building for anything.     Wednesday afternoon, President told office staff to take the next few days off due to lockdown and he would be in touch when we could return because of the 4 week lockdown. I was grateful for the day off because we had move OUT and clean before Friday.

 In our emergency broadcast, we were told that where we slept on Wednesday night was where we were suppose to stay for the next 4 weeks. 

 That didn't work for us. We had two days to get out of a house that senior missionaries had rented for 6 years.  No one could help because we were suppose to shelter in place. We were nervous to move because people in New Zealand really took this lock down seriously and people have been hauled off to jail for moving and excess traveling.

We had an empty missionary flat 3 blocks from our house. 6 van loads and 3 days later, we were out of the house.  I love New Zealand. In 30 minutes you can go from ocean to mountains to hills to farmlands. Unfortunately, I'm sure our new flat is below sea level. It has no phone reception, and no internet.

Friday, 27 March 2020 

4:30 am

We checked our mission email and found out that travel itineraries were starting to arrive for our missionaries. Some missionaries had less than an hour to pack their bags and get to a meeting spot in Hamilton. Hawaii, California, and Nevada missionaries were the first to be booked to fly out. The passports, visa, important papers were locked in the office in the safe. 

Elder Clayton went to the office to try to get the passports and was greeted by a guard and the parking lot was fenced off. He walked through the fence telling the guard he had to get into the office for passports and he had a key that worked only to find out all the keys had been turned off. We quickly called President Erekson and President Erekson called the South Pacific legal advisors for the church. Much transpired and Dwight, President and Elder Folland (the housing guy) were allowed into the office for 15 minutes. They grabbed passports, visas, my computer, Sister Follands computer, necessary documents, and my Sam Plant. 

(VERY IMPORTANT)

   
We hauled everything into our unpacked new house. The next problem we encountered was no internet.  Internet company couldn't come out for 15 to 30 days. (They weren't lying. It's been 19 days and they still aren't here) We went to our neighbor, offered her $50 to piggyback onto her internet. She agreed. We set up my office computer and realized it would not connect to the neighbor's internet. It had to be hard wired. We even tried a wire coat hanger for an antena. The Despains, (medical advisor and executive secretary), the Follands (houseing and passport and visas) and The Claytons (finance, cars, telephones, and other paperwork) were working together to get the missionaries on their flights. 

President Erekson and Despain's figured out where the left over companion would go and called each companionship to tell them to pack up and leave and where to gather. Follands sent emails of the itinerary to parents, Stake Presidents, and missionaries. Claytons had the ONLY printer.

We bought a $29 NZ dollar printer during black friday ($19 US dollars) Because we are not considered an Essestial Business, we could not order ink cartridges or any office supplies to work from home. Only through much prayer did our little printer print a ream and 1/2  of paper, of itineraries with the same ink cartridges. Luckily we both had our personal computers. We would print the itineraries and pertinent information on our mini printer and make sure the missionaries had funds to get home. Follands used their phones and tablet, because they didn't have a comptuer. Elder Folland would come to our house on his bike and pick up the printed info so Sister Folland could create a packet with passport, visa, ticket, money and important papers.

In between all this, we had to make 2 to 4 trips to the Airport daily. It is a 3 hour drive. We would pass each other coming and going.  We had missionaries 5 hours away that missed their flights because they didn't have enough time to drive up to Hamilton. We finally had ALL missionaries pack up and come to Hamilton to ensure they could get on their flights.

Elder Clayton had to fund their MFS cards so they could pay for luggage and have some spending money to get home on. Sometimes the flights were scheduled so quickly that Salt Lake could not fund the cards. That created a new problem. 

MIRACLE #2

Two weeks prior, we had 18 missionaries arrive for their missions. Each missionary pays a bike maintenence fee of $400 if they can. He had a sizeable amount of money sitting in the safe in the office. Elder Clayton usually deposits the money immediately. One thing after another prevented him from depositing. THANK HEAVENS! Missionaries needed money to get home on. Baggage fees and money to eat with. That money provided funds for missionaries that had to leave New Zealand before Salt Lake could fund their cards. Such a blessing. Such an auditor's nightmare...

120 missionaries were gone within 4 days. The neighbors kept calling the police because we were breaking the law by having a "large" gathering as we would load the vans and trailers to take the missionaries to the airport. We had to change meeting area's 3 times in 4 days. We were starting to feel like fugitives. 

MIRACLE # 3

With Social distancing in place, carrying12 people in the same vehicle was against the law. Sometimes we felt like Obi-Wan Kenobi as we would drive van loads up to the airport and pass police along the road. We weren't stopped once. I KNOW there had to be a veil and a sheild of protection around us as we traveled. Several companionships who were driving to Hamilton were stopped by police inquiring why they were on the road. They would have to show their airlline ticket and passport and would be allowed on their way.

Here is Elder Clayton trying to sort through the keys.

Car keys, flat keys, church keys, SIM cards for telephones and telephones, had to be collected before they went to the airport. (I wish I would have asked for baptismal records as well. But alas, I didn't. That is story in itself. We couldn't find 26 baptismal records. They are all over the world (I'm not exagerating), stuffed in glove boxes of cars, left in flats 5 hours away, loced in Clerks offices at churchs which we can't access...) In the background you see Jesus on the floor. Thats because there is no store open that sells wall hanging stuff. 

We have parked 54 cars so far. We have to find the rest. We only have 8 missionaries that can drive. We also have 62 vacant flats. We don't even want to think about the broccoli in the refrigerators, the unemptied garbage cans, or potatoes rotting in the pantry. 

MIRACLE #4

As missionaries would leave, they would leave a car. We had to find someplace to park them. We parked them on a grassy field by the Misson Office. BUT the cars had to be driven from our gathering spot, through the road block. One particular day, there was a 2nd road block by our house. We drove through it and took back streets to take the cars to the field. We would clean them out to make sure there was no food in them as we don't know how long they will be parked. We realized that we had left Dwight's phone, the garbage bags, sharpies, little bags for keys, home. I had to drive through the road block BACK to our flat. I made it home with a scowl from the road blocker only to find out that the house was locked and Dwight had the only house key in his pocket. My heart sank as I thought about having to go through the road block 3 more times.Why today when the road blocks were in place would I not have a key to the house?   I felt absolutely defeated. I went and sat in the car, and just started to weep. I wiped away my tears and took a deep breath. As I looked up my eyes were drawn to our sliding door. It was ajar! Dwight had opened it earlier that morning and forgot to shut it! I was able to get into the house and get the necessary items and return them to Dwight. 

Side note: We also found enough sunnies (sunglasses) in these cars to start a business. I'm really considering starting up a "Sunnie Hut"--to earn a little extra cash while on our mission. 

MIRACLE #5

On day three of  the exodus, We experienced a "planned power outage" Every 6 months, the power company shuts the power off for 4 to 6 hours in different neighborhoods to check the power lines.Well, to add a wee bit more stress to the moment, Monday morning, we were working so hard to gather all the necessary information and itineraries and print them. All of a sudden the house goes DEAD QUIET. I saw Dwight's head fall to his chest with a sigh. The power was off. The only printer would not print. We had itineraries that HAD to be printed and handed out within a few hours. We just kept working. 45 minutes later, the lights flashed on. Old reliable, (HP 2130) which I am so grateful for, started making noise. It started printing in hyper speed! As the last paper we needed for the day was spit out of the printer, the electricity went off for 4 more hours. I KNOW, that a higher being turned our electricity on just long enough to print the necessary paperwork. 

All of our missionaries from United Kingdom, United States, Australia, and Canada have gone home. We are awaiting for the borders to open for the Phillipines, Tonga, Samoa, Figi, Paupa New Ginea, Kerbati, (Pronounced Kit-a-bis) to return these wonderful missionaries home. Our Australian missionaries were escorted off the plane and taken to a hotel for forced isolation for 14 days. This picture of two of our missionaries from their hotel isolation room was in the paper. Always faithful!

Some people thought isolating on the beach was a good idea. It wasn't. It also resulted in this sign. 

The day after we moved into our new flat, I went to do a load of laundry and the drain hose was not connected to the drain. We flooded our house. I always thought that I was really good at handling life when it doesn't go the way I want it to. Well, I certainly learned that is not the case. It took hours to vacuum up the water.  Many of our unpacked boxes were soaked. It was a mess with a capital M. This has been a really difficult time. As we stood in the parking lot of a church, (our 3rd meeting place we had to come up with) awaiting the arrival of missionaries to take to the airport, I looked at President Erekson and his shoulders were sagging with the weight. I asked him how he was holding up. He said something very profound. "For the first time in my life, I have peace and calm, with out joy." I think there may be many times in our lives to come that will we be able to feel peace but be void of joy. 

I cried more in 4 days than I have cried in years. As the missionaries would leave, and our missionary force depleted, I felt strength leave with each group. I will never understand how you can come to love and respect someone in a short time. It felt like we were sending our own children away!

All easy things have been done. It's high adventure time.  #truth  We have at least 2 more weeks of lockdown, possibly 4. Life is quieter. I've learned to bake Maori bread. I have a "bug". It tastes like Hawaiian rolls. No yeast necessary. I have to figure out how to get that home with me now. 

The week before lockdown, we did go on a  small boat for a 2 hour tour. We felt a little like we might be experiencing Gilligan's Island as a storm came in. It was quite incredible. We went to Cathedral cove where Chronicles of Narnia was filmed. I don't think I can get the video to play! New Zealand is breathtaking. But Breathtaking New Zealand is on hold for a month or so till lockdown is over. Here's some pictures if the video doesn't work. 

A fisherman's dream!

This is called Shakespear's Cliff. See his nose and face? 

This is where the "Chronicles of Narnia" was filmed. 

The color of the water was incredible. 

Soooo...

For now, we are staying. (There are no flights out of New Zealand any more.) DeDe's husband's parents are serving a mission in Auckland, New Zealand. They are suppose to be finished and going home around May 1. They had tickets to fly home but their flight has been canceled. And none available any time soon. There was a world wide fast this weekend. I believe that putting everyone's good vibes, prayers, faith and fasting towards kicking COVID 19 to the curb will make a difference. We have a roof over our head, we have food to eat, we still communicate with our family over facetime. And we are healthy. New Zealand is the 3rd safest place in the world to be. (At least that is what our Prime Minister tells us daily) 

Ofa Atu,

Elder & Sister Clayton

We continue to pray for the end of this pandemic. That the economy will not suffer. For the 1st responders and those that work in Essential business. Medical, food, etc. And that Life will return to normal soon.