Time goes by too fast!
Another great week came and went! There was one very sad thing that happened though. Shortly after we moved into our new house, we met our neighbors. They are so wonderful! We talked to Amos, Kevin, and Rosanne. Each of them are at least 55 years old. They have all been good neighbor friends for many years. We talked with them for about a half hour after our first day. They've had other missionaries come and go over the years and they enjoy their company. So it's easy to sense a special bond with them. They had so many good things to say about all the previous missionaries. We learned a lot about them and their families. And they shared lots of very personal things. That's just because they feel close to the missionaries and they know that we are here to listen and encourage them. But one night after coming back from being at the chapel all day, we found out that Rosanne passed away that previous night. She had many health issues but it was devastating and shocking to find that out. Amos was getting worried that she hadn't responded to any of his messages and he hadn't seen her in a while. So he checked on her and he was the one who found out. It's been very sad for a while. Kevin cried a lot when he found out. Amos enjoys talking it out with us. They are getting by. We made dinner for them the other night and they were very happy to get that.
On a happier note, we did get two new investigators this last week! Elias (shout out to Garrett because that's his middle name) and Anna are very excited to learn more about the gospel! We've had some appointments with them and they are progressing very well. Elias had previously read the Book of Mormon quite a bit so he is already off to a great start! We had Anna commit to reading over Joseph Smith history and have her teach us for that following lesson. It worked out great and she explained it so well!! She also joined in on our branch zoom call yesterday and she received a very warm welcome to all the members! Anna couldn't stop smiling and that was very heartwarming! Both Elias and Anna were referrals we received. Anna was a referral from Colombia! Her daughter who is living there was actually the one who sent in her information. And Elias had requested a copy of the Book of Mormon online so that went to us since he is in our area! He has an interesting background. He claimed to have fought battles on hills for his religion back in the middle east as a kid. I mean actual battles, full on armor and swords. He is from the middle east and he speaks Arabic, French, and Spanish! It's crazy because Spanish is actually his third language and he speaks it like a native! He wants to learn English too. We are hoping to put a date down with Anna soon, which actually might be harder than we think for reasons that don't have to do with Anna. That leads me into talking about our mission situation. Baptisms are now done on request first. The virus is absolutely chaotic here. We first need special permission from president Pingree to have a baptism. He would usually okay it but it varies with the situation and how old the investigator is. There are many different reasons why a baptism cannot yet be approved. I'm assuming that they need to do a medical history check on the investigator to know that they wouldn't be at any high risk of serious harm if they get the virus. I'm not too worried about anything though since both our mission president and another senior elder are doctors with over like 30 years of experience. They know what they're doing so all is well!! Also our mission only has about four baptisms a week so it's not like these requests are piling in.
The mission is now at about 250 missionaries with more coming in soon! It sounds like the mission will eventually have just less than 300. That's intense!
I'll explain what is generally going on here... Right now south Florida is about the worst spot in the world regarding the virus. The report we received last night was that our area jumped by about 15,000 new cases. So we are still locked up unless we have reason to be out such as shopping, visiting places on pdays, being at the chapel, or really anything that doesn't have to do with being out just to be out. Side note- our mission is one of the missions that allows fishing so our zone leaders invited us to go with them early this morning at 5:20. We went before anyone else so that was great. It was the first time I got to see a sunrise on the east coast ocean!!! So things like that are alright to do, SO FAR. Hopefully it doesn't go any further than the restrictions we already have. For me, a normal day looks like any other day that we would have without the virus. It's just that all the proselyting and meetings are done online with Facebook or receiving referrals. We have our normal morning routine with planning, studying, finding, and doing any lessons we might have scheduled that day. Plus extra studying or reading if we would like. We have lots of stuff like the entire missionary library, Gospel Principles, Saints V2, Teachings of Prophets, Blueprints of Christ's Church, Knowing the Why of The Book of Mormon, and a few other things. They are all incredible and very insightful! Then there might be some other things we do like zoom calls for meetings or devotionals as a mission. None of them are done in person anymore. Each district/zone meetings are done over zoom. Even our interviews with president Pingree are done by zoom calls haha. And now it looks like official sacrament meetings on Sunday will be done by zoom call. It will no longer just be a simple get-together. We will still do the sacrament separate though.
I love being out here! Some missionaries might feel quite limited but it's really just as limited as you make it for yourself. There are numberless people to find online and in the area book! It's funny because this work is a little tougher than how it was back in Mexico. Not the physical labor, just the finding and getting people to talk to you. It's easier for the people to reject you when it's over a screen and not in person. I really enjoy the challenge though and staying busy is never a problem. It's going to be like this for a while but we continue to pray that the better will come sooner than later! It's just so awesome to be around during this time, I have no other way of putting it.
Take care!
-Elder Markham
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