Damien the Leper Posted December 17, 2020 Share Posted December 17, 2020 All this reassigning is exhausting. Why not just postpone the missionary program for a year or 2 until the world gets COVID-19 under control? Link to comment
bluebell Posted December 17, 2020 Share Posted December 17, 2020 19 minutes ago, Damien the Leper said: All this reassigning is exhausting. Why not just postpone the missionary program for a year or 2 until the world gets COVID-19 under control? It's probably partly because those who want to serve don't want to wait that long. There were a few kids in my ward that received mission calls that required them to leave during the summer. They were all given the option of postponing the assignment for one year. Only one chose to do that. The others all left and I don't think any of them went to their original assignment. 1 Link to comment
Damien the Leper Posted December 17, 2020 Share Posted December 17, 2020 2 hours ago, bluebell said: It's probably partly because those who want to serve don't want to wait that long. There were a few kids in my ward that received mission calls that required them to leave during the summer. They were all given the option of postponing the assignment for one year. Only one chose to do that. The others all left and I don't think any of them went to their original assignment. I get that. It just seems better to wait than to serve a mission essentially on lockdown. 2 Link to comment
bluebell Posted December 17, 2020 Share Posted December 17, 2020 7 minutes ago, Damien the Leper said: I get that. It just seems better to wait than to serve a mission essentially on lockdown. My son agrees and is waiting until spring, Hoping that will make a difference. Link to comment
Damien the Leper Posted December 17, 2020 Share Posted December 17, 2020 53 minutes ago, bluebell said: My son agrees and is waiting until spring, Hoping that will make a difference. This damn pandemic is so disheartening. 2 Link to comment
Rain Posted December 17, 2020 Share Posted December 17, 2020 52 minutes ago, bluebell said: My son agrees and is waiting until spring, Hoping that will make a difference. From this end I feel the same way, but then I was thinking I would like my son to wait a year after a year of college, but he felt differently. So I'm glad people get their choice. The funny thing is that it is Pday when he is bored - they are not allowed to play sports inside or get together. 3 Link to comment
bluebell Posted December 18, 2020 Share Posted December 18, 2020 56 minutes ago, Rain said: From this end I feel the same way, but then I was thinking I would like my son to wait a year after a year of college, but he felt differently. So I'm glad people get their choice. The funny thing is that it is Pday when he is bored - they are not allowed to play sports inside or get together. That would be really hard. When I served our district and zone P Days were epic. 1 Link to comment
rongo Posted December 22, 2020 Author Share Posted December 22, 2020 Had our family Christmas party last night. My parents were the office couple in the Czech Republic (my dad was also the Liberic branch president, so they split time between Liberic and Prague), and they got home one day before all of the Covid travel shutdowns happened in March (regularly scheduled return date). They've had regular contact with the new branch president, members in CZ, and the replacement office couple (who are really struggling). A pair of sisters arrived from England, and were promptly jailed because of the hysteria over the brand new Covid mutation in England (England is the new pariah, with no countries accepting flights from England). CZ is completely locked down right now. Our friend in Austria says that Austria is under a "hard lock down" right now. I asked my parents how a flight even left England for Bratislava (Slovakia), and they said it was a head scratcher, but the two sisters are currently indefinitely in jail. I asked if they can get out once it's clear that they aren't sick (after whatever quarantine period Slovakia wants), and they said that they are angry about the flight and are trying to get rid of them in reaction. England won't take them back, though, so they are just in limbo for now. Link to comment
JamesBYoung Posted December 22, 2020 Share Posted December 22, 2020 The covid continues to interfere with the mission field in the UK big time. Now that the kingdom is partially isolated from the world, shortages in basic needs multiply as cost go up and black-markets develop.. 1 Link to comment
rongo Posted December 22, 2020 Author Share Posted December 22, 2020 33 minutes ago, JamesBYoung said: The covid continues to interfere with the mission field in the UK big time. Now that the kingdom is partially isolated from the world, shortages in basic needs multiply as cost go up and black-markets develop.. It feels like the Hunger Games. Like the gamekeepers have decided to unleash the tracker jackers on the UK. It came out of nowhere, overnight, seemingly. 3 Link to comment
strappinglad Posted December 22, 2020 Share Posted December 22, 2020 On 12/13/2020 at 9:19 AM, rongo said: are there pockets of Filipinos in Alberta The first major outbreak of covid in my area came from Filipinos working in a meat processing plant in Southern Alberta. 2 Link to comment
Calm Posted December 22, 2020 Share Posted December 22, 2020 3 hours ago, rongo said: England won't take them back, though, Are they English citizens? How can they refuse if they didn’t do anything illegal? 1 Link to comment
rongo Posted December 22, 2020 Author Share Posted December 22, 2020 1 hour ago, Calm said: Are they English citizens? How can they refuse if they didn’t do anything illegal? They are Americans who were visa waiting in England. Sure beats being sent to the Ogden mission, eh? With the absolute lockdown hysteria with the new "British mutation," they aren't even sending them to the U.S. I'm sure they're not being mistreated; they are in a forced, controlled quarantine. 1 Link to comment
Calm Posted December 22, 2020 Share Posted December 22, 2020 2 hours ago, rongo said: They are Americans who were visa waiting in England. Sure beats being sent to the Ogden mission, eh? With the absolute lockdown hysteria with the new "British mutation," they aren't even sending them to the U.S. I'm sure they're not being mistreated; they are in a forced, controlled quarantine. Don’t trash the Ogden mission. That was where my son was sent (even though at the time we lived in Canada, he had lived in Russia for a half year, and he was a Utahn for the first 5 years of his life). I thought he was going to be ticked, but he loved it. Constantly teaching, never having to tract except when the MP demanded they do it. And then we moved back to Utah as soon as he got home, so he was able to visit friends in the mission and go to temple sealings of those he baptized. 4 Link to comment
Hamba Tuhan Posted December 23, 2020 Share Posted December 23, 2020 (edited) The Sisters in Slovakia are in excellent company. My father was once gaoled in Bratislava as well. Edited December 23, 2020 by Hamba Tuhan 1 Link to comment
Rain Posted December 23, 2020 Share Posted December 23, 2020 Just heard about a Venezuelan missionary in the US who finally got home and released after serving 31 months. Other Somoan/Tongan elders on month 32 and 33. A sister on month 27. 4 Link to comment
bsjkki Posted December 23, 2020 Share Posted December 23, 2020 On 12/17/2020 at 4:03 PM, Rain said: From this end I feel the same way, but then I was thinking I would like my son to wait a year after a year of college, but he felt differently. So I'm glad people get their choice. The funny thing is that it is Pday when he is bored - they are not allowed to play sports inside or get together. My son had those rules 10 years ago. It was brutal. 2 Link to comment
Rain Posted December 23, 2020 Share Posted December 23, 2020 (edited) On 12/22/2020 at 7:21 AM, rongo said: Had our family Christmas party last night. My parents were the office couple in the Czech Republic (my dad was also the Liberic branch president, so they split time between Liberic and Prague), and they got home one day before all of the Covid travel shutdowns happened in March (regularly scheduled return date). They've had regular contact with the new branch president, members in CZ, and the replacement office couple (who are really struggling). A pair of sisters arrived from England, and were promptly jailed because of the hysteria over the brand new Covid mutation in England (England is the new pariah, with no countries accepting flights from England). CZ is completely locked down right now. Our friend in Austria says that Austria is under a "hard lock down" right now. I asked my parents how a flight even left England for Bratislava (Slovakia), and they said it was a head scratcher, but the two sisters are currently indefinitely in jail. I asked if they can get out once it's clear that they aren't sick (after whatever quarantine period Slovakia wants), and they said that they are angry about the flight and are trying to get rid of them in reaction. England won't take them back, though, so they are just in limbo for now. I didn't catch the connection till this post. We have a sister in our ward serving there. She will be home next week. It would be funny if I have seen your parents in some of her pictures. Edited December 23, 2020 by Rain 2 Link to comment
rongo Posted December 24, 2020 Author Share Posted December 24, 2020 On 12/22/2020 at 5:25 PM, Hamba Tuhan said: The Sisters in Slovakia are in excellent company. My father was once gaoled in Bratislava as well. Wow, what's the story behind that? Slightly different circumstances, I would guess, right? Link to comment
Hamba Tuhan Posted December 24, 2020 Share Posted December 24, 2020 (edited) 3 hours ago, rongo said: Wow, what's the story behind that? Slightly different circumstances, I would guess, right? Yes, he was a bit too religious and independent minded, and that ticked off the Štátna bezpečnosť , Slovakia's 'secret police'. Edited December 24, 2020 by Hamba Tuhan Link to comment
rongo Posted December 29, 2020 Author Share Posted December 29, 2020 Our son returns from his mission in mid June. Does anyone know if he/we are supposed to make the mission payment in June at all? If so, full amount, or pro-rated? Neither the bishopric, nor the stake presidency knows for sure, but they say that typically there is money left over in most accounts, so they wonder if we're not supposed to pay for that last month. We're just budgeting out the next six months for that. If we don't have to, our feelings wouldn't be hurt if we don't have to do the last payment. Thanks in advance to those who have done this before! Link to comment
Hamba Tuhan Posted December 29, 2020 Share Posted December 29, 2020 I did it for one of my former young men. I just made 24 full monthly payments in total. Link to comment
rongo Posted December 29, 2020 Author Share Posted December 29, 2020 2 minutes ago, Hamba Tuhan said: I did it for one of my former young men. I just made 24 full monthly payments in total. Do you know if the account zeroed out at the end, or was there a balance once the dust settled? Link to comment
Hamba Tuhan Posted December 29, 2020 Share Posted December 29, 2020 3 minutes ago, rongo said: Do you know if the account zeroed out at the end, or was there a balance once the dust settled? We had a very nit-picky ward clerk at that point, and he said nothing, so I'm guessing it was all good? Link to comment
rongo Posted December 29, 2020 Author Share Posted December 29, 2020 Just now, Hamba Tuhan said: We had a very nit-picky ward clerk at that point, and he said nothing, so I'm guessing it was all good? That's good to hear. Thanks! One thing I would really like Salt Lake to do is to make the mission account balances accessible to families. As it is now, only the clerks and bishopric can access it. Donors can see what they have donated, of course, but families have no idea what the actual balance is if others are contributing. There was even a month earlier this year where the Church didn't take out the monthly allotment (which usually happens on the 6th, FYI), but families would have no idea about this unless they were given a report (available only to clerks and bishopric). I got a report printout when we moved in June, and got another one in December, but it's kind of a hassle for the clerk and new bishopric. They don't have a lot of experience navigating the reports. The "funding unit" is supposed to remain through the duration of the mission, so the account stays there even though we don't live there any more. I don't like bugging the clerk, but will get a last report in May for the home stretch. Link to comment
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