Refugee Missionaries From Puerto Rico

We found ourselves at the airport on an off-transfer day. As we were waiting, Elder Hopkins (one of our assistants) wanted to get a picture with us since he will be ending his mission next week.

In the aftermath and destruction of hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico, the Church decided to evacuate all of the missionaries and send them to various other missions indefinitely while clean up efforts are going on there.

We were notified we would be receiving four missionaries and to be prepared for them to arrive with possibly only the clothes they were wearing.

Each one of them had a shoulder bag and a small suitcase. They had been instructed to buy certain food items and 3 gallons of water each before the hurricane hit.

They had originally been told to stay in their apartments, but then the mission president pulled them all together. The elders gathered at the mission office with a senior couple and the sisters had gathered at the mission president's home to wait out the storm.

They are all very new missionaries not having been out very long. They had a recent memory in their minds of flying into Puerto Rico and how green it was and compared that with the contrast of their departure flying out when everything was brown.

They had been instructed to wear church clothes and pack work clothes in their suitcases to be prepared to help with clean up efforts. That's what they had with them when they arrived here.

We got the missionaries' garment sizes and called the Distribution Center located next to the San Diego Temple to see if the woman there could pull their sizes and be willing to stay open a little late so we could stop by on our way home from the airport.

They were in awe of the majestic temple and asked if they could take a picture.

The lady was so happy to stay 10 minutes after closing time. She had their individual bags of garments all ready for us. She commented on how they usually don't have that much inventory in stock for each size, and this was amazing.

We were very thankful to her for her help and were giving thanks for the blessing of how everything had worked out perfectly for getting that part of their clothing replenished.

They were starving, so we found a restaurant close by the temple--California Pizza Kitchen--which made them very happy.

Something they were really looking forward to was having a shower, washing their clothes and getting a good night's sleep.

All seven of the missionaries were looking forward to Glen's French toast breakfast in the morning.

Because they were still doing laundry in the morning, Glen decided to go ahead and do interviews with them at home. He also had them read Elder Bednar's talk about how missionaries are called to serve and assigned a field of labor--two different things.

Elder Bednar emphasized "an assignment to labor in a specific place is essential and important but secondary to a call to the work." Through those words of an Apostle, Glen welcomed the new missionaries into our mission for as long as they are assigned to labor here. He encouraged them to work hard while they are here. Glen will treat them like all the other missionaries and will expect them to give their all.

The other elder who was with us (not one of the assistants) is also a new elder (of a couple of weeks) to the mission. They are all Spanish-speaking elders. I feel like it was a real blessing for him to help these new missionaries get acclimated their first couple of days here.

The assistants had taken the elders to Walmart on their way into the office so they could buy toiletries and luggage. Upon arriving at the mission office, some of the sisters had made a sign for them and had put together a few supplies for them.

The mission office couples took turns rotating through doing their training and instructing with them.

Sister Radford had brought in lunch for all of us and then it was time to go SHOPPING!!!

I had asked Sister Radford the day before if she and her husband could possibly take the elders to buy new clothes. I offered to man the phone for her while they were gone. I looked into Elder Radford's office to see what his reaction was to the request for him to join in the shopping excursion. He was all scrunched down behind some files trying to hide.

He had me laughing as he told me he'd rather have cut glass in his eyes than go shopping for clothes, but he would do it. I LOVE our senior couples!!!! They are willing to do ANYTHING for us!!

Sister Radford told me her husband hadn't slept well that night in anticipation of the shopping. He finally got up super early and started making a list of everything the elders would need to be fully outfitted once again for missionary service.

When it was time to shop, Elder Radford handed each missionary his own personal list and asked them to check off what of those things they have and then they would know what they needed to get. Very efficient!!

Glen was spending the afternoon with the assistants working on transfers. As they were finishing up with that for the day, the shoppers were finishing up. We all met at Panera for dinner.

Back at the mission office, a few missionaries had arrived to pick up the new elders. Glen announced the new companionships and off they went with their new companions.

We were so impressed with how often a couple of the new missionaries expressed their gratitude for each and every thing we did for them or gave to them or fed them. So sweet. So sincerely thankful.

I was impressed with how they had folded up their sheets before taking them down to the laundry room and had made the beds so the rooms would look neat despite the lack of sheets.

Glen said their letters to him were full of gratitude as well. They are a wonderful addition to our mission.