Two transfers, January 15 to February 28, and Feb 28 to April 9, 2020.

April 21, 2020

FEBRUARY 28-APRIL 9, 2020

The transfer started out pretty normal for a few weeks, new missionaries arriving, missionaries returning home, interviews and district council, MLC turned out to be the last meeting we had in person on March 13th. Covid 19 Virus then plagued the entire earth. We sent home seven senior couples and eight missionaries with underlying health conditions. We brought two elders into the office from 4 hours away to take over the job of secretary and vehicle coordinator, one of them only having arrived in the mission field three weeks earlier.

Our other office couple, the Lewis' were able to stay, thank goodness! They are our only senior couple now. The seven other couples all drove home and we never saw them before they left. That was heart breaking for us, and for them to leave with such short notice, not being able to say goodbye and hug the people they had grown to love in their wards and branches. Their time left on their missions ranged from a few months to 16 months, the Adams just arrived one month prior.

We love you Elder and Sister Adams, Elder and Sister Fleming, Elder and Sister Fronk, Elder and Sister Hodges, Elder and Sister Pursel, Elder and Sister VanOrden and Elder and Sister Weston. Thank you for blessing our mission!

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Not all the news is bad though, in General Conference, President Nelson announced eight new temples, and Pittsburgh was one of them! Missionaries and members are overjoyed with this answer to many prayers. We shed tears of joy at the news!

MLC before there was social distancing

Only one district picture

The Provo MTC had to close so we were blessed to receive five elders who are still in their official training for a few weeks assigned to Canada, Thailand and The Philippines. They are learning languages as well. They are a great addition to our mission! Welcome elders!

We only were able to get two weeks of interviews and district councils in person this transfer before we had to start Corona Isolation. Oh how we miss seeing them in person! The remainder had their interview by video.
We had a great zone conference on the 200th anniversary of the restoration planned, but we changed it and planned a two hour zone conference by zoom instead. It was really an amazing spirit that we felt even though we could not be together in person. It was memorable in many ways! Since then I can't even count the number of zoom meetings we have had, sometimes three a day. But we are so very grateful for the blessing of technology to keep in touch with everyone!

Our First Zoom Zone Conferences! Not the way we like to gather, BUT, we are ever grateful for technology!

Some interesting sights since Corona came to visit

The empty airport! Usually it is packed with cars, and people

Farewell to our returning missionaries! We love you all!

We usually have the departing missionaries sign our banner, but I wrote their names this time, including all of the senior couples. It was kinda special to write each name and think about each of them during their time here. Love them all!

Our farewell testimony meeting by zoom. They all stayed in a hotel at the airport and got off to their flights early in the AM.

Springtime is arriving in Pennsylvania in a beautiful way!

Elder Castillo blessed us with his talents!

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Transfer 24, January 15-February 28

These first two pictures were taken a week apart in February. I like the second one best.

New missionaries in February, we are excited to welcome them!

With their awesome trainers

The assistants always love to get a selfie on my phone!

January Zone Conferences

Just one of the many crazy steep hills in Pittsburgh!

Mission Leadership Council January

Unfortunately, I was not able to get pictures of everyone, especially now that we have not been able to see them in person for 6 weeks, it is very difficult to only see them on a computer screen.