Remember the words from my facebook post-
Tomorrow will be another unique day--a Christmas truly away from our family and friends! We will have stockings and presents and good food--but we will also have the chance to make Christmas breakfast for our zone and to be taught by them in our zone meeting afterwards. In the evening, we will attend by zoom a Christmas devotional with the whole mission and will be taught by our sweet mission leaders-President and Sister Collins.
We will be taking missionaries home to Mena after district meeting and hope to stop and take some more photos at a local cemetery! And that will be a remarkable Christmas day in the mission field.
I wrote that on Christmas eve afternoon. Gary was driving to Mena to bring the two elders up for our combined Christmas breakfast and zone meeting while Jena and I were putting the finishing touches on the breakfasts casseroles we were making plus wrapping the last few presents. We knew it would be a different type of Christmas, but we had a plan and I knew it would be a sweet day with the missionaries in the morning, a cemetery visit, and then some time together the three of us celebrating Christmas with stockings and Christmas gifts.
You probably noticed the operative words- "I had a plan...."
Gary woke up on Sunday with a headache which is very unusual for him. It was bad enough that he decided to stay home from Church to sleep it off since he needed to transport the missionaries from Mena that evening. He wasn't feeling great but the headache was better so he decided he was good to go to pick them up and take them to the Ft. Smith's Elders apartment.
However, during the night, he started running a low fever and started coughing, so Monday morning, before we did anything else, he took a Covid test--just in case and sure enough, he was positive. I was also developing a sore throat, but no fever or cough, so I wore a mask and headed to the Church to set up for Christmas breakfast for our sweet zone. Jena came with me and was a great help.
We opened our Christmas stockings when we got back to the apartment--
We headed back to clean up after the meeting and join in the white elephant gift exchange that they held at lunch.
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| E. Jensen, E. Esera, E. Gallup, E. Smythe, E. Coombs |
We then headed back home--I took a Covid test which was negative, but I was definitely getting sick by then. We opened our presents around 2:00 pm--the latest in the history of my life---
And that sums up our "unique" Christmas day--no Christmas zone meeting with the missionaries, no drive to Mena nor stop at a cemetery----but it was a quiet, sweet memory nonetheless. The Christmas we had Covid.....and the day after that and the day after that....in fact, Jena took care of us most of the week until she finally started getting sick on Thursday evening. As suggested by the mission nurse, we took Covid tests on Saturday and both she and I were positive at this point. I am near the end, Gary is mostly better, but Jena is in the middle of it although she is doing fine. We did, however, enjoyed the mission Christmas devotional on Zoom that night where four of our zone performed or spoke. They did an awesome job!
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| Elder Jensen sharing his testimony with Elder Simmons. |
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| Sister Ohki and Sister Madden sang both in English and Spanish |
Plans---sometimes, it makes you wonder why I even ever make plans! But, I am a planner---so it will continue to be one of the threads of my life. I think it is okay to be a planner as long as:
1. You are flexible when things happen--like Covid!
2. You are trying to put your plans in line with what God wants and needs you to do!
Merry Christmas, my family and friends! I hope you enjoyed your day as well, wherever it was spent!
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