Just in case you haven't heard, the Bubonic Plague has gotten too bad for us to stay in Madagascar so the church evacuated the entire mission this week and reassigned us all to new missions. I have been reassigned to the California, San Fernando Mission. It is a temporary assignment, but I only have 9 months left so this may be where I finish my mission. We all have hopes of possibly returning to Madagascar by February or March, but not sure that will happen.
This is my first real day in California. It has been a long flight coming from Mada to South Africa then to Paris and then coming from Salt Lake to California. It was hard to stop in Salt Lake. It felt like i was coming home, but instead of seeing my family, I had to get on a fourth flight to Cali. It has been a hard couple of days preparing to leave one of the greatest places in the world!!
We have had restrictions placed on us as missionary and we knew this could be a possibility, but we never really thought it would happen. President Foote tried really hard to keep us there but keep us safe. He is an incredible man.
On Wednesday we were put on lock down, which meant we couldn't leave our apartment.
On Thursday we got the call that we were being evacuated and leaving Madagascar after being told not to leave the house for two days. We were told to pack quickly and not to tell anyone we were leaving. I packed up and then got taken straight to the airport on Thursday with my baggage. I ended up not getting on the plane though because I had an expired visa. They detained me until we could show proof I was legal in their country. So I stayed in the mission home until Saturday. Until then we just stayed in the mission office watching people leave little by little. It was so hard. Everyone was getting reassigned to new missions and having to evacuate. Sister Foote was so sad, she felt like she was losing all of her kids. It was a sad experience and I do not recommend it. Some people went to La Reunion with Pres. Foote, some went to Zambia, some went to South Africa, a few of us came to California, and some went to Arizona. My trainee went to St. George. Even though we are all over the world, the First Presidency said we will always be "Madagascar missionaries!"
I did not leave Madagascar until Saturday the 21st of October at 3:00.
I got to watch some movies on the long flights over to America. I am pretty caught up with movies now except I held off on Star Wars. I am still adjusting to the new life style and culture here in California, it is literally the opposite of Mada. I will miss Madagascar a lot especially Pres. Foote. My new mission area is Solemint California that is apart of the San Fernando Mission. My companions are an Elder House and an Elder Bergeron. This morning I had to throw out some of my old beat up clothes and go buy some new ones. I got some new pants and shoes that the mission is going to pay for. My old ones were not acceptable, especially my gray shirts.
I am still pretty sad at the moment about the change. I had to just drop and leave all of my Investigators and members back in Ambohibao. I didn't get to say good bye. I had a couple of families that were supposed to get baptized last Saturday but now they are not. I am not sure what happened when we didn't show up. It all just kind of sucks. I hope as time goes on I will adapt more and find a purpose here in California.
I keep being reminded of the recent talk in the last General Conference that said, "Do you have the faith not to be saved?" Sometimes we pray for things that we want and when we do not get what we want our faith decreases. That talk was all about submitting yourself to Gods will and having the faith that whether you get what you prayed for or not God has a plan for you that is for your benefit. It makes me think about my faith in God's plan for me as a missionary. Whether I have the faith in his plan for me here in California or not. I prayed a lot to hopefully one day get to go back to Mada but I think i just need to have the faith not to be saved. I know God has a plan for me here. I will continue to work hard and hopefully one day find the reason that I came here.
Sincerely,
Elder Allen
My mom sent me these thoughts and it made me feel a little better. These are thoughts from a dad of one of the Elders in my mission in Madagascar. (Elder Snow's Dad) It helped me see a new perspective and realize that this needed to happen:
"Just random thoughts on all of this:
(1) the Mada missionaries need to be encouraged to SYL (study your language) with each other as much as possible, especially with the newer elders who are going to be missing the language immersion experience they would usually get. Some, if not all, of them WILL be returning to Madagascar and they'll need to be able to hit the ground running when they do.
(2) I think some people (myself included at first) thought this evacuation was premature. Then I thought about the disaster it would be if they waited until the situation was more serious. Several neighboring countries were already talking about imposing restrictions on inbound travel from Madagascar. How do you evacuate the missionaries once that happens? Also, the kinds of things missionaries do every day (going door-to-door, meeting and speaking with large numbers of strangers) are exactly the kinds of things you cannot do when you're dealing with an epidemic of a 100% fatal, airborne disease. And what if a missionary did get sick or even worse, helped spread the disease? As disappointed as we all are, it's pretty easy to see the wisdom in this decision.
(3) The Lord has proven himself to be a master of backup plans, and he has one for this. All of those investigators and members will be provided for and we need to trust in him. He KNEW this would happen and the pieces are in place for the work to go forward and the elect will not be lost.
(4) Our sons are capable and strong young men who are going through this because the Lord knows they can handle it. It's tough, but part of the mission experience is to find out what you're capable of doing in partnership with the Lord. This is one of those great unique opportunities.
(5) Everyone needs to read Elder Bednar's talk from the April 2017 Priesthood Session of General Conference https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2017/04/called-to-the-work?lang=eng. It's been quoted below, and it's perfectly inspired, comforting, and timely."
