Well this week has just been absolutely CRAZY! As sure
as many of you heard because of Coronavirus I am back home right now.
Getting re adjusted to this computer is a real pain again. BUTTT i'll
start back at the beginning of last week to make sur eI dont miss any
details!
Tuesday morning we got a call from President Lewis telling
us that we needed to buy a bunch of reserves and put them in our apartment. He
told us we should use half of the money they gave us every 2 weeks to buy it.
So we did just that, we bought a bunch of rice, noodles, tomatoes, cookies,
little random snacks and basically just anything we thought looked decently
appetizing. It was super intense because I was the Zone Leader 1 too because
Elder Colas was gone so I was having to make sure everyone understood and had
done the shopping. It was probably the most stressful part of my mission
so far and it was a great test of my french. But it was so awesome because I
totally was able to get it all done! THEN the next day Wednesday night I got a
call from my friend Elder Diederich and he just goes, "BRO we are
going home" I was like whattttt their is no way, but he seemed pretty
convinced... Soon enough President and Sister Lewis called me and explained the
whole situation to me and said that I would be going home and I would receive a
call to serve in a different mission after a 14 day quarantine at home. That
was pretty much all he said, I was left with so many questions I wanted to ask
but he was busy and had to call all the missionaries to let them know. That night
I did not sleep at all. I was just thinking about the future which was
extremely unpredictable and foggy. The next day we did a deep clean of the
apartment, fixed up the area book, and packed our bags. After that we got a
couple more lessons in, said bye to some people and then we did some souvenir
shopping. Thursday passed and we did not hear anything new, Friday morning I
got a call from the assistants and they told me I was going home! They said
they had a flight for Saturday morning that I would be getting on. So Friday
was filled with more last minute shopping and also saying bye to some more
people. Friday morning I got up at 5 and ran over to the mission office. We
weighed our bags (mine were both 10 kilos overweight, so I had to leave lots of
clothes and books and other random trinkets), and then quickly shuttled
everyone to the ok tu airport. When we arrived at the airport we were told that
the airport in South Africa had just been shut down, and that was one of the
airports in our route home that we were stopping at... So we didn't know what
to do. I found a guy wearing a Florida shirt and asked if he was from America
and he said yes. I then asked what his plans were to get home and he said their
was a flight directly to JFK with lots of seats on it, so I quickly called
President Lewis and told him about the flight. He got back to me and told me
they had 5 seats left and that they put 5 Elders on the flight but that I was
not one of them. I was like you've got to be kidding me I'm the one that found
the flight. So I along with the other 30 missionaries went back to the
mission office. They quickly scrambled to put us in apartments in port bouet
near the mission office and airport. I was in the Vridi apartment with 5 other
guys (Elder Facer, Lyman, Diaz, Angerbauer and Hammond) and it was the worst.
We just sat in the apartment all day talked, played uno, studied and ate all
while sweating because of the heat and lack of fans. The heat and just sweating
and actually smelling musty is something that I will not miss haha. I also
didn't bring any change of clothes so I was really just suffering in
there. So then Saturday passed, and Sunday was just another day just
like before. The only thing that kind of spiced it up was Elder Facer got a
crazy allergic reaction to a nut he ate on accident and his face just blew
up so we had to go to the office to get medicine, it was nice getting out a
little. But then at about 8 o'clock we got a call saying we were going homeeee!
I just remember getting up off the coach saying wahooo and giving everyone the
classic double high five that dads give each other at their sons basketball
games. It was a great feeling!
When we got to the office I found that my bags were somehow
still overweight again so I ended up just shoving a bunch of stuff in new
missionaries bags that didn't have any souvenirs. The flight home was amazing
though. We went to Paris and then L.A. and then SLC. But the amazing part was
that for the 2 longest legs I was sitting in Business Class! I don't know how I
was chosen to be one of the lucky 8 of us sitting up there but lemme tell you
it was amazing.. I just popped my chair back into bed mode and I was out.
The flights felt sooo short. I also loved them because we flew Air France and
so I got to talk to all the flight attendants in french. It was so cooool! They
all said I talked like africans but I mean hey at least we could talk! So the
flights were great, the food was absolutely spectacular.. I had Salmon and
some other fish and it was just so amazing, the side salads were very long
awaited as well. I missed fresh food so much.
The first thing I noticed about Utah when we landed in Utah
is how cold it is here! Sheesh, it's freezing, I totally forgot about how cold
it is and I was just dying in my short sleeved shirt. Seeing my family was
SO fun though. They made every missionary go out 1 by 1 into the airport
parking and find their families quick to avoid chances of spreading or
contracting Corona so that was kinda interesting but it still was great. Kinda
weird but great. I definitely didn't feel like I was finished but like my
families poster said it has been a nice inter-mission break. When I got home I
didn't get released because we are hoping that I get reassigned
pretty quickly, so my days are pretty boring. I just wake up, workout, study
and then fill my day with hanging out with the family, playing games and doing
other random stuff to pass the time away.
It's pretty sad thinking about the possibility that I will
not serve anymore in Cote d'Ivoire, but at least I can say that I gave it my
all. I didn't leave anything behind so honestly i'm not that bummed. I
know that whatever happens is going to be good and i'm just here to serve so it
doesn't really matter where. But this week has definitely been wild and
quite the adventure. I will never forget the time that I got emergency
evacuated on my mission because of a crazy bizarre epidemic that broke
out!
Thanks for all the support you have all given me all along
this journey. I was talking to my Grandpa today and he told me something that I
loved, he said "Just keep trying, just keep fighting, just keep
praying" I love this and I know that as we all continue to give our all to
this great cause and fight for what matters most all while praying to our Father in Heaven to help us with it we will do amazing things no matter
where we are!
Bises,
Elder Freedman
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