Week 84

Dear Parents, 

We hope you are doing well.  First and foremost we want to thank you for the blessing of serving with your amazing sons and daughters.  We are blessed with amazing missionaries and we are so grateful.

The purpose of this email is to bring you up to date on available information regarding the Perú, Arequipa mission.  We had a conference call with our area presidency today and here is the official word.  As most of you know, the missionary department is preparing to send all missionaries to their home countries to either be reassigned and continue serving as a full time missionary or be released, depending on timing and individual circumstances.  How does this affect our mission?  In order to send missionaries home, we need to have 1. church approval, 2. government approval and 3. transportation.  As of today, March 22, 2020 we have church approval.  On March 15, the President of Peru declared a mandatory 15 day quarantine of all persons residing in Peru.  The mandatory quarantine includes the closing of the borders, so there are no domestic or international flights in or out of Peru.  The announced quarantine ends on March 30.  At that time, all of the emergency measures will end; unless extended or modified.  We presume that at the end of the quarantine period, the Peruvian government will assess the progress of the coronavirus in Peru and then decide on next steps.  Whether to end, extend or otherwise modify the quarantine.  At this point there is much speculation of the government's next steps, but at this stage there has not been any official decrees so we will wait to see how we go forward with the remaining 2 steps to get the missionaries home and don’t anticipate anyone being able to return before March 31.  In the meantime, we are doing what we can to facilitate the missionaries returning to their home country.  For those from the United States, this includes registering each person with the U.S. Embassy in Lima, which we have done.  For those of you in other countries, if you are aware of anything your government is doing to facilitate the return home, please let us know.  

We love our missionaries!  We will go forward with faith knowing the Lord will watch over these amazing missionaries.  We have tried to stay in contact everyday with the missionaries during this quarantine. The mandatory quarantine requires that everyone is to stay at home, except for essential services, including those in the grocery, medical, pharmaceutical and banking industry.  Those activities remain open, and residents are permitted to leave their homes to go shopping for food, medicines, banking or medical care.  The reports we are receiving around the mission is that stores are being stocked, and restocked, so food and necessities are available.   As a further precaution, we have funded, and instructed the missionaries to purchase and have on hand a 14 day supply of water, medicine and food in case of emergency (frankly, this is more in case of a natural disaster, such as an earthquake).  So, everyone seems to be doing fine, maybe a little bored but definitely being blessed!  

In the meantime, we continue to be an obedient mission, obeying the laws of the land where we serve.  Supporting the government's efforts to stem the tide of the coronavirus.   We are working hard from our homes to reach out to investigators, recent converts, and members, and doing what we can while we patiently wait for the time when we may more fully return to our callings of inviting all to come unto Christ.

Thank you for your love, support and prayers.

Presidente and Hermana Marsh