The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (LDS) announced April 1 that they would be recalling their over 70,000 missionaries from their postings worldwide due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Over the last two weeks, the LDS Church had already taken steps to return missionaries that had been serving in foriegn countries without robust health infrastructure, like the Philippines or Chile, but this move ensures that all missionaries will return to their country of origin despite their current location.
While on assignment, missionaries often struggle to stay updated with current events, and many were kept in the dark about the coronavirus until they were given the order to evacuate. Tyler Burtch was one of those missionaries. Until 12 days ago, he was serving in a small town named Urbiz Tondo on the island of Luzon in the Philippines.
“I really didn’t hear a whole lot, just a lot of gossip,” said Burtch. “When we got told to leave, it was a real shock, we were like ‘Holy smokes, I guess this is a big deal.’”
Other missionaries in the Philippines had a different experience. Alicia Araya, another missionary on Luzon, said all of her conversations in the days leading up to the evacuation were about the virus.
“It was all the members of the church could talk about,” said Araya. “We weren’t super informed, we just had what the members told us, and what they told us had us scared.”
Burtch, Araya and other missionaries in the area continued to preach until suddenly, they got a call telling them to literally pack their bags. Within a day, most of the Philippines’ missionaries had been moved to a cramped church-owned facility in Manila, the capital. The facility had only been designed to accommodate 300 missionaries at a time, yet Burtch estimates that more than a thousand missionaries stayed in it over the next four days.
“It looked kind of sketchy, we were all packed in this gym,” he said. “You just slept wherever you could, there wasn’t a lot of room.”
After a few days of waiting, the church managed to charter some planes so the missionaries could safely leave the country. After a brief stop in Tokyo, the planes landed in Salt Lake City, where the missionaries were either picked up by family members or flew on to airports closer to home. Burtch was able to catch a flight to his home in Michigan the same night they arrived, but Araya had to spend the night in Salt Lake City, Utah before she was able to leave. Now, both are finishing up a church-mandated two week quarantine in their homes.
“When I left, it didn’t feel like it was right,” said Ayara. “I felt a little ashamed to be going home so early, like I expected to be in the Philippines for 18 months and then I only spent two.”
When missionaries first arrived back home, they received very little guidance from church leaders on when they would be able to return to their assignments. Originally, church leaders told missionaries from the Philippines they would be returning after a two-week quarantine, but as the infection rate from COVID-19 grew, many started to doubt.
“They still wanted us to be missionaries, “ said Araya. Mormon missionaries have a strict code of what they are allowed to do, and the LDS Church expected them to follow it even after they went home. “It’s been a lot of scripture study, a lot of watching inspiring messages. A lot of boredom.”
On Wednesday, the LDS Church announced these restrictions would be relaxed, and that missionaries would be spending a lot more time at home than anticipated. Now they have the choice of returning to work as soon as possible, but forgoing their original mission assignment for one in the United States, or waiting for travel restrictions to relax and returning to their original assignment, a process the church estimates could take up to 18 months.
Both Burtch and Araya said they plan to take the first option.
“I want to serve my time and move on,” said Burtch. “I’m 21, so I’m a lot older than other missionaries, I don’t have the time to waste. It’s not about being in the Philippines for me, it’s about giving my time to God.”
The rest of the LDS Church’s missionaries are expected to return home sometime in the next week.
