Carrier's England Mission 2019: Good-bye England Leeds Mission, March 14, 2020

Covid 19 Came to the World and Changed Everything

A few weeks ago we booked tickets to return home from our mission on May 6, 2020. That was our release date for our one-year mission service. In a matter of a few short weeks everything changed.

Children Arrive from America

Three of our children, Emily, David, & Liz arrived in England for vacation on March 6, 2010. Their plans were to vacation with us for a little over a week and then they were to visit London for the remainder of their trip. Covid 19 changed that plan quickly. We were able to travel and see lots of things in England before the bad stuff happened. I'll post pictures about that later in the blog). However, while we were staying in Bath, England with our children, I received an e-mail stating that all senior missionaries would be sent home early from their missions and we were to make preparations for departure. This announcement changed everything for our children and us.

Getting Reading to Leave

After some discussion about all the options it was decided that Emily would take a direct flight home from the London Airport. We took her to the airport early the next morning. She made it through all checks quickly and arrived home without any delays.

Dave and Liz traveled back to Leeds with us, spent the night, and left from Leeds airport at 7:00 am the next morning. Pete left at 4:00 am to take them to the airport. The airport required 3 hours before departure time. Dave and Liz's encountered a problem. They were delayed in Ireland because of Covid 19 checks. The lanes were long and the plane for departure left late. This late departure caused Dave and Liz to miss a connecting flight in San Franscisco. The airport provided a stay in a nearby Hilton and they left on a plane for home at 11:00 a.m.

Packing

When we arrived home at the institute I began my packing. Pete, Dave, and Liz went to downtown Leeds to return the rental van. Then, they toured quickly the beautiful and interesting downtown Leeds. They fell in love especially with the markets. They stocked up on souvenirs and came back to the institute.

Packing......what a nightmare! We had less than 8 hours to do it all. The house was stocked with lots of food, washing from all, bedding needed to be changed and washed, towels needed to be washed, food given away, fridge cleaned, oven cleaned and the usual gathering of belongings into suitcases, charity bags, and throw-away. Luckily, when Pete and I were in the middle of it all our dear sweet administrative assistant, Marian, walked upstairs to give us a departing gift. She sensed our distress and told us to just pack our belongings and she would do all the cleaning and get rid of the food. What a blessing! What a tender mercy that was. Otherwise, we would have been up all night. She listened to the spirit and visited us at the right time!

Our Departure to the Airport

After Pete returned from dropping David and Liz off at the airport, he went to pick-up Sister Wassmer. She was flying home with us. Brother McMorn arrived at the institute in a Church van. He transported all the 6 large bags and 3 carry-on bags to the airport. We drove to the airport with ourselves and Sister Wassmer in our missionary vehicle. We flew out of Manchester airport, a two hour drive from Leeds. Brother McMorn drove with his brother-in-law so that his brother-in-law could drive the mission car back to the mission. The logistics of it all was figured out by Elder Carrier. He jumped right into place to manage everything while I silently fell apart. We left the institute at 7:00 am for our flight in Manchester.

The flight out of Manchester was easy. The checks at security weren't bad and customs was not bad. The glitch was the small leg room in the Virgin Airways. In every other regard the plane was lovely. The 7 hour flight seemed hard because of the scrunched legs.

Our transfer was in New York. Here, we ran into many senior missionaries and young missionaries going home. They were coming from all over. That was a sobering sight. Delta treated us extra special. We were upgraded to the front of the plane with lots of leg room and seats that reclined. In fact, Pete and I were able to get a whole row to ourselves and we tried to sleep. It was a little cold for me to get much rest but it was a nice flight home.

When I stepped into the SLC airport I started to cry. I couldn't believe it was all over. Coming down the escalator and seeing so many families gathered to greet missionaries was also sobering. Emily was there to pick us up. She has been such a help in many ways since we've returned home.

Now . . . . . . I have to step back to the frantic night of packing. Here's what happened with the YSA.

Good-bye to the YSA

The single adults found out we were leaving early and wanted to have a farewell dinner at Spoons, a nice restaurant in Leeds. We had to turn that idea down since we had been counseled to stay out of public buildings. We offered to get pizza and do it at the institute. Then, we both felt that was not right either. So, we sent a message telling them to come in small groups from 6:30 - 8:30 pm the night before we left and we would say our good-bye's then.

That idea would have worked fine but no one left so more and more kids kept coming. They gave us gifts, cards, and hugs (we weren't supposed to do that but they all moved in for the hug.) No one left. At 9:00 pm I told Pete I had to go up and finish packing. In a bit he called and said they wanted me to come back down. I told him "No. Someone had to do the packing." So, all 40 came upstairs to our apartment. We gathered in a circle around the small kitchen dining area and Pete said a beautiful prayer. I cried my eyes out and threw them all a kiss. What a sad good-bye to a group of people I had grown to love dearly. We didn't get to see them all. We missed saying good-bye to the stake, our ward, and other wards we had attended. Brother McMorn also gave us a cool lantern and letter. He thanked us for being a light of inspiration in many ways to the single adults at the Leeds Institute of Religion.

I'm grateful to know friendships are eternal too. All relationships we make in life will carry with us in the eternities if we all strive to keep our covenants and 'be good boys and girls' as Elder Bednar said.