Elder Jack Perry: WEEKS 32 and 33: What Just Happened?

Elder Perry and Elder Damo on their last day as companions

Hello Everyone! I am still alive!

These last weeks have been the craziest of my mission, without a doubt. It's hard to think about how far I have traveled physically and emotionally in the last couple of weeks. But yes, I have returned home to the United States along with the other American missionaries in South America.

Last week in Itapipoca, we had been instructed to be under strict quarantine in our apartment. It was a little brutal because it was just me and Elder Damo in the apartment, but we made it work. Lots of sitting around, eating, reading, and sleeping. I am not sure how much more of that I would have been able to endure. The mission had sent all of us 200 Brazillian reais to spend creating a food storage of non-perishable items. Because our oven and stove were not working, we just had the microwave to work with. So, naturally our food storages consisted entirely of ramen. It is not the greatest thing, but we survived. For currently unknown reasons, we also did not have running water in the apartment during that last week. We needed to take showers in a member's house who lived close by, and try to make do with the water that we buy to drink in large 20 liter tanks. That last week really seemed to drag on, but it all ended very abruptly on Monday morning, March 23.

Our flip phone sometimes wouldn't work great at night, and we usually could not receive calls. Monday morning, I saw that our district leader had called several times on Sunday night, so I called him back. He said that I needed to start packing up my stuff immediately, and that I would be sent back to the United States. I was honestly in shock. With very little access to the news, I had no idea that things had become so serious here in Brazil. I started getting all of my things together, but I had no idea what was going to happen. My companion started getting his things together too, because he probably would not be allowed to stay alone in Itapipoca. We started getting all of our things together when the mission president's wife, Sister Chamberlain, called us and gave us instructions on closing up our apartment and that we would need to get out of the city in the next couple of days. We had to figure out how to get out of Itapipoca all on our own as soon as possible. The only problem was, there were no buses entering or leaving the city.

We called one of the members in the ward to see if there was any way we could get a ride in the coming days to Fortaleza which is a two-hour ride by car. He quickly informed us that the city would be closed completely that night, and it would be impossible to get a car out of the city after that day. Besides, hardly anyone in Itapipoca owns a car. He said he would help us to get a ride that same day (Monday). He called us back 10 minutes later, and said that the only person leaving that day was leaving in 20 minutes. Elder Damo and I were both half packed and the apartment was still pretty messy. In a 20-minute frenzy, we got everything together, packed up the suitcases, and threw so much garbage away. I was impressed that we were able to get it all done so quickly. We found the guy, got in his car, and embarked off to Fortaleza.

We spent the rest of Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday in quarantine with 2 other missionaries, Elder Stevens and Elder Vieira. There wasn't much to do there either. So we mostly just spent our days sitting around and reading. We didn't receive a whole lot of information. We just knew that some time at the end of the week, we would be sent out of Fortaleza and back to SLC. Our flight was going to leave on Thursday morning. We got up, got everything together, and headed out to the airport. It was kind of a surreal experience, seeing all of these American missionaries going home.

We flew first to Recife from Fortaleza to pick up more missionaries, then we were off to Sao Paulo. There were so many missionaries there in the airport. Several thousand missionaries have been sent from Brazil these last couple of days. Then an incredibly long flight up to Atlanta, and then one more flight into Salt Lake City. I can't describe what it was like seeing my family after only 7 months into my mission. It was wonderful to see my family again but I really miss Brazil and the people of Fortaleza. Some of the highlights of being home include taking hot showers, seeing myself in a clean mirror, actually feeling cold, eating American food, and not seeing dogs in the street. I feel like I have learned so much these last several months in Brazil.

I am still set apart as a missionary and trying to prepare for the next phase of my mission no matter where that may be. As far as I know, I will be spending 14 days at home in quarantine and then maybe I will be reassigned to another mission in the United States. But in the end, my hope is that I can eventually return back to serve the people of Fortaleza. I hope that you all stay home and stay healthy.

Love you all and love this great work. I am faithfully preparing to serve wherever that may be.

Love,

Elder Perry