The Daily Universe
Sister Belynn Borg, a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, stands in front of The St.-Paulus-Dom in Munster, Germany. Because of the pandemic, her journey to Germany included multiple reassignments, setbacks and quarantines. (Sister Belynn Borg)
A limited number of missionaries are returning to their original foreign assignments a year after the COVID-19 pandemic stopped the world and sent thousands of missionaries home.
The Provo, Utah and Preston, England Missionary Training Centers shut down March 16, 2020 and since then, all missionaries are being trained virtually.
During March and April 2020, almost all missionaries serving outside their own country were sent home, except for a few countries in Europe and Asia. At the same time, many missionaries whose service would end on or before Sept. 1, 2020, were released from missionary service early.
It’s 9:30 p.m. and I’m leaving my house. It feels so strange that the neighbor’s kids are likely already asleep. I don’t think I’ve left to go anywhere after children’s bedtimes since before the pandemic began.
I don’t trust my internal sense of direction when it’s this dark, so I pull out my phone, open Google Maps, and type in “Draper Utah Temple.”
“Your location might be closed when you arrive,” my Google friend warns me.
“Oh, trust me, I know,” I say smiling.
I begin my 18-minute drive to the Draper temple. The temple sits on the Wasatch Mountains, meaning for the entire drive, I’m able to look up and see my final destination. It brings new meaning to the words Isaiah penned: