Dear Missionary Parents,
I know that your missionaries have been in regular contact with you, but Sister Ostler and I wanted to reach out to you and let you know how impressed we are with the faith, courage, and goodness of your missionary sons and daughters. You would be SO proud of them!
As you know, they have been in quarantine for the past 3.5 weeks, and although they are in nice apartments on temple grounds, very safe and with healthy food to eat, the situation has really exercised their patience.
The laws and regulations of the countries of Europe have been constantly changing as Covid cases have risen dramatically and as the hospital systems in some of the countries have come under pressure. This has made travel between England and Germany or Slovakia much more difficult. In spite of this, with great faith and courage, several missionaries entered Germany this week. They are questioned at border control at the airport, sometimes for 15 minutes and sometimes for a couple of hours, but so far all have been permitted to enter. They are entering as “essential worker” church volunteers. The big question at the border is whether or not missionaries are “essential” and whether it is safe to admit anyone who has been in England (where the virus has spiked). The border police are simply trying to do their jobs and our sweet missionaries are doing their best to exercise faith and make their way in.
The missionaries are never in any danger. Everyone is quite respectful even though they can be very thorough.
Mission presidents or other church representatives are always waiting patiently on the other side of the border control area for the missionaries to come through. All of the missionaries have electronic devices so that they can be in contact throughout this process.
As the rest of the missionaries leave England and enter Germany over the next few days, if some of them are rejected, they would simply fly back to England where they would work with missionaries in the British missions until the next opportunity comes to go back.
We ask you, whether your missionary has already entered Germany or is waiting to go, to plead with the Lord to be with these missionaries during this time. We have seen many miracles and we believe in more miracles to come. The Lord has a great work for them to do. They are young, but they have great spiritual power.
Please feel free to reach out to me with any questions.
Sincerely,
President Creg D. Ostler
England Missionary Training Centre
