Mission Memories Monday

I have seen on other blogs a label of "Flashback Friday," which is where the respective blogger will dedicate the post to a particular memory or other, usually with a picture attached. I like that idea and plan on incorporating it on future posts. But it isn't Monday and as you can tell from the title of my post, I'm going in a slightly different direction.

I served in the Romania Bucharest Mission of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Missionaries had only been in the country for about four years by the time I got there, and there were only two cities open for missionary work. By the time I left 16 months later, there were at least twice as many cities open with more on the way, but I didn't have anything to do with that. Because there were so few cities, we missionaries got to know each other pretty well - especially the sisters. I don't remember exactly how many sister missionaries there were, I think around 14 or 16. Not many at all. So the memory I'm sharing today demonstrates how close the sisters were and how well we communicated with each other.

For those of you who also lived through the story I'm about to tell, please forgive my inaccuracies. It was after all 12 1/2 years ago and you know how memories can get embellished with time. In fact, feel free to leave comments with your corrections to my tale.

It was the fall of 1995 and I was assigned to Sector 2 with Wendy Stephens as my companion. I guess I should back up a bit and explain that Bucharest, the capitol of Romania, is separated into six different areas, or sectors. Because of the pre-existing boundaries in the city, the Church used them in regards to branches and mission area boundaries. There was usually one set of sister missionaries and two sets of elders in each sector and all 3 sets of companions were in a district and assigned to the same branch.

This particular memory is one of my favorites from my mission - although it didn't start out as anything I thought I would look back on fondly. It actually started when a Romanian made an anonymous call to the mission president, President Morrey, and told him that he had two missionaries in his living room and wouldn't let them go unless the Church paid a ransom. Scary! President Morrey immediately called the authorities both inside and outside the Church and then started tracking down the missionaries. As you can imagine, this was no easy task since missionaries aren't supposed to be sitting in their apartments in the middle of the day waiting for the mission president to call. He was able to account for everyone by the end of the day with the help of the District and Zone leaders, but because of the potential danger now posed to missionaries, restrictions were put into place. We had to check in with our district leaders two times a day in person, and then again in the evening when we got back to our apartments for the day. Inconvenient, but necessary for our safety.

So one night, Wendy and I were safe at home and in bed. We had already checked in with our district leader, called our investigators, chatted with some sister missionaries, and felt nice and secure going to bed. At around 10:30 or 11, after we were both asleep, our Zone leader called asking if we had talked to the sisters in Sector 1. Apparently they hadn't checked in and weren't answering their phone. Well as a matter of fact, those were the sister missionaries we had chatted with earlier that evening! I advised the zone leader as much, he thanked me and hung up. About five minutes later, the Mission President called to find out when we had talked to the sector 1 sisters. He then asked me to call them in case my phone line had a better connection than his, which was possible in Bucharest. I called them, got no answer and called President Morrey back to let him know. After I told him, President Morrey told me that my companion and I should plan on staying home the next day. Not great, but of course you do what the mission president tells you, so Wendy and I resigned ourselves to being "grounded" the next day.

I tried calling the sisters in sector 1 again to tease them for making us stay home. This time they answered. They were at home, safe and sound. In fact, they went to bed early and were asleep when people were trying to call them. In their apartment, the phone was in another room and they couldn't hear it. The reason they were awake to answer my call this time was because President Morrey sent a couple of elders to knock on their door to be sure they were safe. I was very glad to learn they were safe, but being who I am, I made sure to blame them for getting us "grounded." Well it turned out that they were grounded too! And for the record Mendy, to this day I still say it was your fault! That is you and Michelle.

I didn't like the idea of us being confined to our apartment because of sisters in another sector, and I wanted to know if it was just us, or all the sister missionaries. I didn't want to call President Morrey and bother him, so I did the next thing to get information. I called my MTC companion, Cristi Flinders. She was in Sector 3 and they were up because their Zone leader called them too. They didn't know anything about being grounded the next day but promised they would let us know if they found out anything. Cristi's companion Melody Lambert called her MTC companion, Teena Aguire, who was in sector five or six, I forget, and asked if they were supposed to stay home. They hadn't heard anything, so Teena called her Zone leader and asked him. He didn't know, so he called President Morrey to ask. From what I understand, President Morrey chuckled and said that he had just decided to have all the sisters stay home the next day and was about to call the Zone leaders to spread the news. That Zone leader called Teena back demanding to know how she knew the sisters were going to have to stay home before the Mission President announced it! That was the sisters network in action. In case you're wondering, it worked well finding out about transfers before the elders too.

So there you go. My first Mission Memories Monday post. I just hope I don't lose interest in this posting topic before next Monday!