Missionary Kira Kraft had been in Anchorage, Alaska, for only a month when the wife of a church leader called to ask that she come to the area's mission headquarters to meet with its leader.
A member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Kraft, 20, had spent the past four weeks knocking on doors and evangelizing when she could, or offering to help residents she passed with outdoor tasks, and an opportunity might arise to begin engaging that person in conversation about their faith.
"I can't tell you how many driveways I shoveled," Kraft said. "I remember when I opened my mission call, I had no idea where Anchorage was but I knew that the Lord wanted me there in Alaska."
In speaking with the mission president March 19, Kraft was stunned to learn that the church was ending her mission early. The dry Alaska air aggravated her asthma, and at all times she carried an inhaler prescribed for the condition. Her condition also hadn't been a concern during the three weeks Kraft, known as Sister Kraft, spent beforehand at a training center in Provo, Utah.
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Having asthma now made her one among tens of thousands of missionaries the Church has sent home since last month as the novel coronavirus known as covid-19 has continued to spread.
Worldwide there are more than 16.5 million Latter-day Saints, and more than 6.7 million in the United States, according to the church. Of the more than 67,000 Latter-day Saints missionaries serving around the globe, more than half -- 35,000 -- had been sent home as of April 14, according to Karen Beheshti, a Latter-day Saints spokeswoman from the Little Rock area.
Not all have made it home in time before their country's borders shut. Those who have made it back have a timespan of months or more than a year stretching before them -- time that might have otherwise been spent working, going to college or serving a mission -- and are now left in limbo.
Kraft, who moved to Little Rock with her parents in July from Utah, had completed three semesters of college at Utah Valley University before taking time off to work, when she was called to mission in October.
Young women serve a mission for 18 months and young men serve two years. Between training in Utah and proselytizing in Alaska, Kraft served two months before her mission was ended.
"It's been weird to have all these things that I was anticipating thinking about ... in more than a year and a half [from now], but now I have to think about them," Kraft said.
There are rules missionaries in the field must follow. A missionary is assigned to live with a fellow missionary of the same sex, known as their "companion" in the faith. They aren't allowed to use one another's first names, and instead wear name badges with their last name and a designation as a "Sister" or "Elder."
In pairs, the missionaries proselytize door-to-door, a longtime practice known as "tracting." To ensure a focus on mission work, missionaries are not allowed to watch television, read news, listen to the radio or otherwise take in outside influences. Their contact with the rest of the world comprises interactions with their companion, the people they seek to engage while tracting and members of the church, mostly during services on Sundays. Those services include a sacrament meeting that Little Rock resident and recent missionary Max Clark likened to a Sunday worship service in other Christian faiths, during which members take in bread and water symbolizing Christ's body and blood, respectively.
Clark, a native of Utah, was on the verge of moving to Arkansas with his parents when he was called to mission in September in Las Vegas, home to what he noted is a mission area known as one of the highest-average-temperature regions in the world.
The first time Clark, 20, heard of the virus, he was teaching a woman about the Latter-day Saints in her home. A television was on and the virus was the subject of a news broadcast.
"My companion and I, we didn't think anything about it. We just thought, 'That's weird,'" Clark said.
It wasn't until the two men visited a grocery store in the area and found it was out of water and toilet paper -- and waited in a line to enter a Walmart the next morning -- that they began to realize the impact the virus was having on the country.
In the Las Vegas West Mission where he served -- one of two such geographical regions for Las Vegas -- there were some 180 missionaries in December. Clark, who said his asthma was "pretty bad," was one of more than 70 from that geographical mission region whose missions were ended early. His parents have changed their minds about the move to Arkansas, and Clark is staying with Kraft and her family for now.
"If the coronavirus had not become such a big thing, I'd still be out there serving," Clark said. "It's definitely something that I struggled with, going home, but something that our church believes in is that every church member is a missionary.
"I set aside that time in my life, those two years, to serve the Lord ... and I felt like a lot of things were kind of cut short," he added. "I wasn't able to serve the way that I needed to, but I'm just so happy for the opportunity to serve the Lord and serve the mission."
Little Rock Mission President Norman Hansen said that before covid-19, there were approximately 171 missionaries serving in the geographical region known as the Little Rock Mission -- which encompasses part of Arkansas and extends into the Memphis area. The Church issued a directive in March noting that some missionaries would continue service in their home nation after a period of self-isolation, but others such as Kraft and Clark would, out of concern for their safety, have their service term shortened.
Latter-day Saint houses of worship, known as wards in the faith, are in collective geographical groups referred to as a stake. The stake headquarters office in North Little Rock, where Hansen is based, had to send home 20 senior members -- those who are retired and have chosen to return to service -- and seven younger missionaries, bringing them to 144 missionaries as of last week..
According to Hansen, those who remain serving in their mission do so from their temporary residences, using Facebook as a way to reach out to others, and have handled this period of self-isolation with resilience.
"They're confined to their apartment with a companion that they don't really know that well, and they're getting along remarkably well," Hansen said of the missionaries. "It's just so neat to see their support and their love for each other, and the ... motivating that they've done to keep their head in the game ... and to keep from losing their purpose and becoming overwhelmed with cabin fever or emotional or mental [concerns] that could be affecting some of our society right now."
Hansen said several missionaries, including one each from American Samoa and Ghana, remain in the area, as their home country's borders have shut.
The Marshall Islands shut its borders to travel March 9, and as of this week is one of a handful of countries that has no confirmed cases of the virus. Marlynn Stephen, who calls the Marshall Islands home, was expected to return but in the end wasn't called to do so by the higher authorities of the church.
Along with all the changes a missionary experiences during his or her time serving, the missionary is also assigned to a new companion every six weeks. Stephen's companion, Maddie Seegmiller of Utah, was expected to be shifted to Memphis, but with an undisclosed health condition and an appeal to higher authorities has remained in Pocahontas. Meanwhile, the church sent Sidney Field to Pocahontas to become Stephen's new companion, resulting in the women's rare situation of being a trio.
The three have worked together to post messages and testaments to their faith on Facebook, reaching out to those interested in learning more about the Latter-day Saints by messaging while others speak with the missionaries via a video call. Aside from the format, spreading of the gospel and serving Jesus Christ have remained the same.
"I never imagined that I would be working from inside the house, relying so heavily on social media to fulfill my purpose as a missionary," Field said. "I was not expecting that at all."
Missionaries were allowed until last year to call home only twice a year, on Christmas Day and Mother's Day, and before the virus struck were allowed to call home once a week. Because of covid-19, they're now allowed to contact home twice a week.
That's been a comfort to their families, the women said.
"Just having the opportunity to share all of the miracles ... it has been a really good resource for our families at home and has helped them deal with isolation as well," Field said.
"[Our families] are grateful for what we're doing right now, that they can hear about doing the Lord's work in our mission," Stephen said.
For missionaries such as Kraft and Clark, it's time to figure out what's next. Kraft, now back from serving a period of time that was scheduled to end Aug. 18 of next year, plans to return to college and find work and other ways to continue serving in the faith.
"[Serving a mission] was just such a cool opportunity," Kraft said. "I just want to carry that over into my life and continue that service, and practice turning outward."
Clark has heard updates on how the Las Vegas West mission is proceeding. Missionaries are continuing by sharing messages on the Facebook pages of different Christian groups, he said, and regions are sharing ideas about how to reach others online to proselytize. Other times, missionaries are calling members in the Las Vegas area to see if there is anything they might need.
"For a friend or family member that needs a message of hope ... even before covid-19, [the message] is something that didn't change," Clark said. "After covid-19, our message will be the same. We will talk about hope and love and kindness, and we need that message now more than ever."
More information about the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints can be found at lds.org and comeuntochrist.org; Sisters Seegmiller, Field and Stephen can be contacted at (870) 495-8301.
Religion on 04/25/2020
CORRECTION: Latter-day Saints missionary Maddie Seegmiller is from Utah. An earlier version of this article incorrectly identified her home state.