I don't think it ever really struck me that I was home. I hadn't even been out in the field a year, so I still pretty basically remembered and recognized normal life in the Brown home. Aside from the online schooling, things seemed very much the same as they usually were before my mission. The all at home feel just made it feel like summer vacation almost. I was somewhat used to self-isolation because of the three weeks we had of it in Japan, so that wasn't too weird. Probably the weirdest thing about this experience has been how normal it feels.
Started out my first morning (Thursday, March 26) with normal scripture study at 6 with my family. Then, had a meeting with our Stake President, who was very intent on keeping us busy during this time period (major props to him). He gave us some good ideas of things we could do online to get started and said he would speak with us on a somewhat regular basis. A little afterwards, as I did some studies of my own, the jetlag started hitting me hard. I made the huge mistake of letting our dog, Cooper, sit on my lap. It was a battle to try and stay awake. (The computer was open because we discovered a livestream of an AP Japanese class -- taking advantage of all the practice he can get!)
Later in the afternoon, I tried to do a weekly planning of my own to assess my options for things to do, mostly online. Had a refreshing taste of American food with hot dogs for dinner. One of the things we found out very quickly was that I had been and still was the big eater of the family.
A little later, my parents said the bishop wanted to chat while social distancing on our driveway, so I got suited up and headed out. After a few seconds, my mom pointed me down the road and I saw a row of cars in the distance with balloons and streamers and signs. Tons of our friends had come together to make a coming home parade! It was so sweet! I found myself instinctively Japanese bowing to them while waving as they passed by. I felt so much love and appreciation for them.
The next day (Friday, March 27), I started to get to work. Had another meeting with our Stake President in the morning. Later, I set up an appointment with a friend living back in Japan for a lesson, then set an appointment for Japanese practice with Chris Ballard, an awesome returned missionary from Japan, then set up an appointment with the people in my MTC district so we could chat about the changes and what has been going on in Japanese.
Saturday, March 28, those appointments happened. Chatted with my old district in the morning. Super fun to catch up with them and see how they're doing, almost all in Japanese. Big change from when each of us couldn't do much back when we started. Japanese practice with fluent Chris Ballard was super fun as well. The evening was when I had the lesson with my friend from Japan. He actually prefers English when we meet, so I had the once in a lifetime opportunity to invite my younger brother to join me. We both got dressed up in our white shirts and ties, then held a great companion study to discuss what we were going to be talking about, then took a brief brain break before entering the video chat. Also participating were my old companion from before we got sent home (Elder Ortiz) and a member friend. We had a wonderful lesson and felt the spirit throughout the meeting. Few things have brought me so great joy as being able to share that experience with my brother of teaching somebody the gospel and feeling the spirit as the Holy Ghost bears testimony of the truth.
Sunday, March 29 - Conner gave a fireside via Zoom to the youth of our ward. He spoke about his experiences on his mission so far, shared some pictures, his testimony, and then did a Q&A
Monday, March 30 - The next day was pretty busy. Talked with various people throughout the day either in Japanese, or just practicing lessons in Japanese. I expected I would probably be going someplace English speaking in the next few weeks at the time. So, I definitely needed teaching practice in that language. On a side note, tried to post something on facebook I found that was cool, but accidentally just added it to my story. Shows how much I really know about facebook, lol. All my time in school before my mission, I never even got an account.
Then, Tuesday came (March 31). It was about dinner time that we received the news. (Click to read this letter from the church). My mom had it pulled up on her phone, and I was just sitting down to Hawaiian roll pulled pork sandwiches with a side of Doritos. My mom scrolled through and said that all missionaries currently at home were getting temporarily released and there was a chart with the options we had. I politely asked for one moment, quickly said a blessing on the food, and the announcement continued. The two options we have are get called again as soon as possible with the same release date, or wait a year and serve the rest of the time we would have had if we had continued. Interesting choice, though it definitely serves a lot of people.
Then, Tuesday came (March 31). It was about dinner time that we received the news. (Click to read this letter from the church). My mom had it pulled up on her phone, and I was just sitting down to Hawaiian roll pulled pork sandwiches with a side of Doritos. My mom scrolled through and said that all missionaries currently at home were getting temporarily released and there was a chart with the options we had. I politely asked for one moment, quickly said a blessing on the food, and the announcement continued. The two options we have are get called again as soon as possible with the same release date, or wait a year and serve the rest of the time we would have had if we had continued. Interesting choice, though it definitely serves a lot of people.
I was officially released Wednesday morning (April 1). Our Stake President was great and went right to business about a suggestion or two I should do now to keep the language up. I took off the nametag and came out of the room we video chatted in, but my mom immediately stopped me and said something along the lines of "Whoa, you took the nametag off? We still need to do some pictures." 🤣
Anyways, I still don't know how I feel about this whole thing. It's been crazy, but it's happening. Nothing we do changes it. We can only change how we deal with it. The very afternoon that day, I started going through the mountain of pictures I had with my mom, then presented some of them to my family that night. It really is an unprecedented and awesome time that we are living through right now. We are living through a historic moment of the world. I'm glad I'm along for the ride and I get the privilege of a front row seat for what the Lord has in store for us.
Since his temporary release Conner has been able to participate in
- another lesson with his investigator in Misawa. He met online along with Elder Ortiz and the new missionaries assigned to that area so they could make introductions.
- a testimony meeting hosted by the mission president .... all missionaries currently in the mission and those sent home to the US gathered on Zoom. They wanted to provide an opportunity for those who have been permanently released (those who went home who have served 18 months or more) to bear their testimonies. This is something that missionaries would usually get to do at their last zone conference before going home.
- and on Monday morning the home missionaries were invited to participate in a zone conference
Here is a video of Conner playing the Japan Sapporo Mission Song on the piano
