A few things happened this week that I will try to talk about, I am using Google Voice Assistant right now to type out my email and if there are any typos that I blame Google.
This week we got a call from the Mission Medical coordinators and they said that I had taken the wrong test for Coronavirus at see if I was positive but I ended up having to take a second test it was a swab test was honestly did not feel like right having a swab down my throat, but after a few days I got a call saying that I had actually tested positive for Coronavirus. This was not a surprise to me because I had experienced pretty much every symptom that is possible to experience while having a coronavirus. I ended up losing around 5 lb because all I ate was carrots and Broccoli.
Medical staff on the other side of the phone recommended that I say quarantine for at least another ten days because I've been experiencing symptoms for about a week now. medical staff on the other side of the phone recommended that I say quarantine for at least another ten days because I've been experiencing symptoms for about a week now.there's actually pretty funny because I got the call when I was teaching ASL class, and so am I entire class heard that I tested positive and everyone started making jokes about it. It seemed the entire Mission knows about now because I'm one of six missionaries that tested positive for the Coronavirus.
On a side note our friend Beatriz was interviewed for baptism this past Saturday by one of our ASL Elders in training other Aamodt. He did excellent job (I assume because I wasn't actually in the interview) and we found out that Beatrice actually passed her interview and was going to be baptized on the 21st however we decided to postpone that because we will still be in quarantine at that point in time so we postponed it to the 28th and all the branch is very excited to see her enter the Waters of baptism and so are we!
There is also a very very exciting thing that happened this week our friend N attend sacrament meeting over Zoom. that morning we had called the branch president to ask if he had anyone in mind who might be able to fellowship with N to be able to be her friend and she makes a new change and attends Church. He didn't have anyone in mind and neither did we so we mutually agreed to come back after a day or two and ponder the subject to see who might be the best help for our new friend. After our worship service on Zoom we got a call from Sister Smith and she explained that she actually knew N from previously at CSDR (the school for the deaf here), she was very excited that N was learning from the missionaries and attended church and actually asked us if she could join in the lessons with.
We called N and told her about the experience which we had with Sister Smith, she also remembered Sister Smith from CSDR. Nitro also explained that she knew a few more members and that she recently had a call with brother Cochran, the elders Quorum president, about meeting with her with him and the missionaries on Friday to study with us. The surprising thing was that we actually didn't even know that she had set up an appointment by herself with a member! N actually ended up scheduling a few appointments with members and we never had to do it, she just wanted to learn herself and so she decided to set everything up herself!
Our A/C unit is broken again, but luckily It isn't too hot outside at night. However our apartment is 80 degrees right now. Oof
We found out that in order to order another video phone we could actually sign up as a business rather than having to prove that we're deaf or hard-of-hearing. This is excellent news because the other Elders as I type out this email or actually signing up and trying to qualify our business or rather the church to get another video phone in California Riverside.
There are a few other positive coronavirus cases in the Riverside Zone and so we are mostly in Social isolation. The few of us had RX showing symptoms however that should end early next week. It's kind of a bummer because nobody is able to get out and do service over it's kind of cramped up in their apartment, but we'll pull through this. There's a quote that President Watson shares very often and it really has given me strength during these times it is "We have Him, and He has us".
We found out that the new youth 2021 album is releasing a few songs early, we really enjoyed one of them the theme song and we've worked and began translating it for our next SL song post which should be coming out hopefully late this week if not early next week we have the translation finished we're now just practicing coordinating our movements which takes up the brunt of our efforts. It's a bit like coordinating a dance but only with your arms and hands and also a lot of your face which I definitely did not enjoy at the start of my vision but it's become so regular to make very large and grandiose facial expressions. We really do try to do our best for these videos, so we hope you all enjoy them!
That is about it for all the news from California Riverside, but I'm very thankful for all of your prayers and all of your emails!!
-Elder Vance