by The story of the missionaries leaving Cameroon because of COVID is, I think, one of the most epic stories in the whole history of the Church. This story is true and everything written really happened no matter how crazy it might sound.
A Desolating Sickness (D&C 45:31)
The first time I had heard of the virus was in February 2020 when me and my Congolese companion were working with our branch mission leader in Yaoundé, Cameroon. He told us he had heard on the news that there was a virus that came from China that was infecting thousands of people in Italy and France. I didn’t think much about it at the time. I thought that this was just a little thing that would blow over and besides, us missionaries shouldn’t be thinking about things in the news.
Later, when I was in the cyber café, I saw on Church News that they were evacuating all the missionaries in Japan, Thailand, and all the missions in East Asia. It was at that moment that I realized that this virus was more serious than I had previously thought.
The event that marked the beginning of our evacuation and really signaled that COVID was a big deal was on March 12th when we got a call from our zone leaders telling us that all of our Churches were closed indefinitely. All of us were spooked by this but I was kind of happy because I was supposed to give a talk that Sunday and couldn’t.
That Sunday we just relaxed in the apartment, which was very strange for us missionaries, but we thought we were safe because COVID was far away and it would never touch Africa. The Cameroonians also didn’t take COVID seriously. They said that Africans are stronger than white people and that they wouldn’t get the disease like the people in Europe and the US. My branch mission leader said that if he got COVID, he would just jog a little and get it out of his system. They also said that Africa was safe since the virus couldn’t live in hot climates like Africa, which might actually be true.
Despite all this, transfers happened the next day, Monday March 16th. My Congolese companion left for Brazzaville, Congo and I got my first ever American companion, Elder Stauffer, from Idaho. I was happy to finally get the chance to work with an American for a change. On Tuesday, we went to our area together for the first time and, unbeknownst to me, my last time on the mission.
Early the next morning, Wednesday, March 18, the zone leaders called and said that instead of doing normal district council, we were going to have an emergency zone meeting. At the meeting the zone leaders told us that the mission might require us to quarantine in our apartments for up to two weeks, but that it was not confirmed and that for the moment we were going to have to follow safety rules such as not shaking people’s hands.
During the meeting, I shared a scripture that sounds eerily similar to Corona Virus in Doctrine and Covenants 45:31-32:
31 And there shall be men standing in that generation, that shall not pass until they shall see an overflowing scourge; for a desolating sickness shall cover the land.
32 But my disciples shall stand in holy places, and shall not be moved; but among the wicked, men shall lift up their voices and curse God and die.
Elder Stauffer and I had planned to do contacting at the University of Yaoundé campus in our area but we found out that it had been closed by the government that day along with all the airports in the country.
Since we couldn’t go to the university, we went to downtown Yaoundé in search of American food. We went to the American store of Yaoundé and bought authentic American root beer. Later Elder Stauffer and I picked up a care package that his parents had sent him. It was full of Swedish Fish, Jolly Ranchers, and Starbursts. That night we were so excited by all the things that were happening that we just ate candy and made a pot of spaghetti for dinner.
Getting the text
Around 7 pm Elder Stauffer got a text from his mom telling him she heard from the mission Facebook group that all the missionaries in Congo and Gabon were being evacuated. Elder Stauffer threw the phone across the room in shock.
He told us what was happening and we completely lost our minds. The fact that we had only eaten sugar for most of the day did not help our reaction.
One of the missionaries in the apartment helped calm us down and we attempted to verify if the text was true. We sat in a circle and first called the zone leaders in Yaoundé. They said that they didn’t know what we were talking about. Then we tried calling President Thompson in Brazzaville like 40 times but he never picked up so we called the Assistants in Brazzaville and they confirmed that it was true and that all the missionaries in the mission were going home. We were so excited.
We then decided to say a prayer. Before we said it, we wrote a list of things that we were going to pray for. We wrote a list of people we were going to pray like President Thompson and our families and Elder Soto from France said the prayer in French.
We did not sleep one wink that night. We stayed up all night packing our bags and getting ready to leave. We were high on adrenaline and sugar from the candy.
The next morning, Thursday, March 19th, we called our branch mission leader, George, to come to the apartment. We explained everything that was happening. We started clearing our apartment, stacking everything that we were going to leave for George and the members. We gave them dozens of Church doctrine books that I had been carrying around my mission and that were lying around the apartment.
Then we went to the central market of Yaoundé because Elder Soto wanted to buy African fabric to take back home. We went to a store and bought tons of African fabric with the help of George.
We also bought some soccer jerseys as souvenirs. We started noticing that the people were being more aggressive towards us. Whenever we would walk by, they would yell out, “Corona Virus!! Corona Virus!!” and they would cover their faces. Literally everyone did this to us. They were also told us to go away since that we “had the virus.”
Like Elder Stauffer’s mom had said, the missionaries who were in Congo and Gabon were evacuated that morning but we couldn’t leave the country because the airports were closed. The rest of the day we just hung out.
The next day we had lots of fun going to the market, buying things with George, then going back to the apartment. We ate whatever food we had left in the apartment and then sat around talking about life, deep doctrine, playing chess, and just hanging out.
Friday, we were also hanging around. We weren’t used to sitting around the apartment all day, and things were getting pretty boring. I had printed out the entire Doctrines of Salvation book by Joseph Fielding Smith that Monday thinking I would get to read it for the next six months so I read that. We also spent lots of time calling our parents and receiving messages from them about news they heard from the mission Facebook group. A big issue with our apartment in Yaoundé is that it didn’t have running water and the mission couple had stopped bringing us water so we didn’t take any showers for those two days. Elder Soto said his mom knew someone in Yaoundé who could let us use their shower so that was an idea but we didn’t jump on it.
Going to the airport the first time
That day, Friday March 20, at around 5 pm, all the missionaries in Yaoundé packed our luggage and took taxis to the small Yaoundé airport, 30 minutes away from the city. We thought to ourselves, “this is it, this is the last we will ever see Africa as missionaries”. We arrived at the airport because we were told there would be a plane that would pick us up at 11:45 pm. The people at the airport wouldn’t let us inside so we had to wait outside until around 10:30 pm when we were informed that no plane was coming so a member in Yaoundé called some taxis and they brought us back to our apartments at 11pm.
By this point the missionaries from Congo and Gabon were already safe and sound at home, but we couldn’t even get in an airport.
On Saturday, March 21, we went to the missionary couple’s apartment to do a zoom call with President Thompson. Elder and Sister Mathis, the senior missionaries, made us sloppy joes and President Thompson told us he was doing everything he could to get us out of Cameroon including working with the US embassy. It was a fun zone activity and we were all high on the excitement of going home.
On Sunday, me and the other three missionaries in my apartment moved out of our apartment because of the no-water situation and to regroup with the other missionaries. I went with my companion Elder Stauffer to the zone leaders’ apartment downtown.
On Monday March 23, we all went to the airport for the second time. This time, they let us inside the airport. We just sat with our luggage in the airport. Elder Soto and I played chess. We had been playing chess a lot and discussing doctrine in our free time in the apartment and at the airport. We waited in the airport until 10pm and they told us that no plane was coming so we returned to our apartments tired of the whole charade.
On Tuesday, March 24, President Thompson, who was still in Congo along with some other missionaries who were left behind, had the African elders in the zone all board a bus to regroup with the other African missionaries in Douala, the coastal city in Cameroon, and the American missionaries in Douala all boarded a bus to go to Yaoundé where we would rendezvous to get a plane out of Cameroon with help from the US embassy. The US embassy could only help US citizens along with Elder Soto from France and another elder from Canada so all the African missionaries had to stay behind in Cameroon until the borders opened again.
That day Elder Stauffer, Elder Soto, and I went to a woodcarver and we bought some cool African wood carvings. I bought two giant wooden masks that were really high quality and some smaller animal figurines for about $70.
On Wednesday March 25, we had a baptismal service for a of a father and two children. It was pretty cool.
From March 25 to Friday, March 27, we hung out in the apartments playing cards, talking, and did some shopping.
We were all getting pretty tired of sitting around; it was starting to affect our mental health. We would stay up until 3 am and then wake up at 11 am. During the day we would just sit around and be so bored. We all felt like we were going insane from sitting in the apartment and the stress hanging over our heads that we would have to stay in Cameroon forever.
Going to the airport for the last time
Friday, March 27, all of us American missionaries in Cameroon took taxis for the 3rd time to wait outside the airport. We hoped that it was the last time it was going to happen. The airport people wouldn’t let us inside so we waited outside the airport all night. We slept on the grass outside the airport from 7 pm to 11 am the next morning.
Luckily, we were in Africa and it was warm that night.
Finally, at 11am Saturday March 28th, they let us inside the airport. Initially we got stuck in a line with a bunch of Germans who were also trying to get out that day with the help of German soldiers and luckily we got out of that line or else we would have all gone to Germany. We separated from them and got into our own line and waited for our charter plane with destination to Ethiopia to arrive.
We got to Ethiopia at 10pm and parted ways with Elder Soto, who was flying to Paris. All the rest of us were going to Dulles International Airport in Washington DC. We got there on Sunday, March 29, at around noon after a short layover in Dublin, Ireland. The funny thing is that we didn’t have to wear masks on the plane to the US nor did we have to wear masks in the Dulles airport. It was that early on in the pandemic when masks weren’t required everywhere.
We were all alone in the airport. It was almost totally empty except for us. We played some card games to spend the time and I got American fast-food for the first time in 16 months.
Most of the elders flew to Salt Lake City, but I stayed with an elder going to Arizona. We flew to Dallas, Texas where we met a lot of other missionaries coming back from other missions in Brazil and Mexico. They were really surprised that I was coming back from Cameroon.
Then I flew back to my native Newport Beach, California and was greeted by my parents and grandma. I was dirty and felt gross. I hadn’t taken a shower in 3 whole days and I had slept in the same clothes for 2 days.
Our experience of leaving Cameroon during COVID was one of a kind. In total, we were stuck in the country for nine days trying to leave the country and went through many obstacles and crazy experiences during those nine days.
