From the New York Times:
“As the number of known cases reached into the hundreds, then the thousands, then the hundreds of thousands, life all over the country changed in sudden, profound ways. College graduations and high school musicals were canceled. Nail salons, department stores and barber shops have been forced to close. Baseball’s Opening Day, college basketball’s Final Four and concert tours were called off. Some states have told people arriving from elsewhere to quarantine themselves. Others have warned that the pause on public life will likely last weeks more, and that the worst of the pandemic is still to come.

In a matter of days, millions of Americans have been asked to do what might have been unthinkable only a month ago: Don’t go to work, don’t go to school, don’t leave the house at all, unless you have to.

The directives to keep people at home, which began in California in mid-March, have quickly swept the nation.”

Total global cases: <1 million
Total U.S. cases: 243,729 with total deaths at 6,164 (more than 92,000 are from New York)
Total confirmed cases in Utah: 1,074

Meanwhile, we left at 7 am today to get toilet paper, rice and feminine sanitary supplies. We found sanitary supplies at the first place we stopped (Walmart), rice and one pack of toilet paper at the second place we stopped (Winco – we paid more than a dollar a roll) and got to Costco at 8:40. We waited in line for one hour while they let seniors shop and then they let us in. They had gotten 1600 units of toilet paper. It was the first time in over a month that I had seen toilet paper at Costco! It was $18 for 30 rolls which was so much better than we have been paying lately. The only things we could not find today were paper towels, dishwasher soap and orange chicken at Trader Joe’s. (they said the amount being shipped hasn’t kept up with demand.)

Tonight we received an update on Sam’s future when this letter came from the church:

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

The COVID-19 pandemic has required many adjustments to missionary service, including the need for large numbers of missionaries to return to the United States and Canada from around the world. The ability to reassign these missionaries—even on a temporary basis—has now become more limited by changing conditions. This has created a measure of uncertainty for many missionaries and their families.

We have prayerfully considered these circumstances and are making available two opportunities for missionary service for those who have returned and are awaiting reassignment or may yet be required to return to the U.S. and Canada. Each opportunity requires a temporary release prior to reassignment. These options, as well as opportunities for prospective missionaries and missionaries beginning their service, can be found here.

We are confident that missionaries and prospective missionaries will seek the counsel of parents, priesthood leaders and the Lord as they consider their future missionary service.

Please know of our deep love for missionaries and their families as we all continue to participate in this great work together.

Sincerely,

The First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve Apostles

So, this means that for now, Sam is a missionary until tomorrow morning when Grant will release him. Sam has grown up so much in the four months that he has been a missionary. He has consecrated himself and devoted himself. He has seen the blessings that come from obedience. We are so grateful for the chance that he has had to serve. He will serve again too. These are the two choices given to missionaries in his situation:

1. Reinstated either to original or temporary assignment as soon as conditions allow (with original end date); OR
2. Returned to service within 12–18 months (with new end date)

Sam is choosing the first of the choices and hoping that he will be able to be reassigned soon, preferably to Colombia. That is my prayer for him too. Sam said he loved being a missionary because all he had to think about was saving souls serving other people. He loved being able to put the world aside and focus on the Lord’s work. I am praying that he will be able to get back to that as soon as this mess of a pandemic is over. The thing I know the most is that the Lord is in control. It may seem like a crazy messed up world, but the Lord at the helm!

I’ve been wanting to write about the craziness that has been happening in our country, I mean THE WORLD. However, I have hardly been able to absorb it all and the idea of writing about it has been too big. So, I’m just going to get started and try to remember all that has changed in the last few weeks.

December 31, 2019
China starts to notice a strange pneumonia like illness in people associated with Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market in Wuhan, Hubei Province

January 7, 2020
Chinese authorities confirmed that the virus is a novel coronavirus.

January 13
First case outside of China was in Thailand

January 20
First reported case in U.S.

January 29
I flew to New Zealand to visit Lex. I noticed that the further east I go, the more face masks I see. In the SLC airport there were almost none, in L.A. I saw about 50% of travelers in the airport with masks (Nearly 100% of Asians I saw were wearing masks.) In Auckland the majority of travelers were wearing them. Traveling around New Zealand seemed very normal and no one seemed concerned about the virus. Although New Zealand was refusing entry to flights from China.

January 31
Donal Trump mandated that no foreign nationals who have traveled to China in the last 14 days can come into the U.S.

February 29
First death in America (Washington state) caused by COVID-19.

March 5
I went to Costco and realized that no toilet paper was to be found but you could still buy wipes, paper towels and Kleenex.

March 8
US cases top 500

March 9

…

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I LOVE to ski. It is something I did passionately as a child and young adult and something I put aside when I was a mother of very young children. When my oldest were 7 and 8 we picked it up again and have never looked back! As a rule I generally take a child out of school one day a week and rotate through the children so when Sam was here that meant they missed school about once a month to ski with me. Often we would miss other days too to ski as a family. I don’t ski on weekends or holidays because I hate waiting in lines.

This year, Sam is gone and I had surgery on my hip in September. In December my surgeon gave me the green light to ski but said, “no bumps, no jumps, no sharp turns and NO FALLING”. So far, I have skied four times and it has dampened my joy a little to have to be that cautious. Plus, it is a little bit of a head game I don’t enjoy being scared of falling. I never have been, so I have felt very comfortable hurling myself through trees and down steep terrain. Now, I can’t fall so I stick to blue, groomed runs and try not to go too fast. It is still a joy to be up there and I feel so grateful to be able to ski at all so soon after hip surgery!

So why do I love to ski? What is it that skiing gives me that no other activity does? Here is the list:…

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2020! I like the sound of this year. I can’t believe we are at 2020! Lately the year 1975, the year I was born, sounds like a really long time ago. My goals this year are exactly the same as last year and the year before that for the past ten (maybe more) years. They are: study my scriptures each day, exercise daily and follow a budget. This year I am prepared! Grant and I spent half a day working on and updating our budget after I spent about three weeks tracking our expenses and looking over the past six months of our spending. It was an eye-opening experience finally confronting the spending creep that had been happening over the past few years. I plan on writing down my spending to keep up the budgeting. Hopefully, I’ll be better this year than I have been in the past.

As for my health goals, I have a little added incentive to succeed there as well! My sisters, mom, daughters and I are doing a challenge where we each make three attainable, measurable goals per day, six days a week for six weeks. Each of the three daily items we do we get a point and the person with the most points at the end of the six weeks wins. We each put $25 in a pool and the winner will get all the money. I fully plan on winning! My daily goals are: exercise 30 minutes/day, drink 64 oz of water/day, and track my calories (not limit, just track). The last one will be the hardest one for me. Mainly because most of what I eat is homemade and I don’t follow a lot of recipes that provide me with nutritional information.

I’ll end this post with a few quotes from the past little while:
The children really got into the spirit of giving this Christmas and so when we reminded them that we needed to read the Christmas story in Luke before we opened presents Anna said to Grant and me, “Just open my present before we read scriptures! It’s so amazing it’s like scriptures!” (It was a coupon book and yes, it was amazing!)

We were all in the car coming home from something and discussing the difference between extroverts and introverts and trying to figure out what each of us where. Lizi has been annoyed lately with the drama surrounding some of her friends and said, “I think I’m an extrovert but I have so many negative people in my life it makes me want to be an introvert!”

And this last conversation I overheard a couple of nights ago. William and Anna were hanging out in his room which is now across the hall from mine in Sam’s old room.
William: My New Years resolution is to be nicer to my sister
Anna: That is so sweet! (pause, and then a tone of skepticism) Which one? (meaning which of his two sisters?)
William (dryly): Lizi
Good thing he has a whole year to practice…

Today we went sledding at Tibble Fork with the Beckwith clan – including Gramma, cousins, aunts and uncles. It was fantastic. It was a perfect, sunny day with sparkling snow and a blue, blue sky. I gave my camera to Bethany (Grant’s sister) to take some photos. She is a naturally gifted photographer with the kind of talent I wish I had. Bethany took many wonderful photos but my favorite was the one above. I love that it captures the love and connectedness of these cousins. There are no inhibitions, no awkwardness, just joy, laughter, and closeness. I love the fluid shapes and use of space. I love the way the photo is framed. I love most of all that my daughter, Anna, is the one squished between two amazing, happy, wonderful older cousins  (Elise on the left and Maisy on the right) who support and love her and set such a positive example. I feel so grateful to be surrounded by so much family that we can respect and love – on both sides!

Other news, we talked to Sam again today! He has six more days in the MTC. He is leaving two weeks early. He is beyond excited. Grant took this picture of him when we asked him to show us his name tag. See how happy he is? See how happy we are as we hear about his work, his life and the excitement we see in him?

I realized that I haven’t really said anything about what it was like for Sam to receive his mission call! His mission application was completed on Sunday, August 4th and he received his call to serve on the 13th of August! It was such an exciting time of expectation and suspense! Nine days of wondering where the next two years of his life would be spent. Sam really wanted to serve a foreign mission where he would experience a new culture and learn a new language. I think his first choice would have been to go back to Ghana but he was willing to serve anywhere the Lord sent him. He was a little nervous about being called to a nearby state or somewhere that was tropical. (Although he is an incredible outdoors-man, he isn’t crazy about tropical bugs!) He wanted to open his mission call when it arrived with just our family. I think he was afraid he might cry if he was called to Arizona or somewhere like that and didn’t want to cry in front of his friends. And so, I noticed in the morning of the 13th that on his missionary portal his call was ready and so I called Grant who rushed home from work. Anna was in Florida at my mom’s house with Rebecca and so we had them on a video call. When he opened his call to serve in the Cali, Colombia mission we all felt a confirmation that this was THE PERFECT place for him to serve. Here are the reasons I feel it is perfect for him (despite the bugs and humidity): no suits except for zone conference and other special occasions, mountains, ocean, danger, and the nicest, most humble people in the world who want to learn more about their Savior. The only downside is that he doesn’t report the the MTC until December 4th. This waiting is killing both of us. He misses his friends and it is enough time for him to procrastinate preparing. However it does give us time to do some activities and trips together! He is even hoping to fit in 10 days of skiing before he leaves (I’m not sure who is going to pay for that!) Sam can’t wait to get out there and get going. Sam’s mission call

I am so excited for Sam to have the unparalleled experience of serving the Lord for two years as a full time missionary. A mission is filled with amazing lessons to be learned, people to love,  immense moments of joy in serving, hardships to endure, and a strengthening of testimony that fills a soul and changes hearts forever. I am so grateful that he is blazing the way and setting the example for his younger siblings, all of which want to serve a mission as well. What a privilege and honor!

I also know that I will miss this boy like crazy! This last week was his 18th birthday. I said our family prayer that night and as I was thanking God for the chance to spend 18 years with Sam I started to cry and couldn’t really finish the prayer with any kind of eloquence. This kids just grow up so darn fast!