Lisa & Caroline Baptism Planned | Leadership | Exposure-Quarantine & Freedom

Hi all,

Question: How was your week? Are you getting enough to eat? 
Elder Doxey: This week was awesome. Members feed us pasta, pizza, lasagna, potatoes and a lot of it. It seems like we are literally eating all the time. It’s crazy, a church member dropped $60 on Café Rio and brought it over to us. It’s humbling and literally makes you want to go out and work for them. 

Question: Are you working on anything out of the ordinary for President Reese? 
Elder Doxey: Well P-day was seven days ago, which was really a work day for Elder Webb and I. President Reese asked us to get in our proselyting clothes and come into the office to do transfers planning all day, and then take a P-day the next day. So that took some time but was good to get done.

Question: How have things been with Covid and missionaries in your mission? 
Elder Doxey: We took a group of departing missionaries to the Valley of Fire (a state park here in Nevada)  after our P-day for one last missionary activity here in the Vegas area before they went home.

Well, I had three in the car I was driving to the Valley of Fire. It was a great place to talk about their missions and wrap things up. The next day, President Reese told me one of the missionaries in my car had tested positive for Covid, so we were exposed and have been in quarantine since last Wednesday. 

You might say it's the end of the trail for this group

Question: How are you feeling? Any symptoms?
Elder Doxey: Elder Webb and I feel completely fine. The first thing we did was go get the free swabbed Covid test administered by the National Guard here in Vegas. We should get our results back later today I believe.

We have no symptoms at all, but because we were exposed it meant we would need to move out of the Smith’s home (and our wing of their really nice house) and not return until we have a negative Covid test. Several of their kids (who are doctors or medical people) were coming into town for Christmas so it was good for us to move out for a while anyway. Everyone thought we were getting kicked out for some reason (which is kind of funny), but it’s b/c we needed to go into quarantine. 

Question: Where did you go for quarantine?
Elder Doxey: For quarantine, we moved into an unoccupied two bedroom apartment that is behind a local church building near the intersection of Smoke Ranch and Jones street. It literally feels like we are in “the shed” of the church b/c there are a few church things stored here and there are two massive softball fields in the back of the church building.

Our Very Nice Apartment

There were no missionaries here b/c it had been “whitewashed” (both missionaries transferred to another area) so it was empty. Since we were quarantined with no symptoms, we just deep cleaned it for about a week. The apartment has a pantry, desk area, weight set, big fridge, aluminum ping pong table, bunkbeds, all the windows have bars over them (in true Vegas style). We’ll be here for Christmas. To get exercise while we are quarantined, we go out to the softball fields and chase bunnies. It works.

Question: What did you do during quarantine?
Elder Doxey: During quarantine, aside from cleaning the place, we also had many conference calls, Zoom calls, teaching people, etc. One interesting thing is that a ward mission leader’s daughter is Ella Pope’s companion in Florida. He told us that his daughter and Ella Pope organized a fireside and had BYU Basketball’s Coach Pope (Ella’s dad) speak at the fireside (over Zoom of course). Small world!

Question: Are you setting goals for the last weeks of your mission?
Elder Doxey: Well, I have goals in four areas a) Spiritual b) Physical c) Emotional and d) Other goals. My time of wrapping up my mission is right around the corner, February 10th is going to come fast. I’m not getting trunky, but need to get ready for the “My Plan” talk with Senior Missionaries that serve in this mission. It’s crazy what resources are here in the states. We heard a little about the “My Plan” program in Panama, but there were not Senior Missionaries there orchestrating it all. It’s really nice to have them. We’re super blessed.

Question: Is there anything that will stick in your mind with that area as you look back on it?
Elder Doxey: While I’ve been here in Vegas, I’ve really been able to rub shoulders with some pretty amazing people. Such good people … with a wide range of experience, backgrounds and perspectives. For example, the Smiths are excellent. Brother Smith retired at about age 52 and oversees several businesses ranging from agricultural (Cuties oranges), wedding venues, recycling plants and more. Sister Smith is equally as impressive—she studied Accounting at BYU and is probably the smartest accountant I’ve really talked to.

Question: Are local members as good to non-AP missionaries as they are to you?
Elder Doxey: Definitely. A bunch of us missionaries have plans to come back and visit Vegas after our missions. We are thinking maybe in December 2021. There are just A TON of people connections here. It’s funny, the media often refers to Vegas as “The City of Sinners” or “Sin City” but most of the church members here refer to it as “The City of Saints” and it really is true.

People here are loving, charitable, devout, and just want to live the gospel. Sometimes they are “too giving” in my opinion. Lots of missionaries collect a bunch of crap they don’t need and lug it around the mission. That said, I think a lot of it has to come from their parents (like, way too many parents sending them packages they don’t need).

Service Project

Question: What are they lugging around?
Elder Doxey: Literally, some carry around all these Nerf guns, little boy gadgets, things that are not even related to a mission; it’s distracting and crazy. Like, they have full suitcases of “stuff” like this. When I get off the plane coming home, I want to have one little handbag and that is it.

Question: What have you done to build trust with church members, and people learning about the church whether it is online or in person?
Elder Doxey: Well, Elder Webb and I both believe “authenticity” is of premium value, and people sniff out “canned” messages, emails, in about two seconds and ignore it if it does not connect with them. You have to watch out for the “trap” of thinking you are doing missionary work online when you really are not.

Using a communication tool does not constitute “effective” missionary work. For example, cutting and pasting messages in social media about Christ for ½ hour or full hour is not effective. Also, using time to “thumbs up” posts or posting lots of emojis, or trying to be entertaining or funny falls in the “less effective” use of that time. There are WAY better (and more urgent) ways to use the time doing actual missionary work.

Another thing Elder Webb and I really believe in is short visits. There is literally no reason you can’t have a quality visit in 20-40 minutes, and at the most an hour. We have heard reports of missionaries spending two hours in a visit, and that is just wrong.

Question: How has missionary training been going?
Elder Doxey: Recently there was a quote that goes something like this, “A mission can run without APs, Zone Leaders, Sister Training Leaders, and District Leaders but it cannot run without excellent trainers.” I love that. It’s funny, there are some missionaries that are “ladder climbers” … they may ask when they are going to be in a leadership position, what they have to do, when it will happen, etc. (like it is a promotion or something). Weird. That is not how it works.

We had a Mission Leadership Council meeting recently and talked about this. Amazingly, (in a similar weird vein of thought) someone in the Mission Leadership Council (right after the meeting) said, “We should go on a retreat with just the Mission Leadership Council on a P-day.” That would be a hard no.

Leadership in a mission should not ever be an exclusive privilege or club—if anything we should be doing the exact opposite of that—spreading ourselves out with the newest missionaries, or working in the “hardest” areas or doing things that are not super desirable and working hard.

Question: How is President Reese?
Elder Doxey: He is such a great president. Today President Reese got the official email that said I would not be going back to Panama. I told him I thought he had received that a long time ago. He said he hadn’t and that he would not let me go anyway so that made me feel good. Ha Ha! There is one Elder in our mission who served in Ghana for nine months, then when all missionaries were brought back to the USA he was home for about two months, and has been here for about six months…and he was just sent back to Ghana for the rest of his mission. He’s stoked, but very grateful for the USA.

Question: How are your lessons going with your teaching pool?
Elder Doxey: Oh, I forgot to tell you, Elder Webb and I have two people with a firm baptismal date! We have been teaching a woman named Lisa and her daughter Caroline here in the Palo Verde Ward of the Red Rock Stake. If all goes as planned they should be baptized this Saturday. We are also teaching a church member’s second husband. She was divorced from her first husband and this second husband is making good progress.

Question: Anything else?
Elder Doxey: My hunch is that I will be released as AP in about two weeks and be a trainer for the last few weeks of my mission. That is sort of what happens to old APs before they finish. I am really excited about training a new missionary again. President Reese even tipped me off. He said, “Enjoy your next two weeks!”

Hey! We just got our negative Covid tests back! We're free! Officially Covid negative.

Gotta go. Love you!

Elder Doxey