Sister Kendra DeLange arrived at the Provo Missionary Training Center on March 4, 2020, with the next 18 months of her life laid out: she would spend five weeks in Provo learning Danish and then fly across the Atlantic to the Denmark Copenhagen Mission.
But when the pandemic hit, Sister DeLange found herself, along with about 30,000 other missionaries, receiving a temporary change of assignment, according to Deseret News. In Sister DeLange’s case, that temporary assignment took her to Gilbert, Arizona.
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After four months in Arizona, on July 26, Sister DeLange finally touched down in Denmark as one of a small number of missionaries returning to their original assignments in Europe and Asia.
On Friday, August 7, Church spokesman Daniel Woodruff shared the following statement with the media:
Over the last several weeks, the Church has been able to send a small number of missionaries to their original assignments in some places in Europe and Asia. In these circumstances, missionaries have proper travel documentation and strictly follow local requirements concerning self-isolation or quarantine. As they continue their service in these areas, the missionaries take part in activities appropriate to local circumstances. Additional travel of missionaries to assignments outside their home countries is dependent upon local conditions and travel restrictions.
Read more about missionaries returning to their original international assignments at Deseret News.