Deseret News Article: Faith Helps BYU basketball recruit, woman in quarantine cope with changes to Latter-day Saint mission calls

 SALT LAKE CITY — When Utah’s Mr. Basketball opened his mission call last week, he was unaware of the irony it captured about the abrupt way the global pandemic has reshaped the Latter-day Saint missionary program.

An alert pinged Dallin Hall’s phone at about noon. The text included a link to his mission call, but the BYU recruit didn’t open it immediately. By the time he did, at 6 p.m., something dramatic had happened.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints had announced it was sending home all of the Americans and non-native missionaries from the country where he was called to serve.

Hall once scored seven points in 17 seconds for Fremont High School. He wasn’t as smooth pronouncing the words as he read his mission call out loud to his family and close friends: He was called to serve for two years in the Philippines Olongapo Mission, where he would speak Tagalog.

“I was surprised at first,” he said, a fact captured in a photograph, “then excited.”

His mother knew the church was sending the missionaries home from the Philippines, but she was busy videotaping the family’s reactions. An uncle who served a mission in the Philippines told Hall the country is crazy for basketball. Finally an aunt told him the news.

Just like that, Hall became one representation of the changes affecting all 399 of the church’s missions and all of its 67,000 missionaries. Another is Karsyn Rushing, 21, who has been quarantined at home with her mother in Vancouver, Washington, since March 14, when she arrived home from the Alpine German-Speaking Mission.

On March 12, her mission president called her where she was serving in Singen, Germany, and told her that due to her asthma, she was to return home and be released. Those with respiratory issues and other medical conditions are more at risk if they contract COVID-19, according to health officials.

“I just bawled,” Rushing said. “I cried so, so hard. My companion just held me. I couldn’t believe it was real.”

Sister Karsyn Rushing, 21, who returned from her Latter-day Saint mission this month due to concerns about COVID-19, pedals a bike bearing the message, “The future is as hopeful as your faith,” in Singen, Germany.

 Provided by the Rushing family

Due to the pandemic, 19,800 Americans are returning to the United States from overseas missions, a church leader said Monday. Thousands of others are heading to their home countries elsewhere. They will self-isolate, then be released early or be reassigned.

Still others are being sent home and released because they have compromised immune systems or other health issues like Rushing, who served 13 months of her original 18-month call.

Nearly all senior missionary couples are being released. Area and mission presidencies are retaining some to help keep missions functioning with native missionaries.

It’s possible Hall still may report to the church’s Missionary Training Center in Provo on June 24. Or the MTC may be closed. Then he would train remotely from home. His start date could be postponed. He may still serve in the Philippines, or he may be reassigned.

Whatever happens, Hall simply expects to serve a mission at some point, then return and play basketball at BYU. ESPN recently featured him in a video, mispronouncing his first name to create a rhyme: “Big-ballin’ Dallin Hall.”

“He handles everything super chill,” said his mother, Nicole Hall. “Stuff like that doesn’t phase him. He just said, ‘Oh, I’ll just go later or go somewhere else.’”

That’s right, Hall said.

“I’m just super excited for the next part of my journey, wherever it takes me,” he said.

When Rushing’s quarantine ends this weekend, she’ll be looking forward to returning to BYU. Of course, it will be a virtual return. The university announced this week that the entire spring term will be conducted online.

She’s also happy with her mission experience. When she learned she would return home, Rushing said she went into a room alone and “talked it out with God,” hoping to find peace and learn that there was a good reason.

“Tears came back several times,” she said. “But I found peace. I realized I wasn’t anybody’s victim. God called me out on this mission, and I trusted him, and I knew I trusted him now even though it didn’t feel fair.”

She packed quickly and left by train for Munich the next morning. She stayed in a hotel with three other sister missionaries going home for health reasons.

Sister Karsyn Rushing stands by a farewell sign in Augsburg, Germany, last year. Earlier this month, she had to say goodbye to her Latter-day Saint mission five months early due to health concerns related to COVID-19.

 Provided by the Rushing family

On the flight to San Francisco, they learned a passenger had COVID-19. Medical people in masks, goggles and gowns evacuated her. Rushing and the other passengers had to fill out forms providing information and agreeing to quarantine at home.

During her layover in San Francisco, she saw a lot of missionaries on their way home. Once she landed in Portland, Oregon, her family hit the drive-thru at Chick-fil-A, then her father, who is her stake president, released her from her missionary service.

“It’s OK we don’t serve 18 months or two years,” she added. “We will just trust God’s plan.”