This article's not an April Fool's joke (and neither is the fact that I finished it and was attaching the pictures, when the whole thing was lost)

-- but the headline is! :-)  Intentionally misleading, but not necessarily false; just exhibiting liberal literary license....

This evening, in defiance of COVID-19, the missionaries, Elders Ogden and Boling, came into our home and presented a discussion on the Plan of Salvation to our family.

Pres. Savage, looking for something different for his missionaries to do while sequestered, invited them to teach a discussion to their families back home via videoconference. It's the same way they're teaching all their discussions right now, and I figure that Alexander, being new, could really use some practice teaching.

I attached a laptop to a larger screen, and we arranged furnniture such that we could all be seen by the elders. It took a couple of hours to get everything set up and different equipment configurations tested (including lighting adjustments) for best results. I also invited Wayne & Bev to listen in; they had a camera but no microphone, so their participation was mostly limited to smiling and occasionally holding signs in front of the camera, such as one that read "Ribbit!" that was presented every time frogs were mentioned. (Read on.)

Shana was charged with creating a sketch of our family for our role-play; here's what she came up with:

• They are a Christian homeschooling family that is interested in learning about the Gospel. The second oldest girl is the only member in the family and invited the missionaries to teach a discussion to the rest of her family.
• The father is a computer geek. (Not much change there.)
• The mother drinks six cups of coffee a day to stay awake.
• The oldest daughter is the oddball – she's pagan and frequently spends her afternoon outside worshiping frogs.
• The second oldest daughter is a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. She made a friend named Rosie at college. Rosie was a member, and eventually converted her.
• The other 10 children in the home are normal Christian kids.
• For the discussion tonight, the family is particularly interested in the concept of eternal families. They don't, however, have much faith in the whole crazy Joseph Smith story that the second oldest daughter was telling them about. The oldest daughter is mostly interested in meeting some cute boys.

The elders had been out "doorbell ditching" and were 30min late to our appt. We had fun with the role play, but tried to turn the discussion in a more serious direction (and put a stop to all the goofy questions that the kids were asking, trying to challenge the missionaries) and I encouraged the elders to share their testimonies and strengthen ours in the limited time that we had left. Overall everyone had an enjoyable time and I'm glad we were able to do it.