August 30, 2014

So, just as an update for everyone, here is what has been happening.

   On Thursday during class, the travel office called our entire district down. We were confused. Never had anyone called for us over the intercom, let alone our entire district, let alone to the travel office. We awkwardly made our way down to the main building to find the reasoning behind this. We were kind of nervous, actually. We had fears of what this might be.

   We walk into the travel office. No one is in there beside a lady in the back. We stand there for a good fifteen seconds before we are noticed. When she sees us, the worker asks, "Is this the group going to Sweden?" We give the assent and she picks up a piece of paper and comes to address us. "So, they don't have have your visas yet. You're going to stay here for a few more days waiting. They haven't reassigned you yet, so it looks like they expect them to come in at any time. I wouldn't count on it though, I'm sorry."

   So that was Thursday. We were devastated for a good hour. While the news sunk in, class was very quiet. We gradually got back to our normal talkative selves, but we were still a bit gloomy. Staying at the MTC is not exactly how we want to spend our missions. Later, though, we were told to expect temporary reassignment the next day. Nobody in any office thought we were going to have our visas.

   And we didn't. So we go into the travel office yesterday (Friday) to get our temporary missions while we waited for visas. Here's how the district was sectioned off. Eldste Jacobs (he's going to Norway, but didn't get a visa either), Äldste Bradley, and Syster Alldred go to Gilbert, Arizona. Äldste Treat and Äldste Van Alfen go to Washington State, Äldste Smith, Äldste Peterson, and Äldste Hemmingsen go to Ogden, Utah, and Äldste Bouton and I go to Independence Missouri.

   So those are our temporary reassignments. We serve there until the visas come through. We haven't gotten travel plans for those yet, but we'll figure it out.

   I hope you all are well,

Äldste Heiner

P.S. We have no connection to Dear Elder anymore. Last night was our last Dear Elder pick up time, so if you try to send anything through that, we probably won't get it.

Also, as a fun fact, fifteen minutes after we got our reassignments, our visas came through. So we are actually leaving with the same flight plans as before, I just wanted you to experience the drama we had going on. We all got our visas except for Eldste Jacobs, who isn't going to Sweden anyway. So yeah. I'm off to Sweden on Monday.