Pre-mission preparations
Soeur Gardner got on a plane a few hours ago, and now it's time to update her blog with all of the pre-mission preparations!
February: Call received, started preparations for her visa, studied all we could about the French regions in the Caribbean
March: Visa paperwork turned in, went through the Provo City Center temple for endowment
April: Finished up the semester at BYU and traveled home for a few weeks
May: This is where it got kind of crazy, so we will detail this!
The first big event in May is that Morgan's best friend, Jacob, left on his full-time mission to Arizona. We love Jacob and wish him all the best as he serves the people there.
Sometime in the middle of May (3 weeks before she was to leave), I heard from a mom in the Facebook group for the Barbados mission that she would need a face-to-face consulate visit in order to obtain a visa for the French regions, otherwise she may end up being a visa waiter. Not that it would be a huge deal to visa wait, but she is definitely excited to get to Barbados, so we asked missionary travel about it. "Oh, yeah, that's true. She will need a consulate visit either before or at the MTC."
Problem with doing it at the MTC is that she is only there for 3 weeks since she already speaks French, and visas take 2-3 weeks after the visit.
No problem, I thought. We are close to Chicago and I could just run her over there, have the appointment, and be done with it.
But no - all missionary French visas need to go through the consulate in San Francisco. And apparently, appointment times are somewhat few and far between. The likely scenario would be that she would need to make a trip by herself from the MTC or from wherever she is visa waiting. Not impossible (lots of missionaries have done it) - but not ideal, either. Missionary travel suggested that I look for consulate appointments myself and book one if it comes up before the MTC.
Every day I checked for an appointment, never found one until finally one day I was up at my usual 5 am and got on the French consulate site and voila! they had an appointment for the day before she entered the MTC. I snatched it up and then let missionary travel know that she could probably just fly from there to Utah and enter the MTC the next day. I planned to make the trip with her, a little girl's getaway.
However, flights were way more expensive than I imagined with that late of notice. I figured I would have to either send her on her own, or put it on a credit card, which I didn't want to do. Also, missionary travel said it would be better for her just to keep the original flight on the 6th rather than flying her from SF to SLC because of cancellation fees and such. So we knew it would make for an extremely busy travel days - about 15 hours on a plane over a 3-day period.
First big blessing of the mission was finding out that our ward YW president is from the Bay Area and that her mom might be helpful. A few quick emails and calls, and it was determined that this kind sister was very happy to help, which eased my mind so much.
Now for how things went the last week or so:
May 27 - Soeur Gardner gave her farewell talk in church. She did a great job, even though she does not like to speak in public!
June 3 - We hosted an open house at our home to say goodbye to our ward family. Many friends from the ward came and wished her well in her missionary work. The original plan was for her to be set apart as a missionary right after the open house, because her flight from San Francisco wouldn't get in until after 9 pm Tuesday and she had an 8:30 am flight Wednesday. But as we visited with the stake president, he had the thought that maybe it would be better to wait so that she wouldn't have to travel with any missionary restrictions. We all felt good about this, so we returned home and prepared for the short trip to SF for the visa visit.
June 4 - I dropped her at the airport and then hung out in the cell phone lot for a bit because I had a job interview in the area in about an hour. She texted me that it wouldn't let her check in because the flight hadn't been paid for. What? So she had to call the missionary travel line, they apparently had reserved the flight but not processed payment - so they did that, she got the ticket, and she was off.
When she got to her connecting flight in Los Angeles, she saw that the flight was delayed by an hour. Then, it was delayed by two. Apparently, there was a mechanical issue and they needed to bring in a different plane from Sacramento. Then, I get this text, "Mom, my flight just got canceled." So after a moment of panic of how we might get her to SF, she texted me back that she had asked the agent and they had found a seat for her on a plane leaving in an hour and half. So, it wasn't smooth, but she did make it to SF, just 4 hours later than planned.
Lovely Sister L met her at the airport and took her home to feed her and give her a bed for the night. I cannot express how grateful I am for this mom who took care of us. She's an angel!
June 5 - The next morning, I received a text from Soeur Gardner that her paperwork said that her appointment was for June 4, so she had missed it. Again, what?? No, I was sure it was for the 5th. But she was on the train, so I told her just to hold tight and I would figure it out. I was just getting out of the shower, so I hurried and put clothes on and ran downstairs, only to find the confirmation from the consulate that the appointment was indeed, on June 5 at 9:00 am. Sigh of relief! Somehow missionary travel had put the wrong date on the paperwork.
She texted me before 9:00 that she had made it to the consulate, then about 15 minutes later that she was done. That's all there was to it! She said she was there for about 6 minutes once they called her back. They asked her where she was going and when, looked over her papers to make sure they had all the info they needed, took fingerprints, and told her that she should have her visa in about 2 weeks. So, she should make it to Barbados on time! :)
They had a few hours, so Sister L took her to do a few fun things in SF, and then put her on a train to the airport. The flight home was easy, and she had a flight attendant from our ward, who gave her a goody bag! That was sweet.
When we picked her up at the airport at about 9:30 pm, she was exhausted and had bleeding blisters from wearing shoes she hadn't broken in very well. But she was a trooper. We went to the stake president's home, who was gracious enough to accommodate us for a late-night setting apart. We left his house at a little after 10, I believe. The setting apart blessing was beautiful - although I don't remember all that was said, I hope that Morgan records the impressions she had from it in her journal.
A little last-minute packing (she was mostly done) and a shower and we were all in bed a little after 11:00 p.m. Not too bad!
June 6 - Up at 5:30 am, on the way to the airport by 6:20. We arrived and parked, the airport seemed pretty busy but everything moved quickly. She checked in (the flight had been paid for this time, whew!) and dropped off her bags, and she said she wanted to just "rip it off" and say a quick goodbye. So we each took a turn giving her a big hug and crying just a little bit, then a family hug, and she said, "okay, go" :). So, we turned and left. It really wasn't too bad. I know that the tears will be short-lived and soon she will be hard at work.
As I write this, she is somewhere over Nebraska. Her Aunt Lisa will pick her up in SLC, take her to lunch and to the MTC.
She's on her way, and she will do amazing things! I'm so proud of her and excited for all that is ahead.
February: Call received, started preparations for her visa, studied all we could about the French regions in the Caribbean
March: Visa paperwork turned in, went through the Provo City Center temple for endowment
April: Finished up the semester at BYU and traveled home for a few weeks
May: This is where it got kind of crazy, so we will detail this!
The first big event in May is that Morgan's best friend, Jacob, left on his full-time mission to Arizona. We love Jacob and wish him all the best as he serves the people there.
Sometime in the middle of May (3 weeks before she was to leave), I heard from a mom in the Facebook group for the Barbados mission that she would need a face-to-face consulate visit in order to obtain a visa for the French regions, otherwise she may end up being a visa waiter. Not that it would be a huge deal to visa wait, but she is definitely excited to get to Barbados, so we asked missionary travel about it. "Oh, yeah, that's true. She will need a consulate visit either before or at the MTC."
Problem with doing it at the MTC is that she is only there for 3 weeks since she already speaks French, and visas take 2-3 weeks after the visit.
No problem, I thought. We are close to Chicago and I could just run her over there, have the appointment, and be done with it.
But no - all missionary French visas need to go through the consulate in San Francisco. And apparently, appointment times are somewhat few and far between. The likely scenario would be that she would need to make a trip by herself from the MTC or from wherever she is visa waiting. Not impossible (lots of missionaries have done it) - but not ideal, either. Missionary travel suggested that I look for consulate appointments myself and book one if it comes up before the MTC.
Every day I checked for an appointment, never found one until finally one day I was up at my usual 5 am and got on the French consulate site and voila! they had an appointment for the day before she entered the MTC. I snatched it up and then let missionary travel know that she could probably just fly from there to Utah and enter the MTC the next day. I planned to make the trip with her, a little girl's getaway.
However, flights were way more expensive than I imagined with that late of notice. I figured I would have to either send her on her own, or put it on a credit card, which I didn't want to do. Also, missionary travel said it would be better for her just to keep the original flight on the 6th rather than flying her from SF to SLC because of cancellation fees and such. So we knew it would make for an extremely busy travel days - about 15 hours on a plane over a 3-day period.
First big blessing of the mission was finding out that our ward YW president is from the Bay Area and that her mom might be helpful. A few quick emails and calls, and it was determined that this kind sister was very happy to help, which eased my mind so much.
Now for how things went the last week or so:
May 27 - Soeur Gardner gave her farewell talk in church. She did a great job, even though she does not like to speak in public!
June 3 - We hosted an open house at our home to say goodbye to our ward family. Many friends from the ward came and wished her well in her missionary work. The original plan was for her to be set apart as a missionary right after the open house, because her flight from San Francisco wouldn't get in until after 9 pm Tuesday and she had an 8:30 am flight Wednesday. But as we visited with the stake president, he had the thought that maybe it would be better to wait so that she wouldn't have to travel with any missionary restrictions. We all felt good about this, so we returned home and prepared for the short trip to SF for the visa visit.
June 4 - I dropped her at the airport and then hung out in the cell phone lot for a bit because I had a job interview in the area in about an hour. She texted me that it wouldn't let her check in because the flight hadn't been paid for. What? So she had to call the missionary travel line, they apparently had reserved the flight but not processed payment - so they did that, she got the ticket, and she was off.
When she got to her connecting flight in Los Angeles, she saw that the flight was delayed by an hour. Then, it was delayed by two. Apparently, there was a mechanical issue and they needed to bring in a different plane from Sacramento. Then, I get this text, "Mom, my flight just got canceled." So after a moment of panic of how we might get her to SF, she texted me back that she had asked the agent and they had found a seat for her on a plane leaving in an hour and half. So, it wasn't smooth, but she did make it to SF, just 4 hours later than planned.
Lovely Sister L met her at the airport and took her home to feed her and give her a bed for the night. I cannot express how grateful I am for this mom who took care of us. She's an angel!
June 5 - The next morning, I received a text from Soeur Gardner that her paperwork said that her appointment was for June 4, so she had missed it. Again, what?? No, I was sure it was for the 5th. But she was on the train, so I told her just to hold tight and I would figure it out. I was just getting out of the shower, so I hurried and put clothes on and ran downstairs, only to find the confirmation from the consulate that the appointment was indeed, on June 5 at 9:00 am. Sigh of relief! Somehow missionary travel had put the wrong date on the paperwork.
She texted me before 9:00 that she had made it to the consulate, then about 15 minutes later that she was done. That's all there was to it! She said she was there for about 6 minutes once they called her back. They asked her where she was going and when, looked over her papers to make sure they had all the info they needed, took fingerprints, and told her that she should have her visa in about 2 weeks. So, she should make it to Barbados on time! :)
They had a few hours, so Sister L took her to do a few fun things in SF, and then put her on a train to the airport. The flight home was easy, and she had a flight attendant from our ward, who gave her a goody bag! That was sweet.
When we picked her up at the airport at about 9:30 pm, she was exhausted and had bleeding blisters from wearing shoes she hadn't broken in very well. But she was a trooper. We went to the stake president's home, who was gracious enough to accommodate us for a late-night setting apart. We left his house at a little after 10, I believe. The setting apart blessing was beautiful - although I don't remember all that was said, I hope that Morgan records the impressions she had from it in her journal.
A little last-minute packing (she was mostly done) and a shower and we were all in bed a little after 11:00 p.m. Not too bad!
June 6 - Up at 5:30 am, on the way to the airport by 6:20. We arrived and parked, the airport seemed pretty busy but everything moved quickly. She checked in (the flight had been paid for this time, whew!) and dropped off her bags, and she said she wanted to just "rip it off" and say a quick goodbye. So we each took a turn giving her a big hug and crying just a little bit, then a family hug, and she said, "okay, go" :). So, we turned and left. It really wasn't too bad. I know that the tears will be short-lived and soon she will be hard at work.
As I write this, she is somewhere over Nebraska. Her Aunt Lisa will pick her up in SLC, take her to lunch and to the MTC.
She's on her way, and she will do amazing things! I'm so proud of her and excited for all that is ahead.
Wow - Lots of good angels about helping - Happy to hear things worked out and I will be praying for your sweet daughter <3 It will be fun to keep up with Soeur Gardner's many more adventures and experiences ! All the best! - Your friend, Faithann
ReplyDeleteThank you! :) You are always so sweet...
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