The Visa Trial

Are we excited or what! Last week we were told that our chances were slim to none that we would receive our visas. And this week we were given the following choices: get reassigned to another mission, or keep waiting even though it looked very doubtful that we would ever get to Brazil. This morning we called Elder Poelman in Salt Lake to tell him we'd wait 2 more weeks then if they didn't arrive by then, we'd accept another assignment. Before we could say it, he told us that our visas had arrived yesterday!

We had been feeling all week like they would come within the next couple of weeks.
They arrived just before our patience had given out totally. Now I know what Sister Hawley meant when she told me "just know that Satan will try you before entering the MTC". The last 6 weeks have been trying to say the least. Not understanding why the visas were taking so long left us assuming all kinds of scenarios which left us wondering what was happening.

Elder Poelman finally explained it: Because of the terrorist problems around the world our country has tightened up the requirements for getting a visa for religious reasons to come to the USA. Evidently, the terrorist radicals have been establishing strip mall religions to get into the US, so we are making it harder to get a religious visa. As a consequence, other countries (including Brazil) are reciprocating in kind. Also, Brazil changed the process for applying for a visa. We had to apply twice. First last August and again in November. And they were not giving out the visas in the order they came in. It was all messed up, I guess.

But, the visa trial is finally over. We overcame. We are celebrating right now at the Grand Canyon, having a grand time. We came to mourn our prolonged wait but now we celebrate.