Visa application drama

We just got back from the Italian Consulate in Los Angeles, where we applied for our visa. Most of the paperwork had been done by the church missionary travel department and sent to us to present in person. There were two stacks of documents, one for each of us. Yesterday we drove up to LA, first visiting Dee's parents and sister in South Pasadena for few errands and a final farewell. Then we checked into a hotel in west LA near the Consulate and were able to attend the LDS temple in the evening.

The unpleasant surprise/drama came last night when we checked online and found that the Consulate had automatically cancelled our appointment this morning, because we "forgot" to check in between 3 and 10 days before. We had made the appointment in late June, and this was the earliest date they could give us. Somewhere deep in the fine print on the original confirmation email was the fact that we had to confirm in that small time window just before our appointment, but they never sent any reminder or notification that it had been cancelled.

It was panic time! Fervent prayers were offered. The next available slot was in October, long after we are supposed to be in Italy, although one slot did open up on Friday morning, probably due to some poor soul who got cancelled like we did!  Because we had no desire to drive up to LA and back again on Friday, we were there when they opened the doors at 9am to plead our case. At first they were a bit gruff ("dumb Americans!"). However, we were listed on their printed appointment sheet as a "cancelled by the system", so we suspect that this is not an uncommon occurrence. Anyway, we filled out some paperwork asking for an exception, and then they got us in almost immediately, before our original appointment time. Everything went smoothly, and we were on our way home before 10am, arriving here in two hours, which is amazing traffic-wise.

They kept our passports and promised to send them to the missionary department next week, along with our visas, making us sign a waiver relieving them of responsibility if the passports get lost. We are uncomfortable not having our documents in hand, so it's a minor worry, but apparently this is common practice.

Farewell Sunday

Yesterday we gave our "farewell" talks in Sacrament Meeting at church. Lots of friends and family came from all over. Our ward clerk said the attendance was about 100 above average, and we probably get the bulk of the credit for that. It was so touching for us to see friend after friend walk into the chapel. We were very busy visiting with and hugging everyone both before and after the meeting -- not enough time to visit! Our talks seemed to be well received, with laughs and tears interspersed, which is appropriate for such an occasion. 

It was really hard saying goodbye to family that evening, particularly our kids and our parents. March 2019 seems like a long time away at this point.

Here are some photos with old friends at church and family at home:

Farewell Saturday

Two weeks to go! We just finished a wonderful weekend, with family and friends gathering from far and near. Saturday we had a family dinner, which was followed by a gathering of some long-time friends at our home. Everyone wore a name tag because many different groups were present. There were lots of hugs and laughs, with plenty of goodies to eat.

Thanks to the photographer, our brother-in-law DaveH (who was drafted to do the job at the last minute), there are way too many photos to post them all, but here are a few just to give an idea:

 

Upcoming farewell

We will each speak at our "farewell" Sacrament Meeting at 1:00pm on Sunday, August 27, in the La Costa Ward chapel, 3450 Camino de los Coches, Carlsbad. Please join us!

Mission call 2.0

We submitted our mission application papers on March 25 and three weeks later received our call to serve for 18 months in the Italy Rome Mission. This is something we have dreamed of doing together for decades -- we are still both fluent in Italian from serving in Italy just over forty years ago.  

Our mission assignment will be to work with the Young Single Adults (YSA, or GANS in Italian) at the Institute center in downtown Rome. Generally we will be serving/teaching at the Institute every weekday from 1-9pm. We will be known as Sorella (Sister) and Anziano (Elder) Whiting.

On September 9th we depart for the LDS Missionary Training Center in Provo, finally arriving in Rome on September 22. Our son Rich will be staying in our house and taking care of things here. We should return home in March 2019.

The scripture we selected for our missionary plaque is Mosiah 16:1 -- "The time shall come when all shall see the salvation of the Lord; when every nation, kindred, tongue, and people shall see eye to eye and shall confess before God that his judgments are just"

As you can imagine, there's still a lot to do before we leave!

"No other success can compensate for failure to visit Rome"