Getting New Visas - Tuesday, June 29, 2010

The day looked gorgeous outside. Sunny and Clear!! The temperature reflected that it had dropped to 37 degrees over night, but that it was suppose to hit 60 today. That's quite a jump, I thought.

On our walk to the office we discussed what each of us had to do today, but as soon as the elders walked in and Elder Peterson checked his emails, our plans abruptly changed. He announced that Elder Kroff and I had to immediately leave to go to the Capital and start day one of renewing our visas, as they expire on Wednesday. We had been concerned all month about what procedure we were to follow to be legal for the next four months that we are to be here. Sabrina, at Bonpland, has been working on getting us all our paperwork, but one document is still yet to arrive at her desk. Elder Peterson called her at the end of the day yesterday to see how things were coming along, and she evidently got us a turno for this morning to go to the place that does a police background check on everyone. She told him that we needed to be there at 9:30 to meet a person from Bonpland that would help us through the process. It was then 9:10 that we were discussing all of this. Impossible to do in 20 minutes.

We called a remise to take us there hoping it would be faster than the train. The driver was one that we had never met before, but he had a pretty nice car. It was a 45 minute ride at best with all the traffic and congestion. He didn't exactly know where Piedras street was, but when we got in the general vicinity he asked if this was close enough and dropped us off at Florida street -- a street we know very well. A year ago we would have panicked being dropped off to find the rest of the way ourselves. But, Rich said "Yes, we can find it" and away we went asking questions of people along the way. We had to walk about four or five blocks, only backtracking once. I didn't pay attention because my phone kept ringing with calls from elders. Pretty soon we arrived, and the gentleman from Bonpland was happy to see us. I think he had been waiting quite a while. We apologized for the delay but the traffic was horrid and then, of course, we weren't dropped off at the door. He was surprised the driver did that to us.

Our experience this year getting the background check was much different from last June when we went. Last year was a crowded nightmare, but it was virtually empty this time. We marched right in and Mr. Bonpland directed us here and there and we were through in about 20 minutes. We were fingerprinted and signed our name and that was that. It was great this time because they could just pull up our records on the computer so nothing had to be entered.

Our Bonpland escort asked if he would be driving us back to the Misión Norte, and we told him that we would take a taxi to the Retiro train station and go back by train to San Fernando. They usually provide the transportation to and from on these occasions, but he didn't object or try to talk us out of it. He was probably relieved, and besides he had been waiting quite a while for us to arrive today. He did offer to take us to the train station instead of taking a taxi so we agreed to let him do that. Thank You!

The second step in getting this legal residency is going to Immigrations, but we don't know if Sabrina has what is needed for that part yet. If so, she will meet us there tomorrow and walk us through the process. If not, we wait! The Argyles went today to do the second step and were not able to finish because of that paper holdup. So it looks doubtful for us too.

Our whole trip today from start to finish, from remise ride to train ride took three hours. That wasn't bad at all. We got back to the office shortly after 12:00.

While waiting for a light, this cute little English car with the steering wheel on the right pulled up, and the driver got out. Someone asked what year it was and he responded 1937. It was so tiny!! I would hate to drive it in all this crazy traffic, it might get crunched.

Another old fashioned car came by, but we didn't know what kind it was. It kind of looks like a mafia car from "The Godfather."

Yesterday, I asked the elders if they liked clam chowder and they answered with a resounding YES. Good! I told them I would bring their lunch today because the pot of clam chowder that I made for dinner on Sunday needed to be eaten. We would have tired of it after repeated meals during the week. I took them some bread from the panadaria and they were in seventh heaven. Elder Hales asked if the soup was made from scratch. They both inquired how I did it. Cute!

Later in the afternoon before District meeting and when the AP's were at the office, we had smores again, compliments of Elder Hales. Our Peruvian AP, Elder Lazo, had never tasted them before, but enjoyed every bite -- Muy Rico!! They tasted as good this time as they did the last time we had them.

While the district had their meeting in the church, we manned the office -- then left at 5:00. Rich left for his 6:30 English class and I worked on this entry and ironed a couple shirts.

Breakfast at the Argyles is still on the agenda for tomorrow morning. The Assistants have been invited too, so there will be six of us enjoying what will surely be the last meal together with them. Looking forward to it!