Visa Stuff

A funny thing happens when you decide to go on a mission, and that is that it seems like the entire universe is trying to keep you from going on your mission. One of the challenges we missionaries commonly run into is the issue of visas.

Visas are a pain in the butt. I know this because my parents are pros at visa stuff. My mom obviously has a green card, and occasionally my parents have to go to Portland and get interrogated about what kind of toothpaste the other one uses and stuff to prove their marriage isn't like...fake. I don't even know what kind of toothpaste I use so good job mom. When my dad was working in Tokyo/living the bachelor life, every once in a while he'd have to hop on over to Korea or Taiwan to renew his visa. He actually loved it. But visas are still a pain.

The Church Travel Office sends us future missionaries a handy little envelope explaining what we need to do to get visas specific to our mission country.

For Singapore/Malaysia, they wanted some pretty interesting things, like a copy of my mission call, high school diploma, and three certificates issued by my church. Also, passport stuff. Based on that, let's go ahead and infer Singapore has a very strict* religious/missionary type of visa that you can get. 

*It turns out every 3 months I need to fly back to Singapore if I'm in Malaysia to renew my visa. If I'm in Singapore, I need to go to Indonesia. I've heard sometimes customs doesn't let missionaries back in without  a hassle, so I'm counting on my [non-existent] language skills and the fact that I could pass for a south east Asian to take care of that issue for me. Then I can get my orang putih of a companion back into the country. You're welcome.

Back to the whole universe-is-against-you thing, the night I was getting my visa stuff together, I found out I had to go to Idaho for a while because, family stuff. So I put off my visa stuff thinking I could easily access my papers in a filing cabinet somewhere. Seriously, my parents are super organized with that stuff. I got back from Idaho with my visa issues on the back of my mind, and when it came to gather my papers from our handy little filing cabinet, they were nowhere to be found. 

That's alright, I thought. I graduated high school and seminary a long time ago. I was pretty sure I crammed those papers into a box somewhere. After tearing apart my entire house, I finally found everything I needed.

Just kidding. 

I couldn't find one single document.

After much frustration, impatience, and ripping open literally every box of stuff I've ever packed away* I finally came across my diploma and seminary certificate.

*your life is very nomadic when you get into your 20's.

After a couple uneasy weeks (the deadline for my visa stuff was getting too close), I eventually got my baptismal certificate re-issued along with my YW certificate. Of course, that week my bishop and executive secretary were vacationing. I went to my bishop's house 5 minutes after he got home from Alaska to sign them.

The lesson here is don't delay visa stuff.
Don't delay visa stuff.
Don't. Delay. Visa stuff.
You can procrastinate everything else in your life except for visa stuff.

Also, be annoying and persistent to get mission/visa stuff done.

This leads me to the question of what if you didn't graduate seminary? Or finish Personal Progress? Visas are  a delicate matter.