Week 4, Received on 10-31-15

Well, this week has been kinda crazy. My whole district is really anxious to leave this place because we can see the light at the end of the tunnel. 

On Tuesday, Elder Neil Anderson (an apostle) came and spoke at the mtc for our devotional. It was a pretty big deal so there was a lot of excitement, which was fun. It was broadcasted to all of the mtc's around the world. He did an awesome job! He is such a sweet guy. The focus of his message was on sacrifice. 

Also, later that night we had a district meeting and our branch president sat in with us. At the end he basically told us that he had been a branch president at the mtc for 4 years, was a mission president in Chile for 3, and had been in charge of thousands of missionaries in his life and he had never seen a district as awesome as us.... Pretty cool stuff. I love my district.

On Wednesday things started to get crazy. I got called down to the travel office after dinner and was told that Salt Lake hadn't received my FBI clearance I applied for at the beginning of the summer. Which wasn't good news. Lucky it was just a mix up on who the government sent it to. They sent it to me instead of salt lake for some reason. I got it at the end of August and luckily I kept on to it and brought it to the mtc because i just thought it was a receipt or something. So all i had to do was go back to my room and get it and turn it in. Apparently, a lot of people have been having this problem and it hasn't stopped them from going to Argentina when they are supposed to. They apparently just give the missionaries a travel visa while the rest of the paperwork for the real visa is processing. Which was great news to hear. 

The bad news is, last night I got called to the travel office again. Apparently, the name on my passport and my FBI clearance don't match. My passport has a space between the "c" and the "L" in my first name and my FBI clearance is correct... thanks Obama... Not so great news. It wont be accepted until it gets fixed. So on Monday, I have to  get another FBI clearance. And it sounds like im going to be picked up in a police car and taken to do my fingerprints again. Which is kinda exciting because I get out of class but still is just a big hassle. I asked the travel office guy working if this was going to delay me going to Argentina in the next two weeks and he said he didn't think it would and that they could work around it... But who knows, he is just a minimum wage paid college kid... If it turns out I cant go to Argentina in the next two weeks, I will be temporarily reassigned to a new mission for a few weeks until they get it fixed. Which is again, kinda exciting but still a big hassle. The most frustrating part however is that I have no clue what the heck is going on.... which is great.... Anyway, my district and i get our flight plans next week so I will probably find out by we next email. I know it will all work out but it is still pretty stressful.

Elder Townsend