After two years and 3 weeks, the wait is over. We returned home on March 22, 2020. We received a new call to Fiji in June 2021 and on January 3, 2022 we were officially set apart as ITEP missionaries to serve in the Fiji Suva Mission, to begin our service January 6. Yesterday, April 5, we received word from our mission president that Fiji had granted us our visas. WAHOO! He sent us a copy and we forwarded them on to our supervisors, Elder and Sister Johnson, who are serving in Hawaii. Elder Johnson called us a little bit later and hesitantly said, "we may have a problem." What??? The date on our visa says "10/3/2022". Elder Johnson thought that meant that they are active beginning October 3. Gratefully we have been to Fiji before and know that that date actually means March 10, 2022. HaHa! So no problem here at all. In fact, it looks like we could have gone a whole month ago. But we won't get into that. Today, we received word from the missionary department that we have been cleared to fly to Fiji on April 14. We haven't seen a ticket or itinerary yet but I'm sure we will soon. We are just delighted beyond words to finally have a date.
I'm not going to lie. The last 4 months have been hard. We worked diligently to get our visa application in before Christmas. Then the week after Christmas, we were told that we had to do additional work that took another 2-3 weeks. On February 11, our mission president told us he had finally received our application and had submitted it to the immigration office along with applications from 2 other senior couples who also have calls to Fiji, the Baldwins and the Pattons. We are anxious to meet them and serve with them. At that time, Pres. Markus told us it might take up to a month. After a month we started getting impatient. Every week seemed to drag on and on. Every week we asked, "heard anything?" Every week it was, "not yet." We were beginning to wonder if it was going to happen. I definitely have learned that patience is not one of my virtues. Or Kim's either.
Studying the Old Testament this year in Come Follow Me has really been helpful since we see so many examples of those that have had to wait upon the Lord. Poor Joseph, who was first sold as a slave by his brothers. Then he served the Pharaoh well but was sent to prison after being falsely accused by the Pharaoh's wife. He "patiently" waited in prison for years before finally being released and finding favor with the Pharaoh again. And years later, he finally reunited with his brothers and his father. YEARS of waiting on the Lord. And then there was Jacob. Jacob who only wanted to marry the love of his life but was willing to wait 7 years for her. And then, after serving his father-in-law to be, he is tricked into marrying Rachel's sister, Leah. But Jacob was patient and served his father-in-law another 7 years before being allowed to have Rachel as his wife. Fourteen years he waited. Moses also had his share of waiting on the Lord and being patient along with the children of Israel. So I guess 2 years to wait for the pandemic to calm down and 3 1/2 months for our visas to come through was not too much to ask. But boy, it sure wasn't easy.
Just looking through the pictures and definitely getting excited for our return. Our next 8 months will go by far too quickly.
