"Travellin' Clean"

As described on the West Indies Mission blog (maintained by the fantastic Sister Robison):





Hurrah! The newest elders are here but it wasn't easy. They were supposed to arrive at the Trinidad airport at 8:00 PM Monday night. We got them Tuesday night at 10:00 PM - 24 hours late. Here is the story of their 40 hour journey:

Monday

• left the Provo MTC very early Monday morning
• arrived at Salt Lake City airportflight delayed out of Salt Lake
• arrived Atlanta , missed departing flight to Trinidad by a few minutes (had to catch tram, run to gate, oops wrong gate, find right gate, no plane)now what?
• contacted Delta personnel, got in touch with us - everyone scrambled
• no easy way to get to Trinidad so...
• early evening 5 elders fly to Cincinnati
• an hour later the other 2 fly to Cincinnati
• sleep a few hours in hotel

Tuesday

• morning - all 7 catch flight to New York City
• early afternoon - all 7 fly to Trinidad
• 8:00 pm - arrive on time
• line up in immigration
• immigration officer doesn't want two of them to enter
• frantic calls to President Robison and Sister Coleman to bring permit to the airport
• 9:30 pm - march triumphantly through gate!
• met by President Robison and the assistants
• 10:00 pm - dinner (?) in the mission home
• 11:oo pm - 12:30 am - handle necessary welcoming and training (finances, paperwork, orientation)
• 1:30 am - finally to bed
  

Wednesday

• 5:00 am - elders serving in Guyana head to the airport (Elders Harris, Brenkmann, Lee, and Coronado)
• right now (8:30 am) - Elder Neff (going to Guadeloupe) is being interviewed and I haven't yet seen Elders Jones and Noah (serving in Trinidad)

Andy wrote us quick e-mail. It follows.

Hey mom and dad I don't have very much time. But I wanted to let you know i arrived in Trinidad just fine. We got here last night and Elder Barton(chas) was at the mission home because he was being transfered! He said it was one in a million chance we would see each other, but thats just another one of the tender mercies of the Lord. I probably won't see him again on the mission due to different islands. This morning I woke up early and have been chatting and interviewing with President and Sister Robison. They are awesome! They are so nice, and make you feel right at home! It makes me sad they won't be here the whole 22 months for me. But I am off to Guadeloupe in an hour to serve with Elder Garotta as my senior companion. I guess he is a native of France. Ya i'm screwed...no doubt he will make me speak 100% french. But i'm so excited! I'll be making 3 flights to get to Guadeloupe today....is that a record? i'm pretty sure...7 flights in 3 days! holy schmokes..k well gotta go. love ya