Yikes! We were moments away from disaster.

The final step to getting a visa to Argentina is to meet with the Argentine Consulate in Houston Texas for an interview. It has taken months to get an interview with him. Some of our documents were unacceptable while additional ones were required because the rules change regularly. Finally, on July 5, 2016 we received word that all of our documents were accepted and we would soon receive an appointment. Day after day passed with no word of the promised interview. We connected with our advocate, Demetrius, from time to time trying to do our part but without pestering him to death. In the mean time, we went to Salt Lake City for a day's training. (More about that later)

Our appointment came in a strange way from the mission directors rather than from Demetrius. July 28th was the given date, three days past the day we were suppose to arrive in Argentina. Our director, Elder Hynes, did his best to convince Demetrius to move the date up, but the embassy's computers were going to be down the whole week prior so an earlier date was impossible. Okay, so we decided to be happy with the later departure date.

All the while, we prayed every day for assistance in getting visas in a timely manner since it was largely out of our hands.

So, we arrived in Houston the day before our scheduled appointment and stayed in a hotel within walking distance of the embassy. We relaxed and found time to attend the temple in Houston, Wednesday July 27th of 2016.



Our attempt at a selfie

Thursday morning started relatively smooth. We had breakfast and headed to the embassy arriving at 9:30, 30 minutes early. We checked in and began the long wait. A few minutes before our 10 o'clock appointment, Ernesto showed up to assist us. Ernesto works for Demetrius. Ernesto was kind and helpful. He told us a little about what to expect--just answer the Consulate's questions and reflect your love for the country and great desire to retire there.  He said that the consulate may talk sharply, but don't be offended, just chill out. We thought we could do that.

The morning went sour quickly. After waiting an hour and a half more, Ernesto was called in private to talk to the consulate which seemed highly irregular. As we sat waiting and wondering Amy whispered to Gregg, something is terribly wrong--let's pray. We prayed silently for what seemed to be an eternity though it was probably only 5-10 minutes. When Ernest came back, he was pale faced and shaking. He excused himself to make a phone call which we found out later was to his boss, Demetrius. The consulate had confronted Ernesto with sharp accusations. What are the Johnson's doing? Tell me the truth! I have a message here that someone from their church called us and wanted the Johnson's appointment bumped to an earlier time so that the Johnson's can replace another couple. They can't work in Argentina even if it's not for money. What are they doing?

Ernesto told us later that he also prayed for divine intervention at that moment. He is not LDS. He didn't even know what a Latter-day Saint was, (he did know the term Mormon) but he felt the importance of our situation and went to bat. He confirmed to the consulate that we wanted to live in Argentina and that we were not seeking employment in any form.  (We learned that teaching without collecting any monetary reward can be construed as "working" in Argentina).

Ernesto was certain that the Consultate would reject the offer for a Visa. He began to educated us as to what we should say and how we should react in one last ditch effort to make it happen. We were also asked to fill out some new forms as the prior forms were already obsolete. We were not quite finished with the forms when we were invited to talk with the Consulate.

The interviewer got right to the point with questions about our activities in Argentina. We answered them as best as we could reassuring him of our intentions. He seemed to be satisfied with the answers. He then said that we needed, as soon as possible, to give him a reservation for both the plane fight and hotel to Buenos Aires or the Consulate would not finish processing the Visa. This is highly irregular to get plane and hotel reservations prior to getting a visa. He requested that the reservations should be made for two weeks from Friday. We were then finger printed and dismissed.

Wow! in moments it was over and we were moving toward an experience in Argentina.

After the stressful appointment, Ernesto offered to take us back to the hotel because Houston was in the middle of a down pour. On our way, Ernesto told us much of the story we reported above. He also said he sensed that we were really good people.

All is well that ends well.

Setting apart
(For those of you not members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, those called to serve a mission for the Church for whatever length of time are set-apart by the Stake President or given a blessing and authority to serve a mission. The blessing identifies various gifts, talents, and skills that can be used to benefit the missionary.

Today, July 31, 2016, we were set apart by President Horsley. What a great man. Trevor and his family were present during the setting apart. President Horsley turned the occasion to be all about Trevor's kids which was awesome. After talking to the kids individually, each of them was asked to tell what they liked about Gregg and me. Meesa too was asked to talk about our strengths.

Trevor was asked to bear his testimony and then I was given a blessing first. In it, I was promised to be able to speak Spanish and be understood. My ability to communicate would be a gift from Father in Heaven and it would come easily. I was also told that I knew Gregg before this life and we made covenants with each other. That was pretty cool. I've never heard that before. I was told that those covenants would help other people come unto Christ and obtain exaltation.

Gregg was set apart last. He was promised good health and was told that Heavenly Father was keenly aware of his life and pleased with his decision to go on a mission. He was also told to put his wife's happiness first. Amy liked that advice. Wish I could remember more. It was full of sweet admonition and blessings.




Gregg, Amy, and President Scot Horsley