Our last Transfer

Doesn't it just seem fitting that our last transfer would follow RULE #1 perfectly? We had five missionaries leaving and 11 coming on the last Thursday and Friday of our mission.  Nothing was easy about this transfer!!  It was the first one since our change in staff and we'd all worked very hard to make it run smoothly. Transfers are a stressful and exciting time for the missionaries. It's when they see if their life,

whether they're enjoying their current assignment or not, will change dramatically.  When the letters come it's a really big event. It's also a stressful and crazy time for the office staff, MLS couples and us. Changes have to be made right up to the last minute. For those moving to new countries, letters of invitation, airline and bus tickets, and visas have to be done. Then the staff and senior couples, literally, pick up all 50 or so missionaries and their "stuff." They take them to airports, bus stations, or new apartments. Then those on the other end of the transfers pick them all up and take them where their new home will be.
Add bringing departing missionaries to the mission home for their farewell dinner, interviews, weighing of luggage and helping them repack it to get under weight limits, taking departing missionaries to the airports, picking up, interviewing, orienting, feeding. It's a sweet time to say good-bye to our dear missionaries.

Then we welcome our new missionaries, train them and have a welcome dinner for them. We get new missionaries to their companions and meeting with and training their trainers.  All  this happens in two days and you have pure madness even if it all goes perfectly.

Well...
This transfer has been anything but perfect!

Our senior African couple finished their mission this transfer. So we had to close up their apartment. They were scheduled to leave a week after Zone Conference, for which they had to make the six hour bus trip from Matadi to Kinshasa.  That would mean that they'd have to make that trip twice in two weeks. That was just too hard so we made special arrangements for them to come here for Conference, stay in the TA transition housing and then leave at a time other than the normal transfer. One of the elders who was being transfered to Kinshasa from Matadi had to make arrangements to do nearly the same thing, only we went ahead and transferred both him and his replacement early.

Then we had visa problems and three American elders will be delayed in their transfers to another country.  Some of them will have to wait a week to get their travel documents. That makes it necessary to have three elders together during that time on both ends of the transfer. One of the elders was all ready to leave when Republic of Congo changed the rules about invitations for those re-entering the country. So, he may even be delayed longer.

Next, we had 11 missionaries who were supposed to have gone to the MTC for this transfer, but one never showed up. It turned out that his non-member family didn't want him to go and sent him to a village to prevent him from doing so.  That means that the transfer had to be changed to accommodate one fewer new missionary and we continued to have an odd number of elders. So, there were more last minute changes.

And then all 10 of the missionaries from the MTC thought that they were flying on Kenya air and they actually were on Ethiopian air. They missed their flight. We weren't sure when they could get seats for all of those 10 missionaries on the same flight and right away. That would have meant more airport runs and delayed training. We thought for awhile that the Cooks would have to receive and train these new missionaries on their second day as mission president. But they somehow got all 10 missionaries on the plane just a day later. We decided to orient them on the day planned, but just later in the day. As it turned out they were in the airport and still looking for luggage at 4:30pm.  It would take two hours in horrible traffic to get here.  They'd been traveling for two days and were nearly exhausted when they arrived.  So, hey, we're flexible. We will train them early Sat. morning and have lunch and then sent them on their way just in time to get last minute meal preparations and organizing done before we go to the airport to get the Cooks. We have always asked our missionaries to work to the end and be strong until their last hour.  All these changes have given us no alternative.

But, the last problem was the worst of all the game, we lost a new American elder for a few hours. Worst "arrival on my mission story" ever!! He started out from the MTC in Provo just fine, although he was nervous about flying half way around the world alone.  Then when he arrived in Belgium, his next plane was delayed for five hours, which left him a 9 hour layover. His next flight was 9 hours from Brussels to Yaoundé with just a stop in Douala to drop off / pick up passengers. Upon arrival he spent two hours searching for the couple who was to meet him in the airport. Part of that time he was  looking for his luggage and then trying to tell somebody in French that it was lost.  He finally asked a 10 year old boy to interpret for him.  In desperation he checked  his paperwork for somebody to call. The only number he could find was for the couple in Douala, not the Yaoundé couple, who were to pick him up.  He called them anyway using a borrowed phone.

The Douala couple called the couple in Yaoundé to see if they'd forgotten the elder.  They replied that they and his companion and another missionary had   been searching for him in the Yaoundé airport for two hours as well. These airports just aren't big enough to be lost in for two hours. Both have just one small area for arrivals. They had no idea what to do next.

The Douala couple had a sudden insight and called the missing elder back, asking him to verify with somebody else what airport he was in. So, the elder asked the airport employee whose phone he'd used.  Our poor elder wasn't in Yaoundé but in Douala. He had gotten off the plane when it stopped in Douala. At 11:00 pm the Douala couple made the 20  minute drive and finally found the poor, stranded elder, who had now been traveling for nearly 40 hours.  But this wasn't the end. They didn't get out of the airport before a good interrogation by security, who had made all the passengers disembark, taken all the luggage off the plane and were pretty concerned about a passenger who had disappeared leaving his luggage behind. Once convinced that he wasn't a threat, security let them all go home. Now the poor elder has to take a six hour bus trip to his final destination.  At least he will be going in the company of another elder who's being transferred. He's been a real trooper about it. He didn't make a single complaint when we talked to him on Skype . When asked how he was feeling he said he was "ready to go to work."   Aren't these young elders just remarkable!  The best of the best come to the Kinshasa mission, but sometimes getting them here is quite a challenge.  We'll not forget our last transfer!