Shoes

Those shoes are stacked up 3 feet tall,

Not one of them will work at all.

But on we go to find the perfect pair,

so I don't have to go barefoot!

... okay... so I suck at poems. But I went shoe shopping today for mission shoes!! No love. It's fine tho. I'm one step (haha...) closer to knowing what I actually want! Shopping is hard.

Portuguese!

I can finally spell Portuguese! And today at work, someone gave me a Portuguese hymn book!! It's my first of anything in Portuguese, and I'm pretty stoked about it. I keep reading thru it pretending I know which hymn I'm singing and pretending I know how to pronounce things. Considering I just learned how to spell 'Portuguese' and I've had my call for over a month... I'm pretty stoked to have this hymn book so I can start practicing! Maybe if I sleep with it everyday, it'll be like that one time I slept with my math book and had dreams all night about studying math with Dad, then aced my test the next day. That seriously happened. Not even kidding. I vote to make that happen again.

VISA

So, I'm a few days late getting my visa stuff in... but there wasn't a whole lot I could do. This process was INSANITY. I'm lucky I'm only 2 days late!

 I felt so legit seeing that official seal! This was the authentication page on every document.

My visa pics, passport, authenticated materials, and online application page

First, I had to get two copies of my seminary transcripts and two copies of my seminary graduation certificates from the church. Which they sent to Sequim, so Mom had to FedEx them to me. I had to get those notarized, but in order to do that, I had to have a seminary teacher present at the notary to be able to say "Yes. These are actually official church documents. She did not make them up." haha! Cuz yeah... I'd definitely forge a church document. Anyway... Thank heavens for BYU who has kind of an on-call person ready to do that for students, and an on-campus notary!! She didn't actually have to come with me because the on-campus notary has approved her signature so many times. Anyways, it was wonderful. So I got those all notarized, and I also got my Indian letter notarized. That was basically a letter to the government of Brazil saying I wouldn't proselyte on reservations. Then I sent all five of these documents to the Secretary of State in Utah to get authenticated. And I had to pay $75!! Good grief. Anyways, while those were getting authenticated, I had to go to the police station to get a police report. That took forever. But I'm clean! YEEEAH! And I went to WALGREEEEENS! to get Visa pictures! That was super fast. I wanted more time in Walgreens. Then I had to get online and fill out a ton of online visa application stuff. Which was kinda cool, but I printed 3 copies of those and signed them all. Then I had to write a Curriculum Vitae basically explaining everything I've ever done in my life. I printed two copies of that.

SO - when my stuff finally came back from the authenticators, I took a picture (cuz I couldn't believe I had actually completed everything) and then sent it off to the church travel department!

o  Signed Passport

o  2 Passport-type photos

o  Police Clearance Letter

o  2 Notarized & Authenticated Seminary Transcripts w/Affidavit Statement

o  2 Notarized & Authenticated Certificates (Priesthood for Elders and Seminary for Sisters)                         w/Affidavit Statement

o  2 Curriculum Vitae

o  Notarized and authenticated Indian Letter

o  3 Signed Electronic Visa Application Forms

o  Information sheet with email address

Whoooooooo! Glad that's over!