We had to go to our cabin in Island Park, Idaho so that I could renew my Idaho driving license.  It would expire before our release date and Idaho lets you renew it about two years in advance.  Amazingly, the channeling company had the FBI report processed and sent back via UPS second day air on Thursday, April 9.  We expected a longer processing time and gave our cabin address as the place to send the report.  UPS tried to deliver it on Monday, April 13, but the cabin was still snowed in and we hadn't arrived yet to deal with the issue.

We stayed overnight at our son's house in Bountiful, Utah on Sunday, April 12 so that we could get an early start on Monday morning.  We arose at 6:00 AM, but Bonnie took a bad fall getting out of the shower.  She was wearing glasses and they gave her a bad cut above her eye, a sprained wrist and a bruised leg.  We hurriedly packed and headed for the closest Instacare.  The one in Bountiful didn't open until 8:00 AM, the one in Layton didn't open until 8:30 AM.  Since the bleeding had stopped, we decided to go the ER at the Brigham City Hospital.  It was a good choice.  We arrived just before 8:00 AM and they got her right in.  They did an x-ray on her wrist and a CT on her neck and head.  The gave her a wrist brace and then installed 11 stitches in the cut above her eye.

It took about two hours and we had not yet had breakfast, so we guzzled a protein shake and headed for Idaho.  We stopped in St. Anthony to visit my cousin and they invited us to lunch at Big Juds in Ashton.  Wonderful burgers and incredible fries.  Upon arriving at the subdivision our cabin was in, we discovered that they had snowplowed some of the way in, but the snow bank from the plowing blocked the road to our cabin.  With the help of the Island Park Building supply, we located a fellow with a rotary snow plow who made short work of the slushy heavy snow and we were in.  Then we discovered that the pump was not working, so we had no water.  We called a pump company and left a message.

They called first thing in the morning, and we were back in business by 1:00 PM with a used controller and returned on Thursday with a new pressure tank, controller and pressure valve.

Meanwhile, UPS put our package delivery on hold and we had to do some detective work to track it down and get it delivered again.  It finally came on Wednesday afternoon (April 15) and we forwarded it on the the Missionary Travel Department.  That should finish up our Belgian Visa paperwork.  It's starting to feel like we might make it.

More visa issues

The FBI gives you the right to check on the status of the background report after they have it for five weeks.  I decided to check after six weeks.  To check, you need the Express Mail number since this is the number the FBI uses to track the requests.  I wrote an email and received a reply within a few hours that they had no record of the request as yet, but that they were taking between 12 and 14 weeks to process the applications.  Our application was sent on February 11, but did not arrive at the FBI office until February 18, despite having paid for Express Mail.  I did have the confirmation that the FBI office had signed for it and the name of the person who signed.

Over the weekend, I began to get nervous about the FBI report required for our Belgian visa.  I decided to call the Church travel department.  When I called the Church travel department, they indicated that the FBI had told them that they were just beginning to process applications that they had received in early January.  They recommended that we use a private channeling service.  There are about 10 approved by the FBI and the Church had arranged for discounts with one of the services.  Today, we went to Washington County and had our fingerprints taken today and sent them Express Mail to the company in Chicago.  With a little luck, we might get the results next week and that could allow our visas to be processed.  We are keeping our fingers crossed (and praying, of course).