Visa Troubles

Hello Family and Friends,

Last time we wrote to you, we asked those who believe in prayer to pray for us and that our visa will be granted so we can leave for Japan. We want you to know that we have felt those prayers. We know that God is hearing those prayers and answering them. Thank you.

So, where are we? Long story. We’ll try to keep it short:

We sent our visa application to Church Travel as soon as the paperwork was sent to us. But we were told that the Japanese Government won’t accept a visa application until 3 months before the planned departure date. So, the application sat on a desk in Salt Lake for many weeks until it was submitted on April 21.

Our original mission start date was set for July 3, but on June 15 Church Travel told us they still haven’t received the visa, and that it will be another 4 – 6 weeks before they do. We decided to delay the start of the mission until we were sure the visa was ready.

The problem was that we had rented our home to a nice couple and the contract started on July 4. So, we were rendered homeless. Elder Low’s brother graciously offered his basement to us, and we spent the month of July and part of August there, at his house in Holladay, waiting. While we were in Holladay, we were told we may be there, waiting, for a very, very long time. Maybe months.

However, in late July, Church Travel told us that the Japanese Government has granted us a “Certificate of Eligibility” for a visa, and the only thing left now was for the Japan Consulate in Denver to approve the visa and stamp our passports. That normally takes 10 days. So, we celebrated and entered the MTC on August 7, fully expecting the visa to be ready when our training is finished.

During our first week in the MTC we learned that our visa won’t take 10 days, but much longer. We don’t know the details, but it appears the Consulate will only accept a handful of visa applications from the church every few weeks. Our application was waiting its turn in the queue and hadn’t even been sent to Denver yet. We were told to prepare to wait for a month or more. “Maybe not this year.” This was really deflating. That’s when we asked for prayers.

We did some calling and tried to figure out what was going on. Our wonderful mission president jumped in and started asking as well. That led to Wednesday last week when Church Travel sent our visa application, passport and COE to the Consulate. We were in that week’s packet of applications. That’s a big deal. This means that it should be a few more days and our visa should arrive. Hopefully. We strongly feel this is due the prayers you have submitted on our behalf. Thank you.

However, last Friday the MTC told us that we need to leave the facility. Our training was finished, and the place is packed, and rooms are scarce. We were rendered homeless – again.

We’ve been temporarily assigned to serve in the Utah Salt Lake City Headquarters Mission. We are in a church owned apartment across the street from Temple Square. We have specifically been assigned to work in the Family Search Library until our visa arrives. We spent the last few days learning how to do this new, temporary job.

Our last week in the MTC was incredible. We got to attend a devotional where Elder Bednar spoke. But maybe the most powerful part of an MTC devotional is listening to the young missionaries sing “Called To Serve.” The room shakes.

Elder Low is impressed how excited Sister Low has been in the MTC. She ate it up. She smiled every minute and was fully engaged in every exercise, roll play, study assignment. Although it was her first experience as a missionary, she looked like a veteran.

Elder Low felt like the cafeteria was a crowded nightmare, but Sister Low loved it. She loved mingling with the thousands of kids. She took time to talk to as many missionaries as she could and would make friends with those around her while standing in line or eating. She spent more time talking than eating. By the end of the week, we constantly heard “Hello Sister Low!” shouted out to us as we walked through the MTC. She made dozens of friends from all over the world while we were there.

One night we were walking through one of the big classroom buildings and heard a missionary behind us yell, “Hey, there’s a Japanese couple!” She had seen the Japanese writing on our name tags. We turned around and saw a group of young missionaries studying together, all headed to Japan. Their teacher invited us to come over and talk with them. He explained that they were practicing bearing testimony in Japanese and asked us if it would be OK if we would bear testimony.

Elder Low turned to Sister Low and said, “You get this one.”

For 15 minutes, Sister Low carefully and calmly told her story – how she got here, how she joined the church, all about her family, what’s important in her life. She bragged about her beautiful grandchildren and how much they mean to her. Then she bore a powerful testimony of this work and gospel. All in Japanese.

Elder Low stood behind her and watched. 15 young missionaries were completely glued to every word she spoke, not blinking. When she was done, we were all in tears. It was a powerful moment, one of those times that stick with you for a lifetime. Once again, she used Power and Authority.

The last two weeks have been a roller coaster, with a lot of stress, joy, ups and downs. We are still in a temporary situation. We’re not sure what’s next. It certainly hasn’t gone to plan. And yes, it’s been hard. We hope we can do some good while we’re here at Temple Square. We continue to pray that the visa will come, that we can be on our way, and get where we’re supposed to be. We thank you for your support and prayers. To our wonderful grandchildren: Please keep thinking about and praying for grandma and grandpa. We know He is listening to you. We love you.

Elder and Sister Low