We made it!!!!

 We have made it to Argentina!  What an adventure already!!  I kept thinking of a quote from President Monson “Good timber does not grow with ease.  The stronger the wind the stronger the trees.”

60 hours of travel brought us to the conclusion - It is very hard to get into a country that is closed. 

Day 1: We started on Tuesday 22^nd at 8:30.  American Airlines did not accept our paperwork in Spokane.  Church headquarters got to work and had an army of people working in the US and in Argentina.  But it was not going to happen.  Traveling out of the country now days gets a little tricky because you have to have a PCR covid test.  Which takes 24-48 hours to get results back.  Ours was expiring on Tuesday at Midnight.  Church travel sent us to SLC so we could get a rapid Covid test and where they have connections with American Airlines.  So Tuesday night we ended up in SLC to get a Covid test and refill out paperwork.  

 

Day 2: Worried about checking in, we left a few hours early.  Went up to the American Desk in SLC and they said “Great!  We have been waiting for you!”   Took 9 minutes.  Since we missed our flights on Tuesday we had 3 flights to take instead of 2.  

 

While waiting in SLC for our first flight a group of missionaries came off the flight from Dallas and one of them just keep looking at us.  Then we saw he was coming over to us and so we went to meet him.  He said “President Pennington!  I just came from your mission!  They are so excited you are coming!”  What a tender mercy for us!  

 

We flew to Dallas and that was uneventful.  Had a 2 hour layover and then flew to Miami.  When we arrived in Miami our flight had been delayed 6 hours.  Instead of departing at 1am it was scheduled to depart at 7am.  As we were walking to our gate the flight was delayed until 10:30 am.  So we spent the night in a hotel near the airport.  

 

Day 3: We were a little bit worried about having to go through security but everything was pretty easy.  Boarded our flight and we were off to Argentina. 8 ½ hours later we landed in Argentina.  Went through immigration & got a covid test  which took about 2 hours.  Finally arrived at our hotel about Midnight.  

 

The area office here has been so helpful and so kind.  We are being taken care of very well!  Because of our travel complications we missed the 1^st day of the Mission Presidents conference but have loved being a part of it today!   We are with 2 other Mission President couples and are enjoying this experience with them.  We feel very blessed and very excited to be here in Argentina!  Thank you for all your prayers we have felt them!