Corn Huskers Lotion plus Tabasco Sauce equals SUCCESS

I know it sounds ridiculous but Corn Huskers Lotion and Tabasco Sauce saved the day!!!

The first effort above to use a hot sauce, Ghost sauce I think. But then we realized it contained oil so it would not work.

Then we went to Tabasco Sauce.

The procedure according to the fingerprint technician at the FBI was to massage my fingers with Corn Huskers Lotion which was supposed to soften my skin and open the pores. Then I dipped my fingers in the Tabasco Sauce and massaged my fingers for a few moments which was supposed to irritate my skin and raise the loops and ridges on my fingers. Then I wiped my fingers with a paper towel.

Next was to create my fingerprints on new fingerprint cards. We filled another 4 cards in hopes that one of them would be good enough to actually pass muster.

On Thursday all fours cards were sent out to Accurate Biometrics in Illinois by UPS Overnight delivery guaranteed by 10:30 AM Illinois time on Friday - for a fee of course.

After we mailed them, I called and talked to the very nice lady who was working with us who said she would be looking for our envelop. We told her we had booked flights to their processing center in Sacramento for June 1 but wanted to try one more time using the Corn Huskers Lotion and Tabasco Sauce.

What a delight it was to check my messages after we left the Temple on Friday and find her voice mail telling me the fingerprints had passed and the background check was complete so we could cancel our flight to Sacramento!!!

Big thanks to our agent friend who spent so much time and took a total of 16 sheets of fingerprints between the two of us with my many needed duplicates!!!

My background check was the remaining item for our visa application which we will now mail and hope it does not take too long to process and delay our target departure date.

We will  cancel our JetBlue standby flights to and from Sacramento on June 1 & 2. I am sure Sacramento is a nice place to visit but I really did not want to fly down there to spend an afternoon being fingerprinted just to fly home again the next day.

The irony is that we learned the other day that it is only missionaries who will stay beyond 18 months that the Australian Government requires to have the fingerprint background check.

Now we can get on with the remaining  preparations for our mission - like packing up our house and studying the many training aids we have been sent.

This program of Self Reliance is VERY EXCITING!!! There are so many amazing systems in place to help people improve their temporal circumstances while increasing their spiritual reliance on and relationship with our Savior Jesus Christ.

We have many articles and manuals to read and study as well as many videos to watch. We will be Skypeing with other missionaries, the Country Self Reliance Manager and the Education Specialist Coordinators for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Pacific Area Office, Auckland, New Zealand. There is much to learn and I suspect the learning curve will be steep. We are grateful that we will have the blessing of being set apart before our service begins as we know we cannot do what is required without the Lord's help. 

With only one week at the Mission Training Center studying Preach My Gospel and then 3 days of intensive training at the Church Office Buildings in Salt Lake City learning about the Self Reliance Program before we leave I think we will hit the deck running.

So, on to our studies :)