Sister Van Orden Goes to Denmark: San Francisco in Five Hours or Less

That one time when we went to San Francisco...

Turns out that Danish missionaries have to make a personal appearance in either New York City or San Francisco to apply for their Visas. Two of the best cities in the world, you will NEVER hear me complain about that! We tell church travel headquarters what days within the next 5 weeks work for us, and then the church organizes and funds the trip (thank you!). We were in San Francisco for less than a day. Our flights got in around 9:30 am, and left at 6:30 pm. When I woke up the next day and went back to school, it was hard to believe that this 10 hour trip was real!

...and that is how four future missionaries found themselves adventuring in San Francisco on a random Thursday in April.

It took about an hour for all five of us to apply. After that, we had around 5 hours to explore the city before we had to head back to the airport. We did a lot of the classic touristy things: Pier 39, Fisherman's Wharf, the Ghiradelli store, and it wouldn't be a trip to San Francisco without visiting the Golden Gate Bridge! I just love wandering around big cities. Everything-the people, the streets, the buildings themselves-is so interesting and beautiful!

My favorite part about this trip, though, was getting to know some of the other missionaries that I'm going to be serving with. We're all entering the MTC on the same day, July 16th. Meeting them made this whole thing seem real! It definitely calmed some nerves too, knowing that there will be familiar faces when I start my mission.