My (almost) Brush with the Law......

For my new job, working with the 6 year old boy with autism, let's call him Patrick, I get paid by the state. Which meant I had to pass a background check. Which I failed the first time. Why? The year I spent in Taiwan was unaccounted for. The solution? Call the Taiwanese embassy in DC and get some kind of a record to vouch for me not committing any crimes while in Taiwan.

There was defiinitely some initial freakout- ( I don't understand why this is happening to me!!!)but I was truly blessed to pull it together fairly quickly. Ironically, when I got the news that I had just been reading an article by President Packer in the New Era. He and his wife were traveling in Germany and his wife nearly got removed from the train for a problem with her passport. However, just before the train had left, President Packer recieved a 20 mark note from a missionary (actually, it was the future elder bednar) and when the train police (????) recieved the money, they left them alone. Moral of the story "if we live as we should the Lord will guide our lives" Not that I am promoting my lifestyle but.... the whole travel/law issue gave me a lot of comfort at that time- couldn't have asked for a better topic!

I spent nearly an hour with 2 embassies (DC and San Francisco) and got nowhere. No one had any idea about how to get a record that I didnt' commit a crime but said that if there was such a form, I would need to be in Taiwan to get it. Great! So I called the mom I work for, explained my dilemma and she called her support coordinator (the people that give them money to pay for me for helping with Patrick) and they agreed that if I provided a letter from the school where I taught and that I did not commit any crimes that year AND document my phone calls to the embassy, they would clear me. I understand why I had to jump through those hoops but still.....

Let me say it again- I AM NOT A CRIMINAL!!! Just in case you had any doubts.....