The Camera Saga

Before Lance left on his mission we contemplated about what kind of a camera to send with him. After purchasing everything else he needed we decided to just send my camera instead of spending more money and I would get a new (and possibly better, haha) one. So we sent him with my Olympus ultra zoom which is an amazing camera. It was a couple of years old but a pretty expensive camera that took great pictures. So we were excited for all of the pictures Lance would be able to take in the West Indies.

Well, that didn't happen. The camera was stolen on his first day at the MTC. Lance felt so bad about it and all of the money that we had spent that he didn't tell us until he left to go out to the mission field.

So we bought him another camera. This one was a smaller one, a Canon Power Shot A470. It had good reviews and everyone said it was a very good camera. We sent the camera to him the end of February. We didn't know how long it would take so everytime we wrote to him we would ask if his camera had come. He always had the same answer, "Nope". By the first of May we knew that it had been stolen. There's two down and about $500 for cameras and postage.

We caught a break the middle of May and the same camera we had sent before was $10 cheaper than the last time we bought it. This time we went to the UPS store and sent it Express with a tracking number and insured it. It cost $65.00 for a small box 5" x 6" and weighing less than a pound. Everyday I checked the tracking number. By May 22 it had arrived in Guyana in customs. On the 28th I received an email from Sister Bullock (the missionaries have couple missionaries who pick up their mail, etc.). She said that Lance's box had arrived. It had the CD's, cables, instructions and a new bank card (a whole other story) in it. Everything but the camera. Stolen again!!! When I asked Lance what he did when he found out, he said, "I said, 'Swear Word!!' ". haha

So then we had to go to the Post Office to find out how to get reimbursed since it was insured. They gave us numbers for the International Postal Service which we have called several times. We are still waiting for the information!

Anyway, a couple of weeks ago, Lance called home and said that everyone in the mission was trying to figure out a way to get him a camera. This is what the President and the Assistants came up with: We put money in Lance's account, he gets the money and gives it to the Assistants who take it with them to St. Martins (which is more Americanized) and buy the camera there. They take it to Grenada and give it to some other missionaries who are going to Trinidad and from there some other missionaries take it to Guyana where Lance will pick it up. Whew!!

This time should be the charm!! : ) We are now up to about $750 in camera costs. We better get some tremendously awesome pictures for that amount!