On the evening of September 1, 2009, four policemen knocked on the door of Elder and Sister Evans, one of the 7 senior couples that were serving in Guyana, South America. They were told to grab their things, that they were being shipped from the country immediately. They had overstayed their stay in Guyana. They quickly attempted to pack until the police suddenly changed their minds and told them to leave their things behind. They just wanted had to hand over their passports and come with them to the Criminal Investigation Department. The Evans were able to make one phone call to President Hymas, of the mission presidency, to notify him of their plight before their cell phone was seized.
President Hymas was told to have 39 more of his missionaries, including himself and his wife, at the CID by 8 a.m. the next day. The 39 names included those of us who were on a special list prepared by the Immigration Department as those who had, also, overstayed their stays in Guyana. The Evans were detained all that night, being forced to sleep on the dirty, wooden floor of the CID office. Someone offered them a foam pad to sleep on.
Early the next morning, the rest of us arrived.
They took all our passports and we were assured we’d be finished by 10 a.m. The day passed slowly as we waited for them to tell us we could leave. We were at one end of a large rectangular-shaped room. At the opposite end of the room were about 10 desks with workers sitting at them doing their work.
One of these workers kept quieting us down as we talked with one another. The elders either sat on the floor or had to stand as we waited.
There were about 5 chairs and 2 small benches where the seniors took turns sitting.
It was hot. Elder Huntsman definitely thought so!
We were hungry and thirsty. The police did allow an escort to go with Elder Treseder to his car so he could get the water jugs from his trunk.
Most of all, we were bored. So, the elders played games.
By afternoon, we were becoming impatient for our freedom. Someone suggested, “Let’s sing.” Sister Hymas stood in the middle of us with one small hymn book and began to ask for requests of what hymns we would sing. At first we sang began to sing softly “I Am a Child of God”. One by one, we sang each elder’s request and our volume increased. We sang for 2 hours.
As we began to sing, “Called To Serve” someone said, “We have to stand for this one”. As we stood, our voices got considerably louder and suddenly one of “them” told us to be quiet and stop singing! President Hymas politely answered something like, “You haven’t treated my boys well and now they are going to sing!”
When we stood to sing, I looked out the 2nd story window next to where I stood, and noticed several photographers trying to snap our photos. Apparently, they could hear us singing because the next day in the news it was reported that we were “singing “We Shall Overcome” from our cells.” I could see myself standing in the right window of the photo that appeared on the front page of the Guyana newspaper the next day under the headlines that read, ILLEGAL MORMONS ASKED TO LEAVE. Another newspaper had on its front page, MORMONS EXPELLED FROM GUYANA…given 30days to leave.
By 7 pm that night, I began to think we would all be sleeping on the dirty floor for the night. There surely wouldn’t be pads for us all. Fortunately, after a visit to the President of Guyana, Barat Jagdeo, by President Hymas and one of the other senior missionaries, we were finally allowed to leave…with our passports in hand…but with the instructions to be gone from Guyana by the end of September. Here's a group photo of all of us.
We're all looking pretty happy because they just informed us we could finally leave!
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3 comments:
So are you home then?
I never knew being "detained" could be so much fun. We are so happy you all survived.
Great story and photos Robin! I always knew you were a criminal at heart!
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