(EventKit) Why does retrieving an event from calendars take around 10 seconds?

Question

So I'm retrieving events from the iOS Calendar (within a certain predicate), sorting and storing them in an array; then I fetch the first event's title, time and location and display them as UILabels on Storyboard. The first problem I encounter is that when I build and run the application, nothing is displayed. I have to quit the app (from multitasking) and just run it from the simulator and it shows up, after a delay of 10 seconds every time (my second problem). I'm running all the above code in the (void)viewDidLoad function of my view controller which where I think the problem is from. Is there any way of running the code before or while the app is launching so the user doesn't have to wait for his events to load? Thanks! Here's my code:

//Load Calendar Events
EKEventStore *store = [[EKEventStore alloc] init];

[store requestAccessToEntityType:EKEntityTypeEvent completion:^(BOOL granted,
                                                                NSError *error) {
    if (granted) {
    NSLog(@"User has granted permission");
    // Get the appropriate calendar
    NSCalendar *calendar = [NSCalendar currentCalendar];

    //Create the start date component
    NSDateComponents *nowComponents = [[NSDateComponents alloc] init];
    nowComponents.hour = 0;
    NSDate *now = [calendar dateByAddingComponents:nowComponents
                                                      toDate:[NSDate date]
                                                     options:0];

    // Create the end date components
    NSDateComponents *oneDayFromNowComponents = [[NSDateComponents alloc] init];
    oneDayFromNowComponents.day = 1;
    NSDate *todayEnd = [calendar dateByAddingComponents:oneDayFromNowComponents
                                                       toDate:[NSDate date]
                                                      options:0];

    // Create the predicate from the event store's instance method
    NSPredicate *predicate = [store predicateForEventsWithStartDate:now
                                                            endDate:todayEnd
                                                          calendars:nil];

    // Fetch all events that match the predicate
    NSArray *events = [store eventsMatchingPredicate:predicate];
    NSLog(@"The events in the array are %@", events);

    NSArray *sortedArray = [events sortedArrayUsingComparator:^NSComparisonResult(EKEvent *event1, EKEvent *event2) {
            return [event1.startDate compare:event2.startDate];
        }];

    //Sort events according to date and fetch the one at index 0
        if ([sortedArray count] == 0){
            NSString *noEvent = (@"No Upcoming Events");
            NSString *noDescription = (@"No scheduled events for the day.");
            NSString *noLocale = (@"");

            self.eventTime.text = noEvent;
            self.eventTitle.text = noDescription;
            self.eventLocation.text = noLocale;
        } else {
            EKEvent *event = [sortedArray objectAtIndex:0];
            self.eventTitle.text = event.title;
            self.eventLocation.text = event.location;

            NSDateFormatter *formatter =  [[NSDateFormatter alloc] init];
            formatter.dateFormat = @"hh:mma";
            self.eventTime.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%@ - %@", [formatter stringFromDate:event.startDate], [formatter stringFromDate:event.endDate]];
        }

    } else {
        NSLog(@"User has not granted permission");
    }
}];