We woke early to allow plenty of time to get to the L.A. Airport. Being a Sunday morning traffic was quite light and we made excellent time. At L.A.X the hire car depots are a long way from the terminals, not like in Australia so you end up taking a bus to the terminal.
We managed to get all checked in nice and smooth, Delta Airlines charge $20USD a bag so it cost us an extra$100 USD to check in the 4 bigs bags, we ended up taking Tamzyn & Genna's bags on board with us.
I bit of a rough old flight which we all slept for the most part but coming into Salt Lake was rough. Tammy, Thomas, Genna & I were right up the back so of course we felt every little bump. Poor Tammy gets travel sickness easy and really did it tough the last 30 mins or so.
When we got to Salt Lake we encountered our first real hassle of the trip. Thrifty had given away our hire car that I pre-booked. They eventually got us a Honda Odessy which is a lovely car with leather interiors and all the nice trimmings. So it worked out well in the end. Although it did take over an hour to finalise, the que at the counter was so long.
I drove Jodie & the kids around downtown Salt Lake and showed them Temple square, the beehive house, Brigham Young gravesite, capitol hill. We then drove up to ensign peak where you can over look the whole Salt Lake Valley. The kids really loved the city and even Courtney said that it was one of the nicest cities she has been to. All the kids said it felt like home to them. What an interesting observation!!!
We then checked into the Marriot Downtown hotel at Citycreek. My company kindly booked us adjoining rooms which is great and we have the chance to spread out a little. Shortly after arriving here there came a knock on the door and the company had organised these lovely fruit and cheese platter and juices for us. Which was most welcome, as it was the sabbath and we didn't want to have to buy lunch.
We rested for a bit before heading out to my mission reunion. What a lovely, lovely night. My good friend and flat mate from Tacloban, Patrick Abenoja & his wife Ling opened up their home. (Lin's brother was my companion in Tacloban.) We were all there with our kids. My mission president Pres. C. Elliot Richards was there looking great. He is 89 years old and still going strong. Driving himself around, playing tennis 3-4 times a week. He is a lovely man and had such a great impact on my life. His wife died 5 years ago and you can tell his misses here deeply. The had 12 children, 69 grand children and over 238 great grand children. So he spends his time with them.
It was great to have my children meet my mission friends, we sat around for hours reminiscing about all of our adventures in the mission field. Our kids played together in the back yard as if they were long lost friends. I liked it because the kids heard Dad's mission stories from someone else, which gave all those crazy and all those wonderful spiritual experience I have told them about validation.
It is marvellous to think that 2 years spent serving the Lord in a far away land has bound me to these wonderful people for eternity. We were just like we were 25 years ago in the mission field. I will cherish that time and these people and thank the Lord daily I got to serve.
I could tell the whole day has had an impact on my kids in many wonderful positive ways and trust it has strengthened their faith and testimony.
My work convention starts tomorrow so Jodie and the kids will spend the day sight seeing and shopping.
We managed to get all checked in nice and smooth, Delta Airlines charge $20USD a bag so it cost us an extra$100 USD to check in the 4 bigs bags, we ended up taking Tamzyn & Genna's bags on board with us.
I bit of a rough old flight which we all slept for the most part but coming into Salt Lake was rough. Tammy, Thomas, Genna & I were right up the back so of course we felt every little bump. Poor Tammy gets travel sickness easy and really did it tough the last 30 mins or so.
When we got to Salt Lake we encountered our first real hassle of the trip. Thrifty had given away our hire car that I pre-booked. They eventually got us a Honda Odessy which is a lovely car with leather interiors and all the nice trimmings. So it worked out well in the end. Although it did take over an hour to finalise, the que at the counter was so long.
I drove Jodie & the kids around downtown Salt Lake and showed them Temple square, the beehive house, Brigham Young gravesite, capitol hill. We then drove up to ensign peak where you can over look the whole Salt Lake Valley. The kids really loved the city and even Courtney said that it was one of the nicest cities she has been to. All the kids said it felt like home to them. What an interesting observation!!!
We then checked into the Marriot Downtown hotel at Citycreek. My company kindly booked us adjoining rooms which is great and we have the chance to spread out a little. Shortly after arriving here there came a knock on the door and the company had organised these lovely fruit and cheese platter and juices for us. Which was most welcome, as it was the sabbath and we didn't want to have to buy lunch.
We rested for a bit before heading out to my mission reunion. What a lovely, lovely night. My good friend and flat mate from Tacloban, Patrick Abenoja & his wife Ling opened up their home. (Lin's brother was my companion in Tacloban.) We were all there with our kids. My mission president Pres. C. Elliot Richards was there looking great. He is 89 years old and still going strong. Driving himself around, playing tennis 3-4 times a week. He is a lovely man and had such a great impact on my life. His wife died 5 years ago and you can tell his misses here deeply. The had 12 children, 69 grand children and over 238 great grand children. So he spends his time with them.
It was great to have my children meet my mission friends, we sat around for hours reminiscing about all of our adventures in the mission field. Our kids played together in the back yard as if they were long lost friends. I liked it because the kids heard Dad's mission stories from someone else, which gave all those crazy and all those wonderful spiritual experience I have told them about validation.
It is marvellous to think that 2 years spent serving the Lord in a far away land has bound me to these wonderful people for eternity. We were just like we were 25 years ago in the mission field. I will cherish that time and these people and thank the Lord daily I got to serve.
I could tell the whole day has had an impact on my kids in many wonderful positive ways and trust it has strengthened their faith and testimony.
My work convention starts tomorrow so Jodie and the kids will spend the day sight seeing and shopping.
Some of my fellow missionaries from Cebu East Mission with Pres. Richards.
With our wives and husbands
And some of our children. Not all our kids could make it.
RSS Feed