Well, I started writing this post on Monday Oct. 18th hoping that during the week we would receive a a letter/email/phone call from Honduras telling us he had arrived safely and where he would be assigned. Now it is Friday and unfortunately it looks like we will not be getting anything until P-day :( This post will be to review the events of Monday, Oct. 18th as he left for Honduras.
The day started just as he was hoping for because his Abuela was able to meet him in the Salt Lake City airport to say goodbye and fill his backpack with milanesas! Apparently the missionaries got there about 30 minutes before she did and not knowing if anyone was going to show up, Steven went ahead and put the extra clothes and things to send home back in his suitcase and checked in. The extra things caused his bags to be overweight and he had to pay a $100 weight penalty! Not what we were hoping for, but oh well.
He was very excited to see his Abuela and especially for the milanesas! They were able to talk for a few minutes and Steven even spoke in Spanish with her (which he was always very reluctant to do before). She said that his accent sounded good, which is encouraging. We are hopeful that it means that he will be able to hit the ground running in Honduras! Steven was able to give her his last memory chip from the camera, and some of the pictures from it are included here in this post! After a brief time together he had to go through security and off to catch his flight.
Here at home we received a call from Abuela with all of the details of their meeting in the airport and that got all of us excited to hear from him later in the day. At 10:45am Arizona time we finally got the call from Steven. He had arrived safe and sound in Dallas and made it to their connecting gate where all of the missionaries started making their phone calls home. I can imagine the scene with a huge bank of phones occupied by missionaries calling home! He sounded so happy and upbeat! We talked about how the morning had been so far and found out that there were 12 missionaries going to his mission that day and that he had been chosen to be the travel leader. He talked about some of the missionaries coming to Arizona that he hopes we will meet, as well as the goodbye's that they had in the MTC. He also shared something that made all of us feel really good. He said that their last night in the MTC, as the guys in his room lay in their bunk beds getting ready to go to sleep, that his companion told him that he really hopes that they will have the opportunity to be companions again in Honduras. That is saying a lot considering where things were just a few weeks ago! We could tell that the comment really made Steven feel great.
He talked about what a wonderful Branch President they had in the MTC and how much he admired and learned from him. Of course we talked about his experience singing at General Conference and he asked how many people saw him. He acted genuinely surprised to hear how many people had mentioned seeing him.
He also said that many people in his branch thought that he was the most popular person there because he went out of his way to get to know everyone. He said that he was probably the only gringo who took the time to get to know the Latinos and try to speak with them. That made us all feel great! The fact that he is losing his fear of speaking in Spanish is comforting (he even said a few things to his mom in Spanish, but we didn't push him to say too much). I could hear that his accent sounded natural and that his pronunciation was very good.
Of course we had to share with him the big news about his buddy Chase Hall's mission call. When we told him that the call had arrived he got really excited. We gave him three guesses, and without telling him if it was foreign or domestic his guesses were Brazil, Lithuania and Chile. When we told him to think closer to his mission his voice got really excited and he guessed Nicaragua. When we told him how about Honduras Tegucigalpa he about lost it!! He just kept saying..."Are you serious?" "No way, are you kidding?" When he finally believed that we weren't kidding he calmed down but kept saying..."That's incredible, I can't believe it!!" To hear the excitement in his voice was just awesome!!
Of course he asked a lot of questions about home and how everyone here is doing. Mom, Dad and Andrew did most of the talking and Ana Maria said a few things, but unfortunately Jonathan felt a little embarrassed and didn't know what to say. After we hung up he started crying because he hadn't said anything. We talked for a while and he said that it was just that he misses him so much and he was nervous (I think that he didn't want to cry on the phone). We were hopeful that he would be able to call back from Miami so that Jonathan could say something to him, but his flight out of Dallas was 1 hour and 15 minutes late and he was not able to call us back. Come to find out that Jonathan was not the only one who was very disappointed not to speak to him again. Turns out that Isabel felt really bad too because the conversation ended so quickly with him saying that they were boarding the plane and that he would call from Miami, that she didn't say goodbye like she wanted to, or even to tell him that she loved him. I tried telling her that he knows that she loves him, but it is just not the same.
We found out from a few other blogs that his routine after arriving would be something like this. Arrive at 8pm local time, go eat a quick dinner at Wendy's (not sure why there), go to the home of the mission office staff and get to sleep. The following morning (Tues) would be interviews with their mission president in the morning, followed by lunch and then a trip to a local area near the offices where they would pair up with older missionaries and spend the afternoon contacting on the street. That evening would be a formal dinner at the mission home and back to the same place as the night before to sleep. Wednesday is the day that they would receive their new companions and travel to their new area. Their mission has a great program where all of the missionaries who are affected by changes come into San Pedro Sula and meet at a local chapel where they have a quick meeting and then say goodbye to their old companions and head out with their new ones. Sounds like a lot of fun being able to see everyone so often!
We are sure looking forward to that first letter next week to find out where Steven is living, who his new companion is and what his first impressions and experiences have been. Should be fun! Stay tuned...
No comments:
Post a Comment