In January, Logan recieved his mission call to the Washington D.C. South mission. We were all excited for him. Then came the preparation. We needed to gather together all of the things he would need to be gone two years to serve the Lord.
He was to report to the MTC on March 29, 2006. On January 5, that seemed like a long time. It was and it wasn't. It came before we knew it. Early on that Wednesday in March, we were loading up the van and the kids to drive to the OKC airport to say goodbye to our firstborn for two years. It was really hard. We all knew that this was the right thing for Logan to do, but it did not make it easier.
It helped to get that first letter from him. We were overjoyed to read his first letter and his experiences getting out to Salt Lake City and the MTC. Here is an excerpt:
We got a letter from our ds today. Yippee! His letter was so great. We were laughing so hard we were crying.
He wrote one letter, but copied the first four pages he wrote on the plane and his first day at the MTC.I thought I would share some of it. He sent 5 pages. He said, "I never thought I would find a mode of transportation I would hate more than driving myself. Then there was air travel. I am tempted to become an airline pilot to see how stressful it is to fly a plane. I'm sure it can't be any more stressful than being a passenger."
He said, "One thing I will say about the airline industry is that the views are breath-taking. I defy anyone who has an ounce of spirituality to look out the window of an airplane at cruising altitude, see those endless expanses of puffy white clouds while listening to the Mormon Tabernacle choir and not get a little choked up."He had a short layover in Denver.
He said, "The Denver airport was very large and user-friendly once you got the hang of it. Unfortunately, I didn't have any time to spare to take the
5-day tour of the airport. I needed to get to my plane, but first I had to find out where the gate was. So there I was. All alone. Not a soul around. Just me and the empty information desk. I stood there for a minute hoping someone would see this poor Mormon boy and help him out. No sooner than that, a woman walked right up to me and said,
"Do you know of a place where I can plug in my laptop?"
I told her there were some empty plugs that i could see inside the VACANT information desk. About this time she suspected that I did not work here and commented that she assumed i worked here because I looked so official. I asked her if she knew where I could go to find my gate and she said she did not. That left me with three options, Left-Right or up the escalator. So I thought back to my primary songs and decided to choose the right. it was the correct choice. I found out that I would be leaving from gate B19. So I started walking from gate B39, to quite stupidly, gate B15.The reason for this lapse in judgement was all the time i was walking, I kept seeing the signs for gate B29 to gate B15. So after walking past some 20 odd gates I had convinced myself that I needed to get to the last gate. And I did. I kept walking past my destination never stopping until I got to gate 15.
When I had stopped, found a chair and sat down, putting down my carry-on luggage (weight 55 pounds)[he brought two big suitcases and one smaller carryon that he was going to check along with a backpack. The smaller carry-on was going to cost $80 to check, so he carried his carryon and his back pack total weight 55 pounds. I'm sure he found a way to measure it somehow. ] under said chair, I then bothered to look up to see the departure time-8:50-Kansas City Kansas City. I then realized my folly and proceeded to make a b-line for gate B-19 to the Beehive state. And that is where I am headed now after only a twenty minute delay.
Not that I'm complaining though. Delays are low on my list of airplane gripes. I would rather sit in a plane for half an hour on the ground if it meant not having to lug 55 pounds of carry on luggage down two stories, get on a tram, go to some other part of the airport, haul it up two other stories (escalators, but still) walk past 24 gates before you finally make it to your flight.
I'm landing in Salt Lake now. I just wanted to write how beautiful the mountains are. I love our 10 acres in OK, but there is something about the grandure of the great Salt Lake City that doesn't make me want to return right away. I'll be home soon enough.
I'm so tired. We've got another meeting to go to soon. I'll write as much as I am able. As soon as I got here we went right to work. Brother...was right about saying goodbye at the MTC being called the "Wailing Wall". There were moms in their 40's crying over letting go of their oldest son and moms in their 50's crying letting go of their youngest son. I'm personally glad that you did not come with me. With no real connection in the room, I just sat there and watched the movies.
Oh, one kind of special thing happened at the MTC intro...I was asked to give the opening prayer! There I was in front of 200 missionaries and their families and they picked me to give an opening prayer.Now back to the MTC. I was in real trouble at 4:00 pm. I hadn't had anything to eat all day except a package of goldfish which does not a meal make. I was falling asleep in my first meeting, but then we got something to eat. I felt better. I'm really tired so I'm going to say good night." I hope you enjoyed reading this. It may have just been funny and touching to me as his mom, but I am just so excited to get a letter. We were cracking up all through his letter. We love Dave Barry and ds used to read aloud to us out of different Dave Barry books. After reading this, we wonder if we don't have another Dave Barry on our hands.
