When my aunt Jill invited us to come to welcome my cousin Will home at the airport after his two year LDS mission to Japan, I was so excited! Luckily, the timing of his flight worked perfect with the girls' school schedule on Friday afternoon. Getting there was a little stressful. I am so used to PDX (the Portland Airport), I really had a hard time finding my way around. The girls and I went to where we thought we were supposed to be, and even saw several families holding signs and balloons waiting for elders, but the people did not look familiar at all. I called Chrissy and after a few minutes we realized I wasn't even in the right building! (Thank heavens for cell phones!) Like I said, I don't remember the Salt Lake airport so well. (O:
So the girls and I ran to where Christine told us to go - about a block away. Luckily, we got there in plenty of time. We found everyone holding signs - Christine asked that we not calculate her percentages on the poster above. (O: Brad (below) held one of the signs that a friend helped them write in Japanese. The feeling there was so exciting. There were other groups of families waiting in the same area and everyone was anxious and watching closely up the escalators every time a group of people came down. I think Jill was about to burst with all the waiting.
Everyone cheered as we saw the elders coming down the escalator. It seemed to take forever for them to get down. If you have never witnessed a reunion of a mother with her returned missionary son, I highly recommend it. But I also highly recommend bringing a lot of tissues. It is such a spiritual experience. Here is a young man or woman - as many girls serve missions too - who has sacrificed everything for two years; time with family, money, friends, college, a comfortable home, free time to do hobbies, free time in general - all to go to an assigned mission, usually somewhere the missionary has never been to share the gospel with people they've never met and many times in a language they've never spoken before. It is miraculous that there are so many young men willing to make this sacrifice - who love the Lord more than themselves. It is awesome! It makes me so proud of our elders and sisters serving all over the world. Then you think about the loved ones of that missionary. What mom wouldn't get teary just thinking of sending her son or daughter somewhere foreign for two years with nothing more than weekly letters or e-mails and phone calls twice a year. Not to mention the financial sacrifice to support them. When you get to witness the return of a faithful missionary with his family, who also sacrificed so much - the moment feels so sacred. It still makes me cry just thinking about it. Such a powerful moment. The only thing that I can think of to compare it with is when witnessing the return of a soldier who has sacrificed for his/her country.
We all felt so proud of Will! He looked so great!
Christine and Will
What a wonderful day! And what an adorable group! Mary (Will's sis), Hailey, Will, Christine and Lauren. Will, Hailey and Christine were all born the same year - a rather fertile year in my extended family! Kaitlin was also born that year, but she couldn't make it to the airport since she lives 5 hours away. I used to babysit all of these kiddos (well, not Lauren (o:, I didn't know her yet - she's Will's girlfriend). I love my family!
After an amazing reunion with Will, we headed back to Dave and Jill's house to just talk and catch up. Will showed us how he sat during his two years on his mission. He said kneeling so much was hard to get used to and hurt at first, but after a while, he got used to it.
We loved looking at maps, pictures and all kinds of souvenirs from Japan as Will told us stories from his mission. Just a side note: This really brought back so many wonderful memories of the day Bart* got home from his mission. I still remember sitting in his parent's living room and hearing so many stories, looking at what he brought home and asking him all kinds of questions. It was so cool to learn about Japan's culture and Will's experiences. I don't know how long we all sat and talked, but I could've listened for hours longer. It was fascinating! Will definitely learned to love the Japanese people and culture. The fact that he got home just a week before the 9.0 earthquake hit Japan really made the whole disaster hit home. My first thoughts were, "Thank heavens Will got home safe before it hit." But my next thoughts were of all the people that were there that he loved so much. Luckily, he was able to hear after a few days that everyone he knew was okay. My heart ached for the beautiful country that we learned so much about through Will just the week before.
Natalie thought Will's Japanese sword was pretty cool.
We worked up quite an appetite with all the talking, so we had to get some good old Cafe Rio!
Sarah got to practice using chopsticks by eating M&M's for dessert! She got pretty good!
We got to listen in when a friend dropped by (who served in Japan as well) as he and Will conversed in Japanese. It was pretty cool to hear how fluent Will was! Just amazing!
Is this the sweetest picture, or what?
Everyone cheered as we saw the elders coming down the escalator. It seemed to take forever for them to get down. If you have never witnessed a reunion of a mother with her returned missionary son, I highly recommend it. But I also highly recommend bringing a lot of tissues. It is such a spiritual experience. Here is a young man or woman - as many girls serve missions too - who has sacrificed everything for two years; time with family, money, friends, college, a comfortable home, free time to do hobbies, free time in general - all to go to an assigned mission, usually somewhere the missionary has never been to share the gospel with people they've never met and many times in a language they've never spoken before. It is miraculous that there are so many young men willing to make this sacrifice - who love the Lord more than themselves. It is awesome! It makes me so proud of our elders and sisters serving all over the world. Then you think about the loved ones of that missionary. What mom wouldn't get teary just thinking of sending her son or daughter somewhere foreign for two years with nothing more than weekly letters or e-mails and phone calls twice a year. Not to mention the financial sacrifice to support them. When you get to witness the return of a faithful missionary with his family, who also sacrificed so much - the moment feels so sacred. It still makes me cry just thinking about it. Such a powerful moment. The only thing that I can think of to compare it with is when witnessing the return of a soldier who has sacrificed for his/her country.
We all felt so proud of Will! He looked so great!
Christine and Will
What a wonderful day! And what an adorable group! Mary (Will's sis), Hailey, Will, Christine and Lauren. Will, Hailey and Christine were all born the same year - a rather fertile year in my extended family! Kaitlin was also born that year, but she couldn't make it to the airport since she lives 5 hours away. I used to babysit all of these kiddos (well, not Lauren (o:, I didn't know her yet - she's Will's girlfriend). I love my family!
After an amazing reunion with Will, we headed back to Dave and Jill's house to just talk and catch up. Will showed us how he sat during his two years on his mission. He said kneeling so much was hard to get used to and hurt at first, but after a while, he got used to it.
We loved looking at maps, pictures and all kinds of souvenirs from Japan as Will told us stories from his mission. Just a side note: This really brought back so many wonderful memories of the day Bart* got home from his mission. I still remember sitting in his parent's living room and hearing so many stories, looking at what he brought home and asking him all kinds of questions. It was so cool to learn about Japan's culture and Will's experiences. I don't know how long we all sat and talked, but I could've listened for hours longer. It was fascinating! Will definitely learned to love the Japanese people and culture. The fact that he got home just a week before the 9.0 earthquake hit Japan really made the whole disaster hit home. My first thoughts were, "Thank heavens Will got home safe before it hit." But my next thoughts were of all the people that were there that he loved so much. Luckily, he was able to hear after a few days that everyone he knew was okay. My heart ached for the beautiful country that we learned so much about through Will just the week before.
Natalie thought Will's Japanese sword was pretty cool.
We worked up quite an appetite with all the talking, so we had to get some good old Cafe Rio!
Sarah got to practice using chopsticks by eating M&M's for dessert! She got pretty good!
We got to listen in when a friend dropped by (who served in Japan as well) as he and Will conversed in Japanese. It was pretty cool to hear how fluent Will was! Just amazing!
Is this the sweetest picture, or what?
We LOVE Will! Welcome Home!! I am so so so glad we got to be part of this amazing day! An awesome perk of being back home.
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