Flight UA 4662Y

I'M BACK FROM MY CRUISE! WAHOO! :) And I have more posts to come talking about how wonderful it was, but today I thought I would talk about my flight home from the Texas (IAH) Airport. Enjoy! :)

Yesterday morning we woke up at 1 am Utah time, to start our travel home. We started at the Ft. Lauderdale Airport in Florida and then flew to Huston Texas and had a 3 hour layover before boarding our flight to Salt Lake City. Well once we arrived in Texas, we went directly to our gate and waited. About 2 hours later, we saw FOUR LDS Missionaries walking up to terminal B87. (Which was the terminal our flight was leaving from). My mom then said, "Hey! We should get a picture of them with "Flat Jacob". Me being the chicken that I am, wouldn't go over, and next thing I know, my Mom and Dad were walking over with "Flat Jacob" to get a picture! When they got back, they told Elaine and I that they were from a Mexico mission heading home to Riverton (2 of them), Tooele, and Idaho. But don't worry, it only got better! Once we boarded the plane, the two that were from Riverton, sat right in front of Elaine and I and it was the FUNNIEST thing to watch them the last

3 hours and 22 minutes before they would see their families.

At about half way through the flight, one of them turned around and asked if we had any food. They hadn't had anything to eat since they left Mexico the day before! Luckily we had a brand new bag of Twizzlers that Elaine and just bought at the Airport and we gave it to them. Once we handed it to them, he turned back around and said, "You will be blessed". Elaine and I were laughing because it's just so funny/cute to watch missionaries be missionaries. Towards the end of the flight the captain came on and told us that we would be landing in 45 minutes. One of the missionaries smacked a hand to his forehead and dragged it down his face while saying, "THIS HAS BEEN THE LONGEST PLANE RIDE OF MY LIFE!!!!"  It was SO funny! As we started flying over the mountains you could see the snow. Then they started complaining, haha, "It's going to be so cold!" "I guess we could just go back to Mexico!" "I HATE snow now!" "It's SPRING! Not winter!".

Gotta love Utah's bipolar weather!

As we got closer, they started making bets about who was going to cry! Haha. One of them said, "My mom is going to BAWL!!!" They honestly were SO excited! Haha. They were jumping up and down and hitting each other and patting each others backs and couldn't stop talking the whole rest of the way home! Then right as the wheels of the plane hit the ground, the missionary closes to the window threw his fits in the air and yelled, "YES!!!" HAHAHAHA! Everyone on the plane heard him and started laughing. :) The smiles on there faces were so cute. BUT it didn't stop there. Once we got off the plane it was like we walked into the MTC! There were atleast 50+ missionaries waiting for flights to where ever they were called to serve! As the newly returned missionaries passed them, they wished them all luck and you could tell some of the ones just leaving were so envious of them! Haha. Then they had to go make sure the Elder flying on to Idaho made it to his terminal, so we got ahead of them and saw all of their families holding up the signs and trying to see past the gates if they were coming down the escalator. I was loving every moment of it!

We walked over to the baggage carousel and I couldn't take my eyes off of the families waiting to see their missionaries for the first time in TWO years! It was so fun! Then one of the mom's squealed and put her hands over her mouth and jumped up and down and ran over and hugged her missionary and from then on out the other families followed the same pattern. :) I started getting teary so I had to turn away haha. But watching all that happened, seeing the return of the missionaries, being on the plane ride with them before they came home, and watching the new ones leaving to their missions made me gain so much MORE respect for missionaries! It was just another eye opener at what they are really sacrificing. They leave for TWO YEARS to places all over the world to share this gospel. In reality it goes by so fast for them, they grow so much, and it ends up being the best two years of their life, but it really is a sacrifice to leave everything at just 19 years old!

 Having had my dad, my mom, two of my brothers, my sister, cousins, friends, and my best friend serve/serving missions I am so grateful for them. They truly are blessing their lives, the people they teach lives, and our lives by giving up two years to serve our Lord. I am SO incredibly grateful for what they are doing. Thank you to all of you that have served missions, are going to serve missions, have a missionary out, or are being missionaries every day and are reading this! You are ALL hero's to each and everyone of us! :)

So today, if you have time, I challenge you to write a missionary and thank them for what they are doing. 

Even if you don't know what to say, just draw a picture or something!

They will LOVE to hear from you! :)

...................... and THAT'S a sip of Livi's Lemonade! :)

Here's the Elders with "Flat Elder Parmley"

(One of the Elders stepped out of the picture so it would be like they were on splits! :))