Airports and Plane Rides

February 12-13, 2002

"I love you sweetheart. Do good." --Mom, at the airport.

I'm writing this from the plane where I'm wedged between two slightly overweight guys who have fallen asleep. I can't stand staring at the little digital map in front of me anymore, so here goes.

Heart-wrenching send-off this morning at the SLC airport. Mom and Dad stayed with me to the very end--the metal detector. I almost lost it a couple of times, but I stayed "strong" for Mom. I'm going to miss her desperately.

At the airport, met up with nine other Elders waiting to fly down to Brazil. Elders Bawden, Clark, Cooper, Merrill, Frandsen, Crofs, Nielsen, Lewis, and Chipman. Also met up with Mr. Gin and Juice himself, Snoop Dogg who was visiting for the Olympics. A couple of Elders posed with him. I think someone tried to slip him a Book of Mormon; and I think he tried to slip them something in return out of sheer force of habit. I got patted down going through security, and they seemed extremely interested in my scriptures, but the whole group made it through OK in the end. From Salt Lake, we flew into Chicago O'Hare. Somewhat counterintuitive when your destination is Sao Paulo, Brazil, but hey, whatever.

In Chicago, we all got some dinner at the authentic Chicago Style Pizza Place in the airport: a little gem called Sbarro. After eating, we realized we still had a good four hours to kill before the flight. We went sight-seeing through the airport, conned some people into taking our pictures,a dn realized that we still had 3 more hours to waste. So we began to play a wicked game of hackey sack. It started off slow, but through consistent effort, hard work, and lots of peer pressure, we eventually got the whole group involved. We had just finished an entire round of "Seepa" (where everyone in the circle hit it at least once) when, and I kid you not, an angel with wings bearing candy descended on us.

Alright, it was a sympathetic pilot, but he gave us some great Valentine's chocolates! And thus ended the Holy Hacky Sack Episode. What a way to spend my first day as a missionary.

One of these guys is from Sao Paulo. He's given me some great advice for Manaus--"It's hot. And lots of mosquitoes. And be careful of dengue. And malayria. And Anacondas. Oh, and cayman too. That's all really. Oh, and don't swim in the rivers--piranha." Geeze. Thanks. He's really polite. He even apologized for getting a Budweiser on the plane. He "doesn't like sweet drinks." I said it was OK.

For posterity's sake, the little map is showing us (represented by a slowly moving red airplane) approaching the Bermuda Triangle at an altitude of 33,000 feet, traveling at an approximate velocity of 569 MPH. Wonderful stuff, technology.

This has been a wonderful group of Elders to travel with. I am incredibly blessed.

Still scared out of my pants, and I can't believe how long two years is when you have to take it in such an idiosyncratic chunk. But blessed nonetheless. I guess we'll see what tomorrow brings.