The Long Trip

April 26, 2010 Monday

THE LONG TRIP (or What Happened to Tuesday?)

It had finally arrived: Departure Day. The morning was a flurry of last minute washing, packing, stressing, fixing a yard drainage problem, etc. Melanie had taken the day off, and we enjoyed some visiting with her as we went about packing. Pat and Nancy showed up about 1:30 to help take our luggage to the airport, and we left a little after 2 pm. We made a quick stop at the credit union to settle a few things there, and then we stopped at ShopKo for another suitcase (silly us—thinking we were going to pack for 2 years in 3 suitcases). Mike came to the airport from work for a quick goodbye and to help the “old folks” in with their 4 large suitcases, 2 carry-ons and one very stuffed purse. Hugs & advice were shared with Melanie, Pat, Nancy & Mike, and we entered the next step of becoming world travelers once again.
At 3 pm in the afternoon, the airport was relatively empty, and we moved right through check-in and security. I did have to be “wanded” because my new knee & hip set off the alarms. I ended up doing this in every security thing we passed through on the trip. I just told them about the artificial parts; they didn’t ask to see the small cards the doctor’s office had sent out. We flew to San Francisco at 5:30 on a 747. The young man who checked us in gave us a side row of 3 seats and blocked the middle seat so we had some room to spread out a bit. I watched most of “Blind Side” on the way down. We had a 4-hour layover there. We asked for a wheelchair when we landed to get me over to the international side, and are we ever glad we did! The kid who pushed me did it at top speed and it was a long trip. Poor Orson who was carrying both our laptops in his backpack had to hustle to keep up. We had a nice leisurely dinner in a grill and then had time to play a few games of our version of gin rummy while waiting to take off.
We flew on Qantas to Australia. After we boarded, we received a little bag with a toothbrush & the smallest tube of toothpaste I’d ever seen. We were on another big plane but were on a side row with just two seats so I only had to climb over Orson to head to the restroom. I took an Ambien (sleeping pill) and fell asleep after dinner. I awakened hours before we landed and entertained myself watching documentaries on the little TV screen on the back of the seat in front of me. We weren’t charged for headsets like happens on some US flights. We landed in Sydney with a 90 minute layover. We don’t recommend that to anyone. Clearing customs, waiting for baggage, moving it to the check-in side for the domestic area, clearing security, riding a bus to the domestic terminal and walking to the far end of that terminal got us there as the “Final Boarding” sign was flashing for our flight.
The trip to Perth seemed long but was really only 4 hours or so. Once again, documentaries kept me entertained since I couldn’t sleep anymore. We flew a total of 21.5 hours. We landed at Perth at noon on April 28th. Where did the 27th go? Into the land of the International Date Line. We will pick up an extra day as we fly back to the US in 2012. We found our suitcases, put them on 2 “trolleys” and went to the main part of the airport. No one was there to meet us. So we stood there a few minutes and then walked outside. Same story: Nobody there. We waited there a while, then Orson went back inside, found someone who would trade him some Australian money for American dollars, and called the mission office. Sister Kruger answered and was dumbfounded that we had come. She had received no information on when we were coming from church travel. The Mission President and AP’s were in a zone conference so she and Sister Hill came over to pick us up. We went to the Mission Office (by now it was 1:30) and waited until someone would be at the Mission Home so we could go there. The Maurer’s have a member who picks up their son after school when they can’t. Sister Kruger took us over around 3 pm. Leah wasn’t there yet but showed up in 20 minutes or so with Liam who is 11. (Did you know that name came from a nickname for “William?)
We were shown to the guest room and told to rest, shower, unpack, or whatever we wanted to do. The Maurer’s came around 5:30. Leah had started dinner, so Sister Maurer finished it, and we sat down to dinner. The president was picking up Nicholas from his guitar lesson, but Liam was starving so we started without them. The Maurers (pronounced Mora in Australian) are a great couple. They have 2 married daughters and brought their 3 young sons with. The oldest, Jayden, is in a technical school studying construction. They were both soooooo embarrassed because they had never left anyone standing at the airport in their entire mission. (The next day Sister Kruger told us she’d e-mailed church travel about it. The woman there said she’d somehow skipped sending out our arrival information.) Dinner was like a taco salad with apple “pie” and ice cream for dessert. We talked for a while and then went to bed around 7:30 or so. I woke up at 3:30, read for a while, lay in bed a while & then it was time to get up.

NOT WORKING

Sorry, but the blog is going to be just too much work with in addition to writing in the journal. I can't make the blog accept my copy and paste from word. So I will just be e-mailing some of the stuff I've written in my journal. If you'd like to be on that list, e-mail me at mhporter79@yahoo.com and I'll add you to the list.

FIRST FEW DAYS DOWN UNDER

Blimey!!! I just tried to copy and paste some word documents on here and it didn't work. I'll have to try something else. Sorry about that!

WE MADE IT!

We've been here five days and are settling in. I've written a couple of long entries for this, but can't post them until we get a land line into our apartment. We are in a tremendous ward and have been asked to work with the inactives. Everyone here is so great. Being on a mission is good--getting over all the jet lag will be better.

MTC

Tomorrow is our last day here at the MTC. Before we came, I wondered how much we could learn in just 5 days. The only limit, we've found out, is the capacity of our brains. This has truly been a "spiritual high" for us. We felt the spirit the minute we walked through the door, and it has been a frequent testifier (is that a noun?) of the truths that we have been taught. There are 18 other couples going to places like the Baltic, BAltimore, Germany, England, Hawaii, an Indian reservation in Arizona, the West Indies, Jamaica, Sweden and several more than I can't call to mind right now. There are 5 other couples called to proselyting missions, a handful to CES missions, 1 humanitarian, temple mission and more. They are all incredible people whom you would like to be able to add to your list of close friends, but there isn't time. The only things we are allowed to use in our introductions are where we are from, where we are going, and how many senior missions we have served. We aren't allowed to use the "G" word--grandchildren :o) (There isn't enough time for us all to talk about them--we'd spend our whole missions here if we all got started.) The training has been wonderful. Preach My Gospel has been opened up to us. The way to teach now is so much better than it was back in prehistoric times when we served our first missions. The guidance of the spirit determines what and how we teach, and we teach according to the needs of the investigator instead of just checking off a list of 6 discussions. It's wonderful. We've had the opportunity to teach some lessons to "investigators"--senior volunteers who come in to play the role of non-members for us. Even in those role-playing situations, the spirit often tells us what to say and touches us in such a way that we know what's being taught is true. We heard from a senior couple today who has served 4 missions--3 to Tahiti and 1 to New Zealand. It was so inspiring to hear them and what they did. The young kids who have taught us how to teach are so great. We love them. So far, the only improvement we've been able to come up with: recliners.

Hurray for the FBI! We finally got their letter back after 13 weeks. Now the visa stuff can go in, and we are free to take a final little trip before we head into the MTC.

BACK TO WAITING

Now we know why mission calls give folks so much time between when the call comes and when you leave. It's so the paperwork can all get done. We had to request a letter from the FBI saying we are good people so Australia will let us stay the 23 months of our mission. So we sent the request to Virginia like we were supposed to on the 3rd of January. At the end of January, we called to see why we hadn't received it back yet. We were told it takes anywhere from 8-10 weeks to get the letter! Good grief! Government efficiency is at it again.