TRAVEL AND TRIALS

          I had an interesting experience this past week that I want to share.  We may have shared the beginning with you before but I'll share the whole thing now.  Just under two weeks ago one of the young elders was hit by a car while walking across the street with his companion.  The companion was not injured.  The missionary was thrown up and into the windshield of the car and his hands went through the glass.  He then rolled off the car and onto the pavement where he got more bruises and road rash.  He was lucky not to have been killed.  He went to the hospital and miraculously there were no broken bones or head trauma.  He had all his lacerations sutured and dressed.  He did however have a significant soft tissue injury to his knee where the ACL and MCL were completely torn.  Now the end of the story is that after he was stabilized and healed up for about a week and a half he had to go home to Phoenix, AZ so he can have surgery on his knee and then rehab and then hopefully return to the mission to finish his last year.
          Because the missionary couldn't travel by himself the mission president asked me to accompany him home.  So now I can tell you the "rest of the story".  On Thursday this last week we got to the airport for an 8:30 am flight.  We boarded and got buckled in.  The we go the bad news that there was a problem with the plane's electrical system.  They worked on it for a while and then told us that we would need to get off the plane to wait.  There was a part that needed to be replaced--a sensor.  They had to fly to Atlanta (that's where our flight was going) to get the part.  Someone flew to Atlanta and got the part and then flew back to Knoxville (they didn't offer to let us fly with them to Atlanta get the part).  While they were installing the sensor we reboarded the plane.  We got settled and buckled in.  Unfortunately that didn't fix the problem with the plane so we had to get off again.  They continued to work on the plane and then after 8 hours of waiting in Knoxville we finally got to board the plane for the third time and we made it to Atlanta at about 6 pm (after a 30 minute flight).  We waited until about 8 pm to board our flight to Phoenix and got there at about 9 pm local time which was Knoxville time.  I finally was able to get him home safely to his mother.
          There were some who got upset but I was a good boy and didn't let it get to me.  Besides I was representing the Church and we can't have missionaries flying off the handle in a public airport--right?  It was a good opportunity to practice my self-control and patience skills.  I did feel bad for our young elder because he was hurt pretty badly and was in a wheelchair and crutches and was quite uncomfortable all day long.
          I stayed overnight at a hotel close to the airport and then flew home on Friday and got home at about 3 pm.  It was the longest quick trip I've ever taken.  I was supposed to get back on Thursday night so I didn't have any extra clothes or toiletries other than a toothbrush.  But I survived.
          Several months ago I had purchased a Groupon for a pontoon boat rental for a day on Norris Lake just north of Knoxville.  We had gone with two other couples in May but we got rained out.  We rescheduled for this past Saturday.  We went with the Simes and the Coburns.  We had a wonderful time on the boat and even jumped in the water a couple of times.  We had a picnic lunch on the boat and listened to oldies music and visited.  With all these lakes around us we felt like we just had to get out on the water.  Tennessee is a beautiful State!  About the only thing that's hard to deal with is the humidity.
          Have a good week everyone!  We love you all.

Proof that we got in the water

We didn't even get sunburned

The water was not even cold