Monday, April 1st - leaving MTC

Today we got ready to leave the Missionary Training Center. We got on the bus at 8 am and it was full of Elders and Sisters all going to the airport. We were sorry to leave the MTC, but also excited to finally be going to Africa! They had to bring an extra truck for our luggage and the bus was a full-sized bus, which apparently leaves every day with the same amount of missionaries.

The other missionaries waiting for the same flight to London

When we got to the airport our plane was supposed to leave at 11:35 am. We went through security and headed off to the gate. We soon discovered that 19 elders and sisters going to Leone France were on the same flight. They were so excited and happy to be going. Unfortunately, our plane was not ready to go until 3 pm because of some technical problems, which meant that the whole group of them going to France were going to miss their connection for London. That's okay because they ended up on our flight to London as well. Fun having so many travel companions, plus another senior couple who were going to London to serve their mission. While we were waiting one of the missionaries from Argentina who flew to Provo to learn French (and spoke Fluent Spanish) saw his parents walk by the area where we were all waiting for the plane to get fixed. They had just flown in from Argentina to SLC  to go to General Conference the following weekend. If we had left on time, he never would have seen his parents (who hadn't seen him in six weeks). Needless to say it was a joyous family reunion. His mom looked at me and said, "Is it okay that we spend a little time with him before he goes...Ha. I pretended I was in charge and said "No problem, if the Lord wants you to see each other before he goes on his mission, far be it for me to stand in the way." Lots of miracles since we have been here. It was a long day and we arrived finally in London with a 12-hour layover before we were to go to Johannesburg. More later on our flight to Africa.