He Arrived

What a crazy, crazy week.

Elder James Smith left the Missionary Training Center in Provo, Utah at around noon on Monday, 11 March, 2013.  His mission president requested early travel for the fourteen missionaries that would be traveling together to the Philippines, Cebu mission.  If Missionary Travel could get them there a day earlier, then they would arrive on their preparation day, and that would make things easier for the incoming missionaries as well as the fourteen missionaries that would be training them.

But little Mouse, you are not alone,
In proving foresight may be vain:
The best laid schemes of mice and men
Go often awry

–Robert Burns, 1785

In order to get the missionaries to Los Angeles at the last minute, the group of fourteen were broken up into three travel groups.  James got to fly directly to Los Angeles from Salt Lake City, which was nice.  Others had layovers in different airports.

We were able to talk to James very briefly in the Salt Lake airport, and he promised to call us for a longer visit when he had a layover in Los Angeles for several hours.  After finding some dinner, James called, and we put the phone in the middle of the kitchen table and talked as a family for almost an hour.  It was wonderful to hear his voice.  It was fun to hear the excitement in his voice.  I realized how much I miss his laugh and his humor.  It was a very, VERY fun conversation.

We said goodbye, thinking we wouldn’t hear his voice again until Mother’s Day.  We went about the rest of our evening activities, and I ended up falling asleep in front of the television.  I was startled awake when my wife leaned over to shake me awake.  She had woken up to the sound of my cellular phone ringing.  I checked my voice mail, and it was James.  I quickly checked the balance on the phone card we had given him to use and I added some money to it since it was getting low.  He ended up checking the balance, heard that there was more money on the account, and knew that I had gotten his message, so he called back and told me what was going on in more detail.

All of the missionaries had met up in the Los Angeles International Airport and went together to the International terminal to check in for their flight and they were told that despite the fact that they had been given boarding passes, there were no associated tickets.  They were told that they could change their flight for $75 per ticket.  The travel leader called Missionary Travel and were given the go-ahead to pay the fees and they would be reimbursed.  When he went back to pay the fees, it was no longer $75, but it was $150.  He called again and Missionary Travel said to pay the fees.  This process was repeated as the price per ticket climbed to $300, then $500, then $900 per ticket.  Each time, Missionary Travel said to pay the fees.  They were willing to spend an additional $12,600 to get these missionaries to their destination! Finally, Philippine Airlines said that there was not enough room on the flight.

At that point, Missionary Travel booked them into the Marriott Hotel at Los Angeles International for the night.  They were told that they would fly out the following day as originally scheduled.

The next morning, they found out that they could only get seven of the fourteen missionaries on the flight.  Apparently, the boarding passes were printed before tickets were issued, and without realizing that, the tickets on the original flight were cancelled.  At least, that’s my best guess.  Nobody is really sure WHAT happened, other than that someone, somewhere made a mistake.  The missionaries were told who would be traveling on Tuesday night, and who would be traveling on Wednesday night.  James was in the Wednesday night group.

Except…Philippine Airlines didn’t HAVE a flight on Wednesday night, so the seven stragglers were booked on the Thursday night flight.

The missionaries spent Tuesday studying.  A couple of missionaries took a taxi to a clothing store to get some clean socks.  The seven missionaries that were leaving on Tuesday paired up with the seven that were leaving on Thursday, making assignments for the Tuesday group to pick up the luggage for the Thursday group and get it to Cebu.

The seven stragglers decided to go to the Los Angeles temple on Wednesday, which was a good experience for them.  Rather than having to spend another day in a hotel room, avoiding the television and studying all day long, they did something that lifted their spirits and gave them a spiritual recharge.  They even met some missionaries in the Los Angeles temple visitor’s center that had entered the MTC on the same day they had entered the MTC.  It was a good day, and as I talked with my son that evening, I could tell that other than just wanting to get to his mission, he was happy and had a good day.

He had also gone to a clothing store and bought a pair of shorts and a t-shirt so he could wash his white shirt–the same shirt he had been wearing since Monday morning.  He said it was pretty funny to see the elders in the laundry in their t-shirts, shorts, and dress socks and shoes!

Finally, on Thursday evening, he got to the airport and through security and called us again as he prepared to board his flight.  We spoke with him again for almost an hour, wished him luck, and sent him on his way.

I used flightaware.com to track his flight.  He had given us his flight numbers, and I waited and waited for his flight to leave.  It was scheduled at 10:10pm, but it didn’t actually leave Los Angeles until just after midnight.  After tracking the plane for a while as it flew out over deep water, I finally went to bed, thinking that since he was finally on a plane, the rest would go smoothly.

The next day, I “watched” the plane land in Guam.  It had arrived a bit late because of the late departure.  It was only supposed to be in Guam a very short time, but the plane stayed almost another hour.  It left Guam almost three hours later than it was supposed to.  When it finally touched down in Manila, the missionaries’ connecting flight had already left.

And that’s the last I heard.  The flight landed in Manila a little before 7pm Utah time on Friday evening.

It was completely nerve-racking to not know if he had made a connecting flight from Manila to Cebu.  I assumed that had happened, but I had no way of knowing.  I was hoping that James’ mission president would send us an email or make a quick phone call so I would be able to worry and stress a bit less.  No such luck.

So I continued to stress.  On Saturday evening I called the Mission Home in Cebu.  It was Sunday morning in Cebu, and I realize that mission presidents are VERY busy people, especially on Sunday.  I left a message, asking for a quick email, just so I could know that the missionaries had made the rest of the trip safely as I had assumed.  But no email came, and I continued to stress.

On Sunday evening, I called the mission office (it was Monday morning in Cebu) and I explained to the Sister that answered the phone who I was and that I just wanted to make sure that my son had arrived safely in Cebu.  She asked for my son’s name, and after I told her, I heard her say, “Elder Smith, it’s your dad” and the next thing I knew, I was very VERY relieved to be talking to my son.

He had arrived in Cebu sometime on Saturday, so he probably landed sometime while I was sleeping on Friday night.  He was in his first area (in the heart of Cebu City) with his mission trainer (Elder Galdones, I think).  His luggage had, however, NOT arrived.  He had been living for nearly a week with ONE white shirt and tie.  All of the Elders that were still missing luggage were staying in my son’s apartment (because he said it was really nice), and they were only at the mission office because their luggage had been located and they were heading to the airport to pick it up.

So that’s how my son ended up finally getting to his mission in Cebu City, Philippines.  I’m sure he’ll tell us the rest of the story of his flight from Manila to Cebu in his first email on Wednesday morning.  I’m just glad, and very, very grateful, that he arrived safely.  Now that he is in his mission with a mission trainer and a mission president and a mission organization to help him out when needed, I can worry a LOT less about him.

Last night, I think I actually got the first good rest I’ve had since Monday.

The night before James was born, my dad told me “You’ve now had all of the sleep you’re EVER going to get.”  I thought he was joking.  But it turns out that he was right.  I doubt that there will ever be a time that I don’t worry how things are going for my sons.  It’s an integral part of being a parent.  However, now that I know James is no longer trying to get to his mission, my stress and worry is greatly diminished.