The MTC, birthdays and Johannesburg Airport

We stayed at home while we attended the MTC.  As before, it was a wonderful experience.  While there we met up with Munkhtaiven, from Mongolia,and her companion, from Japan.  Best of both worlds.  I got to practice my Mongolian and my Japanese.  We hoped we would run into some missionaries heading to Zambia, but we didn't.  I guess most of them go to the South Africa MTC

 Alan pointing to the place in Africa where we will be serving.

 The weather was very pleasant while we were there.

 Ready (almost) to board the plane for the long flight!

We had packed up much of our house so the Van Wageners could move the day after we left.  So, we spent the last night with Emilee and Carl and the kids.  It was a fun night.  We let Ethan and the twins open their birthday presents from us since we won't be here on their birthdays.

 The hardest part of leaving on a mission is the ones we leave behind.  We had recently visited Alison and family and Andy and family, so those goodbyes were already said.  Saying goodbye to the last ones wasn't any easier than the first ones!  We do love our grandchildren.  All 9 of them.  Of course, we love their parents too, but they don't change as much as the children over the time away.

Carl drove us to the airport on Friday morning, leaving Springville about 6:30. It was a good drive and we were so thankful he was able to do that.  To make a long trip short, we left about 10, got into Atlanta for 2 hour layover, flew for about 15.5 hours to Johannesburg, with a two-hour layover and then on to Lusaka.  These are just some of the cool things we saw in the Johannesburg airport. 

 We were excited about anything African at this point!  It's certainly a different world we are entering!

We were so grateful that President and Sister Erickson were there to greet us.  After almost 2 days traveling, we were pretty beat!