Airport Phone Call

We just got to talk to William from the Salt Lake City airport. It was a little crazy at first because Scott was at work, so I wanted to get in a conference call so we could BOTH talk. Andrew had answered the phone so he got to talk to William first.  Andrew was sooooo excited! You should have seen the smile on Anrew's face!  I'm glad Andrew answered!!!! Then after I got on the phone, I asked William the phone number of his pay phone so that I could use my cell phone to call Scott, then William....so we could all be on a 3 way call....but that was a DUMBBBBBB idea, because I CAN'T hear and so I accidentally wrote down William's number wrong! SOOOO, when I called him back it was some lady, I called her three times, then tried to call different numbers near what I wrote...but finally William called us back, and gave the number to me again, (I had reversed a 9 and a 3)....so it worked the next time...we got to talk...we probably talked for near a half hour. It was great to hear his voice. His voice hasn't changed a bit. He sounded great!

His flight is going directly to Paris, but since the mission home is in Versailles, their luggage will be taken there by some vans or trucks and the missionaries will get to go into actual Paris for sight seeing and meeting people. They should arrive at the airport at 11:05 am France time.

They are traveling on this flight with a group of Elders/Sisters who are on their way to Hungary. Those missionaries will have another flight after the one to Paris. The group that is going to Lyon, France had to leave at 8 am, they were flying to New York, then London, then Geneva, then taking a train to Lyon...they will take a lot longer to get to where they are going. William's bags were both 45 pounds.  He is sitting in seat 35 A...which is a window seat! He has his camera with him, but it's strapped to his belt! He didn't know until TODAY that he got his VISA, but everyone in the group got theirs, too.

He spoke some French to us. It is a beautiful language. He asked for us to pray for the Paris temple to be built. 
He said the mission president has both written to him in a letter and an e mail.  The mission president said the missionary work over there in France is thirving right now!  He said that a part of his mission is Luxembourg and he didn't know that when he first got his call. 

He talked about his very first day at the MTC, when he was with a huge group of brand new scared awkward elders....they were being guided into the big meeting area room when he heard some people yell, loudly "Neil Diamond, Paris France"....he thought that kinda sounded like Wil Guymon, so he looked around to see where it was coming from and it was his friend Spud Chelson and Spud's companion! What a happy reunion!!! William and Spud have had MANY adventures together through their teenaged years, it's cool that they could add some MTC memories to those past memories!

He said there is a lot of crazy fun stuff always happening at the MTC and even though it is a very spiritual place, there is always irreverance taking place (in fun, not in a bad way) somewhere or another.  He also said every time anyone tries to take a picture there....someone photo bombs the picture!  EVERY TIME....and so I asked him if he had done that to others, he first answered, "no way" but quickly changed it to "yeah" and laughed. 

He told us a little about his San Francisco trip. He said they came in from the North and he could see the Sutter Buttes from far off. He said at the French Consulate they asked him questions in French and he answered in English and they understood him. He said as a group they went to Pier 39, ate clam chowder, went to the Giradelli chocolate place, saw where the Giant play, saw Candlestick park, and went to a museum...(I think it was for the bridge).

He said he didn't really drink Windex...he just used the Windex to clean his waterbottle....and must not have rinsed it out enough, even though he rinsed and rinsed and rinsed....the water still taste like Windex, but he drank it because he was super thirsty.

He said that one of his teacher's might come to Chico for a visit.

I told him about a guy on the Sharks who is dating Tiger Wood's ex wife! and he laughed a lot.

He said the people in the mail room were watching the men's team volleyball olympics and he really wanted to stay and watch!

He told us that his friend Elder Chandler (SVU cross country runner) had been at the MTC waiting and waiting to get his VISA to go to somewhere like outer mongolia (not really, but I can't remember where) but since it didn't come and didn't come, he was reassigned until it comes to Carlsbad, CA. He told me that he does know the two Elders whose mom's I made friends with in an e mail group.

He said that every building at the MTC has stairs and that he is not very good at walking up (or down) stairs, so he fell a lot and rolled his ankles a lot and now his ankle clicks all the time!

He got the stuff I sent him and loves the owl tie.

He wanted to talk to Bradley and Melanee, but Melanee was working and Bradley was swimming at a friends house.

He was hungry and wanted to eat before getting on the plane, so we let him go. I hope he got something to eat...he said the line was long....I KNOW the food will have been EXPENSIVE....but I still really hope he got something!