Our Journey to Guatemala

     We flew out of Twin Falls on the 14th of December.  Sarah and the kids took us to the airport.  We had packed well, only had to move one book to another suitcase to make weight.  It was a small plane, which Elder Thompson loves to fly on.

We landed in Salt Lake City about 2:15.  The mission office had a shuttle pick us up and drove us to the Radisson Hotel, where we would stay till the 19th.
     On Sunday, Robert Otteson picked us up and took us to Farmington to attend church and spend the day with the family;  Robert, Iraima, Jp, Savannah, and Sophie.

We hadn't seen them for a few years and had a wonderful time getting to know the kids again.  Jp is getting ready to fill out mission papers.  We are so proud of him and this decision to serve.

Iraima has an art studio in their home and she teaches about 50 students. 
     Our hotel is about 2 blocks away from the temple, easy walking distance.  However, it was so cold in SLC that we choose to ride in the van that the Mission Department provided.  We trained for three days there in the temple.  What a wonderful experience.  We had only been in that temple a couple of times in our lives so it was great to be able to experience the spirit there and see the beauty of it in person. 
     George and Kim Orr came down on Wednesday, the 18th.   We walked to JB's for supper then on to Temple Square to see the lights.  We also toured the Conference Center.  We had a wonderful time with our dear friends.  As we said good-bye, we left our winter coats with them to take back to Jerome.  We will not need them in Guatemala.

     We had to be to the airport by 5:30am.  During the night, we had a freezing rain and then about 4 inches of snow on top of that.  The shuttle got us to the airport safely and we got checked in to wait for our flight.  It did not stop snowing.  Our fellow temple missionaries were to leave an hour before us but were still there waiting for the storm to ease before they could leave.

Elder y Hermana Thompson, Elder y Hermana Homer,  to the Lima Peru Temple as a counselor; Elder y Hermana Cannon Lima Peru, and in front Elder y Hermana Beckenhauer to the Hawaii Temple

We were starting to get a bit worried about actually getting to leave due to the weather.  But finally we were boarded and started to pull away from the gates for the de-icing process.  Then we were told that our flight had been cancelled due to the storm and due to the fact that one of the windows in the cockpit had just shattered.  So we pulled back to the gate and had to retrieve our luggage.  We called the number that the airline gave us to reschedule and they didn't have a flight we could take until Monday.  That was not good news.  We then called the Mission Department and they were able to book a flight for Saturday, the 21st.  They put us up again at the Radisson but there was no shuttles to be found at this time.  We decided to take the train back to the hotel.  So with 5 suitcases in hand we headed back.  It was still snowing. And with no winter coats, it was very cold.  We had to walk a half block to our hotel from the train stop.  Have you ever tried to roll a suitcase through 5 inches of snow?  We were blessed with a man and a woman who came to our rescue and helped carry our luggage to the hotel.  We were cold and wet but so thankful to have a roof over our heads for the next two days as we waited to get out of SLC. 
     We spent Friday in the temple.  It had stopped snowing and the sun actually came out so the walk wasn't unbearable without winter  coats.  It never got above 30 the whole time we were in SLC.  Saturday morning we had to be at the airport by 3:00am.  The shuttle again picked us up and got us there safely.  It had only snowed about 2 inches this time, but no freezing rain.  Our flight was an hour late taking off, then we had to do the de-icing process.

  By this time we were a little worried about catching our next flight out of Houston.  We reached Houston only to have to circle for about 45 minutes as they had a huge rain storm at that time.  Instead of having a 3 hour layover, we had 15 minutes to catch our plane.  It was such a relief when we finally were in the air and on our way.  We arrived in Guatemala about 3:30pm and after about 2 hours in customs and luggage we walked out the doors to find President and Sister Burk.  It felt so good to finally be home.