The Call from the Airport

July 20, 2009 We just got off the phone with Grady. He called from the LA airport only about 30 minutes before his flight for Japan was leaving. He'd been on the ground for 2 hours before he called us! Waiting for his call was excruciating!!!! Gus came home from work early so he wouldn't miss it and ended up waiting three hours. My mom came over and waited two hours, but had to leave to attend a funeral. Lenzi was in Utah, camping with Jon's family, so she was waiting anxiously for us to call her when he called (3 Way calling is great!). Unfortunately, Rudy was on the Middle Fork, guiding for the Boy Scouts, so he missed the call.

I kept thinking that maybe he missed the plane in Salt Lake or maybe something happened in the airport or maybe he couldn't find a phone to use! Lenzi said that knowing Grady, he probably started talking to someone and forgot to call us!!! (I was really hoping that wasn't the case--that he forgot to call us!) What did happen is there was a bomb threat at LAX so they had to evacuate the airport. I don't think he was evacuated but I think it may have either affected the incoming flight from Salt Lake or maybe they had to stay on the plane when it landed--we had such a short time to talk that I didn't get the whole story. But, most importantly, he sounded great!!! He said he loved the MTC but he was ready to get to Japan. He said that there are eleven missionaries traveling with him to Japan. He also spoke some Japanese and it sounded great to us! He said it was amazing how fast the language came. He said that he isn't very good at either speaking or understanding yet, but he felt like he learned an incredible amount at the MTC. We were especially glad to hear that he hadn't lost his sense of humor. He said that he was always hot and sweating-especially because he had to carry around a 20 pound purse!! He was referring to his messenger bag. The way he said it was so funny and we all had a great laugh, just like we used to do.

I'm so glad he sounded so good. We were all pretty sad after talking to him, but how can we be sad when he is so happy. What an exciting journey we're all on!