Lincoln flew into Salt Lake City Tuesday evening and Jim picked him up
and brought him on home. He looked kinda bushed as he crashed on the
rocker, but he was still smiling. I found out he hadn’t had breakfast and then
had slept through his window of time for lunch on his layover in Oakland,
so he was one hungry elder .
This had to explain why he kept telling me how good dinner smelled while he waited for me to finish.
Jim and I had fun visiting with him and together we all looked at his Tallahassee Florida Mission website
and watched a video of some missionaries and their mission president and his wife. And my goodness,
I can see Daylin and Jarin both in his eyes.
We headed down to Provo with time to stop and say good-bye to Nathan in Orem. Lincoln was Nathan’s
favorite friend growing up and as we drove down the freeway, Lincoln and I were remembering our traditional
yearly camping trip to Silver Springs in Washington. The Waltons always arrived earlier than the Troxels and
the Walton kids would be impatiently waiting for the Troxel kids. If anyone drove by looking at the campsite
we had picked out next to us for the Troxels, the Walton kids would start chasing each other and making as
much noise as possible so that the potential-campsite-stealers would drive on by.
It worked every time. I told Lincoln this is one of the ONLY things I miss about living in Washington.
We headed over to Lincoln’s grandparents, Lee and Barbara Troxel, who lived a couple blocks away from the
MTC and Lincoln was able to spend awhile with them before saying good-bye for two years.
Boy, have things changed since we dropped Dallin off nearly ten years ago. There was a very organized system
for dropping off missionaries in a minimal amount of time with no traffic congestion. There were people directing
traffic every few yards, there were HOST missionaries that appeared to have been assigned to every missionary
that arrived just waiting to escort them in. It ran like clock work and I was most impressed.
This is the moment he had been anxiously waiting for. We were hoping that once he walked in that door, the butterflies
would go somewhere else. I couldn’t even talk him into any lunch somewhere.
His Missionary Host is graciously giving me a chance to get some pictures. I had a good three seconds.
And they’re off!
I was not expecting to, but I got all choked up. I gave him a hug and he was gone.
There was a very powerful feeling there at the MTC. He will have a tremendous experience and I know that he is
going to make an incredible missionary.
