Departure Day

Wednesday, September 2 was the dreaded "big day". We left the house about 8:00 am and drove into town so that John could say his goodbyes to Steven, Beth and the kids. Here is a cute picture that Beth took of John holding Luke.

We then headed south to Alpine, Utah for a quick visit with Pete and Terri. After leaving Pete's house, John wanted to go to Del Taco for his last fast food meal in the USA, a Double Del with Chili Cheese Fries. We got to the airport and checked in and still had an hour to kill, so we found a place to sit down near security. John's missionary traveling companions were also there. We got to meet Elder Stilwell's family from Provo. We also met the sister Missionaries and their families. I so appreciated the extra time we had to chat, but I mostly just sat there and fought back tears. The time finally came that we had to say our final goodbyes. As John entered the security check-in line, a very nice woman TSA employee said "Goodbye and thank you for your service!" to each of the missionaries. We watched as John went through the scanner and then noticed that the TSA agent had taken John to the side and was going through his carry-on bag. We could see John shrugging his shoulders, but we knew he had something in his carry on that was not allowed. It turns out that John had placed his butterfly knife in his scripture pouch a few weeks earlier and had completly fogotten about it being there. The agent brought us the knife as John mouthed the words "I'm sorry". I am so glad they were understanding and didn't arrest him.