Homecoming

Saturday was a BIG day for us!  First, the Connemara Eagle project in the morning, then a baseball game scheduled for McKay's team at 4:00pm.  We also had a little friend of his over for a few hours before the game.  And right in the middle of all of that, I blasted out a text to my sister-in-law, Nance, who was expecting her missionary son to come home from his two-year service in the Cuernavaca Mexico Mission.  We knew he would be arriving in SLC sometime Saturday night, and I knew that she had so much to do that I thought I'd just quickly send out a little love via iPhone.  

Here's the response she sent back...

  
We had to move a couple of small mountains to get all 6 of us to the airport on time, but we did it!  The Customs line took a little longer than any of us expected, which was a huge blessing actually because we had no way of getting in touch with him to let him know we were there.  So, we waited...mostly patiently...

...some of the elderly and bored in our crowd found ways to pass the time...

and finally...after about an hour, Elder Thunell finally appeared through the doors...

I'm so sorry it's blurry, but we were all jumping up and down...

Tyler was shocked to see us, and we were all so excited, I'm sure we caused quite a scene.  I don't know how many missionary almost-homecomings the people in the DFW airport get to witness.  

We took Tyler to the closest place with food that we could find, and we sat in a giant circle around him peppering him with questions about Mexico.

He was pretty excited about the food, though, so we slowed our questions long enough for him to take a few bites.  He was so cute raving about how beautiful everything was and how good American food tasted after being in a foreign country for two years.  He also went on and on about how big our kids have gotten since he left.  

He had the most adorable Spanish accent and had trouble sometimes remembering the English words for things.  He told us some great mission stories and shared his sweet testimony, and left us with these little facts... 

Fun Facts about Mexico

1.  They DO NOT use utensils there.  They just use their hands and tortillas to scoop everything up.    

2.  Instead of a Tooth Fairy, they have a Tooth Rat.  (hmmm...I can't really picture that in my very-American head) 

3.  There are NO speed limits in Mexico.  

4.  Iguanas are food there. 

and this was my favorite... 

5.  "You get used to eating eyeballs."

After an amazing, leisurely dinner, we took Tyler back through security and sent him off to his  REAL homecoming in SLC, and texted his parents about how awesome our hour with him had been.  

What an unexpected delight it was to be able to catch Tyler halfway between his mission and his final destination.  He had that glow-y, humble, happy demeanor that comes only after serving for two years as a missionary of the Lord.  I am so grateful that the kids all got to experience that glow and hear his love of the gospel, his love for the people of Mexico, and his love for our Savior.  There is nothing better than hanging out with a returned missionary for an hour!

Welcome home, Tyler!