December 13, 2011
Well, we got word that Spencer was traveling to
About 10:15 or so Grandpa Anderson (my Dad) called and said that Spencer called him. They had a good visit. Grandpa had his game night over and so he put him on speaker phone and they all had a nice chat with him. One friend had been on a mission so she had some nice advice. Another friend was a 95 year old lady that had a son that served a mission over 45 years ago. We hung up with Grandpa quickly with anticipation of the call from Spencer. It never came. We went to bed a little disappointed and a little angry that we didn’t get a call. All of his brothers stayed up until midnight and no one really got any sleep.
My alarm went off at 4 am so I could get in the shower to get ready for the day. I had a job to be at by 7:30. We waited and waited for the phone call. It finally came at 6:15 am. The payphone he was using was not working so he finally borrowed a cell phone from someone from his flight that was also going to Tegucigalpa to visits some friend. We talked for about an hour.
We first asked him why he hadn’t called us yet and he said he thought we were going to call him. I screamed…..How was I going to do that. He said you said I was going to page him at the airport so he was waiting for me to call. Emails. Sometimes a poor way of communicating.
We asked him about his weight. He thinks he did alright. He probably gained some weight but he could still wear all of his clothes but it was a little hard to button his suit coat. He also thinks he will lose it quickly once he gets down there. He played basketball everyday.
He was traveling with six missionaries including his companion from the MTC, Elder Harrington, and 3 of them have been in the MTC for only 3 weeks and they were traveling to the Guatemalan MTC. So they were only with them to Atalanta. He said he knows Elder Morris who I have meet his parents through Missionary Moms.
He told us that he ran into Don Fletcher. They were all standing at the gate and a man came up and introduced himself as Bishop Fletcher from San Francisco. Spencer looked at him and said, “I think I’m related to you.” I have relatives that live in San Francisco that are the Fletchers. Sure enough, he is Allan’s cousin’s husband. What a small world. Don sent us an email a couple days later telling us the same story. He said that Spencer looked great and was excited to be out in the mission field. I thanked him for being at the right place at the right time. Just a little “Tender Mercy” that day!
Spencer talked about Sundays at the MTC. They had breakfast, priesthood meeting, study time, Lunch, Sacrament at 12 pm, Temple Walk, Study Time, Dinner, Devo, and Study Time. He said that every day felt like Sunday.
The first three weeks drug on, but then the time flew by. He talked with some people at the airport in Spanish and he could barely understand them!
He was freezing in Utah and he couldn’t wait to get to Honduras. We told him that it was 85* in Tegucigalpa and he was excited about that! He told us that he no longer wants to go to school in the snow. He is going to go to ASU where it is warm. I told him to wait until he gets home to see how much it costs! We’ll see.
He had a district of 6 Elders and a Zone of 5 Districts. He really liked his companion. They got along really well. They will be out the same amount of time.
Computer time: The MTC figured out how ALL the missionaries were going around the timer and how they could email/text so they put a stop to it.
He received all of the dearelders! Thank you everyone who wrote him! He received an email from Kevin Morrison. He said he was out giving lessons in the street the other day and having some great success. (He’s a friend that is in Puerto Rico)
We talked about our trip to Lake Havasu, The Cardinals beating the 49er’s, basketball NBA starting on Christmas day and the Suns crazy schedule. He knew about it from new missionaries coming into the MTC.
He loved Devotionals. Elder Scott he said was big and talked really slow. M. Russell Nelson was his favorite. The Prophet was at BYU but he didn’t come to the MTC. They were disappointed.
We told him about Garrett wearing his Kermit hat and Mitchell got mad at Garrett for wearing it because Spencer gave it to Mitchell. Garrett got it taken away but I wrote a note to the teacher to have him send it back home. Garrett wouldn’t wear it anymore.
Garrett asked about the little stuft animal he sent and Spencer said that some little Honduran boy will end up with it.
His iPod is good! Yeah! I spent a lot of time getting it ready for him. His comp only had 30 songs on his. He wished I had put the whole Wicked CD on it. He is going to make a playlist when he gets down there. They’ve listened to it everyday since he got it =)!
We talked about DearElder.com, emailing and computer time. He doesn’t think he’ll have much computer time but I told him they will have a computer somehow, somewhere. The missionaries have to write home and they have to write reports to the Mission Pres.
He hasn’t heard from his Mission President and he doesn’t know much about his mission.
He talked to Grandpa and Allie while at the SLC airport. He called us, Grandma Linda and Lauren before he left Atlanta. He missed talking to Connor because he had to leave for school.
Tegucigalpa is one of the most dangerous airports in the world to fly in to, “Top 5.” It’s a small runway and there are houses at both ends of the runway! Sis Sproge from our ward is a flight attendant told us about the airport. I would be white knuckling it that’s for sure!!
We were very happy and excited to hear from him. As we were ending our conversation with Spencer, I got a call from the Junior High that I was subbing for asking if I was on my way. I said no not yet but soon. I was then told that it was an “A” hour class and I was already 15 minutes late. I quickly said good by, got dressed and headed to work. When I got there they had another teacher sitting in for me. Once I got settled in, I introduced myself. I always tell my class about my family. When I started talking about Spencer I got all emotional and started crying. It hadn’t hit me until that moment that I just talked to my missionary. Over half the class was LDS so they were sympathetic for me. What a great day! I was on an emotional high. Now we have to wait until Monday to get our first email to let us know where he is in Honduras.
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