Saying Goodbye

Wednesday, July 29th finally arrived.  Today was the day we took Josh to the SLC Airport to begin his mission.  He is flying to Mexico to enter the Mexico City MTC.  We had to be to the airport at 8:00 a.m.  We spent the morning finishing packing and hanging out as a family. 

Around 7:15 a.m. we packed Josh's luggage into the suburban, took more pictures and headed to the airport.  

After getting Josh checked in, we all hugged Josh and said our last goodbyes.  There were many tears shed, but they were tears of joy. We watched him make his way through the security line. While Josh was in line, you could tell he was visibly shaken.  While we were standing there as a family watching him, we were able to experience a tender mercy from Heavenly Father of watching kind strangers take the time to talk to Josh multiple times while in line.  We saw a change in Josh from sad and lonely...to happy and confident.  I will be forever grateful for the man and the lady who helped Josh get to that point.  We continued to watch Josh go through the process of security and then step away to put on his shoes and belt.  We loved it when he looked our way with a big smile on his face and waved one last time.   We had dropped off our other two kids at the Provo MTC so this was definitely a different experience.   Saying goodbye at the airport was pretty though.  It is really hard to see your child walk away...even though he is walking away to serve the Lord.

Josh is in the very back under the letter D in the sign.

Good luck Elder Mortensen.  You will be a great missionary.  See you in 2 years.