We’re currently 1,392 miles away from Honolulu with just over three hours and ten minutes to go before landing. This’ll get uploaded to the blog sometime much later this evening after we get to our apartment and put some things away.
We had breakfast at the Mission Training Center and then met our driver at 7:30 am this morning. We were the only ones going to the airport. By 9 we were through security and headed to gate C6 to wait for the flight to Honolulu. Security was a breeze … the best security experience I’ve had since this whole security theater was implemented. The TSA Precheck process makes getting through security quite easy in exchange for revealing a whole bunch of personal information. I think it’s worth it. No taking off shoes, no pulling out computers and other stuff, no emptying pockets. My new knees, of course, set off the machine resulting in a quick pat down that was, for the first time, non-intrusive.
Our very good friends Paul and Rosalie were also at the Salt Lake Airport trying to get on a standby flight to Florida. They were having to wait … and possibly won’t get out until a red-eye flight late tonight … so they stopped over to our gate and we visited until we boarded the airplane (update: two days later and they still haven’t gotten out on a flight).
The flight is completely full (again, not unusual). Nina and I are in aisle seats kind of across from each other. She’s got a rather bulky guy sitting next to her by the window. I’ve got a young kid in the middle seat beside me. While there are a few people that look like Hawaiians, I’m pretty sure most people on this flight are headed on some kind of grand vacation adventure. For sure, we’re headed to a grand adventure, but it won’t be vacation!
There is another missionary couple on this flight. These folks are going to the Laie Temple as trainers. They’ve been in Salt Lake City at the Salt Lake Temple for three days of training. Temple missionaries don’t go through the MTC, but their training sounds pretty interesting as well. I expect we’ll see them from time to time and get to know them a bit better (update: their apartment is directly across the street from us).
So, we’re leaving the training environment behind and getting out into the real world of the LDS Church Visitor’s Centers. At this moment all I know is that an Elder Johansen is picking us up at the airport and taking us up to Laie and our apartment. Hopefully there’ll be some additional instructions, like where to be and at what time tomorrow morning! I think it’s about 1 1/2 hour drive from the airport to Laie, meaning that we won’t be to our apartment any earlier than 6 this evening Hawaii time … which is four hours (during the summer) earlier than Salt Lake City.
The flight is just over half done. The total flight time was 6:29 and there’s three hours left. There isn’t much to do, of course. I’m listening to some classical music while I write this. I finished Ben Bova’s book “New Earth” earlier in the flight. I’ve other reading material available, maybe later. I might even try to get a bit of shut-eye. I haven’t had a really good night’s sleep since we got to the MTC.
Much Later….
We arrived in Honolulu. On time. All the luggage arrived! No issues at all. Elder Johansen was waiting for us and off we went to Laie. It was a long drive. The speed limits are between 25 and 45 mph on two-lane roads with plenty of traffic. Everything we’ve heard about the traffic in and around Honolulu is absolutely correct. We got to our apartment just as the missionary couple we’re relieving were leaving to go to the airport to fly back to Salt Lake City. It was good to have a few minutes with them for a turnover. Then, we were mobbed with young sister missionaries! They are so delightful. We crashed just after 9pm … which was just after 1 am Salt Lake time … making for a very long, exciting day.
Tomorrow everything starts!