Dear Family,
We made the trip home on Friday, December 19th. It was a memorable trip home. We rose from our beds in Guyana at 1:30 am so that we could make it to the airport and board the plane by 5:00 am.
We really did not get much sleep, because we were too excited about
leaving on time. Everything when well on the trip to the airport and
making it through customs as we departed Guyana.
The first flight from Guyana to Trinidad was perfect. No hitches.
We stayed on the same plane from Trinidad to Florida and traded seats
with someone so that we could sit together. When we arrived in Miami,
we had 4 hours of wait time before boarding the plane to Dallas, Texas,
so we had plenty of time to make it through the US customs and get some
lunch to eat.
We were a bit concerned about the second flight, because we would
have less than one hour to be on the third plane from Dallas to Salt
Lake City, but as it turned out, we had plenty of time. When we arrived
at Dallas, we took a skyride to our gate and found lots of people
waiting for the flight. The weather in Salt Lake City was bad. There
was lots of snow in the runway and an airplane had slid off the runway
earlier in the day. Soooo, our flight was delayed. We were supposed
to board at 6:40 PM, but we ended up boarding around 8:30 pm.
It was an interesting wait. Within a few minutes after arriving at
the gate, a young woman addressed us as Elder and Sister Beutler. She
was also a returning missionary coming from Brazil. Her original flight
in the morning had been cancelled and she was one of the lucky few to
get a seat on our flight. A few minutes later we met four missionaries
returning from Finland. Then to our surprise, someone called out,
hello, Uncle Melvin and Aunt Carol. It was Amber Beutler, Uncle Mark's
granddaughter, returning from Italy. She was with two other sister
misisonaries and I don't know how many other elders from her mission.
After talking to her we saw more missionaries coming home from Denmark.
We were the only couple, but turned out to be 26 other young
missionaries all going to Salt Lake City on our flight.
One interesting thing that happened at about 8:15
was that the airport gate people told us that it might be hours before
we could leave Dallas, so we might want to reschedule and find a hotel
for the night. Immediately, 5 elders moved of to the side and formed a
circle and had a group prayer. Within 5 minutes, they began loading,
saying that the runway in Salt Lake City was now clear.
Dad and I slept most of the final flight home, since we had been
awake for 20 hours by now. The greeting at the airport was
overwhelming. There were literally hundreds of people there waiting for
their missionaries. As we walked through the roped off aisle with
people on both sides, we immediately say Mark and Joyce and their
family waiting for Amber. Then we saw Esther, Deborah, Jared, and Eve
and their familes. They made the cutest sign with markers and balloons,
welcoming us home. It was a great time.
Since the roads were pretty snowy, we had Jared take us to Jacob's
home to sleep. It was fun to see Jacob and Abi and thier children and
the new baby girl, Camille. Then, the next morning Deborah took us to
Eve's house for a tour and some lunch. Finally, we made it home that Friday afternoon, for a good long night's sleep.
We were too tired to do much Friday
evening, but in the morning it was fun to go through the house opening
up drawers and cabinets just to see what we had there. After living
with two suitcases each for the last 18 months, it was like Christmas
to see all the treasures we had in our own home.
We will ever be grateful for the bounteous blessings of the gospel
and wonderful friends we made in Guyana. Our mission has changed our
lives forever!