April 26, 2010

This letter made me cry. (not that that's hard to do these days) I loved to hear the blessing of gift of tongues working in his life. He's such a great kid! I miss him to pieces. Here is his letter.

I did send a letter, I resent it so I hope you got it. Also, some clarification on some things. What sounds like garbage trucks all the time are what we call chicken buses. Basically, buses made out of old school bus parts and old loud engines. They´re how we get everywhere we go if we don´t walk. Getting food isn´t hard at all. Every other building is a tienda and they all have the same things. I live in Choki which is at the end of my area, right before the river or stream changes directions. Our area ends at the bridge on the main road that goes across the river. Our area runs north into Chikilaja and San Philipe and beyond. It´s almost impossible to reach the end our area. The investigators that we have are:
Pablo who still has his baptismal date and is getting married with his girlfriend on the 8th.

Mariela is the name of the other investigator who is the novia of Gustavo. She talked with her parents and they don´t want her to, but she has decided to be baptized.

Juana Audelina Juanon is some one we contacted while she was working. We found her looking for a contact´s house when we went down the wrong street. She´s had two lessons. She has 4 kids and her husband has left her. She was doing really good. After our first lesson she asked if we could do anything about her being sick, so we taught her about our blessing the sick and gave her a blessing. She reads all the pamphlets we give her and remembers almost everything we teach her. I´m worried though because we had a cita (appointment) with her yesterday, but when we got there, her kids said she wasn´t there even though my companion saw her face and her youngest son was calling her name. I´ve been worried about it all day. We´re going to try and see if we can talk to her today.

There's another family we´ve taught one lesson. They own a pan shop and we taught them in the shop about a lot of things. The wife was extremely excited but the husband was cautious as everyone probably should be, but we taught them how to know whether what we were teaching was true and then how we get revelation. It was interesting because the wife asked me specifically how God spoke to me. So I taught her about how we get thoughts and then we pray to know if they are of the Holy Ghost and then how we feel that it is right. I did that in Spanish and I still don´t quite know how because I can hardly say anything still. Then my companion taught how we have a prophet who speaks with Christ face to face and receives revelation that way. It was a very interesting lesson and I´m anxious to go talk to them and see how they´re doing.

There are other people that we have contacted that are interested to hear and we have dates to meet with them but I don´t know much about them.

There is a kid here named Anthony who is about Colton´s age and reminds me a ton of Colton too. His family isn´t a part of our church but they are friends with all the members. We haven´t taught them a lesson yet but we are going to soon.

I don´t remember exactly the names of the others in my zone. I don´t have any new pictures. We´re not really allowed to take pictures very often and I haven´t had a reason to quite yet. I will take pictures at baptisms though and things like that or if I find anything unusual, but I´m in a very mellow place.

Don´t worry about writing too much. The more the better. I need the love. Living a mission life is living a strictly business life. I love to hear how things are going. I´m finding that that is one thing I´m missing. I miss just being able to spend nights with family and friends after all the work is done and just enjoying playing games and enjoying each other´s company. It´s something I will forever appreciate after my mission. I´d still like to hear stories from Dad´s mission. If for nothing else, just to feel some commonality in a place different from home. I love the people here. They have faith like you could not believe. The only hard thing is to get them to actually accept us. There are just about as many churches here as there are tiendas. It´s crazy. And most people don´t want to hear us and don´t want to change. They all think that since we´re all Christian that we´ll all be ¨saved¨ even though we all belong to billions of different churches with billions of different doctrine. I love it when we find someone who actually thinks for themselves and actually believes instead of just going to a church to say that they go to church.

My mailing address has been so confusing but I think I´ve got the right one this time.

Guatemala Quetzaltenango Mission
5A Calle 14-35, Zona 3
09001 Quetzaltenango
Guatemala

I love you all and love to hear from you.

Love Elder Landon Crapo

The missing letter!!! Week 1 in the field!

Hola everybody,

First of all, I´m trying to send some pictures but it´s looking like the computer is really slow so I´m going to write as much as I can while I´m waiting. My first week has been interesting. It is a bit of a culture shock but I´m glad I had the CCM to help ease that a bit. So, what´s it like here? Well, it is a very humble place. It´s not as structured as the states and is definitely not as structured as Utah. The roads don´t make any sense except for the fact that they fallow the mountains sometimes. It sounds like a bunch of garbage trucks are driving all over the place but it looks like garbage trucks are distributing the garbage everywhere. If all you did was drive through this place and never got to know the people you could very easily misjudge these people. I´ve been told that I was "born in the states" which means that I am starting my mission in a very nice place and a nice home. We have hot running water and the place we live in is practically the nicest. My "Dad" is elder Allison and is fairly new as well. He has 8 months in the mission now. There is so much I am learning right now, including all those names that I can´t remember to save my life. I thought I was bad at remembering English names... we have two investigators that have baptismal dates for the 1st. One is Pablo who is the novio of one of the members in the ward. He has had a problem with smoking but he´s almost gotten past it. He had a baptismal date for this last week but he fell again. We taught him and he seems extremely sincere. He really wants to break the habit. They are going to be married on the 8th I believe. It´s exciting for them. The other investigator is a novia of a member whose name is... yo creo Gustado.. and her family is Catholic. She is afraid to ask her parents to be baptized so we asked her to set a date and we are going to teach her a number of lessons that should help her come closer to Christ and to gain a testimony and love for Christ. I´m hoping in doing this that she can have the courage to ask her parents to be baptized as her testimony grows. I asked my compañero if he thought that would work and he seems to just go with the flow. Whenever I shoot out an idea, he´s just says OK. The members are great. They are so nice and they are so close as families. There's a lot more I could say but we´re about done. We haven´t figured out how to send mail here yet so I don´t think I´ll be able to send a written letter this week but I will send one with more detail as soon as I can. The bishop´s father in law is one of the very first members in this area and is an awesome grandpa, very humble and just great with his family. He reminds me of Grandpa Chisholm. Everyone here IS really short, and almost everyone who isn´t a member is Evangelico. Knocking on doors doesn´t work. I hate doing it and the only time we do it is in commute to other places and appointments. It´s a rule here not to schedule time to go out contacting and I can see why. It just doesn´t work. My Spanish is coming along as far as understanding but when it comes to talking I just struggle for every single word. I´m talking as much as I can but usually in a conversation, it goes too fast for me to think of something to say before it´s too late. I can´t wait to be able to just talk in Spanish. Everyone has advice on what to do but when it comes down to it, it just takes time. So I´m doing my best to be patient.

Mon. April, 19, 2010

P-day is now on Monday. I was very anxious to receive Landon's email today. However, the letter never made it. He did send some pictures and I am suspicious that sending the pictures took too much time and he wasn't able to send a letter. Either that or the letter got lost in the shuffle somehow. Anyway, we will have to wait until next week to find out how his first week in the field went. Some of the pictures he sent, I have added to the posts where he talked about them. Here are some of the pictures of his apartment.

PHONE CALL!!! April 13, 2010

Landon entered the field today!!! His mission president lets the new missionaries call home to let their families know where they are and that they arrived safely! I was so excited to hear from him. We had a little trouble with the call. I kept losing him. Finally, he gave me his number so I could call him. That worked much better. We were able to talk for about 25 min. He is well and happy to be in the field. After an emotional testimony meeting in the CCM the night before, he said his goodbyes and headed off to have breakfast at the mission home. There, they announced who the trainers and their new greenie was going to be. Landon said there was much cheering during this. They all went their seperate ways. He is serving in Chiquilaja and his trainer is Elder Allison from Holiday, UT. The area went without missionaries for about 8 months and so there is much work to do. Landon loves serving the Lord and is anxious to master the language.

April 7, 2010

Happy Anniversary! And thanks for the scripture cases. I was worried because apparently the guy has already started on it and I wasn´t sure if you would have said yes. I loved conference. Because we were in the CCM, we were able to watch it in English which makes me very happy because I don´t think I would have been able to get very much of it. There´s too much to say and I hardly have any time. Really quick though, I want to express my excitement for the new Duty to God program and want to encourage Colton and Alex to work really hard on it. I think it will teach more and actually help more with making decisions and being well rounded even more than the old one. I think it will be exciting and fun if you really get into it. For Nick, I suggest to become really acquainted with Preach my Gospel. You can really know everything that being a missionary is a bout by going through the entire thing. And I don´t know how it´s going or not, but I would ask that all of you please continue to read and pray as a family every morning and pray for me because I´m going to need the prayers. I contacted in the terenchetas, or whatever you call them, again. The Centro del Ciudad. This time the progress was opposite. I spoke a lot more but I still don´t understand very much, just general ideas of what is being said. I may miss a ´not´ or something like that which changes the entire meaning in the sentence which can be really frustrating. We also ran into a couple of people who were telling us that we were going to hell because we didn´t observe the Sabbath on Saturday, the 7th day of the week, and they had all these scriptures prepared to tell us all the reasons we were going to hell. I couldn´t understand most of the words but their message was very clear. It made me sad because I could see how stuck up they were and closed minded they were. I could see the hardness in their eyes and it really made me sad. I had to drag my companion away from them. He kept offering them pamphlets and things like that, but they wouldn´t even let us talk. I tried to explain to him that they were waisting our time and that there were other people that needed to hear us and that it was preventing us from finding those people, but, that was only the worst case. I went to talk to one guy who and we started teaching him and as soon as we gave him a pamphlet and a Book of Mormon, like the flipping of a switch, he started to cry and say thank you to us. It was totally unexpected and I really wish I could have understood what he was telling us but I was grateful that I knew to talk to him because we had already passed him and then turned around to talk to him. There were a lot of people that we talked to that also were receptive but since all we are doing is getting their direcciones, we don´t actually get to see if they progress or not. It makes me really want to go out into the field. I can´t wait. I only have one more week. yo se que la Iglesia as verdadera y que estoy donde necesito estar. os quiero.

Mar. 31, 2010

Ya! I guess I didn´t tell you yet. I leave two weeks from yesterday. It´s been pretty crazy this week with the whole semana santa going on. We had to write letters yesterday so that they could be sent before the whole country shut down. I don´t know if my letters are getting there. It´d be good to know. I got a letter from the Thompsons Wednesday though! Thanks Sister Thompson! Everyone here get´s depressed when it comes time to get letters because most of the time nobody gets any. (except for elder smith :) Elder Winkle was kind of upset. I thought it was funny) I´m having a lot of fun learning and everything but I´m getting really anxious to get out of this place and get into the field. I know my Spanish is still really bad but I don´t think I can learn much more just sitting here, though at the same time I feel like there is so much I need to do these next two weeks to be ready. It´s all kind of a juggle and I probably worry too much like always but that´s just how I get things done. We do have some new elders with us. A lot of them are going to Xela with me. I love you all and can´t wait to tell you all about what Guatemala really is like. Being confined to the CCM doesn´t give me a very good overview. estoy iendo (to try) hablar en español un pecito. es mùi dificil y no puedo hablar mucho pero estarà divertido. Asi miraràn como mi español es iendo. yo os amo. este es mùi dispasio. no puedo hablar mas.
OK, that didn´t go too well. It was worth a shot. Maybe I´ll actually prepare more to say next time. A two year old could probably speak better than I can, but I´m getting better. Good luck with this next week. The past two days everyone here was really sick and I just barely have gotten better. We don´t know what it was but we think it was the food because EVERYONE got it. Congratulations once again Ashley and Zac. I miss all of you. We have one of the instructors who knows a guy who makes special customized covers for scriptures out of leather and I designed one with the DH on the front and a few pictures and gave it to him to have it made but he said it would be $60 and so I told him I´d have to ask if I could get it so please let me know if I can get it. I would have to pull funds out of the ATM in order to do it so just let me know. It´s perfectly fine with me if you think it isn´t a very good idea. My time is up but I´ll tell you more next week. ONE MORE EMAIL BEFORE I´M OUT THERE!

Mar. 23, 2010

Well, this week is a little different because the Latino missionaries left this morning. There was just more Spanish learning for the rest of the week last week, but on Sunday, we were able to take pictures at the temple before church. It was great. I am starting to accumulate a lot of pictures but I don't know how to send the card home safely. Yesterday was a different day as well. We had a huge gym where we (the Norte americanos) demonstrated the exercises in the book to the Latinos... it was kind of dumb but still fun. After that, we did a service cleaning of the CCM and house of CRE where we practice teaching fake investigators (who are our instructors). During that fun service project, Elder Winkle successfully cloths lined himself with a big huge wire on the roof of the house of CRE. I'm not going to lie, I was laughing really hard. He was running full speed and didn't even see it. Now he has a big red mark underneath his chin. Afterwards, we sang to the Latinos the HYMNO 188 (293 in English :) ) Lots of them cried last night as we exchanged information and said our goodbyes. They left at 2:00 this morning. I miss a lot of them already. Today we went to a market that is completely underground in the center of Guatemala city. It was quite fun. I didn't buy anything so I hope I get another chance to go before I come home because there were a lot of fun, interesting things there. There were also a lot of strange smells there too. I had a lot of fun but I'm really glad I'm not serving in the city. I'm not a city person. A city is like my jungle. We also went to a museum of art and ancient artifacts. It was pretty cool. There was a mural on the wall of one of the rooms that had missionaries on it. It was pretty cool. We also went to see a relief map of Guatemala. It was really neat. Guatemala is quite interesting. The mountains are pretty dramatic. After we got back, we just had gym until dinner and now we are writing. Afterwards, we are going to watch a movie on the ancient findings of Guatemala. Tomorrow the work begins again, all except for letter writing for an hour or so. I got a dear elder from Phil so I guess that it works but I wasn't able to answer him before he left. I hope the wedding went well. If there's anything else I've forgotten don't blame me, I have no idea what's going on at home anymore. I am trying so hard to learn Spanish that other things are escaping my mind. I don't know if I've said this before or not but I kind of have a new favorite scripture. DC 121:34-fin. I like it all a lot. I've realized, dad, that I really don't know anything about your mission. I was wondering if you couldn´t tell me a little more about what actually happened and stories of people you actually knew. I can't wait to actually get out to Quetzaltenango, but I'm excited for the new elders coming in tomorrow. I love you all very much. This whole mail thing has got me confused. I hope you can figure it out though.

Mar. 17, 2010

I can't believe that the wedding is tomorrow! So much has happended since the last e-mail. I have to be quick but I wrote some of the same things in my letter to Nikki and I asked her to send the details to you in the letter. So the most eventful days were the last two days. Thursday, I found out that my old companion was coming here so I'm in a trio companionship now. Starting Saturday, we have been out talking to real peolple. It was really hard and I felt bad because this was the real thing. The past two days we went to the center of the city to contact people with latino companions. Yesterday went much better than Monday for me and yet I still couldn't really participate. We talked to 6 people and one of them, I forgot in my hand written letter, so I'm going to talk about him here. This was in between the one old man who had a complete change in his expression as we talked to him, and the young woman whose husband was murdered. We were walking by the not working fountain and a man came right to us and asked us if we could teach him what we were teaching other people. So we went and sat on the curb and taught him. I didn't understand much but I do know that a car ran over his foot and he had to get it amputated and that he has a family. He was really excited about what we had to teach him and was surprised when we offered him a Book of Mormon. We taught him a little about the restoration, about the Book of Mormon, and a little about the plan of salvation. Again I was only able to see the change in the faces of the people we were teaching but I really wish I could do more than just bear my testimony. My Spanish is to the point where I can understand what people are talking about and somewhat about what their opinions about them are, but I don't know what they're saying and I don't know how to say what I want to say. It takes me forever to bear my testimony because I don't have one memorized. I refuse to memorize a testimony because then it doesn't feel like a testimony. I just say what I can with the words I know. Last night I had one latino elder try to teach me a couple of phrases in Quiche or Kiche or whatever that one native language is called. None of it makes sense. I think it'd be fun to learn but I have my hands full with Spanish right now. If I get assigned to go somewhere where I have to speak that language, then I'll deal with it when I get there. Anyone who gets called to a place like that needs a TON of patience though. Thanks for the e-mail. Good luck and congratulations Ashley and Zac!
Companion trio - Elder Dixon, Crapo, & McGuire

Landon Saves the Day!!! Mar. 10, 2010

Well, like two days after I sent that letter, they had the technician here to fix the problem. (I had been thinking about what was happening and was almost certain I knew what the problem was and how to fix it). So, at that time, we were in our classroom studying when one of the instructors peeked into the room and asked for my companion and me. They wanted some Missionaries to try their e-mail to see if it worked. It didn´t, but I stayed and watched the technician for a few minutes and then told him what I thought he should do. :) It worked!!! So then I spent the next 15 minutes with him fixing all the computers. It was really hard at that time not to start e-mailing you guys. So the food they serve here? Depends on the day. Mostly eggs and beans in the morning, some sort of rice and steak something or other for lunch, and than a Hispanic pasta type something for dinner. Some of it is good, some of it is just good to fill my stomach. The juice is either really good or taste like watered down Airborne. We went to the temple today. That was really neat. We had to talk in Spanish though... It's still hard to understand what they are saying when they speak and my vocabulary is still very small. If I had a large vocabulary, I would be fine right now. We have Hispanic roommates whose names are Elder Garcia and Elder Altuve. They are both great. Altuve is crazy and screams a lot and Garcia loves music and the gospel. I can't wait to see where he ends up in 10 or 20 years from now. My compañero is Elder Dixon. He's from Salt Lake City. He, unlike me, is very good at Spanish. He can talk to everyone and I just listen to see if I can recognize a word or two. It´s kind of rough, but I'll get it eventually. (preferably before the end of the 6 weeks that I'm here) It's good to hear from all of you. Happy Birthday Mom, Congratulations Ashley and Zac. I can't wait to get into the field. We went to talk to members at the temple yesterday. It was really neat. I'm working hard. I love you all.

Landon and Elder Dixon in front of the CCM

He Made It!!!

We got a quick note from Landon on someone elses email saying he made it there and he really likes it so far. They were having problems with the computer blocking the emails. Hopefully they will have it resolved soon.

ON HIS WAY!!! Mar. 2, 2010

We didn't get a letter this week, but we did get a phone call!!! It was so great to talk to him and he sounded GREAT! He loves the work and is so excited to get to Guatemala. Here is a picture of the Elders in his district at the Provo MTC.

Feb. 23, 2010

Thanks for all your letters everyone. So there's tons that have happened and I don't know where to begin, except maybe the most important stuff first. I have learned that I am leaving in a WEEK! I am flying out to the Guatemalan MTC on the 2nd. Don't send anything to me after Friday or I might not get it before I leave. I have all my travel information and I'm the Travel Leader, which means if anyone get's lost or misses a flight, it's my fault. In order to say as much as I want to say, I'm sending everything in one huge e-mail. I can't put more than one address so if you could foreward this to everyone who wants this, that'd be good.
Thanks for all the candy and cookies! The candy I'm saving for when I REALLY want it but the cookies were really good. I have been getting more and more hungry every night, and I think I've gained 5 pounds since I've gotten here, which is ridiculous because I've been eating like I won't get to eat again every meal. I should have gained like 15 pounds by now, but I've started doing crunches and push-ups and all that fun stuff just so that I can feel better. I was wondering if you could send me one of those 5 rights things so that I could do those. I've been really stiff, drowsey, and just feeling like gunk lately so I want to try those. Where did you find this missionary moms group? The Elders in my district are elders: Manning, Griggs, Mondragon, Arksey?, Karchner?, Smoot, Jackson, Thomas, and my companion McGuire. They are mostly from Texas or here. Arksey is from Canada, and mi compañero is from California. we have roomates going to Brazil. Our days are kind of like this... we get up really early (I get up at 6:00 - 6:10) pray, shower, dress, go to breakfast which is a HUGE cafeteria with three menus and you can get whatever you want and however much you want. They have really good juice. Then (depending on the day determines the order) we have an hour of personal study, an hour of companion study, and an hour of language study, with GYM and Lunch and Dinner(at 4:30! no wonder I'm hungry at night) two classes with our two instructors hermano allred we call Todorojo, and hermano paz soldan. It's those classes vary from 2:00 to 2:30 long. Then we have planning meeting at 9:30, go to dorms and write in journal at 10, quiet time at 10:15, and bed asleep at 10:30. It's a loaded day and I often have a hard time focusing until 9 in the morning. I'm tempted to start just pacing while I read scriptures at that time. It's great to hear from all of you I love to get your letters. I know I'm missing some stuff but I'm running out of time now. Our first TRC was great! Tomorrow we do almost the same thing. I can't wait to get into the Guatemalan MTC. It sounds like a whole ton of things are happening all of a sudden now that I'm gone but that may just be because it's all a weeks worth of stuff. I love you all and I hope you all can be happy. I know I am.
Um.. I want to start a study subject of the week. I'll pose a question of some sort and then you guys can write me what you think or have found out. It'd be fun and great for you guys to kind of know what I'm studying. This week the subject is... what the restoration means to you. Not what it is but what it means to you. My time is up but I look foreward to getting your letters. This system does work. Sorry Ashley that I can't get you a personalized one. I'm glad Hunter is doing ok. You might want to test for an allergic reaction to iodine. I heard that could be the cause of a fish allergy. we may need to swap memory cards for the camera, in the mean time I'll just print some and mail them home. Love you all and thank you for all your support. ~Landon

HOORAY!!!!

Landon entered the MTC one week ago today. We recieved an email from him yesterday. I haven't recieved the Forward from my parents yet, but as soon as I get it, I'll post some of what he wrote. In the meantime, feel free to send him a letter! His address is in the right column of this blog. I'm sure he'd love to hear from anyone. Thanks to everyone for their love and support. It really means a lot.

First Letter Home!!! Feb. 16, 2010

Yup! P-day is on Tuesday, and you're right, I hardly have time to think about anything other than the many words of Spanish swimming around in my head and the lessons we're supposed to be teaching. I felt very odd at the beginning to be honest. It's all very strange. My district is still in high school mentality so it is hard to feel the way I thought a missionary would. I don't think I have ever needed to ask for the help of the spirit this much before. I think he has always just asked without much thought to it and I've been blessed with everything I've wanted to do. But, now I have to speak Spanish to a mock investigator tomorrow and then teach them the first lesson. They have put a strong emphasis though that we (the missionaries) don't matter as long as we work. It's what the Lord is thinking about the people we will be teaching, we are just the tools; at least that's how one instructor portrayed it. :) I only have 30 minutes to be on my e-mail. There's a little red timer at the corner of my screen so forgive my e-mails they will just be going as fast as I can. I took some pictures but I don't have them with me so I may send you another e-mail with pictures later if I don't run out of time.

My companion's name is Elder McGuire. (I think that's how you spell it) he's from a small town in California near Sacramento. He's all smiles and has no cares in the world yet he works so hard and is very successful in learning the language. I am still struggling to keep up with everyone else in my district but I think I'll be fine. I love all of you and I really want to know what's going on. I think about what is going on at home every night before I go to sleep. My time is almost up so I'll e-mail you in a week. Oh, and I don't remember the Christensens' address, If I want to write Nikki I have to write a letter. Thank you for your prayers and support. ~Landon

To Dad:
Thank you for the updates. They mean a lot to me. Every little detail counts. I only have 10 minutes left so I gOtta be quick.

My first suggestion about preparing for the mission is to get into good sleeping habits and to never forget to pray morning night and for every meal. Doing that will just put them in the right mood and mind set. Also, everything we do here at the MTC is described in more detail than I had ever imagined in the Preach My Gospel. Nick should study that front to back if he want's to know how things go. I have been tired a lot lately but it's getting better. I'm a little concerned about my Spanish, but I do enjoy it. I think Spanish is probably better than English. The grammar actually makes sense. Tell everyone I love them and tell Hunter I miss him too. I still have a little video on my camera of him and I watched it the other day.

HERE WE GO!!! Feb.10,2010 Posted by Tiffany

Well, this is the day every LDS mother both prays for and dreads! The sending off of her first born son on his mission. It gives new meaning to the phrase, "Great and Dreadful Day!" Others have said, "The only thing worse than them going, is them NOT going." I would have to agree. With mixed emotion, we all loaded up the car and headed off to brunch at Village Inn for our last meal together for 2 years. As we drove away, our good friend and neighbor, Rochelle was on her porch cheering and waiving. Her family had made a banner and put it on the railing wishing Landon luck. She has always been such a great support and loves him almost as much as I do. We kept the conversation at brunch light and fun. After stuffing ourselves, we went to the parking lot, took some more pictures, and started our goodbyes. We weren't sure what to expect at the MTC and didn't know if they would let us all out of the car so we thought we had better do it at the restaurant. We got in the car and headed for Provo. In an effort to keep it light, I started singing "I Hope They Call Me on a Mission" and encouraged everyone to join in, which they did. We sang it a couple of times as loud as we could. As we pulled in the MTC, cars and suits were EVERYWHERE!!! In a whirlwind, we were out of the car and getting luggage. Landon's escort was there show him where to go. We all got out and gave him one last hug and wished him luck and told him that we loved him. Then, in what seemed an instant he was gone in the crowds of people and we were left with the long, quite, (except for the sniffles) home. He will be a wonderful missionary and we are so proud of him!