Phone Call From L.A.

Dallin called us today from the LA airport while they had a 3 hour lay over. We talked for a little over an hour. Brooke and Kira called at different times and we had a three way visit on our cell. Dallin said that it was warm in LA and that they got up at 3:30 a.m. to get on a 6 a.m. flight to LA. He estimates that he will arrive in Tokyo in 9-10 hours. There is a 16 hour time difference in Tokyo. Yikes. It will be the late afternoon of Tues. when he gets there. He said he had two luggage and his back pack for carry on was stuffed but he made it all fit. Yesterday in the MTC he said the time crawled because meal time usually breaks things up but it was Fast Sunday. A member of his bishopric that grew up in Brigham had his daughter Anne Marie and husband visiting their ward in the MTC yesterday. They are good friends of Dallin's brother Tyler and they visited with Dallin. To summarize eating at the MTC for 3 months...he lost 6 lbs. because he ate less and played basketball every chance he could. Some people from Salt Lake sat next to him on the plane and their son is in Dallin's good friend Tyler Voorhees' mission. Dallin said one of the favorite things he got while in the MTC was the digital picture key chain that Tyler ( his brother)and Nat sent to him. It has pictures of our house, Spanish Fork, the mountains and family. Dallin feels he can communicate okay in Japanese but has a hard time understanding it still. There are different levels of politeness and the plain form is spoken on the street and is harder for him to understand. He said he had plenty of ties and they are only $1 in Japan. He will try and bring lots home in two years. They are so cheap that the missionaries will be matching ties to attend Zone Conference, etc. Out of Dallin's group, two missionaries went home. Both of them were the only members in their family and had struggles. One Elder broke his finger playing 4 square and then had to go to the hospital for a torn knee while playing basketball. He is on crutches. His companion had to go to the hospital a few times for his jaw (PMJ) and one Elder had ankle problems. Dallin's favorite food in the MTC was the club sandwich. In Japan he will be sleeping on the floor on a futon and luckily it is too cold for bugs. He got to meet President Daniel's son who arrived at the MTC a few weeks ago to get ready for a mission to Taiwan Taipei Mission. He knew he was his mission president's son because he was friends with several of the missionaries already there. We were sad to say good-bye but happy that he is FINALLY on his way...yipeee!