NORWAY!…Week 6

After 20 hours of travel, a canceled flight, hardly any sleep in 24 hours, lots of laughter, and a few HAPPY tears…Soster Neilson is in NORWAY!

photo credit to Janet Johannessen :)

We are so grateful she arrived safe and HAPPY! We were able to talk to her for about an hour while she was at the Salt Lake City Airport…what a treat! Zack and Kaylee were able to come up for the call (thanks Navy for having a birthday and giving all your sailors the day off!). A BEAUTIFUL act of kindness made it possible for us to talk so long! A family at the airport gave the missionaries their three phones and iPad so they could call and/or FaceTime their families! That means we got to see her beautiful face for a bit too! What a BLESSING! We are so grateful for that family and plan to pay the kindness forward! :)

Here's how crazy her travel day was: 

• 7AM: arrive at the SLC airport to find out that your flight to Texas was canceled due to bad weather. 
• 1PM: new travel itinerary 
• 3PM: Call home…thanks to kindness! :)
• 4PM: Fly to Phoenix and run like crazy people to make connection to London. They only had 54 minutes to go from the domestic gate to the international gate…THEY MADE IT!
• 6PM: AGAIN…random act of kindness when a complete stranger offered her their phone so she could make a 30 second call home to get Aubree's phone number. Then a 10 second AMAZING call to Aubree in Georgia! :)
• 6:15PM- I have NO idea what time in England: 11 hour flight where she couldn't sleep because she was SO excited to be on her way! The missionaries studied, visited, and tried to cat nap.
• LONDON: 4 hour layover; tried to activate calling card only to find out it should've been activated in the US. Long day waiting for us, hoping to maybe hear her voice once more. THEN, we heard from Aubree that she had called her. :) A kind parent allowed her to use their credit card to call. They talked and they cried! I'm so grateful that Aubree and Haylee connected! We were able to talk to her for 60 minutes the day before. Aubree cherishes those 5 precious minutes that she got! MADE MY DAY! 
• 8:30PM (9 hours ahead of California): OSLO NORWAY! I was stalking the progress of their flight on the British Airways website…haha! I started to cry like a baby when the status changed to: ARRIVED! A couple of the sister missionaries have family in Oslo and they were able to meet them at the airport…what a blessing! They took photos and THANK GOODNESS for Facebook friendships, I got to see for myself that she was there safe and sound AND….oh so HAPPY!

photo credit to Leslie Heywood :)

We haven't heard from her yet. We will probably receive an email next Monday. I'm sure she is busy meeting her new companion, traveling to her new area, and trying to take it ALL in! :)

Here are a few FUNNY highlights from our phone conversation:

Haylee (mouth FULL of food): "I am SO happy right now! The SLC airport has a Cafe Rio! I'm trying to fill my Mexican food bucket!"

MTC Norwegian language blooper: While teaching a "Norwegian" investigator, aka one of their teachers, the missionary speaking was talking about prophets. The discussion led to talking about the Pope and she kept referring to the Pope as the "POOP"! :)

MTC Norwegian language blooper: While teaching a lesson in Norwegian, a missionary said, with conviction, "And God ATE Adam and Eve!" haha…he meant to say CREATED! The teacher laughed so hard she cried! :)