Yesterday was a travel day. I know that other family members have travelled great distances before but this was my first trip outside the United States, except for a couple of trips into Canada years ago, and that used to be like traveling to another State. I left Salt Lake City after work on Friday at 7:10 PM to fly to San Fransisco to catch a red eye to Hong Kong. I arrived in Hong Kong at about 4:00 PM Saturday Salt Lake time. I then caught a connecting flight to Singapore and arrive about 4 hours later.
Since it was Elder Troxel's last official day of split and missionary work he was not able to meet with me. He had given me instructions on how to get to the senior missionary quarters and I took a taxi. The building is a combined church and missionary housing. there is a photo of the building already on the blog. It is the one with Jordan sticking out his back side in front of a colonial white building (I mean British colonial). I met Elder and Sis Carpenter and two other senior missionary couples. They shared a meal with me and we chatted about children and families until my eyes started to fall out of my head, which was about 6:00 PM Sunday Singapore time and 3:00 AM Sunday morning Salt Lake time.
All together other than some short cat naps on the plane I had been up for about 46 hours with out a good rest. I have stayed up for marathons like this before with my police work and I am used to switching my sleep around because of working graves. After a good nights rest I feel ready to tackle the day and meet up with Jordan. I talked to him on the phone and he was having to do the hardest thing for a missionary and that is "packing day". Missionaries think about going home, but it is not real to them until they have to pack. The realization was hitting Jordan last evening.
This morning, Monday, at about 9:00 AM, I will get to meet with Jordan and he will still be a missionary, but he will not have any official duties left. We will spend the next two days traveling around Singapore as tourist. On Wednesday we will travel to Kuching, Friday to Sibu, Saturday to Bintulu where we will attend church and Sunday afternoon to Kuala Lumpur. We will stay in KL until Wednesday morning when we fly back to Singapore and then onto Hong Kong. We will stay in Hong Kong until Thursday evening so we can attend the Hong Kong Temple Thursday morning. Due to the international date line we will be back in Salt Lake City on Thursday evening.
Thoughts on the flight: The flight was smooth from San Fransisco to Hong Kong, about 15 hours. Economy class was very cramped. I flew on a 747 and it was the first plane that I had been on where the seat does not recline, but the seat portion slides forward cutting into your leg, especially your knee room. I was not able to get an isle seat which would have been a big help. It was it was a pain to have to ask two people to move so I could get up and walk around, so all I could do was flex in my seat. By the time I went to bed last evening, my ankles were twice their normal size. I had not noticed until I took a shower. After sleeping all night they are back to normal. I am going to try to get an isle seat on the way back.
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