Departure Day-May 27, 2015
Taylor flies out of LAX at 9:00 am to Newark, NJ where he may meet other missionaries and then flies to Manchester England at 7:20pm. First flight goes okay, but second flight is cancelled. See email...
Hey Fam!
Bet you didn't expect an email from me this soon but tough luck i just couldn't say goodbye i guess :)
So I'm in Newark New Jersey still and emailing you from a hotel here. My flight from LAX went perfectly and besides lightning hitting the airplane wing while I was watching everything went just fine and the flight was so cool I forgot how awesome sitting by the window on an airplane can be.. It made me think of how much fun Tommy must have flying through clouds and over and under them and checking out the sweet views. I went up to some flight attendant pilot guys in the airport later and asked them about lightning and they said planes get hit with it all the time and it's all good. But hey thats so tight i got to see it happen!!! Not gunna lie it sort of shocked me (get it? hahaha) but all is well.
So the reason I'm emailing is our flight to Manchester got delayed a total of like 6 hours and then at 1 in the morning they finally cancelled it. So they put us in a hotel for the night and we're flying to London tonight at 7 and then from there to Manchester and then we'll get picked up and taken to the MTC i think. im tellin you someone does not want us to get to England. seems like everything that could go wrong has gone but at the same time everything has been an adventure and me and the 3 elders and 4 sisters Im with have gotten really close by trying to be missionaries without nametags or training. So many people at the airport were really friendly to us so we got to talk to a lot of English people despite still being in the States!! and WOW i am SO pumped to get to England now i think ill just kneel and kiss the ground as soon as I get off the plane. IMPORTANT: My new friend Ethan (lives near Preston) informed me that British people in fact do not wear top hats and drink tea. so I made sure I established that American people do not eat Mcdonalds for every meal hahaha.
Anyways it was a long night and we didn't sleep until 5 am but thatll just make it easier to sleep on the plane tonight. Sorry if you guys heard about our flight and were worried at all, dont worry we are fine and sooner or later we'll get there. It's like waiting for a twinkie... the longer you have to wait for it the worse you want it.
Love you all!
Elder Jensen (still getting used to hearing that)
Hey so I have a little more time so I'll just tell you guys a little more about the airport and some of the people I talked to. When I boarded the first plane I was sitting at the window and had a middle aged woman next to me who I talked to a little but mostly kept quiet. I have to admit that suddenly I felt like all my courage had left me when I needed it... normally I am not nervous at all to talk to strangers so it was weird that wearing my suit and set apart as a missionary I would suddenly feel so nervous to talk to someone. But I was, and it wasn't until another Elder came and met me and another Sister that I started to feel a little more confident again. By the end of the night I was doing most of the talking for our group of 8 missionaries dealing with workers, shuttle drivers, and transit cars but I still kept feeling a little emberassed when the other missionaries talked really loudly to each other about the gospel and baptizing people and what not. I noticed that lots of people sitting around us could hear everything and for some reason I was a little emberassed. I guess I have always only discussed the gospel with close friends or if I was asked about it, and would not usually talk about it loudly in front of strangers. But at the same time, I sometimes would... so I'm not quite sure why I felt that way. Anyways I have been praying that I will be able to find the courage to do what I need to when I get to England. It makes me think of what I was told when I was set apart, and I guess I had no idea how in just one day I would realize how much of what would be hard about my mission would be opening my mouth even when I don't want to. It's healthy I think... because all my life I have cared what people think of me and my reputation so learning to set that aside is for the best.
I talked to quite a few people in the airport and was blown away by how nice strangers can be! made some new friends and then a couple of really cool homeboys (sams word for black guys) working at the air shuttle who really respected us for being missionaries and wanted to talk about it. Guess what? One of the girls that was supposed to be on our flight was bawling because she was about to miss her own wedding. Moral of the story, I'm glad we all had each other (our group of missionaries) because we got really close and I can't imagine how hard and frustrated I would have been had I been alone in the airport for all 12 hours. Once we had to call the Church Travel Office and I couldnt figure out the pay phones! youd think after using my walkie talkie flip phone for so long I'd be a whiz with stone age technology but i couldnt so I just went up to a random man and asked to use his cell phone and he turned out to be a member with a daughter on a mission! Another member in the airport bought us a big pizza and stayed with us for a while. We've had pizza for 3 meals straight now because that seems to be all we can find. im trying to enjoy it because i wont be eating american food for a while.
Anyways the shuttle will be taking us to the airport soon so I will write you on P-day whenever that is! watch it have been today and we missed it... Hope you're all doing well!
Love,
Elder Jensen
