I'm gone!

I leave tomorrow for my mission! Ahh I can't believe it!

If you want to have updates of my mission life, my sister will be keeping a blog with my weekly emails to my family.

sisterkatelynempey.blogspot.com

I love you all and I will see you in 18 months!

A Monday in My Shoes

Facts about Southwest:

• Southwest Airlines has it's headquarters in Dallas Texas.
• It services nearly 3,400 flights a day.
  
• The net income for the company in 2010 was $459 million.
  
• In 2010 they helped 88 million people travel across the United States.
  
• Southwest has 548 airplanes.
• Southwest's Average passenger fare is $130.27 one-way, and the average passenger trip length is about 885 miles.
• It has 35,000 employees, my uncle being one of them.

My uncle is a pilot for Southwest Airlines. We are blessed to at times get "buddy pass" tickets from him. That translates into being able to fly free of charge on any Southwest flight as long as we have the ticket in our hand. The downside, there has to be room on the plane. And this is where my adventure starts.

This last weekend I thoroughly enjoyed time back home. I drove with Rachael and Brady who were in town visiting.

The trip home kind of looked like this:

Well that might be a little exaggeration...but at the time I felt like it.

So the weekend came and went and I had a lot of fun being home. I had every intention on being back to Provo by Sunday night.

As a rule of thumb, try not to use the Buddy Pass on a Sunday. Sunday travel is always busier than lets say a Tuesday-Thursday. On top of busy weekend travel, Southwest has recently decided to get rid of their nonstop service from Spokane to Salt Lake.

So on average the travel time from Point A to Point B takes 3 hrs longer than it would doing a nonstop flight.

With that in mind, I needed to get back to Provo and we were saving money by using the Buddy Pass.

Strike One: all the flights were full on Sunday. So we took off to the airport Monday morning (7:30am) to catch an assuming "wide open" flight at 10:10. I get to the customer service counter (past security but before the gate) and they tell me I probably won't get on because the flight was OVERBOOKED. But if it was full, I would get on the next available flight. 3 1/2 hours and 3 flights later, I was able to get on a flight.

Talk about stress relief...for about 5 minutes. As I was obtaining my boarding pass, the nice customer service lady said that "it wasn't looking good" from Las Vegas to Salt Lake and I might not be able to get on....great. There were 136 booked for the flight and 14 non-revenue (I'm apart of the 14).

I arrive at Las Vegas at approximately 3:50 pm...and my supposed flight (if I get on) won't be leaving until 6:30.

More waiting....(in nervousness mind you) I wouldn't know if I can get on the plane until everyone is checked in, meaning about 10 minutes before the plane leaves the gate. Unfortunately, if I didn't get on, I would have to wait for the next flight leaving at 9:05, and that was even more booked than the 6:30 flight...and that's the last flight of the day.

I sit at the gate at 6:05, when the plane starts to board. 6:15....no standby passengers called. 6:19, 3 standby passengers get called to board (I'm not one of them). 6:20, two standby passengers get called and they don't come up to claim their boarding passes. 6:21, myself and another stand by passenger get called to get our boarding passes. The gate manager actually had to reopen the door to let us in. 6:24, I am taking my seat.

At that point I was giddy with happiness, but torn with paranoid. I honestly believed that there would be some mistake and a paying passenger would show up and they would make me get off.

Even after we were taxiing before take off, I was thinking they could still turn the plane around and make me get off. I didn't stop worrying about it until we were taking off.

I have never been so happy to be on that plane before in my life. I felt soooo much relief. And I have never been so happy to see the Utah Valley before in my life...well maybe...10:00pm: I was back to Carly's house. Thinking of the crazy miracle of the day.

Moral of the story: I would have gotten back quicker if I drove...that shouldn't be the case.

Summer Plans

I love summer.
I love the carefree life that is associated with summer.
I love that summer is sunny.
I love that summer is a perfect time to be ambitious and start goals.
I love that summer is a perfect time to accomplish goals.
I love that summer is a time to finally be able to relax and once in a while enjoy the sun.
I love that summer screams family and friend time.
I love that summer gives you that time.

My summer plans are quite simple.
I've decided it's about time to enjoy the simple life.
The life of a single adult.
I'm going to enjoy my family.
I'm going to enjoy the sun. I'm going to enjoy life with my friends.
I'm going to enjoy life on the farm. I'm going to work hard and get ready.
I'm going to prepare for the life of a future missionary!

That's right, I've decided to serve a mission. I'm soooo excited and I can't wait. But I have 5 months of waiting!

Oh ya, so I got my mission call. I finished my papers last tuesday (5/10) and I got the letter in the mail yesterday (5/18). It was such a fast turn around...I wasn't really expecting it. I was so surprised when I saw the letter on the counter I think my heart stopped. My sister thoroughly enjoyed watching me FREAK out and try to keep my cool. But regardless... It came. And after the longest and most nerve wracking and annoying 7 hours possible, I got to open my call.

Ta-Da!

I'm going to the BRAZIL LONDRINA mission.

I report to the Brazil MTC on October 19th!

Ya that is exactly 5 months away.
Ya, that is a really long time.
Ya, I will have a blast :D
Ya, I will die of humidity (Southern Brazil has around 75% humidity close to year round).
Ya, it will be a crazy 18 months.
Ya, I don't know what I'm doing.
Ya, I am overwhelmed.
Ya, I am scared.
And ya, I am excited and can't wait!

So what are my summer plans exactly?

• -I plan on getting my visa figured out
• -I plan on spending a month having fun with my nieces and nephews...and of course my sisters!
• -I plan on reading a book (not sure the book yet, but I'm reading it)
• -I plan on working out/exercising ALL the time
• -I plan on eating a lot of American food
• -I plan on reading a lot from Preach My Gospel
• -I plan on learning a basic foundation of Portuguese
• -I plan on going to Lake Powel

In the fall I plan on:

• -Going to Provo to hang out with friends
• -Cleaning out my room and throwing away some old clothes
• -Packing for 18 months in 2 suitcases (I pack 1 suitcase for 1 week!...uh-oh...)
• -Cutting my hair (I need something that I won't want to chop off myself while I'm there)
• -Having my parents cook for me :D

Most importantly, on October 19th, I plan on arriving at the MTC in Brazil (probably being a basket case), trying to put on a brave face and saying, "I'm ready to be here".

On October 19th I plan on being a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.

Annoyance

So currently, I am taking ASL 101. It has been fascinating to learn how to talk in a "different" language. While I'm not brave enough to talk to deaf people, it's still been a valued learning experience for me. Even now, I find myself becoming bilingual to the point where I'm using both sign and english. And it's a valuable tool when I'm sitting in church and we of course need to be quiet...and I really want to tell my roommate something. Just sign to her and we can still be quiet and have a conversation at the same time. The only problem I have found with that is that most people know at least the alphabet if not more, and you never know who knows it or not so we still have to be careful who we are talking about.

Yesterday, I learned the sign for annoyance and bother. And I'm a complete geek, but I am currently visualizing me doing this sign over and over again right now...

It's snowing...snowing and sticking to the ground on April 8th.


~Funny story. I woke up and it was raining. It made me really happy for mainly the reason that I didn't wake up to a fresh 4 inches of snow on the ground. So I started picking out my clothes for the day, planing for rain. Then I just randomly look outside and it was snowing! It was MAGIC. So I promptly put those clothes away and got out clothes to prep for a winter storm. Boots and all. ~


.....and I have a wedding I'm going to today...fun!

FYI, I googled 'spring in utah' and the first picture that came up...this one

...and I thought I was going to be able to keep my winter boots packed away until next winter...

...........ha............

....ha...................................

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