Bonus Picture!

Found this in my gmail inbox this morning.  I haven't stopped looking at it ever since!  

Hello my name is Raphael and I am one the MTC teacher here in Madrid. This is a little exception I made to send this picture. Your son asked me and because they are great I accepted. 

May God bless you ,

And then this cute picture was attached of Hayden and his companion in front of the Madrid temple.  

This totally made my day! (and/or week)

Hello!

Hey, my flight got in late today, so I missed the time when everybody else got to email their parents. the MTC is pretty awesome, there are probably about 100 missionaries that arrived today, and most are going to one of the three Spain Missions. I've met a whole bunch of missionaries going to Málaga, and it seems like everybody is just as excited as me.

I met two elders at Sky Harbor. Elder Clauf, and Elder Orr. Elder Orr is 6'10'', but I am just as tall as him when we sit down.

The flight was delayed in JFK due to major electrical storms, and it was pretty awesome to watch those storms from up above. There were 9 elders/sisters on the flight from JFK, so I wasn´t alone. 

My companion at the MTC is Elder Parkinson, he was just chosen as our District Leader, which is cool.

I am already somewhat conversational in Spanish, I can tell people simple facts and information about myself. We had a cool devotional, but everybody was super tired, so there was a long line of people standing in the back of the chapel, so that they wouldn´t fall asleep again.

Tomorrow we are going through the temple, which is absolutely gorgeous. On the front, it says, Le Casa Del Señor on the front entrance.

The food is great so far, but we´ve only had one meal. 

I hope you guys are doing great, because I am! And I hope your feelings aren´t hurt that I don´t really miss you guys!

Much love,
Elder Oliver

And he's off!

Hayden gave his farewell address to the congregation on Sunday.  Included in our congregation were many loved ones.  Many of his friends from school and other wards and the community came to hear him speak, as well as family members.  Included in this group were Grandma and Grandpa Abersold, Grandma Hoho, Grandpa and Grandma Oliver, Alice, Karen, Lamont and Louisa, Larry and Judy, and Jenny and Chris Olsen and their adorable twin boys.  He gave a wonderful talk.  He will be a fantastic missionary.

The Stake President came over late on Sunday to set him apart, after which he was officially a full-time missionary.  It was a really special meeting.  We all went around and said something about Hayden, and gave him advice for his mission.  I will leave it to Hayden to share what he wants from that meeting, but I will give Regan's advice to Hayden.  "DON'T BE A SLOB!"  Then she put her hand to the side of  her mouth like she was telling us all a secret, and whispered loudly, "He's a SLOB!"  It was pretty funny.

All of the out of town family members left on Monday, which is when we pulled the suitcases out and got serious about packing.  It was a little frustrating as we kept losing things that were important.  We packed for most of the day, with several errands in between.  When he finally went to bed, Hayden found the last thing that he was missing, and we packed that.  His bags had plenty of room, so hopefully that doesn't mean we forgot something important!

We saw last night that his flight would be delayed, but we decided we would still leave at the same time because we wanted to make sure we would have plenty of time.  Hayden had already packed his alarm clock, so he asked for me to wake him up at 4:50.  I then went into my room and set my alarm for...5:50.  Whoops.  When I woke up, I checked the flight status right away and luckily it was running late.  It was delayed from 8:15 am to 10:00 am.  We celebrated his departure by eating pop-tarts in the car.  The kids thought that was about the best thing ever. Landon had left on Monday with the Abersolds so that he could visit in Washington for a while before school starts, so we missed him terribly while we were saying goodbye.  However, it did enable us to fit in the van instead of the (no air-conditioning) Suburban.

We ended up making it to the airport in good time, parked, went in and checked his baggage. He had to pay an additional $100 to check two suitcases.  But it will be worth it so he won't have to be short on space on all of his transfers, especially if he ends up buying things.

 I held it together pretty well until we got to the security checkpoint where we would say goodbye.  The kids all gave Hayden hugs.  Everyone was a little teary, but they did pretty well.  A sweet couple walked by and offered to take a picture for us.  She told us that they have two missionaries out right now.  Again, this would be my favorite picture if Landon was in it.  Hayden then gave me and Dix hugs, and we all put our hands in for our family cheer and hug.  I noticed a few people stopped to watch us.  Then he was off to wait for security.

 Here I am taking a picture of Dixon taking a picture.  Clever.

As he disappeared, we all yelled, "Bye Hayden!" and he turned and waved and smiled.  The waiting passengers seemed to enjoy watching us.  Probably wondering why I hadn't shriveled up yet after losing so much water from my eyes.

 And there is his plane.  

And now to go try to act like everything is normal at home.  Which it will  be, soon.  As soon as we get an email that tells us that he has made it.

And off he goes!