Niki's Mission Return!!!!!

The day for Niki to come home, from her mission to the England London South Mission, finally arrived on Thursday, November 20, 2014. Dad and I took the KTX (bullet) train to Seoul, leaving at 5:00AM that day. We quickly walked over to the airport from the train station, supposed to get there about 10 minutes before her plane landed.

We hung up Niki’s Welcome Home sign in our living room. She had the sign at the airport, the sign on the front door, the sign in the living room, plus a banner in the parking lot at the church (you’ll see it soon). We are so happy to have her home!

It was fun making Niki’s sign; the different letters, deciding what designs and colors to use. I thought I brought the signs that I made for the other children returning from their missions, with us to Korea but I couldn’t find them. I liked this part of her sign; the flag section.

I didn’t realize until after Niki was home and she told me that the England flag is not what I put on the letter N. I put the Great Britain flag on her sign. Texas pride helped me to decide to put cowboy boots on Niki’s sign, even though she doesn’t own a pair.

When Dad and I first arrived at the airport Niki’s flight was listed way down near the bottom. But as more and more flights landed and then arrived Niki’s flight kept getting pushed up on the Flight announcing board. You can see that it was supposed to arrive at 8:55 but the new arrival estimated time was 9:30; and didn’t actually arrive until 9:42AM on Thursday. She left London at 1:00PM on Wednesday; long flight.

Niki was the last person to come off the plane and through customs out of six flights that were originally supposed to land AFTER her flight. The doors are mostly hazy with small strips to look through at the bottom of the doors. I stood as close in front of those doors as I could, crouched down low, and saw Niki waiting on the other side. When the guards would walk over to talk with each other they would step on the sensors that opened the doors and she could see me stooped down real low looking for her so that’s why she’s smiling so big and laughing when we finally got to see her come through.

Dad found a bench right near where we hoped Niki would come out so we held our sign there for her to see. Dad teases so much that when I had my head down he said, “There she is!” Of course I believed him until he laughed at me. I told him he was evil and threatened to push him off the bench (like in Steel Magnolias).

Once Dad and I had Niki with us we took the subway near the Seoul Temple. People were so helpful and friendly toward us. One young man was so excited to tell us that he studied for a year in America and that he didn’t need Dad to try to speak to him in Korean. He pointed us in the right direction. On the way to the temple we saw Elder and Sister Groesbeck (Bishop Mark Groesbeck’s brother and his wife), a senior couple serving in the Korea Seoul South Mission. They were just walking back from the temple with the new senior couple who arrived to replace them when they go home soon. We saw lots of missionaries at the temple and then saw their mission president and his wife, the Morrise’s. It was fun to give them a hug again.  We took a taxi to the train station and then came home. Our assistants brought Ben with them to the train station to pick us up. Out of nowhere we saw a blur rush by as Ben ran to Niki and gave her the biggest hug! It was fun to see her looking up at him, he’s grown since she’s been gone.  It was fun to come home with Niki. The assistants remembered to take a picture, I think we were all too tired to have remembered. Also, they had a cake with candles lit for her to blow out, to welcome her home. They’re so thoughtful.

This is Elder Lee. We happened to see him at the temple with more of his group of missionaries from the Korea Seoul South Mission. His father was the man we met while on a hike up the mountain some time ago. We took a picture and sent it to him. I heard back from him (The father is not a member of the church. His mother is a member, in our mission boundaries.).  I thought to invite the parents to our transfer meeting (November 3) when the returning missionaries share their testimonies. They didn’t seem interested so I didn’t think anything more about it since the meeting was more than a month away. Guess what!? They came to our transfer meeting. It was fun to make this connection.

The Korean words just say Welcome Home to Korea. The Houston London is from the Olympic time trials for the marathon that was held in Houston shortly before the London Olympics. Dad and Niki attended those time trials and each got a running shirt - London on it. Niki still has her shirt. Then we just thought to add the next leg of her journey back home: London?—Busan.