Week 9 - He made it to Korea!

Dear Brother and Sister Huckvale,

I just wanted to send you an email letting you know your son has arrived safely in Korea. He looks very happy to be here and ready to work hard. We are excited to see him serve here in the Korea Seoul Mission.  Attached below is a picture with President and Sister Christensen.

Regards,

The Korea Seoul Mission

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints       

Korea Seoul Mission                                                            

Office - 82-2-734-3653                                                 

 The group of all of them at the airport.

President and Sister Christensen, the Seoul Korea Mission President.

Note about Chad's traveling (just so I can remember this):

We knew Chad's travel plans and knew that he had a layover in Seattle.  He asked us not to come to the airport because he thought it would be too hard.  So we didn't.  We knew that he landed about 9:30am and was leaving for Korea at noon, so we "patiently" waited for his phone call. About 10:00am we got a phone call from the Seatte Airport... with no one on the other line.  We got two more calls to our house line, both with no one on them.  I kept answering the phone, "Chad?".  And Derrick told me maybe he wasn't responding because I wasn't calling him "Elder Huckvale".  So the 4th time the phone rang, this time on my cell phone, I tried "Elder Huckvale"... and it still didn't work.

Getting very frustrated, feeling like I was having a heart attack, we kept waiting.  Finally he was able to get through.  He borrowed Sister Jones' disposable phone.  We talked for a while.  It was so amazing to hear his voice!  He sounded exactly the same... yet not, if that makes any sense?  Like it hadn't been two months since we had last spoken to him, but it had.  So the three of us are just talking, and then all of a sudden he gets cut off.  Apparently he had used up the remainder of Sister Jones' minutes - sorry Sister Jones!  We were ok with it, we had talked for about 35 minutes, except that we didn't get to tell him we loved him.

A few minutes later the phone rang again... from another number.  Apparently a member at the airport had loaned him a phone and he was able to call us back.  We were able to tell him how much we loved him and how proud we were of him.  It was amazing!  I'm so thankful for this young man we are sending halfway across the world to represent Jesus Christ.  

Called to Serve, Elder Huckvale, Called to Serve.

One more tender mercy... apparently he sat next to a member of the church on the airplane going from Salt Lake City to Seattle.  That member was sweet enough to take a picture and email it to us with this note...

Hello Huckvale Family!

Just met your missionary on his way to Korea. He's doing great and excited to go. Here's a photo of him in Seattle.

So thankful for all these sweet tender mercies!!!  After I thanked Brother Allred for the picture, this was his response... 

You are totally welcome! I served my mission in Brazil nearly 20 years ago and I'm sure my mother would have appreciated a surprise like that as well - always good to know that our children are watched over on their many travels. I'm actually from central Washington originally (live in UT now) and am here in Seattle for business this week. Your son will be a great missionary!

Thank you Brother Allred!!!