Day One!

We finally made it!!!! It's almost impossible to put into words our thoughts and feelings as we fly into Lubbock. Even after all the stellar training we received this last week, nothing could have prepared us for the real deal. Our alarm went off at 1:45 AM so we could catch the shuttle to the SLC airport. We knew President and Sister Augustin (the former Mission president) would be picking us up from the airport, but the rest was unknown!



The Texas geography is just a little different from our Rocky Mountains!



We recieved a warm welcome from the Augustins, the Assistants, and a few of our missionaries!

Elder Squires and Elder Bucknum (the Assistants) presented us with a mission blanket.



President and Sister Augistin with us.

 

As advised by the bretheren, we spent a total of 3 hours together (they discourage having two Presidents in the mission at the same time). We ate lunch, toured the mission home and then the mission office just in time for them to hand over the keys and phones. The Augustins had gone out of their way to help us in our transition, preparing the home and the missionaries for our arrival. We were so exhasuted, we fell asleep before our heads even hit the pillow. We arose the next morning to bid them farewell at the airport. There was no time to even wonder where to start. The phones began ringing almost immediately; mine with medical questions, and David's with everything else! When Elder William Walker came to reorganize the Bozeman Stake when David was released, he shared this analogy with us: "Serving as Mission Presidents will be a lot like standing on the platform, bags in hand, waiting for the train to come. You can see the train approaching; you know it's getting close, so you get ready to get on as soon as it stops. As it gets closer, you realized the train is not going to stop. In fact, it's not even slowing down! While it's going about 60 mph, someone throws you on. This is your mission, but now the train speeds up 20 mph, and it goes at this speed for 3 years. But just be prepared because at the end, you come back to the same train station and they throw you back onto the platform." We realize we just got thrown on, while the Augustin's were thrown off. They say the hardest year of the mission is year 4: the year you come home. We'll see about that!