Daniel is in the Philippines!

Daniel arrived in the Philippines November 17th at about 6 pm there. Here it was November 17th at 3 am. He left with about 20 elders and sisters on Monday afternoon and they totally missed Tuesday! It is 15 hours ahead of us here. We talked to him on Monday night while he was waiting at the airport in Los Angeles. We got to talk for almost 2 hours! Then when he was in Taipei he called again for a short time. He said the airplane was really nice and everyone got slippers to wear, a down pillow and a blanket. Everyone had their own TV and remote (of course the missionaries didn't use them!) They even got two meals! Much nicer than flying in the states! After that they flew to Manila and split up to go to their respective mission. Daniel and 7 others were continuing to Iloilo. I am hoping that when they got there they were fed and put to bed! We should have an email on Monday and we will send it out!

Elder Kenner has left the building!

We had a lovely farewell weekend for Daniel. On the 11th we had a nice open house attended by a huge crowd of people - at least half were teenagers and most of them girls! Daniel is very popular. Sunday he gave a great talk and we had the family over. We also had a few ward members who could not make it Saturday night. Daniel had his last interview with President Teerlink. Monday we went out and got the few last minute things he needed, including flu shots for me and him. Tuesday he went to the temple with a couple of friends and then shut his phone off and cut off the rest of his friends for family time. All our kids (except the other Elder Kenner of course, and Brittany who was in Texas with her sister) came over for President Teerlink to set Daniel apart as a missionary. Then we had a pizza bar - some very yummy pizzas came out of that one. The kid played games and we made Begniets (sp) from the mix Daniel's friend brought him from Disneyland. We went to bed way too late ( 1am ). Wednesday I got up early and took Robert to the airport (he had to go to San Diego for a meeting). Cole got up and went to work (they stayed over). We had a panic because Daniel could not find his scriptures. We think he left them at church last Sunday. We did the rest of the packing (including the seminary scriptures since we couldn't find the others). So, it was just the girls, mommy and the little boys to take Daniel to Provo. We left with plenty of time so that we could take Daniel to the bank and also go to the BYU bookstore to look for a tie pin. We cannot find one for his mission or just for the Philipines - they are all out. Must be a run on those missions right now. Then we went to Red Robin for his last US restaurant meal. We had our first and only experience with the new "drop off" method of taking someone to the MTC. It was very organized and it wasn't as bad as we thought it would be. The letter we got made it sound like we would barely have time to say goodbye. We all hugged him and mostly only got teary -no sobbing! He went into the building with his two missionary escorts and we drove off. It is a little empty without him here, but he is in the right place at the right time and we are happy he is serving. Good Luck Elder Kenner!