As of when this email sent, I have exited the plane, and am in PDX.

His P-Day plans to save vehicle miles by bringing proselyting clothes with them (both P-Day activity and their lesson that evening were in Jennings) were foiled by his somehow leaving part of his clothes at home, so they had to drive back to Welsh anyway -- then their appt. flaked.

Tuesday was teaching; Wednesday was mostly good-byes and packing. Their friend Scott (Mama's boy) took them out to dinner and he had alligator bites & frog legs.

Thursday they drove to another city, said more farewells, and joined the other departing missionaries for a session at the temple (during which he had trouble staying awake because of two nights that had been decidedly lacking in sleep) before continuing to the mission home for dinner and a testimony mtg.

Today he was up at 4AM, better rested than the previous nights (partly because he cranked up the air conditioning at the mission home) and everyone headed to the airport.

It took me over twenty minutes to get through security, because my containers of pennies in my carry-on showed up as suspicious (large hundred of metal). The TSA officer had to untie the bags that the pennie containers were in, and dump them out to make sure that there was nothing hiding in the masses of pennies. Once I got through that, I, along with the three other Elders that had a layover in Dallas, boarded the plane, and our flight was pretty uneventful.

I couldn't believe how heavy his carry-on was: 43 lbs. HIs two checked bags were right at 45. Glad it wasn't me dragging those things around!

He closed with the very "Matthew" observation:

The date on the last day of this year will be 123123

and a quote from his companion:

"Missionary work is so much more pleasant when it's only 90 degrees outside"