On Our Way!

Today's the day! We're at the SLC International Airport awaiting our departure to Atlanta, the first leg of a 20-hour journey to the other side of the world. We're on our way! Erik drove us and all our luggage (6 bags) to the airport and Christian and his family met us here.

Saying goodbye to Christian and Katie
and their boys at the SLC Airport.

Heading up to security, where we both got to go
quickly through the TSA Pre-check line!

Our son Erik arrived here from Dallas on Thursday and spent the weekend at our home. His daughter Amanda and her husband, Nick Ritter, also stayed here Saturday night. Our three out-of-town daughters (Emily from San Antonio, Betsy from Idaho and Kelly from Arizona) surprised us by flying in for Saturday and Sunday, and Martha's two out-of-town sisters (CJ from Arizona, and Elizabeth from Washington state) also surprised us. So Martha's four sisters and 6 of our 10 children were here to hear us speak in church on Sunday and for our setting apart by our stake president Sunday afternoon. Martha's sisters provided an unbelievable brunch in between and sandwiches after the setting apart.

We were set apart by our stake president, Dan England, CEO of C.R. England Trucking. After being set apart, we put on our missionary nametags.



Martha and her sisters then had a Skype call with their parents in St. George where they wished their dad a Happy 85th Birthday (on January 22nd). You can see by the photo how happy they were to make that call.

Martha and her sisters Skyping with
their parents. Left to right, Virginia
Whitby, CJ Theobald, Martha Egan,
Brenda Nibley and Elizabeth Sorensen

That's all we have time to post right now, but maybe we can add more photos from the plane, on our layover in Atlanta, or when we arrive tomorrow night in Johannesburg. We're so excited to be on our way!

Africa, here we come!!