Mission Trip

This was a big week for Haley. We saw a picture of her on the bus going to her Mission President in Las Vegas (taken by the driver), we saw a picture of her with her mission president, and we saw a picture of her painting a porch. Technology is amazing.

The trip to my mission involved flying to Chicago O'Hare Airport and catching a Swiss Air flight to Zurich. As we came off the plane in Chicago and walked to the central area of the airport, a young lady with a ring in her nose (not common in 1977) and dressed kind of oddly spotted us and came running up to my companion and I. I was thinking this would be my first official missionary experience teaching this poor lost young lady. To my dismay, my companion, a Californian, said "Ich spreche kein Englisch" and ran the other way. I was thinking "What kind of missionary behavior is that, Elder Nartker?"

The young lady then pulls a flower out of her bag and pins it on my lapel while telling me she knows I am there to serve others. She then says she is in an organization serving disadvantaged children also. She says she is a member of Hare Krishna and asks if I could give a small donation for the flower she pinned on me. I had $20 in my wallet for meal spending money while traveling. I tell her I only have a $20 bill. She says, "No problem, my purse is full of change and I need to get rid of it 'cause it is heavy". I naively give her the $20 and she gives me back a $5 bill, says thank you, and walks quickly away. I say wait I need more change than that for meals, but she speeds up and disappears around the corner.

So the lesson is, a companion may have more experience than you in certain things and you'd be wise to pay attention to their opinions. I taped the flower into my missionary journal.

We were able to repair Haley's windshield this week.