Off To Mesa!

Natalie headed off to Mesa on Tuesday morning.  She was able to call us from the airport while she waited to catch her flight.  She had told us that she hoped she could call us, and that if she did she would call between 5:00 - 7:00 a.m.  She also warned that she only had a limited number of minutes on her calling card, so we were all set to make sure we didn't miss her call.

Well the best intentions........   Almost!

I slept that night with my cell phone next to the bed, charged and ready to go.  The day before I made sure I knew how to patch in additional callers so she could talk to other family members too. I was pretty much awake waiting for her call at 5:00 when much to my dismay at 5:46 I noticed a missed call when my phone hadn't even rung!  A moment later, the house phone rang.  I eagerly picked it up.  No one was there!  I was so worried I had missed her, but then she called again.  But no connection! Yet again, a call and no one is on the other end!  I was sure I'd missed her by then, and was starting to tear up.  But once more, the house phone rang, and this time she was there!

Her first words were, "I'm using quarters so I only have 3.5 minutes."  Fortunately, she still had enough time on her calling card to make one more call.  She called me back on my cell phone and I then called family members on the house phone to tell them I would be calling back on my cell and patching them in.  (I have never been so nervous about dropping a call in my life!)  We ended up with 6 lines on the call.  It was great!  We were all so happy to talk to her.  I do have to admit that after 4 lines it was a bit difficult to carry on a conversation and the connection suffered, but we still loved it!

Turns out the speaker on the first phone she called from wasn't working.  She could hear me, but I couldn't hear her.  Fortunately, she figured that out and was able to find a new phone before she ran out of minutes!  We all decided that a great service project for people in Salt Lake would be to go to the airport and lend their cell phones to missionaries flying out!  I guess there were 30 missionaries on Natalie's flight alone.  That's a lot of pay phones to go around!

We haven't heard anything from her since then, and I sure can't wait for her next P-day (preparation day for missionaries when they do their shopping, laundry and WRITE LETTERS AND EMAILS!!!!!), whenever that will be.