The glorious return- Ben

This is Ben reporting for blog duty...

It's good to be home from my mission. It truly was the best two years of my life. I miss it everyday but I'm excited to move forward in my life. Here's a little bit about my experience coming home...

When I came home from my mission I was assistant to the president so I had a really good experience. I was training the new assistant the last week so I had a lot of time to reflect on my mission and who I had become. I know that Jesus Christ is the Savior of the world and I feel extremely blessed and lucky to have served Him. We left on a Wednesday morning so we got a nice dinner in the mission home with President and Sister Heckmann and all the missionaries that were leaving that day. We had our nice testimony meeting and President gave permission for all the Elders to sleep in the mission home. We put all of our mattresses in the main living room and had a great time knowing we would be home in the next 24 hours. 

We got up Wednesday morning and drove to the airport. It was a very surreal experience for me driving to the airport knowing I wasn't going to pick up or drop off any missionaries but that I was the one leaving on an airplane. Even writing this I get a little teary. We said goodbye to President and Sister Heckmann and waited in the security line. This is when I got excited to come home and see the family again. The flight from Barcelona Spain to Atlanta Georgia was one of the longest of my entire life and believe me, I've been on some long flights before. I didn't have any movies, barely any books, and I couldn't sleep so it was rough. Not being able to sleep turned out to be a great blessing because I got over the jet lag really quick. 

When we got to Atlanta and went through customs I teared up pretty bad because there was a big American flag and a sign that read "Welcome to the United States of America." I had never been so happy to enter our God blessed land. How truly lucky we are to live in a country like this. It's just the best. As amazing as it was, the Atlanta airport is a bit of a nightmare and there was severe weather that delayed our flight about 2 hours. That was brutal. I have never wanted to be home so bad in my entire life and I knew the family was dying is Utah knowing that I hadn't even taken off yet. Not to mention it was the 24th of July and I was missing the festivities. When we finally got on the airplane we all looked and felt pretty tired but I managed to get a little bit of sleep on this flight back to good old Utah. When we started to land I looked over the valley and saw the fireworks and was super excited to be back. 

When we landed in Salt Lake and debarked the plane I felt like a celebrity in that airport because everyone in Utah was happy to see the Elders. We made our way over to the gate and my heart was pounding with excitement to see everyone. We stopped as a group of Elders right before we walked out and huddled for prayer. I offered our last prayer in Spanish together and I thanked the Lord for our experiences as missionaries and the lives we changed. I thanked God for the opportunity to serve Him and that we had made it home safely. 

The fam could tell you the rest of the story as I walked through those doors. Smiles and tears all around as I returned. 

I am extremely grateful for my missionary experience and will never forget the people I met and the relationship I grew with the Lord. 

Love,

Ben