Welcome Home Hermana Farnsworth!

Wednesday, November 10 at 11:00 PM, Hermana (Sister) Traci Farnsworth landed in St. George, after serving her mission in El Salvador. We are so excited to have her home and safe. We can't believe it has already been 18 months since she left!

Before heading to the airport to pick her up, we all made signs to welcome her home:

On the front of the signs we wrote messages in English and on the back we translated the messages into Spanish for her so she would understand. After speaking Spanish for almost 2 years her English was a little rusty!

When we arrived at the St. George Airport we found out Traci's flight had been delayed for about a half an hour due to weather conditions in Salt Lake City so here we sat waiting and waiting...

Finally her plane arrived and we were minutes from seeing Traci for the first time in 18 months. We were all so excited. When she finally stepped off of the plane, there was not a dry eye in sight, especially Traci's. I have never seen a missionary come home off the plane before so it was definitely an exciting time.

There were hugs and tears for all when Traci arrived. I was dubbed the official picture taker I guess because everyone else was busy greeting her and I was the one taking pictures. We were worried Emily wouldn't remember who Traci was because Emily was only 6 or 7 months old when Traci left. We had been showing Emily pictures of Traci for the past few weeks so she would recognize her when she came home. I guess it worked because when Traci stepped into the airport, Emily was not afraid to run to her and give her a hug.

Like I said before, Traci's English was a little rusty for the first few days. She kept having a hard time remembering the English words for some things or without thinking she would say something in Spanish and not realize it until she saw the confused looks on our faces. As we were leaving the airport she yelled "Adios!...I mean... what's the word...Bye!" We all laughed and say we knew what she meant. Now she is trying to teach Emily how to say some words in Spanish like good morning, goodbye, grandma, grandpa, and aunt. Emily will say "Adios" sometimes.

We spent the next few days with Traci and the rest of Russell's family in celebration of her homecoming. Friday we went four-wheeling out in Warner Valley.
Four-wheeling was a lot of fun. Emily definitely looks cool in her new helmet. She didn't even fuss when we made her wear it because she knows that she can't ride the 4-wheelers without it. Emily and I rode around on our little Grizzly 80. It only has three gears so it doesn't go very fast which is okay for pregnant me and Emily. We had a blast cruising around until Emily fell asleep and I couldn't hold her up any longer so we headed back to the truck. Russell, Traci, and Tyler kept going finding jumps and dunes to ride on. Traci had such a good time, she didn't want to get off the bike.

Saturday Traci, Russell and I when to the temple to do a session. I love going to the temple because it is so peaceful there. If there was one word to describe the temple it would be Peace. It had been a while since Russell and I had gone to the temple just because we would get busy and basically procrastinate or find an excuse not to go, which is so bad of us. It was nice to get back there and feel the Spirit and be reminded of the covenants we have made. I love it! Going to the temple really brings you closer together as a couple and with the Lord. The cool thing about this trip to the temple was that the baby was moving around like crazy inside me like he knew we were at the temple and he was so excited!

Sunday was Traci's homecoming talk in church so of course we went with all of Russell's family, aunts, uncles, cousins, and grandparents. Emily had no idea she had cousins on that side of the family and she had a blast playing with the Maxwell boys after church. Traci did an awesome job on her talk giving story after amazing story from her mission. I could even make out a few words from her testimony in Spanish!

After church, we took a whole bunch of pictures with the extended family. I wasn't the photographer this time because Russell, Calen Phillips (cousin) and I were busy preparing the huge spaghetti dinner for everyone. The food was really good and it was fun to talk to cousins and family we don't get to see all the time. After the majority of the people left for their long drives home, things settled down and we got to hear some amazing and some scary mission stories; anything from having a gun pointed at her head and almost being robbed to praying with the converts and feeling the most amazing warmth come over her confirming to the convert that the church was true!

We are so glad to have Traci home and Emily loves going to Grandma's to see Traci. I think she is her new favorite aunt... at least for today... until she sees her other aunts too. I guess it is okay to have more than one favorite aunt!

Welcome Home Hermana Farnsworth!!