On Monday February 10, 2014 Landon had an appointment with the Stake President at 6:00 PM to be set apart as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. He would be attending the temple on Tuesday and leaving for the Mexico Missionary Training Center on Wednesday. The weather forecast for the week included snow and ice in the Atlanta area. Anyone who lives in Georgia knows that a forecast for snow and ice can bring some serious damage. I made a phone call to the Church Office Building in Salt Lake City to check on the status of Landon's flight on Wednesday and to see if they wanted to reschedule it. I knew the airport would not be functioning Wednesday with the incoming wintry weather and that Landon would most likely not be able to fly out. A sweet, reassuring worker in the Missionary department let me know that flights were not rescheduled or changed until they were canceled or delayed through the airlines. Well, OK.....we would just have to wait and see. Almost as soon as I hung up with the missionary department I received a text from a friend letting me know that the Atlanta Temple had decided to close Tuesday-Thursday in preparation of the incoming snowstorm. Well, that really threw a wrench into things. I began to be very concerned about Landon being able to leave on his mission without having gone through the temple. We contacted Salt Lake and they told us to contact our Stake President, which Landon did. President Galt said he needed to make some phone calls and that he would get back to us. We waited almost an hour and finally received his call. We had three options: 1. Wait six weeks and then leave for the Mexico MTC and go to the Mexico City Temple when Landon got there. (The Mexico City Temple was closed for six weeks.) 2. Leave Thursday, go to the Provo MTC and go through the Provo Temple. 3. Leave the following Tuesday, go to the Provo MTC and go through the Atlanta temple when it opens after the storm. After a quick discussion Landon decided he would wait the week and hopefully get to the Atlanta Temple before he left. We really wanted to be in the temple with Landon to experience that with him.
With the decision made we relaxed a little and made the best of the situation. Landon had a great attitude and was happy to just relax and enjoy the beautiful snow that came our way. The ice and snow lasted almost a full week with school being closed the entire week and the temple did not open until Saturday morning. Nothing like cutting it close! We scheduled a session at 3:00. Stephen and I were there with Landon's grandparents, Gene and Sandra Carroll. It was a beautiful session and it was so nice to be there with our son. The temple is a special place and it was a blessing to be able to share in a beautiful moment with Landon.
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