homeward bound

Friday, January 1, 2016

6am pick-up to get to airport - I texted Alfonzo about coming to pick is up early. He responded that he would be there to pick us up at 6:30. He didn't show up this morning, however, and did not respond to calls or text messages. So I went down to the restaurant beneath our apartment and asked a driver how much he would charge to take us to the JFK airport. He said he could take us there for $52. Alfonzo charged us $85, and I paid him $106, including tip. Cici is from the Ivory Coast in Africa, where their native language is French. He has two girls and a son, ages 17, 15, and 12.

When he dropped us off at the airport for our 9:30 flight, I took a moment to tell him about the Book of Mormon and give him a copy of his own. The sister missionaries had placed a contact card in the pages of the book with local times of church meetings and their contact information, should he have further questions or want another copy in French. The flight was uneventful but long.

Steven was at the airport to pick us up. While he was waiting in his car, an Asian man came to his window and motioned that he needed help. In broken English, he said that he had come to pickup his daughter, but he didn't know the airline or flight number, and he could not find her. He didn't have a cell phone and didn't know his daughter's cell phone number. Steven didn't give up. He asked the man who might have his daughters cell number. The man said that perhaps her mother would, but he didn't know her phone number. However, he knew she lived in Baltimore.  And incredibly with Steven's prompting, the man started to piece together the mother's phone number from memory. Steven called and sure enough, the young lady's mother answered. After Steven explained the situation, he handed the phone to the man so he could get the cell phone number, but they continued talking about everything but the cell #. Pretty soon, Steven persuaded him to ask for the cell number, and they were able to call the girl and arrange a location to meet. By that time she had been waiting more than two hours. While we were driving home, Linda, the girl's mother, called Steven to thank him and tell him everything was now fine -- they found their daughter and were together and safe.