Elder David y Hna. Pam Johnson

Saturday, July 25, 2009
Our flight to Dallas/Fort Worth TX was uneventful. Our layover gave Pam and I time to find a breakfast shop in the airport and grab a bit. Then we were off to Miami International Airport and a short layover that didn’t allow time to eat. Pam was a little concerned about our luggage keeping up with us and all of our transfers. Interestingly, twice we got to see our luggage being loaded right outside our cabin window.

In Miami is when things started to go wrong! Our departure was delayed 45 minutes while we waited for another pilot to arrive that was delayed because his flight was late. Then when we finally got pushed away from the terminal by the service truck with a boom arm hooked to the front landing gear, the boom broke and we waited another 30 minutes until an inspector could certify there was no damage to the landing gear! Next we continued to wait another 15 minutes on the taxi way awaiting our turn to take off. Our departure ended up being 1½ late taking off. Over an hour of that time we sat in an un-airconditioned airplane. It was very hot and humid. But the worst was yet to come…..

When we finally got to Santo Domingo and met Bro. and Sister Larson, the office couple we will replace, I discovered that I didn’t have my wallet! I knew where it was, it was in the pouch of the seat in front of mine. I put it there for the flight because it is too hard to sit on for 4 hours.

It took me about 45 minutes to make my way back into the airplane to search for the wallet. I received help from a couple of airport officials getting past security and customs. Finally inside the plane I found nothing. The cleaning crew, about 8 men & women, were hard at work cleaning the plane. None of them had seen anything. I went through all of the trash bags and found nothing. Then one of the airport officials called all of the cleaning crew to the front of the plan and ordered each one to take off their shoes and empty their pockets. Then he frisked/patted down each one. I was really surprised but grateful for the gesture. After an hour of searching, nothing turned up. I ended up leaving the plane with nothing more than the name and phone number of the airport official that helped me. Monday I will call and see if anything showed up…. Boy, I hate it when I do something stupid!