Visiting the Italy Milan Mission & bringing Jackson home -- Getting to Italy

Dad, Mom, Madi and Carson traveled to Italy to visit Jackson's mission, meet the people he had taught and served, and bring him home. This a complication of notes, pictures, social media posts and memories documenting the trip. Sorry it is a little disjointed as some is in first person, some third, some present tense and some past tense.

Wednesday July 31st (social media post by Mom)

On his very last day as a missionary, Anziano Puzey was still able to be the answer to prayer. This story is what I call a divine signature. When things so miraculously align that it feels as if Heavenly Father puts His signature to it saying ‘I’m here.’
He was out touring Milan for his last pday with another missionary who is waiting on his parents to get there and they ran into my childhood friend’s daughter. She is a classically trained violinist and she was there for a 3 week program. The program ended today and she had to make her way to a hotel in Milan on her own to fly home tomorrow (her program was in another city). She had gotten on the wrong train and was lost. She prayed while on the train that when she got off on the next stop she would find someone who could help her. She got off the train and walked right up to Jackson (and his companion) without realizing who he was. Once she saw his name tag they made the connection. He was able to direct her exactly where she needed to go and even gifted her metro passes that he had been given by the mission office couple but had not needed to use all day. (Second picture is what she posted to her social media regarding the experience). 
Due to space I don’t share all the little details of this experience, but there were more and I hope it lifts you and helps you know that He is there, in your life too, and you are loved. ♥️



Thursday August 1st

Doug, Carson and Mom drove to Seattle from the TriCities to catch the flight to Europe. Madi flew from SLC and met us at the Seattle airport. We are so excited to have our adventure begin and finally get to hug Jackson after 2 years! Here we are waiting for our flight out of Seattle to our layover at Heathrow Airport.


Friday August 2nd
Things started out well. Our flight was on time and uneventful, but within minutes of landing at Heathrow, where we were only to have a couple hour layover, we received text messages from Jackson who had seen while we were still inflight that our flight to Milan had been cancelled. We were so sad and spent a couple hours at the airport trying to find another way, but in the end we left and made our way to the other side of London, where we would fly out of a different airport in the morning. 
This was mom's post on her social media account asking for prayers in our behalf:

Flight cancelled. We’re stuck in London. We’re supposed to be reunited with Jackson right now. So close yet so far. 😩
Rebooked for tomorrow morning. Please say a prayer we get out—you know I believe in prayer and divine signatures! 🙏🏻

Updated text message sent to extended family to let them know how it was going:
Just made it to our hotel. It’s by the other airport we are flying out of in the morning. They did not give us vouchers for the hotel or expensive train ride. They say they’ll reimburse us if we turn in receipts. Hope so cause so far the is costing us about £500. Plus the hotel room we already paid for in Milan and rental car. Had to walk several blocks with all our luggage in tow. We’re tired and jet lagged. It’s kinda been a disaster but mostly just sad we still can’t get to Jackson. Pretty helpless feeling. I wanted to rent a car and drive the 13+ hours to get to him but cooler heads prevailed.
Making the best of a bad situation, we ran around the streets of London until very late into the night. These pictures look like they are a fake backdrop, but they are not! 





Saturday August 3
We got him!!
After some hiccups we were able to fly into Milan and get to the mission home late this morning. We’ve spent all day together exploring the city that Jackson knows like the back of his hand! Though he never served in the city itself he spent many pdays with other missionaries exploring this historic once capital city of the Roman Empire.
It was interesting to watch him interact with native Italians throughout the day. Though we were all together, a couple of people asked Jackson specifically for help with directions. It’s like they sensed he knew way more than we did! The last picture is the last moments of him being Anziano Puzey. He is speaking to President Hunt, our stake president, who officially released him from full-time missionary service. We enjoyed hearing him share his experiences and testimony of Jesus Christ.
We’re excited to explore more cities and areas with him as the week goes on! ♥️







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