Flipping the Switch between Spiritual / Inspirational and Humorous▣ Wedding Reception for Elder Paul Dattage
Tonight we attended the wedding reception of Paul Dattage, one of our missionaries. He arrived in our mission on December 30, 2003, and we went home the following July. So we were not with him for most of his mission, but he was obviously a very good missionary--and he was delightful for the short six months we had with him. His parents were happy to see us, and his mom recalled that I had let him call home when he arrived to tell her he was safe.
Elder Dattage came into the mission with another great missionary, Sister Ali Parrish. I still recall vividly the return trip from the Incheon airport the night we picked them up. There were just the two of them, Elder Dattage and Sister Parrish. Here is what I wrote:
"On Tuesday, December 30, I worked in the office, writing many thank you notes for gifts and Christmas cards from people in Korea. In the afternoon, Elder Sparrow and I went back to the airport, this time to meet two missionaries who did not get their visas earlier in December—Sister Alexandra Parrish, from Orem, Utah, and Elder Paul Dattage, from Logan, Utah. We made it to the airport and back safely—and we had a good visit with Sister Parrish and Elder Dattage on the way back. They fell asleep about half way home.
"We had a weird experience with a Korean driver on the way home. Koreans are aggressive drivers and swerve in and out of lanes and cut each other off. Sometimes they duel each other on the highway if they think they have been wronged. I was just driving in my lane; I had not swerved in or out or cut anyone off. I think the driver of the car in question must have mistaken us for another van (there are many similar Hyundai vans on the road). He started tailgating us, and then passing us and cutting in front of us, and then slowing down, almost slamming on the brakes. It was really weird. He would not leave us alone. This went on for some time. I did not flash him; I simply tried to avoid him. I must admit that if we had not had two new missionaries in the van, I may have pulled over and let Elder Sparrow, a star football player at 6’4” and 210 pounds, have a go at the guy. But, I didn’t want that to be the new missionaries’ first memory of Korea. Finally, I moved right behind a huge truck and stayed tight to his bumper in the right lane. The guy could not cut in front of me, so he finally gave up and moved on. I know that road rage is alive and well in the U.S. It’s alive and well in Korea, where the drivers are, to be quite honest, really terrible—and really inexperienced."Quite a memory of my first experience with Elder Dattage. Now, years later, he's found a beautiful bride and just had the best day of his life. We were happy we could be there briefly with him.
Copyright © 2008-2009 Richard Rife. All Rights Reserved.
Aleda says:
Thank you soo much! This tip is super useful!
April 9th, 2010 at 2:09 PM