Sister Chiou

On Tuesday night, Chloe and I had the privilege of picking Alena Sister Chiou up from the airport. She was with us for less than 24 hours before entering the MTC (Missionary Training Center), but she certainly blessed our apartment for those precious few hours she was with us. We love and miss her already!

Chloe and I left for the airport at 6:30 pm. Alena's plane was supposed to land at 7:27 pm. We thought we were cutting it close. Turns out we had plenty of time. Alena's plane was delayed for TWO HOURS! Chloe and I entertained ourselves with snacks and lots of playing on the escalators. We especially enjoyed dancing on the flat escalators. We even made friends with a cute little family. We also checked the monitors every 30 seconds in anticipation of seeing Alena. Needless to say, we were REALLY excited.

Alena FINALLY arrived and we ran past the line thing to hug her. Evidently you're supposed to greet people behind the line, but we were too excited to follow rules. The guys standing in front of Alena hurried out of our way saying "We better get out of the way or we'll get trampled!" Oops. A cute couple who was at the airport to pick up another sister missionary entering the MTC on Wednesday snapped a quick picture of the three of us.

 As you can see, Alena is holding the fabulous sign I made on the way to pick her up. Napkin + pen + very melted crayons = a masterpiece. All the people who were holding posters to welcome people off the plane were probably extremely jealous of Alena's napkin sign.

When we got home, Tall Todd and the rest of our roomies were there to greet Alena. Shortly after we arrived at the apartment, the B-11 boys came over and we had a birthday cake and sang happy birthday to Alena. We made a special gluten and dairy free cake, but it turns out Alena has decided to eat gluten and dairy now...haha, oh well.

We tried to get Alena to bed on time, but since her plane was so late we failed. Midnight is basically 10:30, right? We had a blast catching up.

In the morning, Alena made breakfast. She tricked me into thinking she made me a special breakfast, but really it was just her messed up attempt at hashbrowns. Everyone laughed because they thought I was really going to eat it, but I thought it would be rude not to at least try it. Thankfully, Alena gave in and told me it was a joke before I took a bite. Then they let  me eat the real breakfast.

After breakfast, Alena went to class with Chloe. I gave her a big hug and said goodbye see ya later.

It was such a treat to go home from classes that day and see that Alena had left us a sweet note on our white board.

Alena made our fall semester incredible. When I moved into B38, I had no idea that this stranger I was now living with would have such a big impact on my life. I never knew we would become such close friends. I will forever cherish all of our memories: Alena showing up at my bedroom door for girl talk, Alena singing in the living room, THE quote that we kept hidden on the back of the door, bouncing in between the beds, trying on all of Chloe's clothes, and the list goes on and on.

Florida better brace itself; Sister Chiou is on her way!