Elder home — honored dad's advice

ST. GEORGE — When Justen Armstrong's family dropped him off at the Missionary Training Center in Provo two years ago, his father gave him a piece of advice.

"He told me, 'no matter what, don't come home,"' Justen Armstrong said.

He didn't, even after his father, Tracy Armstrong, was shot three times in August 2007 when a man walked into a guest cabin in Panguitch that the Armstrongs were renting out.

Justen Armstrong returned last week after completing a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in San Bernardino, Calif.

"He (Justen) wasn't out quite one year," Tracy Armstrong said. "I don't remember a lot about what happened during that time, but I do remember talking to him and told him to stay on his mission — I told him, 'You need to complete what you started."'

As a result of the shooting, Tracy Armstrong is paralyzed from the chest down.

As he sat in his motorized wheelchair waiting for his son to get off the plane he was excited, yet concerned.

"I was worried how he would react to me in a wheelchair because the dad he knows is gone," Tracy Armstrong said.

As Justen Armstrong got off the plane at the St. George Airport he was greeted by his mother, grandparents and eight siblings.

As he entered the terminal he was swarmed with hugs, smiles and laughs.

As he made his way to his father he leaned over and smiled.

"Hi, Dad," he said.

It was emotional for everyone in the family.

"The reunion is exactly what I pictured it," Tracy Armstrong said.

Lynn Armstrong, wife and mother, said everything that's happened to her husband and what her family has had to do to pick up the pieces has been a struggle.

"I was worried how he would react to his dad," she said. "I think he'll be OK; I think it'll be actually a process. Once he gets home and actually sees the struggles, he'll have to work through that."

Lynn Armstrong added she was happy to have her son home.

"It's been a relief just getting here," she said. "Just having him (Justen) here just feels like a weight has been lifted off my shoulders."

Justen Armstrong said the reunion was amazing.

"I was thinking about it all day, what I was going to see," he said. "I was worried I wasn't going to know what to say or how to feel."

Justen Armstrong added he's happy that his father is still here.

"He's still the same person even though he's sitting in a wheelchair. He's still the same person inside," he said.

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