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A 19-year-old Mormon missionary from Utah who was wounded in the Brussels terrorists attacks was reunited with his parents Friday — and is speaking about what he saw during the blast and how his faith has been strengthened.
Mason Wells, of Sandy, has been at a hospital in the Belgian city of Ghent since he suffered burns and shrapnel injuries in Tuesday's bombing at a Brussels airport.
His parents, Chad and Kymberly Wells, were at his bedside Friday after flying from Utah to see their son. Their tearful reunion was captured on video by CNN.
Also Friday, the heavily bandaged teen told several news outlets what he saw on the day of the attacks. He said he had just pulled out his iPad to look at something when he heard an explosion.
"The blast was really loud," Mason Wells said in a video posted by The Associated Press. "It even lifted my body a little bit. And I remember feeling a lot of really hot and really cold feelings on the whole right side of my body. I was covered in a fair amount of blood, and not necessarily mine even."
Wells, who played football and lacrosse at Lone Peak High School, said he felt fortunate that he and the three other LDS missionaries he was with were not hurt more seriously, though they were close to the blast. He said he felt God was with him as he waited outside the airport for medical help as a second bomb went off inside the building.
"I was sitting outside of the airport, sitting in my own blood, and there was a feeling of calm and peace that I had," Wells said. "And it was beyond just physical shock. I attribute that to the presence of God. If there's anything I've learned, it's that if God can hear the prayers that I was giving as I was on that sidewalk lying down, I know that he hears the prayers of everyone."
Three years earlier, Wells avoided injury in Boston when a bomb went off a block away from where he and his father were watching the teen's mom race in the marathon.
"I don't know if I was born under a lucky star," he told AP. "I was definitely fortunate to have escaped with the injuries that I've escaped with at the airport, being very close to the bombs."
Another missionary, Fanny Clain, spoke to European media about her experience. The 20-year-old Frenchwoman, who had cleared airport security when a blast occurred, was en route to serve a Mormon mission in Ohio.
"It sounded like the end of the world in one second," she told the news service ATV of the blast. "I found myself on the ground and there was ash everywhere. It was all gray. I was covered in some brown stuff. I stank of a burnt pig, so I got up and I got out as fast as possible."
Clain recalled that she didn't realize how badly she was burned until she looked in a mirror.
"I caught sight of myself in a mirror and I was half-burned," she told Belgian newspaper HLN. "I didn't look too much."
Thierry Clain, the missionary's father, released a statement Friday through The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, saying that his daughter was doing well and had an operation that day to remove shrapnel from her body. The young woman also received second-degree burns.
"I have been in contact with the hospital, but was unable to talk with Fanny because she was sleeping," Thierry Clain said in the statement. "I have been extremely touched by the concern and goodness expressed by others in regard to Fanny. I look forward to visiting her Saturday and staying a few days with her."
Two other Utah Mormon missionaries, 66-year-old Richard Norby, of Lehi, and 20-year-old Joseph Empey, of Santa Clara, were also injured Tuesday.
The wounded missionaries will be seeing more reunions with loved ones in coming days.
"Some family members have already arrived and others are in various stages of transit," LDS Church spokesman Eric Hawkins said in a video message posted Friday from Brussels. "They are coming to help make medical decisions and to work with health care providers to expedite the recovery of each of these missionaries."
Norby's family said in a statement Wednesday that he is expected to be in a medically induced coma for a few days after a lengthy surgery. Shrapnel caused trauma to the man's lower leg, and he also suffered second-degree burns on his head and neck, his family said.
Empey also underwent surgery this week. He is being treated for shrapnel injuries on his legs and for burns to his hands, face and head.
Twitter: @jm_miller