This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2016, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
A Mormon missionary wounded in the Brussels airport attack says he considers himself blessed to have such minor injuries.
After leaving University Hospital in Salt Lake City on Wednesday, 20-year-old Joseph Empey told KUTV-TV that he was within feet of where the bomb went off March 22.
Empey, who lives in Santa Clara, was one of four LDS missionaries injured when explosions ripped through the Brussels airport as they accompanied a French woman set to fly to the U.S. for her mission.
Empey says it is strange to be in the spotlight, but that he hopes he can use his newfound celebrity to teach others about the experience.
The other injured missionaries remain hospitalized.
Empey's mission companion, Mason Wells, 19, of Sandy, is in University Hospital's Burn Unit.
The family of 66-year-old Richard Norby, of Lehi, said Friday that his recovery in an intensive-care unit in Belgium is going slower than expected.
"He continues to deal with the serious effects of infection and injury from shrapnel," the family said in a statement through the Utah-based Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Wells and Empey have both been released from their missions, church officials have said, and Norby soon will be.
Fanny Rachel Clain, 20, of Montelimar, France, also was wounded. Clain, who was en route to Ohio, is expected resume her missionary service in the U.S. when she is "fit enough to do so."