Wednesday, December 12 - 

It was a long flight to Prague. Changing planes in Paris, going through customs and making the connecting flight was a challenge. Sister Dransfield ran through the Paris airport while I tried to keep up!  We barely made the connecting flight into Prague.

As we went to pick up our luggage on the carousel, we found that we were missing one of Starší’s Dransfield’s big suitcases! Sestra Dransfield prayed, “Heavenly Father, please bless whoever has our luggage to just bring it to me!” We found out that the airline still had our piece of luggage in Paris.

Arrival picture with Mission President and Wife
as they deliver luggage.

Our Mission President, President Pohořelický  worked with the airline to straighten out the problem.  Sestra Dransfield’s prayer was answered when President personally delivered the luggage to us in Třebíč!  We had a prayer of thanks for a prayer answered.

The Elders had brought a car to our home in Třebíč before we even had the visa. It was covered with snow.  The next day Starší Dransfield drove 38 km to Jihlava for a District Meeting.

Road to Jihlava

As we climbed in elevation, we encountered major snow. It was absolutely gorgeous, but even though he was following the Elder's car, he was a nervous wreck! He has become an excellent driver since then.

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Arrival in Třebíč

ur first Sunday in Třebíč we met Branch members who were excited to see us. They had been told for weeks about their first ever Branch Senior Missionary Couple’s arrival! Some had prepared our home with immediate needs (food, heat!) before our arrival, and were actually at the home to greet us when we first arrived.

We were happy to see their smiling faces among others that first Sunday. Sestra Dransfield and I both bore testimonies that first Sunday. We were so grateful to be among them...finally!

The Třebíč Branch practicing for Christmas program

After church we watched the Branch and some of the missionaries practice for their Christmas program. This musically talented group played and sang Czech Christmas songs.  The Branch President explained that most of the Christmas songs in the hymn book are carols Americans sing translated into Czech, not songs Czechs usually sing.  We were very excited to hear a Czech carol during Music and the Spoken Word.  Every Primary child participated in the nativity.  They had to change quickly to be angels, shepherds, and wisemen.

Every day is a learning experience! Exactly how does this 

washing machine work?  And where do I get clothes made of butterflies?  Google has become our best friend! We also googled how to run the stove and dishwasher, as well as using Google Translate to read recipe instructions, newspaper articles, bulletin boards at church, and other church literature. 

Not a day that goes by that we don’t learn something new!

Friday, November 30 - Wednesday, December 12

Utah Salt Lake City Headquarters Mission (USLCHM)

When Sestra Dransfield’s visa didn’t arrive, we were assigned to the USLCHM and sent to Salt Lake with the other Senior Missionaries who would serve there.  

President and Sister Fenn (center front)
and their new Senior Missionaries

We trained to serve as Family History Consultants.  Every morning we left our apartment across from the Conference Center, walked through Temple Square to the Joseph Smith Memorial Building, and began our training at 7:30.  It was awesome to see Seniors pouring out of their apartments from every direction walking to their assignments.  We trained 7 hours a day!  There was so much to learn.  Many of the Seniors are widows and it was touching to hear them talk about receiving help from beyond the veil.

Official SLC Christmas Picture

Every day our friends  asked if we had news about the visa. We thought we might spend Christmas in Salt Lake.

As we look back on our 11 1/2 day Salt Lake Mission, we are grateful for the the experiences, the training, and the fun!  

While in Salt Lake, we went to the First Presidency Christmas Devotional, saw the musical "Savior of the World,"

I couldn't believe we got tickets from a ward member!

enjoyed the Christmas lights on Temple Square every morning and evening, visited the Church History Museum, the History Library, and the Family History Center, had fun visiting with David and his family on Temple Square,

We just walked across the street from our apartment
to do all those fun things.

and went to Music and the Spoken Word twice.  Bob even met a cousin he didn’t know about. 

Salt Lake Temple at Night

But the most special experience was going to the Salt Lake Temple on Saturday, 12/8.  When we left the Temple, I told Bob, “Now we can go to the Czech Republic.”

The very next work day, Monday afternoon, 12/10 we received the email saying that the visa had arrived!  

This was official word sent to our Mission President and cc'd to us.

Bob skipped class and walked to the Church Office Building, 14th floor, to get our travel plans.

We saved this from candies Eileen sent us
when we were in the MTC.

We were so excited!  Just that morning (our temporary) Mission President Fenn talked to us about where we would serve if we stayed in Salt Lake. 

On Wednesday, our newly found cousins drove us to the airport and we were on our way to Prague.

Saturday, November 24 - Friday November 30 we were in the Mission Training Center in Provo.

Sunday, November 25, was kind of our extra day at the MTC, because we flew in early instead of waiting until Monday, our real 
check-in day.  We are glad we were there because it turned out to be

Elder Alec Richardson

our only Sunday in the MTC.  We were excited to see Elders Alec Richardson (Texas McAllen Mission) and Jason Rollins (Korea Seoul South Mission) in the MTC cafeteria.

Elder Jason Rollins

We asked Elder Rollins to say something in Korean, so he bore his testimony and his companion translated for us.  So touching.

We loved the large paintings and murals throughout the buildings.  They added to the Spirit we felt in our meetings and training.

The devotionals were inspirational.  We enjoyed getting to know the other Senior Missionaries and discussing their mission assignments.  We are now scattered all over the world doing all kinds of amazing things.

Day 1 in the MTC

Well, today was our first official day in the MTC! We could not be happier serving as a Senior Couple. Today brought us some flashbacks and emotions. Of course, we had our picture taken by the famous map. 

The room they used to call "The Cry Room" is no longer where parents separate from their missionary. It was where we first gathered this morning. Memories flooded back to when we put some of our sons into the MTC.  We would enter the room together and eventually we separated as they went out one door and we went out the other. One thing that was the same this time was having the opportunity to sing "Called to Serve". Singing that song brought tears to our eyes!

I guess we are official since we are wearing 

our missionary tags which we will display throughout our mission. We contacted Missionary Travel today and Sister Dransfield's visa has not yet been issued. We will check again tomorrow. We pray that we will have it before Friday so that we can get off to the Czech Republic! Stay tuned...

A SLIGHT Delay!

Well, this morning was interesting. The phone rang and I looked at the caller ID. The Missionary Department was calling. They asked me, “Would you like to spend Thanksgiving at home with your family?” I asked, "What’s up? We are scheduled to leave this Saturday!" Come to find out, our visas will not come in time for our scheduled date to leave for the Czech Republic. They have asked us to delay our entrance into the MTC for 2 weeks. So, we are going into the MTC on November 26. Our bags are packed and ready to go! 

Well, it's November! This is the month that we enter the MTC in Provo, Utah. We expect to fly to the Czech Republic around Nov. 18th. Of course, this all depends on receiving our visas on time. The mission boundaries include the Czech Republic and Slovakia. Here's a map of the Czech/Slovak Mission.

It is our understanding that we will be living in  Třebíč, in the Czech Republic. 

This next map shows the location of Třebíč compared to the city of Prague.

This is a photo of the Czech Republic flag to the left and the Slovakia flag to the right. We bought these 3 X 5 foot flags to hang inside our house along with all the other missionary flags from our sons missions. Again, I am also practicing how to work with this new Blog.