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.