The eagle has landed!

This post added by Steve. The content is Michelle's email she sent out reviewing her phone conversation with mom from Croatia. I figured I'd put the email here for anyone that may have been missed on Michelle's email blast.

Hello all,

I finally heard from Mom. She called me this morning to tell me that they were alive. It was great to hear her voice. Well let me start from the beginning. They took off from Utah at 8:15 Monday morning and did not arrive in Slovenia until 2:30pm the next day. They had some weather issues in Paris and were grounded for 5 hours. When they got into Slovenia they got all of their luggage but unfortunately it was in shreds, so they carried it around in plastic bags. The Mission president picked them up from the airport and took them back to his house to eat a little something and off they went on a 2 1/2 hour car ride to an other senior couples (the Heath's) home in Croatia, to stay all night. That night they were able to go to dinner with all the senior couples in the mission at a castle in Croatia. Mom said that was a great experience. Wednesday morning they had to be up early to get back into the car for 3 hours to go to zone conference all day. By this time Mom and Dad were exhausted to say the least, so the mission president put them up at a nice hotel to have a good nights sleep. On Thursday the Mission president instructed the Heaths to get Mom and Dad into a new apartment. So they found a basement apartment for 2000 kuna or $360 a month. It has no hot water in the kitchen but it does in the bathroom and a small wall heater and a fridge the size of her trailer fridge. So she said one of her first purchases will be a new large fridge. But the apartment is big. Once they got all of their luggage into the apartment the Heath's took them to the local market to get some food and supplies. Mom was happy to see that they did have brown sugar there but, alas, no sugar free Jell-O. So I am supposed to mail her some as she needs it. The lady that owns the apartment made Mom and Dad lunch, which consisted of ground pork wrapped in cabbage leaves with a sauce over it. Mom said it was pretty good. So today Mom and Dad are helping the branch get ready to put on a hoe down where they are going to serve corn bread and chili. Mom said Dad is loving it.

Mom and Dads main objective is to run an outreach program for youth and young single adults. Every night from 3:00 pm to 8:30 pm they will have some type of activity for them. There is a room set up with dart boards and pool tables for the youth to come and enjoy themselves. I guess it has been a great way of fellowshipping the young people of Croatia.

The town they are in is small. There is about 3000 people. They have to walk to church which is a mile away. They do have a car that they will share with a couple that is 5 hours away. So that will be good for them to have a car some of the time. There is no public transportation in their town.

They will not have internet for 1 week to 1 month. So it might be a while before you get emails from them personally. Mom said to make sure everyone checks her blog because that is where she is going to update everyone on how they are doing.

Mom did admit to me she had a heck of a time when she got there, just because she was so overwhelmed by the lack of sleep and the luggage issues. But she has a husband that kept saying to her "You can do this, Marilyn." What a blessing this will be for both of them!

Love you all

Michelle