We finished our work at the MTC right on time.

Do you have any idea what it takes to graduate from the MTC?  As it turns out, you just have to show up.  We did our final teaching session with a volunteer from the community who got some free therapy.  It was easier than we'd feared, because we just talked to our volunteer and she told us what we needed to know to prepare a lesson.  In the end we had a very spiritual experience with her.
We said goodbye to our friends, the Ashtons.  We took lots of photos of our group, our "other" group, our morning teachers, our afternoon teachers.  Then we turned in our MTC passes as we left the building.
   We spent the weekend with Mark, our great-granddaughter, and with Angela and family.  Great times.
  Monday morning, we got up early, did our last minute packing and had a quick breakfast before heading for Salt Lake airport.  First leg:  a 3-hour jump to Minneapolis where we were dreading a short layover to catch our overseas flight.  We were sitting in the back of the plane, so we were sweating it.   As it turns out we made good time and arrived early.  Even so, as we got off the plane I saw a guy with a little passenger cart.  I told him where we were going and he took us straight there in time to join our boarding group.  The advice we'd been given was to sleep on the overnight, overseas leg of our journey.  We both tried.  Tried and failed.  I napped for a bit less than an hour, and then watched movies.  The plane was having problems with certain seat screens.  I was one of the lucky ones.  So Liz let me use her seat to watch a little film about a woman who lived with her mother in Macedonia, supporting them both by harvesting honey she raised in home built hives in the rocks.  It was interesting to an old beekeeper, but sad.
When we landed in Amsterdam, it was still dark in the early morning.  We had a 5-hour wait, so we window shopped, bought a delicious Dutch breakfast, and had a good long nap.  Finally we boarded our little "City Hopper" 737 operated by KLM for the last leg to Croatia.  We don't know if the service was good, because we were both asleep before the plane took off.  We woke up as the jet decelerated and dropped down for the landing.  We got to see Zagreb from the air, and then we were on the ground,
IN CROATIA!
  President and Sister M. met us at the airport as promised.  Customs was a breeze, and we drove to the Mission Office where we met the office staff and got a tour.  Look at the tile fireplace in the office!

We met the couple we are replacing and were introduced to our car.  Then we headed to the Mission Home in a nice part of town.  The building used to be the British Ambassador's residence.

 

It's the house on the left.  I couldn't believe the stairs, which are made of 1.5" solid wood and they don't squeak, don't move at all, and are solid is rocks.  There is a swimming pool in the basement (which is empty and used for sleeping extra elders on transfer days.)  There is a clay tennis court in the back yard.  We were in bed by 8:00 and slept like the dead until morning. 
  We got some breakfast, some instruction, and tried to get back to the office by 9:00.  We got semi-lost and took the long way there, and parked in the wrong area.  What fun!
  The office staff each took a turn instructing us.  Driving rules, visa forms, new mission phone, etc., etc.  Then we fired up the GPS and headed for home.
  Driving in the cities here is very fast!  Not that people drive fast, but the roads are very narrow, so things happen with little warning.  You come to an intersection, it's clear, and before you enter somebody is already there.  So it was nerve wracking until we got out of the city.  Fortunately, Croatia has a great road system and we drove almost the whole way on freeways.  It was a sweet ride through gentle-sloped farm land.
  The young elders we'll be supporting met us at our apartment building and helped us get in.  We unpacked our cases that night and got another good night's rest - almost.  The bed is horrible.  Liz slept on a couch.  We'll be talking to the landlord about it.
  This morning the Elders came back and we all went to the police station to get registered.  We asked for (and got) a 90-day visa, which is apparently unusual.  They usually cut it back some.  I guess we look like wholesome grandparently types.  Later we'll go back and ask for a 1-year visa, then a year later another one but we have to leave at 23 months.  
  Today was transfer announcement day and we all joined a ZOOM conference call to hear who is going where.  One of our elders is going to Zagreb.  Then we bought some food with expert guidance by the elders.  And then we bought lunch for them.
  On the way in we walked by this old church.  It's not the big main church, but it is cool.

I had to wait for people to get out of the way before I took the photo because European privacy rules are very strict and you can't post people faces without their permission.

So now we are back at our apartment, getting it organized and set up like we want it.  Tommorrow will be a big day!