John and Karen in the Adriatic North Mission: We really did come home

This post is being written two years after the fact, but I wanted to include our travels on our way back to Utah. We arrived home safely on July 11, 2019 and were greeted at the airport by family and friends.

Angie, Halle, Liam and Eva Oldham

Heather and Sherri

Melanie, Barbara, Dennis, Lara and Sherri

Shirley and Larry Durrans

It was a bit of a nightmare getting back to Utah. After touring in Italy and Austria, we spent a couple days in Frankfurt Germany with the folks in the Area Office that supported us with our humanitarian work and projects.

Area Office missionaries and interns

We had a very nice dinner with Gilles François (Europe Area director of Welfare Services) and his wife, Elder Gary and Sister Susan Winters, Elder Clark and Sister Shelley Davis, and the summer interns (whose names I no longer recall, sorry). Elder Winters took us to the Frankfurt airport the following day and our long trek home began.

Our Frankfurt flight departed two hours late. We had a two-hour layover in Minneapolis and suspected that we might miss our connecting flight there. Getting through customs once we landed in Minneapolis took a very long time and once through, there was no one outside of customs to direct us where to drop luggage and get to our next gate. We rushed to catch the train to our gate, dragging all our luggage. In our hurry we made the poor choice of using the escalator instead of the elevator. I stepped on the escalator first, with my carry on suitcase in front and my large suitcase behind. The large suitcase caught on something, jerking my arm backwards and throwing me off balance. I fell backwards and proceeded up the escalator feet first. John was behind me, with two suitcases in between us and could not get to me to help. My first thought was "I am so glad Sister missionaries are allowed to wear pants now." If I had been wearing a skirt, it probably would have been around my neck by now. As I struggled to get up my next thought was, "My shirt is going to catch on the lip of the stair at the top and I will be helplessly stuck as John and all the luggage pile into me." I heard a voice telling me that I needed to get turned around and stand up. I knew that, but it's very difficult to stand as you're ascending stairs feet first, lying down. A man appeared out of nowhere, grabbed me by the shoulders, literally turned me around and helped me to my feet. I managed to successfully get off the escalator, remove my luggage and clear the path for John and his luggage without further incident. We turned to thank the man for his help but he was no where to be found. The was no one - no one - in the vicinity of the escalator. Was he one of the three Nephites?? We'll never know, but are grateful for another tender mercy as we completed our service.

As it turned out, we had not missed our connecting flight, as it had not even departed Seattle yet. We settled into our gate and waited for the plane to arrive.

Our first purchase once we were back in the U.S.

We knew we would have a 13-hour layover in Seattle and had booked a hotel room for the night. The plan was to get a good night's rest, shower and put on fresh clothes for the final leg into Salt Lake City. It was a great plan... but didn't include all the flight delays. We did not get to our hotel until almost 3:00 AM Seattle time. We had to be back at the airport by 7:00 AM for our flight. We did shower and find fresh clothing but didn't get much sleep.

After another delayed departure from Seattle, we finally arrived safely in Salt Lake. It was wonderful to be back in our own home with familiar food and surroundings. We will be forever grateful for the blessings of serving another mission.

We had a lovely lunch at our home after we reported our mission in Sacrament meeting. It was fun having so many dear friends and family together again. I made traditional meat and potato burek. The Old Bridge Café catered the other food.