Mission Accomplished: Papa and Pluba Are HOME!

After a couple years of serving a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Papa and Pluba (aka Madre and Kell) are home in Utah. They were out serving the people of Hungary, Romania, Czech Republic and Slovakia. During their time there, they were young single adult leaders, taught religious institute classes, helped people become temporally self-reliant, and taught English through the BYU-Pathways program to students in Russia. They learned to live in a small European sized space and drove a small European sized vehicle. But most importantly they learned to eat and love things they have never tried before (neither of them are adventurous eaters). I was never so proud as when three-quarters of the way through their mission they called and told me they had just eaten some street food! (A major accomplishment for two people that choose the most American looking white linen table cloth style restaurants they can find! haha)

It was fun to hear their experiences throughout the two years. They had ups and they had downs. There were stories of faith and miracles, there were moments of tears and frustration, of course they missed being here and we missed seeing them too. But they survived and so did we! Lady Hiva and I were glad that we could see them halfway through their mission on our trip to Europe.

As we prepared for them to return, we planted flowers, cleaned the house, made signs and spent many days laughing.

Then the day came for us to see them return from the airplane. We were all lined up and ready to greet them...and of course instead of coming out the place EVERY.OTHER.PERSON. came out, they went the other way...so in an anticlimactic way, we all shuffled over to greet them on the other side of the room! haha

The last two weeks have been a rush of catching up. They have been chasing grand kids from one event to the next, reconnecting with family and friends and they gave their "homecoming talks" on Sunday in their home congregation to share about some of their experiences.

This photo makes me laugh in SO many ways!