More Scenes From Christmas

We were out walking the Charles Bridge a few nights before Christmas. Steven took the picture of us, with the castle in the background.


Steven and Matthew loved the hot trndl rolls they bake and sell at the markets. If you double click on the picture, you can see them better.


I'm not sure why carp is the traditional Czech food for Christmas, but the tradition goes like this: Men come out on every street corner and fill up tubs and tubs with live carp. People will line up to buy a live carp. They take it home and let it live in their bathtub for a few days, then they kill it and eat it on Christmas Eve. Again, I'm not sure of the reasoning, but I guess cutting down a perfectly good tree and putting tinsel on it doesn't make much sense either.


Christmas morning, we had the Prague district missionaries over for breakfast. If you've ever wondered what missionaries do on Christmas, this is what they do after breakfast--they relax in the mission home. We loved having them with us.


Elder Holik resting in Matthew's favorite chair.



This is the group we had over for breakfast. Steven and Matthew are hiding out in the back row.


Our funny, funny tree. We bought a beautiful, yet little, tree right before we left for Slovakia. When we got home, we discovered our error in forgetting to ask the boys to water it while we were gone. Our once vibrant, bursting with life tree, became this sad, sagging tree; barely able to hold up its ornaments. Sister Forsythe said it best when she walked into the family room this afternoon. She said, "Oh, your tree." Yes, indeed. Our tree. It goes into the trash tomorrow.

If you are reading our post, could you do us a favor and just write your name in the comments box and where you are from? We thought it would be fun to know who is reading. Many thanks, and Stastny Novy Rok!! (Happy New Year)

The Beautiful Christmas Season

I love this time of year! Winter is in full force with chilly weather and dark afternoons. There is no daylight after 4 pm! We have learned that even after the sun goes down, missionary work continues. But it is so beautiful here when everything is decorated for Christmas.

We visited Trebic last Sunday, where I was invited into Primary to watch them practice a Christmas play. Here the children are receiving last minute instructions before they begin the re-enactment of Luke 2. It was fun to watch Mary (little girl in the pink sweater) ride the donkey (little boy in the plaid shirt), and Joseph (little boy in the suit and tie) protect her. To my delight, it was a musical. So every once in awhile, the children would break into a Christmas song. I especially enjoyed it when the donkey got tired and layed down while Mary was trying to balance on top of him.

We had an office party in the apartment upstairs and invited all the missionaries from the office for a Byli Sloan (white elephant) gift exchange. Elder Nelson was particularly pleased to get a kazoo. Here he is showing off his kazoo skills to his wife and Elder Johnson. The Nelsons were released from their mission last week. Though we miss them, I think we'll get along just fine without Elder Nelson's rendition of Jingle Bells on the kazoo.

I tried to enlarge this picture so you can see the Christmas markets (the little red-roofed buildings) they set up in the town squares throughout the Czech Republic. They are so quaint and fun to shop in. They sell everything from hand painted jewelry to homemade cookies and chocolates. We like to go down at night and listen to the carolers sing.

I had Marv stop driving so I could get out a take a picture of the road we were on. We thought this was going to be a major highway..... Before we left on our trip, we thought it was odd that a woman wished us safe travels on our way. When the highway narrowed into a

very tight two lane country road covered in snow, we suddenly knew what she meant. Though the driving was not ideal, the scenery of the countryside was absolutely gorgeous! We were grateful for our snow tires and the office elders who put them on the car right before we left!

More Pictures From the Mission Wide Conference

Sorry this layout is so random. I'm experimenting. These are all pictures from our Thanksgiving weekend; the turkey, the restaurant, the people. The six elders above are the newest in the mission. They arrived Tuesday morning before the mission wide conference began.

The four elders in the picture below are our former and current assistants--Elder Roberts, Elder Bentley, Elder Johnson, and Elder Johnson. That's right, our two current assistants are Johnson & Johnson.

These missionaries finished their missions and went home Thanksgiving morning. I can only imagine the joyful reunion they had with their families at the airport; and how appropriate to have them return home on Thanksgiving!

We had a musical fireside Wednesday night. The elders from Slovakia performed a hymn together. They were amazing. This is a shot of one of the three street displays in Old Town Prague.

Thanksgiving Mission Wide Conference

We were able to hold a mission wide conference on Wednesday and Thursday of this week. A very generous American member of the church, Ed Barner, rented out a beautiful restaurant in Old Town Prague and catered Thanksgiving dinner for the entire mission. We had everything an American could want to eat on Thanksgiving day. Our missionaries were sooo happy, and so were we! (I didn't have to cook.) Many thanks to Ed! He is such a good friend to the missionaries here, and to the church. This is a picture of ALL the missionaries in the Czech Prague mission, including the missionaries who labor in Slovakia.

It was so exciting to see everyone in the same room! We had an intensive couple of days of leadership training, new missionary training, a special musical fireside, and 3 massive street displays. (By the way, from the street displays, the missionaries were able to make appointments with 57 people and give away a case of The Book of Mormon. It was an inspiring afternoon.) Our son Steven went to all three street displays and took pictures. While he was there, a few of the newer missionaries asked him if he would like to know more about the church. He then explained that he is the mission president's son, and he was assigned to take their picture. It was pretty funny.

A note from President Slovacek

As I look at our blog, sharing some of the sights and experiences of our mission, I see that it is fun and worthwhile. We love it here and desire to share it fully as possible with you. My only concern is that it is difficult to capture in photos, or anything remotely "bloggable", some of the other experiences we are having. At the risk of being boring, I would like to at least touch on some of the less visually capturable things we are experiencing.

The stories of the early members of the church here are so faith inspiring; at least as much so as many of the stories of the pioneers crossing the plains. They first had to deal with the Nazis and the forced evacuation of the missionaries. They tried to remain faithful during the war, but were limited in what they could do. After the war, despite difficult living conditions, they welcomed back with open arms the missionaries. This was short lived though, as communism came in and made missionary work difficult and church membership dangerous. The stories of the people still worshipping and even converting others are amazing.

Meetings were limited in attendance to no more than 10, without government approval (which was not granted). So in Prague, they would sometimes have 3 meetings simultaneously, in 3 different rooms, with 9 people in attendance in each room. The Branch president would rotate between the 3 meetings. There was no translation department, so the members woul do their own translating of church materials from English to Czech.

They actually published a monthly newsletter about religious happenings. At one time, it had a circulation of 15 times the membership of the church. People actually paid to subscribe to it to read about religion.

Travel for many of the members was long and arduous. Even today it is not unusual to have a member ride an hour on the train to get to church. A counselor in our branch presidency here in Prague lives more than an hour away.

While some of the "people skills" and church experience are missing here, we love the people and their happy spirits. Theirs is a unique burden, trying to live as a Latter Day Saint in a Godless society.

It is wonderful--though not bloggable--the experiences we have with missionaries as they begin to understand what it means to serve with all of their heart, might, mind, and strength. We love to hear them talk with excitement about their investigators. Often when the investigator comes out of the baptismal water, the missionary is crying as much as the new member.

We love being here with these dear saints. As much as we miss family and friends, and many of the conveniences of home, we are grateful for the chance to serve with all our hearts for this short period of time.

Walking Around Prague

We've been running pretty hard lately, so we decided to take some time off this morning and just walk around the city.

I had forgotten how beautiful and amazing the architecture is here.

We were in the Jewish Quarter of town, an old section where the Jewish people congregated during WWII. We looked through a gate at the synagogue and saw this massive graveyard.

This is the Jewish synagogue in the old quarter of town.

This tower was built in the 1400's. Some of the places we've seen go as far back as the 1100's. I can't imagine anything being that old!

A concert hall on the waterfront. It's very beautiful.

This is one of my favorite places in Prague. This is St. Wencelas Square. It was here that 300,000 Czechs gathered in 1989 to protest communism. They all stood out in the square and jingled their keys. I'm not sure of the symbolism of that, but it was effective. What is called now the "Velvet Revolution" because of its quiet and smooth transition, took place, and communism was toppled, all starting from this square.

In this same square, two students in 1968 set themselves on fire to protest the communists taking over the city. A memorial for them is at the base of the rose garden.

You may remember from an earlier post, all of our service projects in Slovakia. We're happy to report that we've had enormous success from them! In particular, the technical college that we helped to clean up, offered the missionaries a classroom to teach the gospel on campus one night every week for as long as they want. Now when you walk on campus, you can see posters for the church and it's weekly class. The missionaries are very excited!

Halloween/All Saints Day

The missionaries in Prague helped out with a branch Halloween party. It was a huge success with lots of investigators who brought their friends. We had people come in from all over the city to the party. Evidently, it's an annual thing that has spread by word of mouth. Several nonmembers called during the day to see if we were going to have it. They remembered it from last year.

Elder Mills as a Scottish lad.

Sister Sorenson put a hanger in her braids to make them stick out. I was in a 50's costume, but after I got my face painted at the children's booth, people thought I was a mouse???

Elder Tew got his holidays mixed up. He found this Santa suit in the basement. We didn't even recognize him when he walked in!

Sister Berkquist and Sister Mitchell were CIA agents; but one of the elders said that Sister Mitchell looked more like a Prague Tram driver. He was right!

Our assistants, Elder Johnson and Elder Bentley decided to dress up as guys from the 80's. They were hysterical! You should've seen their jeans--pegged pants and all! That's Marv in the background talking to our new senior missionary couple from Utah.

Kostnice, St. Barbara's, and the Assistants

This is a picture of Elder Bently taking a picture of me, taking a picture of him. Actually, his companion, Elder Johnson, was taking a picture of the two of us taking a picture of each other. This is what we do in our spare time while waiting for President Slovacek to finish his interviews.

Last Saturday, Marv, Matt and I drove to Kutna Hora to visit a couple of sites. The first one, Kostnice, would be perfect for a Halloween party. In English, it's called The Bone Church, because it's decorated in hundreds of thousands of human bones. Below is a bin of bones. There are 3 other bins like this one in the church. Those are real skulls you're looking at!





Above Matt's head, the foyer is decorated in human bones. The chandelier in the next picture is made out of every bone in the human body. Evidently, some monk centuries ago got the bright idea to clean up all the bones from the surrounding graveyard, and decorate the church with them. My question is, wasn't there a sane voice in the group of monks? Did it not occur to ANYONE that this might not be such a good idea?? Who wakes up in the middle of the night and says, "Yes! Of course! We need to decorate the church in bones!" ??





Another site we visited in Kutna Hora was St. Barbara's Cathedral. It is a beautiful place that was built in the 1400's and was added onto throughout the centuries. The paintings and murals are masterful.

Usually Cathedrals bother me with their opulence; but this one has a different spirit. I was impressed by their devotion to the Lord, which is shown through their works of art.

Meanwhile, back at home, our assistants, Elders Johnson and Bently have moved into our home while their apartment is being renovated. I caught them cooking in my kitchen the other day. It's quite eye-opening to see what the missionaries eat. Elder Bently has his favorite sandwich which is made by placing uncooked Raman noodles between two pieces of bread with some ketchup. I think he puts something else on it, but I quit listening to him after he mentioned the ketchup.

Elder Johnson in the foreground is from Salt Lake City, as is Elder Bently.

Recognition of the Church in Slovakia

Marv speaking at the Bratislava ceremony, with his translator.





October 18, marked the one year anniversary of when the church was recognized in Slovakia. Since last year, five branches have been created and we have over 120 members of the church in that beautiful country. I rode the train to Bratislava and met Marv to attend a formal reception for the recognition of the church. The office elders and I spent a good deal of time creating a PowerPoint/video presentation for the reception. It was an important part of the ceremony, and it went really well. I was so glad!





The Bratislava elders sang the Slovak national anthem. It was pretty powerful. I looked around the room and noticed the Slovaks had tears in their eyes. I was filled with a great love for these people and the country they are so proud to finally call their own.

We have been so blessed to be here at this time. It is a wonderful experience to see the shroud of darkness being lifted and good people throughout both countries embracing the gospel. It is life changing for them (and surprisingly for me) to see them develop and grow. We feel as though we are directed daily in the missionary work. And oh how we love our missionaries! It's hard to believe we have only been here a few months. We have travelled through Slovakia and the Czech Republic so many times, and know each of the missionaries so well. It seems as though we have lived here forever and have 90 children to prove it. (Okay, they are not children. They are servants of the Lord; but they we love them as our own.)

More Service Projects!!

Brush clean up in Zilina.

We had a huge bonfire going in Zilina. As soon as we got it going, I was sorry we didn't have marshmallows to roast; but I guess that would've interferred with the service project...still...hot dogs would've been fun, too.

Elder Baughman and Elder Auger are cleaning blankets at the homeless shelter in Trencin.

Nature trail clean up in Banska Bystrice. Elder Van de Graff found a shoe. I was jealous! But later, Matt and I found a pair of jeans and a belt. Who loses a pair of jeans in a park??

Homeless shelter clean up in Trencin.

Evidently, Slovaks are proud of their uprising history. We found this place in Banska Bystrice.

Our nature trail clean up crew. The funny little man in the middle asked me to take a break and go get a drink with him. When I politely refused, he told me that he would pay. I could tell he already had a few drinks that morning. It scared me when he told me that he was a blood donor. Mental note: Do Not Accept Blood in Banska!