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.