Our Grandchildren at Christmas

We don't get to see these three very often, but our daughter posts pictures of them regularly on her blog, for which we are very grateful. We did actually see them in action on Christmas morning through the miracle of Skype technology. Zoie is holding Chase and Tobin is giving us his cheesy smile. Oh how we love our three little munchkins!

We have People Coming and Going

These missionaries flew home to their families right before Christmas. I can only imagine the joyous reunion they had. We will miss them. They represent the best of the best. Front row left to right: Elder Davis, Elder Killpack, Sister Clark, Sister Perez, and Elder Machado. Back row left to right: Elder Johnson, Elder Harris, Elder Strupp, Elder Ames, and Elder Peart.
We had three new missionaries join us the same week as the Big 10 went home. They are, from left to right: Elder Horvath, Elder Monk, and Elder Jones. We are so grateful to have them!
Matthew has been with us since last summer, but his school track at BYU-I is beginning in January, so he is leaving us in a couple of days. Here he is in Paris, a side-trip he took with his sister Heidi. Matthew has thoroughly enjoyed his European experience. The next time we see him will be in Tampa this summer. That's really hard to believe!

Karlovy Vary and Loket Castle

Every transfer, we take the office missionaries on a vylet--or small trip--to a local site of interest. In December, the office staff wanted to see Karlovy Vary and the castle at Loket.
The Grand Pupp is the Karlovy Vary hotel where they filmed The James Bond movie, Casino Royale

The assistants, Elder Briggs and Elder Williams, made friends with this kind gentleman, and tried teaching him the great plan of happiness.

Thanksgiving Football and St. Mikulas Volleyball

The Prague Zone is in yellow, the Hradec Kralove Zone in Black. The other three zones--Olomouc, Slovakia, and Brno played in Brno. All enjoyed a dinner of Kentucky Fried Chicken and other American foods.
So, for Thanksgiving this year, we issued a challenge to the missionaries to achieve specific goals in finding new investigators, number of investigators attending church, and teaching lessons with members during a 3 week span. If these goals were met, it would be the best 3 week performance in the mission ever on record--as far as we know-- and the missionaries would get to play a football game on Thanksgiving day. The missionaries took up the challenge and shattered the records. We were all very happy.


The following weekend, the church members in Uherske Hradiste hold an annual volleyball tournament on St. Mikulas Vikend. It is a very fun time as members from all over the mission come to compete in volleyball. They take the game very seriously! The local missionaries get to participate in the games if they bring investigators. Below is Sister Anderson who came to play.

We all had a great time, but none so much as the Prague team who took home the trophy for first place. Viktor, the guy holding the trophy, bore his testimony about volleyball in church the next day. He even carried the trophy to the stand with him. It was very sweet.

Czech Prague Mission 2009 Photo Movie

Senior Missionary Conference in Trencin, Slovakia

Okay, I'm having trouble with getting the text in this post, so bear with me.  I don't know why everything is underlined.  I don't know why I can't put the text where I want, and the pictures I uploaded to this post are not showing up.   So, the text will be limited in this post.  But we did have a wonderful senior missionary conference in Slovakia.  The weather was picture perfect.  The trees were brilliantly golden and the air cool and crisp.  We spent time in what we affectionately call the "sacred Slovak grove", where the land was dedicated for the preaching of the gospel.  All in all, it was a wonderful weekend.

 

This is the whole group.  We have the most wonderful senior missionaries on the planet!

New Kosice Branch Presidency and other stuff

Elder Brown was the branch president of the Kosice branch, up until last Sunday. In an historic meeting, for the first time, one of the members of the Kosice branch was called as the branch president, President Robert Van Dalen. The little branch has flourished in the last two years, and we're sure it will only grow bigger and better under President Van Dalen's leadership.

Elder Brown has retired as the branch president, but remains in the branch presidency as the second counselor. From left to right: Elder Alexander, 1st counselor, Robert Van Dalen branch president, Elder Brown, 2nd counselor, and President Slovacek, mission president These sweet ladies are members of the Kosice branch. The one on the left survived living 4 years in a concentration camp when she was just 13-17 years old. She was the only survivor of her family in that camp, and was a witness to each of their deaths. She is an amazing woman of strength and courage. Elder Habermann had a birthday on the day of our zone leader/district leader training. He graciously posed for the picture documenting his birthday in the mission field. Elder Davis and Elder Wade posed during a break in our zone conference.

We returned to Utah for the burial of President Slovacek's mom. While we were there, we were able to see one of our very own Czech members enter the MTC. Jarda will be serving a mission in Wisconsin, so he is at the MTC learning English. In this photo, President Slovacek is putting the missionary name tag on him. It was a very happy moment.We are leaving for a senior missionary conference in Trencin, Slovakia tomorrow. While there, we will be staying at a hotel near the famous Trencin castle. On Friday, we'll be touring Bojnice castle, which is about an hour away. It's a very cool castle with underground caves and a moat. Our granddaughter, Zoie, would be fascinated by these real life castles. (She loves all things princess.) I'll blog more on the conference when we get back.

Bojnice castle, Slovakia

I found this picture in the photo album, and I don't think I have posted this one; so here it is. This was taken last May when Elder Perry and Elder Oaks came to visit. We had a mission wide conference with all of our missionaries, then had a picture taken. This was the whole group. Now, in November, many missionaries have returned home, and many new ones have come. But this was the whole group when Elder Perry came to visit.

A Birth, A death, and Life Rumbles Along

September 16th, our daughter Kira gave birth to a new grandson, Chase Rasmussen. I flew home to be with her family. It was strange being back in Florida. For one thing, it was HOT. For another thing, the cars in the states are HUGE. I don't remember them being so big. After driving our little Skoda for two years, I was shocked to see such enormous vehicles clogging the highways. That's not to say I didn't enjoy being home. I loved seeing my family and friends; and when did Walmart and Target get so much stuff?! But it is not the same when my companion is still in Prague. I missed not being with him.
Shortly after I returned to Prague, my sweet mother in law passed away. She was an amazing woman who converted her husband to the gospel, and raised 3 beautiful, intelligent, wonderful people. I will always honor her for giving birth to, and teaching my husband how to be a true Latter Day Saint. She was a saint herself. Her burial is in Brigham City, Utah next week. I would say "Rest in peace, Ruth", but I know she is already busy and happy with her beloved husband who passed away many years ago, and no doubt she is teaching the gospel. She was an exceptional teacher.

Mongolians, Missionaries, and Jolly Old England

In Hradec Kralove, we have many Mongolian investigators and converts. Last Sunday we met with them in their Sunday School classroom. Soon they will need to create their own branch!
We welcomed in this group of handsome young missionaries fresh from the MTC. We are excited to have them here. Their enthusiasm will only do great things for the mission.Sadly, we had to say good-bye to this group of wonderful missionaries. We will never forget them. It reminds me of a poem a student of mine wrote when I was leaving my job:

Friends may come and go
But never be apart.
They keep each others' smiles
Deep within their heart.

We had the opportunity to travel to Preston, England this last week. I fell in love with the beautiful country villages that are a backdrop to the church history that took place there.


While in Preston, we ran into missionaries who are still in the MTC in England. I took a shot of them during their first venture out contacting people on the street. I think they were surprised when they ran into a group of mission presidents and their wives; but we had a good time talking to them.
On the banks of the River Ribble is where 8000 people lined up to watch people be baptized into the church. We were there in August, and the water was pretty cold. These English ancestors must have been pretty sturdy souls!
We stayed at a beautiful country resort on 7 acres outside of town. It had been fully restored and updated with every modern day convenience. It was a great place for a Mission Presidents' Seminar.
One of the highlights of the trip was to attend the Preston, England temple. Here we are with our good friends who oversee the Poland Warsaw mission. We came out together 2 years ago, and we will go home together next year.

I just had to take a picture of this. My maiden name is Dickson, so when I saw that I come from a long line of "solicitors who care", well, I got pretty excited. I have found my roots!

Smiths, Matthew, and a Wedding--Oh my!

In the Czech republic, it is a requirement to be married civilly before you can be sealed in the temple; so we were able to attend a Czech wedding of a return missionary from Liberec in the Decin castle. It was so beautiful! These are a few scenes from the wedding.
Castle rose garden
The groom kissed the bride.
The happy couple coming out of the castle.
A foggy morning outside a different castle in the Czech republic.
Our friends, Rob and April Smith came to visit for a couple of days. It was so good to see them! Here they are in the METRO with President Slovacek on our p-day.
Oh these elders! We were looking all over for them so we could start our meeting, and President found them in the men's room painting on fake mustaches. They said it was Mustache Monday. They washed them off eventually.
Matthew came back to Prague today! We were so happy to pick him up from the airport. While we were walking in downtown Prague, we came across our assistants who were taking in the sights on their p-day. Matthew had a joyful reunion with the two. It's so nice to have him back.

The video is what we experience walking over Charles Bridge. The guy on the sax is pretty good. Notice the castle in the background.

Missionaries Past and Present

I'm playing catch up with the blog. Be sure to scroll through the other two new posts after this one! (I'm going to be home this week, so I should be able to update the blog with more pictures sometime this week.) Anyway, I thought it would be fun to show some pictures of missionaries from the past and present. This is Elder Killpack and Elder Starling with a new convert on his baptismal day.
Elder and Sister Alsop were a couple of characters. They completed their mission in June. Here they are showing their true colors--clowning for the camera.
I was happy to come across this picture. It has 3 of our assistants in it--Elder Mack, Elder Whiting, and Elder Chambers. Two of the three are home, and Elder Chambers has just a few weeks left to go. They are all fine missionaries.
I took this picture of Elder Zuniga in Bratislava, quite a while ago.
This is a picture of the Prague zone missionaries. I took this shot last month. Aren't they cute?
I love these people so much! These missionaries--all 16 of them-- departed in June. The Humanitarian couple--Elder and Sister Burns--are not in this picture. They also left in June, bringing the total of missionaries leaving to 18. Such a huge group! They will forever be in our hearts.
This is the Hradec Kralove zone. This picture was taken last month also. We love our missionaries!