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.