Today was Memorial Day, so Elder and Sister Alsop decided to host a good old American barbecue for the Prague district missionaries. For many of them, it was P-day, so they came in their casual clothes and had a good time. Elder Trost is in the apron flipping hot dogs, while Elders Nowland and Johnson are excited to receive the award for the Most Extreme Contacting. (They won a pair of flip-flops--nice!) Ed Barner came and was the hit of the barbecue because he brought A&W Rootbeer--impossible to find in the Czech Republic.
The Brno District Young Women had a conference at a ropes course in Zlin. I was invited to come along. It was an honor for me to be with them, but I had to wonder if I was invited for comic relief. We practiced walking on the ropes a few feet above the ground before we ventured up high into the sky. The lone silhouette against the cloud in the sky is me. A few minutes later I fall from the rope, but my tethering person catches me, so I wasn't hurt. It was a GREAT DAY!
The Brno Young Women leaders are a fun-loving bunch! And the girls love them, too.
Sister Hansen and I practice walking the ropes in the forest before we hit the big time. This was hard work!
Monday, May 26, 2008
Memorial Day and Learning the Ropes
Saturday, May 17, 2008
Friday, May 16, 2008
The Busy Month of May!
We held 5 zone conferences in 5 days, working our way from Slovakia, back to Prague. In this post I could only get three zone pictures in. I'll post pictures from the Slovak zone and Hradec Kralove zone in the next post. We were pleased to find all the missionaries happy and well.
Olomouc Zone: Notice Matthew Slovacek, the missionary--front row, third from left. He was called and set apart to serve for 6 weeks, as we needed a missionary in Ostrava to fill out a companionship. He's having a great time on his second mission.
Brno Zone
Prague Zone
When we got to Brno, we found all the hotels to be sold out due to trade fairs in town. We finally found the last room in the city in this little boutique hotel. It's very quaint and beautiful, but it had no elevator, and we stayed in the attic room--up 5 flights of very steep stairs. Now we know why it was the last room in the city.
Slovakia is a land of castles. On our way home from zone conference, we came across Oravska castle; so we stopped to explore. It was built in the 1400's.
This little church is in the quiet town of Cecmany, Slovakia. The whole town has been preserved, and functions just as it did 200 years ago.
A ceremony commemorating the dedication of Slovakia was held in this grove outside of Trencin. As the President Uchtdorf's prayer was read in Slovak, Marv and I followed along in English. It was a picture perfect day!
Monday, April 28, 2008
Who We Really Are
For those of you who have been watching the news and may have wondered....
Some Mormon women dance...Some Mormon women write scary stories...
Some Mormon women have lots of money and really great hair...
I know hundreds of Mormon women.
They do all kinds of different things and live all different kinds of lives.
This woman served as a leader in the Mormon church. She recently spoke to teenage girls worldwide.
She encouraged them to stand up to peer pressure, strengthen their families and serve others. (Click here for more.)
None of the Mormon women I know look like this...
None of them are marrying off their teenage daughters and -- none of them really want to share their husband with anyone.
Furthermore...
Some Mormon guys can throw a ball...
Some Mormon guys yell at the ball...
Some Mormon guys make scary movies...
Some Mormon guys have a lot of money and really great hair...
I know hundreds of Mormon guys. They do all kinds of different things and live all kinds of different lives.
This is one of the leaders of the Mormon church. Last Sunday he spoke about honoring women, especially mothers,
and gave advice to husbands and children about how to treat the women in their lives. (For the whole story, click here.)
None of the Mormon men I know look like this...
The Mormon men I know are honest and hard-working. They don't cheat, smoke, drink or gamble.
And TRUST ME....the last thing any of them want is another wife.
Monday, April 21, 2008
The Book of Mormon--My Favorite Book
I don't know how many times I've read it; but I read it every day. And when I get to the last page, as I did today, I start reading it over again from the beginning. The Book of Mormon is my favorite book in the world. It has every element of literature that makes a book worth reading: drama, heroes, villains, sweet love stories ("to me he doth not stink"); but the most compelling reason why I read the Book of Mormon is because it testifies of Jesus Christ and His mission. On nearly every page, there is a testimony from an ancient prophet of Jesus Christ. The culmination of all these testimonies comes in 3 Nephi, when Jesus Christ appears to the inhabitants of the new world. I love this book!
Over the years I have come to know and love the ancient prophets from the Book of Mormon. I marveled at Abinadi's strength of courage when he testified before King Noah; and I cried when he was burned at the stake. I cheer when Captain Moroni comes on the scene and saves his cities from utter destruction with the help from his chief captains Lehi and Teancum. I love Alma's and Amulek's missionary companionship and all they go through together. And I always shudder with claustrophobic horror as Jared and his brother get into those barges that are "tight like a dish". I don't think I would've had that much faith!
Living in the Czech Republic has given me a new appreciation for the Book of Mormon. During the years of communism, when all religious materials were outlawed, the members of the church published their copies of the Book of Mormon, bound in red leather. The letters K.M. were stamped on the front. The government officials thought the little red books were the writings of Karl Marx; but in fact, the letters K.M. stood for Kniha Mormonova--Czech for "Book of Mormon".
How grateful I am for this precious book. Every page is filled with light and truth. For anyone seeking truth, they have no further to go than to open the first page and join Nephi as he tutors us in the ways of Christ.
Sunday, April 13, 2008
So Much to Tell, So Little Time!
The week before Easter, we were given permission to have a street display in Old Towne. Every morning the missionaries would set up their display and sing hymns to the many people who would pass by. Elder Alsop, the financial clerk had lots of fun contacting people.
What would a blog be without a castle? The day after Easter, we took the assistants and all the office missionaries on a trip about an hour west of Prague to Loket and Karlovy Vary. It was at Karlovy Vary where they filmed the latest James Bond movie. That is a GORGEOUS city! The castle pictured here is found in Loket.
We bid farewell to 13 amazing missionaries. The Czech Prague mission will never be the same without them.
I put a picture of the Charles Bridge here because this is the view we had from the restaurant on the Vltava River, celebrating Marv's birthday. It was so beautiful to see the lights come on in the evening.
I had to take a picture of this because it was so funny! We just got back from touring the mission doing zone conferences. Our faithful assistants came with us and were pretty good sports about having to always sit in the back seat. But on the way home, after spending days and days in the back seat of the car, they were forced to sit close together because one of the branches wanted us to take a full size keyboard back to Prague. Here they are, cramped together, holding my birthday bouquet of flowers. They looked pretty weary. We were all happy to get home!
Saturday, March 22, 2008
Steven Says Goodbye
Our son Steven came for the holidays and stayed for a few months. He went back to New York City just a few days ago. We miss him already. Who's going to fix my computer/Sunday dinner? We're really going to miss his killer chicken enchiladas. Nashledenou, Steven. Have fun in New York.