January Events

When Heidi came to visit, she brought out a pair of boots that I had ordered from the states. This is what they look like. They keep my legs so warm! I LOVE them!

This morning Heidi left to go back to Tampa. We enjoyed having her with us for the last couple of weeks. While she was here, we had a violent flu run through the family. Steven and I were the only ones who made it through unscathed. But as sick as she was, Heidi was still able to travel to Krakow, Poland and Kutna Hora to see the bone church. She had a former missionary companion from Bulgaria to travel with, and they had a good time.










(From left to right:Brother Adams, Sister Adams, Sister Oaks, Elder Oaks, me, and President Slovacek)
This past weekend, we were privileged to host our area president--Elder Robert Oaks--and his wife, Gloria, for the Prague District conference. They drove from Germany with their good friends, the Adams. It was an inspiring weekend, listening to the speakers. The Oaks have fascinating stories from the time they served in Africa.

These are the new missionaries who arrived right before the Prague District conference. Elder Killpack, Sister Waite, and Sister Gapinski are a wonderful addition to our mission!











Matt and I took a train to Bratislava to witness the baptism in Slovakia. Pictured here is Elder Roylance and Elder Papworth with their new convert. Bratislava has the best halusky in Moravia, and Matt and I found a great Italian restaurant across from a cathedral in Old Town. Bratislava is the capitol of Slovakia. I love that city! It has a fascinating history.

Castles, a Czech Nutcracker, and Snow

To celebrate the new year, we drove out to Karlstejn--the site where the land of Czechoslovakia was dedicated for the spreading of the gospel in 1929. The castle on the hill looks down on the tiny village below. It's very imposing. We found some interesting art shops on our way back down the mountain, and vowed to come back shopping right before we finish our mission.












Last Saturday, the assistants and the office elders treated us to a performance of The Nutcracker at the National Theater. We were surprised (and pleased) that the elders wanted to see a ballet; and we all had a great time. We found The Nutcracker performed here to be an interesting mix of Dickens A Christmas Carol and Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker. The main character in the ballet was Scrooge. He was taken down to hell where he encountered the devil--a very muscular guy in red tights. The Ghost of Christmas Goodness rescues Scrooge from hell and what follows is a delightful 2 hour dance, quite like Clara's dream in the Nutcracker. It was fun to see the Czech's twist on two Christmas classics. Here we are pictured in the National Theater. What an amazing building! From left to right are Elders Mack, Streng, Johnson, and Johnson. Their mothers would be so proud.










The next day--Sunday--it snowed and left a beautiful blanket of white all over the city of Prague. These pictures were taken in our backyard park; except for the one where I'm standing in front of the chapel/ mission home.







The Prague castle is so beautiful in the winter. I have found myself loving this city in every season.

Oh! Here's some GREAT news! We have been working really hard on helping the missionaries with their finding and teaching skills. We've also raised the standards of excellence in the mission, and now we're starting to see results! In the next two months, we have more than 1/2 the baptismal commitments that we had in the entire year of 2007. The Lord is pouring out his blessings upon this people, and we are excited to be a part of this tremendous surge forward!

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.