WEEKS 15 and 16

Energetik is a 60 year old Hotel purchased in 2002 by a non-profit organization to be used as a retreat for disabled and disadvantaged children from Slovakia and surrounding countries.  The hotel accommodates 100 children each week or 1,900 children each year. They also provide meals, activities and educational programs each week. Our predecessors, the Kozaks,  had been working with Hotel Energetik since early on in their mission.  The Church was able to remodel two bathrooms to better accommodate children with special needs and also provided 2 wardrobes. We were able to travel to the Michalovce region to close out this project.  We did a closing ceremony and inspected the new bathrooms.  It is so rewarding to be a part of this wonderful work of helping those in need.

Not many missions have the opportunity to have an Apostle visit them.  We were able to travel to Ostrava in Czech Republic to have a mission conference with Elder and Sister Uchdorf.  The missionaries were thrilled to shake their hands and spend a couple of hours with them and so were we!

 

For our friends from the Mill Run Ward, we met Dawntae Slavik's daughter, Sister Scott at mission conference. She is serving in our mission in the Czech Republic.

It seems no matter where we turn we see storks nesting.  Slovakia must be experiencing a stork baby boom 😂.   Adults are large and weigh between 5 and 7 pounds.  Interesting facts:  Storks are migratory birds that can span thousands of miles.  They can have as much as a 7-foot wingspan, known for their unique nesting habits and excellent eyesight.  Highly social birds. Associated with good luck and fertility.  Some species live up to 30 years.  They are excellent parents. Both male and female storks actively participate in raising their young.

 

We briefly passed through the Hungary/Slovakia border on one of our trips to visit a project near Slovenské Nové Mesto.  Not that many years ago, crossing a border without being scrutinized by Russian police would have seemed a dream. Border crossings were places with thuggish guards ready to intimidate tourists, interrogate fellow nationals, and pummel anyone who uttered a word of dissent.  To those who lived through those years a now open border is truly a miracle. There was almost an eerie feeling as we drove past these abandoned border patrol stations.

Our Sunday dinner table keeps expanding, with one newly baptized member Sveta from Belarus and our newest friend Elon from Ukraine.  We love these young missionaries and feel like we have the best of the best serving in the Košice Branch.  That is soon to change however as transfers occur on Tuesday.  We most likely will lose half of these amazing young missionaries.  We're going to miss them, but we know there will be equally as good coming here to keep the work moving.

We had another interesting visit to a Roma Village Kolačkov near the town of Stara L'ubovňa.  Many of the inhabitants of the settlement are having problems with jaundice.  We will begin a project in which the Church will help bring a fresh water line into the village.  Currently, as is the case with many Roma villages, they are drinking from either contaminated wells or using water from the runoff and streams.  Either way, the water can be highly contaminated and many serious intestinal diseases are developed from contaminated water and poor hygiene.  We are always grateful when representatives from both the Roma Village and the Municipality are willing to work together to develop a long term plan of action.

                                    

                                            

We think of you often and love and miss you all!