WEEKS 35-48

After a busy year of humanitarian projects, we can say that things are slowing down just a bit.  Since our arrival in Slovakia, we have had the  desire to use the full budget that Frankfurt has allotted for this wonderful country.  As we approached the end of the year, we are happy to have achieved this goal.  We had exhausted our budget and still had about five projects (education, clean water, tools for home improvement) in the works and so Frankfurt gave us the go-ahead to finish up these last projects and found the money for us.  We feel blessed to have been able to help so many people through the amazing work of our outstanding NGO's.  We are grateful for the opportunity to do this amazing work.  We love being here and have grown to love so many people.

Early in December, Elder and Sister Nelson, our Regional Managers from Frankfurt came to do some long term evaluations.  They have been our life support!  We couldn't do this work without their patient and loving guidance and we have grown to love them so much.

Vechec Roma Village Development Team

We like to go to the Roma village of Šarišská Poruba near Prešov.  Earlier this year the Church cleaned and sealed two of the three wells in the community.  With the full support and encouragement of the mayor and municipality, we were able to clean and seal the third and final well.  Part of our responsibility is to teach self-reliance, so we always make sure the villages members are heavily involved in the project.  This makes them more likely to be invested in the Church's efforts.  The members of this village were so proud of the work they had done to clean and prepare the area around the wells.

The Branch Presidency asked us to prepare a traditional Thanksgiving dinner for the missionaries and their friends.  We were happy to do this as Thanksgiving is one of our favorite holidays.  It was a great success, and the missionaries and their friends enjoyed getting together.  We're not sure how the mashed potatoes and gravy, candied yams and dressing went over, but the homemade rolls and red cabbage were a great hit!

 

We had to say goodbye to this great guy.  President Kotland has been the Branch President since we arrived in Slovakia.  He is a wonderful man.  A convert for about seven years. He is originally from the Czech Republic but he moved to Košice for work about three years ago.  He only speaks Czech, but his warm demeanor and friendly personality were loved and respected by all.  Every conversation we had with him had to be interpreted, but we felt his love for the people and his dedication to his calling.  He is returning to Czechia to pursue, among other things, a lady! We hope to hear a wedding announcement soon.  He will be greatly missed and we shed a few tears as he left.

We had a Regional Humanitarian Seminar in Vienna the week after Thanksgiving.  What an amazing city, especially at Christmas.  Our group had our own personal walking tour of the city from our WSR manager Helmut Wondra.  We love Helmut, who was just recently released as an Area Authority in the Seventh Quorum of Seventy.  He is an interesting man.   He was a very successful concert manager in Vienna and recently became a full-time 

Church employee as a Welfare Self Reliance Manager.  The seminar was top notch and we learned so much and were privileged to be taught by the best!  This was a real boost for us as we approach the New Year.   

        

 Besides eating great food and going to   several Christmas markets, we attended  a wonderful Mozart Christmas concert in the Gold Hall 

L to R Standing:  Christian Ottiker, Matt Mathias, E Willard, E Nelson, S Willard, E Jackson, S Jackson, E Bailey, S Johnson, Florian Titze, E Johnson, Ether Simoncini, S Duke, E Duke, E Anderson, S Frodsham, E Frodsham, E Lamb, Helmut Wondra, E Burke, E Kellems, Aleksey Tkachenko

Seated L to R:  S Burke, S Nelson, S Bailey, Coraline Giraud-Carrier, S Kellems, S Anderson, S Lamb, Filipa Silva

It was a busy Christmas season.  We returned from Vienna, had Zone Conference in Trenčin the next week Marilyn planned the Christmas dinner and did an amazing job serving 24 hungry young missionaries along with 10 senior missionaries.

We love President and Sister Skousen.  President Skousen is the perfect Mission Leader for these young missionaries.  He has complete trust in these young men and women and they respect him so much for it.  Some of the hardest working missionaries I have ever seen.  What a blessing to be around such great  people!

                             Slovak Zone December 13, 2024

We returned from Zone Conference on Friday night, did the laundry, had our Branch Christmas party on Saturday, church on Sunday, and then left again for the Senior Missionary Conference in Prague.  We love going to Prague.  It is one of the most beautiful cities in Europe and welcomes over 8 million visitors each year.  Prague's most beautiful Christmas markets are a favored time to visit the the picturesque streets of Old Town.  We must say that this Christmas we have visited some of the most popular Christmas markets in Europe from Vienna, Krakow, Prague and throughout Slovakia.  Sometimes we have to stop and pinch ourselves to believe we are having all these wonderful experiences!  Along with our time in Prague, we were able to travel to beautiful Freiberg, Germany and spend the day in the temple there.

The Mission Home and Stake Center in Prague.  

The mission was organized on July 24 1929 from the Swiss-German and the German-Austrian Missions.  The top floor is exclusively for the mission leaders and their family.  The second floor houses the Prague Stake and classrooms.  The first floor is the chapel and additional classrooms.  The missionaries also have a beautifully decorated room on the first floor for missionary lessons with their friends.  It's a beautiful old mansion, and we plan to research more of its history. 

First up on the plan of events, was to traveled with our friends Elder and Sister Johnson to the Bohemian Crystal Factory.  We love the Johnson's!

This area was settled by Celts who were fond of glass and enamel beads.  Blown glass has been produced since the 3rd century B.C.  Glassmakers worked in North Bohemia as back as the 13th century, originally making glass for monastery windows.  The following century, the industry began to thrive, ad in 1414, the first true glass factory in the world was founded here.  Unlike ordinary glass, which is mainly composed of silica or sand, crystal is made from silica, lead oxide, potash and soda, and lime.  The ingredients are carefully mixed and heated in special furnaces that reach temperatures reaching as high as 2,732º F. 

In a nut shell, various ways molten glass can be shaped is blowing, pressing and casting, or glass cutting.  After the glass has been shaped it is carefully placed in a kiln and the temperature is gradually decreased (which is crucial to the process).  After the glass has been cooled, the next step is cutting and polishing.  This is the stage in which the true brilliance and beauty of the crystal glass is revealed.  The cutting and polishing process is meticulous and requires skilled artisans who carefully shape and refine the surface of the glass.

We had a funny experience while at the factory.  Marilyn's parents visited Czechoslovakia many years ago and brought her back a beautiful crystal platter that we have knocked around for years.  When we discovered that this particular crystal from Bohemia is valued and highly sought and that every piece has an attached signature sticker and is placed in a distinctive dark blue box.  We looked at each other and said, "no more serving iced shrimp at Christmas on that valuable piece of artwork!" 😂

We were able to spend the Wednesday and Thursday of the conference in the Frieberg Germany temple.  This temple was the third temple built in Europe, the first in what was then the German Democratic Republic,  and the first located in a communist state.  It's a very interesting story behind how the temple came to be.  Following diligent efforts by the Church to obtain permission for its faithful couples to attend the temple in Bern Switzerland, the government asked if it might consider building a temple in East Germany.  The Church gratefully accepted the invitation and built the Freiberg  Temple.  It is well worth reading the full story of the temple's beginnings.

Then it was back to Prague. This city is considered one of the most beautiful and widely travelled cities in the world.  We always enjoy our time in Prague.

Along with inspiring council meetings and uplifting messages from President and Sister Skousen, we left Prague feeling inspired and renewed.

Seated L to R:  S Stephens, E Stephens, E Johnson, S Johnson, S Baker, E Baker, S Kneebone, E Kneebone, 

Standing L to R:  E Woodland, S Woodland, Monika Baťka, President Viliam Baťka (District President), S Jones, E Jones, S Anderson, E Anderson, S Hamon, E Hamon, S Skousen, E Skousen, S Dahlen, E Dahlen, S Everton, E Everton, E Flynt, S Flynt, Sestra Skousen, President Skousen

As mentioned in the previous blog post, we now have 4 sets of missionaries in our district.  Marilyn spent weeks preparing to host the missionaries and several of their friends for Christmas dinner.  On Christmas Day, they all arrived hungry and eager to spend a little extra time enjoying good food and some exciting games and prizes.  We had fifteen people for dinner and planned some fun games afterward.  It was a fun time for us and we enjoyed watching the missionaries enjoy some down time.  We missed our traditional Christmas activities with our family, but spending time with these marvelous young missionaries blessed our hearts immensely and helped us not miss home so much. 

On the 26th we were invited to Robert and Ria's van Dalen's home for their traditional Slovakian Christmas dinner for the missionaries.  We had some of the best pork neck meat and dumplings cooked to perfection by Ria.  For a little taste of Slovakia, she also served the traditional Slovak "sour soup" and bread.  They are wonderful hosts and we all left well fed and entertained.  We love the van Dalen's and admire their dedication and commitment to building the Church in Slovakia! 

A wonderful finish to 2024 was Marek being baptized on December 28th.  We have grown to love Marek and Miroslava.

Now, lest you think we've been loafing these past weeks, we have also kept busy organizing and preparing for a new year with our humanitarian work.  After numerous council meetings with Frankfurt, we are getting geared up to focus on specific strategies for Slovakia.  We are looking forward to a year of continued growth and wonderful experiences here!  We love and miss you all!