Wallace Toronto was one of the first missionaries called to open the Czechoslovakia mission in 1929. He was first called to serve as a full-time missionary in the German mission. In 1936, he presided over Czech Mission as President until WWI when all missionaries were evacuated due to the Nazi occupation. During WWI, he became the director at the Utah Red Cross.
Several years later, he and his family returned to Prague with a larger missionary force. Due to communist regime, in 1950 the missionaries were expelled, and the registration of the Church was cancelled. Faithful Saints were now left without the opportunity even to hold church meetings. Through cryptic letters, he kept in touch with the members in Czechoslovakia.
In 1964, President McKay assigned the Torontos to visit the Czech members as tourists. In 1965, he was asked to return alone to meet with the ministry officials. He did so, but only after he was arrested following his interview on television during the huge national sports festival. His request for Church recognition was rejected, and he was deported at the German border. Wallace Toronto remained president of the Czech Mission until his death from cancer in 1968 in Salt Lake City.
President Pohorelicky
President McConkie
President Irwin and wife
The project included landscaping a child's park involving sweeping, raking, cutting, and dragging tree branches and digging up roots. An IQ Roma building was also cleaned, painted, repaired, and beautified in many ways. IQ is an organization that serves the very poor and needy in the area and they do a wonderful job.
While my husband was involved in the landscaping portion. I helped place broken ceramic tile into a large IQ logo near the entrance to the building. We were so impressed to see many people flew in from the USA to be involved with this project. This included past Mission Presidents McKonkie and Irwin, and foundation members who all sponsor the event. We met many new friends, and enjoyed being involved in this wonderful service project to help make this neighborhood look a little better.
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