What we Discovered near the Ukraine Border

This week, we had quite an interesting experience. We asked a young Slovak woman named “Antonia” to help us translate as we had an appointment with a "kindergarten" school. This village was located just one kilometer from the Ukraine border so it was a long drive out to meet with them. During the drive we enjoyed speaking with Antonia, who is desiring to become a member of the LDS Church. She is going to college to become a translator so this was good work experience for her.

Our journey took us to a village called Jenkovce where the headmaster invited us for a meeting to help. During our meeting, we were suddenly escorted into a large classroom where parents and grandparents were sitting. To our surprise we were the guest of honor sitting at the head of the table when all the children came filing into the room.

The children sang songs, recited poems, and performed traditional children dances for their parents and to honor their grandparents.

After the program, we were served some delicious traditional made-from-scratch sauerkraut sausage soup, along with stuffed cabbage meat rolls. The parents were invited to enjoy some home baked pastry treats and beverages, then the mayor of the village stood up and shared his thoughts. He spoke a few minutes and shared how grateful he was for LDS Charities help. 

He told of when he himself had slept on old mattresses as a young child, and was extremely grateful for the replacements and other contributions that LDS Charities contributed to the preschool.

A woman named Maria stood up and stated to all the parents in Slovak “I have known the people from the Mormon church and LDS Charities since 2010, I am sorry to say I am not a Mormon,  because I was born in a Catholic family", and that she has had only wonderful experiences with these people of the LDS church. They have been so helpful to so many people. Maria asked us after this meeting if we could come to her home for a few minutes as she had something to give to us.

After our goodbyes, we followed Maria in her van down narrow country roads to her home in a neighboring village a few kilometers away. We followed her to a barn and she introduced us to her husband. He was dressed in overalls and had been working with his garden and animals such as rabbits and pigs.

We were amazed to watch the husband go to the garden and pull vegetables from the ground that they were growing behind the barn. Maria went into a cold storage and handed us some frozen rabbit meat and traditional smoked sausage.

Maria stated she knew about the young missionaries and wanted to give vegetables and meat to them. We were touched by their gracious giving to us who were really strangers. She then invited us inside her home and asked if we wanted anything to drink, careful not to offer coffee or tea.

On her kitchen wall was a cross centered between two documents framed in nice wood frames. The words were in Slovak and I recognized the "Proclamation on the Family", and the one on the right was “The Living Christ”. I stood in amazement as Maria said both LDS documents had been given as gifts and she displays them proudly. She shared that recently, four predominant ministers all from different religions have stayed in her home and they read the documents and agreed with them wholeheartedly.

Maria shared how the influence of senior missionary couples who have served in Slovakia have impacted her marriage, and credits them with changes in her husband. She said he used to be unsociable and would leave the room whenever company came over but since meeting the LDS couples he has become more sociable and interacts with people now.

It has been a great blessing in her life and she is grateful for all those senior missionaries and their giving attitudes. She is grateful for how her marriage and life has changed for the better through the compassion and example of others.

It was amazing to visit this village, far away from our city, and meet such generous, grateful couple, displaying LDS revelations about Christ and families. Wow!! Our translator, Antonia told us, as we were leaving that she could not believe what she just witnessed. This is one of those unique experiences or "tender mercies" where we have felt the loving-kindness of God's love.