The Slovakian Miracle: 33,000 Signatures in a Week for Church Recognition (2006)

After the Berlin Wall fell and Czechoslovakia peacefully divided in 1993, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was quickly granted legal recognition in the Czech Republic, where the Czech Prague Mission was organized in 1990. But Slovakia adopted one of the most demanding religious laws in Europe: any new religion had to present a petition signed by 20,000 Slovak citizens, each giving their signature, home address, personal identification number, and full name. In theory the law encouraged religious freedom; in practice it made recognition seem impossible. Only a few missionaries on temporary visas were allowed in the country, there was no Slovak translation of the Book of Mormon, and growth was extremely slow. Church leaders concluded the demands were impractical to meet and felt to wait until the law changed.

That changed after meetings with the Valnichek family of Bratislava and others, including Elder L. Tom Perry of the Quorum of the Twelve, who encouraged the Saints to exercise faith. The Europe Central Area presidency petitioned the First Presidency for permission to attempt the signature campaign. On September 1, 2006, the approximately 60 missionaries of the Czech Prague Mission gathered in a special conference in Brno, where President G. Fred Yost Jr. announced they would all cross into Slovakia to gather the signatures. 'Have you moved to the edge where miracles occur?' he asked them. 'The Spirit was strong. There was no doubt in their minds that they would be successful.'

Beginning Tuesday, September 4, the missionaries canvassed cities on the eastern end of Slovakia, working day by day toward Bratislava in the west. To the delight and surprise of their leaders, each group gathered thousands of signatures every day. By Friday, after four days, they had gathered almost 25,000 signatures, thousands more than anyone thought possible; a second push brought the total to about 33,000, in a country of barely 5 million, in about a week. A group of returned missionaries who had served in Slovakia, led by Jonathan Tichy, assisted as group captains.

The petitions were delivered to the Slovak government on September 26, and officials said certification would require four to six weeks. Instead, on the afternoon of October 18, 2006, Dr. Jan Juran, director of Church affairs in the Slovak Ministry of Culture, announced to Elder David A. Bednar of the Quorum of the Twelve, who has Slovak ancestral ties and had come to the area at Juran's own request to meet 'the Mormon Slovakian apostle,' that official recognition had been granted, far earlier than anticipated. That evening in Trencin, Elder Bednar asked Brother Tichy to translate 'The Morning Breaks' into Slovak, then recited the hymn phonetically in his first attempt at the language, announcing the recognition to more than 200 members and investigators gathered in a hotel conference room. 'There was penetrating silence and sobs of happiness,' he said. Missionaries who served in the effort have called it simply the miracle in Slovakia.