Olga Kovářová—Czechoslovakia

A university student discovers joy and freedom in the restored gospel

The Church in Otakar’s Apartment

In 1980, twenty-year-old Olga Kovářová was studying physical education at a university in Brno, Czechoslovakia. In one of her classes, she learned about yoga and its benefits on the mind and body. Fascinated, she wanted to learn more.

One day, a classmate told her about a local yoga instructor, Otakar Vojkůvka. Olga agreed to go with her to meet him.

Otakar was a small, elderly man, and he smiled as he answered the door. Olga felt an instant connection to him. During the visit, he asked her and her friend if they were happy.

Otakar Vojkůvka. (Courtesy Olga Kovářová Campora.)

“We don’t know,” they replied honestly.

Otakar told them about the trials he’d faced in life. In the 1940s, he had run a profitable factory. But after a Soviet-influenced government gained power in Czechoslovakia, the state seized the factory and sent Otakar to a prison camp, leaving his wife, Terezie Vojkůvková, to raise their two children alone for a time. Terezie had since died, and Otakar now lived with his son, Gád, and his family.

As Olga listened to Otakar’s story, she was astonished. Most people she knew in her country were cheerless and cynical. She wondered how Otakar could be so happy after experiencing so many hard things.

Olga soon visited Otakar again. This time Gád was there too. “So,” he said, “you are interested in yoga?”

“I don’t know anything about yoga,” Olga said, “but I would like to learn because you all seem to be so happy. I assume it’s because of yoga.”

They began discussing spirituality and the purpose of life. “God sent us to earth to sow joy, life, and love into souls,” Otakar told her.

Growing up in an atheistic society, Olga had never given God or the purpose of life much thought. Her ancestors had been Protestants, though, and now she found that she had many questions about religion. Unlike her professors and schoolmates, who discouraged interest in religion, Otakar took her questions seriously and lent her books on the subject.

As Olga studied, she longed to find more purpose in life. She continued meeting with Otakar, growing happier as he taught her about his beliefs. He talked more about his Christian faith and his devotion to God. And the more Olga learned, the more she yearned for a spiritual community.

One day, Otakar recommended that she read a book by Elder John A. Widtsoe about The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. After her reading, she told Otakar she was fascinated by the Saints. “Could you give me the address of a Czech Mormon?” she asked.

“You don’t need any address,” Otakar said. “You are in the home of one of them.”

Otakar had been baptized shortly before World War II and was one of the earliest Church members in Czechoslovakia. In 1950, when the Czechoslovak government forced all foreign Latter-day Saint missionaries to leave the country, he and some 245 Church members had continued to practice their faith, worshipping together in private homes in Prague, Plzeň, and Brno.

As Olga learned more, she borrowed a Book of Mormon from Otakar. When she read the words of Lehi, “Men are that they might have joy,” she felt as though she had discovered a lost truth. Love and light seemed to flood every cell in her body. She knew, without a doubt, that Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ lived. She felt Their love for her and for all people everywhere.

For the first time in her life, she knelt in prayer and poured out her gratitude to God. And in the morning, she went to Otakar’s apartment and asked, “Is there any way I can start my life like a new person?”

“Yes, there is,” he said. He opened his Bible and showed her Jesus’s teachings about baptism.

“What does it mean to enter the kingdom of God?” she asked.

“To become Christ’s disciple,” he said. He then explained that she would need to be baptized and keep God’s commandments. He told her about some lessons she’d need to receive first and invited her to visit his home the next Sunday for a gathering of Saints. Olga happily accepted.

They met in a room on the upper floor of Otakar’s apartment. A few sofas offered seating for the small group, and the blinds were pulled down to prevent neighbors who were wary of religion from seeing inside. Looking around, Olga was surprised to find that the seven members were the age of her parents and grandparents.

“Is this Church meant for old people only?” she wondered. “What am I doing here?”

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A Baptism in Brno

Later, in July 1982, Olga Kovářová and a small group of Saints traveled by car to a reservoir near Brno, Czechoslovakia, for her baptism.

Since her first sacrament meeting at Otakar Vojkůvka’s home, Olga had grown to admire the faith of the older Czechoslovak Saints. She felt uplifted by their discussions during Sunday School and comfortable sharing her own thoughts.

In the months leading up to her baptism, Olga had received the missionary lessons from Jaromír Holcman, a member of the Brno Branch presidency. The first few lessons had been difficult and uncomfortable because the religious words sounded so foreign to her. The plan of salvation seemed like a fairy tale, and Olga wrestled with questions she had about Heavenly Father.

She also worried about the problems that would come after baptism. The Church had begun growing in central and eastern Europe after 1975, when Henry Burkhardt and his counselors in the Dresden Mission presidency appointed a man named Jiří Šnederfler to preside over the Saints in Czechoslovakia. But the Church was still little known and little understood in the country. Even as her mind was telling her to forget about Christ’s gospel, though, her heart told her it was the truth.

Olga fasted the entire day of her baptism. When the time came, she rode to the reservoir with Otakar and Gád Vojkůvka and Jaromír and his wife, Maria. The group gathered by the water and said a prayer. But before they could proceed with the ordinance, they were startled by the sound of several fishermen walking along the bank. The men drew closer and settled near the place where Olga was to be baptized.

“The water’s edge is pretty steep at most places here,” Otakar said. “This is the only place we know of that has a gradual and safe descent into the water.”

With no other choice, Olga and her friends waited. Ten minutes passed, then twenty. Still the fishermen showed no signs of leaving.

Olga leaned her head against a tree trunk. “Maybe I am not prepared enough,” she thought, “or my testimony isn’t strong enough, or I haven’t fully repented.”

She was about to kneel in prayer when Jaromír took her by the arm and walked her back to the other Saints.

“I think we need to pray again to make it possible for Olga to be baptized today,” he said.

The group knelt together as Jaromír pleaded with God on Olga’s behalf. She could hear the emotion in his voice. When the prayer ended, a few minutes passed and then the fishermen stood up suddenly and left.

The water was still and quiet as Jaromír led Olga in by the hand and spoke the baptismal prayer. When she heard her name, Olga felt that a chapter in her life was ending. Everything was about to change now that she had decided to follow Christ and His restored gospel. Complete joy swept over her, and she knew her baptism was being recorded in heaven.

The small group was soon on their way back to Brno in Jaromír’s car. As they rode, they listened to a cassette tape of the Tabernacle Choir. Olga felt like she was hearing angels, and she marveled when Jaromír told her that the singers were all members of the Church. She wondered what life must be like for Saints who lived in a country with religious freedom and a living prophet.

After arriving in Brno, the Saints gathered in Jaromír’s house. Jaromír, Otakar, and other priesthood holders placed their hands on Olga’s head. As they confirmed her a member of the Church, she felt the Holy Ghost envelop her. In that moment, she knew she was a daughter of God.

In the blessing, Jaromír declared that through Olga, many young people would join the Church and be taught the gospel in a way they could understand. The words surprised her. It seemed impossible, for the time being, that she could share the gospel openly.

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Sharing the Gospel through Yoga

After her baptism, Olga Kovářová was eager to share her happiness with her family and friends. But because the government in Czechoslovakia did not recognize the Church, she knew her opportunities would be limited. Also, her generation had grown up in an atheistic society and knew very little about religion. If she tried to tell people about the Church, they probably wouldn’t understand what she was saying.

As she thought and prayed about how to share her beliefs, she spoke to Otakar Vojkůvka about her dilemma. “You could become a yoga teacher,” he said. The government did not restrict yoga instruction, and Otakar saw it as a good way to meet new people and do God’s work.

At first, Olga thought his suggestion was strange. But as she thought more about it, she realized he was onto something.

Olga Kovářová as a yoga instructor in Uherské Hradiště, Czechoslovakia, circa 1983. (Courtesy Olga Kovářová Campora.)

The next day, Olga signed up for yoga teacher training. And not long after she finished the course, she began teaching classes at a gym in Uherské Hradiště, her hometown in central Czechoslovakia. She was surprised by how popular the courses were. Class sizes ranged from 60 to 120 students. People of all ages registered for her lessons, eager to learn more about physical and mental health.

During each class, Olga taught yoga exercises followed by a simple lesson based on true principles. She used nonreligious language, drawing on uplifting quotes from eastern European poets and philosophers to support what she taught.

Through her teaching, Olga realized how much her students hungered for more positive messages in their lives. Some people seemed to attend her classes just for the lessons.

Before long, she and Otakar introduced some of their students to the Church, and several of them chose to be baptized.

The classes were so well received that Olga and Otakar created yoga camps for their interested students. Groups of fifty people spent weeklong breaks during the summer benefiting from Olga’s and Otakar’s instruction.

Olga wished her parents, Zdenĕk and Danuška, could feel the same happiness her students discovered through the camp, and she prayed for them often. But religion was not an important part of her parents’ daily lives, and there was not a branch in their town. Olga would have to approach the conversation carefully.

Otakar Vojkůvka waving with yoga camp attendees, Czechoslovakia, circa 1985. (Courtesy Olga Kovářová Campora.)

Knowing her mother struggled with headaches, Olga said one day, “Mom, I want to teach you how to relax and strengthen some muscles in your neck. It might help you.”

“You know that I always trust you,” her mother replied.

Olga demonstrated some simple exercises and recommended her mother continue doing them on her own. Within months, the headaches went away. She and Olga’s father both became interested in yoga and attended one of the yoga camps. Within a few days, her father was fully immersed in the camp and was the happiest she had ever seen him. Her mother also embraced the routines and the ideas being shared in the lessons. Soon Olga began sharing her beliefs with them too.

Her parents immediately loved the Book of Mormon and its teachings. They also gained testimonies of Joseph Smith as a prophet of God. Before long, both her mother and father decided to join the Church.

They were baptized in the same reservoir where Olga had received the ordinance. Afterward, Olga and her parents returned home and sat around the kitchen table, holding hands and weeping with joy. “This calls for a celebration,” her mother said.

They made Olga’s favorite snack and shared their testimonies with each other. Smiling broadly, her father said, “Great beginnings happen within small walls!”

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Freedom to Worship

On the evening of November 18, 1989, Olga Kovářová was waiting at a bus station in Brno, Czechoslovakia, when she noticed dozens of police cars swarming a nearby theater. “It must be on fire,” she thought.

The bus soon came. Olga climbed aboard and immediately saw a young neighbor who usually rode with her. She looked excited.

“What do you think?” she asked.

“What do you mean?” Olga said.

Her friend lowered her voice. “Well, about the revolution!”

“Where?”

“In Czechoslovakia, in Prague—here!”

Olga laughed. “What other joke do you want to play on me?” she asked.

“Did you see all those police cars around the theater?” her friend said. “Actors started a strike, and it has been spreading.”

Olga was still skeptical. For over a year, a wave of peaceful public protests and other demonstrations had sparked political change in Poland, Hungary, the German Democratic Republic, and other nations allied with the Soviet Union. In Berlin, just a few days earlier, people from both sides of the city had begun demolishing the massive concrete wall that had divided them for nearly thirty years.

In Czechoslovakia, though, the government had made no concessions to its citizens’ pleas for greater freedom.

Olga longed to worship freely, and she and her fellow Saints had been fasting and praying for this blessing. Elder Russell M. Nelson, meanwhile, had been working with the Czechoslovak government to get the Church officially recognized in the country.

Olga did her best to practice her faith. Fortunately, the gospel continued to fill her with joy. In 1987, she and her parents had driven to the German Democratic Republic to be endowed and sealed together as a family in the Freiberg Temple. The experience had strengthened her. “This is a really beautiful foundation,” she had thought, “like you are touching a ceiling, and the ceiling becomes a new foundation.”

Now, two years after that experience, Olga came home to her apartment and turned on the television and radio, listening for news. She heard nothing. Could things actually be changing?

The next morning, Olga arrived at the youth center where she worked and found her colleagues rushing up and down the hallway. Many of her coworkers looked distressed. “Something really serious is going on in Prague,” Olga’s manager told her. “I have an emergency meeting right away.”

Other colleagues soon arrived with news of the revolution. “It’s true,” Olga thought.

Within days, signs in shop windows announced a general strike against the government. Olga joined thousands of people who marched to the city’s main square, her heart pounding as she witnessed history unfold around her. She thought of all the hardships her parents and grandparents had suffered. She felt the Spirit of God in the unity and love of the people around her.

After days of protest, the government resigned its power, and a new government began taking shape. The atmosphere in the country changed. People talked openly in the streets. They smiled and helped one another. At church, the Saints were optimistic about the future and happy to meet publicly for the first time in decades.

One day, around this time, Olga visited Otakar Vojkůvka at his home. She found him in tears. He was overjoyed that young people like her would be able to live and worship freely.

He told her he had been waiting his whole life for this to happen.

See the full text in Gospel Library for notes and source citations.