Language courses, waffles and museums

Dear Family,

It being a short week this time because of our procrastination in not writing until Tuesday instead of Saturday it seems like the time has flown. We have been busy as usual with our normal duties and seeing some good progress with our investigators. We don't actually have the opportunities the elders and sisters have to get out and meet a lot of people but still, our center is on quite a busy street with a lot of traffic and we get people stopping in just out of curiosity. 

Our lady from a few weeks ago when the institute was closing and we were there for a rare Saturday, is still coming in regularly to better her English and is slowly starting to read the Book of Mormon which we gave her on our first contact. Our Zone Leaders have picked her up and they were the ones to greet us when we first arrived. One of them is being transferred out to Germany this coming week and the other is getting a new companion to share the duties of leading the zone. We finally had the chance to look at the CD left to each missionary when President and Sister Miles left at the conclusion of their mission. It shows primarily the pictures of their presidency and the activities they engaged in, especially the pictures of the arriving elders and sisters and the departing seasoned missionaries at the end of their missions. After not recognizing anyone in the first several months depicted, we're now beginning to see several who were greenies that we've now grown fond of as they have been working with us for the past month or two. Two of the sisters that we've been working quite a bit with are both going home this week and they were both in those pictures from 18 months ago. Golly how the time does fly!

With all the BYU students leaving on Wednesday, our summer institute evening was a little less busy than it has been. It's usually the most active night but this was the first time we didn't have an English speaking class to prepare for as everyone there had a good command of German. Still the numbers were down about a third and it gave us time to associate with the YSA's a little bit more than perhaps we'd been doing. We've had an average of about 4-6 people coming in for the language classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays though one of our contacts who comes from Italy and was a devoted atheist finally dropped out. The elders had arranged a fairly lengthy discussion with him and a member of one of the bishoprics here in the stake who had also claimed at one time to be an atheist but apparently to no avail.  But we had another woman who happened in off the street last week at Waffle night just full of questions that Elder Parker spent about 45 minutes talking to who came back for another session with the sisters on Family Home Evening night this past Monday. She looks like a good golden contact with numerous questions and they got so involved following our home evening activity that the sisters had to call their district leader to get permission to stay out longer than 9:30 PM as they were actively teaching her. Elder Parker finally intervened as it got later than 10 PM to say that another appointment would be good so we could all eventually go home. 

Waffle night was interesting this week with three sister returned missionaries all there, one from our Vienna stake, the other two here visiting from the United States (Arizona and Utah) but both companions with the Austrian sister. Our little lady from Kazakhstan has been interesting. Remember that she has loved cooking waffles, spent a year in Layton as a foreign exchange student and is now preparing to study here in Vienna at the University. She had to take a test on her German skills Friday a week ago and requested a priesthood blessing the day before. After talking about blessings in general and what it could and possibly couldn't do (i.e., it wouldn't put things into her mind that already weren't there), we went ahead with the blessing and she reported to us this past Friday that she passed with flying colors. Everyone was obviously thoroughly pleased.! She gave us an interesting DVD about her home country that was quite intriguing.  It was in 3 languages and in Kazakh took 30 minutes to play however listed the time in both Russian and English as 47 minutes. We decided that Kazakh must be a faster language than the other two.  At any rate it was quite fascinating to see a little bit more about a country that most of us knew very little about.  Obviously a part of the former Soviet Union, they have been very aggressive at attempting to be a cultural assimilating point between Asia and Europe. The country has about 16 million people, or did when the DVD was made about 4-5 years ago and apparently has been attempting to assimilate over 40 different religions into a harmoniously working relationship. They admit to being about 90% Orthodox Catholic. We looked on a map and were impressed about how big Kazakhstan really is, probably the eight or ninth largest country in the world! We looked on the church website and found that Kazakhstan belongs to the Russian Novosibirsk Mission. Her home city of Alma-ti used to be the capital city of the country but no longer is. It does however house one of the two branches present in the country with a total membership of 240 people! In accordance with Pioneer Day, we told her once she joins the church she will be a real pioneer in her country to start a great heritage for the future.

We got into an interesting discussion somehow about a recent Sunday School class which she hadn't attended on the splitting up of the 12 tribes into the Kingdoms of Israel and Judah and it became evident that she knew absolutely nothing about the old Bible stories we all learned as children. Joseph and his coat of many colors, Daniel and the lion's den, Elijah being fed by ravens for quite some time, etc. were all foreign to her. We decided we'd stick with basic gospel principles for now and let her worry about David and Goliath at some time in the future.

Yesterday we used our P day primarily to scour our apartment down and get things cleaned up. We're having some continuing electrical problems we can't figure out.  Every time we turn on our hot water on a circuit breaker pops and we have to go push it to get anything decent to wash with.  No such thing as a hot water tank on one hand and air conditioning on the other.  We talked with one of the financial wizards in the Stake today who handles problems with the missionary apartments and he's given us the name of the firm who can hopefully come in and get us fixed up. We'll see how well we can get them to understand our extensive knowledge of German electrical terms. We have the assignment this week in district meeting to speak on the Gift of Tongues so this should be a good trial of the principle.

As we were trying to get a recent Tab Choir presentation going last night, we stumbled on an old concert given in the tabernacle by Igor Gruppman and the Orchestra at Temple Square entitled, "A Night in Vienna."  It was a delightful connection between us and St. Petersburg, with Maestro Gruppman also directing one of the main orchestras there. I understand several of you got a chance to hear the Clarks and the Jeppsons at their homecoming reports but we haven't heard any details.  

As far as sightseeing this week, it was pretty minimal. We did take a little walk around the plaza of Maria Theresa, the wife of Emperor Franz Joseph who has a lovely large statue of her self located in a huge park between the Vienna Natural History Museum and the Vienna National Art Museum. Haven't been inside either one yet but across a very large street is another huge plaza known as the Heroes Plaza or Heldenplatz. It houses the Austrian National Library, the Lipizzaner Stallions, and the Hofburg, a political gathering place of the famous people in the world. One picture of the balcony in front of the library is famous for being the spot where Hitler addressed the Austrian people after Austria joined Germany near the onset of World War II. Lots of places to see in the future.

Here is the Austrian equivalent of the Library of Congress and the balcony where Hitler received the adulation of the Austrian people at the Heldenplatz.

Here is Grammy standing in front of the History Museum which you can't see but it looks exactly like the building you can see across the plaza which is the National Museum of Art with the huge statue of Maria Theresa standing in the middle of the Park. She had 16 children, five of whom were sons.  One of her daughters was Marie Antoinette whose life was shortened in more than one way after she married King Louis the XVI of France. If any of you remember Allen Sherman, King Louis was worse then Louis the XVth, worse then Louis the XIVth,etc. He was the worst, since Louis the First!

  Dad has really covered everything we have done this week outside of us both getting hair cuts. It seems like nothing but you have to be brave in trying to explain in German exactly what you want it to look like and then hope for the best. But,of course, they turned out fine. Now for the big hair coloring challenge, but I think I'll wait a few days and then give it a try. Outside of a few really hot days, which have been killers with the humidity, the summer thus far has been quite pleasant, even cool at times. My new daily routine requires that I check the weather closely, especially for thunder storms which disturb things like streetcars,etc. The thunder is just about as loud as what I've heard in Texas which shook the house. Our lives have become somewhat routine with our schedule at the center, doing apartment inspections, and randomly helping the missionaries with their needs. I understand people a bit better and they me, so I guess I'm making progress along with new friends. Love you all, miss you all and wish "Happy Birthday"  to everyone having a birthday this week. 

Love, 

Grammy, Grampa, mom, dad, & Elder & Sister Parker

Reunion (from a distance), BYU and a Visitor from Home

Dear Family,

Well, this week was so busy that we`re two days late in getting our weekly report out to everyone.  We greatly appreciate all the contact you gave us while the reunion was going on.  We even got to witness the weeding and prettifying of the front flower/weed patch while it was going on.  We got a laugh out of Sally Lyde`s email to us.  As some of you know, her son, Steve, who is a good friend of Benj`s decided to come to Vienna to give a report at the Vienna Technical University.  We encouraged him to stay longer but he arrived on Thursday and left Monday morning so we had to pack a lot of seeing Vienna into just a few days.  He agreed to bring over a few things we decided we desperately needed like some short-sleeved shirts for Grampa and some real band-aids for Grammy. So Mindy and Benj took these items over to the Lydes, staying a while for some conversation which Sally was convinced was to enable them to get out of the weeding service project back home:)  ( Editors note: Benj and I did tell Sally and Steve that we were trying to get out of weeding, haha! Actually, I don't think Benj said it, only I said it and Benj did go home and weed and I took videos of the whole event and face timed with mom and dad so they could see it ;) So I guess I did get out of weeding! )At any rate we were able to enjoy several conversations with many of you while you were together and enjoyed pictures from the balloon ascension and the opportunity to speak with many of you then or later.

One of our responsibilities while we are helping to run the Young Adult Center is to provide a haven for BYU groups who are here on a variety of excursions.  The latest group consisted only of 11 people, most of them but not all music majors and they have been regulars for our Monday night home evening activities and our waffle night for fun and games on Fridays. Their presence isn't always guaranteed as they have the opportunity to go on a variety of other European excursions for a few days now and again but with the institute now having closed and running on a very abbreviated summer schedule, they have been a big portion of our visitors. 

We frequently have 8 or 9 of them out on a Monday and they have volunteered to provide spiritual thoughts and such. There is never a lack for a piano player, in fact, their director is the head of BYU's piano department, or so I'm told.  Although the institute for the summer is being run by specially invited guest teachers and lecturers, Grandpa volunteered to still provide an English language class for the many who don't understand much German. So for the last 4-5 weeks we've still had from 6-10 people attending that class after a brief opening exercise and song. That has now ended with the group leaving this Wednesday for home and no one replacing them until the fall. They provided a very lovely fireside this past Sunday evening where each provided a lovely musical presentation consisting of piano or organ pieces, quartets, flute and violin offerings and even a quartet of singers.  

One young man who is not actually affiliated with the group but is a BYU student, hailing from Oregon has particularly latched onto us for the past week and was our guide and mentor around the city while Steve Lyde was visiting us.  He's a french horn player but is actually here doing research on copying old musical texts into a computer format or something like that.  But at any rate, he's a real lover of Austrian gelato or a form of ice cream that we've really acquired a taste for. I think we hit an ice cream stand every night on Thursday, Friday and Saturday just to try out all the little shops we've always seen but never stopped at.  I sneaked in the french horn solo from Beethoven's Eroica symphony the other night while we were at the center just to impress him which he appreciated.  

With Steve in tow but in good jet lag we got him oriented on Thursday night to how to get to his workshop the next day.  He then joined us for the waffle night festivities and on Saturday we went back to the area around St. Stephen's cathedral and visited the old Roman ruins of Vindebona, the forerunner to Vienna before the demise of the Roman empire and its virtual disappearance in 500 AD.  We visited the venerable old St. Peter's church which we talked about last week and found out there was an organ recital there at 8 PM which we decided to catch later. We were then guided by our BYU friend to the 12 Apostles Cellar, an interesting very old restaurant operating for a few centuries now. It was located down about three flights of stairs in the old Vienna catacombs and had fairly reasonable prices with lots of interesting atmosphere.  After that very interesting interlude we repeated our visit to old Emperor Franz Joseph's lovely estate at Schoenbrunn however this time took the tour through the mansion which we hadn't done before.  

We also wandered around the city a bit, eating at one of the many pizza, Chinese, Austrian noodle stands which stand on just about every corner with interesting fare to tantalize one's taste buds.  We got to the organ concert at St. Peters in time to appreciate that Catholic masses must be mercifully short, for the pews were definitely not built for one's relaxation or long term enjoyment. While sitting in the concert we noticed a few young people sitting immediately in front of us who looked suspiciously wholesome. A tap on the shoulder verified that they were another BYU study group touring through Europe and our mentor separated from us to take them on a few other tours we didn't have time for.

Sunday, in order to have enough time to do some appreciation of the wonders of nature, we attended the German speaking ward at our Stake Center which starts at 9 AM, the international English speaking ward meeting in the afternoon time slot.  As it turns out, the group of 45 or so BYU students we'd met the night before were also attending that ward that morning so it worked out well for our two associates as they provided some English translation, at least to some extent for the many visitors. We had a good bilingual Sunday School class and they provided ear phones for Sacrament meeting. We then invited Steve and his new friend to our apartment for a brief Sunday meal and we took off for the wonderful highlands and hills to the north of Vienna that Grammy and I had previously visited a few weeks ago but our BYU young man had never seen.  We were treated to a little musical session with a chamber orchestra in a church that had been visited by John Paul II, the polish pope, in honor of the Poles having help defeat the Turks in 1683, still a tender spot for the Austrians as far as the Turks go.  Then it was back to the musical fireside I mentioned above and finally ended with a wonderful dinner of chicken, potatoes, corn on the cob and ice cream that was the closest we've come to an American dinner since we got here, prepared by Grammy for our two young friends.  Early Monday morning I got up and accompanied Steve back to the airport for his long flight home, which at this writing he has safely accomplished.

In the midst of all that sightseeing we actually did stay quite focused on the work and I actually introduced the church to a woman who wandered into our waffle night on Friday evening just out of curiosity to see what was going on.  She had a lot of questions I was hopefully able to answer and she came back on Monday evening for another go round with the missionaries.  She got a great introduction to the plan of salvation, first from the home evening lesson that we provided and then from a more formal presentation provided to her alone after the home evening had finished. We now have about three or four that we see regularly and teach, with the other missionaries as our circumstances permit.  We think we may provide a little bit of stability and transition as the current crop of elders and sisters are scheduled to be transferred next week. 2 of the 3 sister missionaries working in our district will be going home at the end of the month and we will miss them greatly, as will their investigators. 

It has been insufferably hot and humid here this past week, up in the 90's with a humidity generally up in the 70's or 80's.  It is a definite testimony builder to deal with that with a suit and tie on.  We have been able to regulate that a bit by rolling up the sleeves but the tie stays on and I just work through my handkerchiefs.  Air conditioning is definitely not prevalent here and we tend to maneuver so we can sit in front of strategically placed fans that blow here and there. I had to smile at two of our sisters yesterday who are native Europeans, one from Hannover, Germany and the other from Zollikofen, Switzerland. Neither one of them liked the wind generated by the fans and preferred to simply tolerate the heat which they were used to.  On the other hand, the water is still delightful as it comes from the taps, and contrary to predictions about the dangers of Austrian pastries, (which are truly delightful),  both of us have actually lost some weight.  I'm way ahead in the race having, as of this morning lost 14 pounds with my belts getting two more notches to hold up my suits.  I think the main reason is I don't have an easy well-stocked refrigerator to raid whenever I want.  

We love and miss you all and I'll try and add a few pictures to the letter.

 Interesting mock statues outside of Schoenbrunn. They'll move for you if pay them a few coins but otherwise remain motionless.

An interesting mock roman ruins fountain on the grounds of Schoenbrunn 

Love, Grammy Grampa, Mom and Dad, Elder and Sister Parker

Salzburg, St. Peters and New Mission President

Dear family,

Another interesting week to report on.  Our new mission president and his family have arrived (picture included below) and they've been making the rounds through our very geographically large mission to at least interview everyone once.  

President and Sister Kohler and family

Our whole zone which includes Vienna, Wiener Neustadt, Graz and Linz had the opportunity to travel to Salzburg for a get-to-know-you zone conference and that was a whole new experience.  I have been to Salzburg twice as a tourist, once with Rusty, but both many years ago so this was a very quick trip indeed.  We were up at the crack of dawn with tickets purchased the day before and met about 20 elders at the train station for a 7:30 AM departure, getting us to the main train station in Salzburg by about 10:15.  From there we had to take a half hour bus trip to the chapel where the conference was being held.  This poor little lady waiting at the bus stop was surrounded by all these young men in suits and ties and I told her how special she was to be included in the group.  The bus went through the center of town, giving us a glimpse of the Hohensalzburger Schloss or castle noteworthy from "The Sound of Music" but that was about as close as we got to anything familiar.  

The chapel was way out on the edge of town in a fairly isolated little suburb and while we were enroute, the President and his family were interviewing the missionaries from the Salzburg Zone who didn't have as far to travel.  As we all arrived, we went into the meeting portion of the conference with President Kohler and his wife both speaking along with their 16 year old senior high school son and their 13 year old junior high school daughter also participating.  They have an older daughter already serving a mission in Japan who will join them briefly after her release before she returns to BYU.  There son will likely leave on a mission from here in a little over a year when he turns 18.  He plays the trumpet and offered a little musical interlude playing the "Trumpeter's Lullaby". Their daughter has a lovely voice, apparently being asked to sing the National Anthem at one of the baseball games at BYU and the whole family sang a song where she was featured prominently.  

Sister Kohler offered her testimony in German and did a nice job, having had one semester of German 101 at BYU where President Kohler has been employed at the MTC for many years.  He was on the ground floor for the making of the District videos and was also involved in the whole evolution of Preach My Gospel.  Quite accomplished for a reasonably young man.  He gave us some excellent advice on how to be more effective missionaries that we thought was quite impressive, especially spiritually.  He mentioned that the church is seriously considering having each missionary purchase a mini-I-Pad at the beginning of their mission to use as an effective proselyting tool and that this is anticipated to be started by the end of this year.  We'll wait for further announcements but senior couples can do that already as you are aware from those of you who have already face-timed with us.

The trip back to Vienna took the rest of the day and we missed the first train we were scheduled to leave on because we were the next to last couple to be interviewed. We had both met President Kohler while we were at the MTC but the seniors were last on the list and one of the other senior couples who live in Salzburg and have a car graciously gave us a lift to the train station so we could catch up with all the elders who had left earlier on the bus. We got back to Vienna by around 7:30 PM and felt it was still an opportunity to be uplifted as well as see the Austrian countryside as we traveled back and forth.

The rest of the week was reasonably routine, teaching the Institute class on Wednesday to about 8 BYU students and one Mexican young man who prefers English over German. This has been a wonderful opportunity to go in depth into a few gospel subjects for an hour each week. Grammy is getting really good at tickling the palates of the Young Adults with her Monday night meals prior to Family Home Evening where this week, I was on to lead a discussion about eternal marriage and our one little investigator from Kazakhstan has really come on strong loving to cook waffles with us on Friday's. She's now committed to be baptized but wants to do it at home with her family.  She knows there's a branch of the church in her home town and we went on line to see if we could figure out which mission she would be in.  Turns out it's the Russian Novosibirsk Mission and the whole country is blessed with 240 total members.  We've been telling her what a pioneer she's going to be. We were all tickled during one of her discussions this week when she realized that if Jesus is the Son of God, and she's a daughter of God then they must be Geschwister (brother and sister)!:)

Yesterday we went on our second of 8 great walks around Vienna, the book written by the BYU professor about 7 years ago.  We found (or didn't find) only one of the spots he recommended which has apparently been renovated but now know where the ancient Roman ruins of Vindebona were located, the forerunner to modern Vienna and near the great St. Stephens church we visited last week. Not too far away we stumbled on quite an impressive church in a very small little plaza, modeled on St. Peter's in Rome, with the same name and quite lovely inside (though we are cautioned by 1 Nephi 13:8) which contains some interesting skeletal remains of early martyred saints who were uncovered in the catacombs of Rome and transported to the church for appropriate deification.  

 St. Peter's Church and below one of the martyred saints from the catacombs of Rome.

We also found the oldest church in Vienna and found that we pass it on the streetcar at least twice a day though it's quite a ways up on a hill.  It overlooks the site of the old headquarters of the Gestapo during the Third Reich where there is now a memorial to the many Jews who were killed there or transported to concentration camps where many were eventually killed.  

Quite nearby is a present day synagogue near the old Jewish ghetto where many Jews were exterminated by the Austrians back in the 1400's as well as in the second World War.  There is now a memorial there placed over the site of the original synagogue with a tribute to the estimated 65,000 Jews who were killed under Hitler, an original Austrian.  There is a very contrite and sincere apology there inscribed from the Catholic church and the Austrian government for the horrible events that transpired during these two episodes.  We get the impression from "The Sound of Music" that the Austrians were not happy about the German Anschluss though the vote was 99.27% in favor of it.  However it must be noted that there were many who were not allowed to vote either by being imprisoned, or as with the Von Trapp family, leaving Austria if the opportunity presented itself. But enough of all these political statements.  Grammy had some tender moments this week as she helped teach with the sisters.

(This is a picture of the memorial near the site of the old Gestapo headquarters.  It might be worth it to get someone who understands German to translate it.  If you push us we can do it for you. :))

(Sister Parker) -We were teaching a young lady who is quite sophisticated and has been through some difficult times in her life. She was quite touched by the teachings in the 2nd Lesson or the Plan of Salvation. She was so moved by the teachings of the Savior and His taking upon him our sins so that we could begin again with a new start, that she had to leave the room to bring her emotions under control. It was sweet to bear witness of these things and to know that she felt the spirit so strongly. After the lesson, she and a friend stayed for the institute class that began later that evening. Here the teacher talked about bringing our will to the Father's and that a loving Heavenly Father had a mission or individual plan for everyone. Again she felt overcome with emotion and had to leave the room for awhile. She gave me two big hugs before she left. 

Also, our young friend the sisters are teaching had a sweet moment of revelation as she discovered her relationship to the Savior. She has had no real understanding of religious things outside of traditions passed down from generation to generation. So the sisters were delighted when she said, wait a minute, Jesus is the son of God, right? And I am a daughter of God, right? So that makes us brother and sister doesn't it. They all felt joy in the moment of discovery.  All in all it is great being a part of the missionary work and having so many of the elders bringing their investigators to the center to teach them. We get to talk with them and to feel the sweet spirit that is present. This keeps us going through rain storms, carrying groceries through Subways, checking apartments, buying new washers, etc, for the elders, hanging out our clothes in the apartment to dry, and trying to find Austrian substitutes for items in my recipes.

All our love, 

Mom and Dad, Grampa and Grammy, Elder and Sister Parker

An Austrian 4th of July

Dear Family,

It has been another great week in the work here in Austria. Grammy really outdid herself in the meal she cooked on Monday with Sloppy Joe"s and a yummy Peach Cobbler for dessert!.  Then on Tuesday for district meeting we had to present a 10 minute contribution on the keys of the restoration, emphasizing the Book of Mormon as the Key to Conversion and listed all the great Book of Mormon references to each of the discussions that are taught investigators out of Preach My Gospel.  Then Wednesday we began Summer Institute where I'm still teaching an English class for as long as we have YSA's who don't speak any German.  They primarily come from BYU and the group here presently will be here until the end of the month when I'll likely be off the hook. We do have a couple of folks who come from outside the country like Mexico or Iran and whose German is poor enough that they prefer to learn the gospel in English so we'll see what happens when BYU leaves but for now we're teaching the Doctrines of the Gospel for up to 13 weeks.  

Our Tuesday and Thursday language classes, taught by the missionaries as an investigator finding tool are going quite well with people coming in from Serbia, Italy, Spain, Ukraine, and Russia among others, most wanting to learn German but not a few wishing to freshen up their English.  I met a woman off the street a week ago while we were there for a rare Saturday opening during the closing festivities for Institute who heard the Joseph Smith story from me, accepted a Book of Mormon and has now been back twice, making a little progress and I think probably with quite a bit of interest in the church.  Our young lady from Kazakhstan who spent a year in Taylorsville going to church every week with her host family and now studying at the University of Vienna has really come on strong with our sister missionaries, loves cooking waffles (picture included) and has now indicated she wants to be baptized, but only in Kazahkstan where she knows we have a branch of the church in her home city so she can introduce the gospel to her family.

For our waffle night on Friday, Grammy decided she would celebrate properly with cupcakes frosted like the American flag, which let the sisters take over and finish the making the flag.  Grandpa thought it was lovely because there was plenty of frosting between all the empty spaces between the cupcakes though he had to take a little flak from Grammy for partaking too freely.

One of our responsibilities is to take care of the physical needs of the 9 apartments the missionaries live in here in Vienna.  One of them is really hurting with some water seeping from the shower into the walls and we've had trouble finding out who the landlord is to come in and see if it can be fixed.  We had a refrigerator that wasn't working but once the elders found out how to defrost it, it  began to function again.  Lastly was a non working washing machine which somehow had been squeezed into a spot between a sink and a shower that necessitated it being lifted up and over the sink to get it out.  Anyway we went to the apartment, measured the space, bought a replacement and with the help of a member with a car, got it picked up and delivered and re-wedged into its proper location again.  All kinds of new skills we wouldn't have guessed we'd need.  That was the beginning of our P day on Saturday.  We spent the rest of the day doing our own wash and hanging the clothes out around the apartment and then spent the rest of the day really going over the main cathedral here in Vienna known as St. Stephens. 

We found a great little book in the apartment left behind by one of the previous couples and written by a BYU professor entitled "8 Great Walks around Vienna." It started with St. Stephens and led us to little mysteries like the mysterious "5" written on one of the walls, symbolizing the fifth letter of the alphabet which of course is "e".  If you add the "e" to the O which starts out the German name for Austria, you get Oesterreich, literally Eastern Kingdom and it became a symbol for the Austrian resistance to the Third Reich in World War II.  There was also a small chapel where the mortal remains of Mozart were laid after he died prior to his being buried in a pauper's grave, and sure enough, on the inside, a nice painting over the high altar symbolizing the stoning of Stephen, who looked up into heaven and saw Jesus standing on the right side of the Father.  Take that! Nicene creed!  The steeple on the church was at the time it was built, the reason it was the tallest building in the world.  It still is the tallest steeple in Vienna and I found that a church just down the street from us about a two minute walk has the third tallest steeple in Austria.  Lots of quite amazing Gothic architecture.

Today we visited the last of the five wards that are close by in Vienna and knew many of the young people who have visited the center.  We were able to make some important contacts, one with a man who may be able to help us with the hurting apartment mentioned above.  The first counselor conducting asked us if we would be willing to share our testimonies prior to the meeting and although Grammy gulped, she was the first one up with me following and did a very nice job for the first time at least on this mission of bearing her testimony to a congregation in German.  I was very proud of her. The weather here is getting quite warm again, up to 90 degrees over the weekend and it's a bummer wearing a coat and tie around but we do it for the glory of the Lord! Our new mission president has arrived and on Tuesday the entire zone travels to Salzburg to meet him and his family, be interviewed and have lunch before travelling back again.  I guess we'll close the center that day though we should make it back by around 6 or 6:30 so we'll see how it goes.

I think Elder Parker covered just about everything that happened this week. It makes us very tired every day. Here are a couple of pictures of our sister missionaries and our little investigator. We have a lot of fun together and they are very dear to me. Glad to see some of the pictures of the balloon fest. Hope you all had a great 4th Celebration. Enjoy your air conditioning. It is hot here too, but our air is from fan and windows. It works.  

Love You All, mom, dad, grammy, grampa--Elder & Sister Parker