Singing in the Rain

Dear Family,

Having written pretty late last week it doesn't seem like a lot has happened this week but there are a few interesting things to report.  Our numbers continue to swell as the YSA's all realize that the Center is still there and are starting to show a little more interest with the summer over.  Two weeks in a row now, we've had this family from Iran show up for English lessons.  They are not Muslim but apparently Zoroastrians which we'll have to look up and learn about a little more but 8 more came in on Thursday to continue their studies.  They have two young boys about 4 and 7 years old who find they're more interested in the pool table than learning English.  That was fine up to a point but their idea of pool was to make as much noise as possible pushing the balls into the holes and that was such a racket that no one could concentrate on their lessons so we had to put a stop to it.  I attempted to try a little finesse with them to teach them the finer points of 8-ball but they understand neither English nor German and a finger to the lips with a stern SHHH also didn't seem to cut it.  So we had to finally bodily take them away from the pool table.  Grammy bought a few kid's books at the local book store and they came in handy for distracting them for a while but the thing that eventually did the trick was teaching them to make and then fly paper airplanes.  They had a lot of fun and it was much quieter as we relegated them to our conversation area while the language classes went on.

Thursday was our our third transfer day since we've been here and again we all showed up early at the train station. Two elders and one of our threesome of sisters were being sent to other assignments in the mission, we had no one going home from Vienna, though Sister Smith, one of our Zone sister trainers that we talked about last week was heading home from her assignment in Graz.  But she didn't come to Vienna to turn around and head back to Munich so we really were just saying temporary goodbyes to the other three.  Our district leader got transferred from one of the other outlying cities into Vienna but is in a different district so we're getting a new DL that we know well and we got one "Golden", the local mission term for a greenie who will be working with our new DL.  He'll have double duty to both lead the district and train an Elder straight out of the MTC which in our case is Preston, England.  

Tuesday night Grammy got to go with the sisters to the special Women's meeting where Elders Ballard and Bednar were speaking live from Frankfurt but I'll let her report on that.  Wednesday night was still summer Institute but we had a good crowd out of about 35 people and things are looking good for that activity.  Grandpa has started preparing a few lessons for when we start up regularly but that won"t be until after General Conference.  We've still got to ask a few questions about how that goes forward.  We can hear it live on the internet or at the Stake Center but it will be 6 PM and 10 PM for us which I guess is doable.  Have to wait and see what they do with General Priesthood meeting as that will be 2 in the morning.  I guess we can sleep in on Sunday if the morning sessions doesn't start until 5:30 PM with the Tabernacle Choir.  

Friday we decided to check out the elders' apartment that has been vacant for six weeks since one elder became ill and had to be sent home.  It had some definite water problems in the walls that we've perhaps talked about before.  We had recommended that no be assigned there until it was repaired but heard that it had been worked on.  When we went by there was a big hole in the shower wall where they had torn out the tiles and apparently found a small leak but it hadn't been put back together again and there were still enough problems with the walls throughout the apartment that we have recommended it not be used again until it is completely redone.  One of the local members who is in the mission presidency apparently has a vested interest in the whole building and right now it's us against him as to recommendations so it's a little touchy as we move forward.  We'll see what happens.

For most of the week it's been rain, rain, rain so we didn't do much on our P day except clean the apartment and catch up on things.  Grammy needed to do some shopping which is always a challenge for Grandpa but she was able to pick up some good winter boots.  I guess I'll just sing quietly as she looks around.  A little singing in the rain never hurt anybody.  We haven't yet found any decent long coats she can wear but I guess it's still a little early in the season.  Currently I'm munching on some Cornichons mit Honig which is as close as the Austrians can come to sweet pickles while we attempt to defrost our little refrigerator for the second time in three+ months but Grammy's got a good method of keeping a pan of hot water in there which hurries things up considerably.

A picture of all the redheads in the mission zone, plus dad! :)

 (Sister Parker)  My best times this week were working with the little Iranian boys. They love to be noisy but they are also such cute little guys. They talk up a storm and try to tell me all kinds of things which I, of course, don't understand. I try to teach them a few English words by drawing pictures of things. Its amazing that they can repeat them back to me, perfectly. Then when they leave, they give me great big hugs. Oh, it is worth it. My other great achievement of the week has been the eliminating of mold on our bathroom shower rack. Yes that is right. Mold comes everywhere if you don't watch out for it. We finally found a spray bottle of Shimmel Entferner, in other words Mold Destroyer. We laid the shower rack in the bath tub and sprayed away, or at least Grampa did, also the tile on the wall behind it. Wow, its incredible. It looks like new and I feel more comfortable using the shower. It is the little things that make you happy. We don't really even mind the rain. It's much better than the heat. The Austrians don't seem to mind either. They still all go outside and meet in little groups with their umbrellas. I saw a group of 5 umbrellas just standing together chatting. Its great not to be afraid of the weather. But we'll see when it starts snowing.

Apparently the transmission from Frankfurt didn't go as well as we had hoped for the big chapel presentation but we all moved down to the Relief Society Room where for some reason it came in better with video.  All the sisters from 8 up were invited but there weren't really that many there considering the whole stake was invited.  But it was fun being out with the sisters.  Dad had one of the YSA's who stayed with him until he left to come home.  Always nice to have the apostles paying attention to us!

Love, 

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