The Sound of Music and Hallstatt

Dear Family,

A review of last week's epistle would reveal that we were hustling out the door, as it was sent, with Andrew and Ruslana and their two children leading us on a tour of a couple of cities in our mission, one where we've been a few times but not toured and the other a completely new experience for all involved.

Salzburg is renowned for the site of the film about the Von Trapp family known to all of us as "The Sound of Music."  Although the film was apparently never really big in Austria, it's a favorite with the tourists and there are multiple tour groups who have set up visits to the places made famous in the movie.  Arriving in the morning by train, we checked into a hotel recommended by good old Rick Steves in his book on the Best of Europe.  As we walked to the hotel from the station we actually passed right by the place selling tickets and signed ourselves up for that afternoon, receiving a discount for everyone willing to show their tour book.  Off we went to see the lane Julie Andrews walked down as she left the nunnery, the exterior of the house chosen to represent the front of Colonel Von Trapp's mansion, another by a lake chosen to represent the back of the house where all the kids fall into the water (apparently it was very cold and had to be done twice because one of the kids about drowned on the first take), the famous gazebo where 16 going on 17 is coached by 17 going on 18 and where eventually the Colonel acknowledges his love for Maria, then a drive by beautiful Mondsee where the church is located where they filmed the wedding, ending up back where we started at a beautiful garden where they filmed much of the Do Re Mi song. 

Here are a few of the sights:

The lane where Maria sings about having "confidence"

The famous gazebo with Alex standing guard.  

And the steps where they all sang Do Re Mi and which the bus driver encouraged us all to sing by going around a round about a few times until everyone warmed up to the idea (great picture of the fortress in the background.

Great sights along the way like this one:

The next day it was back to the train station and off to the wonderful little village of Hallstatt which we'd never heard of but Ruslana had been reading about.  

It's crowded between a beautiful lake and the side of a mountain with a Catholic and a Protestant church dominating the view of the city.  

We hiked around the village which didn't take too long and then decided on a five mile two hour hike up to a high waterfall which gave us a wonderful view of the Alpine countryside.  

The next day it was a ride up a funicular tram and a tour through salt mines which made the country famous as far back as 400-800 BC! Everyone has to put on miner's clothes to go on the tour and you walk and ride mine trains and even slide down a few slippery slides along the way where they clock your speed.  

Grammy didn't like her picture but she was the fastest at 28.9 Km/hr!  

Above is a fuzzy view from our hotel window down into the village plaza. 

While we were in the salt mines it snowed for the first time this season.  They told us usually the mine is colder but the day we were there it was warmer than outside!  Still the cold air made the whole area very beautiful with mist and clouds all over the mountainsides.

All in all it was a lovely trip and we were home by Thursday afternoon in time to get them on their plane by Friday morning.  Saturday evening was the beginning of our first Stake Conference since we've been in Austria and it was like a big reunion with a huge stake encompassing all of the eastern half of the country.  Missionaries were a plenty and from Saturday evening until the Sunday morning session, many of them were grouped together with  as many as 12 to an apartment.  One of our Stake Institute Council sisters that we know well spoke at the Saturday meeting and raved us up so we got good press for the Center.  In fact they gave us the flowers from the podium to take home because the Sunday session wasn't in the Stake Center but at the Austrian Center where the United Nations have their European headquarters. 

There was a great Primary choir at the Sunday meeting including some pipe whistles and violin players. 

Transfers again this week so we'll be saying goodbye to a few elders and sisters, two of whom have been in Vienna as long as we have but new faces to say hello to by Tuesday evening.

    It has been a very busy week and a half since Andy and Ruslana came to visit. It was very nice to have a couple of grandkids around and Alec said all the right things about wanting to stay with "Gram". He also made good use of our time on trains and buses, refusing to sit anywhere but next to grammy and the window. Its sweet to be loved by a child. It was hard to see them leave, but we hope to see some others from time to time.

  (Sister Parker)  I must say the Austrians take the prize again for doing all their outdoor activities in any kind of weather--pouring cold rain and snow as we went up the mountain to the Salt Mines. Never the less, it was very cold and I had to buy some gloves to keep my hands warm and most of the time we were quite wet. This weather change also affected Vienna and I had to finally go out and buy a new winter coat. So nice to know that I won't freeze through the winter in my little rain coat. 

   Friday at waffle night we were greeted warmly and told how much we were missed. But it seems when the need arises the young adults step in and take over. They cooked a meal on Monday night and made some waffles on Friday night. They, however, preferred that we keep the job. The elders also took care of the language classes and said there were so many people that they even had to use the lounge area as a classroom. They were also glad to have us back. 

    Two other important things happened today. One- It is the National Founding Day of modern Austria and we sang the national anthem as a pre-opening song before Stake Conference started. We had never heard it before. A rough translation would be "Land of mountains, Land of streams, Land of fields, Land of cathedrals, Land with a rich future on which to build! A homeland of growing daughters and sons, A people graced with beauty, Much praise Austria, Much praise Austria! (It rhymes in German) Two- It is the end of daylight savings time and now it is dark at 5 o'clock. But it is light when you wake up in the morning. Better enjoy it while it last. 

    Happy Birthday to all those who have birthdays today and the next couple of days, Myles, Emily and Uncle Alan, also Adam's whose just passed. 

Take Care, we love you all. 

Grammy, Grampa, 

Mom, Dad, 

Elder and Sister Parker.

Andy & Ruslana Lead Us to Germany

Hello Dear Family,

Wow, has this ever been a busy week.  Seems like things continue to really pick up.  We had a great Home Evening on Monday which Mom prepared early because Andy and Ruslana were arriving at 3 PM and we normally open the center an hour later.  So we decided we'd get everything ready to go except for just warming things up, then leave for the airport and be all ready when we got back.  So off we went, bought all of the supplies we needed, headed to the center and were only 20 minutes behind our schedule when Dad suddenly found out he'd left the keys back in the apartment.  Mom has a second set for the apartment but not for the center so he left her sitting on the steps and ran back to the apartment which is almost an hour round trip.  We called our district leader who has a second set of keys for the center and he graciously came over and let Mom in which was definitely out of his way so by the time Dad got back, she had most of the things ready.  He helped get the vegetables ready for the salad but by the time we actually left for the airport it was almost time for their plane to land.  We attempted to text them as we traveled but had a hard time getting a connection.  We knew it would take a little time for them to get their luggage and clear customs but even so we weren't on site until almost 45 minutes after the plane had landed.  We desperately searched around the arrival hall for about 5-10 minutes without success when they suddenly walked through the door and our reunion was a complete success.  We were able to get them to our apartment to unload a little bit and then returned to the center, arriving about 6 and proceeded to have a lovely home evening which the sister responsible for the spiritual thought graciously did in English.

The next day we had a lot of walking around to many of the things we had previously seen and visited with others plus took in the State Opera House which was something Ruslana really wanted to see and which we had never toured. I was impressed to find out they perform over 50 different operas a year, alternating up to 3 at a time on different days so it's really quite a production. There was still time to get up to our favorite mountain top viewing place and then it was dinner at our favorite restaurant, the 12 Apostles Cellar and home for a good sleep and maybe get a little further out of jet lag.

The next day, Dad had the responsibility of teaching the first Institute class of the year that night and not wanting to haul all of his notes around all day, ran over to the Center to drop things off while Mom showed them the beautiful City Hall and Parliament buildings which are close by.  Then we decided to head off to the Schoenbrunn Palace grounds where we've taken everybody including Steve Lyde and Tom and Laurel but we somehow took our streetcar one stop too far.  That put us right in the neighborhood of the beautiful church dedicated to Charlemagne which one of our BYU young men had said was one of the more beautiful edifices in the city.  It's being renovated but they have built an elevator literally up to the top of the dome.  Again, we had never been inside but decided to do that because it was so close and were amazed at how lovely all the work was up close.  There's frequently a dove at the top of a few of the cathedrals and we were about 10 feet away from it as we finished our ascent, the last 30 feet or so being on a set of stairs.  Then it was off to the summer palace of King Franz Joseph and his wife Maria Theresien.  Their home is translated as Beautiful Fountain and we think it's really the highlight of the city.  As we approached the front gate we were greeted this time by a statue of Mozart  He definitely seemed a little more friendly than some of the other "living statues" that we have previously seen.  

We had plenty of time to enjoy the grounds and then left in time to get back to Institute for the class which Andrew, Ruslana and David attended while Mom helped out in the kitchen and entertained Alex.  Two of our young adults are also named David and Alex and everyone really enjoyed teaching young Alex how to play Fussball, the little game using a ping pong ball to score points.

The next day we were off for our Senior Conference in Munich and we managed to get tickets for Andrew's family on the same train there and back. While we were engaged in the three days of conference, they went on to Neuschwanstein, the beautiful castle of "Mad" King Ludwig which inspired the Disney Sleeping Beauty castle, enjoying the beautiful sights of Bavaria in that area.  We had just a wonderful time with 25 other couples working throughout our mission.  We had several sessions of instruction and both a time for introductions as well as a testimony meeting which were wonderful.  One couple working in Switzerland have learned to play the Alphorns and actually brought two and gave us a wonderful serenade.  We met the second counselor to the mission president and found he had served not only in Hamlin where Mom had served but even with the same landlady, Frau Ehlkes!  Matt and Mindy may remember her as we stopped by her home while bringing Matt home from his mission and she still remembered Mom even after over 20 years, exclaiming as we rang her doorbell unannounced, "Ist dass Ruth Ann?"  The remainder of the conference was superb with the next morning offering a tour of Munich being led by one of the high councilors in the stake.  

We heard the Glockenspiel at the City Hall and heard all about the story concerning the architect of the main Munich cathedral who had reportedly made a pact with the devil.  As the story goes, if the construction could proceed without any major mishap or loss of life, the architect agreed that the first soul to enter the cathedral when it was completed would belong to Satan.  Apparently when that occurrence was about to happen and the devil attempted to enter the cathedral, the architect stopped him with the observation that although there was a bright light in the cathedral, there were no windows and the devil was denied entrance beyond his first step.  That footprint is enshrined in the back of the hall and the devil was blown back out the front door resulting in a wind that apparently still revolves around that entryway! 

After the tour was completed and we returned to our conference sessions, things got interesting.  Apparently negotiations were heavily underway with the drivers of the German railway system who were threatening to strike, thus disrupting the train service throughout Germany.  Negotiations failed and every driver went on strike at midnight.  We notified Andrew that their return from Neuschwanstein might be impeded and we weren't sure whether we'd get home or not.  They were able to find a train that was running earlier than their original intent and we found the transportation system heavily delayed but not completely inoperable and numerous prayers were offered up.  With considerable delays the next day as we visited the mission home and mission office we were able to obtain a ride with another couple to the train station where the Austrian system was still working and had an enjoyable ride back to Vienna.

Sunday we attended the International Ward which holds its services in English and enjoyed a real family meal with Andrew, Ruslana, David and Alex.  We are now literally minutes away from leaving again for Salzburg to enjoy the sights there and in nearby Hallstatt.  More to come next week.  

Love, 

Mom and Dad, 

Grampa and Grammy, 

Elder and Sister Parker

Brummen, Sssssss, Clic, Schsch, Schluerf, and Klapper

Dearest Family,

We thought we'd start our letter out this week with the humorous title which came with the instructions to our new dryer.  The instructions that came with this apparatus were careful to point out that the above noises were quite normal during its operation and not to be concerned if we heard such a commotion emanating from our new purchase.  We have indeed noted that it can be a noisy beast and because it doesn't have a vent to the outside, a cycle can take up to three hours to complete.  We learned early on not to start a cycle after 10  PM or it would keep us awake for quite a while:)

It has been a very successful week at the Center which continues to build and build as our Young Adults come back to school.  Monday night the spiritual thought was taken care of by a lovely young lady who has been a member for less than a year.  We were clued in to look out for her while we were in the MTC in Provo by the elder who helped teach and baptize her and she has become a regular attender.  She frequently also comes to our Waffle Night activities.  More of the seasoned and long standing YSA's are likely more involved with their own families on Monday nights but Fridays we had five members, 3 investigators and about 4 teams of missionaries so it was a good group.  That's really our social night and we were all ready to play a little Scotland Yard for those of you who remember that game and we had a Rummikub session also set up but it turns out that everyone was just having too good a time talking and socializing to get involved in these lesser pastimes.

  

One young couple was especially interesting.  A young lady had been quite ill and had been hospitalized for quite some time but is now feeling better and coming quite a bit for some good fellowshipping.  She felt like her Bishop had been quite down on her for her inactivity and didn't seem to understand that she'd been in the hospital but they have apparently now got all of that patched up and she's feeling quite a bit more hopeful of the ward now.  She's only been a member for less than a year so she's really just getting established in the church but is quite a delightful personality and very fun to talk to. She's from Italy and speaks German and English as well. 

Meanwhile we have a very talented young man whose responsibility was to get some newer computers set up in our computer room.  Our old two sets were quite ancient and the stake was apparently upgrading and so we got three of their old computers.  Still old but much newer than what we had.  So he's been around quite a bit getting the new ones all programmed and ready to go and while he's been working, we've had the opportunity to get to know him quite well.  He's still very young in his early 20's, a returned missionary who went to England Birmingham where our nephew Jacob Kmetzsch is now serving, and as many do here, speaks an excellent English.  Apparently he had a girl friend before he left who wrote to him, though there apparently was a 6 month gap where no correspondence was going on.  At any rate, everybody got really excited as he prepared to return home to get these two on the fast track to marriage and within just a few months after he returned he was a married man.  Things began to deteriorate from that point and although he has remained quite faithful and true, his wife went the other direction completely and they are now separated, awaiting completion of their divorce.  The details are not important at this juncture but he and our young lady mentioned above found they were very compatible souls and spent most of last Friday talking and socializing.  He, of course, can't date until the divorce is final but they are really a cute couple.  We're sure he's going to take things much slower this time around but it's still fun to see these interactions occurring as they should be in the social lives of our young adults.

We are always amazed at the international flavor of Vienna.  We have been studying the map a bit and Austria is bordered by Germany on the west, the Czech Republic and Slovakia on the north with the latter wrapping around to the west and Hungary below Slovakia. Coming around the south we have Slovenia with Croatia just below that moving to the west we get to Italy and just a small area of Liechtenstein before Switzerland and then Germany again. So now that you've got the geography down it's no wonder that this week in the Center we have dealt with Italians, Hungarians, Kazahkstanians , Slovenians and even a few Austrians!

This weekend was our official Institute opening which began yesterday with workshops during Saturday afternoon about dancing and a closing dance social last night at the Stake center. That was followed by a Singles ward Sacrament Meeting, which following General Conference was also a Fast and Testimony Meeting. We were unable to attend yesterday as we had been away to Salzburg all day at Zone Conference, getting instructions from President Kohler about how to be more effective missionaries.Here a small sample of the missionaries in a couple of the Vienna districts waiting on a rural street near the chapel to be picked up and returned to the train station for our trip back to Vienna.

​ I had been given the assignment for our Singles ward activity today to teach the Sunday School class on the subject of how we develop faith and how important it is for YSA's.  I spent an inordinate amount of time preparing a lesson in German without a specific manual or a lesson plan to work with but came up with several ideas that I thought would be good.  On the way home from Salzburg, Mom developed a little intestinal bug of some kind which had a few of the signs of possible appendicitis but she had a pretty rough night and so we made no attempt to go to the Saturday night dance.  She was somewhat improved this morning but still pretty shaky so we decided she should stay home and I went over to the Center alone to help set up.

For quite some time, they have been anticipating that we would have an international flavor to the Institute opening social and so it was as we had 8 YSA's join us from Slovenia.  None of them spoke any German at all but most spoke English so it was decided by the leaders that there were fewer in the group who wouldn't understand English than there were those who wouldn't understand German. Hence we were instructed to teach our classes in English. Consider it a tender mercy but it was actually a little trickier to re-translate the lesson from German back to English than I would have thought. The testimony meeting that followed was held in anyone's language of choice and we heard Deutsch, English, Hungarian, and Slovenian.  Elder Parker actually bore a testimony in German just to stay in practice!

We were informed this week that our Zoroastrian family has had some of their visas come through and some of them will be leaving in a couple of days for southern California.  One of our Zone Leaders lives within 30 miles of where they're going.  He'll be home within about 4-5 months and promised to check up on them.  They seem to have a wonderful impression of the church and we hope enough seeds were planted to bear eventual fruit.

   (Sister Parker)  Love the dryer with all its interesting sounds, love going to Zone Conferences with all the young missionaries, they make us feel younger and we enjoy meeting some of the other senior couples. We love to compare notes and check for new ideas on food and fun activities. Its a great way to keep yourself busy for a year and a half and serve the Lord.

    We're looking forward to Andy and Ruslana and kids coming tomorrow. Unfortunately, Benji just found out the his passport doesn't have enough time left on it to be able to come. One needs about 6 months left on their passport to come to Europe. We will miss him but will expect him to come some time in the future. 

Love you all. 

Grammy, Grampa, 

Mom, Dad, 

Elder and Sister Parker

From the Ridiculous to the Sublime!

Dear Family,

Boy, these weekends do roll around fast!  In addition to our routine doings we have been trying to catch up on apartment inspections prior to the next transfer in a few weeks.  We found one apartment that despite frequent urging to report missing alarms, (and despite our having visited and inspected the apartment once before) still was missing a smoke alarm.  Apparently there were a couple of elders in Taiwan who were killed from carbon monoxide poisoning so there has been some real emphasis on all of us to make sure all of our alarms are in place.   

Besides that, it apparently was the month for microwave failures.  We had three (3!) microwaves all go out in just one week.  Two failed completely and the other just wasn't functioning according to the input instructions.  Now all are replaced and everyone is enjoying rapid warming or cooking of their food once again.  Seems to be a biggie in the lives of those not blessed with a nice woman's influence in the kitchen.  

So in addition to buying and replacing microwaves, we decided it was time to do something about our ancient method of drying our laundry.  

Behold the old method:Notice the fan back there in the corner of the second photo.  That was an essential method for our previous system and even though smiled upon by the Savior, (notice the picture on the wall) even the mission president said we were entitled to modernize.

 And so Voila!:Welcome to the 21st Century, even in Austria where real dryers do exist, even if they have to be placed in your bedroom because there's no room anywhere else.  

But we can still get around the bed and into the closet without too much difficulty.  We have yet to try it out as it was just delivered and we're not sure how much noise and humidity it's going to create.  There's still no way to vent it to the outside and so the water is stored in a small container on the left front and once we're done with a load, we simply dump it into the sink in the bathroom and we're ready for the next load.  What could be simpler! We decided we'd temporarily decorate it with a lovely book we got from the Wiese family when they visited us showing the beauties of Sachsen (Saxony) as well as a cute little book Sister Parker chose on the various beauties of Austria as drawn for children complete with little puzzles like Where's Waldo (only in this case it's Lieber Augustine) and can you find the five animals who escaped from the Schoenbrunn Zoo and are running around the grounds.  (Took Elder Parker a long time to find the fifth one!!)  Oh and there're also some envelopes from the family reunion letters that we're still enjoying from all of you.

Otherwise the week was remarkable for a great District meeting on Tuesday where it was agreed that we would all meet at the Schnitzelwirt, our favorite missionary restaurant here in Vienna.  12 of us descended on it at 2 PM so we could be finished in time to get back to the Stake Center and the sisters could enjoy the General Women's meeting that was aired for us at 4 PM.  Then we were all able to enjoy live the Saturday morning session of conference which aired our time at 6 PM.  Tomorrow at 11 we get a tape delay of General Priesthood meeting at 11 PM and a tape delay of Saturday afternoon which will air at 2 PM.  Then we get the Sunday morning broadcast of the Tab Choir live at 5:30 PM followed by the morning session at 6.  For the real diehards where six hours isn't enough, we can stay until 10 PM and watch the closing session but we think we'll probably catch that on the internet the next day. 

We have an interesting investigator who shows up at the center periodically on her own time schedule and has been coming for the last 3 months or so at least once a week.  She likes to talk but doesn't follow through on many of the commitments we've given her.  Elder Christopherson's talk will be added to her list of things she doesn't read as soon as it's translated because he really hit her particular situation right on the head.  

Since we wrote that last sentence, it's now Sunday evening for us and we've caught all the sessions of conference except Sunday afternoon which starts in about an hour.  The stake shut everything down so I guess if we catch it it'll have to be on the Internet.  We really got a lot out of conference this session and we think it helps when you're really paying attention and taking notes.  Loved President Uchtdorf and his dandelion analogy and it just seemed like there were so many talks that would apply to so many of our investigators.  Elder Parker, however, took careful note about President Uchtdorf's penetrating question as the various apostles asked at the Last Supper, "Is it I?"  It's a question I guess we should all ask ourselves about our level of commitment.  At any rate we feel really charged up again to go out and do the work!  

It was fun to be with all the missionaries in our zone as we attended conference.  We had three room options to listen in German, English or Spanish.  Most of us opted for English though a few of the elders went for German.  It was interesting to see how many of the Austrians understand English well enough that they wanted to hear it in the original language and sat in with us.  Very interesting to hear that it came across in Catalan and Spanish as well.  We were amused because we got the English translation verbally anyway instead of the subtitles and frequently the translator got well ahead of the speaker and really had to slow down.

So speaking of the multiplicity of tongues, our language classes are really booming with three to four classes going on simultaneously and as many as 10-12 people attending.  Our Zoroastrian family keeps coming bringing a variety of family members and they got a good dose of genealogy this week as part of their English instruction in talking about fathers and mothers, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, etc.  We're still keeping the younger set entertained while the classes are going on with drawing, paper airplane flying and this week it was even a little bit of soccer in the main hall with the two year old who fortunately couldn't do the windows any damage with any very hard kicks.

Coming home tonight, our district leader informed us we're canceling the Zone training scheduled for Tuesday because we're all heading for Salzburg on Saturday for Zone Conference anyway.  When we get back we'll be in the middle of the Opening of Institute for Saturday evening with a Singles Ward at our center the next day which will also be our Fast day.  Elder Parker got asked tonight to give the Sunday School lesson for the second hour in German so that should be a real challenge.  There will be a real purpose in his fasting that day to see if he can hold out for 45 minutes in German.  The next day, Andrew, Ruslana and Benj should be arriving with David and Alex for a 12 day excursion through the heights and depths of Austria.  An exciting agenda seems planned but we'll see how next week's letter goes in the midst of getting set up for their pending arrival, the Sunday School Class, and our leaving in 3 days after their arrival for a three day stint in Munich for a Senior Missionary conference.  Never a dull moment around here.

    Lately it does seem something is going on every minute or maybe its just that there are so many things to take care of in relationship to the missionaries, their language people, investigators, apartments and appliances etc. It would be a lot simpler if there wasn't so much travel time but its just part of the missionary experience. Its kind of fun to meet the other missionaries just randomly as we are traveling around. Its always a joyous greeting.

   (Sister Parker) Dad or Grampa has really covered about everything we have been busy with this week. There was a lot of rejoicing as the dryer was delivered. Now if we can only figure out exactly how it runs through its drying sequences. It takes a lot longer as the water is pulled from the clothes into a container, instead of being blown into the air. But it is a joy to have something soft next to you.

     Conference has been wonderful and I finally got to see and hear the women's conference. The Korean children's choir was of course the outstanding highlight. As I have listened to conference and heard all the things we should be working on, I thought of all our little family units. Each one is doing the best they can to teach and train their children in the way they should go in following our Savior. I think you all do a wonderful job and that our Heavenly Father is also pleased. What a great blessing it is to know about our Heavenly Father's plan and why we are here on this earth. Its great to be a missionary and to share that message with other good people. 

Love and Miss you All, 

Grammy, Grampa, 

Mom, Dad, 

Elder and Sis.Parker