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
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