Dearest Family,
In some ways this week has seemed pretty tranquil compared to all the action and excitement we enjoyed with Andrew and Ruslana's family with us last week. Following our first stake conference things seemed to return to a more normal status quo though we certainly must admit that the YSA center is still really booming compared to the summer. The big event of the week was the fourth transfer occurring since we've been here. These transfers are a fairly well regimented deal that didn't occur back in the old days when they were done pretty much at the discretion of the mission president. Now it seems they're scheduled well in advance, not that every set of missionaries gets moved every time but definitely, as we've previously stated, it's a time of gathering and saying good byes and hellos. There is a main artery that runs through our mission from Stuttgart through Munich to Salzburg and ends in Vienna and every transfer basically brings everybody changing to one of those cities and then they move to the new location. Being at one end of the line, it is traditional for 10-15 of us to meet in the morning as the departing move out, then form temporary teams for the day until the evening when the new arrivals show up and everyone is linked back up with new companions.
Two were leaving Vienna this week who have both been here longer than we have, Sister Freimann, who hails from Hanover, Germany, and Elder Phillips, one of our Zone Leaders who was one that met us at the airport when we first arrived. I guess that now makes us the longevity champs here as far as the mission goes though there are a couple of elders who have been here before and have now returned. At any rate, with Sister Freimann being transferred to Switzerland, a long 8 hour train trip and her replacement not coming in until about 12 hours later, Sister Parker was left to keep company with Sister Bushman. They of course hit it off like a mother-daughter team and Elder Parker had to just stay out of the way until everyone linked back up again. We were actually a threesome for most of the day but when they returned to the train station, he was left at the center until they returned with lots of action going on.
Our language courses continue to attract a lot of attention so he wasn't bored at all until everyone got linked back up. Wednesday night was back to teaching Institute with about 8 students, one of whom is an investigator from Pakistan who is committed to being baptized at the end of this month. His English is better than his German and so he chose to attend the English language class on the Book of Mormon and two elders sat in to help him with the translation as best they could. So with him and Sister Parker and the two elders, it was an even dozen. Elder Parker was to help them the next day teach him about the priesthood but interestingly we were unable to find the appropriate chapter on that topic in Gospel Principles which had apparently not yet made it into Urdu. So we kind of winged it and will come up with other options. Our other young lady whom we have mentioned several times before seems now ready to proceed with a baptism here instead of waiting to return to Kazakhstan but would like Sister Freimann to be present and she won't be able to return until after she's released next year. She's indicated that she's going home first and I'm not sure we'll entice her back such a distance so we'll see what else evolves over time.
So Friday, as we're sure you were all aware was Halloween, not a traditional holiday in Austria although interestingly there are apparently a few neighborhoods who are even getting into some trick or treating and a little bit of costuming does take place. It was our traditional Waffle Night so we actually came up with some unique games planning on carving a couple of pumpkins, playing a little Halloween Bingo, and really got big time into a Monster Mash balloon stomp with everyone tying a balloon around their ankle and then trying to pop their competitors' balloons while jumping around on one foot as good old Boris Karloff sang away. We were playing along and so didn't get any good pictures but everyone really enjoyed it. The evening ended up with all of them playing a game called "Werewolf" and we were able to sneak off around 10:15 rather than stay around to the wee hours and wait for them to finish.
Today was the official holiday the Austrians celebrate, All Saints Day, doubtfully even recognized in the States unless you're a Catholic but the population was out in force enjoying the day to the fullest. Saturdays are not really big shopping days around here but we could tell it was a holiday from the crowds everywhere. For the first time in quite a while we actually got out and spent a few hours seeing more of Vienna than we have in quite a while, this time wandering around in hidden-away back courtyards with surprise ornate churches turning up all of a sudden around a turn.
We even stumbled across a small room where they perform small Mozart concerts and the doorkeeper wondered where we'd come from. We snapped a quick picture, shrugged our shoulders and moved on.
Tomorrow is Fast Day and we've cleverly decided to return to a very nice little branch in a city called St. Poelton to the west of Vienna. We've only been there once and the branch president asked us to let him know when we came next time as he wanted us to speak in Sacrament Meeting. Sister Parker has not been very enthusiastic for that return trip so we decided to turn up on Fast Day with the guarantee that we would both bear our testimonies in the meeting. Eventually, I think he'll get us. They are really quite a good little branch, probably on the verge of becoming a real ward and to the best of our knowledge, they have the only actually organized choir in the entire stake. They have a great director and were featured at the Saturday evening session of Stake Conference last week.
(Sister Parker) It's hard to add to Grampa's or Dad's description of what we have done during the week. He really does a great job. He is also very good at trying to speak German to most of the young adults and other people at the center. He does a great job at running the center and preparing tables and chairs for classes and dinner. You would be amazed to see him secure the legs of the tables and heft them into place. I'm sure he is getting muscles on those arms. We didn't know this assignment would keep us physically fit. Since Andrew's and Ruslana's trip it has turned cold here in Vienna with temperatures between 35 and 55. So, Grampa also bought me a very nice, warm winter coat and I am now enjoying our walks in the cold air and grey skies. It reminds me a lot of being in Germany years ago.
The other thing that stands out to me from this week is our District Meeting. Our District Leader had us all singing "Scripture Power" from the primary songs. It was awesome and we even lifted our scriptures into the air. There was a great spiritual witness about daily using our scriptures. Perhaps this week all of our little families could take time to sing "Scripture Power", and think about Grammy and Grampa sharing the gospel over here in Austria. Then they could think of ways to share the beautiful message of the Book of Mormon with their friends.
Love and Hugs,
Grammy, Grampa,
Mom, Dad,
Elder&Sister Parker
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