Dearest Family,
It seems like another great week has passed with lots of exciting things to report and more things to do than there seemed time to do it.
First off, we were thrilled to get the latest edition of the Parker Post with all the news it contained. Heidi really puts herself out to get that all together and it is very enjoyable to be brought up to date in a personal way. We encourage those of you who haven't contributed in a while to REPENT. All of the holidays will be over by the next issue and no one should have an excuse not to be able to give us a full report of the memorable things you all did to celebrate the birth of our Savior.
Which brings us to our current report. We're always a little critical of all the businesses who are already jumping the gun as soon as Halloween is over to get involved in their merchandising and I guess Vienna is no different but at least it's interesting to see the European or Austrian spin that gets put on things. We get a little throw-away newspaper thrown at our doorstep every week and this past week they listed 29 different Christmas displays being set up around the city. At least half of them started this past weekend with the remainder all starting by next weekend. We took our P day yesterday to fine tune one of the missionary apartments that has been vacant for about 3 months getting major overhauls and repairs finished and it looks like it's finally ready to go. We found a great huge store equivalent to a Home Depot or Lowe's where we were finally able to find the equivalent of a squeegee and a vacuum filter, look at some possibilities for living room overhead lighting and it even carried some cute little 2 foot Christmas trees that we thought might fit into our apartment. One of the 29 displays/markets had some really impressive Christmas articles that Sister Parker decided should be in the homes of each of our children so we made a purchase there and you can all expect to be getting a little gift from Vienna sometime in the next several weeks. Anyway, we got those home and then decided we would head over to the big City Hall or Rathaus where the main Christmas display was set to open. We didn't realize that it would be like turning on the lights at Temple Square after Thanksgiving with what seemed like the whole city standing elbow to elbow as they lit up a huge plaza together with the city Christmas Tree to the tune of a band playing "We Wish You a Merry Christmas" (no kidding!)
They had several of the very large trees in the park all decorated with huge lit up ornaments, lighted guitars in one, typical ornaments in another, red valentine-like hearts in another, the sum total looking very fun and impressive. There were two little trains that kids could get on and ride around the park with a man blowing a loud whistle every 5-10 seconds leading the way to warn the crowds that the trains were coming through! One of the members informed us that one of the many displays, #17 to be exact, is thought to be the most genuine Austrian of the whole bunch so I guess we'll wander that direction one of these days.
The early part of the week was taken up with more routine things. We traveled out to one of the outlying cities, St. Poelton, that we have some apartment oversight responsibilities for that now has 4 elders in it instead of the 2 who used to be there. They have a wonderful little branch there that has the only standing choir we've found in the stake so far and a strong spirit that's quite evident as we have visited them on Sundays a couple of times. They're the ones that want us to speak when we come and I guess we'll have to gear up for it the next time it happens. Anyway, they have a gung ho branch mission leader who's a little compulsive about how the elders should set up their apartment, somewhat to their irritation. We informed the mission office and got specific instructions that they have the final say as to what goes on in their own apartment and we may have to try and gently get him to back off a little bit as to how they arrange their beds, that they can keep a door off that leads to their kitchen but blocks access in an out to their refrigerator, etc.
Then as to our language classes, we've continued to see good things happen. Elder Parker has gotten directly involved in teaching a humble young Hungarian member some German and it's been difficult because he doesn't speak very good English either. But he's very willing so he comes in for a special hour of instruction twice a week and is generally there for home evening, institute and waffle night as well. This past week we had a member from one of the wards come in wanting to improve his English but he found that what the elders were teaching was way beneath his level. He wants to get better at engaging in English conversation so Elder Parker agreed to take him on at a 4 PM lesson next week and back the Hungarian member off until 5 PM.
We've mentioned our Zoroastrian family from Iran a few times. They truly have a wonderful spirit and some of the family have already left for San Diego in the last month. But several others continue to appear for instruction in English every week. There were only a couple however, who were there this past Thursday and so we were surprised when about 8 of them appeared on Friday night about an hour after we had already served all of the waffles. But they indicated they just wanted to come and socialize so waited until they thought the meal would be over before showing up. In what we thought was a very nice "tender moment" one of our members who will celebrate his first anniversary as a member this week and is scheduled to receive the Melchizedek Priesthood on the 30th, showed up with his date for the night who is a returned missionary from England. They had planned a different activity that kind of fell through and so decided to come by the center instead. It just so happens that he's also from Iran, speaks fluent Farsi of course, and was able to fluently converse with the whole family as they played UNO about how wonderful the church has been in his life. As we have said many times, there are no coincidences in this work!
So while all of that was going on, in which Sister Parker was an active participant, Elder Parker sat down up front in our reception area with a woman who has been coming fairly regularly for several months now but who has been very lax about setting up lessons, reading her Book of Mormon or several other items we've sent home with her. She is what is termed a Free Christian, a group that basically accepts all beliefs as OK, (except, of course, the Mormons) but has come back over and over again because she is fascinated by the unique beliefs that we have taught her. So Elder Parker sat down with her and decided that he would teach her on a one to one basis as long as she wasn't doing it on her own. We started out with Moroni 10:4-5, emphasizing that the only way she could find out the truth of what we were telling her was if she personally put out some effort and asked God personally if this was right. She indicated that she'd love to be baptized but wanted to remain with the Free Christians as well. We explained that if this was her attitude we likely wouldn't be able to approve her baptism until she acknowledged that much of what she was hearing at the Free Christians wasn't true. We emphasized how important the Book of Mormon was as a second witness for Christ and she asked why we needed a second witness, why wasn't one enough? Her Free Christian friends told her the Book of Mormon was a strange thing, indeed. We pointed out that they obviously hadn't read it and neither had she. So it was suggested that we explore the book a bit and she would let us know when she found something that wasn't true. So we simply flipped completely randomly through the book, every 30-50 pages or so and read a random verse on every page we came to. Every...single...verse... we...read mentioned something about the Savior! Again, there are no coincidences. She had to agree that nothing we read could be construed as false.
Many of the grandchildren will remember helping Grampa underline several passages in the Book of Mormon that provide an interesting short tour through the book from front to back. He made a similar plan through the German Book of Mormon and actually put it on the computer so we could include copies in every book we pass out. She took one and we'll see if anything different happens. As we were getting close to finishing a few people started passing by as they left the UNO game. One of them was a young lady I confused as a member who is here as a nanny until January. As she was putting on her coat I invited her to tell my investigator what she thought of the church. She bore a wonderful testimony of how wonderful she thought the church was and it wasn't until later that I found out I had misidentified her and she was actually another investigator, only 16 years old who would likely join if her parents would consent. Then our Iranian brother mentioned above was also getting ready to leave and I asked him if he would bear his testimony which is when he brought us up to date on his one year anniversary. At the end of our discussion we actually said a prayer together for the first time and she commented afterwards about all of the points included, praying to Heavenly Father, thanking, asking, and ending in the name of Jesus. So it seems she is paying attention somewhere. All in all it was a wonderful week with the Spirit strong and helping out. Thanks for all your prayers!
(Sister Parker) I think Grampa or Dad has covered all we did this week. It seemed very busy and by the time we got to bed each night, around midnight, we were often exhausted. It is ok to be exhausted in a good way or doing good things. We also had Zone Training this week and the emphasis was on looking for the things we do or don't do that keep us from finding the people the Lord has prepared for us. Perhaps we can each look in our daily activities and see what we need to change in order to find the person the Lord is preparing for us to help teach the gospel. Of all the wonderful gifts we give at Christmas this one would be the most precious.
Love you and pray for each one of you too.
Love and Hugs,
Grammy, Grampa,
Mom, Dad,
Elder and Sister Parker
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