Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation!

Dear Family,

Another wonderful week has gone by without much weather to worry about which has been nice for our shoes with the cold moderated a bit, coming and going but generally a bit warmer than it was a week ago. I wrote that last night and this morning we woke up to about 4 inches of snow! Most of our routine activities have been a little less busy with a lot of the elders and sisters participating but fewer members. We hoped we'd see our Iranian family again but none have returned since the holidays.

We had an assignment on Tuesday for our district meeting to present some of the principles in Preach My Gospel on the creation. This comprises a very short paragraph and the challenge as of our last zone training was to conduct our district meetings in German. So Sister Parker decided she would present most of the principles and then I would go over the cited scriptures which cover those principles. So we had these in our mind for the next day when Home Evening came around on Monday night and the person assigned for the spiritual thought didn't come.  We had 2 members there, 4 investigators and the two of us.  So I decided we might just as well talk about the creation for our spiritual thought.  It gave us the opportunity to talk about our pre-earth life, the purposes of our life here on earth and even the spiritual creation of all things.  The investigators were all long term friends and three of them are involved in a group that apparently has fastened on the belief that the end of the world will come on September 30th!  We smiled and told them we'd like to have a good talk with them all on October 1st!  At any rate the whole discussion took place in German and was great experience for the next day.  We were helped quite a bit by one of our two members, a returned missionary, who really saved the evening as the discussion got a little more involved.  

We did come up with a great scripture not included in the Preach My Gospel selections that you all might want to look up: D&C 88:17-20.

So Tuesday, the district meeting went well and that afternoon at the time for our language classes an interesting man came in indicating he wanted to improve his English.  The elders were all involved in classes teaching German and he really wanted to just talk to someone to improve his English because he has a professor who speaks English and he wanted to be able to present his proposal for a doctorate thesis.  It turns out he also comes from Iran, is a psychologist with a master's degree and has worked in a couple of the Iranian prisons with inmates who are struggling with addictions.  It turned out to be quite an interesting match-up as I decided that I should be his language teacher.  I had had no idea at the outset what his background was but he was filling me in on his beliefs, from his experience and research that there were great similarities in the responses from addicted individuals whether they were addicted to opiates, metamphetamines, or even video games.  He talked about areas in the brain that were affected by these addictions and pointed out their responses were very similar even in schizophrenia, depression and other mental disorders and at least when he talked about the amygdala, the hippocampus and other brain areas, I had some idea what he was talking about.

So to make a very long story a little shorter, we decided we would meet every day for an hour and work on his English.  After the first two days, he spontaneously brought up how impressed he was with Christians, how very nice and kind they seemed to be and how concerned he was about the lack of freedom he and his family experienced in Iran.  We ended up talking for over two hours on Friday and essentially he got most of the first discussion and a little bit of the second.  We had to go a little slow because he knew very little about Christianity per se but we had a good talk about prophets and revelation and if it keeps up he'll have a Book of Mormon in his hands by Monday.  We've even got a copy in Persian if he prefers.  Oh...the above title...he thinks people with addictions can be helped by exposing them to "transcranial magnetic stimulation."  We'll see how well it holds up to the Holy Ghost!

          Yesterday we finally decided it was time to go out and get a little culture and so we bought a year's card to one of the best museums in the world located here in Vienna.  We were already museumed out after about three hours and we only covered ancient Egypt and Peter Paul Rubens and Rembrandt.  That didn't even begin to cover more than perhaps a fourth of what was there.

Here's the upper lobby of the Kunsthistorisches Museum and we weren't even paying attention until we came down the stairs to the Islamic bride and groom who had come in for their wedding pictures to the left behind the lion! 

The next picture is in the same location looking straight up.

Fill you in later with a report on a young man and woman from Hungary!  

     This week did seem pretty regular to the routine we follow each day. Routine daily life is just doing the things we are expected to do because it is right to do so and blessings come from following through and being faithful. We enjoy the spirituality of the moments that come no matter how great or small they are, and there are many. Being faithful and holding steady is just part of the test of earth life.  

This week a young man came by that is a convert of about a year. He doesn't work far from the center but is very busy in his work commitments and studies. Hence he said he was too busy of late to come to Family Home Evening or Institute, or Waffle night, or to even go to church. I couldn't help asking if he at least was still praying. He said, no, "no time". But I said, he should always be able to pray in his heart. He really is a good young man and does have a testimony, but we all know how neglect can diminish what you have. He only came by to say "Hi" to us for a few minutes, so I didn't really want to get on his case. But I felt like I needed to admonish him to pray and to read his scriptures. Well, lo and behold, he was at church today and I was so happy looking into his eyes and knowing he was still trying to be faithful. So, to all I would like to say, "be faithful in the little things and the big things will take care of themselves." I'm so thankful for the daily blessings of the gospel in our lives. 

LOVE and HUGS,

Grammy, Grampa, 

Mom, Dad, 

Elder and Sister Parker 

A Polyglot of Languages

Hi Guys!

Well, it's been an interesting week for languages.  Since our last zone training meeting, we've been attempting to follow the mission president's request to emphasize German between companions and at our district meetings, at least from 9 AM to 9 PM.  So we've been making an effort to do that with the result that we're picking up all kinds of new words we would have otherwise never had a need for: like Platzdeckchen=placemat or jaemmerlich=miserable.  It's also been good to pick up the Du language which is sort of the German version of thee and thou, primarily used by close friends or when speaking to children however more and more commonly used amongst the Austrians.  We have been asked to refrain by the mission leadership from using it with members of the church or our investigators but sometimes it raises a few eyebrows.  At any rate, as a married couple we're definitely expected to use it with each other so we're using a form of the language that we don't get very often.  

I mentioned last week that I had the opportunity to give a talk in the International Ward which was in English so I've been working this week to translate it all into German.  It took a while but I finally got it all finished yesterday.  I'll give it to one of the natives here and have them refine it for me. Many quotes which I took from a couple of conference talks, I initially translated on my own and then went to the German version in the Liahona to see how they translated it.  Some of the time I was pretty close but many times it was quite a bit better with the professional translations at hand.  At any rate, I'm now ready to go for a talk in German, assuming I can make sure they assign me a similar topic.

The institute class on Wednesday was 2 Nephi 17-24, all Isaiah and even though we get it in English I don't think it was any easier in German, Italian, Spanish or Hungarian.  But the manual was very helpful and we've decided that you're never too old to pick up a better understanding of what Isaiah was trying to say.  Did you all know that he's the most quoted Old Testament prophet in the New Testament, Book of Mormon, Doctrine and Covenants and the Dead Sea Scrolls!  As we got to chapter 19:6 I couldn't help myself and they got a full stanza from the Messiah "For unto us a child is born, unto us, a son is given...etc."  and even a little family history about our annual Messiah Sing-In's.

Most of the rest of the week was heavily into travel as we finished all of the apartment inspections in the far out cities of Wiener Neustadt and St. Poelton.  The latter city was an adventure because we don't know it very well but went shopping for a dryer as the last transfer, which occurred on Thursday, left 4 elders in that apartment and therefore they were eligible.  We got there early in the train station and then had to figure out which bus to take to get to their major shopping center.  There we bought the elders their dryer and made it back to their apartment for their inspection.  Then we hunted around for a place to eat lunch and at their request joined them in a joint teaching session at the church with a young lady who's had about 10 lessons but didn't seem to be making much progress.  She admitted she didn't have a belief in God, didn't pray and didn't see that it made much difference what religion one believed in.  We gave her a little Alma 32 about how to develop her faith and finally even a little Alma 13:27-29. about what might happen if she procrastinated too long.  I bore her a witness that the time would come in her life when she WOULD want to know these things and remember what we were teaching her now.  The elders thought it would be a make it or break it session and for now it seemed to be a break it event.  We'll see what the future holds for her.

Family home evening was quite good on Monday night with three "seasoned" investigators there and the spiritual thought was given by a sweet young sister only a member for about a year.  She talked about the importance of missionary work and was able to involve each of the investigators personally into the discussion.  I ended up irritating Grammy by speaking with one of them afterwards well into the evening,until about 10:00 pm..  We were giving a presentation in our district meeting on the creation (in German, remember!) the next day so we had a lot of scriptures in our memory and this one lady informed us that her group of Free Christians was predicting the end of the world on September 30 of this year.  I told her I wanted to have a good discussion with her on October 1 but in the meantime we were talking about what would happen to the earth at the time of the Second Coming.  We were able to review the pre-earth life and the earth's spiritual creation and she was fascinated to discover that the earth had even been baptized and was stilll awaiting it's baptism by fire.  I discovered a cool scripture which we didn't quote her in D&C 88:17-20 which I will leave you all to peruse at your leisure.

The district meeting went well with Sister Parker perfecting her German with excellence. Other than purchasing an electric oven which together with the dryer sets us back about 900 Euros (we eventually will get reimbursed by the mission) everything else led up to the weekend highlight. Our young sister Aigerim chose Elder Parker Eldredge to perform her baptism on Saturday and although she was planning on having the Bishop confirm her today, he continues to be too ill to attend the meetings and so she asked me instead. It was special to be able to participate in that fashion and so we again attended the International Ward today for her confirmation where I'd spoken last week. She was approached by many in the ward afterwards, including several who spoke to her in Russian as well as German, though for most the primary language is English.  Here's the photo of the attendees including the sisters, the elders and Elder and Sister Tew who serve in Graz, Austria but first introduced her to us back in June as she had lived with their cousin as a foreign exchange student back in Utah.  

We all went out for pizzas afterwards and it was definitely a high point for us.

      This indeed has been an interestingly full week for us. First with trying to speak German more often and then being asked to give a little discussion in German at our District Mtg. It went quite well but it is nice to know you can still use simple words to discuss important things. During the week as the Elders brought a young woman to teach at the Center, they also asked me to "Joint Teach" with them. I am still taken back when they ask me to do this, usually it is the sisters who ask for help. It turned out very well, as it was a young woman I had met a month or so before with the elders. Strangely enough, I had been thinking about her and wondering what had happened with her because she had been so receptive to the message. It was great to help because she had studied out the pamphlets and scriptures, (with highlights and questions,) the elders had given to her, but hadn't been able to get back together with them. It is great to feel the spirit in these moments.

    (Sister Parker) The most exciting thing this week, of course, was Aigerim's baptism on Saturday. The baptismal font was beautiful with inlaid mosaic tiles that created an upward light expression above the water. It was fun to help her dress and prepare for this moment. This baptism comes at the culmination of many months of waiting for the right time. The above picture doesn't show you all the sisters, elders, and ourselves who worked with her, taught her and had many gospel discussions with her over the months since we first met her in June. She has become like a granddaughter and a friend to us. Her baptism was very special to all of us and a sweet spiritual moment as she went down into the water and came up clean and pure. Likewise was the confirmation, and Grampa gave her a sweet, thoughtful blessing. These are moments to remember forever.

     Today as we talked about prayer in Relief Society I thought, "you are never too old to be reminded to take time to do things right." We discussed how we wouldn't lay on the bed or by the bed half asleep and talk to a friend, or the many other ways we sometimes don't think about Heavenly Father there beside us, listening. This week let's think about how we are praying and what we are saying. I know how much I love everyone of you. You mean the world to me. Heavenly Father loves you so much more.

LOVE AND HUGS

Grammy, Grampa, 

Mom, Dad, 

Elder and Sister Parker 

Inspectors General

Dearest Family,

              It looks like the final holiday for the season in Europe has passed, that of the Three Kings on January 6th.  Although a few are still hanging on, most of the Christmas trees and other holiday decorations have been removed.  We waited until the 8th to take down the Christmas tree in the Center because that was a little slower day for us. but we have noticed that the bright lights are still up down in the city center around St. Stephen's cathedral.  A few of the members tell us that many like to keep their trees around until the end of January, but then again, virtually no one puts them up any earlier than Christmas Eve.  Our little tree in our apartment was an exception, I guess.

   

It seems like there might have been a few misconceptions as to exactly how long the center was going to be closed as it was still a pretty slow week but we did get a few out for home evening on Monday.  Even though Tuesday was an official holiday, the elders got about three people out to a German class and the same for Thursday so we still think that some felt we wouldn't open until next week.  Our Zoroastrian Iranian family have been quite faithful for a few months but we've not seen hide nor hair from any of them since prior to Christmas.  Hopefully they'll reappear next week.

             Institute definitely restarted this week and although the class of usually 9 or 10 wasn't present, we still had our two faithful sisters who have never missed a week. We were also joined by a recently returned missionary who went to Birmingham, England on his mission. All three are native German speakers but have excellent English skills and want to read the Book of Mormon in the original, or as original as it gets unless someone knows reformed Egyptian!  So they all sat on one side of the table and the other side was equally interesting.  None of them were original English speakers either but their German is not as good as their English so they prefer the English class as well.  Our first is a cute young girl from Italy, next to her was a new young man from Madrid, Spain, and finishing up the group was a young man from Budapest, Hungary.  His English isn't a whole lot better than his German but he attends quite regularly and feels he gets more out of English than he would in either of the other two German classes.  Because we're delving into Isaiah currently, I'm not sure it's easy in English either, but we had copies of the Book of Mormon open in Italian, Spanish and Hungarian just to make sure that everyone was coming along.

            Transfers are coming up this Thursday and everyone already knows whether they're going or staying.  (We're staying!)  But one of our responsibilities is to inspect each of the apartments each transfer, allowances being given for the apartments that are really out in the sticks.  But because of the holidays, we really hadn't inspected anyone since back in November so felt we'd better get moving. We really expected that our numbers would drop considerably as about 30 going home are not being replaced in the next six weeks.  But we really only lost two elders in the apartments we're responsible for.  Four are still in one of those distant apartments we haven't been to in a while and we've always felt they deserved a dryer but waited to see if they'd reduce down to two.  They didn't so we have to find a local establishment that sells dryers and get one delivered.  Another apartment that has been vacant until the last transfer has now been rehabilitated from a sorry state and is once again quite livable.  But it desperately needs a new oven.  Right now it has a gas oven that's quite dangerous to light and a replacement runs around 600 Euros.  A newer electrical apparatus only costs about 250 to 300 Euros and so we'd like to replace the gas with the electric.  The trick is to get an electrician in to see if he can provide a socket where we need one, and then another company to seal off the gas supply when we pull out the old oven.  It's one thing to preach the Gospel in German but it's quite another to talk plumbing and electricity!  Well, we've got a good brother from the Stake to help us out where needed.  In fact, he just got put on the high council and has been assigned to the International Ward because his English is pretty good.  Elder Parker had the assignment to give his first talk in Sacrament meeting today in that ward, how nice that it could be in English.  The new high councilor was there so it gave us a good opportunity to map out the phone calls necessary this week to see about all these changes.  We got four of our assigned apartments done in the last couple of days, one is our own which is easy to report on, but we've still got four to go. So we'll get one tomorrow, two on Wednesday and then the final one perhaps on transfer day, Thursday.  That's the one that needs a new dryer so we'll see if we can pull it all together.

                The talk seemed to go pretty well and the theme was on Hope through the Atonement.  I was the last speaker and not sure how long I'd end up having to speak but it worked out pretty well with about 15-20 minutes to go and the talk timed out at about 16-17.  A little ad-libbing and it seemed to be well received.

Not a lot of photos this week so here's an old one showing one of our now-departed sisters, Sister Jencks with our oft-referred to young lady from Kazahkstan, Aigerim.  Aigerim has been interviewed this week and is now scheduled to be baptized this coming Saturday!  Still up in the air a bit about who's going to perform the ordinance but Elder Parker is on the short list. 

    (Sister Parker) January always seems like the time to evaluate things and to recommit to being more diligent in our endeavors,and to looking back over all our blessings. It certainly has been a blessing to serve as missionaries here in Vienna and it has also been a blessing of hard work in so many different ways. Sometimes it is amazing to see what the Lord knows you can do and so He puts you in situations where you have to use the abilities and talents He has already helped you gain. I see this over and over again as we work with the young adults, missionaries and investigators. I am truly thankful for 4 o'clock each afternoon when the young women, or men, missionaries, or friends of the church come just to talk, or have gospel questions or want to help in the kitchen. They help me with German or I help them with English. It so reminds me of being home in my own kitchen with, children, their friends, and with grandchildren. I am thankful for kitchens; warm roomy, kitchens. One young woman told me, "it just feels so good be here, and to talk with you. The whole building feels good." That is what we always hope for and one of the reasons we are serving at the Center. 

Last week at Testimony meeting a brother expressed his thankfulness for garments and their feeling of protection and commitment to his covenants. I hadn't really thought of it but I felt the same way.  Right now I am very thankful for thermal garments. They are such comfort to me.  What a great protection for our day in this evil world. I am also thankful for the privilege of growing up in the gospel and having had parents and grandparents who taught me the gospel by word and example. It is so hard to learn about the Lord's prophets and His Bible teachings when you have been taught incorrectly or have no knowledge of these things at all. It is also a blessing to share this religious and spiritual knowledge and to watch others grow in theirs. God blesses all people with the ability to grow and survive in their circumstances and to be able to recognize the truth when it is presented to them, if they choose to do so. We have seen some of these young people recognize the message the missionaries bring of truth and embrace it.

    I want to share my testimony with my family, especially my grandchildren, that I know that Heavenly Father and Jesus live and love us very much. They want us to be happy here and to return to live with them in Heaven. There isn't any more important message to share. Take time to share your testimonies with each other. I loved hearing about the testimony sharing of Matt and Heidi's children. I'm sure you all do but do it again to start the New Year and to hear the sweetness of your children.

LOVE AND HUGS 

Grammy, Grampa, 

Mom, Dad, 

Elder and Sister Parker

The Twelve Days of Christmas

​Dear Family,

This letter is the first to be written on the new computer received as a wonderful Christmas present a week ago as we returned to Vienna.  It's working pretty well although we're still working on how to get our I tunes copied on a Windows 8 computer to play on a Windows 7.  If any of you have clues, let us know.

As the week has gone, it's been pretty slow with lots of time to get caught up on things in the apartment.  Although it had snowed in Vienna while we were gone, it came down good and hard on Saturday night as seen in this view into our back yard. and out our front window. 

 ​I guess we get used to all the salt that is thrown around on the Utah roads but here the custom is to scatter the sidewalks with gravel!  It's definitely effective at stopping the slipping and sliding but long after the snow is gone, it's still pretty hard on the shoes.  

Because we were up so late checking in with everyone at the Messiah Sing-In we decided to attend the one ward here in Vienna that starts in the afternoon and that is the 4th (International) Ward.  It was a great end of the year as we covered the prophecies in the Old Testament regarding the Second Coming and while we were there, a member of the Bishopric asked Elder Parker if he'd speak on the 11th.  So it's the first talk in Sacrament Meeting we've been asked to give and I guess it's nice that it's in English.  We'll have to translate it into German and keep it in reserve for the next request that comes along.

The rest of Sunday was pleasant and gave us a chance to get caught up on any missed sleep.  We weren't sure what was going to go on in the Center during the week of New Years but showed up for a possible Home Evening on Monday, though no one had been assigned a spiritual thought.  As it turned out we had only one attendee, our young lady from Kazakhstan but it was a nice evening as she's now ready to be baptized after a quick holiday trip to Prague over the New Year's holiday. She's scheduled to be interviewed by the Zone Leaders as soon as she gets back and then the baptism will be planned.  The sisters had met with her earlier in the day and we simply took the opportunity to once again go over the baptismal commitment questions which she seemed to clearly understand. There was some evidence that the missionaries might possibly have appeared for a Christmas party we were unaware of as there were some cleaned dishes near the sink. Tuesday there were a couple who showed up for language classes but it was a short night overall.

New Year's Eve we pretty much stayed home other than a quick trip down to St. Stephen's cathedral in the city center to see the last of all the city lights, mingle in the crowds and get dinner at Sister Parker's favorite restaurant, but did go out at midnight to watch the fireworks which were going on all over the city, apparently being set off on the tops of a whole host of apartment buildings. 

New Year's Day we spent starting to take down all the Christmas decorations and went to dinner at a local Chinese restaurant that we frequently visit.  Friday was a quick shopping trip to stock up on groceries and we went to the Center to see if anyone would show up for Waffle Night.  There we found that the Elders had come by on Thursday for possible language classes as the chairs were still set up but apparently had no takers for the holiday.  We ended up with 4 elders and a member young man from Hungary as well as two invited investigators the elders had met earlier.  Both were students, one in computer science, the other in biophysics and what was fascinating in this small world of ours, was that both were from Ukraine, had spent several weeks in Kharkov and one had even been to church there although didn't remember Ruslana's mother.  It may have been at a time when they were in Poland.  At any rate, we did have a nice discussion with our waffle snacks.  Which pretty much brings us to the 10th of the 12 days of Christmas. 

We did have the opportunity to review the 12 Days of Christmas on You Tube as it was sung by the Tab Choir when the Kings Singers were visiting and it was fun again to see all of the family members represented in the choir just like in the good old days. Tomorrow we're going to attend the only ward we've never been to on Fast Day despite having visited it a half dozen other times so maybe that will give us one more opportunity to bear witness of the importance of the work in which we're engaged.  Then it's off to the races for the rest of 2015! 

We'll close with two of our favorite pictures. The first is of two cute figures who repeatedly part and then come together with a big smooching sound as they kiss on the streets of Seiffen, and the other was of a gorgeous sunrise that  morning on our drive there.

  (Sister Parker) It's hard to believe that the Holidays have come to an end and a new year has begun. We would like to thank everyone for their thoughtful cards, gifts and conversations. It is a joy to stay in touch and it keeps us from feeling too homesick at this time of year. I am enjoying my Fairy tale books in German. It is a fun way to get in my language practice. I am reading the Snow Queen from Hans Christian Andersen, so far it doesn't sound much like the movie "Frozen.'' However, it is made up of 7 smaller stories and one of the later ones just might fit. 

We are looking forward to a great new year and pray that yours will be full of blessings too. As a mission we are all reading the Book of Mormon with daily assignments so that we will finish it together by July 1st. It is a good time to recommitt to daily reading of the scriptures. I hope that all of the grandchildren, even the little ones are getting their daily scriptures to keep away the fiery darts of Satan. ( Remember "a little child shall lead them." 2Ne. 21:6)

   LOVE & HUGS,  A BRIGHT HAPPY  NEW YEAR!  

Grammy, Grampa, 

Mom, Dad, 

Elder and Sister Parker