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
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