Salzburg Senior Conference

To Our Dear and Beloved Family,

It seems like this past week has really flown but actually it rained as we embarked on Wednesday for our second Senior Conference since we've been here.  Our first was held in Munich and coincided with Andy and Ruslana's visit along with David and Alex.  At that time we had a chance to see a bit of Salzburg with them after the conference as well as the lovely little village of Hallstatt.  So this time the conference was actually held in Salzburg giving us another opportunity to see things we hadn't seen with them six months ago.  Hallstatt was a place made famous by a great salt mine and believe it or not that was how Salzburg got its name as well, Salz Burg meaning a city of salt.  If they had a decent lake of salt around anywhere we might have had to come up with a unique name instead of Salt Lake City!

  

So we decided, even though we'd done it before, to try out the more famous salt mine.  It was similar, in some ways perhaps a little better, and there was even a spot in the mine where they pointed out that we had left Austria and gone into Germany but fortunately we returned without having to show our visas!  Once again we had to change into miner's clothing, actual suits over what we were wearing so we could slide down the slipperies as they came up a couple of times. This time we could ride as a couple but weren't quite as fast as when Mom did it by herself. This all took place on the day prior to the start of the conference as we had come early to enjoy a Mozart conference that evening which was wonderful.

The conference didn't start on Thursday until about 4 PM which gave us time to travel to a place called Chiemsee with several of the couples to see another of the famous castles built by "Mad King Ludwig" who actually built three different very ornate castles including the Neuschwanstein Castle copied by Disney for his Sleeping Beauty and Cinderella castles.  So Ludwig was completely taken by King Louis the Fourteenth in France (remember you Allen Sherman lovers that he wasn't as bad as Louis the Sixteenth!) but he had built the palace at Versailles which Ludwig wanted to copy.  As it turned out, all of his castles were so ornate and fabulous that he didn't have the money to finish them and he was presumptively finally done in by his upset dukes who decided they didn't want to keep paying for them.  But we had to admit that his castle (called Herrenchiemsee) really outdid the original at Versailles where the Treaty ending World War I was signed. Elder Parker had the opportunity of visiting the original in 1967 as seen here:

and here is King Ludwig's copy:

​Lots more pictures to see when we get home around Thanksgiving time! 

So the conference itself was really wonderful with President and Sister Kohler giving the keynote addresses and talking about the consecration that is so evident in the lives of our wonderful associates.  The Spirit is always strong and it concluded with a two hour testimony at which everyone was able to speak though the last ten were only granted 30 seconds and the previous 5 couples given two minutes.  Naturally everyone ran over but it was wonderful to hear the unique comments and experiences of close to 50 of us.

This being about our sixth visit there, we finally had the opportunity to get up to the Salzburg Fortress which dominates the city skyline:

(see if you can figure out how I got on top of the gold ball!) as well as visit Mozart's birthplace and the home he lived in before he finally recognized that Salzburg couldn't adequately support his musical genius and he moved to Vienna.  It took us a crucial 20 minutes to find our bus stop to get back to the train station which means we missed our planned time and had to wait an hour for the next train.  That got us in at 9:30 instead of 8:30 which wouldn't have been too bad but it was the time when Europe changes to daylight savings time so we lost another hour that night and ended up with about six hours of sleep.  But we had the chance to get a nap on Sunday afternoon so now it's full speed ahead for Easter and General Conference coming up.  

We saw this cute little display at the mall associated with the train station in Vienna: Everything really shuts down as far as school and many businesses for the Easter vacation, just like it was at Christmas and we've been told to close the center for this coming week though we're still planning on doing our language classes so we'll see how our time pans out. 

    It was a wonderful few days of Senior Conference and getting to know some of the other couples better. They just come from all types of different backgrounds and life experiences. Some speak German and some don't. But they all feel and recognize sooner or later that they have come for a certain purpose or person, or maybe persons. It's a great bonding experience to serve with people who have all devoted their lives to the Lord and want to help the missionaries and the investigators be successful. Pres. Kohler said we should sing the song about "Scripture Power" and change it to "Senior Power".  Senior couple missionaries really do add great spiritual strength and experience to any mission. There just are not enough to go around, we could use more. Our mission is so big that senior missionaries are needed to keep things running smoothly in all the corners. "Slow is smooth and smooth is fast" A frequent quote to the missionaries from Pres. Kohler. Well, it sort of fits senior missionaries.

  During the conference we had various topics or areas of discussion: "What you wish you had known, How to increase YSA attendance with church "Rescue" videos, etc, and how to work more successfully with your priesthood leaders. It made me wonder how well our local leaders work with the missionaries. Maybe its not even the same system but we as members could certainly give more time to helping the missionaries with investigator meetings and supporting the investigators in church activities. I'm always wondering who is looking out for our new converts from our local members. What impressed me most, though, was Sister Kohler's talk on "consecration". She was talking about how much Pres. Kohler has consecrated his time and energy to the success of the mission, as have the senior missionaries. Then in relationship to the United Order, she asked us to think about what have we put into the Bishops Store House. So I ask, what have each one of us, personally, put into the storehouse.  We have promised to consecrate all that we have and all that we are in our temple covenants. Maybe we can think, not of the material things that are needed but about what we have given of the spiritual and personal part of ourselves. Just something to think about. The Lord loves us so much that He just keeps blessing us for every effort we make at serving Him. 

   We think of you often and love you all so much.      

Spring is raining in!! 

Grammy, Grampa, 

Mom, Dad, 

Elder and Sister Parker

Spring is Finally Here!

Hi Everyone,

Winter seems to have finally departed and Spring is definitely in the air.  We haven't had any really super warm days yet but the temperatures are frequently getting into the 50's and Elder Parker has gone out several times without an overcoat though he's still usually wearing at least a sweater.  Sister Parker is not that convinced yet and is still hanging on to her coat as we march around the streets but we definitely see some crocuses, pansies and the like springing up here and there.  Just as Fall didn't really demonstrate any fabulous colors as the summer ended, so the trees weren't really showing any buds yet but as we opened the window into our back Hof, suddenly there they were with lovely yellow forsythias, apparently previously hiding in the shadows!

Vienna seems to be gearing up for Easter just like they did for Christmas, though without all of the street markets everywhere.  The grocery stores are full of dyed Easter eggs, already hard boiled and colored in all kinds of fancy designs.  We were down in Wiener Neustadt on Wednesday to inspect two of the elders' apartments there and noticed them hanging huge colored egg-like lanterns in the trees on the plaza where two of the elders live. Coming up a week from last Friday is the beginning of Easter vacation which will go on for 11 days.  We're told that everything pretty much shuts down with school out and we've been told we might as well close the center for the full Monday-Friday at least, so we're considering our options for maybe doing a little traveling again.  We think this time we can stay within the mission with so many places we haven't ever seen. Our boundaries are so huge that we could go into eastern Austria, southern Germany and even Switzerland with just the president's OK and not have to get special permission from the area office in Frankfurt.

Speaking of Frankfurt, we had a very pleasant interview on Facetime this past week with the YSA supervisors in the area office, Brother and Sister Anderson. They put in their papers like everyone else does and were called to supervise the Young Singles work throughout the European Area.  It was very uplifting talking to them and they gave us several things to help the work including a bunch of videos on how YSA's can assist less actives, investigators and newly baptized members which all originated from Elder Ballard when he was here in Europe last Fall.

We are continuing to have large numbers of internationals coming to our language classes this past week.  We have 5 now from Poland including the man and wife who take an hour of German class, get a little break and then take another hour of English class.  Elder Parker is continuing to see more and more success with the young lady from Hungary.  With his encouragement, we finally got her husband to the center Friday evening when he finished with his work.  He has fairly long hours but we assured them we would still be there late that night.  About a quarter to nine, in he walked after his wife and I had earlier spent an hour reviewing what we'd learned teaching her German.  He worked as a Catholic Church organist for many years and although they are Hungarian citizens, he spent most of his youth in Germany and speaks excellent German.  But their piano is still back in Budapest until they can arrange to have it shipped to their apartment in Vienna so we encouraged her to let him know that we would really love to have him come try out our piano in the interim.  Our two new "golden" missionaries both have some good piano skills but both had to leave by 8:30 in order to be back in their apartments by 9:00.  So we had one member from Italy who was there with five or six of her friends when he walked in. Sister Parker was still cleaning up from Waffle Night but joined us a bit later as he began to play some of his favorite pieces.  He did a couple of wonderfully nice jazz pieces and when I asked him if he knew anything classical he performed from memory "Ave Maria" along with some other memorable pieces whose names I couldn't remember. We showed him the church hymn book and suggested he try playing "Gently Raise the Sacred Strain."  He initially played just the melody, then added the accompaniment and even finished with a little bit of wonderful homemade embellishment.

As it was getting later, we went out to our computer and tuned in on one of the episodes of "Music and the Spoken Word" which always starts with some beautiful scenery from southern Utah while Gently Raise is playing.  We fast forwarded to Clay Christenson playing the organ, a piece where I could spot Laurel and Jessica singing along with Bro. Smith, three of whose babies I have delivered, and finished up with Richard Elliott's "Hot Pipes" on the Conference Center organ.  We had a delightful time, I think he realizes we appreciate his musical talents and they already have a Book of Mormon at home along with the pamphlet on the restoration.  We'll see where it all goes but so far so good.

This weekend we have Stake Conference with an opportunity to connect with people from all over western Austria and next Wednesday we leave for Salzburg for the Senior Conference which runs from Wednesday until Saturday.  The Saturday night session was quite memorable with the visiting authority being Elder Leiman of the 70.  He is the second counselor in the area presidency and gave a wonderful talk.  A native German he was converted to the church while living in Colorado.  It's quite interesting that both he and Elder Kaeron who talked to us back in January while we were in Munich are both converts to the church and very dynamic ones at that.  We really felt the gift of tongues.  Early on in this mission we were lucky to pick up 25-30% of what was being said but last night it seemed like we were close to 95%.  The best scripture pair quoted by Elder Leiman were Moses 1:39 and D&C 11:20.

​    This morning we had a wonderful session of Stake Conference held at the Austria Center pictured above. It began with a choir of our young adults. Some said, they sounded like angels, especially as they sang "Lilies of the Field" and certainly setting a beautiful spirit for the conference. Pictured are some of the young people we work a lot with. The stake president is in the blue suit on the left and Elder Leiman is just going off the picture to his right. We ended up sitting with our latest convert, Nicole, legitimately the very newest member in the stake. I was pleased to help her a bit with the scriptures. All of the speakers were excellant, Our mission president's wife gave her testimony and some thoughts totally in German and did a great job. I'm sure she impressed the Austrians, that she is really trying to learn and speak German. The missionaries were quite impressed.

    Most of the talks centered around the goals set for the European Area, printed on a little card:  FRIEND   SELF RELIANCE   ANCESTORS. It means: help a friend convert to the church, learn to be self-sustaining and support your family and research your family history, starting with the little booklet "My Family" with pictures and helping to bring your family together. I wonder if the same things are being emphasized in the states? A lot of emphasis was given to bringing your family together with prayer, scripture study and attending church together. I was impressed with the emphasis on working together to help one another feel the Saviors love and change our lives to be more like His. Elder Leiman reminded us of the promised blessing to us and our families while we do Family History together and take names to the temple. Elder Bednar's promise is: "As you respond in faith to this invitation, your hearts shall turn to the fathers.  The promises made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob will be implanted in your hearts.  Your patriarchal blessing, with its declaration of lineage, will link you to these fathers and be more meaningful to you.  Your love and gratitude for your ancestors will increase.  Your testimony of and conversion to the Savior will become deep and abiding. And I promise you will be protected against the intensifying influence of the adversary.  As you participate in and love this holy work, you will be safeguarded in your youth and throughout your lives."

    I couldn't help but think of our wonderful family, of the strength and love we have together to help each other with life's problems. We are pleased with the way you have all kept in touch with each other and family needs. Let us all continue to pray for one another and be sensitive to each others concerns. It is love, especially the Saviors love that changes the world. One of our young adult sisters told me at conference today that even before we could communicate when we first came that she could feel the love that we shared with her. We all need to feel that love and we hope you can even from way over here.

   

 LOVE AND HUGS

,     

Grammy, Grampa, 

Mom, Dad, 

Elder and Sister Parker

Bull's Eye Barbeque Sauce

Hello Everyone!

Well, we have just finished the great event of the mission.  One of the investigators who was frequently taught at the YSA Center (and who, by the way, spoke very heavy Austrian which is a somewhat remote form of German that made her frequently difficult to understand) was just baptized yesterday!  She took a shine to Sister Parker  during her teaching process and requested that she be one of the speakers at her baptism.  So getting her courage together she put together an awesome talk on the Holy Ghost which took about 10 minutes by the time she got all of her scriptures together plus her testimony at the end.  So she's the first one of us to deliver a bona fide talk in the German language.  Elder Parker gave a talk several weeks ago but it was to the International Ward and was in English.  So although he's worked to translate it into German, there have been no other requests since that time.  Everyone raved at how well she did.  She wrote it all herself and did get a few helps from one of the young men who comes by frequently to put it in a little more of a normal German syntax but it really was tremendous.  She bore her testimony at the end which was totally spontaneous and the Spirit she was talking about was strong and present.

Here are the two of them just prior to the event..  She was confirmed today by the Bishop and the Ward Mission Leader.  He had some family obligations yesterday so the meeting was conducted by one of his counselors.  She bore her testimony at the end of the meeting which really impressed everyone with the counselor commenting how rare it was for anyone to do that.  We were a little surprised to hear that because it's happened at 3 of the 4 baptisms we've attended so far, the other two being the brethren from Pakistan and Rumania.  We found it especially interesting because in those 4 baptisms, this was the first of a native Austrian.  Her name is Nicole and she loves to study the scriptures and has become very fond of the Book of Mormon.

In other news this week we had a great presentation on the importance of free agency at Home Evening and had three young women from Great Britain, two of them from Wales where our nephew Jacob Kmetzsch is serving, who were in town for a week and wanted to come to Institute on Wednesday night.  For our language courses on Tuesday and Thursday we set new records with 3 people walking in from Poland to learn German, 2 from France who also wanted to learn German and were so impressed that they stayed another hour to see how a lesson in English would go!  For the Thursday classes we actually set a new record with a total of 16 investigators there in 4 different classes.  One fellow started out learning German but just became very curious about why the missionaries were there and ended up asking enough questions that it turned into a full gospel discussion.

  

The same thing essentially happened with a young woman from Hungary that Elder Parker has been teaching for a few months.  Our Hungarian member couldn't make it so we decided it might be a good idea to learn how to pray in German.  We spent some time going over the principles of prayer and in the process she got the whole lesson on the Great Apostasy, Joseph Smith's first vision and the coming forth of the Book of Mormon.  It's always fun when we get involved in teaching the gospel.  By the time we got through all of that we decided we'd go ahead with a closing prayer instead of the opening prayer which she did say in German!

So by now I'm sure you're all curious about the title of this week's letter.  When we first moved into our apartment, now 9 1/2 months ago, we noted that there were numerous supplies in the pantry that had probably been purchased by some of our predecessors but not necessarily used by our immediate predecessors.  Hence there were about three or four bottles of seasoning salt that looked like they might have been here since the turn of the century.  One of those is now gone and we're working on the second.  There are about three bottles of Karo Corn Syrup which I haven't been able to convince Sister Parker to use because it's naturally high fructose corn syrup which just barely escaped being banned in the Word of Wisdom.  There was, however, a bottle of Hunt's barbecue sauce from the States, clearly labelled as recommending it be used by August 2012.  It smelled and tasted fine and has now been fully consumed!  Right behind it with a little more caution was the above mentioned Bull's Eye BBQ sauce, the bottle recommending it be used by August of 2007.  After some cautious taste testing it also seemed to pass muster and has this week joined it's mate in the garbage as an empty bottle, fully consumed. There are now several bottles of imitation maple syrup flavoring designed to be used with "corn syrup" but I haven't been able to convince Sister Parker yet that it would be wonderful on our Friday night waffles.  So we're now working on the last two bottles of seasoning salt which are really tasty on eggs for breakfast in the morning and I'm also working on a small bottle of "Grill Sauce" produced here in Austria but which says it should have been used by June 4, 2011. Oh well, I think we shall rely on Mark 16:18 or D&C 84:71 even though those scriptures aren't really applicable to someone stupid enough to administer harmful things to himself.  If anyone can convince Sister Parker that high fructose corn syrup isn't really all that bad then we're really in for some goodies coming up soon.

   Wow, I don't think I can add much more to what Elder Parker has already written. Except to say what a great privilege it is to be able to play some small part in the conversion process of these beautiful young people as they gain testimonies of the gospel of Jesus Christ, are baptized, confirmed, and receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. I don't think I have ever felt the spirit so strongly as I have with these converts as the words have been spoken, "receive the Holy Ghost." It's as though the spirit literally comes upon them and at the same time bears witness to me it is so. I am so grateful for these blessings of being on a mission, working at the Center, and touching others lives as they touch ours. A mission isn't easy but it is so worth it to feel the Lords hand directing your life. The Lord truly is preparing people to receive the gospel. We just need to help find them.

    

Loving you so much, missing you all, 

feeling your prayers for us, and sending ours to you, 

Grammy, Grampa, Mom, Dad, Elder and Sister Parker

A Family Around the World

To Our Beloved Worldwide Family!

We've had another good week but the real news this week was to see all the news from you guys from literally all over the world.  We had a good report from Jeremy in Escondido, California; Emily and Trish from St. George, Utah; Jacob Kmetzsch in Wales; Rachel Worthington in Opelousas, Louisiana; James and Mindy in Maui, Hawaii; and of course from Aaron in far away India (actually pretty close to us but far away from most of you guys).  And we always also pray for grandniece Allison Antzchak in Poland and Ruslana's mother, Lydia in Ukraine.  We've seen some interesting reports on the immense size of our universe which sometimes make our earth seen a little small and I guess we're beginning to believe it as we comprehend just how far spread out the family has become and yet we can follow daily reports (with pictures!) of all of your activities.  We thought it was pretty neat to be talking with people from Iran and Hungary each week, this week actually including 4 guys from Afghanistan and one young man from Chile, but our family influence goes way beyond such things.

As for our personal activities, pretty much the same types of things we've always reported on.  They had a big Young Adult Conference in Linz this past weekend, which is part of the Salzburg Stake but it decreased considerably our attendance for Waffle Night.  Still one of our Italian sisters brought three friends from her country who really enjoyed a rousing game of Spot It while Sister Parker and I gave a good introduction to our Hungarian member in Rummikub.  Although there were only 12 of us in total, we had 4 investigators and 2 YSA's so the odds were pretty good.

And the work seems to be having it's good results.  One of our recently returned sister missionaries gave the report for a Visitor's Evening that we had last Sunday and she's now engaged to be married this summer, a young man we've always liked told us today when we visited his ward in Wiener Neustadt that he was engaged and will be married this fall and one of the students in our English Book of Mormon class is engaged to a young man living in Innsbruck.

While in Wiener Neustadt today we were invited to attend the ward mission council conducted by the Ward Mission Leader with a very active counsel consisting of the 4 full time missionaries in the ward plus 3 of the ward missionaries.  They listed the 8 or 9 active investigators they're teaching and went over how best to help each one progress in their knowledge of the gospel and develop their testimonies of it's truthfulness.  By the end of the day, Elder Parker had given 3 prayers, Sister Parker 1 plus a spiritual thought and we were invited for dinner to the Bishop's house with one of the sets of elders.  Everyone is always impressed at how well Sister Parker speaks German and even though she doesn't think it's that great, compared to her peers she's eons ahead of them.

We've now had the opportunity to meet all of the "Goldens" in the zone since the last transfer. They include a home grown Provo young man who's a real ace on the piano, a recent convert sister who's says she's from San Antonio but who's really from Comfort, Texas and who by the way is also a real ace on the piano, and a young man from Memphis, Tennessee who's working with a companion from Kentucky.  It's fun to see them gamely speaking German and remember where we were just 9 months ago. Our Kentuckian senior companion wants to be a linguist someday and speaks probably the best German we've heard from any of the missionaries so far. Thus our Golden will have a great advantage to learn the language for the next transfer or so. Very adequate compensation for not being a real ace on the piano!

(Sister Parker)  I am always grateful for the opportunities I have to speak German, especially when I look back on the experience. But sometimes I really enjoy conversing with the adult sisters who don't really mind when I make mistakes. The Lord seems to know when I need practical experience in speaking and just sends people by the center or has me do something at church. That way I don't have to get all anxious about it. We had excellent meetings today with teachers and speakers that spoke High German. I was told by a member today that it  is just another language of its own, which I just happened to have learned on my mission in Hanover. It is apparently the center of such language, but it is certainly easier to understand.

   The topic of today's sacrament meeting was "Doing Good".They referred to a story given in a conference talk, where the father would ask his children each day at dinner, "What good had they done during that day." Then the "rest song" was "Have I done any Good in the World Today." All of this reminded me of my mother as she would sing this song to my siblings and I when we became agitated with each other. Hearing that song brought up a tender memory of her, always demonstrating goodness to everyone and trying to teach us to behave in the same way. Grandma Marcroft was a woman without guile, she always had love and kindness to share no matter who you were. It was a sweet moment for me in church today. And it is an awesome question for each of us to ask ourselves. "What good have I done today?  How have I shared the Saviors love?"

We send our Love  and Prayers to you all, 

Grammy, Grampa, 

Mom, Dad, 

Elder and Sister Parker

Mission Stalwarts Depart

 Dear Beloved Family,

It seems like these weekly reports keep getting closer and closer. I don't know that we're any busier than we ever have been but the time is really flying.  As we looked at where we are, our mission is already more than half over with just 8 months and 11 days left to go!  I guess we could just squeeze a slightly short gestation into that time frame:)

We're following many of your activities as we hear about them.  Jeremy will be finishing up his mission in a little more than a quarter and is planning on getting into BYU Idaho  if all goes well with Ian likely getting ready to replace him in the mission field. Ian has, however, been accepted both at BYU and BYU-I. Sean has been ordained a teacher with Dominick coming up in a couple of weeks. Myles and Kyle are both driving and dating! Mikey is coming off a heavy jump rope competition after wowing the world on the difference between lemon and grapefruit juice batteries. Mindy and James and family are making a big change in moving into a new home all of which takes place just as they are departing for a fun birthday celebration trip to Hawaii. Andrew made several heroic attempts to save my cell phone but it has apparently died it's final death after being rescued once last Fall while they were here.  Aaron is in India of all places for another week yet as this is written but at least he's a little closer to our time zone while James and Mindy are the farthest away. I figure it must be about 12 hours which puts them completely on the other side of the world. Caleb's getting ready for some major dental work this next week while Rachel's been showing us how much her kids look like him!  We're anticipating Benj's trip to come see us in May with Mindy and Brenda as he settles into his new apartment and ward.  Brian's on a fast track now to becoming a cop and Noah was the inadvertant star of a cute Valentine's Day video!  We don't hear very much from Adam and Mako but are convinced they're still alive.

I guess the big event of the week for us was transfers last Thursday.  We said goodbye to Elder Eldredge who's now back ​in Pleasant Grove and has been here as our District Leader or in Vienna for as long as we have, and Elder Abbott who was our Zone Leader and who's now back in Orem where his father was made Bishop of their ward just a couple of months ago.

That's Elder Eldredge on the right.

​I don't know if we've ever shown you how the missionaries chase after the train as it pulls out of the station but here's a portion of the chase in blazing color!​

​We attended the International Ward last week where Elder Eldredge was speaking to get a glimpse of his forthcoming homecoming report. One of the sisters was also transferred so we became companions to Sister Angeloudis from Australia, one of our Sister Training Leaders, for about 10 hours until her new companion came in that evening.  She's fresh out of the MTC and a convert to the church of about 3 years from San Antonio.  We celebrated the anniversary of "Remember the Alamo" and she was honored by saying the prayer at Waffle Night on Friday in excellent German.  We have two other "Goldens" in the zone after this transfer that we're excited to get to know better as well.

Just finished studying the attributes of Christ in Preach My Gospel, one of which is the principle of patience.  Found out that many of the scriptures on patience coincide with those on faith.  Slowly but surely the investigators we're working with are making progress.  For a few months now we've occasionally entertained a trio of young men who first approached us trying to sell magazines.  It's a common ploy for people trying to raise a little extra money but often times it's done illegally because they really don't have a license to sell things. They spoke very minimal German and we found they come from Rumania which many Austrians regard as the home of the gypsies. We told them we neither buy nor sell anything at our center and they can't either but they noticed our pool table and asked if they could play.  We decided it wouldn't hurt anything and after establishing a few rules such as not allowing smoking anywhere in the building including the restrooms, they stop by once or twice a week to play.  We have really been unable to communicate much with them at all but one of the elders told us they have a copy of the Book of Mormon in Rumanian.  So this past week we gifted the one who serves as their spokesman with a much abbreviated version of the Book of Mormon in their language and I think our next move will be to require that we read a few verses each time they come in as the price for being allowed to play.  We'll see if they go along with it!

The other fun progress being made is with our two Hungarians who are learning German.  The one who is a member, presented the other with copies of the Book of Mormon in both Hungarian and German and we're slowly getting commitments from her to do a little reading. This past week as she was leaving she mentioned that her husband loves to play the piano and has even played the organ in church but hasn't had the opportunity at all since they've been living in Vienna.  She noticed we have a piano as she told us this.  I told her we would love to have him come and play and this may be our first opportunity to get both of them into the center.  Apparently his German is a lot better than hers and our goal may be to see if we can recruit him as our pianist for Family Home Evening!  We'll see.  She has prayed with us a few times but only in either Hungarian or English and we'll start working on her praying a little in simple German.  We start where we are and go forward with patience a little step at a time.

    The big thing this week, as Elder Parker said, was the Transfers and spending the day with sister Angeloudis. Its always fun for me to have another women around. But it is also sad to see our sweet elders go home. There are just so many comings and goings on a mission and you take everyone into your heart so departures are a bit tender. There will be lots of missionaries to meet again at home in Utah or those who come to BYU.  And there are other places in the states and world we have been invited to visit. I really might try Australia, and Saudi Arabia.

     I still enjoy the time I spend with the other adult sisters helping out on Institute night. This week Eva taught me a new phrase that one of the young singles said would really impress people if I were to use it in a conversation. "Leichen im Keller." Which means, there is a cadaver or body in the basement, equivalent to saying "someone has skeltetons in the closet." Great to pass on. On the other hand one of our young single sisters has an article in the March Liahona about her missionary experience. I was impressed by the scripture she used, so I will pass it on as one we should all remember.

2 Nephi 1:15 ...I have beheld his glory, and I am encircled about eternally in the arms of his love." We continually feel His tender mercies on our behalf. Let us never forget we are encircled in the arms of His love.

    Lots and lots of love from
Grammy, Grampa,
Mom, Dad,
Elder and Sister Parker