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
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