BYU Returns!

To Our Dear Family,

Well here we sit on a quiet Sunday night, listening to the Orchestra on Temple Square play their concert entitled "A Night in Vienna."  We don't know how long ago it was performed, probably at least a couple of years ago.  I think we had actually seen it once but this was the first time we noticed it on the church website.  Anyway, it's a great background to letter writing and Igor Gruppman is trying hard to keep up with the Vienna Philharmonic that we heard last week.

It was our understanding that a group from BYU was supposed to arrive in town last Wednesday but we had heard nothing from them, even at our Institute Council meeting which was Thursday morning.  We'd been up at the crack of dawn that day to get to the train station by 6:30 to say goodbye to the 4 elders leaving the Vienna Zone and then had to hightail it to the council meeting by 7:30.  That went until 9:15 AM and then it was time to hustle up to one of the apartments that needs a new floor and meet a tradesman who was going to give us a second bid on the job at 10:00.  By the time he was done we'd spent a good morning already and it was time to get some lunch and get ready for our language lessons in the afternoon.  Still no news of anyone showing up from BYU and we hoped we might see someone on Friday night at Waffle Night but still no luck.  There was a good showing of missionaries including most of the newies who came in Thursday afternoon after the oldies had left but other than 3 YSA's and one "professional" investigator, that was it.

This weekend was featuring a Sports Outing at one of the wards way out to the west in a city called Graz that we've never been to and that no doubt explained the small number of attendees but it turned out to rain all day on Saturday. That being our P day we thought about making the trek out there but elected not to and spent the day deep cleaning the apartment in preparation for the arrival in a few days of Brenda, Mindy and Benj.

      So with no enthusiasm to go any walks of Vienna this weekend we decided we'd at least go out for dinner. In our travels the last few weeks we had noticed hidden away on a remote busy intersection that we almost never get to, lo and behold! a TGI Friday's. Elder Parker was pretty sure he remembered about where it was and we decided to take an unusual combination of streetcar and bus to get there.  But as luck would have it we got out one stop too early and had to walk an extra block.  But that was not all that bad as we lucked out and walked past Beethoven Platz which included a sign indicating where a school used to stand, long ago replaced but at one time attended by none other than.....Joseph Haydn.  We knew you'd think it was Beethoven and so did we but nonetheless, there on the Platz big as life was this:  Beethoven bigger than life even though a little tarnished!

 We did finally make it to TGIF's where we relished some excellent potato skins and Elder Parker ordered some yummy BBQ'd ribs while Sister Parker was happy with some equally luscious fish and chips. We don't think we can get away with that while visitors are here expecting to sample some schnitzel and gelato but it will hold us off for a while!

       So to get back to the original story line, we went to our Stake Center for church today but attended the 2nd ward which meets in the afternoon so next week we could attend the International Ward which meets in the afternoon.  Much to our delight, there were 8 of the 18 BYU group including their leader in attendance. Virtually all of them speak pretty good German and the others may have attended the English speaking ward that morning. These guys are not the musicians we had who left last September but are all artists or language students so it will be interesting to get to know them better. Our first contact was Zach Herzog who it turned out left our mission last August but had never made it to Vienna proper. We pulled out our old mission newsletters and found his picture departing us just as our new mission president arrived. We all attended the usual YSA Sunday School class but because all the regulars were in Graz today where they had a Singles Ward experience, no teacher showed up.  To her credit, one of our newlywed sisters who hails from the US, her husband being a Brit, picked up on the lesson with plenty of help from everyone there and we had a great lesson, interestingly most of it in English even though there were about five or six Austrians there but all of them speak excellent English. It was really a little bit of this and that going back and forth from which ever language people were most comfortable in but we felt quite edified.

     So this whole weekend is a major holiday again, centering on the day of Pentecost or Pfingsten.  That was what was going on the weekend we arrived in Vienna one year ago Tuesday!  We have to admit that these religious holidays are nice once you get used to them and as the Pentecost represented the day the apostles were blessed with the Holy Ghost, it was a natural topic for Sacrament Meeting today.

We understand it is also the Memorial Day weekend so everyone gets Monday off.  We may celebrate by visiting a few more graves tomorrow but we think we've been to most we're interested in.  Mostly we'll be gearing up for the family visitors by bringing up three more beds from the cellar.

Currently we've got tickets for the Lippizaner Stallions, a great Strauss/Mozart concert, both this coming Saturday in Vienna, and a wonderful Mozart opera dinner concert in Salzburg for a week from Tuesday.  I don't know if we can tolerate all this high level of classicism!

  [Sister Parker] Not much to add this week. It has actually been quite rainy and a bit cold, so I'm hoping for a little sunshine to come our way for our visitors. I think I have mostly spent this week bolstering young adults up and saying goodbye to our endearing elders. They all seem like my grandchildren and I enjoy getting to know them and their concerns. The hard part is remembering how they all fit in and where they come from, even the YSA's come from different cities and countries. It's a great time to be a missionary.

LOVE AND HUGS,
Grammy, Grampa,
Mom, Dad,
Elder and Sister Parker