Workers Unite! It's May Day!

To Our Beloved Family,

Compared to last week, this one was a bit of a let down. Attendance was down at just about everything we participated in. We still had people there but from our weekly attendance highs in the 130's to 150's we were down to about 95 or so. The big event of the week as far as the city of Vienna was concerned was the big May Day celebration on Friday. Oh, we didn't forget it was the 71st anniversary of Mom and Dad, Grandpa and Grandma Parker, or Great Grandpa and Great Grandma Parker as the case may be but it was also the once great celebration of the Communist Party and it seems to have persisted as a day for the workers of the world to unite. The big political party here in Austria is the SPO or the Socialist Party of Austria and it's very clear that socialism has a big following here and throughout the European Union. So Friday was noteworthy for all kinds of demonstrations, marches, speeches, bands playing and in general wreaking havoc on the ground transportation system of anything running into the city center. Because our center is fairly near all of that it was recommended that we stick to the underground which we did. We learned that a restaurant we pass by fairly regularly, (Adam's Gasthaus interestingly) had been purchased by a man from Munich and so he was celebrating the day with lots of Bavarian music.

       So, because not too much was going on unless we decided we wanted to head into the crowds, which wasn't too appealing, we decided it was a great couple of days on Friday and Saturday to see a little more of Vienna.  We mentioned last week that Elder Parker received a great souvenir book for his birthday with lots of interesting undiscovered places in it and so we decided to try out an interesting bus route out through the Vienna Woods, taking Bus 52B.  We had a map that wasn't too old, about three years now, and it correctly guided us on another bus to the end of the line for good old 52B. We got there at 12:50 and found, according to the printed directory that it ran only once an hour, the next bus due at 1:15. So we had a 25 minute wait to look around at the fire station located on the corner, a big display map showing the Wilhelmina Castle-Hotel a couple of stops away on the bus we'd just gotten off of, a pretty, gold-domed church we saw off in the distance as we were driving up which we could never locate again and a quite expansive recreational area with trees and grass which we thought to appreciate would take us longer than our 25 minute wait. Suffice it to say that after some discussions with a couple of older women who were also waiting, and giving it to 1:25, the bus never appeared and we all gave up.  "Komisch" said the two old ladies. We thought so too.  So anyway we caught the original bus and took it up to the hotel which had some pretty views and lovely wooded walkways and eventually headed back to the center in time for Waffle Night.

After all, we were all still decked out in missionary attire as you can see from our selfie here:

The next day was our P day so we decided to get more properly attired, forget the 52B, though we did head to the other end of its line and instead headed to Stadtwanderweg (city walking trail) #4 which would take us to Silbersee (Silver Lake). This turned out to be a very lovely excursion and we even had an elderly couple walk by just as I was going to take a picture and offered to put us both in.  Here are the results and one of the pictures of our goal.

We took along some sandwiches and found a lovely flower-filled meadow with a little picnic table to eat on. We took this picture of some of the posies.

A huge reward for anyone who can see the small snail Elder Parker placed right next to the stick on the ground and under the white daisy.

We walked for awhile toward another pretty pond with a bunch of trees growing out of an island in the middle where Sister Parker noted the baby turtle on its mother's back, a duck just beyond the two.

Well,we made it home in time to enjoy our nearby Chinese restaurant to start our fast, attended the international, English-speaking ward today and got invited by their young adult leader couple, (he works for the US Embassy) to join the ward YSA's for an afternoon at their home, which was delicious, and afterwards enjoy "Meet the Mormons" which they had just acquired.  It was our second opportunity to see it, the first having been at our Christmas Zone Conference.

    Vienna has become a wonderful city full of blooming Lilac trees or bushes and spring flowers. Its no wonder that everyone here always refers to its gardens and parks. I'm looking forward to many more walks in the gardens and woods as we visit other areas of this very large city. The fact that it rains frequently on us doesn't seem to matter.

    [Sister Parker] Yesterday, in church the Relief Society and Priesthood were together so we could receive a lesson on family history. They had the cutest little boy, about 4 yrs. old helping his father give the lesson by telling the story of his great grandmother from the computer pictures in Family Search and the little booklet, "My Family." They indicated that every member of the family was suppose to have their own little book so that the children could benefit from knowing about their past grandparents etc. They also referred to a study done by Marshall Duke whose study found that children who knew about the lives of their families past and present history were more resilient in going through the struggles of life, whatever they may be. I was just wondering if all of your children have this booklet.

 I liked the way the teacher's family helped their little boy create his booklet. You can download the pages in 8x10 size from the computer and use those as a practice sheet before taking more effort on the real pages. It was also suggested that you take a few minutes each Family Home Evening and work on just one grandparent, or person at a time, so that it is not overwhelming. That way each child or member of the family will have their own little book to refer to from time to time. I believe it does help us to know the stories of our ancestors and how they grew up and the problems they overcame. Hope you will all take the time to help your children with this great project. We came from hard working, God fearing people who were adventurous in leaving their countries and following God's directions in their lives. They are an inspiration to me.            

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