Wow! What a week we've had! One of the great blessings given to senior missionaries is the ability to take care of family when they come to visit. We really didn't miss too much with one of the elders taking over the Institute class and otherwise only having to cancel one of our Waffle Night adventures. We had planned on having that a week ago but when we found out that our visitors, Brenda, Mindy and Benj were going to stay until this past Saturday instead of Friday, we decided to have them participate the night before their departure instead. Although Benji brought Dad a working cell phone back again, it having been replaced after the old one had truly bitten the dust, we didn't really take the time to get it all synced up yet. Several pictures were taken with the new camera and they certainly seem like they're available but we haven't got it all truly worked up yet so some of the pictures aren't coming up for this letter.
Right after church on Sunday a week ago we boarded a train that would take us to the castles of good old King Ludwig. We had to transfer trains in Munich and didn't arrive in Fuessen, near the castles until about 10 PM that night. Sister Parker and I had the opportunity of reading a couple of chapters of the Book of Mormon in German while we were traveling but we're still about five chapters behind our schedule. By the end of the week though, we'll have read the whole Book of Mormon twice "auf Deutsch"! We're proud of our accomplishment. By the way, you learn all kinds of interesting things when reading in a different language. 3 Nephi 2:12 talks about freedom and liberty, both of which are translated into German as "Freiheit." So the German translation used "inner and outer" freedom. Inner freedom is the right inherently given to all men whereas outer freedom discusses those things granted us by our governments. Gave us an opportunity to ponder those principles a bit.
So anyway, we stayed in a wonderful hotel very near the train station and visited both of the castles lived in by King Ludwig and his family. The first was the castle he was raised in as a boy and we could see the telescope he used gazing up from there at the construction of his future castle, Neuschwanstein.
Again, I'm not getting them all in here but we'll show them all to you later. Here's a shot of the gang coming up one of the back alleys toward the model for all the Disney castles:
Brenda had a little neat device on her wrist that counted her steps every day. We generally averaged at least 10,000 paces a day! but this day set the record with over 20,000 paces and 76 flights of stairs! She figured before the week was out that we'd walked around 36 miles.
We left the castles behind us that afternoon and traveled to Salzburg where all enjoyed recapitulating the scenes from the Sound of Music movie, seeing the big fortress on the hill which goes back many centuries and finished off the day with a wonderful dinner concert at a music hall which itself claimed to date back at least in its foundations to 803 AD. They performed pieces from Mozart's operas Don Giovanni (Don Juan), the Marriage of Figaro, and the Magic Flute which were just wonderful.
Then, having been educated by Ruslana, we left the next morning for the wonderful little Alpine village of Hallstatt.
Lining up to go into the mines, looking ready for work.
We had planned on spending just the afternoon there seeing the village and going through the Salt Mines which date back to 600-800 BC. (Editors note: Dad has a truly fabulous picture of him going down the slide in the salt mines on this excursion. Ask him to show it to you one day. Although, mom was still the fastest going down the slides without even trying! She wanted to go slower!)
We were going to leave the next day around 10:00 but discovered that the holiday celebrated that day and which we were aware of, known at Fronleichnam or Corpus Christi, was a big annual event in Hallstatt. We're still not sure of exactly where it originates and we even asked our seminary and institute director who wasn't sure either but thought it was originally a pagan holiday which they had incorporated into Christianity somewhere along the way. At any rate, our hotel was right on the main town plaza and when we emerged that morning we found that the large stone pillar which is surrounded by a small wall directly in front of the door had been prepared to celebrate what looked like a Catholic Mass.
Austrian flags were flying everywhere and right at the hour we had planned to depart, into the plaza marched the town band followed by a bevy of municipal leaders and the priest carrying a gold altarpiece.
Flowers were strewn everywhere and the whole village primary class got involved with several kids repeating into a microphone which the priest held to them one at a time, "The Lord is our God"
After the ceremony, the whole entourage moved to the city dock where everyone who owned a boat had decorated it with branches and leaves. A huge parade followed out on the lake where further celebrations were held that we could hear on the shoreline and then they all came back in and the band led the whole procession back through the plaza and on up to the church which dominates the village skyline. We thought it was all very impressive and delayed our departure for a couple of hours to take it all in.
Then it was back to Vienna. Brenda had heard of a good restaurant owned by a famous Austrian actor but it turned out it was closed for a month for vacation time. Instead we found a restaurant we had passed several times on our way to the 12 Apostles Cellar mentioned last week. Apparently it was owned by the same actor and we decided to try it. It turned out to be quite wonderful and the waitress really bent over backwards to provide us good service. We decided to order the special Sachertorte, a kind of a chocolate cake and fruit concoction that is famous here but which we'd never tried. But it was on the menu and she brought us an extra portion even though we were going to share two of them with the five of us.We truly enjoyed our experience there.
We spent the next day and a half seeing some of the remaining sights, the family getting souvenirs and ending up the week at good old Waffle Night with about 10 other missionaries and a couple of YSA's.
While Sister Parker and Brenda were preparing the Waffles,
Elder Parker went with the family out for purchases of "chalices from the palaces", tricky music boxes that play like real violins and the true, genuine Mozart chocolate ball delicacies. While he waited outside one of the stores, the proprietress came out to ask if we were Mormons, having seen the badge and so there was at least a brief missionary moment as she was told about the Book of Mormon as a second witness for Jesus verifying the Bible.
Saturday, our usual P day was spent doing about five or six hours of laundry, putting away all the extra beds and bedding and preparing for a great Fast Sunday the next day. Interestingly, in our full year here, we had never witnessed a baby blessing as we move from one ward to the other each Sunday. So yesterday we were blessed with two babies who were blessed. The grandfather in one case, and the father in the second case, both stood behind the pulpit holding the baby with the other brethren reaching in to place their hands on the baby as well as they could reach. I guess they haven't considered the ease of a portable microphone but it worked out just fine and was truly a lovely meeting with many extended family members filling up the cultural hall all the way to the rear. That evening we had the opportunity of our Visitor's evening, held once a transfer in the center. The topic this time was the Godhead and how we define them in the scriptures. There was a better than average turnout with several investigators who asked good questions. It was a great end to a wonderful couple of weeks. It seems we're finally ready to get back to the real work now in earnest as the new week begins.
[Sister Parker] It was a wonderful week and a half, with slumber parties every night, lots of sharing time together, and getting to know Austria even better. It truly is a beautiful country, with green meadows covered with wild flowers, mountains covered with trees, and beautiful lakes.
One could really spend a lot of time sight seeing but there are many missionary opportunities too. Our elders and sisters even missed us. We love it all and are glad to be back to our missionary tasks, even when it includes cooking.
Lately, we have been reading in the Book of Mormon about the Savior coming to the Nephites and Lamanites, especially the verses about them receiving the sacrament. I have been pondering them a little more and thinking on them as we partake of the Sacrament. What a wonderful experience to have had the Lord break and bless the bread and water. Also as we sing in the German songbook I have to focus more in order to understand the words and they have such precious messages about our Savior's love. Take time this week to think more on the words of these songs as you prepare to take the sacrament.
We miss you all and love seeing the pictures of what you are doing in each of your families.
LOVE AND HUGS,
Grammy, Grampa,
Mom, Dad,
Elder and Sister Parker
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