To the Most Wonderful Family on the Face of the Earth!
If we say that this has been a busy week, that would be understating it significantly. We started out by traveling for four hours to a brand new city, Neumarkt/Wallersee, with all the elders and sisters in our zone to finally receive the long awaited I Pads promised by Elder Bednar back in March. Although we didn't literally receive them, having had Mom's for the duration of our mission, we decided to travel along and participate in the excitement.
All of us had memorized the principles of appropriately using digital technology in the mission field including what to do if one was feeling in any way vulnerable to anything that might detract from the Spirit of the work. Our district leader, Elder Albrecht is on the far left of the picture and President Kohler only has his left arm and leg in the picture on the right. He first administered a quiz to reinforce the principles everyone had learned and then led another good discussion expanding on the information we had all been given in our booklets on properly using the devices. We found out that we were meeting in this chapel, handily just across the street from the local train station because it had one of the best Wi-Fi systems in the mission. Over the course of the next three hours everyone had a chance to download all of the appropriate apps to get started with promises that over the next couple of months, more would be added to our skills including how to administer our Area Books which contain the records of all of the investigators now being worked with or having been worked with in the past. Everyone was very appropriately impressed with what a great addition to the work these will be and even Elder and Sister Parker downloaded a few things we hadn't had in the past.
Another four hour ride home still made the three hour meeting seem very worthwhile.
Wednesday night proved to be another great Institute night with not only the BYU group turning out in force but also four or five students who were finishing up a study abroad tour from Utah State. They had all first appeared on Monday night for Home Evening when the BYU guys have their own get-together and as they first came in and introduced themselves we cracked a few jokes that we could tell immediately they weren't from BYU. Our scheduled spiritual thought for the evening had a conflict with school and so Sister Parker led out by suggesting that everyone name their favorite hymn and tell why it was their favorite. Then we would sing one verse and move to the next person. One of our returned sister missionaries, also a visitor for a few weeks, volunteered the hymn "God Is Love" #87 and talked about the time she was assigned to open up a brand new area having only been out in the field for one transfer (6 weeks) and was given a Golden (greenie) as her companion. Neither one could speak much German, decided the only thing they knew to do was go dooring where they were turned away quite routinely but found her favorite hymn gave them both considerable comfort.
So back to Wednesday night. Normally the English class on the Book of Mormon is the smallest in attendance but with all the visitors there, the main class on the D&C had 11, the Parables of Jesus had 13 and we came in with 12! Yea! The class was on the instructions Alma gave to his three sons Helaman, Shiblon and Corianton. We quoted Elder Ringwood's talk from General Conference who mentioned that his favorite person from the Book of Mormon was Shiblon but spent the majority of the class talking about the church's teachings on morality and chastity. There was great participation and it was one of the best classes we've had all year. We discussed pornography and noted that the three quotes in the student manual on the subject by Elder Oaks, President Benson and President Hinckley had all been given in 1974, 1986 and 1993. It was evident to everyone in the room that the problem had become greatly exacerbated in the 22 subsequent years. It provided an excellent opportunity to quote the material we had discussed the day before as the elders received their I-Pads. Alma 39:9 "Go no more after the lusts of your eyes."
So we were expecting another great crowd on Friday night for waffles to follow up from the previous week and were greatly surprised when we had only 2 YSA's show up. One of those is a sweet young lady, a member a little over a year, here studying who hails from Italy. She brought her visiting mother along who speaks a very little English, no German and is still a staunch Catholic. She was very sweet and we ended up playing a rousing game of Spot It which translates into all languages as long as you're willing to acknowledge the Italian words for ice cube, dragon, ladybug, etc. We all had a good time and everyone got to take a few waffles home for breakfast the next morning.
Transfers come up next week and while a few of the elders were packing we arranged for one of the apartments to completely get a new floor as their wood floor is deteriorating pretty well. They have four elders and it goes back to when it was in the Austrian Mission many years ago and we thought they could use a little help as we had to completely clean out two bedrooms from beds, desks, bookcases, tables and sofas. Naturally the apartment is on the fourth floor, there is no elevator and they weren't sure what part of the cellar was theirs. Nonetheless, over three hours, the two rooms were completely emptied, swept, vacuumed with everything being moved either into the cellar, or moved into the kitchen and bathroom. The floor man comes tomorrow and hopefully he can finish it all within a week. In the meantime, the four elders are being temporarily moved into two other apartments that used to house four elders each but are both down to just two. Our numbers are steadily dwindling and one of our assigned apartments is actually being vacated at the next transfer for who knows how long. At any rate, we felt pretty bushed by the time we were done. Sister Parker managed to repair two curtains that needed new sliders to give them a little better privacy when they all move back in but still had enough energy to treat her husband to a night out for dinner for Father's Day. First he suggested we go look at an apartment where Beethoven had composed the 4th, 5th and 7th symphonies and the Fidelio opera. Then he suggested that we go look at a building in which Johann Strauss had composed "The Blue Danube." When we got there, lo and behold, there was a lovely restaurant on the ground floor of the building, appropriately named "3/4 Beat."
No one had ever told us about it but it turned out to be a wonderful little place with a nice no smoking section as well. That's Beethoven's house and then Strauss's.
You can see the signs and flags on the building which announce the location as the origin of the great waltz. By the time we got home it had been a long day and we felt we were lots more than 3/4 beat!
So, not lost on us at all was the fact that early on our Thursday morning, about 5 AM was about the time that Jeremy was arriving at the airport as he ended his mission Wednesday night. We've seen a few pictures of his grand arrival and are sorry to be missing his homecoming report which we understand will be next week. Interestingly, we somewhat spontaneously decided to attend a ward today we hadn't been to in a while which includes one of the counselors in our mission. His wife teaches the Young Adult Sunday School class which we always attend and they have a son who is serving in the Budapest Hungary mission for another 5-6 months. They have a 20 year old daughter who has also been called to serve in the Ireland-Scotland mission who it turned out, because the Stake President was out of town this week, had already been set apart and is leaving for the Manchester England MTC on Thursday. We didn't get to hear a homecoming talk but did enjoy a great farewell address as she spoke about how the Lord had motivated her to go on a mission after jumping over several hurdles. It was, as was stated at the beginning of this report, a very busy week.
[Sister Parker] HAPPY SUMMER SOLSTICE, its hard to believe here we are again on the longest day of the year. It's the best thing about summer, light early in the morning and light long into the night. The sun rises here at 4:53 am. and sets at 8:58 pm. I was concerned that the hot temperatures of last week were the beginning of a summer full of extreme heat. But temperatures have been a bit cooler this week with some very heavy rain storms, much to our delight. I guess that is one of the great things about Austria; you never know when a few days of rain will randomly just show up. June is quickly passing and before we know it will be the 4th of July and time for Kaylee's baptism on the 11th. Then the summer will be halfway over and next thing you know it will be time for school and Autumn will be here. Thanksgiving just a little while after that and then we will be back with you all. We need to step back and enjoy it all.
As today is Father's Day I've been thinking back on the father and grandfathers I knew while growing up. Let us all take time this week to think on our fathers and forefathers and remember loving kind moments with them. I still remember when I was about 5 yrs. old and I had gone to a Stake Conference mtg. with my father. The other family members were not with us. It was just my father and I. I loved being with him and we had not driven the 4 or so blocks to the Stake building but had walked together. As we started on our way home I remember asking my father if he would carry me because I was tired. His response was that I was a big girl now and could walk, and I knew that was true, but I asked again. This time he picked me up and carried me all the way home without complaining. I have never forgotten that feeling of being loved and my father's willingness to, so to speak, sacrifice for my welfare. He was a dear, sweet man full of kindness and tenderness and I felt Heavenly Father must be just like him. May you fathers and children create many such memories.
We also, appreciated talking with all of you today for Father's Day. Its always a joy to see all of you.
Hugs and Prayers,
Grammy, Grampa,
Mom, Dad,
Elder and Sister Parker
No comments:
Post a Comment