Trekking and Schlepping!

To our Beloved, Widespread, Nomadic Family,

      Some new experiences have kept us fresh and alert which is always invigorating when things seem to be falling into the same old routines. A bookbinding company right next to our Center was apparently remodeling and putting on a completely new appearance. They decided to make a film to be used in their advertising but it focused on how long they'd been in the business and so for a week our street was populated with actors dressed up like they lived back in the 20's and 30's. Great old cars were parked on the street and Grammy especially liked the two young boys who were waiting for their "walk down the street" parts to play. 

We didn't realize it was all going to take place until we walked up to this old loaded wagon and a smaller one loaded with books. It made us feel like we were ready to embark on our own Trek Experience. 

It was something we wished we'd really had available to us as later in the week we finally located a pretty good bookcase that was needed by our new sisters to store all of their Books of Mormon. We wondered how the previous missionaries had gotten by without one for literally a few years but then you know how sisters sometimes need extra space. 

     At any rate, we went shopping around and finally found a great buy on sale at IKEA (yes, they're all over) with 4 good shelves costing only 15 Euros if one is willing to put it all together by yourself. On our first day discovering it, it turned out that they were all sold out but said they'd have some more in on Friday. So back we went, this time not carrying any of our normal paraphernalia, picked up the box only weighing about 25 kilograms (do the math, that's X 2.2 to convert to pounds) then had to carry it about a half mile to the nearest bus stop, thence transferring to a subway, then a couple of blocks to transfer to another streetcar and finally a two block walk to the sister's apartment. They live on the fourth floor but thank goodness they have an elevator! It's only at times like these that we really miss a car! Bless her poor worn out rotater cuffs, Grammy really helped carry the load but we're not sure her shoulders will ever be the same again.

    We're not doing very well at getting the YSA's to volunteer for a spiritual thought on home evening nights. Thus far this year, we've carried it for 13 weeks which exceeds considerably the 9 weeks we did it last summer. We have had two other volunteers but in both cases they forgot they'd signed up and didn't show. But it's good for us. Neither one of us have ever had to speak in church in German yet though Elder Parker did speak once in the International Ward in English,and Sister Parker did give a talk in German on the Holy Ghost at a baptism. Elder Parker remembers the one Institute class he prepared in German but then had the international attendance in five different languages and decided to translate it all back into English. Even so, they are very tolerant of our attempts to speak their language.

     Wednesday night following Institute we got a visit from our newly called Stake Institute representative. Her predecessor has been a wonderful support to us every Wednesday night and with her husband has been called to the Freiberg Temple Presidency. It is still closed for remodeling until next July but she's been in for 5-6 years. Her husband was a previous stake president here in Vienna and they have decided to replace her with our above mentioned visitor. She is a soon-to-graduate medical student, herself a young single adult who is all done with her classes but must still write her thesis which she's doing on type 1 diabetes in children. Talk about a sharp individual, although an American from apparently all over, she was called to the Temple Square Mission while she was living in Germany with the expectation that she already knew German. She didn't then but does now and frequently serves as a translator during stake conferences. She was the one who translated for Julie Bangerter when she was visiting here on vacation that we mentioned quite some time ago. At any rate, she stopped by to talk about what will be happening in the institute this next year and is full of new ideas and approaches that will be a real breath of fresh air. She will be teaching one of the classes in German that Elder Parker will be teaching in English and clearly was a strong indication that the Spirit is still vitally present in picking her for this new assignment.

     Our P day yesterday was the first time in several weeks that the temperature was pleasant enough that we thought we might get back to finish up the tour guide from our previous BYU professor's "Eight Great Walks around Vienna." We have now completed 6 1/2 of those walks and reading through the others seems to include many of the areas and sights that we're already familiar with. We did catch four new (actually very old) churches that included preparations for a wedding, the orchestra practicing a lovely classical piece that I'd include but still don't know how to attach videos to emails. Then there was another that was conducting several baptisms up at the altar (of babies of course but they were all pretty cute) and yet a third that had an impressive copy of da Vinci's Last Supper which had apparently been commissioned by Napoleon. 

It was his intent to take the original out of Milan, Italy and ship it to France and then replace it with the copy we were viewing. It was eventually acquired by the Hapsburg's after Napoleon was defeated but not before he brought about the abdication of Franz Joseph II, ending a thousand years of the Holy Roman Empire in 1806, started by Charlemagne in 800.

The church with the Last Supper has a balcony overlooking the plaza where the abdication was announced and it's right next to the hall where Mozart first publicly performed at the tender age of 6.  Although Mozart was born in Salzburg and they definitely still claim him, he died in Vienna where they claim him too.

  Our fourth church turned out to be filled with scaffolding as they begin an extensive renovation but we found an interesting side chapel where they must have known something about the Golden Plates!    Well it looks like the weather will be heating up a little bit again this next week but it doesn't look to be quite as bad as what we've been through.  We're looking forward to a visit from Randy and Nancy this coming weekend so our next letter may be a little bit late.

     [Sister Parker] It was good to have nice weather again so we could walk around and visit more Old Vienna sites. It is very interesting to me to look at these old churches. One could almost say there is one on every other corner like chapels in Salt Lake City. Some are a little less gaudy than others but most are architecturally beautiful buildings, gilded with gold, and a bit dark and cold inside. Yesterday we saw one built by the Irish but called the Scottish Church and had a monastery with it. It was a little less gaudy and really quite lovely inside. I could see why someone had chosen it for their wedding. Still it felt cold and a bit dark with solid stone inside and out. While the little orchestra was playing music there was a sweet spirit present, but as soon as it stopped playing the coldness came right back. The same was true in the church of Nine Angel Choirs where the babies were being baptized. Each had families there to support them and they were dressed up for the special occasion. Some of them looked like Mormon families you might see right in SLC, others were a little more worldly. Still they were all trying to participate in a religious experience. It makes me sad to think that most of them reject the gospel. We would like to share the gospel with all of them, and help them understand what a truly eternal covenant is all about. But the only accepting ones are those the Lord has in some way prepared. I can't help but compare our temples to these buildings. Not only are our temples beautiful but they have a powerful sweet spirit inside, that people feel when they walk in the door. This spirit doesn't leave but is always present and doesn't depend on music. A temple marriage is so much more beautiful than worldly things. I look forward to seeing all my granddaughters in lovely white dresses kneeling at the altar of God and to all my grandsons being those worthy priesthood holders kneeling across the altars looking into the faces of worthy young brides. There just isn't anything more glorious and beautiful than the gospel of Jesus Christ. How blessed we are to feel His love shine down on us.

HUGS AND PRAYERS,  

Grammy, Grampa, Mom, Dad, Elder and Sister Parker

Let's Hear it for the Pastorale Symphony!

To Our Wonderful and Illustrious Family,

Can you believe that the month is half over already?  We really enjoyed the latest edition of the Parker Post and express our thanks again to Heidi for her hard work and determination in getting it published and out to all of us.  We again call  those of you to repentance who didn't get in on the latest submission but we're grateful for the contact we have with many of you whether through Facetime contacts or Facebook posts or the emails we frequently receive.

       Not too much different to report this week. All of the regular activities went off well with our limited number of YSA's attending home evening, institute and Waffle Night. Our regular attendees right now seem to be our international group from Nepal, Pakistan, Hungary, Chili and the occasional Austrian and we really had a good game of Spot It this week.  It's amazing how many different names you can come up with for igloo, spider web, ying-yang, treble clef and all the rest! We admit we're getting a little tired of having to come up with a spiritual thought for home evening so I guess we'll have to get a little more aggressive at assigning them out rather than waiting for them to volunteer.

We did have a really good waffle night in one respect. Although we didn't get too involved with them, the zone leaders brought a man from Iran they've been working with for a while and he had two friends who came along with him. The zone leaders were about 15 minutes late so we did have a little interaction until they arrived but most of our missionaries are there at least to pick up a cheap (that means free!) meal so it's almost like were in a zone training meeting except a little levity.

     

We've still got about three more weeks before all the younger school kids head back to school and hence a number of the businesses around are still on their vacations which frequently last for the entire month of August but slowly things will start picking up. We had another week of horrendously hot weather but there are promises of rain and temperatures in the 70's this week instead of the high 90's so there is a new gleam in our eyes.

    Today we made one of our rare trips out to St. Poelton, west of Vienna, for church and particularly to visit with the new Branch President who was recently called. He's one of our own as a Young Adult, not yet 30, though no longer single and it looks like they're breaking him in well.  His wife directed the singing as well as spoke on the topic of revelation in Sacrament Meeting and directed much of her talk to their decision to have a child. She's about 21 weeks along now and they offered to drive us back into Vienna where they live, instead of having to take the train which gave us a good chance to talk with them. They wanted to practice their English which is pretty good so it gave us a chance to lighten up a little. She had just had an ultrasound a couple of weeks ago which she had recorded on her cell phone so it was fun to see the little one bouncing around, very animated. She has only recently begun to feel it move but it was fun to reminisce about the good old days. I had previously given our new president the whole story about the time we had the opportunity of speaking with Elders Nelson and Oaks about stillborn babies but she had never heard it. With the ultrasound pictures, it was fun to reminisce again with a good visual reminder of just how lively these sweet little spirits are when they're still in the womb.

     Which brings up the highlight of the week. Speaking of ultrasounds, my old technician, Luann Larsen and her husband and their youngest son paid us a visit on Thursday. He was released from the Frankfurt mission about two years ago and still had a good mastery of his German so for two weeks they'll be driving around to see as much of Europe as they can. We're pretty far out on the eastern edge of western Europe and they wanted to see Switzerland as well as get up to Copenhagen where they have ancestry. With a name like Larsen we weren't surprised. But it was a long way to go in a short time. So Thursdays are always our least busy days and it was a good day to show them around except for the bright sun and temperatures that ran up to 99-100 degrees. We took them to all the usual spots in the city where we've gone with Steve Lyde, Markus and his family, Andrew and Ruslana, and Mindy, Benj, and Brenda but the thing that's always fun is with each group we end up seeing something we've never seen before. When Mindy and Benj were here we stopped in front of the University of Vienna but after they left we found out that Beethoven had lived right across the street, several times but totaling over 8 years. So this time as we passed by we took them over to his old apartment, climbed the 4 flights of stairs it takes to get there, and beheld the piano on which he composed his 4th, 6th and 7th symphonies as well as the Fidelio Opera. 

The picture makes it look bigger than it actually was and it almost seemed like a harpsichord.  They of course wouldn't let us play it but we were assured it really was a piano. We ate dinner at exactly the same place where Mindy and Benj ate just prior to our Mozart concert but by the time the day was done we were all so bedraggled we didn't have it in us for much more celebration.

     We're still looking for an apartment for our new senior couple coming to do family history records and have not made much progress.  No one seems to know how one goes about looking for apartments.  Our stake presidency 1st counselor taught the institute class on Wednesday and gave us the name of someone supposedly assigned to that kind of activity but so far he hasn't answered our email.  Today the Branch President we were with made a comment that he wasn't too efficient so we may have to give him a personal phone call and see if we can stir him up.

      [Sister Parker] After all our very hot days we finally had a cool morning today,(it rained a little last night) before it returned to the 80's this afternoon. It was so lovely that it gave me hope that we just might return to pleasant weather. I have really felt sympathy for the missionaries having to stay outside most of the day. Its been a really hard summer for them, but they are as faithful as ever in going out and finding people to teach. Missionaries are awesome and they even try to help out in the kitchen as much as they can. I enjoy getting to know them.

      Our YSA's are also awesome. Today at church the Relief Society lesson and the Sunday school lesson were taught by young adults. It was just interesting that the lesson was on the elderly, and how the Lord gives some of His most important callings to people well into their 80's. What impressed me was that the Lord has need and places for all ages, old, young, in-between, and even children. I was impressed that little Alex felt the need to memorize his talk.. There is always a place to serve and when we do we are happier. I am so grateful for the plan of salvation and earth life where we can grow and develop. We are never to old to learn and improve. I'm grateful for the continual insights the Lord keeps giving me on what I need to work on and the tender mercies He extends. 

Only a few days left before school, hope you enjoy them

. Rain is forecast for us. HURRAY! 

HUGS & PRAYERS,

Grammy, Grampa, Mom, Dad, Elder and Sister Parker 

Out of the Frying Pan and into the Fire

Hi to the Best Family this Side of Kolob!

Well it appears that our cooling trend last week was just a brief respite as the heat has returned with a vengeance! They're having such a hot spell that we're starting to see even a few of the Viennese start to crack a bit. Every time we get on a tram we wonder whether we'll luck out and most of the time we're very disappointed as we walk into an oven and have to sit in it for as long as the ride takes. By an actual (but unofficial) survey, only 22% of businesses here have air conditioning, the other 78% suffering along with the rest of us. None of our chapels nor is our center air conditioned and we literally survive only on the good graces of fans which we place here and there in strategic spots and then gather in front of them to enjoy the breeze. We're looking forward to the weather cooling but so far nothing in the immediate future looks too hopeful.

Lots of administrative-like activities this week as we had our last district meeting on Tuesday of this transfer, losing both our sisters and one of the other elders on Thursday, so a good portion of our group of eight. 

But on Thursday afternoon we received a new group to befriend and love. 

We were pleased that we'd been able to finish cleaning the apartment down south as two new sisters moved in there. The mission wondered if we could show them the way to their new apartment but we patiently pointed out that we didn't have a car, had some responsibilities at the center that afternoon which was an hour away and so they decided to let the Zone Leaders take that responsibility and we would show the two new sisters in our district where they would be living instead.

It's always interesting what a relatively small world we live in.  Friday night at Waffle Night most of the companionship's showed up with a total of 8 new elders and sisters all together.  Visiting for their last night with us were 2 BYU students heading back home this weekend. One was from Washington state and the other was from Virginia, a brother who had served in our mission from 2011-2013. One of our new sisters is also from Virginia and as they were comparing notes, although they didn't know each other personally, they both had friends who had known both of them very well. They were able to name about five different people that both knew well.

  

Today was an interesting day as well. Early this Sunday morning our International Ward missionaries scheduled a baptism with a young man whose parents didn't approve of him joining the church. He had been a foreign exchange student in the states with a Mormon family and upon returning searched out the missionaries and walked into a district meeting announcing that he wanted to be baptized! It was agreed that he should wait until he was 18 and legally able to make the decision himself and so that was all scheduled today. Interestingly there was a young lady he had known in the states who was a member and perhaps a major influence in his decision to investigate the church. She was also present for a few days and came specifically to attend his baptism. There is definitely a romantic interest present there but we're pretty sure she's holding out for a returned missionary some day. At any rate, she said the opening prayer at the baptism. We went there about 8 AM this morning for the baptismal service, then returned at 11:15 for the sacrament meeting at which he was confirmed, he having asked Elder Parker to stand in the circle. We left after the sacrament and returned at 2 PM to attend the other ward's services which meets in the same building as we had attended the International Ward just two weeks before we found out about the baptism. We had agreed it was our next choice as we're down to only one or two more visits for each ward in the stake before we're released. So that's six different back and forth trips for one Sunday and five of the six were with an air conditioned tram! Thank you Lord for a not insignificant blessing!  Not only was it an opportunity to participate in the confirmation which has happened a few times before, but two weeks ago Elder Parker was asked to help administer the sacrament. That was the first time in who can remember how long and was a special privilege.

     As we attended the selected ward this afternoon we met a Bro. and Sister Nuttall who were visiting. They had been released last December as a senior couple doing exactly what we're doing but in Hamburg. They had chosen to return for a few weeks to tour Austria where he had served as a young missionary. It turned out he had baptized one of the men who was a counselor in the bishopric as well as having had contacts with the family of the current stake president so it was a very memorable visit for them. I told him we were good friends with a Dr. Nuttall in American Fork, a pediatrician and had delivered 7 of their 10 children. His brother! Again, what a small world. We had exchanged a couple of email contacts with Dr. Nuttall's wife before the meetings were over, she wondering how to talk me out of retirement when we get home. Not much chance of that, I fear.

     Our latest assignment, received a few days ago is to help prepare for a new senior couple coming here in October to do family history work. We found the state archives building where they will be working but we've been asked to see if we can find them an apartment in time to get it furnished and ready for their arrival. Sounds simple I guess but so far we've been pretty frustrated in even finding a real estate agent. I'm sure the Lord will help us pave the way but it will be something new to experience.

      [Sister Parker] Well, instead of being soggy tea cakes, we are now more like melted butter. I hate clothes that stick to us but I love GELATO. As Grampa said it is quite a feat of endurance to ride on the streetcars, with even the Austrians looking bedraggled. But again I have to admit that they still come out in crowds to everything in the city. Sometimes I can't believe how they still want to fit so many people on the tram at one time. These Austrians are a hardy people, but I think lots of them would like air conditioning as they seem to congregate at the malls and large air conditioned stores.

      

Today as we went to so many Sunday meetings and gatherings, I couldn't help but think how much I enjoyed doing so. I really like meeting the people and young adults, we haven't seen for a while and greeting the members that like to see us visit their ward. There is a great spirit of love between us all. How important it is to strengthen one another as a ward family. Sometimes it only takes an acknowledgement of someone and a hug to lift their spirit as well as yours. I love the children and seeing them all dressed up nice for church. I love the gospel of Jesus Christ and what it does for us all. I love our classes and meetings where the Spirit bears witness that this is the true gospel of Christ and that we are all working together to repent and to improve in our ability to become more Christ like and enter the kingdom of heaven together. 

                                       

HUGS AND PRAYERS, 

Grammy, Grampa, 

Mom, Dad, 

Elder and Sister Parker

"The Aftermath of the Tower of Babel"

Greetings to the Most Wonderful Family On Earth!

     Hard to believe that we're already into August.  Our heat wave has temporarily abated but they tell us there is more on the way in the coming week.  Nonetheless, the past 7 days have really been pretty nice and a little more of what we have become used to.

     Today was quite a wonderful Fast and Testimony meeting.  We attended the ward where a lot of our institute leaders are members. Two of the institute council live there as well as the amazing woman who normally does all the cooking on Wednesday nights as well as serving as her ward's Primary president. With only three more Fast days to go after today before we're released, we figured this would likely be our last opportunity to visit them and Elder Parker even planned on leaving his testimony with them but there was such an amazing outpouring of the Spirit with so many wanting to bear testimony that there ended being no time left.

The first testimony was an elderly grandfather, likely in his 80's, who had a granddaughter being married yesterday. He naturally dearly wanted to attend the ceremony but on Friday felt so very weak, virtually unable to speak let alone get out of bed and able to speak only with great difficulty.  He called for close family members and actually went through the formality of finalizing his last will and testament feeling that his time had come. His son, who has been one of our best supporters for many of the activities at the institute, discovered how grave the situation had become and asked his father if he desired a blessing. He stated that with no preconceived ideas of what he would say and with no  time for any special preparation, he simply offered a blessing, pondering the power of the priesthood and blessed him that he would have the strength to attend the wedding. We were sitting next to another of the grandsons and his father, who had given the administration, got up next to bear his testimony, helping the grandfather down from the stand. During the rest of the meeting we heard from the grandfather, then his son, the Stake Relief Society President and then the mother of the family. One of the elders, who had just heard that he'll be leaving the ward this Thursday on transfer day managed to squeeze in a very nice farewell testimony but then the time ran out. It was truly amazing to see a man who felt he was ready to meet his Maker two days earlier had been raised up not only to attend his granddaughter's wedding but then to bear testimony to the ward about the power of the priesthood in his life  It was really special.

     The earlier part of the week pretty much fulfilled our expectations that the attendance would be pretty scanty. Sister Parker prepared a meal on Monday that was adequate for those who appeared and then led forth on the spiritual thought, highlighting the doctrine of the pioneers in the Gospel story throughout history. Wednesday, Elder Parker was assigned to give the only Institute class and prepared about an hour's lesson in German on President Eyring's General Conference talk on the Law of the Fast. We figured the attendance would be light but still prepared quite a meal just in case.  5 young adults appeared along with a couple of elders and we had enough food left over to serve for tomorrow night's home evening. The five YSA's were an interesting group, all members but in alphabetical order, coming from Austria, Chili, Hungary, Nepal and Pakistan. Only the young woman from Austria considered German as her native language but she at least spoke an excellent English so in spite of all of his preparations to give the class in German, it ended up being translated back into English as that was the best second language for all of the others.

      We had quite an interesting discussion later with the young man from Pakistan. He's been a member now for a little over six months and as we talked with him specifically, it was obvious that he still doesn't have a copy of the Doctrine & Covenants or the Pearl of Great Price in Urdu, his native language. He has a great Sunday School teacher who teaches him in the Gospel Principles class on Sunday in what amounts to a German language course as well so we went onto the computer and found the next four lessons of that class in Urdu as well as keyed him into the Gospel Library on his cell phone. He had never been shown all of this and we believe it will really open up a completely new vista for his future study of the gospel.

     Saturday we made our final trip to Wiener Neustadt to finish cleaning up the vacant apartment and it turned out to be just in time as the transfer announcement came out the same day. It looks like the mission, though down overall in numbers, is getting six new sisters, one pair of which is slated to move into the now completely cleaned and laundered apartment previously housing the two elders. While waiting for laundry to dry we decided to walk around the immediate area a bit as we'd previously seen only those areas on the way to church or the two apartments there. We'd always been fascinated by their cathedral which had two spires, each topped by an apparent holy rooster.

Outside was this lovely fountain.  Later we also found some interesting apartment houses in an area known as the Gasometer.

It was nice to run around while we still had an excuse to be in our P-day clothes. We assume all of our YSA's will be back from their convention in Cologne but this week is the Stake Temple Week and it appears there will be lots heading to Frankfurt before it closes for two years for renovations.  It's closing at the same time as the Freiberg Temple is closed but the latter will supposedly open again in about February. We're secretly reserving a place there for our next mission, knowing that Heidi's parents also served there.

    [Sister Parker] Sorry you can't see the roosters on the top of the steeples. They look awesome to a rooster lover. Well, I can't believe we are already at the beginning of August. Isn't there some holiday we can celebrate during this month, besides the Highland Fling which just barely got into August by day one. Really, August means those last couple of summer weeks before school starts and it's back to scheduled days. Vienna is bursting with tourists from every land and you can hear half a dozen different languages while just riding the trams. My favorite thing to do is to stop by the Gelato place on the way home from the center or on our P-days. You just can't beat excellent Gelato. The fruit flavors are especially good during hot weather, raspberry, blueberry, strawberry, mango, etc. Some one needs to make a Cold Stone Gelato place, or something like that. I found out that Gelato doesn't have as much fat in it as ice cream, "that's a plus"!

 Many of our young adults are also out vacationing, so we don't have as many even in visiting the various wards. It's been great to have so many marriages this summer and some coming in September. We feel fulfilled as YSA leaders. Another sweet thing is that a lot of the ones who married during last year are now having babies and it is fun to see them carrying around these tiny, sweet babies. Hope you enjoy these last lazy, fun days with family and friends.

HUGS AND PRAYERS,

Grammy, Grampa,
Mom, Dad,
Elder and Sister Parker