Greetings to Our Everlasting Dominion Who Without Compulsory Means are Flowing Unto Us Forever and Ever!
It's been another great week as we approach an exciting coming month. We keep track of the numbers of people who attend the various activities that are held in our center each week. The numbers are always a little down during the summer as our young adults are away on vacations or back home while school is out but this past week was our best attendance since June with a total of 98 coming for the week. Our low for the summer was in the 50's but we've been in the 90's about three or four times. This next week will be the last summer institute session prior to the big event that marks the start of the new Institute year. That all occurs on Friday-Sunday and of course, we'll be out of town for the entire event as the mission scheduled its every six months Senior Conference during the same weekend. We'll give you that full report next week and it promises to be full of new experiences and uplifting interactions.
For this week we're making some progress with one of our members who hails from Nepal, speaks rudimentary English but enough that he's understandable, and he's been fairly regular in his attendance for the past month. It's always interesting to discover how he became a member of the church as our initial questions to him revealed that he didn't know anything about Joseph Smith or the Book of Mormon. He does now, of course. We have another young man who's been very active as an investigator who hails from Nigeria and who claims his first names are Michael Jackson. He's been present almost every day, speaks reasonable English and is learning some German as the elders and sisters are teaching him. He has been at most of our activities this week and in fact decided it was too early to attend the English speaking ward this morning so he showed up for the German speaking ward which meets in the same building in the afternoon. That gave Elder Parker the assignment to translate for him in Priesthood meeting, Sunday School and Sacrament Meeting. That appears to be a great way to really pay attention to what is being said if one has to translate it as well. Not sure how well we did as he fell asleep for the last five minutes of Sacrament meeting but Elder Parker has been known to do that a few times himself!
Last night was very interesting as the stake was celebrating the official 60th year anniversary of the church's recognition in Austria. It apparently actually took place on September 19, 1955 just a few weeks after the reestablishment of the country as an independent and free nation having been occupied for ten years by the allies since the end of the war. Austria considers itself quite fortunate that they weren't included in the occupation by the Soviet Union that took place in the rest of Eastern Europe. So it was a glorious and grand event with lots of pictures and also presentations on the creation of the Vienna Stake that occurred a few years later. Vienna has had five different Stake Presidents, all of whom are still alive and all of whom we know quite well. Four of them were present with the fifth attending a family function in Norway. He and his wife have been called to the Freiberg Temple Presidency when it reopens next July and there is still an outside chance we may get to repeat the experience of the Thornocks and serve there on our next mission if we can hold it together for that long. Our dear Sister Eva who always does the cooking for Institute on Wednesday evenings baked a special cake that was big enough for the whole stake including the children if they wanted a piece.
We even got shot of the Stake President cutting the cake for the entire stake surrounded by a few of his young fans.
Pictures were shown of then Elder Ezra Taft Benson who was present at the time of the original recognition when he was responsible for the Europe Area and also of Elder L. Tom Perry who had the same assignment when the stake was created. We still have a quote from Elder Perry mounted prominently in the center's dining area which a few of you have seen who have visited us here.
Speaking of refugees, one of the outlying cities on the southwestern edge of Vienna proper is a small community known as Traisenkirche. They have become extremely well known for providing help and assistance to the many who have been seeking asylum as they escape the middle east. Much of this happened prior to the huge influx of refugees that have inundated the European Union and its neighbors in the past few weeks. More on that below. But out of gratitude for their help, their was an official musical recognition conducted yesterday afternoon by the government prior to the stake beginning their own recognition ceremonies later in the evening. We happened to read about it in a newspaper that is occasionally delivered free at our door and noted that the Vienna Choir Boys were one of those featured on the program. We have wanted to hear them for the entire time we've been here but their performances are either always on Sunday mornings when we're in church, or on Friday evenings when we're involved with our Waffle Night. So this looked like a heaven-sent opportunity as they were scheduled for a Saturday at 1:30 PM. The only secret was to find out exactly where Traisenkirche was and how we could best get there. It was only two weeks ago that we had finally made a trip to a famous mall the elders like to visit because it contains a department store where suits are extremely inexpensive. It is most easily reached on a commercial cross between a streetcar and a train but is located outside of our usual travel zone for which we have a purchased year's card. It seemed to us that we had noted Traisenkirche as one of the stops on this line but about 15 miles further down the line from the shopping center. So we checked it out, arrived at the proper stop and walked about three blocks to the big plaza where it was all taking place, arriving at 1:20 and even finding a place to sit down and enjoy the show.
We even got a few short recordings which we'll share sometime when we get home. So the Lord has blessed us with getting to hear the Vienna Choir Boys and the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra which we got to hear at the beginning of the summer, both completely free of charge!
Even though we don't spend a lot of time keeping up with current events, it's been hard not to become aware of the thousands of refugees streaming out of the middle east. It seems like Austria is surrounded by many of the countries where people come. Initially they seek asylum in Hungary or Slovenia but most are really trying to get to Germany and although Hungary and Slovenia, Greece and Turkey initially tried to slow them down or stop them, they eventually decided it was easier to just let them head through. The result was a huge influx that hit Austria all at once. 1200 extra policemen were put on duty to regulate them and all seemed essentially headed for the train stations. The EU is still trying to figure out an equitable way to divide them up between the various member nations but in the meantime it has really created problems for those of us contemplating leaving Austria, as we are when we head to Switzerland the middle of next week. We have the great opportunity of driving with a new couple who were just assigned to Graz where we did apartment inspections a couple of weeks ago. But the word is there may be a 2-4 hour delay if we travel through Salzburg, our initial route. Our transferred elders this week found out they couldn't even get a train from Austria to Germany as they all stop in Salzburg. The mission had to send out a van to pick them up and deliver them on the other side of the border with long waiting times. So we're currently working on a southern route that would take us through Innsbruck on the south and then directly through a brief route in Italy and on into Switzerland which isn't accepting any of the refugees, not being a member of the EU. We think it will still take us longer but the scenery ought to be really beautiful as we head into the Fall colors. Stay tuned for a full report next week.
[Sister Parker] Every week seems to hold its own adventures and concerns. I was very pleased that we found the little city where the Vienna Boys Choir were singing. It's been on the top of my Vienna list for quite awhile. This was really quite a spur of the moment decision to go out and find it and we were blessed. This week was also Transfer Day and we sent off some long time sweet missionaries and welcomed in some brand new ones. Going to West Bahnhof also took us passed some of the Syrian refugees and my heart goes out to them. There was a family kind of crowded around their bags and belongings, including Grandma, Grampa, the parents and a few children and they all looked so disheartened. Its not like they wanted to be up rooted from their life but here they are as a result of violence and civil war. You just can't help but want to rescue them, but the only way is through the government here. So we pray for them and donate what we can, believing that the Lord has brought them out of their countries for a reason. We are so blessed to already have the gospel of Jesus Christ in our lives. Let us truly live its principles in our families and share them with others, that they my see the inner peace and joy we have.
HUGS AND PRAYERS,
Grammy, Grampa, Mom, Dad, Elder and Sister Parker
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