D&C 53:7

To Our Dear and Beloved Family,

     The end has finally come and there is nowhere else to go that doesn't get us gradually closer to home. Since we last wrote we have been living in the lap of luxury which has given us much greater access to the social media we all love and thrive on. We had several lovely nights saying goodbye to dear and cherished friends, YSA's, investigators as we rounded up our last events. Although a few came to each of our last events, for many it was the final farewell at the Friday Waffle Night, the Home Evening, the language course on Tuesday and the big finale at Institute on Wednesday. There were so many hugs and embraces that we can't imagine it being any better than marching into paradise. Even though our bags were essentially all packed, we still were given some presents that we had to find places for and Sister Parker managed to squeeze in one last shopping spree to pick up a few special items that have already appeared in the stores. The great Christmas markets are all starting up this next weekend but will have to do so without us.

     

     Here we have two engaged couples, three investigators and the stake YSA leader who all helped to give us a resounding send off. The next morning it was off to the main train station where we headed north to Prague and two free nights at the Sheraton Hotel with some credits earned from our time shares with their system. What a great city. We enjoyed Wenceslas Square, named after the famous and kindly king who is as rightly revered as the Christmas carol celebrates, a beautiful castle high over the Vltava River and a long famous bridge over the river full of sculptures and history dating back into the middle ages. One of the reformers, 100 years before Luther, who was thrown off the bridge for his heresy, reputedly had five stars leap from the water as he hit the river. To touch the sculpture representing the event brings one the fulfillment of his best wish, but be careful, for it's a one time only deal! Sister Parker went first and kindly passersby informed us that your foot and other hand had to be placed correctly hence the first try and the corrected try.

There were lots of performers and musicians on the bridge and one man was particularly so moving with his violin playing that we noticed he wasn't just placing his violin case out for donations but was also selling some CD's of his work. We bought a CD from Karel Jakoubek that we have already listened to twice that is just lovely and will be a lasting memory of our walk across the bridge. 

Next was an opportunity to get some real Czech food near a famous 500 year old astrological clock. Chicken skewers cooked on the spot with the Czech version of french fries which were really yummy. A few more souvenirs were picked up for you guys and we walked past the last remnant of the gate from the old wall through which Maria Theresia from Vienna drove through with her carriage when she was crowned Queen of Bohemia back in the 1700's. Then back to the hotel to get ready for a long train ride the next day to Budapest.

     Here we met Elder and Sister Peterson serving in the Hungary Budapest Mission and with whom we had served in a singles ward bishopric back in Highland and who was still serving with a different bishop when Benj was in the ward.

  

We had the opportunity to enjoy church meetings today in a ward that meets in the same building shared with the mission office and the mission home. Then they hosted us to a delightful Sunday dinner and a guided tour up to the castle where King Stephan had introduced Christianity to the country back in the middle ages. Become a Christian or die he had said...sounds similar to what's going on in the middle east today. It was a rainy night but the lights were lovely and we all thought it was better than Disneyland.

The Danube flows through the middle of the city on its way from Vienna to the Black Sea and tonight we were on the Buda side with the Pest side across the way. That's in the works for tomorrow and then Tuesday we'll hop back in the train and head back to Vienna to make our final preparations for the 17 hour flight home the next day. We'll see how much of our luggage gets lost as we change planes twice, once in Frankfurt and again in Denver.

  It's all so hard to believe that in a couple of days we'll be home again. That day seemed so far away when we began, but now seems to close. We have truly come to enjoy our missionary days and the many young people that we have gotten to know. We have loved them all and it's hard to say so many good-byes to people who are so dear and some whom we probably won't see again. But we have "FaceBook" hopefully to keep us in touch. We are excited to see you all again and to look for some new adventures.

   Try to keep the weather nice, and we will see you on Wednesday evening.

        HUGS AND PRAYERS,  

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

How does one live without Internet?

Well guys, this is really it. 

We have picked up our successors, the Neugebauers, about 72 hours ago and have been busy showing them all there is to see and do here. As a consequence, we moved out of our apartment and into one we have set up and furnished for a couple who haven't yet arrived but is not furnished with WiFi. Sunday, although we had some contact at church it wasn't conducive to getting off a letter and yesterday the Internet wasn't working at the Center.  Thanks to a good technical brother, it's working today and so we can dash off a real quickie.

  

Today has been absolutely wonderful with a zone training meeting that gave us a chance to say goodbye to most of the elders and sisters we have known who are still in the zone and tonight at our language courses, we've had the opportunity to say goodbye to lots of others we've gotten to know and love well. 

Tomorrow is our final Institute Council meeting which we'll let the Neugebauers really represent us, but it will also be a good chance to bow out as we co-teach our last lesson with the replacements and our good brother from the International Ward. It will be a nice way to end the mission and then the next day we're on the train to Prague for a couple of days. Saturday night we'll arrive in Budapest to meet a Senior Couple with whom we worked in our Single Adult Ward back in Highland and they're going to show us around there for a couple of days. Then it's back to Wien where we're hopefully going to be completely packed and ready to hit the airport for a long 17 hour flight. It'll be 7 PM for you guys but 3AM the next day for us so be tolerant. We'll see if our luggage makes it through Frankfurt, Denver and then eventually to Salt Lake.

  

We have absolutely loved it here and will probably look forward to doing something similar again in the future. No pictures this time but we've taken tons of them today, mostly of faces dear to us.

Mom says Hi and we'll be seeing you all soon.  There is an outside chance that we might dash something off from Budapest this Sunday if we can't find anything else to do that night.  

Love you all, keep the faith and we'll be seeing you soon.

Love, 

Mom and Dad, 

Grammy and Grampa, 

Elder and Sister Parker

True--False: The Last Transfer

Dear Family,

Once again another week has rolled around and each seems to get busier than the one before. Even Sister Parker has now become aware of how close things are getting. Is it fair to say we're getting trunky if we start packing the trunks? It's amazing how much one can accumulate in just 18 months but we've now sent off two big boxes of stuff we don't want to put into the luggage and have one of our four large suitcases essentially packed and ready to go.

We spent a half day finishing up the apartment for the new family history couple that are arriving at some indeterminate time. Elder Parker spent 2-3 hours putting the IKEA purchased bed together, after correctly getting all the parts together and even got the bedding on it prior to Sister Parker's arrival as she was finishing a few things up in our apartment. He didn't admit until later that he'd forgotten the fitted sheet over the mattress and had to undo a few things to get back to that step but it really looked pretty good,in many respects we think it's nicer than the apartment we've been living in for the past year and a half.

We've been attempting to get an arrival date out of the mission office as to exactly when the family history couple is going to come but haven't been so advised as of yet. Our replacements, the Neugebauers, are supposed to arrive sometime this coming Friday and we definitely have to be moved out by then so they can move in. Our predecessors, the Strongs, stayed in a hotel for several days so we could move in without delay and we're secretly hoping we can move into the new apartment for a few days instead of going the hotel route. We certainly wouldn't mind having access to laundry and all the comforts we have now provided rather than having to live out of a commercial room, (though admittedly the included breakfast in the morning does sound tempting.)  

In the meantime the normal activities have just been blazing along!  We set a new record for the language courses on Tuesday and Thursday with a lot of new people coming in and Wednesday night Institute topped out at 46 plus a few stray adults walking around, augmented by 14 more after we included the young mothers and the young marrieds who come on Thursday morning and evening.  Friday we lit up the Jack o Lanterns we made a week ago and had a couple of rousing sessions of Halloween Bingo totaling 29 people of whom 6 were investigators. It really seems like the work is rolling along and it will be exciting to give a good report to our replacements.

.

Today was, of course, Fast and Testimony meeting and we decided to go to the International Ward. There was a combined Priesthood/Relief Society meeting led by the Bishop and a great Sunday school class afterwards. We have 4 new returned missionaries coming home this month, two of whom are already here and one of whom blessed the sacrament and gave the closing prayer in Sacrament meeting today. We hope he will be an enthusiastic encourager for the other young adults in the ward as they seem to be the only group we haven't been able to reach. They've even assigned a co-teacher as related last week from that ward. However he was in church today with his 6 children (four of whom are red-heads!) as his wife is heading to the States this week so he has his hands full and won''t be able to help out until next week. By then we'll have the Neugebauers in the trenches and we can probably get ready for our departure the next morning.

Everything seems to be in order. We have some good info on Prague but were a little concerned about exactly what we wanted to see in Budapest. We may have reported a couple of weeks ago that we received a lovely letter from the Area YSA couple who visited us on a Europe-wide tour to meet with all of the senior YSA couples. They included pictures of their visits with each couple and we were quite sure that the couple in Budapest were well known to us. We gave them a call this week and confirmed that we had previously both served together in a bishopric when our stake first initiated its singles ward. Acting on the Area supervisor's recommendations we obtained reservations at a hotel that we are now told is within walking distance of the church and they both live just across the street from the church. They have offered to show us around a bit so that reduces our anxieties considerably about what to see and do in Budapest and we will attend church with them on the 15th prior to our return and arrival in Vienna on the 17th. The next morning we will make the really big move and arrive the evening of the 18th, again at 6:58 on a United flight out of Denver.

  

For those reading this who may not know, our homecoming is scheduled for 10 AM on the 29th in the Highland 2nd Ward now meeting in a new location from where we held our farewell. The address is 10494 North 4720 West in Highland. Come up or down 4800 West by the Mount Timpanogos Temple or the American Fork Canyon road (11000 North) and turn on Ole Bish Lane.

[Sister Parker] Truly, it is hard to believe that we will not be in this apartment next Sunday. And although this apartment is small, it does seem there is a lot to do to get it all shined up for the new couple. There is just no time to wash the curtains, the rugs and shine the tile walls while still trying to live your daily missionary life. I now empathize with those missionaries who are cleaning out their apartments for transfer days and still need to do the missionary work. Oh well, we all just do the best we can.

     Today was another good-bye time with the members in the International Ward. It really is marvelous the way we have instant ward family everywhere we go around the world, and they are people who are faithful in the Lord, Jesus Christ. We have finally come to know members in every ward that are special to us. We love them all and will miss them. With our young singles, I also feel like a mother hen who is about to leave her little ones alone in the nest, not knowing for sure just how they will fair. Of course, they will be fine, and of course they are all on "Facebook", and I've reassured them the next couple will also love them. It's that, they just keep tugging at my heart strings. But I'm ready and excited to see my grandchildren and children again.

      Now as we travel around Vienna on the Bahns, I'm thinking this may be the last time I see this or that. The weather has been beautiful lately, so we are enjoying our last few days and being sentimental.

  

HUGS AND PRAYERS, 

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