Salzburg, St. Peters and New Mission President

Dear family,

Another interesting week to report on.  Our new mission president and his family have arrived (picture included below) and they've been making the rounds through our very geographically large mission to at least interview everyone once.  

President and Sister Kohler and family

Our whole zone which includes Vienna, Wiener Neustadt, Graz and Linz had the opportunity to travel to Salzburg for a get-to-know-you zone conference and that was a whole new experience.  I have been to Salzburg twice as a tourist, once with Rusty, but both many years ago so this was a very quick trip indeed.  We were up at the crack of dawn with tickets purchased the day before and met about 20 elders at the train station for a 7:30 AM departure, getting us to the main train station in Salzburg by about 10:15.  From there we had to take a half hour bus trip to the chapel where the conference was being held.  This poor little lady waiting at the bus stop was surrounded by all these young men in suits and ties and I told her how special she was to be included in the group.  The bus went through the center of town, giving us a glimpse of the Hohensalzburger Schloss or castle noteworthy from "The Sound of Music" but that was about as close as we got to anything familiar.  

The chapel was way out on the edge of town in a fairly isolated little suburb and while we were enroute, the President and his family were interviewing the missionaries from the Salzburg Zone who didn't have as far to travel.  As we all arrived, we went into the meeting portion of the conference with President Kohler and his wife both speaking along with their 16 year old senior high school son and their 13 year old junior high school daughter also participating.  They have an older daughter already serving a mission in Japan who will join them briefly after her release before she returns to BYU.  There son will likely leave on a mission from here in a little over a year when he turns 18.  He plays the trumpet and offered a little musical interlude playing the "Trumpeter's Lullaby". Their daughter has a lovely voice, apparently being asked to sing the National Anthem at one of the baseball games at BYU and the whole family sang a song where she was featured prominently.  

Sister Kohler offered her testimony in German and did a nice job, having had one semester of German 101 at BYU where President Kohler has been employed at the MTC for many years.  He was on the ground floor for the making of the District videos and was also involved in the whole evolution of Preach My Gospel.  Quite accomplished for a reasonably young man.  He gave us some excellent advice on how to be more effective missionaries that we thought was quite impressive, especially spiritually.  He mentioned that the church is seriously considering having each missionary purchase a mini-I-Pad at the beginning of their mission to use as an effective proselyting tool and that this is anticipated to be started by the end of this year.  We'll wait for further announcements but senior couples can do that already as you are aware from those of you who have already face-timed with us.

The trip back to Vienna took the rest of the day and we missed the first train we were scheduled to leave on because we were the next to last couple to be interviewed. We had both met President Kohler while we were at the MTC but the seniors were last on the list and one of the other senior couples who live in Salzburg and have a car graciously gave us a lift to the train station so we could catch up with all the elders who had left earlier on the bus. We got back to Vienna by around 7:30 PM and felt it was still an opportunity to be uplifted as well as see the Austrian countryside as we traveled back and forth.

The rest of the week was reasonably routine, teaching the Institute class on Wednesday to about 8 BYU students and one Mexican young man who prefers English over German. This has been a wonderful opportunity to go in depth into a few gospel subjects for an hour each week. Grammy is getting really good at tickling the palates of the Young Adults with her Monday night meals prior to Family Home Evening where this week, I was on to lead a discussion about eternal marriage and our one little investigator from Kazakhstan has really come on strong loving to cook waffles with us on Friday's. She's now committed to be baptized but wants to do it at home with her family.  She knows there's a branch of the church in her home town and we went on line to see if we could figure out which mission she would be in.  Turns out it's the Russian Novosibirsk Mission and the whole country is blessed with 240 total members.  We've been telling her what a pioneer she's going to be. We were all tickled during one of her discussions this week when she realized that if Jesus is the Son of God, and she's a daughter of God then they must be Geschwister (brother and sister)!:)

Yesterday we went on our second of 8 great walks around Vienna, the book written by the BYU professor about 7 years ago.  We found (or didn't find) only one of the spots he recommended which has apparently been renovated but now know where the ancient Roman ruins of Vindebona were located, the forerunner to modern Vienna and near the great St. Stephens church we visited last week. Not too far away we stumbled on quite an impressive church in a very small little plaza, modeled on St. Peter's in Rome, with the same name and quite lovely inside (though we are cautioned by 1 Nephi 13:8) which contains some interesting skeletal remains of early martyred saints who were uncovered in the catacombs of Rome and transported to the church for appropriate deification.  

 St. Peter's Church and below one of the martyred saints from the catacombs of Rome.

We also found the oldest church in Vienna and found that we pass it on the streetcar at least twice a day though it's quite a ways up on a hill.  It overlooks the site of the old headquarters of the Gestapo during the Third Reich where there is now a memorial to the many Jews who were killed there or transported to concentration camps where many were eventually killed.  

Quite nearby is a present day synagogue near the old Jewish ghetto where many Jews were exterminated by the Austrians back in the 1400's as well as in the second World War.  There is now a memorial there placed over the site of the original synagogue with a tribute to the estimated 65,000 Jews who were killed under Hitler, an original Austrian.  There is a very contrite and sincere apology there inscribed from the Catholic church and the Austrian government for the horrible events that transpired during these two episodes.  We get the impression from "The Sound of Music" that the Austrians were not happy about the German Anschluss though the vote was 99.27% in favor of it.  However it must be noted that there were many who were not allowed to vote either by being imprisoned, or as with the Von Trapp family, leaving Austria if the opportunity presented itself. But enough of all these political statements.  Grammy had some tender moments this week as she helped teach with the sisters.

(This is a picture of the memorial near the site of the old Gestapo headquarters.  It might be worth it to get someone who understands German to translate it.  If you push us we can do it for you. :))

(Sister Parker) -We were teaching a young lady who is quite sophisticated and has been through some difficult times in her life. She was quite touched by the teachings in the 2nd Lesson or the Plan of Salvation. She was so moved by the teachings of the Savior and His taking upon him our sins so that we could begin again with a new start, that she had to leave the room to bring her emotions under control. It was sweet to bear witness of these things and to know that she felt the spirit so strongly. After the lesson, she and a friend stayed for the institute class that began later that evening. Here the teacher talked about bringing our will to the Father's and that a loving Heavenly Father had a mission or individual plan for everyone. Again she felt overcome with emotion and had to leave the room for awhile. She gave me two big hugs before she left. 

Also, our young friend the sisters are teaching had a sweet moment of revelation as she discovered her relationship to the Savior. She has had no real understanding of religious things outside of traditions passed down from generation to generation. So the sisters were delighted when she said, wait a minute, Jesus is the son of God, right? And I am a daughter of God, right? So that makes us brother and sister doesn't it. They all felt joy in the moment of discovery.  All in all it is great being a part of the missionary work and having so many of the elders bringing their investigators to the center to teach them. We get to talk with them and to feel the sweet spirit that is present. This keeps us going through rain storms, carrying groceries through Subways, checking apartments, buying new washers, etc, for the elders, hanging out our clothes in the apartment to dry, and trying to find Austrian substitutes for items in my recipes.

All our love, 

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

An Austrian 4th of July

Dear Family,

It has been another great week in the work here in Austria. Grammy really outdid herself in the meal she cooked on Monday with Sloppy Joe"s and a yummy Peach Cobbler for dessert!.  Then on Tuesday for district meeting we had to present a 10 minute contribution on the keys of the restoration, emphasizing the Book of Mormon as the Key to Conversion and listed all the great Book of Mormon references to each of the discussions that are taught investigators out of Preach My Gospel.  Then Wednesday we began Summer Institute where I'm still teaching an English class for as long as we have YSA's who don't speak any German.  They primarily come from BYU and the group here presently will be here until the end of the month when I'll likely be off the hook. We do have a couple of folks who come from outside the country like Mexico or Iran and whose German is poor enough that they prefer to learn the gospel in English so we'll see what happens when BYU leaves but for now we're teaching the Doctrines of the Gospel for up to 13 weeks.  

Our Tuesday and Thursday language classes, taught by the missionaries as an investigator finding tool are going quite well with people coming in from Serbia, Italy, Spain, Ukraine, and Russia among others, most wanting to learn German but not a few wishing to freshen up their English.  I met a woman off the street a week ago while we were there for a rare Saturday opening during the closing festivities for Institute who heard the Joseph Smith story from me, accepted a Book of Mormon and has now been back twice, making a little progress and I think probably with quite a bit of interest in the church.  Our young lady from Kazakhstan who spent a year in Taylorsville going to church every week with her host family and now studying at the University of Vienna has really come on strong with our sister missionaries, loves cooking waffles (picture included) and has now indicated she wants to be baptized, but only in Kazahkstan where she knows we have a branch of the church in her home city so she can introduce the gospel to her family.

For our waffle night on Friday, Grammy decided she would celebrate properly with cupcakes frosted like the American flag, which let the sisters take over and finish the making the flag.  Grandpa thought it was lovely because there was plenty of frosting between all the empty spaces between the cupcakes though he had to take a little flak from Grammy for partaking too freely.

One of our responsibilities is to take care of the physical needs of the 9 apartments the missionaries live in here in Vienna.  One of them is really hurting with some water seeping from the shower into the walls and we've had trouble finding out who the landlord is to come in and see if it can be fixed.  We had a refrigerator that wasn't working but once the elders found out how to defrost it, it  began to function again.  Lastly was a non working washing machine which somehow had been squeezed into a spot between a sink and a shower that necessitated it being lifted up and over the sink to get it out.  Anyway we went to the apartment, measured the space, bought a replacement and with the help of a member with a car, got it picked up and delivered and re-wedged into its proper location again.  All kinds of new skills we wouldn't have guessed we'd need.  That was the beginning of our P day on Saturday.  We spent the rest of the day doing our own wash and hanging the clothes out around the apartment and then spent the rest of the day really going over the main cathedral here in Vienna known as St. Stephens. 

We found a great little book in the apartment left behind by one of the previous couples and written by a BYU professor entitled "8 Great Walks around Vienna." It started with St. Stephens and led us to little mysteries like the mysterious "5" written on one of the walls, symbolizing the fifth letter of the alphabet which of course is "e".  If you add the "e" to the O which starts out the German name for Austria, you get Oesterreich, literally Eastern Kingdom and it became a symbol for the Austrian resistance to the Third Reich in World War II.  There was also a small chapel where the mortal remains of Mozart were laid after he died prior to his being buried in a pauper's grave, and sure enough, on the inside, a nice painting over the high altar symbolizing the stoning of Stephen, who looked up into heaven and saw Jesus standing on the right side of the Father.  Take that! Nicene creed!  The steeple on the church was at the time it was built, the reason it was the tallest building in the world.  It still is the tallest steeple in Vienna and I found that a church just down the street from us about a two minute walk has the third tallest steeple in Austria.  Lots of quite amazing Gothic architecture.

Today we visited the last of the five wards that are close by in Vienna and knew many of the young people who have visited the center.  We were able to make some important contacts, one with a man who may be able to help us with the hurting apartment mentioned above.  The first counselor conducting asked us if we would be willing to share our testimonies prior to the meeting and although Grammy gulped, she was the first one up with me following and did a very nice job for the first time at least on this mission of bearing her testimony to a congregation in German.  I was very proud of her. The weather here is getting quite warm again, up to 90 degrees over the weekend and it's a bummer wearing a coat and tie around but we do it for the glory of the Lord! Our new mission president has arrived and on Tuesday the entire zone travels to Salzburg to meet him and his family, be interviewed and have lunch before travelling back again.  I guess we'll close the center that day though we should make it back by around 6 or 6:30 so we'll see how it goes.

I think Elder Parker covered just about everything that happened this week. It makes us very tired every day. Here are a couple of pictures of our sister missionaries and our little investigator. We have a lot of fun together and they are very dear to me. Glad to see some of the pictures of the balloon fest. Hope you all had a great 4th Celebration. Enjoy your air conditioning. It is hot here too, but our air is from fan and windows. It works.  

Love You All, mom, dad, grammy, grampa--Elder & Sister Parker

Institute Closes for the Summer

Dear Family,   

As you all start preparing for the big summer reunions, we are going through some milestones as well. Grandpa has been teaching an Institute class on Wednesday nights and this past week was a review of the last quarter and the final formal week before everyone adds up their credits and moves on.  We had a quite interesting time reviewing all sorts of interesting things that the Pearl of Great Price teaches us that aren't so well explained in other scriptures plus had a little fun like asking everyone questions like if Methuselah lived longer than any other person in mortality how come his father lived longer than he did?

Yesterday was a big party and outing to commemorate the closure of the school year.  We started out with an hour's train ride early on a Saturday morning to an outlying ward known as Wiener Neustadt. We'd been there once before just a couple of weeks ago but still managed to head off by foot for 45 minutes in the wrong direction. Luckily they had our phone number and sent a car to rescue us so we could help put together a lovely brunch before they had a nice commemorative meeting and then headed out on a lovely hike up a watery course filled with waterfalls known as Myrafaelle.  I've attached a few photos to give you an idea plus some shots of the young people we deal with on a daily basis.  After three or four hours of hiking and playing games we came back to Vienna to the YSA Center to watch Brazil finally beat Chile in a long drawn out soccer match in the World Cup while Grammy worked for quite a while preparing open faced sandwiches for everyone to eat for dinner. She also helped prepare about a hundred and fifty tacos that were served after a special Singles ward sacrament meeting that was held in the center today as part of the Institute certificate passing out ceremonies. It was a busy lovely time and we didn't get much of a P day in this week.  Family Home Evening is tomorrow night and we'll see if anyone is still hanging around but we had people in from as far away as Salzburg, Linz, Klagenfurt and even met the senior couple who work in Salzburg who had driven in to support about six or eight of their youth who had come too.

We're also learning about some of our other responsibilities like replacing or repairing broken washing machines, stoves, refrigerators in the missionaries' apartments etc. which seems to have jumped on us all together. We've priced some replacements but it was hard to raise the mission office personnel as we just lost President and Sister Miles a few days ago to be replaced by President and Sister Kohler.They are all busy getting them oriented and moved in so we'll try them again tomorrow to see if we can finish all of that up.

On the more typical missionary side of things, because we were at the center on the weekend which we typically aren't we just happened to get all kinds of passerby who stopped in to check on our free language courses.  I met one lady who really wants to learn English but seemed very curious about the church.  Were we Catholic, Lutheran?  I explained to her that we were the restored Church of Jesus Christ and ended up sharing the Joseph Smith story with her and talked about the importance of the Book of Mormon in our religion.  She graciously accepted a copy which I gave her and said she'd be back on Tuesday when we offer the classes.  On the same day, Grammy had the opportunity to teach a lesson with one of the sister missionaries and also felt she could handle the German pretty well, at least enough to bear her testimony also about the Book of Mormon.  The other two sisters had a lesson at the same time and they were really having a booming day with 7 lessons given in all.  It was quite a busy day and we'll see how the coming week goes. Our washing machine broke down briefly and Grammy was the ace who figured out how to go online for repair instructions which worked very well and we're getting our washing finally done after sitting around in wet wash baskets for about 2-3 days.

I guess Warren and Marilyn Clark should be home by now and we're excited to hear about all of their experiences.  We've been watching a few of their lovely pictures on Facebook as they have posted them. Everybody have a great 4th of July.  It will be Waffle Night for us so we think we'll do red white and blue waffles somehow, maybe with strawberries, whipped cream and blueberry toppings or something like that!

    (From Mom) Lest you should think that I am really awesome, I don't handle all that cooking and preparing by myself, only dinner on Mondays and Friday night Waffles. For the Institute activities there are a couple of other sisters who are in charge and I just help them out as much as I can and enjoy, talking and sharing things about every day life with them. We have fun laughing over my German-English and whatever it takes to understand each other.  They have all ready become "dear to me", as have the sister missionaries. The sisters are teaching German and gospel lessons to the young woman we met from Kazahkstan.  She has come to Waffle Night on Fridays and likes helping me with one of the sister missionaries. She loves waffles and making them. Last Friday I let her mix up all the batches and do most of the cooking; she is great at making big fluffing ones.  She has also become my dear little friend (she is small) and on Saturday while having a lesson with the sisters, she said she was thinking about baptism. We are all so happy about that. 

    As Dad said, yesterday and today was the Institute closing. So we took an hour train ride to one of our outer wards, helped fix Brunch, and then went on a great hike to some water falls. After the whole party moved to our Center for dinner, which is really "abend brot ", meaning we had open face sandwiches that we helped to fix. It was rather chaotic but a lot of fun for the young adults who played games & watched the world soccer games. But while that was going on one of the Sis. Missionaries asked me to help teach a discussion to an investigator with her because her other 2 companions were already teaching in another room. It was my first real teaching missionary experience even mostly in German. It was a sweet tender mercy the Lord gave me to feel the spirit of the work and to show me I could do it.  I was a able to share some thoughts & testimony in German. I felt blessed.  

Love you all and hope you have a great 4th of July and getting together for family reunion. 

Mom, Dad, Grammy, Grampa (Oma and Opa) -- Elder and Sister Parker

7 Bishops and a Stake President

Liebe Familie,

Well, it has been another great week.  We really feel like we're getting our feet on the ground now.  Monday night your mother made great Poppy Seed chicken Casserole  from scratch for about 25 people and when only about half that many showed up, she was able to freeze the second batch for another evening coming up.  Everyone remarked on how great it tasted.  For Friday with the waffles we had a better showing than the previous week when everyone was involved in finals. The World Cup is on as some of you soccer fans may know and the stake has opted to set up a video transmitter so we can show two or three of the games every night.  We see them live from Rio de Janeiro and I think we're only about 5 hours ahead of Brazil so it isn't too late in the evening.

We have a new BYU group that came in this past week, all music students again with a french horn player, several piano and violin students and one older woman with 5 kids who used to be a member of the Tabernacle Choir and is looking for permission from the Stake President to get into the chapel and practice the organ.  So far we haven't been able to contact him but I'm working through one of his counselors who has contacts with our Institute Advisory Council and the Youth Center to see if it can be arranged.  At any rate I was humming a few bars of this great french horn solo from one of Beehoven's symphonies which impressed him and so then I had to sing him several lines from the chorale symphony (#9) which I memorized years ago in German (O du schoene Goetter funken, Tochter aus Elysium, wir betreten feuertrunken, himmlishce dein Heiligtum.)  Well you get the idea and have had enough of it I'm sure but we became fast friends.

He has been attending my class on the Pearl of Great Price which is given on Wednesday nights at Institute.  We have been talking about Moroni's visits on September 22-23, 1823 out of Joseph Smith-History and we discussed the fact that one of the scriptures cited by Moroni at that time Joel 2:28-32 was cited by Moroni as not yet fulfilled but soon would be.  I then commented that President Hinckley had indicated in General Conference following the 9-11 attacks, that that prophecy had now been fulfilled.  He looked it up and emailed me the exact quote from October Conference.  It turns out that he served a mission in Russia and last Friday was very actively involved in a discussion with a young lady we have introduced to the center who comes from Kazahkstan and is here studying in Vienna.  She had spent a year in Taylorsville as a foreign exchange student, speaks excellent English but needs to brush up on her German now that she's here and we told her we offered both English and German courses free of charge at the center on Tuesdays and Thursdays.  She's been having such a good time that she decided to come to waffle night as well, speaks fluent Russian from her days when Kazahkstan was part of the Soviet Union and they fell into an  animated conversation which was joined by a recent convert to the church who spent quite some time in Ukraine. I just sat and listened to the three of them as they talked, enjoying it immensely but not understanding anything that was said. The Ukrainian young man told us he was just baptized in April and that discussion led into my asking him what priesthood he now held.  Turns out he hadn't yet been ordained to any priesthood and so we're now encouraging him to get to priesthood meeting, arrange a visit with the Bishop and see if he can't become at least an Aaronic Priesthood holder before much more time passes.  I somehow doubt that any of this is coincidental so it's nice to know we're having an impact beyond just cooking for the Young Adults.  By the way, our young lady from Kazahkstan tried her hand for the first time at cooking waffles and turned out to be a natural!

Today we decided to visit the only ward we hadn't yet been to since our arrival, and became aware that they were celebrating their 40th year as a ward and the 30th year since they had moved into their new ward house.  They had a special meeting which went two hours and was attended by many who at one time or another had been in the ward.  Speakers included three sisters and 7 of the brothers all of whom had been a bishop in the ward at one time or another including the present bishop and then the Stake President concluded the meeting.  It was really a wonderful two hours of how the church grows and progresses.  Two of the bishops mentioned how recently they had joined the church when they had been called as bishops.  One of them had only been endowed for six months when he was called and made the comment that the seminary students knew the gospel better than he did.  So as a result, for 4 of the 5 or so years he was bishop, he took early morning seminary with the youth in his ward so he'd have a better chance to know the details of the gospel.  After the meeting, I was talking with one of the old bishops who commented further that he had been called as a branch president before he'd even been to the temple and yet was interviewing many of his members for temple recommends.  Ah the pioneer spirit was alive and well today. They had  a special box they wanted everyone to leave a message in and they were going to seal it up and then open it again in 30 more years.  So we wrote how fortunate it was for us to be in the ward for the first time on their 40th anniversary!   Doubt anyone will remember us 30 years from now but I have every expectation that we'll have faced the Second Coming by then.

Yesterday we took a little excursion on our P day up a small little mountain to the north of Vienna.  I'll include a few pictures of the wonderful view we had from the top. Along the way we stumbled upon 3 of the 4 homes that Beethoven lived in and in the close neighborhood was a house that Einstein had lived in for about 7 years.  During the last week I noticed a tour guide stopping across the street from our Youth Center with about 15-20 people listening to his announcements.  After they left I walked  over and noticed that in the house across the street from where we've been working for a month, the Nobel Peace Prize winner in 1952 had lived, one Albert Schweizer.  So who would have ever known? Here's one of Beethoven's homes.

The lovely Danube River just before entering Vienna.  Below is the view looking downstream as it courses through the city proper.  

I don't know who that old guy is not wearing missionary attire but it was a hot day and a lot of climbing so that was the excuse.  

Love, Mom and Dad.

Locked in the Zentral Friedhof!

Dear Family:

Time for our weekly report from the beautiful city of Vienna.  According to our favorite son from Germany, Markus, Vienna is the city in all of Europe with the highest income, lowest poverty and most cleanly.  He reports that getting lost in Vienna, which we have done a few times is more of a great experience than something to worry about.  I think we would echo that.

This past week started off with a three day holiday as Europe in general and Austria in particular celebrated Pentecost.  I suspect the actual event of the apostles and the early Christian church experiencing the advent of the Holy Ghost is probably lost on most of the celebrants but a holiday is a holiday and we were happy to take some time to explore the city a bit as the Youth Center was closed because of the celebration.  It followed a lesser celebration but still noted of Christ's Ascension to Heaven which was the previous Thursday.  Most of the holidays seem oriented to significant events in the life of the Savior or the early church.  We can't hold a candle in the U.S. to events that are being advertised around the city and on various signs here and there, especially while waiting for a subway to come or such like one little city that is celebrating its 900th anniversary this summer.  Columbus wouldn't come along for another 378 years at that time!  So we decided we'd spend part of the day exploring the Central Cemetery which was anything but centrally located.  Still it was the Main Cemetery and we knew there was a section where many of the great musicians were buried such as Beethoven, Brahms, Strauss (both father and son), Schubert and even a nice memorial in the same section to Mozart who apparently was buried in a pauper's mass grave before the city and the world recognized him as someone we should cherish. 

Earlier in the day we walked about two blocks from the stop on the streetcar that we make every day on our way to the Youth Center to the People's Garden and the Citizen's Garden.  Both were very close but we'd never taken the time to walk through them.  Filled with beautiful flowers and flowering trees and fountains and a beautiful Grecian Temple originally built to house the sculpture of Theseus slaying the Centaur, (nope, I'd never heard of it before either) but it was impressive enough that they have now moved the sculpture to the main entrance of the Vienna Museum, which we won't make for a while.  But the temple was still there in the garden.  Vienna was in the middle of a heat wave with temperatures up in the 90's so we delayed our visit to the cemetery until later in the day.  We then took an S-Bahn which is faster than the U-Bahn or subway and it took us right to one of the main gates at the back of the cemetery, #11 to be precise.  There was in information office right there and the attendant was very nice in providing us a map of the entire city and showing us where the great musicians were located.  The cemetery was divided up into 183 sections not counting the New and the Old Jewish cemeteries and the Lutheran cemetery which were closely appended on both sides.  I figure the whole area probably encompassed about 4 square miles!

The musicians were primarily in section 32A, very near the center of the cemetery and although the map was largely in green there was a bright orange section, 57A to be exact, which really stood out and was designated the Mormon section.  Other sections were reserved for Islamists, Muslim-Egyptians, Buddhists, Greek Orthodox, Rumanian-Bulgarian Orthodox, well you get the idea.  But we were impressed at how well the Mormon section stood out on the map.  I'll include pictures of some of the sights we saw.  So we got to the cemetery about 5:30 or so with several hours of daylight left, got the map and found the graves of the great musicians without any big problem.  The Mormon section was about half way back to the gate we had entered and so we headed there with a lovely sculpture of the Savior with a family and an inscription around the base of the sculpture saying "I am the resurrection and the life. He that believeth in me though he were dead, yet shall he live."  We subsequently talked to a young man at the center who had helped do some of the landscaping there when he was a young Aaronic Priesthood holder.

We got back to our entry gate about 7:30 to find that the cemetery had closed and the gate was locked!  A young couple on bikes were just ahead of us and the sign indicated to get out we'd have to walk all the way across the cemetery, a distance of about a mile to get to gate 2.  They looked at us with some concern.  Could these old folks make it that far?  We assured them we could make it and they drove off on their bikes toward Gate 2.  About 15 minutes later we arrived to find Gate 2 was also locked!  These sweet young people had waited for us on the other side of the gate and sticking their hands through the gate motioned that we should go to our right to find the emergency exit.  That we did and we finally got out to find the couple gone. We were quite impressed that they had waited for us to arrive to make sure we were OK and we have found this is not atypical of the Viennese. Several times they announce on the streetcars or subways to be on the watch for old folks or handicapped people who might have greater need for your seat than you do.

Last Sunday we went to the Vienna First Ward where I was asked to say the opening prayer in Priesthood Opening Exercises and your mother was asked to say the opening prayer in Sacrament Meeting..  Then on Thursday we had our first Zone Conference and finally met our mission president and his wife, Pres. and Sister Miles.  She is a cousin of Tom Rohlfing and specifically asked to say hi to Laurel. Again I was asked to say the opening prayer at the conference so they're giving us a good workout.  They leave for home in 2 weeks about the same time that Warren and Marilyn will be leaving to return home but gave us an interview nonetheless with good advice about how to conduct ourselves as missionaries.  We've already met our new mission president, Brian Kohler who will be replacing them.  He comes with his wife and two children, a third serving a mission with a 17 year old who will likely leave from here while they're serving.  Their youngest daughter is 14. 

Friday nights are "Waffle Night" and we had yet to get through one of those as the last two Fridays were busy with other events.  Cooking here is always interesting because most is done from scratch as far as the baking is concerned.  We had never tried out the two waffle irons but the recipe seemed to work and two sets of missionaries came by expecting two investigators to come.  We had been warned that the turnout might be small because all of the young people who are studying were in the midst of final exams and we were right between two BYU groups, one of whom had just left and the other not coming until tomorrow.  So we got ready nonetheless and after some good advice from one of the elders about how to cook the ideal waffle, found that absolutely no one showed up!  So the six of us had a good time with our trial waffles which were really quite good.  No one believes in syrup here so we had interesting concoctions of caramel, Nutella, strawberry and currant sauces on our waffles. Well, will we ever be ready for next Friday when everyone is back.  

Love to all,   Elder and Sister Parker, Mom and Dad, Grammy and Grampa

Getting a taste of Vienna

Dear Family,

As we begin our third week here in Vienna, things seem to be settling down a bit. Thus far we've visited three of the seven wards here in Vienna with five of them quite easily reached and with two of them quite a ways away, (actually there's an eighth ward located in Graz, an entirely different city)  Today we'll visit the fourth of the five easy-to-get-to's.  We currently have a threesome of sisters working here in the city and two of them will be speaking today.  One is a native German who speaks excellent English in our private discussions but obviously has no problem with the language otherwise.

No sign of the lost briefcase. We did get a call from the Lost and Found indicating they had found two laptops, but neither one was ours so we've been reconstituting what we can from our iflashes.  I think we've figured out how to get pictures from our cell phones onto Mom's computer and we'll see if we can find one or two later on to attach to this email.

We've essentially been through just about everything at least once with the exception of a Friday night "Wafflenight".  We were spared that twice because of a couple of special events.  One was a forum on morality and sexuality especially for the Young Adults a week ago and the other was a special fireside with visiting general church leaders.  Sister Wixom, the president of the Primary and Sister Reeves, 2nd counselor in the Relief Society, along with Elder Kaeron who is the 70 in charge of the European Area came for a special meeting.  It was kind of neat for us because they all spoke English and were then translated into German so it helped us build our vocabulary. At any rate, both meetings were held on Fridays so we have yet to try out Grammy's hand at cooking waffles.  We met the senior couple from Graz prior to the meeting and they informed us that it's also the responsibility of the elder to cook waffles so I guess we'll have to try out my meager talents.

Last Thursday morning we attended our first Institute Advisory Council with a member of the Stake Presidency, the area supervisor over seminaries and institute, and three members of the YA advisory council.  We figured we picked up somewhere between a third and a half of what was being said but hopefully it will get better.  We generally understood what they were talking about but not much of the details as they spoke quickly and in detail.  They were planning special activities for the close of the institute year and we may get a chance to get down to one of those outlying wards which is centrally enough located for people who may be coming in from as far away as Salzburg as well as the folks from Graz and all the Vienna students.  They're planning on a hike up some scenic pathways with beautiful waterfalls apparently.  Then later in the day, everyone comes back to our youth center for further activities and apparently all want to see the ongoing World Master Cup finals in soccer which apparently takes place over several days.  I guess we'll figure out how to get it projected in the center by then.  All of this takes place at the end of this month.  There is an apparent conflict that day with a special festival presentation that always occurs at the end of the school year in Vienna in which numerous bands come for free concerts, and apparently it's an annual conflict with institute closing as well so it's a perennial problem no one has yet solved.  I guess we'll see what happens but it sounds like we're stranded to make sure everyone can see the soccer matches if they're willing to forego the free concerts.

It seems there have been lots of celebrations going on since we've been here.  I think the end of May is the annual Vienna Festival Week or Wienerfestwoche. Because our youth center is located right behind the big city hall or Rathaus we have the option of taking the subway which lands us right behind the city building or the streetcar which places us in front of it.  Generally we take the streetcar because its more direct with fewer transfers but a longer walk.  Since we've been here they've been setting up or tearing down and then setting up again for one celebration or another. I've included a picture we took one night between set ups when it was the best we'd ever seen with all the lights on. We spent part of our day off yesterday walking through all the displays and little shops set up on the Rathausplatz with lots of little yummy pastry shops and food stands hither and yon.  Everyone told me I'd put on 10 pounds the first week from all the yummy little pastry goodies everywhere.  Interestingly, we've been running so much from here to there that dinner was catch as catch can.  Our predecessors left us a scale and depending on how accurate it is, I actually weighed in initially at 98.6 kilos and then actually down to 95 kilos.  I'll let the mathematicians in the group figure it out but it calculates out to 8-9 pounds less than when I left.  I haven't weighed this little for 10-15 years.  I'd been losing some weight very little at a time over the past couple of years and before we left I actually put an extra hole in all my belts to cinch them up a little tighter.  I've had to add one more hole to two of my belts now because if I don't my pants would hang around my knees and that's certainly not proper for an elder!  We had an extra hour on Thursday and decided to just walk past the big cathedral in the center of town, St. Stephens Cathedral.  Because this is a big holiday weekend, celebrating Pentecost over a three day weekend, there were lots of tourists in town.  I presume that everyone is renting space from the Catholic Church but all around the cathedral were shops and craftsmen selling their wares. We didn't pursue it as we had no time but I'm sure we'll get back to it some time.

We're back now from church where we had quite a delightful time.  The ward made us feel quite at home.  One couple has a son at BYU Idaho who will be home in August after serving a mission in the states and he has a younger brother currently on a mission in Idaho as well.  Everyone generally speaks pretty passable English but they tolerate us trying to get our German going. I was asked to say the opening prayer in Priesthood opening exercises and Grammy, much to her dismay, was asked to say the opening prayer in Sacrament Meeting.  They don't want us to be idle!  She did a great job and everyone is quite impressed at how good her German is compared to the last several sisters who have preceded us.  We have also received an invitation to go to dinner tomorrow on the last day of the three-day holiday from a family in the ward we visited today.  They've also invited the sisters who spoke today so it should be fun.  Of all of the things I'm most impressed with here in Vienna, considering that we really haven't been to much yet, the top of the list is the water.  Boy is it great!  The Viennese brag about the fact that it comes directly from the Alps and I believe it.  No one makes ice cubes here but it doesn't matter because it flows cold and clear straight from the taps.  You can even get tap water at restaurants which was unheard of in northern Germany.  I can't seem to get enough of it. Well, I'll let Mom say a few words and we'll be back in touch next week.

I think Dad or Grandpa said it all but there are a few things of note. The washing machine is in our bathroom and is an interesting contraption. You open a metal door inside the washer, which opens into a rolling machine that you lock before turning the thing on.When it changes from wash to rinse or rinse to spin, it sounds like metal trash cans banging into each other. The spinning leaves the clothes dry enough to hang out in the room on collapsible drying racks and then you turn on a fan to help them finish drying, which of course takes until the next day. I also keep wanting to put the dishes into the dishwasher that isn't and to turn on the air conditioner which isn't. We take trams, buses, and subways to church, sometimes 3 different ones. Oh, it is such an adventure and we are having a good time. We don't stop to question why we are doing something. We just do it because it is what we are suppose to be doing and part of the mission experience. 

Love you All, 

Grammy and Grandpa, 

or Sister Parker and Elder Parker

First Week

Well, it looks like our first week has successfully come to a close.  We were hustled around for five days by our predecessors who were successful in showing us where 5 of the 7 ward houses are located as well as the missionary apartments that go with each one.  We ended up being pretty confused but have pretty good instructions as to how to get back to each one.  The Youth Center for which we have primary responsibilities is pretty nice and set up close to the center of the City Hall and the University of Vienna.  The young adults seem to like to come and socialize and they have three primary activities each week.  On Monday your Mom is primarily responsible for a meal that costs them each about a $2.00 fee and I guess I'm supposed to help out a bit though I'm busy as the set-up guy with all the tables and chairs and also being the cashier.  So far they've let our predecessors be the only responsible people on the cashier end which breaks one of the big no-no's in church policies of always having two people handle money but I guess we can be trusted and the rules and regs are pretty complete to document people and receipts for all expenditures.  

After the meal, one of the YA's is responsible for family home evening.  Apparently occasionally someone has fallen through in which case it's our opportunity to pull something together.  They have a lot of talent and virtually every one here has had English in school.  Though they certainly like speaking German, many get by very easily if we don't know how to express ourselves yet with helping us out a bit.  Today we met the couple responsible for the YA's for the entire mission.  They help supervise the seven stakes in the mission which include two in Austria, three in Switzerland and two in southern Germany.  Interestingly, the Swiss have really clamped down on foreign missionaries, primarily to hold back the Muslim influence and so Americans and others who are not of the EUA are not permitted to proselyte and can't get visas to do so.  Therefore all the missionaries there are from Germany, France, Spain, etc and even they are not allowed to tract or do any active proselyting.  It's all driven by the members.  At any rate our couple was very helpful in giving us some ideas about how to get started as a new couple and change up from what's been going on up until now.

Speaking of visas, still no sign of our missing briefcase with all of its important documents.  I think the laptop and hard drives we had there are probably long gone but the two credit cards that were tucked away were not used and have been cancelled.  We're still grieving over the lost documents but there's still hope that they might turn up.  We've registered with a couple of lost and found places and will really have our first chance to check back with them in the morning.  We were supposed to register within 3 days but the mission failed to give us an officially stamped form we need to do that.  We now have that in our possession as of today and should be able to officially register tomorrow.  After that we have 91 days to apply for our visas and hopefully we can have the necessary documents ready to go in that time.  We have to reregister at the end of a year but I don't think we have to reduplicate anything at that time.  We're still living on the money we took with us, most of which has gone to buying a year's pass on all the public transportation systems which has been really neat and the rest will go to the registration processes when we get there.  Eating hasn't been too expensive and so far we're living pretty well and actually losing a bit of weight.  As things settle down, we'll see if that changes!

Last Sunday, we visited the International Ward which was quite cosmopolitan with people from all over the globe who work here.  They use English as their basic language so it was an easy start.  Today we visited the other ward which meets in the same building which happens to be the Stake Center.  We've met the Stake President Friday night at a Youth Forum which they have planned for some time and which went Friday evening and Saturday morning.  We basically helped with the physical set up and your mom worked to help the sister who was doing all the cooking as her basic calling in the church.  She also helps on Wednesdays at the Youth Center where they have institute classes followed by a meal and where we have the responsibility to teach a class in English.  Our class is attended by the BYU students who come and go on the study abroad programs but even they have their own schedules and aren't always there.  The others are all basically Austrians who enjoy learning about the gospel in English and many are returned missionaries who had American or English companions.  The church really emphasizes learning English as well as the mission language.  

One of our missionaries is from Spain and between English and German we communicate all right though he gets a little confused as to which language he's speaking.  The full-time missionaries offer both English and German language training as well as their regular missionary discussions on Tuesdays and Thursdays at the Youth Center so we're busy every weekday afternoon and evening.  Mondays-Family Home Evening, Tuesdays and Thursdays-missionary discussions, Wednesday-Institute.  Fridays are "Waffle Night" and a night just to relax, play games and socialize.  The waffles are free and our responsibility to prepare.  Last Friday we got off because of the special Youth Forum they held, and this Friday we're off again because Sister Wixom, Primary General President, Sister Reeves, 2nd counselor in the General Relief Society Presidency and Elder Kaeron of the First Quorum of the 70 and the Area supervisor for Europe are coming for a special presentation at the Stake Center.  Then next Monday is Pfingsten or Pentecost which is a big national holiday as most Catholic events are and runs the whole weekend from Saturday through Monday.  So I guess we have a 4 day free weekend as far as the center goes.  We do have an assignment to teach a topic at the weekly District Meeting with the missionaries which occurs on Tuesdays at noon which we just received today and once a month we meet with the Institute Board on Thursday mornings which will occur this coming week.  Never a dull moment.  We figure we'll have our feet on the ground in just another couple of weeks.

Miss you all, but have had opportunities to Facetime with Mindy and Emily and see the pictures from Memorial Day. It rains a lot here! and we frequently are carrying our umbrellas so we don't get drenched. Happy Birthday to Tim!  

Hopefully our usual letters will get posted on Saturday which is our designated P day.  

Love,  Elder and Sister Parker

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