Interviews and Foreign Exchange Students

Hi Everyone,

It has been another interesting week but perhaps not as much to talk about as last time.  Having visited all of the wards that are within our jurisdiction, we're now starting in our second or in a few cases, even our third go rounds.  Today we visited the ward in which we actually live and were impressed how normal it felt.  We even had deacons passing the sacrament which is not all that normal in most of the wards where often they have the missionaries performing that duty.  They have a nice YSA group and we always try and attend their Sunday School class rather than the investigator's class if available.  I guess we're really getting used to this place!

Last week we were visited by President Kohler, our mission president who drove all the way from Munich to Vienna by himself, his wife remaining at home to attend to their two children.  He interviewed over two days all of the missionaries in our zone and we had almost a half hour with him to report on our activities.  Our temple recommends are up for renewal next month and even though we'll be in Munich in October, we all felt it would be good to get them renewed now rather than when he had the entire group to attend to.  He was very helpful in getting us back into our missionary email sites after we lost the passwords with our infamous briefcase loss a few months back and we were successful in finally getting access to emails going all the way back to May.  It took us a good couple of hours to go over all the encouraging emails sent every week by the AP's and the mission president.  We had wondered why we had never gotten word on the big YSA indexing challenge that was going on about a month ago where they set a new record for the number of indexing batches done in a single day and found all the lost notices sitting in our emails unanswered.  Oh well.  They set the record without us anyway.  We were impressed that the Lord is truly with our president who is probably only a little over half our ages but truly has a sense for where the mission is going and how to direct us. 

Otherwise, the week was pretty standard with our family home evening focusing on the Gathering of Israel and the Second  Coming of the Savior.  It was our impression that many of our young people weren't too well versed on the promises made to Abraham and only about half of our attendees had even had their Patriarchal Blessings (though admittedly we did have a few investigators in the midst) so we had some fun bringing everyone up to speed.  It was rivaling the lesson we had a couple of weeks ago on symbolism which started out with all the external symbols on the Salt Lake Temple.  How many of our grandchildren know why the eastern side of the temple has five stories of windows where the west side has only four?

We have been having some interesting interactions with foreign exchange students who spent a year living with Mormon families and are now residing here in Vienna.  One of our investigators we have mentioned frequently, the young lady from Kazakhstan who seems determined to join the church but not until she gets back home.  She is now avidly drinking up information from the sister missionaries to broaden her understanding of the gospel.  We happened to meet her on the street going home last night as she was traveling to meet another foreign exchange student living here in Vienna that her mother took care of.  Believe me, it is a rarity in a city this size to meet anyone you might know just out wandering the streets. 

Our P day being usually Saturdays, a couple of elders called us up to see if we would be willing to open up the center yesterday so they could teach a young lady who had been a foreign exchange student in Gilbert, Arizona where the new temple was just dedicated.  Elders must have others present when they teach a single woman and we agreed to open up for them so they could start some discussion with her.  It seemed like they had a good discussion and of course this was a woman who had seen the Mormons up close for an entire school year, now just turning 18. We invited her to come by anytime she has the inclination and informed her about all of our normal weekly activities.  We have a third young lady that we saw again today in church who lived for a year in West Jordan and has decided to do a term paper for school on the Church of Jesus Christ with some interviews regarding some interesting questions regarding the church's stand on women.  She has a questionnaire with several questions on it regarding the role of men and women in the church, asking opinions about why men and women go on missions at different ages and for different lengths of time and why some meetings in the church are held separately for men and for women.  She was seeking opinions on whether women should seek training for a profession or confine themselves exclusively to plans for being mothers and homemakers.  We found them all thought provoking and it will be interesting to see what kinds of conclusions she may draw.  She's been in the center at least twice but this is the first time we saw her at church attending a meeting so we'll see what may come up.

Thanks for all the wonderful news we've been getting.  Starting to get lots of pictures from the reunion and the kids going back to school.  I don't think we'd ever realized you had a BIG waterslide set up in the back yard.  We've seen pictures from Tom and Laurel's further adventures down the rivers of Europe, a wonderful newsy letter from Allison and we are 

awaiting news of a new grandson at any moment!

  We saw Jeremy's blog has been updated and Jacob Kmetzsch now has one up as well! Here are a couple of pictures from the center.  The first is Grammy with a young man from Mexico who will be leaving for England in another week to continue his studies there and another young man ready to help devour the chips and cookies that were the substitute for the usual wonderful meal that is prepared on Institute night.  This particular night was the week there was a YSA European activity in Hamburg and for the locals who didn't go we decided to have a game night instead.  See the chess sets in evidence. We even had a hot game of Rummikub on another table.  The couple standing were just married yesterday and will be sealed in the Madrid Temple (she's from Spain) this Tuesday.  The young lady reading the wedding announcement takes care of scheduling the spiritual thoughts for our Home Evenings. She is quite a miracle herself as she was deaf for most of her life and now hears quite well after cochlear implants were placed about a year ago.

Keep the good things happening.  Until next week,

    I guess it is my turn to add a bit to the letter. The picture doesn't look great because these two young men are really quite handsome. But I do enjoy talking with the singles about what is happening in their lives. One of these young men came from Mexico to England to do his Master's Degree and was sent to Vienna to do some research. He will be going back to England in a week. He hopes to get a job somewhere in Austria when he finishes up his studies. The funny thing is that he hardly speaks any German, but foreign languages don't seem to bother the adventurous. Most of them speak English from school or having had American and English missionary companions.  We even have an American young lady who is going to Medical school here. Now if we could just get everyone married we would be doing great.  

     

The missionary work is falling into a somewhat regular routine which we do seem to spend mostly at the center. We now go at 3 pm. instead of 4 pm. to accommodate a somewhat young mother learning German. She also brings her 2 yr. old son with her, whom we frequently end up entertaining but he is a cute little guy with definite 2 yr. old obstinacy. He loves to play pool with Elder Parker. ( I took a picture of them). We arrange our schedule to help the missionaries whenever they need it. This week we finally bought the refrigerator, ironing board and fan that various apartments needed. We almost bought the dryer that I am in great need of, maybe next week. We did find a new eating place recommended by one of the singles called "Nordsee". It has great fish and will be #1 on my list for awhile. Other wise the weather is cooling down to an early fall and we love it.

Love,  Mom and Dad, 

Grammy and Grampa, 

Elder and Sister Parker

Tom and Laurel get us into Hot Water!

Hello, Everyone:

It has been another exciting week on the borders of eastern Europe as we have dealt with people from India, Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, Kazakhstan, Amsterdam, Spain and even Germany and Austria!  We've had some chances to teach the Gospel to a few of these with quite a bit of help from some of the others.  Last Sunday, for the first time since we've been here we decided to take the train out to a city to the west of Vienna known as St. Polton.  It's actually a branch but on the verge of becoming a ward and the missionaries who serve there are our district leaders.  They come all the way into Vienna every Tuesday for our district meetings which are always excellent and spiritual highlights of the week.  We didn't warn them we were coming and actually got just a little bit lost as we were finding our way to the church house which meets up on the second floor of a very nice building where the entire floor is fitted out as a very nice meeting place with a chapel, several class rooms, a foyer and the Bishop's office.  We found a very sweet spirit there and talks were given by the Elders Quorum President, the Branch President and his First Counselor.  Increasingly we're finding out that we understand more and more of what is being said from the pulpit in these meetings so I guess our language is coming along.  

When we first arrived the windows were open on the first floor and we could hear some singing going on.  We were quite certain we were there on time even though we had to ask some directions from a woman who knew exactly how we should go but the door downstairs appeared to be locked. Because the windows were open,we waited for a pause in the singing, having decided that the branch choir was actually practicing.  Although I thought I called pretty loudly, no response was given.  When we looked at the door a little more closely, it said "Push the door firmly" which we did and it let us right in.  As we ascended the stairs we surprised the two elders who were also practicing with the choir so we joined right in.  They had a very talented director and we congratulated her afterwards on what a good job she was doing. We have not heard another choir in any of the other wards as we have visited them so we thought it was a very good sign of their spiritual maturity. Overall, the meetings were quite wonderful and we took the opportunity while we were there of inspecting the elder's apartment which is one of our responsibilities.  After we mailed the inspection report in I received an email informing us that we are also responsible for inspecting the two apartments in the other far flung ward down to the southwest in Wiener Neustadt so I guess we'll have to make that trek again sometime in the near future. Before we left St. Polton, the branch president cornered me and gave me his phone number and email address, indicating that when we came again next time, he wanted us both to speak!  Mom's not so sure she wants to go back again:)

For the last month we've been having trouble with our water heating system.  There is no hot water tank as such in the apartment and the water is heated as it is needed very quickly from a heater that is gas powered.  Initially we found that the heater would shut off through a kind of circuit breaker when we first turned it on and we simply had to go turn it back on and everything was fine.   But it got worse and worse and frequently it took five or ten times before it would stay on.  I reported this to our stake physical facility man who gave me the number of the responsible firm that has helped in the past and is willing to bill the church for their services but they informed us that they were leaving the next day on vacation and wouldn't be able to help us.  They gave us a couple of numbers to the company that makes the water heater but we couldn't get them to answer.  We went back immediately to the  first firm to tell them the number didn't go through and they gave us a different number but that didn't work either.  We decided maybe we'd just wait it out until they got back from vacation but naturally things got worse and worse and it started taking 15 then 20 then 30 pushes on our little circuit breaker before we could get enough hot water to take a shower.  So by the next week when we called again, there was no answer at all from the firm on vacation and for about three days we actually had to heat water on the stove and basically take a sponge bath and wash our hair over the sink.  Mom then had the brilliant idea that we should simply try to contact the manufacturing company of our faulty device on the Internet.  Amazingly enough, that worked immediately.  I finally contacted them while we were at the center and even though I thought I was speaking very clearly and distinctly, she couldn't make our our address clearly.  After three attempts at saying Loewengasse very slowly, which means Lion Lane, I finally gave the phone over to our native German speaking sister missionary to see if they could understand her more clearly.  No luck.  She had to say, "You know, Lion like the fierce animal" Ahh, they finally got the message.  They said they'd call us right back with an appointment time and that turned out to be the next day between 10 and 3.  We had to be at the center by 3 so this became one of those times when one can exercise the right of Senior Couples not to have to absolutely be with your companion at all times.  Mom took off to get some supplies for refreshments which we became responsible for on a Wednesday night because there was a special YSA conference in Hamburg that whole week and they decided to not hold Institute classes as usual on Wednesday nor supply the usual dinner.  So we decided we'd just play games and have a good social evening.  Our repairman showed up at 2:00 and was finished by 2:30, refilling up a pressurized tank which had dwindled down and getting us going again with wonderful hot water.  I was out of there in time to get to the center by a little after three and Mom had everything ready to go for an enjoyable evening by all.

Tom and Laurel at the beautiful gardens at Schoenbrunn Schloss

The next day we were able to meet Tom and Laurel at a very convenient place we travel past usually twice a day as we go the center and come back.  It was our slowest day of the week at the center and we were able to close it without problems as the elders scheduled around it without a problem.  We had a wonderful time together looking at the Schoenbrunn Schloss or Beautiful Fountain Castle with its magnificent gardens and fountains after they'd had a bus tour around the Vienna highlights earlier in the day.  

Laurel and Rusty behind the waters of the Neptune Fountain seen in the previous picture.

We finished with enough time to take them up to our favorite viewing spot in the city high above the Danube River valley, sort of like going to Ensign Peak to look at downtown Salt Lake City.  We'd found our way there spontaneously one time on the recommendation of our preceding couple and also took Steve Lyde there when he visited us.  The timing was perfect as we finished that in time to return to our favorite restaurant, the 12 Apostles Cellar, where we'd also gone with Markus Wiese and his family a couple of weeks earlier. The violinist and accordionist are getting to know us well and played a beautiful rendition of "The Blue Danube Waltz" as well as our request to try a little "Love Me Tender" from Elvis Presley.  They threw in a rousing chorus of the Radetzky March which is a common symphony favorite in Vienna where everyone claps along on the chorus and we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves as always.  Then it was a casual walk through the heart of Vienna over to a concert hall where we had a delightful presentation of Mozart and Strauss melodies with a small chamber orchestra, some dancers and a truly wonderful soprano soloist to round out the evening. They even took us through our second rendition of the Radetzky March for the evening. We stopped for some wonderful gelato ice cream cones on the way back to the subway and then escorted them to their ship which was just pulling up its red carpet as we arrived with about 15 minutes to spare!  It was wonderful to enjoy family close up again even for a few hours.

Friday was back to the old routine where I continue to try and teach a "Free Christian" woman about the merits of Mormonism over freshly made waffles.  Today we took the risk of a predicted rain storm to seek out the local Ikea furniture store in a final hunt for a refrigerator and managed to turn up a couple of nice pillows and a kitchen clock for ourselves, arriving home literally seconds before the heavens opened up and drenched the streets with us safely inside.

Well, I guess that's it for our report. We're still enjoying all the letters from the family reunion, opening one a day.  Thus far (in alphabetical order) we've enjoyed letters from Alex, Amelia, Amy, Andy, Bryson, Dominick, Heidi, Holly, Ian, Joshua, Kaylee, Kelli, Kenna, Kyle, Matt, Naomi, Noah, Ruslana, and Sean. Each has been posted on our bulletin board for a couple of weeks and we've still got about 10 to go!  Got lots of pictures from several of you on vacations but still waiting for all the photos from the reunion. We know they're still in the works.  

Love, Mom and Dad, 

Grampa and Grammy,

Elder and Sister Parker

Unknown Holidays and a Polterabend

Dear Family and Friends,

This week has been a little more relaxed with most of the action taking place on Facebook or otherwise on the Internet.  We appreciated all of Heidi's efforts in putting out the Parker Post (all 4 versions!:)).  It was wonderful being brought up to date on all of your activities and even though a few of you didn't have contributions, we've kept up with most of you through other contacts.  We're still hoping for some pictures from the family reunion which we understand are in the works but we've had lots of contact about it otherwise.  

We did receive a huge package which Mom is very grateful for containing bed linens, sheets, pillow cases, etc. and also letters from all of you which were written at the reunion.  We've decided to open up one every day and have as of today gone through 12 with 18 still to go.  We're posting them on our bulletin board so the apartment is filled with family and a new contribution is apparent every day!!

One of our responsibilities is to inspect the various missionary apartments here in Vienna and keep everything working ship shape and up to date.  We've been given a special responsibility coming from the European Area office to make sure all the elders and sisters have working smoke alarms and carbon monoxide monitors.  With that encouragement, we realized we had a carbon monoxide monitor sitting on our bedroom desk without batteries not knowing what it even was.  So we got our monitor working and mounted and found there was one missing in one of the sisters' apartments which has now been installed and working.  We have thus far replaced a washing machine, a room fan (very important in a climate that doesn't have much air conditioning installed) and an iron that was quite corroded.  Still to come are a refrigerator and a broken ironing board.  As to the former, we have one spot we've used quite a bit for most of the above items but they don't accept credit cards or check cards which do work over here fairly well.  So we decided we'd branch out a little bit and look for other businesses that might be more credit friendly.  We have to pay for everything ourselves and then are supposedly reimbursed by the mission.   Because we pay our basic rent through our missionary contributions to the home ward, they have told us that we get billed extra for things like our Internet connection, phones and of course we pay for all of our meals and travel expenses.  So far we've never received a bill for the other things and are under the impression that any other reimbursable items will simply be deducted from what we owe the mission.  So thus far we're up to about 500 Euros we've spent but have no idea where we stand in how much of that has been applied to our other bills.  We keep bugging the elders in the office who say they'll send us a reckoning but thus far we have waited in vain.

  

We went out the last couple of days to explore a couple of other appliance stores and thought we would be able to find them.  The first time, on Thursday, the store was located on a very long street which is quite unusual in most respects. Most of the streets change names every block or two but the two stores we wanted to look at were both on streets that stretched over several kilometers.  Fortunately, one had a streetcar that went almost the whole street long so we got on and waited for the store to appear.  At one point there was a large mall and we got out assuming it might be there but it wasn't.  Back on the street car which we took until it turned off and we had to get off.  At the stop we were at stood a young man carrying a bag with the name of the store we were searching for!  I asked him where it was located and he pointed up the street we had just turned off.  We don't know if it would have been a long or a short walk but decided that our time was up and we had to get back to the center to meet the elders and an investigator who was desirous of learning German so she could extend her visa.  

A very interesting situation then developed.  It turns out her husband is an inactive member of one of the wards here, Both speak Farsi as their primary language and they come from Iran.  We had met the husband a couple of times in the past two months as he had come in to the Center but our language difficulties prevented us from ever making a good contact.  So this time as he came in with his wife and about a two year old son we got phone numbers and a firm name.  Thinking they belonged to one of the wards we set up an appointment with one set of elders who are in that ward.  As they got into their lesson, difficulties were encountered because she didn't speak any English and was attempting to learn German.  We have frequently used the Internet to translate for us but this was especially difficult because translating Persian into German requires that you be able to read Persian or Farsi and only she could do that.  She had requested meeting earlier than we usually start so we accommodated her, as did the elders and when she came with her two year old, one of our other contacts who is also learning English recognized her and her son and offered to babysit the young man for a while while she was being instructed.  Then as other elders appeared, we found out that they actually live in a ward they are responsible for and that they had actually visited the family not too long before.  That was the first time the woman found out that her husband was a member of the church.  At any rate, we'll see how it all goes.  It is a challenge teaching Muslims and if they get serious about joining the church, it requires the permission of the mission president because should they return to their native countries, Christians are regularly imprisoned or worse and their families often times also suffer rather intense persecution.  Still we have a number of faithful members who were previously Muslim and the work progresses.

So yesterday we decided we had enough time to pursue looking up one other appliance store so out the door we went.  This one was located on another long and very busy street but Mom was resourceful enough to look it up on the Internet by using Google maps and we came to it really rather quickly compared to the day before.  I guess we must have been asleep as we headed out because as we arrived about noon time on a normally rather busy Friday we found the store and all of its neighbors closed up for Maria Himmelfahrt.  This is one of the big Catholic holidays, which virtually all of the holidays here are and celebrates Mary's ascension to heaven.  We don't know where that shows up in the scriptures, perhaps the Apocrypha, but in any event we found it was not a prime day for shopping so we'll try again.  We later realized we actually had the holiday noted on our stake calendar.  We have now looked carefully for the next holiday coming up and it appears to be All Saints day which follows Halloween.  They celebrate the former but not the latter and probably consider us Americans really pagan that we celebrate such a scary night but not the next day. Refer to the end of Fantasia to get an accurate glimpse of the proper perspective one should have for the two celebrations.  It is interesting to note that the Stake is having a Young Men/Women dance on Halloween but not billing it as such.  We have noted in pictures from the center that Halloween has been celebrated in the past by the Young Adults so we'll have to see if we need guidance from our leaders before we go all out.

Last night, we closed up the center early instead of having our usual Friday night Waffle Night to attend our first Austrian Polterabend.  That is a celebration that occurs prior to a wedding.  It is somewhat like a reception without a line and was held in our stake center's cultural hall.  A great many members of the stake were there along with several missionaries and even a few investigators.  We went and sat with the investigators, both of whom we knew well and who usually otherwise would have attended the Waffle Night.  The couple was a cute young couple, both of whom have served missions.  She however is from Spain and served a mission to Paraguay.  She speaks virtually no German though he speaks quite good Spanish.  The cultural hall was packed and they started out serving everyone "cocktails", certainly the LDS version with some luscious smoothie type drinks while they had a cute presentation on the stage with a great guitar player and some dancers from the young adults followed by what we'd consider the typical video version of the couple's life histories.  Both appear to have been life long members of the church and the program was presented in German with translation into Spanish.  Following they had a wonderful buffet dinner which we presume was contributed by various of their friends, family and members of the church.  So a new cultural experience was had by the senior missionary couple.

Here's a another photo of the Belvedere Castle grounds with Leonie Wiese by the Waterfall Fountain. 

It looks like this week was pretty ordinary except for the unexpected holiday, which closes even grocery stores for the whole weekend.  A few more of our young adults are coming back from vacation and showing up at the institute night, so we have hope that we will continue to increase into the Autumn. Some are even hanging around to play games after institute and dinner. While it is still summer, the last few days have been quite rainy and cool. I love it, but it increases the weight of my already heavy bag to carry the umbrella around. The only really annoying thing right now is our hot water heater which clicks off every time we use it. This means if we get it to stay on we have to leave the water running or lose the hot water, so that means leaving it running in the kitchen in order to get it in the bathroom. Oh, the joys of being missionaries, but we are learning to be very flexible about things. Things must move forward one way or the other. Still if you need a pick up, it is easy to go out for Gelato and it is delicious. We had Zone training this past week which is also a wonderful pick up for all the missionaries. There is truly a powerful spirit present there and you know the Lord has prepared another great generation of young people to move the church forward.

    I guess it is time for the Utah kids to enjoy the last couple of days before school starts and the others their last couple of weeks. Do something fun and send a picture.  

LOVE AND HUGS,

Grammy & Grampa 

Mom & Dad  

Elder & Sister Parker 

Wiese Family visits and hunting for a refrigerator=long walks in high humidity!

Dear Family and Friends,

Once again it has been quite an eventful week.  After all the transfers from the week before, we have gotten to know most of the new missionaries in our zone a little better.  We have another zone training conference coming up this next week, right here in Vienna without getting to travel to Salzburg but we don't anticipate our new mission president to be there.  

We have had a little bit of communication from the Clarks and the Jeppsons who seem to have returned, reported and taken up their new occupations. Our old foreign exchange student (not yet 40, so he's not that old!) came into town on Thursday on his way to Croatia for a family vacation.  They made it a point to stop by in Vienna on the way to pay us a visit.  They put their car in a parking garage and went around with us as we visited various sites.  We started out at the 12 Apostles Cellar for dinner, the restaurant we told you about a few weeks ago.  They fussed over us there as their youngest son, Heinrich was celebrating his 11th birthday that day, just two days prior to Meaghan's 11th.  The first time with identical double digits! 

 

At the 12 Apostles Cellar

Interestingly as the violinist and accordionist played Happy Birthday To You we found out it's exactly the same melody we use in the States, which wasn't the case 45 years ago, just with German wording.  Following a delicious dinner we took the opportunity to go to the Praterstern amusement park, sort of a Lagoon like place with roller coasters, Jurassic Park dinosaur scary places and the world famous Riesenrad or Giant Ferris Wheel rivaling the London Eye and whatever they call the new one in Las Vegas and beating them both by a good 145 years. It has been a continual presence as we catch one of our subways right in the neighborhood of the park and it was there 45 years ago when I first came to Vienna but we have never ridden on it until this week.  We had lots of fun and I told them that it never would have happened to us old people if there hadn't been some kids along.  It's not a whoop-de-do ferris wheel by any means and you only make one circuit up and over but it's mostly for the great view of the city and the park and it truly is quite huge. 

 One of the views of the Belvedere Palace with the falls in front..

A cute, strategically placed mirror reflecting the palace in the background but taken with the falls behind it and looking the other way.  The inscription (difficult to read at the bottom of the mirror) states "The perfect tourist".  Me with Leonie to my right and Ferdinand to my left.

The next day we met at the St. Stephen's cathedral where they were conducting a funeral service for one of the priests who had passed away and there was also a major funeral going on in the city for one of the past presidents of the Austrian National Council, sort of like a Speaker of the House person and that was really rerouting a few of the street cars that we normally ride on.  But they uniquely wanted to see one of the classic palaces that we had not yet been to, the Belvedere Palace so that was interesting and quite beautiful.  We then divided up with half the party going shopping (Markus' wife and two oldest kids) while the rest of us went up to the Vienna International Center or UN base, walked and waded around a city park and lake and then walked across the Danube River again as we had done a couple of weeks ago on a big bridge carrying our subway train.  We are expecting Laurel and Tom Rohlfing in a little over two weeks and have been trying to figure out where their ship will dock.  While at St. Stephen's cathedral that morning they had all kinds of tour groups walking around from their cruise line and I asked a couple of guides where the ship was docked and none could tell us.  Fortunately, as we walked across the Danube we went right by three ships from their line all tied up together at the most likely spot we could come up with so I think we'll be able to find them when they come cruising down from Budapest on their way to Germany.

We all got together again at a fancy new and famous restaurant called Figlmuellers for authentic and genuine Wiener Schnitzels and then finished out the day at our YSA Center where the kids could relax, enjoy Grammy's waffles and play games.  We gave Heinrich a portable version of Rummikub for his birthday and played a round at the 12 Apostles Cellar but had the full-size version at the center as well.  He also took to attempting pool with a nice pool table that we have for recreational purposes.  It was a good night for us because of the 12 people who were there that night, 7 were non-members so it was a wonderful night for a little missionary work.  The woman I have mentioned in the past who wants temple work done for her ancestors as well as our young lady from Kazakhstan were there so we had a wonderful and very enjoyable evening.  We walked the Wiese's back to their hotel which was a very nice little bed and breakfast place reasonably close to the center but by the time the evening was over we figured we had walked several miles around all these places.

On the Riesenrad

The next day was supposed to be our P day but we ended up looking for a new refrigerator for one of the elders' apartments.  We have one business we usually frequent but figured we'd go hunting for another one we frequently see advertised that was located in a section of town we'd never been to before.  We started out again at St. Stephen's cathedral where we picked up tickets for a Mozart/Strauss concert we'll attend with the Rohlfings which were reduced because we were buying them early. Then we walked down to the concert hall to see how long it would take us to get there, then ate lunch in a local park, then rode to the new refrigerator place which ended up being more of a factory and not open on Saturdays and did all of this in 89 degree weather with about 70% humidity.  No wonder I'm losing weight!   There's very little of downtown Vienna we haven't seen up close and on foot as we walk around and I don't think we've still scratched the surface.

(Sister Parker) One of the views from the top of the Giant Ferris Wheel

      We were very happy to receive a very large care package, covering my special needs for lotion, sheets etc. But we were most happy to receive all of the colorful letters from the family reunion. We have decided to open them one a day so that we can extend the openings to a month. Its always a mystery as to who wrote the letter and afterwards we post them on our little bulletin board. A sweet little joy each day. We also love seeing the randomly posted pictures of everyone and what they are doing. I can't wait for the next rain,down pour. It does cool things down a bit. It was also good to hear that you had a lot of rain to give our grass a chance to grow again.

       Let me share an experience that makes me laugh and shows how much Heavenly Father participates in our lives. Since arriving here it seems that I have been asked to pray almost every Sunday in one meeting or another. Well, I was beginning to think why do they keep asking me? I don't particularly like being put on the spot to pray in German every week. So I was hoping they wouldn't ask so much and felt really good last Sunday that I had gotten through RS. and Sunday School without being asked to pray. In Sacrament Mtg. I felt fairly safe.  I was sitting in the middle of the row with people around me, when one of the bishop's counselors came up and leaned way into the row over other people and asked me to give the closing prayer. This almost made me laugh out loud, but I was the only one who knew I was trying to get out of it and Heavenly Father knew I needed the practice. This week I came prepared to give any prayer they asked for, so, of course, they didn't ask me. Instead they asked both of us to give our testimonies in sacrament mtg.  That worked out just fine and the words came that I needed.  Now, I think I will mentally prepare for anything they might ask of me. Again I have seen the scripture fulfilled, that the spirit will give you the words that you need at the moment you need them. Hugs and Prayers. 

Love,

 Grammy, Grampa, 

Mom, Dad, 

Elder and Sister Parker.

Baptisms for the dead and transfer day

Dear Family,

Wow, two full months have come and gone since we've been here in Vienna and the work continues to be interesting, fun and challenging.  Although it's not much numerically, we continue to be closely involved with three investigators that we have introduced to the missionaries.  The first, our young lady from Kazakhstan, seems to be solidly continuing in her quest to learn more about the church. We had a crisis this week as our latest transfer involved two of the three sister missionaries going home who have been primarily involved in teaching her.  She really wanted to see them off at the train station as they left but somehow got mixed up in her directions and they were gone before she turned up.  We thought we'd never dry the tears in her eyes but she's hung in there since then and it looks like the work will carry on as it should.  We always need to be cautious that an investigator is not just staying with us because they like a personality but are generally interested in being taught the gospel. That now seems to be the case so we'll hope that she can make the transition.

   Another of our ladies with whom we have spoken several times and who was given a Book of Mormon several weeks ago, continues to come, primarily to learn English and is being taught by the Zone Leaders who are responsible for her area.  She's a regular and is slowly making some progress in learning the gospel as well as bettering her English.  We're not so directly involved with her any more but see her regularly as she comes in for her lessons.

Our third lady has been in now three or four times, seemingly on her own or at least not following any scheduled appointments but clearly fascinated by Mormonism and always comes in with lots of questions.  She has been well taught in the past about the restoration and the Plan of Salvation and Elder Parker on at least three occasions has been very much involved in answering her questions.  Earlier this week, she brought her brother with her for the first time and they both reappeared on Friday.  They have lost their parents and were impressed that the Mormons are the only ones who teach baptism for the dead.  They were very much interested in having their mother and father baptized, both of whom have been gone for a couple of years or more and wondered how we go about setting that up.  We have been encouraging them that it would really be neat if they could perform those ordinances for their kindred themselves and no long waiting period is required once they themselves have been personally baptized.  She's starting to take seriously the various commandments one must live to be a good Christian but is obviously concerned about her willingness to live the ones that would be tough for her.  That seems to involve some Word of Wisdom issues though she hasn't specified what exactly she does she'd have to give up.  She is forthright to say, "What if I say I've stopped drinking alcohol but I really haven't?"  We told her that bearing false witness is one of the 10 commandments and she must certainly abide by that principle as well.  I guess she just wanted to be clear that the commitment is a real commitment and not just saying a bunch of words.  At any rate, our remaining sister missionary of the original three has been joined by two others, one relatively new and the other right from the MTC. She hung in there for a great lesson given by the senior companion and I while the other, who's been out about 3 months stayed busy with Sister Parker the other night preparing waffles.  I asked our investigator if she would be willing to close with prayer after she was taught the basic principles.  She was hesitant so the missionary offered to say one if she would follow which she did and I thought it was a very good progress step to make.

(Here's 20 or so of the more than 25 people who showed up.  The fourth sister on the far left was here for just 10 days to try out missionary work and see if she might really want to do it for real.  She was also leaving to return home at the end of her week and a half.  The remaining sister in the black skirt is a native German from Hanover but speaks amazingly good English!)

I mentioned the transfer earlier and thought I'd fill everyone in on a little bit more about these regular events.  Generally, they occur about every six weeks and the missionaries even tend to count their time by the fact that they've been out for one, six, or ten transfers.  Not that every one gets moved around every time but the transfer of missionaries in and out definitely is an event, especially for Vienna.  We're at the geographical far east end of the mission and four or five companionships will be affected every transfer with the result that the whole zone generally shows up at the train station to say goodbye to those who are leaving.  We missed the first transfer that occurred about six weeks ago as we weren't needed to help with luggage and still didn't know very many of those involved.  But this time we knew virtually everyone who was leaving, with three of them, our two sisters and one elder, coming to the end of their missions and really leaving for good.  Generally speaking, those departing go to the mission home where they are feted to a farewell dinner by the mission president and his wife and then leave the next day after an overnight stay.  They replace all the brand newies, formerly called greenies when we were young missionaries, but in this mission, referred to as the Goldens who have arrived and also been greeted by the mission president before receiving their first assignments and moving out to go to work.  So everyone was leaving on a train for Munich at 8:30 AM with those arriving coming in later in the afternoon.  Our remaining sister was without a companion for a few hours which Sister Parker supplied and so leaving me in the Center, she returned to the train station for the 5:30 arrival of two new sisters before returning and linking back up with me.

 (One of our favorite sister missionaries, Sister Jencks, leaving for home back to Utah though her parents are coming to pick her up for a little touring first.)

(This is Elder Curtis, our Zone Leader who was being transferred to a new zone. He was the first person we met in Vienna, picking us up at the airport when we arrived.)

Here is Sister Christianson (below), departing for home with Elder Gomez-Torio waving good bye from the train.  He's from Spain but being transferred to Switzerland where only European citizens are allowed to do missionary work.  Even they are not allowed to go door-to-door but must rely on member referrals.  The Swiss are concerned about the influx of Islam in the rest of Europe and and have place significant hindrances in the way of religious proselyting.

  (Sister Parker) This is the Sister Christianson (above) that I helped teach an investigator with and had such a sweet experience. This week at District Mtg, Elder Parker and I were asked to talk about the "Gift of Tongues".  As we were talking Sister Christianson shared her side of the story, or where I felt the spirit bear witness through me. She thought it was so awesome to see and feel it happening to someone else. She said she knew I felt hesitant about my German, but that I used words, verbs and scriptural thoughts beyond what she herself used. It is nice to know that it wasn't just yourself feeling a certain way, rather the Lord giving you what you need to say at the moment you need it. (D&C 100:6)   It is also interesting that Elder Gomez -Torio is in this picture. Most of the European missionaries are sent to Preston, England MTC., where he had to first learn English in order to learn German through English instructions. He knew no English, so he was mostly taught English and was only able to pick up a few words in German. He was so overwhelmed by both languages and struggling so much because he was also brand new. But he was always upbeat doing his best - a big, sweet, humble young man with a big heart. We would ask each other at the Center, how the language was coming. So the last time I talked to him before his transfer to the Austrian, French border, he told me that he knew the spirit was helping him because he didn't know where the words were coming from that he was sharing in some investigator discussions. He has big challenges now as French is also spoken in this area, but he feels that somehow the Lord will see him through. I think it is miraculous to watch him learn both languages at once.

   It is a great blessing to be at the Young Adult Center and to work with these great, enthusiastic elders, and sisters, also to meet  their investigators and to be able to work with the Vienna young singles. I know our grandchildren will make great missionaries. Jeremy is already doing a wonderful job in California.

Thanks for your great support.  We can feel the help from your prayers. 

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

Language courses, waffles and museums

Dear Family,

It being a short week this time because of our procrastination in not writing until Tuesday instead of Saturday it seems like the time has flown. We have been busy as usual with our normal duties and seeing some good progress with our investigators. We don't actually have the opportunities the elders and sisters have to get out and meet a lot of people but still, our center is on quite a busy street with a lot of traffic and we get people stopping in just out of curiosity. 

Our lady from a few weeks ago when the institute was closing and we were there for a rare Saturday, is still coming in regularly to better her English and is slowly starting to read the Book of Mormon which we gave her on our first contact. Our Zone Leaders have picked her up and they were the ones to greet us when we first arrived. One of them is being transferred out to Germany this coming week and the other is getting a new companion to share the duties of leading the zone. We finally had the chance to look at the CD left to each missionary when President and Sister Miles left at the conclusion of their mission. It shows primarily the pictures of their presidency and the activities they engaged in, especially the pictures of the arriving elders and sisters and the departing seasoned missionaries at the end of their missions. After not recognizing anyone in the first several months depicted, we're now beginning to see several who were greenies that we've now grown fond of as they have been working with us for the past month or two. Two of the sisters that we've been working quite a bit with are both going home this week and they were both in those pictures from 18 months ago. Golly how the time does fly!

With all the BYU students leaving on Wednesday, our summer institute evening was a little less busy than it has been. It's usually the most active night but this was the first time we didn't have an English speaking class to prepare for as everyone there had a good command of German. Still the numbers were down about a third and it gave us time to associate with the YSA's a little bit more than perhaps we'd been doing. We've had an average of about 4-6 people coming in for the language classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays though one of our contacts who comes from Italy and was a devoted atheist finally dropped out. The elders had arranged a fairly lengthy discussion with him and a member of one of the bishoprics here in the stake who had also claimed at one time to be an atheist but apparently to no avail.  But we had another woman who happened in off the street last week at Waffle night just full of questions that Elder Parker spent about 45 minutes talking to who came back for another session with the sisters on Family Home Evening night this past Monday. She looks like a good golden contact with numerous questions and they got so involved following our home evening activity that the sisters had to call their district leader to get permission to stay out longer than 9:30 PM as they were actively teaching her. Elder Parker finally intervened as it got later than 10 PM to say that another appointment would be good so we could all eventually go home. 

Waffle night was interesting this week with three sister returned missionaries all there, one from our Vienna stake, the other two here visiting from the United States (Arizona and Utah) but both companions with the Austrian sister. Our little lady from Kazakhstan has been interesting. Remember that she has loved cooking waffles, spent a year in Layton as a foreign exchange student and is now preparing to study here in Vienna at the University. She had to take a test on her German skills Friday a week ago and requested a priesthood blessing the day before. After talking about blessings in general and what it could and possibly couldn't do (i.e., it wouldn't put things into her mind that already weren't there), we went ahead with the blessing and she reported to us this past Friday that she passed with flying colors. Everyone was obviously thoroughly pleased.! She gave us an interesting DVD about her home country that was quite intriguing.  It was in 3 languages and in Kazakh took 30 minutes to play however listed the time in both Russian and English as 47 minutes. We decided that Kazakh must be a faster language than the other two.  At any rate it was quite fascinating to see a little bit more about a country that most of us knew very little about.  Obviously a part of the former Soviet Union, they have been very aggressive at attempting to be a cultural assimilating point between Asia and Europe. The country has about 16 million people, or did when the DVD was made about 4-5 years ago and apparently has been attempting to assimilate over 40 different religions into a harmoniously working relationship. They admit to being about 90% Orthodox Catholic. We looked on a map and were impressed about how big Kazakhstan really is, probably the eight or ninth largest country in the world! We looked on the church website and found that Kazakhstan belongs to the Russian Novosibirsk Mission. Her home city of Alma-ti used to be the capital city of the country but no longer is. It does however house one of the two branches present in the country with a total membership of 240 people! In accordance with Pioneer Day, we told her once she joins the church she will be a real pioneer in her country to start a great heritage for the future.

We got into an interesting discussion somehow about a recent Sunday School class which she hadn't attended on the splitting up of the 12 tribes into the Kingdoms of Israel and Judah and it became evident that she knew absolutely nothing about the old Bible stories we all learned as children. Joseph and his coat of many colors, Daniel and the lion's den, Elijah being fed by ravens for quite some time, etc. were all foreign to her. We decided we'd stick with basic gospel principles for now and let her worry about David and Goliath at some time in the future.

Yesterday we used our P day primarily to scour our apartment down and get things cleaned up. We're having some continuing electrical problems we can't figure out.  Every time we turn on our hot water on a circuit breaker pops and we have to go push it to get anything decent to wash with.  No such thing as a hot water tank on one hand and air conditioning on the other.  We talked with one of the financial wizards in the Stake today who handles problems with the missionary apartments and he's given us the name of the firm who can hopefully come in and get us fixed up. We'll see how well we can get them to understand our extensive knowledge of German electrical terms. We have the assignment this week in district meeting to speak on the Gift of Tongues so this should be a good trial of the principle.

As we were trying to get a recent Tab Choir presentation going last night, we stumbled on an old concert given in the tabernacle by Igor Gruppman and the Orchestra at Temple Square entitled, "A Night in Vienna."  It was a delightful connection between us and St. Petersburg, with Maestro Gruppman also directing one of the main orchestras there. I understand several of you got a chance to hear the Clarks and the Jeppsons at their homecoming reports but we haven't heard any details.  

As far as sightseeing this week, it was pretty minimal. We did take a little walk around the plaza of Maria Theresa, the wife of Emperor Franz Joseph who has a lovely large statue of her self located in a huge park between the Vienna Natural History Museum and the Vienna National Art Museum. Haven't been inside either one yet but across a very large street is another huge plaza known as the Heroes Plaza or Heldenplatz. It houses the Austrian National Library, the Lipizzaner Stallions, and the Hofburg, a political gathering place of the famous people in the world. One picture of the balcony in front of the library is famous for being the spot where Hitler addressed the Austrian people after Austria joined Germany near the onset of World War II. Lots of places to see in the future.

Here is the Austrian equivalent of the Library of Congress and the balcony where Hitler received the adulation of the Austrian people at the Heldenplatz.

Here is Grammy standing in front of the History Museum which you can't see but it looks exactly like the building you can see across the plaza which is the National Museum of Art with the huge statue of Maria Theresa standing in the middle of the Park. She had 16 children, five of whom were sons.  One of her daughters was Marie Antoinette whose life was shortened in more than one way after she married King Louis the XVI of France. If any of you remember Allen Sherman, King Louis was worse then Louis the XVth, worse then Louis the XIVth,etc. He was the worst, since Louis the First!

  Dad has really covered everything we have done this week outside of us both getting hair cuts. It seems like nothing but you have to be brave in trying to explain in German exactly what you want it to look like and then hope for the best. But,of course, they turned out fine. Now for the big hair coloring challenge, but I think I'll wait a few days and then give it a try. Outside of a few really hot days, which have been killers with the humidity, the summer thus far has been quite pleasant, even cool at times. My new daily routine requires that I check the weather closely, especially for thunder storms which disturb things like streetcars,etc. The thunder is just about as loud as what I've heard in Texas which shook the house. Our lives have become somewhat routine with our schedule at the center, doing apartment inspections, and randomly helping the missionaries with their needs. I understand people a bit better and they me, so I guess I'm making progress along with new friends. Love you all, miss you all and wish "Happy Birthday"  to everyone having a birthday this week. 

Love, 

Grammy, Grampa, mom, dad, & Elder & Sister Parker

Reunion (from a distance), BYU and a Visitor from Home

Dear Family,

Well, this week was so busy that we`re two days late in getting our weekly report out to everyone.  We greatly appreciate all the contact you gave us while the reunion was going on.  We even got to witness the weeding and prettifying of the front flower/weed patch while it was going on.  We got a laugh out of Sally Lyde`s email to us.  As some of you know, her son, Steve, who is a good friend of Benj`s decided to come to Vienna to give a report at the Vienna Technical University.  We encouraged him to stay longer but he arrived on Thursday and left Monday morning so we had to pack a lot of seeing Vienna into just a few days.  He agreed to bring over a few things we decided we desperately needed like some short-sleeved shirts for Grampa and some real band-aids for Grammy. So Mindy and Benj took these items over to the Lydes, staying a while for some conversation which Sally was convinced was to enable them to get out of the weeding service project back home:)  ( Editors note: Benj and I did tell Sally and Steve that we were trying to get out of weeding, haha! Actually, I don't think Benj said it, only I said it and Benj did go home and weed and I took videos of the whole event and face timed with mom and dad so they could see it ;) So I guess I did get out of weeding! )At any rate we were able to enjoy several conversations with many of you while you were together and enjoyed pictures from the balloon ascension and the opportunity to speak with many of you then or later.

One of our responsibilities while we are helping to run the Young Adult Center is to provide a haven for BYU groups who are here on a variety of excursions.  The latest group consisted only of 11 people, most of them but not all music majors and they have been regulars for our Monday night home evening activities and our waffle night for fun and games on Fridays. Their presence isn't always guaranteed as they have the opportunity to go on a variety of other European excursions for a few days now and again but with the institute now having closed and running on a very abbreviated summer schedule, they have been a big portion of our visitors. 

We frequently have 8 or 9 of them out on a Monday and they have volunteered to provide spiritual thoughts and such. There is never a lack for a piano player, in fact, their director is the head of BYU's piano department, or so I'm told.  Although the institute for the summer is being run by specially invited guest teachers and lecturers, Grandpa volunteered to still provide an English language class for the many who don't understand much German. So for the last 4-5 weeks we've still had from 6-10 people attending that class after a brief opening exercise and song. That has now ended with the group leaving this Wednesday for home and no one replacing them until the fall. They provided a very lovely fireside this past Sunday evening where each provided a lovely musical presentation consisting of piano or organ pieces, quartets, flute and violin offerings and even a quartet of singers.  

One young man who is not actually affiliated with the group but is a BYU student, hailing from Oregon has particularly latched onto us for the past week and was our guide and mentor around the city while Steve Lyde was visiting us.  He's a french horn player but is actually here doing research on copying old musical texts into a computer format or something like that.  But at any rate, he's a real lover of Austrian gelato or a form of ice cream that we've really acquired a taste for. I think we hit an ice cream stand every night on Thursday, Friday and Saturday just to try out all the little shops we've always seen but never stopped at.  I sneaked in the french horn solo from Beethoven's Eroica symphony the other night while we were at the center just to impress him which he appreciated.  

With Steve in tow but in good jet lag we got him oriented on Thursday night to how to get to his workshop the next day.  He then joined us for the waffle night festivities and on Saturday we went back to the area around St. Stephen's cathedral and visited the old Roman ruins of Vindebona, the forerunner to Vienna before the demise of the Roman empire and its virtual disappearance in 500 AD.  We visited the venerable old St. Peter's church which we talked about last week and found out there was an organ recital there at 8 PM which we decided to catch later. We were then guided by our BYU friend to the 12 Apostles Cellar, an interesting very old restaurant operating for a few centuries now. It was located down about three flights of stairs in the old Vienna catacombs and had fairly reasonable prices with lots of interesting atmosphere.  After that very interesting interlude we repeated our visit to old Emperor Franz Joseph's lovely estate at Schoenbrunn however this time took the tour through the mansion which we hadn't done before.  

We also wandered around the city a bit, eating at one of the many pizza, Chinese, Austrian noodle stands which stand on just about every corner with interesting fare to tantalize one's taste buds.  We got to the organ concert at St. Peters in time to appreciate that Catholic masses must be mercifully short, for the pews were definitely not built for one's relaxation or long term enjoyment. While sitting in the concert we noticed a few young people sitting immediately in front of us who looked suspiciously wholesome. A tap on the shoulder verified that they were another BYU study group touring through Europe and our mentor separated from us to take them on a few other tours we didn't have time for.

Sunday, in order to have enough time to do some appreciation of the wonders of nature, we attended the German speaking ward at our Stake Center which starts at 9 AM, the international English speaking ward meeting in the afternoon time slot.  As it turns out, the group of 45 or so BYU students we'd met the night before were also attending that ward that morning so it worked out well for our two associates as they provided some English translation, at least to some extent for the many visitors. We had a good bilingual Sunday School class and they provided ear phones for Sacrament meeting. We then invited Steve and his new friend to our apartment for a brief Sunday meal and we took off for the wonderful highlands and hills to the north of Vienna that Grammy and I had previously visited a few weeks ago but our BYU young man had never seen.  We were treated to a little musical session with a chamber orchestra in a church that had been visited by John Paul II, the polish pope, in honor of the Poles having help defeat the Turks in 1683, still a tender spot for the Austrians as far as the Turks go.  Then it was back to the musical fireside I mentioned above and finally ended with a wonderful dinner of chicken, potatoes, corn on the cob and ice cream that was the closest we've come to an American dinner since we got here, prepared by Grammy for our two young friends.  Early Monday morning I got up and accompanied Steve back to the airport for his long flight home, which at this writing he has safely accomplished.

In the midst of all that sightseeing we actually did stay quite focused on the work and I actually introduced the church to a woman who wandered into our waffle night on Friday evening just out of curiosity to see what was going on.  She had a lot of questions I was hopefully able to answer and she came back on Monday evening for another go round with the missionaries.  She got a great introduction to the plan of salvation, first from the home evening lesson that we provided and then from a more formal presentation provided to her alone after the home evening had finished. We now have about three or four that we see regularly and teach, with the other missionaries as our circumstances permit.  We think we may provide a little bit of stability and transition as the current crop of elders and sisters are scheduled to be transferred next week. 2 of the 3 sister missionaries working in our district will be going home at the end of the month and we will miss them greatly, as will their investigators. 

It has been insufferably hot and humid here this past week, up in the 90's with a humidity generally up in the 70's or 80's.  It is a definite testimony builder to deal with that with a suit and tie on.  We have been able to regulate that a bit by rolling up the sleeves but the tie stays on and I just work through my handkerchiefs.  Air conditioning is definitely not prevalent here and we tend to maneuver so we can sit in front of strategically placed fans that blow here and there. I had to smile at two of our sisters yesterday who are native Europeans, one from Hannover, Germany and the other from Zollikofen, Switzerland. Neither one of them liked the wind generated by the fans and preferred to simply tolerate the heat which they were used to.  On the other hand, the water is still delightful as it comes from the taps, and contrary to predictions about the dangers of Austrian pastries, (which are truly delightful),  both of us have actually lost some weight.  I'm way ahead in the race having, as of this morning lost 14 pounds with my belts getting two more notches to hold up my suits.  I think the main reason is I don't have an easy well-stocked refrigerator to raid whenever I want.  

We love and miss you all and I'll try and add a few pictures to the letter.

 Interesting mock statues outside of Schoenbrunn. They'll move for you if pay them a few coins but otherwise remain motionless.

An interesting mock roman ruins fountain on the grounds of Schoenbrunn 

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