A Polyglot of Languages

Hi Guys!

Well, it's been an interesting week for languages.  Since our last zone training meeting, we've been attempting to follow the mission president's request to emphasize German between companions and at our district meetings, at least from 9 AM to 9 PM.  So we've been making an effort to do that with the result that we're picking up all kinds of new words we would have otherwise never had a need for: like Platzdeckchen=placemat or jaemmerlich=miserable.  It's also been good to pick up the Du language which is sort of the German version of thee and thou, primarily used by close friends or when speaking to children however more and more commonly used amongst the Austrians.  We have been asked to refrain by the mission leadership from using it with members of the church or our investigators but sometimes it raises a few eyebrows.  At any rate, as a married couple we're definitely expected to use it with each other so we're using a form of the language that we don't get very often.  

I mentioned last week that I had the opportunity to give a talk in the International Ward which was in English so I've been working this week to translate it all into German.  It took a while but I finally got it all finished yesterday.  I'll give it to one of the natives here and have them refine it for me. Many quotes which I took from a couple of conference talks, I initially translated on my own and then went to the German version in the Liahona to see how they translated it.  Some of the time I was pretty close but many times it was quite a bit better with the professional translations at hand.  At any rate, I'm now ready to go for a talk in German, assuming I can make sure they assign me a similar topic.

The institute class on Wednesday was 2 Nephi 17-24, all Isaiah and even though we get it in English I don't think it was any easier in German, Italian, Spanish or Hungarian.  But the manual was very helpful and we've decided that you're never too old to pick up a better understanding of what Isaiah was trying to say.  Did you all know that he's the most quoted Old Testament prophet in the New Testament, Book of Mormon, Doctrine and Covenants and the Dead Sea Scrolls!  As we got to chapter 19:6 I couldn't help myself and they got a full stanza from the Messiah "For unto us a child is born, unto us, a son is given...etc."  and even a little family history about our annual Messiah Sing-In's.

Most of the rest of the week was heavily into travel as we finished all of the apartment inspections in the far out cities of Wiener Neustadt and St. Poelton.  The latter city was an adventure because we don't know it very well but went shopping for a dryer as the last transfer, which occurred on Thursday, left 4 elders in that apartment and therefore they were eligible.  We got there early in the train station and then had to figure out which bus to take to get to their major shopping center.  There we bought the elders their dryer and made it back to their apartment for their inspection.  Then we hunted around for a place to eat lunch and at their request joined them in a joint teaching session at the church with a young lady who's had about 10 lessons but didn't seem to be making much progress.  She admitted she didn't have a belief in God, didn't pray and didn't see that it made much difference what religion one believed in.  We gave her a little Alma 32 about how to develop her faith and finally even a little Alma 13:27-29. about what might happen if she procrastinated too long.  I bore her a witness that the time would come in her life when she WOULD want to know these things and remember what we were teaching her now.  The elders thought it would be a make it or break it session and for now it seemed to be a break it event.  We'll see what the future holds for her.

Family home evening was quite good on Monday night with three "seasoned" investigators there and the spiritual thought was given by a sweet young sister only a member for about a year.  She talked about the importance of missionary work and was able to involve each of the investigators personally into the discussion.  I ended up irritating Grammy by speaking with one of them afterwards well into the evening,until about 10:00 pm..  We were giving a presentation in our district meeting on the creation (in German, remember!) the next day so we had a lot of scriptures in our memory and this one lady informed us that her group of Free Christians was predicting the end of the world on September 30 of this year.  I told her I wanted to have a good discussion with her on October 1 but in the meantime we were talking about what would happen to the earth at the time of the Second Coming.  We were able to review the pre-earth life and the earth's spiritual creation and she was fascinated to discover that the earth had even been baptized and was stilll awaiting it's baptism by fire.  I discovered a cool scripture which we didn't quote her in D&C 88:17-20 which I will leave you all to peruse at your leisure.

The district meeting went well with Sister Parker perfecting her German with excellence. Other than purchasing an electric oven which together with the dryer sets us back about 900 Euros (we eventually will get reimbursed by the mission) everything else led up to the weekend highlight. Our young sister Aigerim chose Elder Parker Eldredge to perform her baptism on Saturday and although she was planning on having the Bishop confirm her today, he continues to be too ill to attend the meetings and so she asked me instead. It was special to be able to participate in that fashion and so we again attended the International Ward today for her confirmation where I'd spoken last week. She was approached by many in the ward afterwards, including several who spoke to her in Russian as well as German, though for most the primary language is English.  Here's the photo of the attendees including the sisters, the elders and Elder and Sister Tew who serve in Graz, Austria but first introduced her to us back in June as she had lived with their cousin as a foreign exchange student back in Utah.  

We all went out for pizzas afterwards and it was definitely a high point for us.

      This indeed has been an interestingly full week for us. First with trying to speak German more often and then being asked to give a little discussion in German at our District Mtg. It went quite well but it is nice to know you can still use simple words to discuss important things. During the week as the Elders brought a young woman to teach at the Center, they also asked me to "Joint Teach" with them. I am still taken back when they ask me to do this, usually it is the sisters who ask for help. It turned out very well, as it was a young woman I had met a month or so before with the elders. Strangely enough, I had been thinking about her and wondering what had happened with her because she had been so receptive to the message. It was great to help because she had studied out the pamphlets and scriptures, (with highlights and questions,) the elders had given to her, but hadn't been able to get back together with them. It is great to feel the spirit in these moments.

    (Sister Parker) The most exciting thing this week, of course, was Aigerim's baptism on Saturday. The baptismal font was beautiful with inlaid mosaic tiles that created an upward light expression above the water. It was fun to help her dress and prepare for this moment. This baptism comes at the culmination of many months of waiting for the right time. The above picture doesn't show you all the sisters, elders, and ourselves who worked with her, taught her and had many gospel discussions with her over the months since we first met her in June. She has become like a granddaughter and a friend to us. Her baptism was very special to all of us and a sweet spiritual moment as she went down into the water and came up clean and pure. Likewise was the confirmation, and Grampa gave her a sweet, thoughtful blessing. These are moments to remember forever.

     Today as we talked about prayer in Relief Society I thought, "you are never too old to be reminded to take time to do things right." We discussed how we wouldn't lay on the bed or by the bed half asleep and talk to a friend, or the many other ways we sometimes don't think about Heavenly Father there beside us, listening. This week let's think about how we are praying and what we are saying. I know how much I love everyone of you. You mean the world to me. Heavenly Father loves you so much more.

LOVE AND HUGS

Grammy, Grampa, 

Mom, Dad, 

Elder and Sister Parker 

Inspectors General

Dearest Family,

              It looks like the final holiday for the season in Europe has passed, that of the Three Kings on January 6th.  Although a few are still hanging on, most of the Christmas trees and other holiday decorations have been removed.  We waited until the 8th to take down the Christmas tree in the Center because that was a little slower day for us. but we have noticed that the bright lights are still up down in the city center around St. Stephen's cathedral.  A few of the members tell us that many like to keep their trees around until the end of January, but then again, virtually no one puts them up any earlier than Christmas Eve.  Our little tree in our apartment was an exception, I guess.

   

It seems like there might have been a few misconceptions as to exactly how long the center was going to be closed as it was still a pretty slow week but we did get a few out for home evening on Monday.  Even though Tuesday was an official holiday, the elders got about three people out to a German class and the same for Thursday so we still think that some felt we wouldn't open until next week.  Our Zoroastrian Iranian family have been quite faithful for a few months but we've not seen hide nor hair from any of them since prior to Christmas.  Hopefully they'll reappear next week.

             Institute definitely restarted this week and although the class of usually 9 or 10 wasn't present, we still had our two faithful sisters who have never missed a week. We were also joined by a recently returned missionary who went to Birmingham, England on his mission. All three are native German speakers but have excellent English skills and want to read the Book of Mormon in the original, or as original as it gets unless someone knows reformed Egyptian!  So they all sat on one side of the table and the other side was equally interesting.  None of them were original English speakers either but their German is not as good as their English so they prefer the English class as well.  Our first is a cute young girl from Italy, next to her was a new young man from Madrid, Spain, and finishing up the group was a young man from Budapest, Hungary.  His English isn't a whole lot better than his German but he attends quite regularly and feels he gets more out of English than he would in either of the other two German classes.  Because we're delving into Isaiah currently, I'm not sure it's easy in English either, but we had copies of the Book of Mormon open in Italian, Spanish and Hungarian just to make sure that everyone was coming along.

            Transfers are coming up this Thursday and everyone already knows whether they're going or staying.  (We're staying!)  But one of our responsibilities is to inspect each of the apartments each transfer, allowances being given for the apartments that are really out in the sticks.  But because of the holidays, we really hadn't inspected anyone since back in November so felt we'd better get moving. We really expected that our numbers would drop considerably as about 30 going home are not being replaced in the next six weeks.  But we really only lost two elders in the apartments we're responsible for.  Four are still in one of those distant apartments we haven't been to in a while and we've always felt they deserved a dryer but waited to see if they'd reduce down to two.  They didn't so we have to find a local establishment that sells dryers and get one delivered.  Another apartment that has been vacant until the last transfer has now been rehabilitated from a sorry state and is once again quite livable.  But it desperately needs a new oven.  Right now it has a gas oven that's quite dangerous to light and a replacement runs around 600 Euros.  A newer electrical apparatus only costs about 250 to 300 Euros and so we'd like to replace the gas with the electric.  The trick is to get an electrician in to see if he can provide a socket where we need one, and then another company to seal off the gas supply when we pull out the old oven.  It's one thing to preach the Gospel in German but it's quite another to talk plumbing and electricity!  Well, we've got a good brother from the Stake to help us out where needed.  In fact, he just got put on the high council and has been assigned to the International Ward because his English is pretty good.  Elder Parker had the assignment to give his first talk in Sacrament meeting today in that ward, how nice that it could be in English.  The new high councilor was there so it gave us a good opportunity to map out the phone calls necessary this week to see about all these changes.  We got four of our assigned apartments done in the last couple of days, one is our own which is easy to report on, but we've still got four to go. So we'll get one tomorrow, two on Wednesday and then the final one perhaps on transfer day, Thursday.  That's the one that needs a new dryer so we'll see if we can pull it all together.

                The talk seemed to go pretty well and the theme was on Hope through the Atonement.  I was the last speaker and not sure how long I'd end up having to speak but it worked out pretty well with about 15-20 minutes to go and the talk timed out at about 16-17.  A little ad-libbing and it seemed to be well received.

Not a lot of photos this week so here's an old one showing one of our now-departed sisters, Sister Jencks with our oft-referred to young lady from Kazahkstan, Aigerim.  Aigerim has been interviewed this week and is now scheduled to be baptized this coming Saturday!  Still up in the air a bit about who's going to perform the ordinance but Elder Parker is on the short list. 

    (Sister Parker) January always seems like the time to evaluate things and to recommit to being more diligent in our endeavors,and to looking back over all our blessings. It certainly has been a blessing to serve as missionaries here in Vienna and it has also been a blessing of hard work in so many different ways. Sometimes it is amazing to see what the Lord knows you can do and so He puts you in situations where you have to use the abilities and talents He has already helped you gain. I see this over and over again as we work with the young adults, missionaries and investigators. I am truly thankful for 4 o'clock each afternoon when the young women, or men, missionaries, or friends of the church come just to talk, or have gospel questions or want to help in the kitchen. They help me with German or I help them with English. It so reminds me of being home in my own kitchen with, children, their friends, and with grandchildren. I am thankful for kitchens; warm roomy, kitchens. One young woman told me, "it just feels so good be here, and to talk with you. The whole building feels good." That is what we always hope for and one of the reasons we are serving at the Center. 

Last week at Testimony meeting a brother expressed his thankfulness for garments and their feeling of protection and commitment to his covenants. I hadn't really thought of it but I felt the same way.  Right now I am very thankful for thermal garments. They are such comfort to me.  What a great protection for our day in this evil world. I am also thankful for the privilege of growing up in the gospel and having had parents and grandparents who taught me the gospel by word and example. It is so hard to learn about the Lord's prophets and His Bible teachings when you have been taught incorrectly or have no knowledge of these things at all. It is also a blessing to share this religious and spiritual knowledge and to watch others grow in theirs. God blesses all people with the ability to grow and survive in their circumstances and to be able to recognize the truth when it is presented to them, if they choose to do so. We have seen some of these young people recognize the message the missionaries bring of truth and embrace it.

    I want to share my testimony with my family, especially my grandchildren, that I know that Heavenly Father and Jesus live and love us very much. They want us to be happy here and to return to live with them in Heaven. There isn't any more important message to share. Take time to share your testimonies with each other. I loved hearing about the testimony sharing of Matt and Heidi's children. I'm sure you all do but do it again to start the New Year and to hear the sweetness of your children.

LOVE AND HUGS 

Grammy, Grampa, 

Mom, Dad, 

Elder and Sister Parker

The Twelve Days of Christmas

​Dear Family,

This letter is the first to be written on the new computer received as a wonderful Christmas present a week ago as we returned to Vienna.  It's working pretty well although we're still working on how to get our I tunes copied on a Windows 8 computer to play on a Windows 7.  If any of you have clues, let us know.

As the week has gone, it's been pretty slow with lots of time to get caught up on things in the apartment.  Although it had snowed in Vienna while we were gone, it came down good and hard on Saturday night as seen in this view into our back yard. and out our front window. 

 ​I guess we get used to all the salt that is thrown around on the Utah roads but here the custom is to scatter the sidewalks with gravel!  It's definitely effective at stopping the slipping and sliding but long after the snow is gone, it's still pretty hard on the shoes.  

Because we were up so late checking in with everyone at the Messiah Sing-In we decided to attend the one ward here in Vienna that starts in the afternoon and that is the 4th (International) Ward.  It was a great end of the year as we covered the prophecies in the Old Testament regarding the Second Coming and while we were there, a member of the Bishopric asked Elder Parker if he'd speak on the 11th.  So it's the first talk in Sacrament Meeting we've been asked to give and I guess it's nice that it's in English.  We'll have to translate it into German and keep it in reserve for the next request that comes along.

The rest of Sunday was pleasant and gave us a chance to get caught up on any missed sleep.  We weren't sure what was going to go on in the Center during the week of New Years but showed up for a possible Home Evening on Monday, though no one had been assigned a spiritual thought.  As it turned out we had only one attendee, our young lady from Kazakhstan but it was a nice evening as she's now ready to be baptized after a quick holiday trip to Prague over the New Year's holiday. She's scheduled to be interviewed by the Zone Leaders as soon as she gets back and then the baptism will be planned.  The sisters had met with her earlier in the day and we simply took the opportunity to once again go over the baptismal commitment questions which she seemed to clearly understand. There was some evidence that the missionaries might possibly have appeared for a Christmas party we were unaware of as there were some cleaned dishes near the sink. Tuesday there were a couple who showed up for language classes but it was a short night overall.

New Year's Eve we pretty much stayed home other than a quick trip down to St. Stephen's cathedral in the city center to see the last of all the city lights, mingle in the crowds and get dinner at Sister Parker's favorite restaurant, but did go out at midnight to watch the fireworks which were going on all over the city, apparently being set off on the tops of a whole host of apartment buildings. 

New Year's Day we spent starting to take down all the Christmas decorations and went to dinner at a local Chinese restaurant that we frequently visit.  Friday was a quick shopping trip to stock up on groceries and we went to the Center to see if anyone would show up for Waffle Night.  There we found that the Elders had come by on Thursday for possible language classes as the chairs were still set up but apparently had no takers for the holiday.  We ended up with 4 elders and a member young man from Hungary as well as two invited investigators the elders had met earlier.  Both were students, one in computer science, the other in biophysics and what was fascinating in this small world of ours, was that both were from Ukraine, had spent several weeks in Kharkov and one had even been to church there although didn't remember Ruslana's mother.  It may have been at a time when they were in Poland.  At any rate, we did have a nice discussion with our waffle snacks.  Which pretty much brings us to the 10th of the 12 days of Christmas. 

We did have the opportunity to review the 12 Days of Christmas on You Tube as it was sung by the Tab Choir when the Kings Singers were visiting and it was fun again to see all of the family members represented in the choir just like in the good old days. Tomorrow we're going to attend the only ward we've never been to on Fast Day despite having visited it a half dozen other times so maybe that will give us one more opportunity to bear witness of the importance of the work in which we're engaged.  Then it's off to the races for the rest of 2015! 

We'll close with two of our favorite pictures. The first is of two cute figures who repeatedly part and then come together with a big smooching sound as they kiss on the streets of Seiffen, and the other was of a gorgeous sunrise that  morning on our drive there.

  (Sister Parker) It's hard to believe that the Holidays have come to an end and a new year has begun. We would like to thank everyone for their thoughtful cards, gifts and conversations. It is a joy to stay in touch and it keeps us from feeling too homesick at this time of year. I am enjoying my Fairy tale books in German. It is a fun way to get in my language practice. I am reading the Snow Queen from Hans Christian Andersen, so far it doesn't sound much like the movie "Frozen.'' However, it is made up of 7 smaller stories and one of the later ones just might fit. 

We are looking forward to a great new year and pray that yours will be full of blessings too. As a mission we are all reading the Book of Mormon with daily assignments so that we will finish it together by July 1st. It is a good time to recommitt to daily reading of the scriptures. I hope that all of the grandchildren, even the little ones are getting their daily scriptures to keep away the fiery darts of Satan. ( Remember "a little child shall lead them." 2Ne. 21:6)

   LOVE & HUGS,  A BRIGHT HAPPY  NEW YEAR!  

Grammy, Grampa, 

Mom, Dad, 

Elder and Sister Parker 

Christmas with Family (even far away!)

To Our Beloved Family Whom we Miss even More at this Time of Year!

Hi, Guys.  Well even though we're thousands of miles away, we were still able to have a wonderful Christmas thanks to the loving attention showered on us by Markus and his family (not to mention that we got to talk to all of you on Christmas anyway.)

In our last letter we talked about the last Advent celebration steeped in centuries of anticipation about upcoming events.  Monday we got the most personal tour of Leipzig one could imagine as Markus took us around town.  We started out in Leipzig's huge train station that clearly holds its own with New York's Grand Central Station.  

It was built in two identical halves by competing royalties that didn't want one side getting better than the other and so ended up essentially a mirror image of itself and was now decorated up for Christmas with all the glory one can imagine.

 As we were saying before inadvertently sending the letter not finished (Dad accidentally sent the letter in two emails), the observant looker may detect the subtle advance of the west into German commercial culture with the presence of Pizza Hut, McDonalds, KFC and the latest chain taking the country by rage, Dunkin' Donuts.  

From the train station we next went to the St. Thomas Church, renowned for a boy's choir that seems about as good as the Vienna Boy's Choir and historically also once the habitat of Johann Sebastian Bach.  Many years after his death and the rebuilding of the church after its destruction, his body was moved there and now resides in splendid peace once again.  

We had a chance to visit Markus' office where he does a pretty good business as a commercial printer for many of the firms here in Leipzig.  The family joined us in the afternoon as we explored the Leipzig Christmas Market near their city hall and went up to Leipzig's highest skyscraper where we about froze from a very brisk wind but had a wonderful view of the cityscape.  I tried to take a picture of the downtown area and had to have Grammy and Markus hold me in place as the wind was throwing us around pretty good but finally came up with this as our best effort.  Following a return to terra firma we all went on a cute merry go round and then returned home to get ready for their real preparation for Christmas Eve which is the big celebration throughout Europe. 

So the plan for the 23rd was to drop us off downtown to get a little of our own Christmas shopping done.  Grammy was looking for a good book in German of the Grimm fairly tales which Markus was able to reserve for us at one of their famous bookstores.  When we got there, she got enthralled in a book of Hans Christian Anderson fairy tales as well, so knowing in advance what she wanted, we bought both of them for her.  We then got her a nice pair of house slippers with better support than what she had in her present ones and proceeded to wander around the Christmas Market from the night before where I had seen a neat rendition of an obstetrician delivering a baby, still connected to its mother by the umbilical cord, the whole thing done completely with wires, screws, nuts and bolts and which we will save for later specific viewing by the interested as it pretty much explains a lot of the facts of life about such things.  Still I thought it was really kind of fun and so Mom got that for me for Christmas.  

We decided to get really courageous and take the tram a bit of the way home because it passed by a neat and very big memorial to a huge battle of the nations.  We stepped on the street car and attempted to put in our 4.80 euros which we had in exact change and three times it gave all our money back.  We asked one of the passengers if she could figure out if we were doing something wrong and she concluded that if it wouldn't take our money, the ride must be free.  We got to the memorial at about 4:10 PM pretty much after sunset, and found out it had closed at 4 PM so we had to settle for a picture as proof that we were really there. 

 Getting back on the tram, the little auto ticket taker this time accepted our money and so I guess we were able to remain honest.  They had loaned us Cathleen Wiese's cell phone and when we got back on the tram and took it to the end of the line, we were able to call her and she came and picked us up.

A little side note that for a full week we were overwhelmed with delicious German culinary arts.  Every morning a delicious breakfast was ready for us which we ate with the family, lunch and dinner being also provided every day with wonderful  foods that included German dumplings, red cabbage (one of our favorites and we actually sampled three different recipes during the week, one from Markus, one from his brother next door, and one from his Mother-in-law in Chemnitz--more on that later) and tasty meats that included typical German wurst, rabbit, goose and beef.  I don't think we'd eaten as well or definitely as European in our entire mission. 

Christmas Eve morning was spent initially finishing decorating their Christmas tree which pretty much everyone does that day.  I have several pictures of the process but will spare them in the letter as no one does it adequate justice.  After a yummy noon dinner as partially described above, the next thing on the agenda was a family program hosted by the youngest son, Heinrich.  He had made sure that everyone had a part on the program interspersed with our favorite Christmas Carols and all of their musical talents were displayed.  Dad chose "Still, still, still" a great Austrian carol and our presentation consisted of telling the story of "Twas the Night Before Christmas" while Mom displayed appropriate pictures.  The program ended in time to get Leonie and Ferdinand off to the church to participate in their Christmas play which was pretty interesting.  The youth depicted workers who were cleaning up a park when an angel appeared to them announcing the birth of the Savior, the Son of God who would save mankind.  He suggested they announce that to all they met and they proceeded to do just that, being met with disinterest, disbelief, incredulity or allegations that they must be mentally deranged.  Leonie worked as a secretary in a psychiatrist's office where they were eventually sent but they remained true to their assignment until they got a group of faithful believers.  It was a clever way to bring the significance of Christ's birth to the modern day though there was undoubtedly much we could have told them about true modern day appearances of angels.

We returned home about 8:00 to begin the opening of presents.  While we had taken the kids to prepare for the play, Markus had stayed home to set up all the presents under the tree and when he then joined us all was ready to go.  As we returned home everyone got to sit in the "Seat of Jubilation" where each one opened a present and then selected the next present and who it was meant for who took their seat and so forth.  It was an interesting way to celebrate and we received several lovely gifts of things we had noted during the week like an apple-corer that is used to make delicious baked apples by removing the core and replacing it with yummy delicacies, or an Eierschalensollbruchstellenverursacher (try saying that without the word written out in front of you) or "Eggshellbreakingandperforatingdevice" a clever little tool to break into a hard boiled or a soft boiled egg shell and make a nice neat break all the way around it.  We also received a cute little carved doctor complete with stethoscope and writing a prescription about six inches high and a little reclining grandmother holding her cup of hot "Postum".  Very popular here are small smoking figures that take a little stick of incense as they puff.  So in this instance the incense is transferred to Grandma's steaming cup.  So those and lots of candies and cookies.  We in turn passed out decorated Christmas tree ornaments from Vienna and table runners like you guys should have received to Markus' family, his brother and his mother-in-law.  

Christmas day everyone slept in as long as they wanted to, the presents having been opened the night before, and then we went over to Markus' brother's house, Stephan who lives again right next door.  He is married to Cathleen's sister which makes it very convenient for family get-together's.  The order of the day there was to enjoy left overs from both families' Christmas Eve meals, once again to sing songs and enjoy musical presentations.  When that was done we had another special treat.  Markus' father and mother, though now divorced were both present, both having driven fairly long distances.  His mother left following the family events on Christmas day but his father had been with us during the Christmas Eve play.  He is quite an accomplished organist and at one time had traveled throughout eastern Europe playing the organ for a variety of church congregations.  He had actually played in the Lutheran Church when his grandson, Heinrich, had been baptized.  After the play they talked to the priest who gave them the keys to the church and the organ loft so he could come and play after all the worship services were over for the day.  So back to the church we went on Christmas evening about 8 PM where he played for about an hour, many times just from memory.  There were pieces from Bach and Mozart and Handel and others that were familiar but we didn't know who had written them.  He said he had an LDS hymnbook with him that was quite old but on request played "Gently Raise the Sacred Strain" so we got a little of the Tab Choir's opening hymn into the Lutheran church on Christmas night.

  

The next day was the Second Day of Christmas, celebrated as a full holiday throughout Europe (known as Boxing Day in England) and which I always thought was so civilized that we made it a tradition in our office to always take at least two days off for Christmas.  (I doubt the tradition carried on after I left.)  The special treat for that day was to travel to the Jentzsch family get-together in Chemnitz.  Brother Jentzsch, father to both Cathleen and Stephan's wife, is the one who takes care of the technical equipment at the Freiberg Temple.  While they got set up for another wonderful meal, Markus and Cathleen's brother, Benjamin, took us on a tour of the city.  Chemnitz was previously known as Karl Marx Stadt, the home of the same with a large bust of Marx, about the only remaining vestige of the previous Communist rule.  It was quite interesting throughout our entire stay to see the role of Communism in the lives of the people of Leipzig and Chemnitz.

There is quite a large display we visited in downtown Leipzig depicting the events of 1989 where over 100,000 people assembled to protest the German Democratic Republic's handling of their lives (the old East German government) and which lead to eventual dissolution of the Soviet Union and the reunification of the two Germanys.  Everyone in middle age and older remembers the times quite vividly.  We were able to see where Markus and Cathleen were married prior to their sealing in the Freiberg Temple, which you remember was the only temple ever approved while still Communist.  We saw the houses both lived in as children, where they went to school, Cathleen attending a school which still bears the labels for two entrances, one for boys and the other for girls. and the very evident influence of the East German years in their architecture and streets, though now steadily diminishing with the years.  Markus drove us by the house where he picked up Cathleen on the way to their marriage.  While visiting the downtown area we passed this church where if you look closely right above the arch and below the black ledge you see the words "EIN FESTE BURG IST UNSER GOTT"  ("A MIGHTY FORTRESS IS OUR GOD"). I'm pretty sure Markus told us that Martin Luther was also born in Chemnitz.  

We got back to the family in time to enjoy another wonderful meal and the third recipe for red cabbage.  They had a great method for dishing up the meal in assembly line fashion with three full tables served in about 10 minutes and then once again we enjoyed singing Christmas carols and another gift exchange.  Markus and Cathleen were exceptional hosts, we were still surrounded by Mormons the entire week. 

Here with Markus and Cathleen's father is Sister Gertraud Richter, widow of Gottfried Richter who was paid a personal visit by President Monson prior to his death two years ago and who still receives a Christmas card from him every year.  You may all remember how influential President Monson was in getting the Freiberg Temple built and now it will be expanded in the next year.  We got home that night in time to enjoy a wonderful German translation of the Polar Express complete with even the punched tickets being translated into German.  That's a family tradition of many years, with even a pause for hot chocolate, topped with marshmallows.  And to top it all off, it was a white Christmas in Chemnitz, the first snow we'd seen on our mission outside of Hallstatt with Andy and Ruslana!

 It was up early Saturday morning to catch the plane back to Vienna where we arrived safely to unpack all our presents and enjoy all the goodies you guys have sent that were waiting for us.  We found four or five cards waiting in the mail box and are enjoying Twizzlers, Peppermint Crunch Junior Mints, Peanut Butter Reese's Pieces, and Santa Hershey Bars.  Ahhh!  What could be better?

The day came to a wonderful close as we had the opportunity to interact with all those who came to the Marcroft Christmas party on Saturday afternoon.  It was great for us because we were still in early evening and so there was time for short hellos and updates with everyone present.  Little to my knowledge, the kids had all been up to a major event which they had all kept secret since Andy and Ruslana were here in October.  Remembering the mishap of my lost computer and its contents on our arrival day now over 7 months ago, the family all got together and purchased a replacement computer and a very lovely briefcase to go with it.  I appreciate sooo much this wonderful gift and especially the fact that it sat here for a few months as I commandeered Mom's computer in the meantime, ofttimes, I'm sure to her frustration.  But everyone kept the secret until I could open in the presence of many as they watched in real time as it was presented.  I'm still in the process of downloading things and will probably need some help along the way as it gets more complicated but I can't express my appreciation enough to you all for this great gift and the sacrifice that was made along with it.  It is simply wonderful and will add a significant dimension to our capabilities as our mission progresses.  The briefcase is equally wonderful with compartments stashed everywhere for everything conceivable that I could ever want or need.  Thank you, thank you, thank you all.  It has truly been a great Christmas! One additional note since finishing everything else, we stayed up late to catch the start of the Messiah Sing-in at Warren and Marilyn's.  Wonderful to talk to all the other side of the family before we finally retired for the night.

It really was wonderful to be welcomed into Markus' family and extended family and to share in their Christmas Traditions. We were treated like family members with love and care and were even given the royal master bedroom. Christmas Eve brought a family program, church services, gifts and stockings filled to the brim. We had a whole week of Christmas and things couldn't have been better had Santa himself arranged it all. Thanks Markus, Cathleen, Ferdinand, Leonie, and Heinrich for being our wonderful German family!

We miss family and friends at home but feel blessed to be serving here in Vienna as missionaries and sharing our Saviors love.

Let us all remember to share the Gift of the Savior all year long. 

Love you all. 

Grammy, Grampa, 

Mom, Dad, 

Elder and Sister Parker

A Village that Exists Solely for Christmas

To Our Beloved Family,

Another wonderful week has passed with many exciting events to report.  Monday's Home Evening was down a little in numbers as people are very involved in the Advent season here but overall we still had a good group out with Mom making Sloppy Joe's which everyone always loves.  Our language courses were definitely less well attended with our Iranian family not coming for the first time in several months.  We're thinking they are also involved in other things but because we announced that the center would be closing for a couple of weeks, we also think  perhaps they just got the dates wrong.  At any rate, the Institute schedule promoted a Christmas party instead of the routine classes and we had the usual good 40-50 people out for that.  We set all of our chairs up in a big circle in our main classroom and following the main announcements received a fun visitor: 

His German was pretty good and we were having trouble figuring out who he really was but it eventually became obvious that it was our Seminary and Institute Director, Brother Achim Erlacher. 

Here he is pictured afterwards with Sister Wadosch, also a great support on our Institute Council.  She and her husband, an ex-stake president have been called to serve in the Freiberg Temple Presidency.  More on that later. Santa passed around special presents to everyone present that had been prepared by our special sister, Eva, who always cooks the meal for Wednesday nights and had prepared schnitzel, potatoes and wonderful Christmas cakes for everyone.  He had special presents for us, a wonderful souvenir shopping bag emblazoned with lots of the sight seeing spots from Vienna for Sister Parker and a similar souvenir type Viennese mug for Elder Parker.  I was asked what I was going to drink in the mug and replied, naturally only fruit tea!  He gave other special presents to the Youth Council leaders, Sister Wadosch and asked if anyone had been missed.  One of the young adults replied "Brother Erlacher....but he isn't here!:)  Enough food had been prepared that there was quite a bit left over.  Eva not only cooks but also serves as her ward's Primary president.  Her husband apparently doesn't like the missionaries to come by the house and so she always wants to make sure that she can feed them and took special pains to make sure we invited everyone over on Thursday for the leftovers.  This we did and had a wonderful get-to-gether after the language courses with eight of the elders.  The Zone Leaders had sent a message that they planned on coming but didn't show and the sisters replied that they had an assignment in Wiener Neustadt, an hour away but were on their way home.  How long would we be there?  Everyone else showed up between 5 and 6 o'clock but we decided to wait for the sisters and had enough still for four extra plates of food.  We set them all up and while waiting for the sisters who finally got there about 7:15, the Zone Leaders also appeared after they'd had an appointment so it was a nice tender mercy for them that the sisters provided the excuse to wait around as otherwise we would have been long gone.

Friday was our departure on a flight to Leipzig to stay the holidays with the Wiese family.  Our plane flight to Leipzig gave us only two options, 6:25 in the morning or 8 PM in the evening.  We decided we would opt for the 6:25 in the morning but that meant we had to be there by at least 5:30.  There is a special train that makes the trip from the center of Vienna, very close to our apartment and the airport in only 15 minutes but the first train in the morning doesn't leave until 5:35 and we decided that would be cutting it too close.  Our only other options would be a taxi which we thought was probably too expensive or take a night bus which came at 4:30 to the train station for the regular trains that run all night.  That got us to the airport in good time and it took a good thirty minutes from the train to get through security and to the boarding gate.  But the real challenge to do all that meant that we had to get up at 3 AM to get ready for that 4:30 night bus!  Having waited for the sisters longer than we had anticipated meant that we hadn't gotten home when we planned and we had finally gotten to bed around 11:00 after completing all of our packing and other preparations. We snoozed a bit on the plane but the flight was only about an hour and a half and so we were still pretty drowsy by the time we arrived. But the Wiese's were there to meet us and the plan for Friday was to travel to Freiberg and do a temple session, stay one night at the temple apartments and then see some of the local sights there that afternoon.

The Freiberg Temple was really very pretty.  We put our luggage in our room in the temple apartment and met Cathleen Wiese's father who works there in charge of all the technical workings of the temple.  They had us set up for a 10:30 session and we really wondered how we were going to stay awake on our four hours of sleep the night before.  But yet another tender mercy, they asked us to be the witness couple so we had the opportunity to be a little more active than we would normally have been and it was a very enjoyable event.  A small side-light, the same thing happened last year when we went to the Madrid Temple, still in the middle of jet lag, so the Lord has a way of taking care of us!  We even went through the session in German, without earphones which kept us extra alert.

That afternoon, Markus, Cathleen and their son Heinrich picked us up to take us to Albrechtsburg, a small village we'd never really heard of but was the birthplace of Karl Maeser, the founder of BYU.  There we ate lunch at a wonderful restaurant near the old Albrechtsburg cathedral and then went through the old castle built by the local prince. 

The area is located in a  region known as Meissen which is famous for wonderful porcelain and the museum demonstrates much of what they are famous for. In the first picture above you can see a church just to the right of the umbrella.  Below that is a little yellow house immediately to the right of the umbrella, then a small white building and the building next to that was Karl Maeser's birthplace.  Next, Heinrich is showing us on a model of the castle and church exactly where we ate lunch.  

That evening we went to the Freiberg Christmas market where we ate some yummy pizza-type sandwiches but it was actually raining pretty hard so we all stood under umbrellas as we ate.  By the time we got back to the temple apartment we were good and exhausted and slept like logs until the next morning.  While we had been visiting Albrechtsburg, Leonie Wiese who visited us with her brother Ferdinand last summer, had left us special fixings for a wonderful breakfast the next morning.  She left it all in a refrigerator in the eating room with mango fruit juice, chocolate milk and yogurt, hard boiled eggs along with a basketful of bread, muffins and other yummies.  We cleaned our apartment and were finished with breakfast in time for Markus and Cathleen to pick us up the next day for a trip to a little village known as Seiffen.

Seiffen is a little town that exists for only one reason.  It makes wooden toys and special decorations for Christmas. Admittedly their nutcrackers and other wooden figures probably have appeal at other times of the year but they work all year and make virtually all of their income in the last month of the year.  We drove into town and were immediately directed by uniformed personnel to a parking place right near a large work shop.  Here we were allowed to watch the employees as they made and assembled nutcrackers of all sizes and lots of cute big and little creations all to make the Christmas season special.  For instance we saw this craftsman  making these cute little wooden trees as pictured below. 

We spent the next few hours wandering through toy stores, manufacturing work places, museums and even the village church which is quite famous.  

We took over one hundred photos so in this little report we can't even give you as much as a glimpse of everything we were able to see.

Here you see a cute little street scene and a woman putting whiskers and beards on nutcrackers.  Mom was just overwhelmed with everything there was to see and sometime we'll have to send a bigger sampling of all the wonderful sights in this delightful little Christmas village.  

For many decades it was behind the Iron Curtain in East Germany and everything they made was shipped to the west as one of the products of the system.  Now they've really come into their own as they have the chance to be their own businessmen.  Though it was commercial, it was still very much a delightful enterprise. Following a tour through a couple of workshops and multiple little stores selling their various wares we ended up in a museum for toys of the kind the city had made for more than a century.  Included were wonderful matchbox toys, numerous big and little whirligig things some of you may remember from our Christmas decorations which consists of little merry go round devices powered by candles whose heat provide some power to little wooden propellers and cause them to spin around.  We went into several stores selling these little things looking for the most expensive one that finally topped out at 9,999 euros!  

Here they're called "pyramids' and the examples, as here, they included in the museum ran from the ground floor to the top of a two story hall.  They even had cute little make it yourself creations you could buy and assemble on the spot as shown here where Heinrich is putting together a little house and putting on the shingles.  

The last picture shows an action scene where the two figures begin apart and then gradually come together with a big smooching sound as they meet and kiss!

  

Sister Parker got so enthralled with everything there was to see that she bought a couple of items that still bewilder her husband as to how we'll ever get them home.

Sunday morning started off with a delicious breakfast, very typically German provided by Cathleen Wiese.  They have been just wonderful hosts providing us with every amenity we could desire and really bending over backwards to show us their beloved Leipzig and the Saxony region of Germany which surrounds Leipzig. We had agreed to go with them to the Lutheran service which started at 10 AM and they would accompany us to the LDS service which started at 1 PM.  Actually the Lutheran service was really pretty cute and comparable to a Primary special sacrament meeting.  All of the children in the church had prepared a special Christmas Nativity preparation and were decked out as angels, shepherds, a variety of stable animals including a cow and a sheep as well as numerous other sheep and of course, Joseph and Mary.  They knew their parts really well and had some songs they sang as well.  The congregation sang pretty much Christmas carols for their hymns, most of which we already knew and the priest gave quite a good talk on the importance of extending the Christmas spirit to the less fortunate.  

When we made it to the LDS ward that afternoon, they'd already had their Primary presentation the week before but they had their ward choir sing along with special talks from the elder's quorum president and a high council speaker.  Everyone remembered Markus quite well and we even met the family of one of our elders who had recently been transferred into our district in Vienna.  We showed them several pictures we had of him and took a picture of us with them to send to his email.  

That evening we were invited over to Markus' brother's house who lives right next door.  They had a total of four brothers there with their wives and even Markus' father came. It was a special 4th Advent Sunday and we had wonderful food, sang everyone's favorite Christmas carols, and even played some fun games that the family enjoyed.  We must admit that because we had already celebrated the first three Advent Sundays prior to leaving for Germany, we decided to light the fourth candle in our apartment and display our Christmas decorations one last time. So here is our 4th Advent celebration before we left for Leipzig.

  Note the bag Mom received on the left and the stein on the right that Dad received.

And this was the real 4th Advent celebration at the home of Stephan Wiese. Pictured are just a few of the many family members who were there.  Stephan serves in the local ward bishopric and plays the piano, Markus played his cello, his Dad played the flute, a niece played the harp and Heinrich, one of his sons, played the trumpet so it was a beautiful musical evening.  They have kept us so busy since we arrived that it has taken us this long to get the news together and get it off.  More about Christmas next week.  Love to you all and we will hope to have Skyped with many if not all of you on Christmas if we can figure out a way to get around all of the other missionaries who are checking in.  We wish you all a happy holiday and hope you all enjoy the special Spirit of Christmas that prevails.

  (Sister Parker) Being here in beautiful Saxony, Germany is like being in a Christmas dream, even without snow. Every little town is festive with decorations and Christmas Markets. Many have music playing and it helps create a very festive spirit among all the people wandering around even when it is very cold, rainy and windy. I love that life just goes on with plans, no matter the weather. Markus and Cathleen have taken us to the temple, showed us beautiful countrysides, taken us to fine restaurants and shared their extended family with us. This is a wonderful place to be if we can't be at home with all of you. What's more, they try to remember the Savior and his birth. 

You will all be in our hearts this Christmas Eve and Day.      

Love, 

 Mom, Dad, 

Grammy, Grampa, 

Elder and Sister Parker

A Salzburg Devotional

Dearest Family,

It seems hard to believe but the weeks keep getting better and better, no doubt because the Christmas Spirit continues to grow and grow.  I mentioned last time that the Advent season is quite big throughout Europe.  In our last mission letter from President Kohler, he filled us all in on the historical meanings of the season.  Apparently it dates back to the fourth century and was originally a time when converts to Christianity readied themselves for baptism.  Then in the middle ages it became a time of preparation for the second coming of the Savior and now it has evolved into a time of anticipating Christmas and the birth of the Savior.  The circle of the wreath and the evergreen out of which it is made both symbolize on going life.  Three of the candles were apparently originally purple and were lit on the first, second and fourth Sundays prior to Christmas symbolizing hope peace and love.  The third candle was rose in color and lit on third Advent, this weekend, symbolized joy.  He encouraged us to invite and help others to come unto Christ, ready themselves for baptism and to help the Lord in His hastening of the work of the gathering of Israel in preparation for His second coming.

This Wednesday's Institute lesson for Elder Parker was on 2nd Nephi 9 and 10 and were so aptly fitted to the season as the prophet Jacob discusses the atonement and the Lord's intentions to remember his promises to gather scattered Israel. Despite getting to bed a little late that night, we were nonetheless up at 5 to ready ourselves for a trip to Salzburg for the mission Christmas devotional.  Wonderful testimonies were given by President and Sister Kohler on the importance of our work here and then we had a special presentation given by some of the missionaries working in Switzerland who offered a wonderful musical and power point presentation on the real significance of the Christmas season.  They have been doing similar things there since last summer, one of their musical evenings being a great presentation of the Plan of Salvation as told to a granddaughter by her grandfather.  It has been getting more and more attention by the local population there and the president thought it would be appropriate to bring it to us to share.

Then we had a wonderful meal prepared by the local members in Salzburg with appetizers, main course and dessert provided for the two zones in attendance.  President Kohler has been doing this all over the mission which is quite widespread and this was their fourth time in celebrating this season appropriately.  At the conclusion of the meal he had the members who had helped prepared the meal come into the cultural hall where we all sang the great missionary hymn "Called to Serve."  We tried to get a small portion of it on video and hopefully it will transmit:​

Following the meal the President acted like something special was about to happen and he was right.  He had managed to acquire a non-distributable copy of "Meet the Mormons" which we thoroughly enjoyed. We presume that most if not all of you have seen it but if not, spend the money and go or wait until it's out on DVD.  Especially significant for the elders and sisters was the last episode on the young mother who'd had a very difficult life but was now sending her oldest son on a mission.  It rang true for everyone there and there were more than just a few moist eyes.

    ​

So having spent most of the day in Salzburg and getting home late enough to know better, we still spent a little time organizing ourselves for the weekend.  Friday night, instead of the usual waffle night agenda, the young adults decided they wanted to do a little Christmas caroling and scheduled it to start about 5 PM.  The sun does down here now about 4 in the afternoon and it's pretty dark by an early dinner time so at 5 we had about 6 sisters with no brothers.  Sounded like an alto/soprano event when finally three brethren showed up.  They had arranged to sing to several selected people all over the city and by the time we got going it was almost 5:45.  One of the groups needed a good bass or tenor and because Elder Parker can usually sing either, it was decided that we would accompany one group of 4 sisters and a brother and another group of 5 with 2 brethren would head in a different direction.  Sister Parker elected to stay at the center by herself in case anyone else showed up who hadn't gotten the message and off we went.  

Our first stop was about a half hour away on a subway and then transferring to a streetcar and was a very sweet sister who was completely bedridden, getting just a little dementia but knew her music like an ace.  We had to wait while her home nurses finished up and left for the evening and she had another member who has been very dutiful in taking care of her who then let us in.  We gathered around her bedside and proceeded to carol her extensively.  She even sang a little Christmas carol I wasn't familiar with but the YSA's knew and then asked if we would sing an old carol that she had the words for which was in an ancient Austrian dialect.  As it turned out, I had actually heard the tune the previous week as it was sung at the Primary celebration so it was just a bit familiar although I had no idea what most of the words were saying.  But it was a very warm and emotional time singing to her and we think she greatly appreciated our coming.  Next we headed up into the center of the city near the big St. Stephens Cathedral and found an apartment that had been expecting us about 45 minutes earlier.  As it turned out, despite phone calls and multiple door ringing, no answer was achieved and we decided the sister had likely turned in early and wouldn't be aroused.  By this time we were pushing 7:30 and decided it was time to return to the center.  

One of our members had purchased a ticket that had expired after it's 12 hour limit and so everyone decided we would walk from the center of town to the YSA center.  I knew the way but it still took a good half hour to accomplish.  Fortunately, I had purchased a good warm hat which covered my freezing ears and by the time we got back, Sister Parker had welcomed the other group back and still had enough waffles left to supply the stragglers.  They enjoyed playing two of the games we had brought along, "It Came to Pass" and "Spot it" with good enthusiasm but we got home again pretty late.  

Saturday was a day of shopping for a few small Christmas presents and also needed to see if we could find a replacement for an old gas oven that when lit has a tendency to singe the elders' eyebrows.  Not much luck finding one that would fit in their apartment so maybe we can see what it would take to put an electric oven in which is much safer and much less expensive.  That evening we spent at the International Ward, enjoying their Christmas Party and especially a bunch of kids that reminded us of many of our grandchildren.  The Young Men and Young Women did a very nice shadow display of the Christmas story and about five or six families participated in the show which was very typical international with songs from Africa and a very intriguing dance and song from the Philippines.

So today was Third Advent and we decided to visit two wards.  As it turned out, the first one we visited in the morning, we being totally unawares, featured all of the YSA's in the ward who presented the entire sacrament meeting.  During Sunday School time they rehearsed a cute little song dating back quite a few years and reminding me somewhat of the song above which we sang for the bedridden sister above, known as the Yodeler's Devotional.  Sister Parker didn't feel she could handle it but Elder Parker ended up sitting on the stand with the rest of the YSA choir and we took part in a short pre-meeting presentation.  

One of our new members who just celebrated his one year anniversary in the church had the responsibility of speaking on spirituality and had called us last night seeking some good scriptures.  We gave him about 7 or 8 and I had the pleasure of sitting near him in the choir, congratulating him as he did a great job with his part.  Sitting right in front of me was a young returned missionary sister who speaks perfect English and was recognized as finally getting her visa and thus leaving this week to take up residence in Salt Lake where she will be working at the U of U Medical Center helping with colon cancer research.  We'll have to see if Ruslana can maybe look her up once she gets there.  A surprise speaker at the conclusion of the meeting was a member of the Third Quorum of Seventy who was visiting Vienna with his wife.  He's a native German but we talked with them afterwards and they both also speak excellent English.

This afternoon we visited the International Ward for their meetings and helped with a somewhat spontaneous Sunday School class for the one investigator present and otherwise finished up with the group that had entertained us the night previously.  We got home in time to enjoy a wonderful dinner cooked up by Sister Parker.

We have received several Christmas cards and a few packages from many of you and as we type this we're listening to some great Christmas music that was shipped in with one of the packages.

Happy Third Advent and hope your day is filled with JOY! (Note the neat Christmas mugs and one of our recent acquisitions at one of the Christmas markets of the Bremen City Musicians where Sister Parker served 47 years ago--the donkey, dog, cat and rooster all stackable on each other.    It is very awesome and very meaningful to me.)

  Oh, how fun it is to spend Christmas in Vienna. It is like Christmas city with festive things and markets on every corner and while we don't have any snow, we do have cold crispy air and it feels like Christmas. Christmas is such a wonderful and difficult thing because it holds so many memories and so much emotion. Memories of past Christmas' in Germany as a missionary, Christmas when our children were young, extended family Christmas', Christmas with our young marrieds and grandchildren, all wonderful memories. Its hard to be away and we wish we could be with all of you, but we think of you often and hope you will have a joyous Christmas time. We also hope you will take time to reflect on Jesus,  "He IsThe Gift  --  Discover the Gift  - Embrace the gift - and Share the Gift."  That is the message we are sharing as missionaries and hope that you will have opportunities to share it also. 

With Lots of Love,    

Grammy, Grampa, 

Mom, Dad, 

Elder and Sister Parker

The Advent Spirit is Strong!

Dear Family,

It's hard to believe that the weeks keep getting better and better.  Certainly the holiday season has a lot to do with it as the Spirit of Christmas seems to permeate everything here in Austria just as it does around the rest of the Christian world.  Many of you will remember our traditional Advents calendar that we always hang on the pantry door in the kitchen every December.  The kids always like to place a little figure on the tree every day in December from the 1st through the 24th and we've been doing that for years ever since being trained in Germany many years ago.  Well it's very special here for everyone and so we've purchased TWO Advent's calendars with one very traditional kind here hiding a yummy piece of chocolate underneath the date and so far we've been able to enjoy 7 pieces of yummy candy during the past week.  Our other Advent's calendar is just a fun one opening a little cover to reveal something special underneath.  The overlying picture is of a street scene in Dickens' England with a young boy underneath number one right in front of a shop labelled Dicken's Books.  When you fold back the cover he's carrying a large pumpkin, two showing a toy shop window which adds a teddy bear hanging in the window when you pull it back.  three grows a yummy multi-layered cake from three to six layers, four has a squirrel eating out of a girl's hand that was empty before pulling the card back, etc.  It's lots of fun and we'll try and save the calendars to use again next year when we'll be home prior to the first of advent if we can talk Sister Parker out of a big long touring trip hauling five big pieces of luggage along with us!

The big events of the week were our last district meeting with Elder Pugmire who returns to Utah and should have arrived by last Friday.  He went out in style with a baptism just five days before he left and asked if he could borrow Elder Parker's white tie!  So here it is, perhaps as close as it will get to a baptism this mission but who knows.  

The young man being baptized is from Pakistan and has been in our Institute class for the past several weeks.  He asked if he could bear his testimony after the closing song of the service and just before the closing prayer and it was very touching to feel the Spirit as he told us of his love for the Savior.

     On Thursday we became a trio as one of the sweet sisters left to serve in Stuttgart and we were her former companions protectors.  Sister Bushman left around 9 AM and her replacement, Sister Anjaloudis didn't come in until about 7 PM.  They'll be an interesting pair as the new senior comes from Australia and our continuing junior comes from Saudi Arabia (though American by ancestry.)  But she's lived there for well over a decade and is used to only being able to drive while on the American compound as women aren't allowed to drive elsewhere in the country.  

We had three other new elders come into Vienna with the transfer and most came by the center on Friday night which turned out to be wonderful as we had 7 of our Iranian family appear.  This time they came in time for waffles, none of them knowing what waffles were beforehand but it was really a very sociable evening.  We just naturally divided up into various groups with missionaries placing themselves amongst each group and they're finally starting to ask questions about what makes the church different from the other churches around.  The young adults had dedicated the night to making cookies and so everyone pitched in. One of the groups was decorating with little sparkles and one of the Iranian men became very philosophical with his decorations symbolizing an evil influence with chocolate sprinkles being overcome by the radiant sunshine of the white, yellow, green and red sprinkles.  It was a lot more complicated than that but fit into their Zoroastrian thinking about life.  He was also quite an accomplished piano player and was impressed with a newly returned missionary who was present and has been called to the Stake Young Adult Council who sat down and tickled the ivories for a few minutes. and I think helped further establish the fact that these Mormons are a cultured group.  They finally asked for pictures and so we took some too.

 Saturday we finally had a chance to have a real P day and got out to two or three more Christmas markets around town. Dad finally broke down and let Mom get a few neat souvenirs of a Christmas in Vienna which will grace the decorations in the future.  We also finished mailing off a few Christmas packages which will hopefully arrive before the great day. Of the 29 different markets around town, each one with it's own special flavor, we've actually been able to visit about 10 of them, many for just a quick walk through.  Later we were able to get to two different ward celebrations.  Saturday is St. Nicholas Day and we saw St. Nicholas both at Schoenbrunn, the fancy castle we have visited with everyone who has come as well as visiting the Primary at the Vienna 5th Ward.  

Not exactly a Santa Claus image but around here it's the Christ child who brings the gifts on Christmas Eve. 

We then moved to the 2nd Ward at the Stake Center where the Young Adults had practiced a cute dance number for part of the entertainment.  

Unfortunately the light was poor and the picture is fuzzy but there was a little more of a Santa Claus guy present. 

Today we got off early to travel to the First Ward for Fast and Testimony meeting.  Our baptizee from last week was confirmed and received the Gift of the Holy Ghost and I felt like we were back in our young adult ward in Utah as the lines to bear testimony were always four to five people long. With time expiring we still had three people get up at the end of the meeting to bear testimony as they just couldn't stay in their seats.  We'd already heard from a 90 year old and two 80 year olds, one of whom was helped up to the podium by the bishop's 1st counselor and another young man waiting to bear his testimony.  One of the late testifiers looked very familiar and it turned out she was the sister of our stake president, Howard Bangerter and former General President of the Relief Society, Julie Beck!  She brought up as a translator a young medical student we know well who did a great job of getting it right in German.  

We had a nice visit after the meeting and they had lots of family connections which brought them to that particular ward as they're touring Europe.  The medical student mentioned she is now on a gynecology rotation and has lots of ethical questions and we're going to meet sometime this week to share some of the wisdom gained in 40 years of practice.  The spirit was very strong and we can't remember a better meeting anywhere at any time.  Also visiting was a just released sister who had served in Vienna and was touring with her family.  She left Vienna in April just prior to our arrival in May so we hadn't known her but her parents had both served missions in Germany, one in Hamburg and the other in Frankfurt.  They met while teaching at the MTC, That sounds a little familiar, right Matt and Heidi?

So, Happy Second Advent everyone and we'll see how the next week goes.

Love, Mom and Dad, 

Grammy and Grampa, 

Elder and Sister Parker