The Lord's Tender Mercies

Dearest Family,

It seems like another great week has passed with lots of exciting things to report and more things to do than there seemed time to do it.

First off, we were thrilled to get the latest edition of the Parker Post with all the news it contained.  Heidi really puts herself out to get that all together and it is very enjoyable to be brought up to date in a personal way.  We encourage those of you who haven't contributed in a while to REPENT.  All of the holidays will be over by the next issue and no one should have an excuse not to be able to give us a full report of the memorable things you all did to celebrate the birth of our Savior.

Which brings us to our current report.  We're always a little critical of all the businesses who are already jumping the gun as soon as Halloween is over to get involved in their merchandising and I guess Vienna is no different but at least it's interesting to see the European or Austrian spin that gets put on things.  We get a little throw-away newspaper thrown at our doorstep every week and this past week they listed 29 different Christmas displays being set up around the city. At least half of them started this past weekend with the remainder all starting by next weekend.  We took our P day yesterday to fine tune one of the missionary apartments that has been vacant for about 3 months getting major overhauls and repairs finished and it looks like it's finally ready to go.  We found a great huge store equivalent to a Home Depot or Lowe's where we were finally able to find the equivalent of a squeegee and a vacuum filter, look at some possibilities for living room overhead lighting and it even carried some cute little 2 foot Christmas trees that we thought might fit into our apartment. One of the 29 displays/markets had some really impressive Christmas articles that Sister Parker decided should be in the homes of each of our children so we made a purchase there and you can all expect to be getting a little gift from Vienna sometime in the next several weeks.  Anyway, we got those home and then decided we would head over to the big City Hall or Rathaus where the main Christmas display was set to open.  We didn't realize that it would be like turning on the lights at Temple Square after Thanksgiving with what seemed like the whole city standing elbow to elbow as they lit up a huge plaza together with the city Christmas Tree to the tune of a band playing "We Wish You a Merry Christmas" (no kidding!) 

 They had several of the very large trees in the park all decorated with huge lit up ornaments, lighted guitars in one, typical ornaments in another, red valentine-like hearts in another, the sum total looking very fun and impressive.  There were two little trains that kids could get on and ride around the park with a man blowing a loud whistle every 5-10 seconds leading the way to warn the crowds that the trains were coming through!  One of the members informed us that one of the many displays, #17 to be exact, is thought to be the most genuine Austrian of the whole bunch so I guess we'll wander that direction one of these days.

The early part of the week was taken up with more routine things.  We traveled out to one of the outlying cities, St. Poelton, that we have some apartment oversight responsibilities for that now has 4 elders in it instead of the 2 who used to be there.  They have a wonderful little branch there that has the only standing choir we've found in the stake so far and a strong spirit that's quite evident as we have visited them on Sundays a couple of times.  They're the ones that want us to speak when we come and I guess we'll have to gear up for it the next time it happens. Anyway, they have a gung ho branch mission leader who's a little compulsive about how the elders should set up their apartment, somewhat to their irritation.  We informed the mission office and got specific instructions that they have the final say as to what goes on in their own apartment and we may have to try and gently get him to back off a little bit as to how they arrange their beds, that they can keep a door off that leads to their kitchen but blocks access in an out to their refrigerator, etc.

Then as to our language classes, we've continued to see good things happen.  Elder Parker has gotten directly involved in teaching a humble young Hungarian member some German and it's been difficult because he doesn't speak very good English either.  But he's very willing so he comes in for a special hour of instruction twice a week and is generally there for home evening, institute and waffle night as well.  This past week we had a member from one of the wards come in wanting to improve his English but he found that what the elders were teaching was way beneath his level.  He wants to get better at engaging in English conversation so Elder Parker agreed to take him on at a 4 PM lesson next week and back the Hungarian member off until 5 PM.

We've mentioned our Zoroastrian family from Iran a few times.  They truly have a wonderful spirit and some of the family have already left for San Diego in the last month.  But several others continue to appear for instruction in English every week.  There were only a couple however, who were there this past Thursday and so we were surprised when about 8 of them appeared on Friday night about an hour after we had already served all of the waffles.  But they indicated they just wanted to come and socialize so waited until they thought the meal would be over before showing up.  In what we thought was a very nice "tender moment" one of our members who will celebrate his first anniversary as a member this week and is scheduled to receive the Melchizedek Priesthood on the 30th, showed up with his date for the night who is a returned missionary from England.  They had planned a different activity that kind of fell through and so decided to come by the center instead.  It just so happens that he's also from Iran, speaks fluent Farsi of course, and was able to fluently converse with the whole family as they played UNO about how wonderful the church has been in his life.  As we have said many times, there are no coincidences in this work!

So while all of that was going on, in which Sister Parker was an active participant, Elder Parker sat down up front in our reception area with a woman who has been coming fairly regularly for several months now but who has been very lax about setting up lessons, reading her Book of Mormon or several other items we've sent home with her.  She is what is termed a Free Christian, a group that basically accepts all beliefs as OK, (except, of course, the Mormons) but has come back over and over again because she is fascinated by the unique beliefs that we have taught her.  So Elder Parker sat down with her and decided that he would teach her on a one to one basis as long as she wasn't doing it on her own.  We started out with Moroni 10:4-5, emphasizing that the only way she could find out the truth of what we were telling her was if she personally put out some effort and asked God personally if this was right.  She indicated that she'd love to be baptized but wanted to remain with the Free Christians as well.  We explained that if this was her attitude we likely wouldn't be able to approve her baptism until she acknowledged that much of what she was hearing at the Free Christians wasn't true. We emphasized how important the Book of Mormon was as a second witness for Christ and she asked why we needed a second witness, why wasn't one enough?  Her Free Christian friends told her the Book of Mormon was a strange thing, indeed.  We pointed out that they obviously hadn't read it and neither had she.  So it was suggested that we explore the book a bit and she would let us know when she found something that wasn't true.  So we simply flipped completely randomly through the book, every 30-50 pages or so and read a random verse on every page we came to.  Every...single...verse... we...read mentioned something about the Savior!  Again, there are no coincidences.  She had to agree that nothing we read could be construed as false.  

Many of the grandchildren will remember helping Grampa underline several passages in the Book of Mormon that provide an interesting short tour through the book from front to back.  He made a similar plan through the German Book of Mormon and actually put it on the computer so we could include copies in every book we pass out.  She took one and we'll see if anything different happens. As we were getting close to finishing a few people started passing by as they left the UNO game.  One of them was a young lady I confused as a member who is here as a nanny until January.  As she was putting on her coat I invited her to tell my investigator what she thought of the church.  She bore a wonderful testimony of how wonderful she thought the church was and it wasn't until later that I found out I had misidentified her and she was actually another investigator, only 16 years old who would likely join if her parents would consent.  Then our Iranian brother mentioned above was also getting ready to leave and I asked him if he would bear his testimony which is when he brought us up to date on his one year anniversary. At the end of our discussion we actually said a prayer together for the first time and she commented afterwards about all of the points included, praying to Heavenly Father, thanking, asking, and ending in the name of Jesus. So it seems she is paying attention somewhere.  All in all it was a wonderful week with the Spirit strong and helping out.  Thanks for all your prayers!

(Sister Parker) I think Grampa or Dad has covered all we did this week. It seemed very busy and by the time we got to bed each night, around midnight, we were often exhausted. It is ok to be exhausted in a good way or doing good things. We also had Zone Training this week and the emphasis was on looking for the things we do or don't do that keep us from finding the people the Lord has prepared for us. Perhaps we can each look in our daily activities and see what we need to change in order to find the person the Lord is preparing for us to help teach the gospel. Of all the wonderful gifts we give at Christmas this one would be the most precious. 

Love you and pray for each one of you too. 

    Love and Hugs,    

Grammy, Grampa, 

Mom, Dad, 

Elder and Sister Parker   

Don't Go Down There! It's Dark!!

Dearest Family,

Wow, another week has already come and gone and the work goes on! We try and keep a running tally of how many come by our center every week and this week we tied our record with 147.   We think we can still do better than that but it means we don't have as much time to just think up things to do.  (I don't think Sister Parker ever had that problem-she was always pretty busy.)  

We had some plans for pumpkin carving on Halloween but the YSA's came with plenty to do on their own so we delayed it until this week's Waffle Night which is pretty much a game night anyway and got into a pretty good contest between two teams to see who could come up with the best jack o'lantern.  It was pretty much a tie but unfortunately I guess we were asleep at the end and didn't take any pictures of the results (:  Oh well.  Otherwise we introduced some good rounds of Spot It with the real challenge being trying to translate all the little symbols into German. Some are easy like igloo is Iglu and flower is Blume and anchor is Anker, but you have to be on your toes for things like Marienkaefer for ladybug or Klee for clover. Women seem to have a distinct advantage in that game over the men but maybe it was just our poor selection of the men playing, like Elder Parker who was teamed with our member from Hungary who can't speak either German or English really well.  But we had a pretty good time.

This week was also good because we got a little teaching time in.  Two of the elders were teaching a female investigator and asked Elder Parker to sit in on a lesson.  She was really overwhelmed with life.  She feels like she'll be losing her job pretty soon but has two kids who live with her divorced husband in Germany.  She has no visiting rights and the courts won't grant them unless she can prove she has the ability to provide support.  We think she's actually got a pretty good testimony of the gospel but can't make the jump to get baptized until her life clears up a little bit.  At any rate we had a pretty good lesson with her and so we'll see what happens.  The other teaching situation was with our Hungarian member mentioned above.  He's got enough of a foundation in English to be able to teach a little more but we're really focusing on German right now so he can communicate more with those with whom he has daily contact.  We have a billiard table at the center and we found out he's a real ace with a cue stick, able to beat anyone who dares to challenge him so that gave him a pretty good ego boost.  We have two baptisms coming up within a few weeks if all goes well and a third if we can just get a little more leverage.  Our young lady from Kazakhstan has decided to try and finish her university studies in one year less and so has really been loading herself with extra classes. She's pretty smart but really getting overwhelmed and was on the verge of tears the other night with Sister Parker putting her arms around her to buck her up and give her the encouragement she needs to keep going.

Winter seems to be rearing its head a little more and we're all wearing coats around.  The sun is up around 6:40 but sets at 4:30 so it's a pretty short day.  Reminds us of the Warner Bros. character who came running up from the cellar saying "Don't go down there!  It's dark!!"

Well, the branch president of the St. Poelton branch we attended last week was really impressed at Sister Parker's German as she bore her testimony and still hasn't given up on the idea that he wants us to speak the next time we visit.  I think we'll just have to write it out and then translate it before hand and it should go all right.  

Well, not too many pictures today but thought you might enjoy this one of Lieber Augustine who woke up just in time to keep from getting buried alive buy playing on his bagpipe.  You've all heard the phrase, no doubt, "Ach, Du Lieber Augustine.

Our other picture is of a sweet sister who's been a member a little less than a year now who loves to come and help Sister Parker cook waffles.  She's a real stalwart and a regular attender. Our overall treasure trove of pictures is now over a 1000.  Don't know if we'll ever be able to remember which ornate church was which!

  (Sister Parker)There are not a lot of new or exciting things to share this week. The Center, the young adults, investigators, language students, and missionaries keep us well occupied. And we are glad to be there for them. Many a young adult has said what a great place the Center is for comfort and a few moments of relaxation where the spirit makes you feel good. It is sort of like a sanctuary away from the world. Lately, a lot of them seem to be under a lot of stress from various causes. Good company and a few hugs can make anyone feel better. This week's spiritual highlight from District Meeting was on Captain Moroni, the great and faithful leader of the Nephites. Alma 48:11-48. Verse 17  " Yea, verily, verily I say unto you, if all men had been, and were, and ever would be, like unto Moroni, Behold, the very powers of hell would have been shaken forever; yea, the devil would never have power over the hearts of the children of men."

These are some awesome scriptures and well worth the family reading together.

   Happy Birthday to Daniel and Camisha and Happy Anniversary to Trish and Aaron.

We love you all,dearly.  

Grammy, Grampa, 

Mom, Dad, 

Elder and Sister Parker 

All Saints Trumps Halloween

Dearest Family,

In some ways this week has seemed pretty tranquil compared to all the action and excitement we enjoyed with Andrew and Ruslana's family with us last week.  Following our first stake conference things seemed to return to a more normal status quo though we certainly must admit that the YSA center is still really booming compared to the summer.  The big event of the week was the fourth transfer occurring since we've been here.  These transfers are a fairly well regimented deal that didn't occur back in the old days when they were done pretty much at the discretion of the mission president.  Now it seems they're scheduled well in advance, not that every set of missionaries gets moved every time but definitely, as we've previously stated, it's a time of gathering and saying good byes and hellos. There is a main artery that runs through our mission from Stuttgart through Munich to Salzburg and ends in Vienna and every transfer basically brings everybody changing to one of those cities and then they move to the new location.  Being at one end of the line, it is traditional for 10-15 of us to meet in the morning as the departing move out, then form temporary teams for the day until the evening when the new arrivals show up and everyone is linked back up with new companions.  

Two were leaving Vienna this week who have both been here longer than we have, Sister Freimann, who hails from Hanover, Germany, and Elder Phillips, one of our Zone Leaders who was one that met us at the airport when we first arrived. I guess that now makes us the longevity champs here as far as the mission goes though there are a couple of elders who have been here before and have now returned.  At any rate, with Sister Freimann being transferred to Switzerland, a long 8 hour train trip and her replacement not coming in until about 12 hours later, Sister Parker was left to keep company with Sister Bushman.  They of course hit it off like a mother-daughter team and Elder Parker had to just stay out of the way until everyone linked back up again.  We were actually a threesome for most of the day but when they returned to the train station, he was left at the center until they returned with lots of action going on.  

Our language courses continue to attract a lot of attention so he wasn't bored at all until everyone got linked back up. Wednesday night was back to teaching Institute with about 8 students, one of whom is an investigator from Pakistan who is committed to being baptized at the end of this month.  His English is better than his German and so he chose to attend the English language class on the Book of Mormon and two elders sat in to help him with the translation as best they could. So with him and Sister Parker and the two elders, it was an even dozen. Elder Parker was to help them the next day teach him about the priesthood but interestingly we were unable to find the appropriate chapter on that topic in Gospel Principles which had apparently not yet made it into Urdu.  So we kind of winged it and will come up with other options. Our other young lady whom we have mentioned several times before seems now ready to proceed with a baptism here instead of waiting to return to Kazakhstan but would like Sister Freimann to be present and she won't be able to return until after she's released next year. She's indicated that she's going home first and I'm not sure we'll entice her back such a distance so we'll see what else evolves over time.

So Friday, as we're sure you were all aware was Halloween, not a traditional holiday in Austria although interestingly there are apparently a few neighborhoods who are even getting into some trick or treating and a little bit of costuming does take place.  It was our traditional Waffle Night so we actually came up with some unique games planning on carving a couple of pumpkins, playing a little Halloween Bingo, and really got big time into a Monster Mash balloon stomp with everyone tying a balloon around their ankle and then trying to pop their competitors' balloons while jumping around on one foot as good old Boris Karloff sang away.  We were playing along and so didn't get any good pictures but everyone really enjoyed it.  The evening ended up with all of them playing a game called "Werewolf"  and we were able to sneak off around 10:15 rather than stay around to the wee hours and wait for them to finish.  

Today was the official holiday the Austrians celebrate, All Saints Day, doubtfully even recognized in the States unless you're a Catholic but the population was out in force enjoying the day to the fullest.  Saturdays are not really big shopping days around here but we could tell it was a holiday from the crowds everywhere.  For the first time in quite a while we actually got out and spent a few hours seeing more of Vienna than we have in quite a while, this time wandering around in hidden-away back courtyards with surprise ornate churches turning up all of a sudden around a turn.  

We even stumbled across a small room where they perform small Mozart concerts and the doorkeeper wondered where we'd come from.  We snapped a quick picture, shrugged our shoulders and moved on. 

Tomorrow is Fast Day and we've cleverly decided to return to a very nice little branch in a city called St. Poelton to the west of Vienna.  We've only been there once and the branch president asked us to let him know when we came next time as he wanted us to speak in Sacrament Meeting.  Sister Parker has not been very enthusiastic for that return trip so we decided to turn up on Fast Day with the guarantee that we would both bear our testimonies in the meeting.  Eventually, I think he'll get us.  They are really quite a good little branch, probably on the verge of becoming a real ward and to the best of our knowledge, they have the only actually organized choir in the entire stake.  They have a great director and were featured at the Saturday evening session of Stake Conference last week.

    (Sister Parker) It's hard to add to Grampa's or Dad's description of what we have done during the week. He really does a great job. He is also very good at trying to speak German to most of the young adults and other people at the center. He does a great job at running the center and preparing tables and chairs for classes and dinner. You would be amazed to see him secure the legs of the tables and heft them into place. I'm sure he is getting muscles on those arms. We didn't know this assignment would keep us physically fit. Since Andrew's and Ruslana's trip it has turned cold here in Vienna with temperatures between 35 and 55.  So, Grampa also bought me a very nice, warm winter coat and I am now enjoying our walks in the cold air and grey skies. It reminds me a lot of being in Germany years ago.

    The other thing that stands out to me from this week is our District Meeting. Our District Leader had us all singing "Scripture Power" from the primary songs. It was awesome and we even lifted our scriptures into the air. There was a great spiritual witness about daily using our scriptures. Perhaps this week all of our little families could take time to sing "Scripture Power", and think about Grammy and Grampa sharing the gospel over here in Austria. Then they could think of ways to share the beautiful message of the Book of Mormon with their friends.   

Love and Hugs, 

Grammy, Grampa, 

Mom, Dad, 

Elder&Sister Parker    

The Sound of Music and Hallstatt

Dear Family,

A review of last week's epistle would reveal that we were hustling out the door, as it was sent, with Andrew and Ruslana and their two children leading us on a tour of a couple of cities in our mission, one where we've been a few times but not toured and the other a completely new experience for all involved.

Salzburg is renowned for the site of the film about the Von Trapp family known to all of us as "The Sound of Music."  Although the film was apparently never really big in Austria, it's a favorite with the tourists and there are multiple tour groups who have set up visits to the places made famous in the movie.  Arriving in the morning by train, we checked into a hotel recommended by good old Rick Steves in his book on the Best of Europe.  As we walked to the hotel from the station we actually passed right by the place selling tickets and signed ourselves up for that afternoon, receiving a discount for everyone willing to show their tour book.  Off we went to see the lane Julie Andrews walked down as she left the nunnery, the exterior of the house chosen to represent the front of Colonel Von Trapp's mansion, another by a lake chosen to represent the back of the house where all the kids fall into the water (apparently it was very cold and had to be done twice because one of the kids about drowned on the first take), the famous gazebo where 16 going on 17 is coached by 17 going on 18 and where eventually the Colonel acknowledges his love for Maria, then a drive by beautiful Mondsee where the church is located where they filmed the wedding, ending up back where we started at a beautiful garden where they filmed much of the Do Re Mi song. 

Here are a few of the sights:

The lane where Maria sings about having "confidence"

The famous gazebo with Alex standing guard.  

And the steps where they all sang Do Re Mi and which the bus driver encouraged us all to sing by going around a round about a few times until everyone warmed up to the idea (great picture of the fortress in the background.

Great sights along the way like this one:

The next day it was back to the train station and off to the wonderful little village of Hallstatt which we'd never heard of but Ruslana had been reading about.  

It's crowded between a beautiful lake and the side of a mountain with a Catholic and a Protestant church dominating the view of the city.  

We hiked around the village which didn't take too long and then decided on a five mile two hour hike up to a high waterfall which gave us a wonderful view of the Alpine countryside.  

The next day it was a ride up a funicular tram and a tour through salt mines which made the country famous as far back as 400-800 BC! Everyone has to put on miner's clothes to go on the tour and you walk and ride mine trains and even slide down a few slippery slides along the way where they clock your speed.  

Grammy didn't like her picture but she was the fastest at 28.9 Km/hr!  

Above is a fuzzy view from our hotel window down into the village plaza. 

While we were in the salt mines it snowed for the first time this season.  They told us usually the mine is colder but the day we were there it was warmer than outside!  Still the cold air made the whole area very beautiful with mist and clouds all over the mountainsides.

All in all it was a lovely trip and we were home by Thursday afternoon in time to get them on their plane by Friday morning.  Saturday evening was the beginning of our first Stake Conference since we've been in Austria and it was like a big reunion with a huge stake encompassing all of the eastern half of the country.  Missionaries were a plenty and from Saturday evening until the Sunday morning session, many of them were grouped together with  as many as 12 to an apartment.  One of our Stake Institute Council sisters that we know well spoke at the Saturday meeting and raved us up so we got good press for the Center.  In fact they gave us the flowers from the podium to take home because the Sunday session wasn't in the Stake Center but at the Austrian Center where the United Nations have their European headquarters. 

There was a great Primary choir at the Sunday meeting including some pipe whistles and violin players. 

Transfers again this week so we'll be saying goodbye to a few elders and sisters, two of whom have been in Vienna as long as we have but new faces to say hello to by Tuesday evening.

    It has been a very busy week and a half since Andy and Ruslana came to visit. It was very nice to have a couple of grandkids around and Alec said all the right things about wanting to stay with "Gram". He also made good use of our time on trains and buses, refusing to sit anywhere but next to grammy and the window. Its sweet to be loved by a child. It was hard to see them leave, but we hope to see some others from time to time.

  (Sister Parker)  I must say the Austrians take the prize again for doing all their outdoor activities in any kind of weather--pouring cold rain and snow as we went up the mountain to the Salt Mines. Never the less, it was very cold and I had to buy some gloves to keep my hands warm and most of the time we were quite wet. This weather change also affected Vienna and I had to finally go out and buy a new winter coat. So nice to know that I won't freeze through the winter in my little rain coat. 

   Friday at waffle night we were greeted warmly and told how much we were missed. But it seems when the need arises the young adults step in and take over. They cooked a meal on Monday night and made some waffles on Friday night. They, however, preferred that we keep the job. The elders also took care of the language classes and said there were so many people that they even had to use the lounge area as a classroom. They were also glad to have us back. 

    Two other important things happened today. One- It is the National Founding Day of modern Austria and we sang the national anthem as a pre-opening song before Stake Conference started. We had never heard it before. A rough translation would be "Land of mountains, Land of streams, Land of fields, Land of cathedrals, Land with a rich future on which to build! A homeland of growing daughters and sons, A people graced with beauty, Much praise Austria, Much praise Austria! (It rhymes in German) Two- It is the end of daylight savings time and now it is dark at 5 o'clock. But it is light when you wake up in the morning. Better enjoy it while it last. 

    Happy Birthday to all those who have birthdays today and the next couple of days, Myles, Emily and Uncle Alan, also Adam's whose just passed. 

Take Care, we love you all. 

Grammy, Grampa, 

Mom, Dad, 

Elder and Sister Parker.

Andy & Ruslana Lead Us to Germany

Hello Dear Family,

Wow, has this ever been a busy week.  Seems like things continue to really pick up.  We had a great Home Evening on Monday which Mom prepared early because Andy and Ruslana were arriving at 3 PM and we normally open the center an hour later.  So we decided we'd get everything ready to go except for just warming things up, then leave for the airport and be all ready when we got back.  So off we went, bought all of the supplies we needed, headed to the center and were only 20 minutes behind our schedule when Dad suddenly found out he'd left the keys back in the apartment.  Mom has a second set for the apartment but not for the center so he left her sitting on the steps and ran back to the apartment which is almost an hour round trip.  We called our district leader who has a second set of keys for the center and he graciously came over and let Mom in which was definitely out of his way so by the time Dad got back, she had most of the things ready.  He helped get the vegetables ready for the salad but by the time we actually left for the airport it was almost time for their plane to land.  We attempted to text them as we traveled but had a hard time getting a connection.  We knew it would take a little time for them to get their luggage and clear customs but even so we weren't on site until almost 45 minutes after the plane had landed.  We desperately searched around the arrival hall for about 5-10 minutes without success when they suddenly walked through the door and our reunion was a complete success.  We were able to get them to our apartment to unload a little bit and then returned to the center, arriving about 6 and proceeded to have a lovely home evening which the sister responsible for the spiritual thought graciously did in English.

The next day we had a lot of walking around to many of the things we had previously seen and visited with others plus took in the State Opera House which was something Ruslana really wanted to see and which we had never toured. I was impressed to find out they perform over 50 different operas a year, alternating up to 3 at a time on different days so it's really quite a production. There was still time to get up to our favorite mountain top viewing place and then it was dinner at our favorite restaurant, the 12 Apostles Cellar and home for a good sleep and maybe get a little further out of jet lag.

The next day, Dad had the responsibility of teaching the first Institute class of the year that night and not wanting to haul all of his notes around all day, ran over to the Center to drop things off while Mom showed them the beautiful City Hall and Parliament buildings which are close by.  Then we decided to head off to the Schoenbrunn Palace grounds where we've taken everybody including Steve Lyde and Tom and Laurel but we somehow took our streetcar one stop too far.  That put us right in the neighborhood of the beautiful church dedicated to Charlemagne which one of our BYU young men had said was one of the more beautiful edifices in the city.  It's being renovated but they have built an elevator literally up to the top of the dome.  Again, we had never been inside but decided to do that because it was so close and were amazed at how lovely all the work was up close.  There's frequently a dove at the top of a few of the cathedrals and we were about 10 feet away from it as we finished our ascent, the last 30 feet or so being on a set of stairs.  Then it was off to the summer palace of King Franz Joseph and his wife Maria Theresien.  Their home is translated as Beautiful Fountain and we think it's really the highlight of the city.  As we approached the front gate we were greeted this time by a statue of Mozart  He definitely seemed a little more friendly than some of the other "living statues" that we have previously seen.  

We had plenty of time to enjoy the grounds and then left in time to get back to Institute for the class which Andrew, Ruslana and David attended while Mom helped out in the kitchen and entertained Alex.  Two of our young adults are also named David and Alex and everyone really enjoyed teaching young Alex how to play Fussball, the little game using a ping pong ball to score points.

The next day we were off for our Senior Conference in Munich and we managed to get tickets for Andrew's family on the same train there and back. While we were engaged in the three days of conference, they went on to Neuschwanstein, the beautiful castle of "Mad" King Ludwig which inspired the Disney Sleeping Beauty castle, enjoying the beautiful sights of Bavaria in that area.  We had just a wonderful time with 25 other couples working throughout our mission.  We had several sessions of instruction and both a time for introductions as well as a testimony meeting which were wonderful.  One couple working in Switzerland have learned to play the Alphorns and actually brought two and gave us a wonderful serenade.  We met the second counselor to the mission president and found he had served not only in Hamlin where Mom had served but even with the same landlady, Frau Ehlkes!  Matt and Mindy may remember her as we stopped by her home while bringing Matt home from his mission and she still remembered Mom even after over 20 years, exclaiming as we rang her doorbell unannounced, "Ist dass Ruth Ann?"  The remainder of the conference was superb with the next morning offering a tour of Munich being led by one of the high councilors in the stake.  

We heard the Glockenspiel at the City Hall and heard all about the story concerning the architect of the main Munich cathedral who had reportedly made a pact with the devil.  As the story goes, if the construction could proceed without any major mishap or loss of life, the architect agreed that the first soul to enter the cathedral when it was completed would belong to Satan.  Apparently when that occurrence was about to happen and the devil attempted to enter the cathedral, the architect stopped him with the observation that although there was a bright light in the cathedral, there were no windows and the devil was denied entrance beyond his first step.  That footprint is enshrined in the back of the hall and the devil was blown back out the front door resulting in a wind that apparently still revolves around that entryway! 

After the tour was completed and we returned to our conference sessions, things got interesting.  Apparently negotiations were heavily underway with the drivers of the German railway system who were threatening to strike, thus disrupting the train service throughout Germany.  Negotiations failed and every driver went on strike at midnight.  We notified Andrew that their return from Neuschwanstein might be impeded and we weren't sure whether we'd get home or not.  They were able to find a train that was running earlier than their original intent and we found the transportation system heavily delayed but not completely inoperable and numerous prayers were offered up.  With considerable delays the next day as we visited the mission home and mission office we were able to obtain a ride with another couple to the train station where the Austrian system was still working and had an enjoyable ride back to Vienna.

Sunday we attended the International Ward which holds its services in English and enjoyed a real family meal with Andrew, Ruslana, David and Alex.  We are now literally minutes away from leaving again for Salzburg to enjoy the sights there and in nearby Hallstatt.  More to come next week.  

Love, 

Mom and Dad, 

Grampa and Grammy, 

Elder and Sister Parker

Brummen, Sssssss, Clic, Schsch, Schluerf, and Klapper

Dearest Family,

We thought we'd start our letter out this week with the humorous title which came with the instructions to our new dryer.  The instructions that came with this apparatus were careful to point out that the above noises were quite normal during its operation and not to be concerned if we heard such a commotion emanating from our new purchase.  We have indeed noted that it can be a noisy beast and because it doesn't have a vent to the outside, a cycle can take up to three hours to complete.  We learned early on not to start a cycle after 10  PM or it would keep us awake for quite a while:)

It has been a very successful week at the Center which continues to build and build as our Young Adults come back to school.  Monday night the spiritual thought was taken care of by a lovely young lady who has been a member for less than a year.  We were clued in to look out for her while we were in the MTC in Provo by the elder who helped teach and baptize her and she has become a regular attender.  She frequently also comes to our Waffle Night activities.  More of the seasoned and long standing YSA's are likely more involved with their own families on Monday nights but Fridays we had five members, 3 investigators and about 4 teams of missionaries so it was a good group.  That's really our social night and we were all ready to play a little Scotland Yard for those of you who remember that game and we had a Rummikub session also set up but it turns out that everyone was just having too good a time talking and socializing to get involved in these lesser pastimes.

  

One young couple was especially interesting.  A young lady had been quite ill and had been hospitalized for quite some time but is now feeling better and coming quite a bit for some good fellowshipping.  She felt like her Bishop had been quite down on her for her inactivity and didn't seem to understand that she'd been in the hospital but they have apparently now got all of that patched up and she's feeling quite a bit more hopeful of the ward now.  She's only been a member for less than a year so she's really just getting established in the church but is quite a delightful personality and very fun to talk to. She's from Italy and speaks German and English as well. 

Meanwhile we have a very talented young man whose responsibility was to get some newer computers set up in our computer room.  Our old two sets were quite ancient and the stake was apparently upgrading and so we got three of their old computers.  Still old but much newer than what we had.  So he's been around quite a bit getting the new ones all programmed and ready to go and while he's been working, we've had the opportunity to get to know him quite well.  He's still very young in his early 20's, a returned missionary who went to England Birmingham where our nephew Jacob Kmetzsch is now serving, and as many do here, speaks an excellent English.  Apparently he had a girl friend before he left who wrote to him, though there apparently was a 6 month gap where no correspondence was going on.  At any rate, everybody got really excited as he prepared to return home to get these two on the fast track to marriage and within just a few months after he returned he was a married man.  Things began to deteriorate from that point and although he has remained quite faithful and true, his wife went the other direction completely and they are now separated, awaiting completion of their divorce.  The details are not important at this juncture but he and our young lady mentioned above found they were very compatible souls and spent most of last Friday talking and socializing.  He, of course, can't date until the divorce is final but they are really a cute couple.  We're sure he's going to take things much slower this time around but it's still fun to see these interactions occurring as they should be in the social lives of our young adults.

We are always amazed at the international flavor of Vienna.  We have been studying the map a bit and Austria is bordered by Germany on the west, the Czech Republic and Slovakia on the north with the latter wrapping around to the west and Hungary below Slovakia. Coming around the south we have Slovenia with Croatia just below that moving to the west we get to Italy and just a small area of Liechtenstein before Switzerland and then Germany again. So now that you've got the geography down it's no wonder that this week in the Center we have dealt with Italians, Hungarians, Kazahkstanians , Slovenians and even a few Austrians!

This weekend was our official Institute opening which began yesterday with workshops during Saturday afternoon about dancing and a closing dance social last night at the Stake center. That was followed by a Singles ward Sacrament Meeting, which following General Conference was also a Fast and Testimony Meeting. We were unable to attend yesterday as we had been away to Salzburg all day at Zone Conference, getting instructions from President Kohler about how to be more effective missionaries.Here a small sample of the missionaries in a couple of the Vienna districts waiting on a rural street near the chapel to be picked up and returned to the train station for our trip back to Vienna.

​ I had been given the assignment for our Singles ward activity today to teach the Sunday School class on the subject of how we develop faith and how important it is for YSA's.  I spent an inordinate amount of time preparing a lesson in German without a specific manual or a lesson plan to work with but came up with several ideas that I thought would be good.  On the way home from Salzburg, Mom developed a little intestinal bug of some kind which had a few of the signs of possible appendicitis but she had a pretty rough night and so we made no attempt to go to the Saturday night dance.  She was somewhat improved this morning but still pretty shaky so we decided she should stay home and I went over to the Center alone to help set up.

For quite some time, they have been anticipating that we would have an international flavor to the Institute opening social and so it was as we had 8 YSA's join us from Slovenia.  None of them spoke any German at all but most spoke English so it was decided by the leaders that there were fewer in the group who wouldn't understand English than there were those who wouldn't understand German. Hence we were instructed to teach our classes in English. Consider it a tender mercy but it was actually a little trickier to re-translate the lesson from German back to English than I would have thought. The testimony meeting that followed was held in anyone's language of choice and we heard Deutsch, English, Hungarian, and Slovenian.  Elder Parker actually bore a testimony in German just to stay in practice!

We were informed this week that our Zoroastrian family has had some of their visas come through and some of them will be leaving in a couple of days for southern California.  One of our Zone Leaders lives within 30 miles of where they're going.  He'll be home within about 4-5 months and promised to check up on them.  They seem to have a wonderful impression of the church and we hope enough seeds were planted to bear eventual fruit.

   (Sister Parker)  Love the dryer with all its interesting sounds, love going to Zone Conferences with all the young missionaries, they make us feel younger and we enjoy meeting some of the other senior couples. We love to compare notes and check for new ideas on food and fun activities. Its a great way to keep yourself busy for a year and a half and serve the Lord.

    We're looking forward to Andy and Ruslana and kids coming tomorrow. Unfortunately, Benji just found out the his passport doesn't have enough time left on it to be able to come. One needs about 6 months left on their passport to come to Europe. We will miss him but will expect him to come some time in the future. 

Love you all. 

Grammy, Grampa, 

Mom, Dad, 

Elder and Sister Parker

From the Ridiculous to the Sublime!

Dear Family,

Boy, these weekends do roll around fast!  In addition to our routine doings we have been trying to catch up on apartment inspections prior to the next transfer in a few weeks.  We found one apartment that despite frequent urging to report missing alarms, (and despite our having visited and inspected the apartment once before) still was missing a smoke alarm.  Apparently there were a couple of elders in Taiwan who were killed from carbon monoxide poisoning so there has been some real emphasis on all of us to make sure all of our alarms are in place.   

Besides that, it apparently was the month for microwave failures.  We had three (3!) microwaves all go out in just one week.  Two failed completely and the other just wasn't functioning according to the input instructions.  Now all are replaced and everyone is enjoying rapid warming or cooking of their food once again.  Seems to be a biggie in the lives of those not blessed with a nice woman's influence in the kitchen.  

So in addition to buying and replacing microwaves, we decided it was time to do something about our ancient method of drying our laundry.  

Behold the old method:Notice the fan back there in the corner of the second photo.  That was an essential method for our previous system and even though smiled upon by the Savior, (notice the picture on the wall) even the mission president said we were entitled to modernize.

 And so Voila!:Welcome to the 21st Century, even in Austria where real dryers do exist, even if they have to be placed in your bedroom because there's no room anywhere else.  

But we can still get around the bed and into the closet without too much difficulty.  We have yet to try it out as it was just delivered and we're not sure how much noise and humidity it's going to create.  There's still no way to vent it to the outside and so the water is stored in a small container on the left front and once we're done with a load, we simply dump it into the sink in the bathroom and we're ready for the next load.  What could be simpler! We decided we'd temporarily decorate it with a lovely book we got from the Wiese family when they visited us showing the beauties of Sachsen (Saxony) as well as a cute little book Sister Parker chose on the various beauties of Austria as drawn for children complete with little puzzles like Where's Waldo (only in this case it's Lieber Augustine) and can you find the five animals who escaped from the Schoenbrunn Zoo and are running around the grounds.  (Took Elder Parker a long time to find the fifth one!!)  Oh and there're also some envelopes from the family reunion letters that we're still enjoying from all of you.

Otherwise the week was remarkable for a great District meeting on Tuesday where it was agreed that we would all meet at the Schnitzelwirt, our favorite missionary restaurant here in Vienna.  12 of us descended on it at 2 PM so we could be finished in time to get back to the Stake Center and the sisters could enjoy the General Women's meeting that was aired for us at 4 PM.  Then we were all able to enjoy live the Saturday morning session of conference which aired our time at 6 PM.  Tomorrow at 11 we get a tape delay of General Priesthood meeting at 11 PM and a tape delay of Saturday afternoon which will air at 2 PM.  Then we get the Sunday morning broadcast of the Tab Choir live at 5:30 PM followed by the morning session at 6.  For the real diehards where six hours isn't enough, we can stay until 10 PM and watch the closing session but we think we'll probably catch that on the internet the next day. 

We have an interesting investigator who shows up at the center periodically on her own time schedule and has been coming for the last 3 months or so at least once a week.  She likes to talk but doesn't follow through on many of the commitments we've given her.  Elder Christopherson's talk will be added to her list of things she doesn't read as soon as it's translated because he really hit her particular situation right on the head.  

Since we wrote that last sentence, it's now Sunday evening for us and we've caught all the sessions of conference except Sunday afternoon which starts in about an hour.  The stake shut everything down so I guess if we catch it it'll have to be on the Internet.  We really got a lot out of conference this session and we think it helps when you're really paying attention and taking notes.  Loved President Uchtdorf and his dandelion analogy and it just seemed like there were so many talks that would apply to so many of our investigators.  Elder Parker, however, took careful note about President Uchtdorf's penetrating question as the various apostles asked at the Last Supper, "Is it I?"  It's a question I guess we should all ask ourselves about our level of commitment.  At any rate we feel really charged up again to go out and do the work!  

It was fun to be with all the missionaries in our zone as we attended conference.  We had three room options to listen in German, English or Spanish.  Most of us opted for English though a few of the elders went for German.  It was interesting to see how many of the Austrians understand English well enough that they wanted to hear it in the original language and sat in with us.  Very interesting to hear that it came across in Catalan and Spanish as well.  We were amused because we got the English translation verbally anyway instead of the subtitles and frequently the translator got well ahead of the speaker and really had to slow down.

So speaking of the multiplicity of tongues, our language classes are really booming with three to four classes going on simultaneously and as many as 10-12 people attending.  Our Zoroastrian family keeps coming bringing a variety of family members and they got a good dose of genealogy this week as part of their English instruction in talking about fathers and mothers, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, etc.  We're still keeping the younger set entertained while the classes are going on with drawing, paper airplane flying and this week it was even a little bit of soccer in the main hall with the two year old who fortunately couldn't do the windows any damage with any very hard kicks.

Coming home tonight, our district leader informed us we're canceling the Zone training scheduled for Tuesday because we're all heading for Salzburg on Saturday for Zone Conference anyway.  When we get back we'll be in the middle of the Opening of Institute for Saturday evening with a Singles Ward at our center the next day which will also be our Fast day.  Elder Parker got asked tonight to give the Sunday School lesson for the second hour in German so that should be a real challenge.  There will be a real purpose in his fasting that day to see if he can hold out for 45 minutes in German.  The next day, Andrew, Ruslana and Benj should be arriving with David and Alex for a 12 day excursion through the heights and depths of Austria.  An exciting agenda seems planned but we'll see how next week's letter goes in the midst of getting set up for their pending arrival, the Sunday School Class, and our leaving in 3 days after their arrival for a three day stint in Munich for a Senior Missionary conference.  Never a dull moment around here.

    Lately it does seem something is going on every minute or maybe its just that there are so many things to take care of in relationship to the missionaries, their language people, investigators, apartments and appliances etc. It would be a lot simpler if there wasn't so much travel time but its just part of the missionary experience. Its kind of fun to meet the other missionaries just randomly as we are traveling around. Its always a joyous greeting.

   (Sister Parker) Dad or Grampa has really covered about everything we have been busy with this week. There was a lot of rejoicing as the dryer was delivered. Now if we can only figure out exactly how it runs through its drying sequences. It takes a lot longer as the water is pulled from the clothes into a container, instead of being blown into the air. But it is a joy to have something soft next to you.

     Conference has been wonderful and I finally got to see and hear the women's conference. The Korean children's choir was of course the outstanding highlight. As I have listened to conference and heard all the things we should be working on, I thought of all our little family units. Each one is doing the best they can to teach and train their children in the way they should go in following our Savior. I think you all do a wonderful job and that our Heavenly Father is also pleased. What a great blessing it is to know about our Heavenly Father's plan and why we are here on this earth. Its great to be a missionary and to share that message with other good people. 

Love and Miss you All, 

Grammy, Grampa, 

Mom, Dad, 

Elder and Sis.Parker