everyone should live in austria.

(Pre-ps, this email might be a lil longer than normal but lots of fun miracles so prolly worth the read idk)

》TALKING TO CHURCH HEADQUARTERS IN THE BATHROOM LOL

okay first off, the other day @ the church we ran into a lady in the bathroom that works for the headquarters of the church in the temple department, and they were all there for a meeting of making plans for the new temple coming in Vienna!! We ended up talking to her in the bathroom for almost an HOUR and got lots of cool behind the scenes knowledge of how they choose temples and how it all goes down & she gave us solid advice for helping prepare the members, less actives, and nonmembers for the temple coming!! It was a HUGE miracle and I didn’t know it was possible to feel the spirit that strong in a church bathroom haha.

》WE FOUND A FAMILIY TO TEACH!!

so I’ve been in neumarkt for almost 6 months and it has been such a struggle trying to find people that progress or even just people that will listen to us at all lol. BUT. Our primary president asked us to go visit a less active in the ward so of course we went the next day and were so excited to meet the lady she asked us to visit!! We showed up to her house, and she looked shocked to see us and was hesitant letting us in but we asked if we could just share a scripture and then leave. So she let us in and introduced us to her cute 4 kids. (Her 6 year old daughter instantly started coloring us the cutest pictures for us to take home) my comp shared a mega inspired scripture with her and she instantly opened up about her past with the church and how she completely left the church when she was 13 and has since joined the catholic church and stayed away from our church. After a long conversation, she recognized with tears in her eyes how inspired it was for us to have been there in that moment as we invited her to come back to church with us. She happily accepted a Book of Mormon, and I haven’t seen many people more grateful to have been given a Book of Mormon. We learned she loves music, so I got to play the piano with her for a while and we straight up invited her to come be a ward organist haha. (then I won’t have to do it every week haha) she invited us to come back next week to teach her, her husband, and her 4 kids (all nonmembers) about the church and said she can’t wait to see us again!!! Seriously massive miracle.

》RELIEF SOCIETY BONFIRE

we had a bonfire for relief society activity this week and it was SO fun. I freaking love the women in the Neumarkt ward. #besties4life

》MIRACLE BIKE MAN PETE

the other day we were lost and couldn’t see anyone to ask for directions, but this old dude drove past on his bike and I don’t know what I was thinking when I all the sudden unrolled the window and asked if he could help us hahah. He skidded to a stop and then rode back to our car and helped us out. We found out that he’s from Canada, has his own weather forecasting business here, and he has a LOT of stories lol. We gave him our card and the first miracle was that he actually called us later (that NEVER happens), and the second miracle is that he agreed to watching church this week and meeting up with us and a member this week!! SO FUNNN!!

》POWER OF PIANO (& THE RESTO)

we went and visited the neighbor of one of our members because she wanted her piano to be played, so I got to put on a full show for them and then was trying to figure out how to schlink the gospel into it, so I told her I wanted to play and sing one of my favorite songs from our hymnbook but I wanted to explain the backstory so she would understand the context better. We taught the ENTIRE restoration and then sang Joseph Smith’s First Prayer and it was powerful. The church is true wowza.

》INNSBRUCK SERVICE PROJECT

we got to spent 2 days in Innsbruck doing a huge service project called the “Austausch Kleidung Markt”, so we pretty much just gathered a bunch of clothes and random things and tons of people (members and nonmembers) came and grabbed stuff and then the leftovers and donations went to charities and refugees in the area!! Service is the BEST.

》CALIPH’S BAPTISM!!

my friend Caliph from California finally got baptized this weekend and I got to join over zoom!! I’m SO SO proud of him:)

Sorry for the long email, but this week was literally just the best. Missionary work is my favorite full time job and I wish I could wear a nametag for the rest of my life. (not actually I would literally die of exhaustion lol)

♡//Sister Parker

(ps. last pday we went to the Sound of Music hill and danced in the rain in our Dirndls hehe… pretty much the most basic thing ever but it has to be done. And yes I wore my chacos w/my dirndl. Also we went to the Schwaiger bakery and they gave us free pastries. How sweet.)