#64 "Almost" (By Grandpa)

Dear Grandchildren,

All of us have enough experience to know that things don’t go the way we think they will. That rule applies to a lot of events in our lives. Schooling. Families. Employment. Church service. And so forth and so on. It is doubly or trebly true in the Middle East and areas close by, particularly Turkey. The old expression rings true – It ain’t over ‘til it’s over. Around this country, which has been beset by suicide bombings and car bombs and attacks on police stations and the like, people are nervous. As you know, there was a terrible, murderous series of explosions in Brussels last week. Those events have impacted people’s lives here. They have led the government to put in place a no-travel restriction on refugees for the next six months. They are not to leave the city or area where the government has located them, except to travel to Ankara or Istanbul for official business and the like. Here is the deal.

Our YVs have been teaching by Skype a refugee who lives in a distant city. He has progressed enough that they had set a baptismal date in our town for today, Easter Sunday. In preparation, I sent my first counselor to a town by the sea to learn whether the beach and nearby restaurant are open. I went to the hotel where we meet to find out whether we could use the pool and, if so, what the cost would be. The YVs put on a full-court press to get this fellow ready. They arranged for a hotel and put down a deposit. My first counselor and I arranged to bring him from his apartment (actually, his apartment is hardly an inviting living space) because we were to meet another family in that town yesterday about an important matter. Sister Brown had gathered foods and had begun to prepare a luncheon for those who would attend the baptism. Then, the no-travel restriction hit. The baptism candidate went to the police for a permit to come and, of course, was denied. One of the officers told him that he could come anyway and would "probably" not get into trouble. But the dye was cast because the Church is not in the business of doing things that are, or may be, against the law. So all of the probing and gathering and planning went you know where. We shall see how things look in a couple of weeks. It is now likely that we will have to find a place near his apartment for a baptism. We know of a lake that might do. It will be cold, I am sure. Why does that matter to me? Because he has asked that I baptize him. More later in this saga, I am sure.

Last Sunday evening I gave a fireside by Skype to the SVs in the next mission over. The topic was the last week of the Savior’s life. The connection from my end was fine. They could hear me. But I could not hear them. One after another, I saw seniors come to the laptop in their facility to try to fix the audio problem. (No nineteen-year-olds were available.) Extending their fingers, they touched this, they pushed that; craning their necks, they looked and looked at the keyboard and the screen. No one succeeded in making them heard. Fortunately, our YVs introduced me to the feature that allowed the MP and me to write messages to one another. He wrote me that they were going to have an opening prayer. So I bowed my head, hearing nothing. When it was clear that the assigned person had finished saying the prayer, the MP wrote to me to begin. I did. Through the course of the next ninety minutes, I felt that something was lost because there was no real opportunity for any of them to ask questions. But I pushed on, covering the ground that I had said I would cover. I brought it to an end and we waved good-bye to one another. I learned later from the MP that the YV assistants had muted the microphone in the laptop so that I could not hear anything on my end. Hmmm. That sounds eerily familiar to our occasional experience after our YVs had been handling our devices, particularly early on.

We were nineteen today in our Easter Sacrament Meeting. Twelve of those people joined us by Skype, six of them Farsi speakers from near Ankara who cannot travel because of their refugee status. We met even after receiving a State Department warning that Christian churches and Jewish synagogues might be hit in Turkey by extremists. We meet in a hotel and in an out-of-the way room. We are very small fry. Someone would have to do a lot of detective work to learn when and where we meet. And making trouble for a half dozen people doesn’t seem to match the huge media coverage that occurs when an attack occurs in a place full of tourists or Turkish citizens. Outside in our city, there are some very prominent church buildings, including a couple that count as cathedrals. We felt safe largely because of our small size and obscure location.

We just finished our Sabbath day by taking some Easter goodies to a family on the other side of town. The father has been away for a couple of months. Your mother put together some goodies that she had collected (with my help, of course, because I carry most of them back to the apartment) and we took them. Most were for the children, including the chocolate Easter bunnies that we found in only one store in our hunting. I am sure that the mother will parcel them out over time, not letting the children poke candies in their mouth in rapid-fire fashion. Just what a parent does best. Right? We face our branch conference next weekend. It should be a good experience for our branch members. They have never gone through such an event here.

I love you and pray for each of you.

Grandpa Brown

#63 "Easter Sunday" (By Grandma)

I read your dad's email first and thought he did a great job describing our week.  Maybe we should just sent one email.  But we never have been good at dividing up responsibility, so I will probably try to write the trivial stuff.

I am adjusting to stuff here.  That is, I can feed people a little more easily, and I can live with the flexibility in numbers.  Dad and I can eat just so much.  But this week we invited a gentleman to dinner.  I prepared a sumptuous feast, and then he called and said he was feeling ill, and couldn't come.   So Dad and I had to eat the sumptuous feast all by ourselves.  It was actually lentil soup, which I love, so it wasn't hard.  But I'd made a big portion.

The man said he'd come on Friday instead.  So I refrigerated the left-overs for Friday.  He'd never know that they were left-overs, because soup always looks the same.  But on Friday he called and said he still couldn't come.  So we had lentil soup again, and again, and again, and I finally froze the remaining portion.  

I had no idea lentil soup was so simple to make.... and so delicious.  I've bought it lots of times in restaurants, but now that I can make it myself, I rarely buy it.  I'll make you all some when we return.  I don't know if the US has the right kind of lentil beans though.  So I might have to chuck some of my stylish clothes and pack some lentils.

Today for our Easter dinner, I was wondering how you can possibly eat on Easter without ham.  Even if I could find a ham, I'd be afraid to serve it here because of sensitivities.   Luckily IKEA had a frozen turkey "something" and I cooked that and sliced it.   I made a good hummus, some cheese melted on some kind of bread, a bean salad (no, not 3-bean!) and a potato salad.  Over-all I thought it was rather tasty.  No one complained and they ate most of it.  For dessert we had our usual rice krispy squares made with cocoa puffs, strawberries, and peanut M&M's  (still from our Christmas package)  

I asked our guests to tell us about their Easter traditions.  We had two Elders with us.  One of the Elder's traditions sounded a lot like ours.  Family members trampled other family members to find eggs.  His family had some eggs with money in them.  If the egg only had candy, they threw the egg back on the ground.  Sound familiar?  The other elder said he didn't remember any Easter traditions in his family.  (He is Navajo, and his parents grew up in the reservation)  the other guests were Turks, so of course, they had no Easter traditions.

There continues to be security concerns in our country, and in the world.  Many people are scared and are altering their activities.  One of the biggest scare areas here is the metro.  We have a lot of security precautions we are to follow.  Church meetings were cancelled in two of our branches today, but we were still able to meet.  It was too bad for these Branches to not have Easter meetings.  But there have been several State Department warnings, and the Area Presidency asked them to cancel their meetings.  Christians were warned to beware.  We were given an option, and carried on.  We are a very small group, and a very low profile.  On my way to church I looked around to see if anyone was following me or aware that I was going to a church, but I only saw one cat that eyed me suspiciously.  

Dad visited two homes yesterdays of members.  One was about as large as my office downstairs.  It is like he lives in a small storage container.   The other home was a little larger for a family, but they have very meager resources.  They have about $60.00 to live on after they pay rent.  I can't even imagine being that limited in resources.  We are very WEALTHY.  All of you are.  For some reason we were placed in part of the earth with great abundance and opportunity.  I don't know why some peoples of the world were placed in such challenging circumstances.  So, NOTE TO SELF:  Be grateful and see how many starfish you can pick up.  You can make a difference!

Love,

Mother

#62 "Happy Reading" (By Grandma)

The MP had decided that because of "challenges" in this country we ought to have a 2-week supply of food.  So all of you probably have a six month supply or more.  I actually now have at least a two week supply of fat, but that doesn't count.

So Dad and I decided to see if we could add more stuff to our cupboards.  They are already filled with the cheap candy we bought in the Ukraine.  But I intend to give most of that out on Easter.  

We began our binge purchasing on Thursday.  We walked, took the bus, took the Metro, and walked to IKEA.  It took about one hour to get there.  We arrived in time for lunch, so we had some meatballs and fries.  They were about $2.00.  The eatery was very crowded.  

Because we've been to IKEA a number of times we know how to navigate the store.  We don't even go near the maze.  We cut through here and there.  We bought two frozen turkey breasts, a box of cookies, a bag a meatballs, and some granola.  I can make a bag of meatballs last about 3 months.  When I use them, I cut them in 1/4's and add them to a spaghetti sauce.  Of course the spaghetti sauce is from scratch.  I've never seen a can or bottle of spaghetti sauce.  

We then walked (more than a mile), caught the metro, caught the bus, and walked back to our apartment.  Dad carried most of the heavy stuff.  I'd been complaining about lugging stuff home from the grocery stores, so he tries to carry the heaviest load. He wants his arms to be longer than mine.

On Friday we headed to an open-air market.  It was about a half hour walk from our house.  We bought tomatoes, apples, cucumbers, onions, carrots, pomegranates, oranges.  We bought as many as we could carry.  We walked from the market to the metro, then a bus, then a walk back to our apartment.

We ate a granola bar.  Thanks to a delivery from our family in October we've been saving them for special occasions.

Then we headed another direction for another shopping trip:  Walking, bus, metro, walk.  We went to a "supermarket" which was about one hour the other direction.  We purchased a few additional items: tuna, tiny cans of corn, tomato paste and butter.  We already have a pretty big supply of pasta.

Because we were tired from travelling we ate a late lunch in that distant city.  We had hamburgers that weren't too bad.  

Then we walked, caught the metro, caught a bus, and walked back to our apartment.

That sums up part of our week.  Because of challenges in the country at this time, I can't write about much else.

Happy reading!

Mom

#61 "Toilets" (By Grandpa)

One night last week, I staggered into the bathroom for my customary nightly visit. My ears were greeted by a tiny sound of running water coming from the tank on the back of the toilet. Actually, I had been hearing a very slight noise for a long while. And I had tested whether water was coming into the toilet bowl. It wasn’t. This time, the noise was a little stronger than what I had been hearing. So I decided it was time for a repair. This past Thursday, I rehearsed in my head what I could say in Turkish to the plumber so that he would understand our need. I called. No answer. I found myself relieved at not having to stumble through my embarrassingly insufficient Turkish. But I had to complete the call. I called a second number on the card that I had received from him on a previous visit. It was not a working number, or so it seemed. A couple of hours later I screwed up my courage again and, after a language rehearsal in my head, I called. The connection was weak and I had a hard time hearing him. But he apparently could hear me. I did my best to tell him that we had a problem with the toilet. We set a time in the afternoon. He showed up a few minutes early. Maybe he needed the business.

After he removed his shoes (everyone here does so when entering an apartment or a home), I led him straight to the bathroom. I leaned toward the toilet tank and held my hand to my ear. He then listened. He evidently agreed with my assessment because he started tearing things apart. After ten minutes, he said something that I didn’t understand. But it became apparent that he needed to get some new parts. He departed, leaving his tool box behind. When he returned, he tore the tank apart, even laying it on the floor as he worked. After he replaced all the parts in the tank, he asked for 200 lira. I happily paid him. But wait. More was coming.

That night I did my usual stagger step into the bathroom and could hear running water. Still. It was less than the previous few nights. But it was audible. My shoulders sank. I wondered how I could possibly explain to the plumber that his repair did not work. But wait. (Again.) The YVs were coming later in the morning for a Turkish lesson. I could enlist one of them to make the call and explain. That is exactly what happened. The plumber came within a half an hour. He fussed and fussed with the newly installed float device for thirty minutes, brushing it, blowing on it, pulling pieces apart, and finally declaring that it was no good. Off he went again, leaving his tool box. (I guess that I could have charged him a storage fee for the tool box, but I don’t know how to say that in Turkish.) He brought a new float in a new box and installed it. Gratefully, it worked. That repair of the original repair cost only 20 lira. I have heard no noises from the toilet for two days. Relief.

During recent days, and with the permission of the MP, I have sent web links to the documentary series "Messiah: Behold the Lamb of God" to our branch members and to members in the other branches in Turkey. I did so in the run up to Easter, inviting people to view episodes 5 and 6 (messiahjesuschrist.org). I also sent an attachment that lists events of the last week of Jesus’ life to help readers recall a little better what was happening to Jesus in Jerusalem during his last week, which equals next week in our Easter calendar.

I taught my first institute class last evening. It was fun to get back into the teaching mode. The number of students was three, all from the same family. I talked about the premortal ministry of Jesus and our own premortal lives. We are distinguished from other Christians by our belief in humans’ preexistence and by the fact that God has created numberless worlds before creating this one. I think that they got the message. Grandma fixed dinner for the two who were in town and came to the apartment. The third joined by Skype. Because of some big exams that these students face next weekend, we won’t meet again for another two or three weeks.

Our number in church services today consisted of seven persons. These seven, including Grandma and me, are the usual people who attend. Those joining by Skype were almost double our number — thirteen. I am continually amazed at the numbers who are joining us from afar and how much the experience means to them. Our talks were all given by sisters in the branch, including Grandma and one of the sisters in Bodrum who spoke to us via her smart phone (we could not see her, but we could all hear her). In my judgment, we were well instructed and edified.

One of the mission presidents whom we met in Antalya a few weeks ago at the MP gathering has asked that I give a fireside to his senior couples in Bulgaria by Skype. I have invited over our YVs for the first part so that nothing goes wrong electronically. I don't want to be smacked by electronic glitches while trying to talk to these wonderful folks. I am to review the last week of Jesus' life. As usual, I have written a couple of dozen terms on a piece of paper that will guide me in what to say. I have to admit that I am looking forward to the experience. I am sure that Grandma will think that she has heard all of this before. (Well, l am reasonably sure that she will think this.) Maybe she will be within hearing distance, maybe not. I hope that my brain and voice are in working mode. These days frame such important events in Jesus' ministry.

I love you and pray for you.

Grandpa Brown

#60 "Ukraine" (By Grandma)

I just read dad's weekly email.  He really is a gifted writer.  He described the week so well!  I have little to add, but I'll try.  

Yes the Ukraine was fun.  We did so much in so little time.  We needed to change money.  How much?  We had no idea.  We were told to not change money in the airport.  So we paid our taxi by credit card.  When we found a money changer on the street I changed $100.00.  I received piles of Ukrainian currency.  

Our host pulled out tokens when we rode the metro.  He said each trip cost about $.16.  

We bought dinner for 4 of us and it cost about $6.00.  A pizza dinner with drinks.  We shopped at a chocolate factory and bought big bags of candy and paid less than $20.00.  We took five of us to dinner another evening and spent about $8.00.  An Ukrainian feast.  We went to a grocery store to try to spend more money.  We spent about $20.00.  We bought a few little souvenirs.  All in all we had money leftover and gave it all to our taxi driver who took us to the airport.  He smiled!

The metro was VERY deep.  It is the world's deepest metro.  You ride two sets of escalators to reach the bottom. The escalators really whizzed along.  Two elderly people had to really hold on tight!

#59 "Interesting Week" (By Grandpa)

Dear Grandchildren,

The week began with a trip to Kiev, Ukraine. How could that be bad? It wasn’t. Except for the start. We popped out of bed at 3:30 Monday morning to catch a 5:55 flight. Ouch! We felt like rag dolls for the rest of the day. There was little opportunity to relax on our two flights, one to Istanbul and the other to Kiev. We had to get up early because we wanted to allow plenty of time to make the flight connection in Istanbul. A person has to walk a long distance to reach the international terminal from the domestic arrival hall. Next, there is the matter of finding the airline desk to get our flight coupons (it was at the end of a huge hall), waiting to go through passport control, and then going the long distance to the gate.

We reached our Kiev hotel without difficulty. But it was of the spare sort. As soon as I opened the door, I saw a wooden floor. In a flash I understood that we were not in a very luxurious place. I was right. A small TV, no chest of drawers to put clothes into, only a few hangers for hanging other clothes, and tubes of soap that hung from the bathroom walls. The two trainers from Salt Lake City came to the hotel at 1:30 and off we went to lunch. We first walked up a long hill, then pushed through stiff doors that led into the metro, finally descended into the deepest metro line on earth. The escalators descended and rose with real speed. The motors that drive them must be huge. Grandma’s main trainer is a returned missionary from the Ukraine. He was gracious enough to introduce us to the city where he served. Among other places, he took us to the square where all the action took place a couple of years ago that ousted the old government. He also showed to us the place where Elder Packer dedicated the Ukraine for missionary work, promising that people would come into the Church by the hundreds of thousands.

The next day we went to the Kiev temple. There, in a meetinghouse on the same piece of ground, Grandma received her training. The building also houses the mission offices for one of the Ukraine missions. We saw a member of our branch who has been working in Ukraine for the past two months. We also met an elder who knows Scottie from their high school days. That evening we returned to the square and the former missionary-trainer rehearsed the events that undid the prior government, including the sniper deaths of about a hundred protesters.

Fast forward to Saturday. We went with my first counselor to Bodrum to meet the two sisters and their families who live in that city. After a very nice lunch, I told a Bible story to the children, with the mothers translating into German. Bro. G. Y. and I then had the privilege of giving four blessings for health. One sister’s husband has not been well all through the winter, nor have her two daughters. And a daughter of the other sister had taken a bad fall which probably broke her nose. After the third blessing, Bro. G. Y.’s oil ran out, so he got some from a bottle of pure olive oil and we consecrated it in that home. It was a wonderful afternoon filled with spiritual moments.

You can imagine that this morning, when the YVs were setting up the Skype, both Brother G. Y. and I took turns standing at the laptop camera waving to the mother and two children whom we blessed yesterday, just as if we weren’t 250 kilometers apart. The children are much better, their mother reports. I sense there is a growing feeling of family among us, even though we are far flung from one another.

Today, Brother G. Y. was our main speaker. We always have a translator for Turkish. But the last two weeks have seen a Farsi-speaking family join us by Skype. So what to do? The fellow and his wife from Iran who helped to translate last week during our testimony meeting did not come. So I could not appeal to either of them. It turned out that a Farsi-speaking investigator had made a four-hour train trip to join us this morning. He also speaks Turkish, his second language. So before Bro. G. Y. began his talk, I asked through one of the YVs whether the investigator, who is looking at a baptism date soon, would translate what the Turkish translator was saying. He agreed, but reluctantly, not showing much confidence or enthusiasm. To be sure, my invitation did not give him time to think about it all. But the idea came to me only after the Sacrament portion of our service.

The scene went like this. Bro. G. Y. would say a few sentences, then our regular translator would render the sentences into Turkish, and the investigator, who understands Turkish, would translate into Farsi for the sake of the couple linked to us by Skype. The longer Bro. G. Y. spoke, the more confident and relaxed the investigator-translator became. By the end, the three were working in a smooth harmony, even laughing together a couple of times. Before asking the investigator to translate into Farsi, the thought had occurred to me that this would be a good way to get this man meaningfully involved in helping us during a Sacrament Meeting. And it worked. Today I have a sweet, lingering feeling of gratitude to the Lord for bringing all the right people together for our meeting.

For our Sacrament Meeting we were twenty, eight in the hotel room and twelve joining by skype. I must say again that, without the help of the YVs, we would still be merely thinking about how to make proper technological arrangements rather than doing the deed.

I am coming to feel that one of the reasons for us coming to this part of the world is to push, with the help of very savvy YVs, the matter of connecting with church members who reside far from us. Those who join us by Skype are never the same people, or from the usual places. During the past two weeks, we have welcomed a small family from a city three hours to the east of us and two single fellows from a city six hours to south of us. None of this would be possible, of course, without the marvels of modern electronic connections. For myself, I learned that this kind of link was possible from people who worked out such a connection for priesthood meetings between a small group of Young Men in Jerusalem and a Young Man in Tiberias. The success of that venture, though not always consistent, taught me that it is possible to make the one a part of a larger whole. To see the faces of the people who join us each Sunday really stirs my soul.

I love you and pray for each of you, including especially my companion.

Grandpa Brown

#58 "Dominoes" (by Grandma)

Another Sunday:

              

Where do the weeks go?  We are happy that Nelise’s surgery is over and she is in recovery mode.  We were able to “see” her a few times on FaceTime.  The marvels of technology still amaze me.  I remember when we lived in Egypt that we had to stand in line for a phone if we wanted to make a long-distant phone call.  When my father was ill, an embassy friend invited me to her villa to use her phone.  Mail would take 2-3 weeks.  But alas, I digress.  You probably aren’t looking at the blog to read my reminiscences from Egypt, though I could write a few.

I am amazed at how many dominos we see here.  I used to set up dominoes so they would fall in a long line.  I don’t even try to set up dominoes here, but for every action there is a reaction.  We live in a place of constant moving pieces.  The only thing I can count on for sure is that our ceiling leaks when it rains, and bread is cheap. 

We invited an Iranian couple to dinner at our apartment last night.  A couple of weeks ago we took them to dinner, and last week they invited us to their apartment for “cake and tea”.  So the ball was in our court again.  They have only been in Turkey for one month.  They have an interesting story as does everyone who flees/leaves Iran.  But I won’t write about that.

They are vegans.  I probably wrote about that earlier.  It was not hard to feed them because we don’t eat a lot of meat anyway.  I prepared a lentil soup that I really like, had some veggies, some cheap bread, olives, and I made a fresh fruit cup for dessert.  I usually butter bread and toast it for dinners, but this time I put some spices and olive oil on the bread and toasted it.  It tasted very good, I thought.  They were very appreciative of “my” cooking, but it was actually quite simple for me.  In the US we usually have to base our meal around a meat.  With them I only had to omit butter from the meal.  I looked for some Fresca for the fruit cup, but had to settle for Sprite. 

As I mentioned earlier they are vegans out of respect for animals, not “just” for health. 

We had a good conversation and gave them a Farsi Book of Mormon that they said they were excited to read.  They also came to church today.  So we don’t know where this will lead.  We like them as a couple.  They speak English well enough that we can communicate.  They are probably in their mid-twenties. 

Church was interesting today: Fast and Testimony Sunday.  We had 10 (2 elders, 1 Mongolian woman, 2 Turks, 2 Iranians, 1 Tasmanian, and dad and me) people in the room, and about 12 on Skype.  We heard testimonies from 3 of the Skype listeners:  a German woman, an Iranian convert, and a Turkish Convert.  We had a huge mix of people.  Our guests from last night were able to translate the Iranian convert’s testimony.   FYI:  Iranians speak Farsi, which uses the Arabic script. 

Those who were connected by Skype all live 2-10 hours away.

We leave tomorrow morning for Kiev, Ukraine.  We have to leave our apartment by 4:00 AM, so it will be a loooooong day.  We will get trained in Church History by a man from SLC.  He is supposed to be bringing me a computer to borrow.  I’m excited to see Kiev, but I doubt we’ll have time to explore.  We return Wednesday morning. 

I hope you are all doing well!

Love,

Mother

#57 "Surprises in small branches" (By Grandpa)

Dear Grandchildren,

Each Sunday brings its own surprises in a small branch. For example, the attendance of one or two persons can really change the look and composition of the gathering, unlike in a large congregation where the presence of one person can go largely unnoticed except by friends and close associates. This observation about a different feel to a meeting also applies to those who join us by Skype. From where I sit, I look directly at the laptop screen where the people’s images appear who have joined us from afar. If one of the windows, which was open the prior week because a person or persons had joined us, is not there, I am sensing that we are somehow less complete. I have found myself sitting with five or six others as we begin our meeting, with a few others connected by Skype, and feeling somehow that we are rather small. Then one person will walk into our meeting room and my feeling about what is taking place will change for the better. I don’t want to call my feelings strange or misshapen, but in this place my senses are tuned differently from how they are in a large ward. I must admit, of course, that when I served as high priest group leader, I was paying attention to all of the high priests and single sisters who would show up for church meetings.

Today our Fast and Testimony meeting had the potential to go in several different directions, with people joining us from six Skype stations. For two who had joined us before, the connecting process was old hat. But for four, it was the first time and the electronic challenges mounted. I began to worry that the electronic struggles faced by the YVs would take over the meeting. But they worked heroically to keep everyone connected so that they could hear testimonies borne in the meeting room itself and those from the four persons who bore testimonies from afar. In the end, all worked out. The most poignant part of the meeting came when our Farsi-speaking sister, who comes from Iran, wanted to bear her testimony from a distant city. It happened that a young couple, non-members whom Grandma and I had invited to our services, was sitting among us and they are from Iran. The fellow speaks good English. So at the invitation of one of our YVs, he translated for the Farsi-speaking sister as she bore her testimony, repeating her testimony in English. The only contact with the Church that this non-member fellow had enjoyed to that point was the little that Grandma and I had offered to him and his wife since meeting them three weeks ago, an event that came about when a former SV sister, who knows the fellow’s member sister, contacted us with the new phone number that he had acquired after moving to Turkey from Iran. I am hoping that something he repeated during the translation process sticks in his heart and in his wife’s heart.

For about three weeks, Grandma and I have been giving a better, more focused effort to studying Turkish. I am proud of how she has approached it. She is biting off huge chunks of vocabulary while I am trying to thoroughly review my notes from my class last October. In some ways, it is as if I had not taken the class. I have notebook pages filled with words and phrases that I do not remember writing down. I am sure that we were moving so fast that I did not have time to review what we had covered because I would bring home a load of homework each day. Now I am going through my notes, writing many of them again, and wondering whether I can ever remember even one-tenth. I try to listen to people talking, including the YVs when they give a lesson, and I understand almost nothing. The YVs are working with a tutor and he has suggested that they read long swaths of the Book of Mormon in Turkish. I try to read the first verse of the book in Turkish and little makes sense. Ah well.

Your mother and I go off to Kiev tomorrow very early. Our flight is just before six o'clock in the morning. We shall receive the second installment of her training in church history as it is occurring in the modern Church. Of course, I pick up on the training too. Of course. In light of my tangential training, this past week I sat down one afternoon and wrote up the history of our branch for 2015. It was either the branch clerk or I. I chose me because he writes in Russian and I alone have access to the information.

I went off last Monday to the southern city of Antalya. We flew over a number of snow-capped peaks in the Taurus mountain range. I met a colleague whom I had met earlier. He specializes in the archaeology of Turkey and the book of Revelation. He and his wife have lived in Turkey for a number of years, trekking back to the States a couple of months a year for visits to family and to the university where he has been a part time faculty member. Recently, his status has been changed to adjunct and he no longer receives the modest salary that was part of the earlier arrangement. The bigger event was that I also met two Turkish fellows who live in Antalya, one of whom was baptized more than a month ago and will soon receive the Aaronic priesthood, and the other of whom is to be baptized next weekend. The former works for an airline company and he flies to Istanbul to attend meetings. The other fellow is an unemployed bicycle mechanic and occasionally attends meetings in Istanbul after an eleven-hour bus ride. One way. I am hoping that they will begin to come to us on occasion. They were both part of the Skype session today in our meeting. I was really happy that they joined us.

I love you and pray for all of you.

Grandpa Brown