#111 Conference (By Grandpa)

Dear Grandchildren,

Our week was filled by the first district conference in Turkey. That meant my week was pretty well spent trying to hold the program together — a leadership meeting, a social evening, and a general session. The challenges came with people who had committed to participate a couple of weeks before and then backed out. As you might expect, my work was complicated because of the language barrier. I had to work through intermediaries. Most held their ground and did as they said they would. One woman from Ankara who agreed to help with the music showed up with her four children and did as she promised. All the while, her four daughters were perfect angels, behaving themselves. Their behavior was in sharp contrast with other children who were all over the rented auditorium in quick, noisy fashion.

I had been put in charge of the overall program, with others of the SVs helping with the transportation and hotel reservations as well as with the klunky sound system in the hotel and the talent show. I admit that I doubted we would see much talent in the district. But I was measuring by our branch. We finally gave up on our branch members and went to the well — our YVs. One of them is a pretty good pianist. And we thought the five of them could sing a song together. In the end, all twenty YVs in Turkey sang a funny song in Turkish and sounded really good. As an illustration that young children should not be invited to do anything solo, a young boy could not be coaxed by his parents or by one of the MCs to recite a poem that his mother helped him prepare. Try as they might, he refused to utter one intelligible syllable.

Before the district conference, we traveled to Istanbul for a zone conference with all twenty YVs. Yes, the last of the YVs arrived on Thursday from Germany. He especially was happy to be on Turkish soil. During the first two months, he was the one who pined for "home" the most. It was a rather bitter pill to swallow when he was denied entry over a residence issue. I was glad to give him a hug. He beamed a lot the first couple of days back.

Our visiting authority was a member of the first quorum of Seventy and the second counselor in the East Europe Area Presidency. He has been in his post for 14 months and was the one who set me apart as the district president in Jerusalem in 2009. In an interesting insight, he said that the transfer time for Seventies is the annual April conference. The assignments across the world are posted on a huge screen and the Seventies go to see where they will be serving. The current first counselor, who has spent his ministry in Latin America because he speaks Spanish, was surprised to be sent to Moscow, Russia. The second counselor welcomed him by saying that he speaks English, Tahitian and French. Not notable qualifications for Eastern Europe.

While in Istanbul, Grandma had to find a key that she had put into her purse. So she set to looking. She stuck her hand in all of the corners and crevasses, into each of the many side pockets. At one point she pulled out our splitter, the device that plugs into the sound port of a laptop or other device and allows two persons to plug in their headsets or ear buds. It had been missing since the first time we used it when watching something together on my laptop. Grandma had thought she put it into a little drawer in a desk. We had searched and searched for that device, without any positive result. Until she went looking for that key.

One of the serious challenges for our Iranian refugee members is that the government doesn’t want a bunch of foreign refugees coming to the biggest city in the country where most of the troubles have occurred during the past year. So I could neither ask these people to participate nor expect them to attend the district conference. One branch member asked me write a letter to the authorities to reverse the denial of their request to travel to the conference. I was disappointed to reply that I could not. I feared putting all of us in jeopardy in light of the deportations of Christian leaders who have been working with refugees. Without the presence of our Iranian members, only seven from our branch attended.

Yesterday I conducted eight temple interviews -- through an interpreter. With one exception, these were with people who have been members of the Church for only a year. They would dearly love to go to the temple, but the wording of the ordinances is not yet translated into Turkish. Afterward, the GA visitor asked me what it was like to interview these people. I said that looking into their eyes I saw pure souls. The experience was as meaningful to me as it may have been to them.

I love you and pray for you.

Grandpa Brown

#110 Sunday, October 23 (By Grandma)

I'll spare you a long email this week.  Dad and I have to catch a bus in a few minutes to travel to Bodrum, a seacoast town on the southwest corner of Turkey.  It is in our Branch.  I'm going there to interview two German sisters who live there with their families.  We are going tonight so that we can interview them in the morning when their children are at school.  I'm trying to pack very lightly because I have to carry stuff along the way, and the recorder is a little bit heavy.  I'll wear the same clothes I'm wearing right now.

It sounds like most of you have been out and about this week.... huntin', drivin', attending children's events.  Sho is in Colorado with Raynelle and Nathaniel.  Evidently Raynelle came down with strep, so that curtailed some of their plans.  I saw a photo of the Cleggs on FB frolicking in Zion's.  Heather planned to catch some volleyball in St George, and I think the Pearsons were showing up again for Larissa's play.  Evidently all the Browns were back in school, so their week was "normal", whatever that may be.

I made banana nut bread this week.  I really thought that my culinary years were behind me.  But I've had to step up to the plate (oven) here.  I barely used the oven for the first year.  I didn't know how.  It is a stove-top contraption.  But I've finally figured out how to use its basic features, so I can make some stuff.  I made M&M cookies also.  But the problem is that I can only make 6 at a time.  Therefore I have to ration them when the elders visit.  Too bad Karilynne isn't here with her chocolate chip cookies.  But then, she would have to bring her own chocolate chips.    

We did purchase a popcorn popper a few months ago.  It isn't like ours in at home, but it sorta of does the  job.  

Have I told you how cheap food is here?  I go to a grocery store and load up with lots of stuff.  It usually costs the equivalent of about $30.00.  We purchase loaves of bread for $.30.  So maybe we can't afford to come home.  I know that just looking at Costco costs about $100.00.  Maybe you could all move here?  

We really appreciate the return of the YVs.  Today there were 13 people in our meeting and about that many over Skype.  It is still stressful because we have no idea how things will work out, but "ye of little faith".... it usually works out.  A Turkish visitor who lives in Switzerland spoke today.  He told about helping with church Turkish translations.  He also brought some Swiss Chocolate.  It was scooped up very quickly.  

The YVs have been in our apartment almost every day this week.  And two of them and an investigator were here after church.  Since they just happened to be here when we would be eating, I invited them to dine with us.  We dined on spaghetti.   My spaghetti sauce, from scratch, is really quite good.  The elder who hates tomatoes wasn't with them.

Well, have a great week.  It is almost Halloween if I remember right.  Save us some Halloween candy.

Love,

Mother

#109 Blessing (By Grandpa)

Dear Grandchildren,

For me, the week rotated around a blessing in Bodrum. The non-member husband of one of the German sisters underwent surgery to repair a nerve problem in his neck that was causing him a lot of pain in his shoulders and arms. (I went through a similar experience about 19 years ago; my doctor was an experienced neurosurgeon. I don’t know whether this man has enjoyed access to such a doctor.) He spent three days in the hospital and then expected to rest at home for perhaps three weeks. We were at the one-week-plus mark when we went. I received permission to take one of the YVs from our threesome. This YV had taught by Skype the older children in the family whom I baptized almost a year ago. I was to be his companion for the day. He went because it seemed important to give a blessing to this man in Turkish, something that I could not do.

I don’t know how to make a pair of three-and-one-half hour bus rides sound exciting. They were not. The seats on the way to Bodrum were wider than they were on the bus back. That’s something, I suppose. And the snacks that we were offered on both rides were nothing to write home about. So I won’t. We bought seats so that we were not in the direct sun. I read and the YV studied for much of the ride down. On the ride back, we talked a lot more. I knew that he had been a wrestler in high school. He told me of the regimen and diet that he faced. A tangerine for breakfast, a baggie of tuna fish for lunch, and another baggie of tuna fish for dinner. That’s it. At Thanksgiving and Christmas, he ate no other foods. He was in training and he had to keep his weight down. When he was a sophomore, his coach asked him to drop two weight categories, the equivalent of 19 pounds. So he "cut weight" to wrestle in a lower category. As you might expect, he now hates tuna fish.

The blessing was a special moment. We went to the family apartment which overlooks the Aegean Sea. A nice view, but a small apartment. And expensive. Bodrum is a town of just over 50,000 inhabitants. But in the summer months, with tourists and people moving in who own summer homes, the number goes up to close to a million. We walked into the apartment and were greeted by seven young children and their mothers and fathers. After everything settled down a bit, and the children were in a back bedroom, we explained to the fellow what a blessing is, how it is done, and what it is meant to do. We think he understood. His wife, a life-long member of the Church, had also talked to him about the process. I anointed his head and gave the first, short blessing. Then the YV sealed the anointing and proceeded to give him a blessing for good health. (On the way to Bodrum on the bus, I gave to the YV some options that he could think about, options that would fit inside such a blessing — good physical health, good emotional health, full recovery, ability to be a loving father, a loving husband, a good breadwinner, release from worry over his business, etc. He had asked what possible things he might say; so I gave him some ideas just to bring him to a point that the Spirit could guide him to one or more such promises.) At the end of the blessing, he sat still for a long time. I placed my hand gently on his shoulder (it was not to time for a slap on the back, of course). When he rose and gave us hugs, we could see the fatigue etched on his face. We could also see his gratitude for our effort to come so far to give him the blessing. The ride back seemed much shorter.

We were 25 in our Sacrament Meeting today, thirteen in the hotel room and twelve joining us by Skype. We had the unusual opportunity of hearing from a man who now lives in Switzerland and was part of the team that produced the Turkish translation of the Book of Mormon. It was an important story to hear. And the two investigators must have been impressed to hear the narration from a man who had grown up in the country and then, while living abroad, had joined the Church and had made such a contribution. This man intends to attend our district conference next week. He was invited by the fellow who has been the team leader for several years in translating church materials into Turkish. It will be a fitting moment for this man to see how many church members there are in the country.

We are in Bodrum. I am back for the second time in four days. This time, the bus seat was not kind to me. But hey! No one said that these seats should be kind to me. They just need to hold a passenger in place. We are here so that Grandma can interview the two sisters whom she considers to be pioneers in the kingdom in these parts. We are surrounded by ancient lore, but I shall likely have to come specifically for an exploration adventure to see what is here. It is the birthplace of Herodotus, the important Greek historian of the fifth century BC. And other wonderful people lived here in antiquity. It keeps  beckoning to me. Ahh, what wonderful stuff.  

I love you and pray for you.

Grandpa Brown

#108 Sunday October 16 (By Grandma)

It is 1/2 way through the month and almost Halloween.  We received a message from the MP to not mention Halloween or Thanksgiving to our local members.  Evidently those holidays represent America traditions, so we keep them to ourselves.

Last year we took the YVsto a hotel for Thanksgiving.  It was a very nice feast.  We didn't have an oven that could cook a turkey if we could even find one.  Right now we have five elders serving here, so it will be more expensive.  If you'd like to contribute to the "feed YVs" fund it would be appreciated.  We will probably repeat the hotel experience  The only problem is that the meal doesn't start until 8:00 PM.  I'm ready for bed by then.... but I guess I'll stay awake this time.  The only thing that was missing last year was cranberry sauce.  The hotel actually did a very nice job of other things, and lots more things than I prepare.  But there was no 3-bean salad.  I'l have to wait until we return for that. 

I made cookies this week.  I made M&M cookies from a recipe on the internet.  I found a bag of M&M's and had been saving them until I could gather all the ingredients.  The last item I had to find was baking soda.  They do carry it here, but it is hard to find.  The recipe calls for six cookies on a cookie sheet.  Now I know why.  They spread out a lot.  With my small oven it took a long time to just bake six at a time.  I took 18 to church with me today.   We had 15 in attendance.  I usually put the treats on a table, and let everyone help themselves.  But this time I passed them around, so everyone could get at least one.  I've learned I have to do that with "certain" people.   There were 3 left over for about 25 seconds!

Julianne's Face-time alert awakened me at 2:00 AM, that Cassidy's team won their first game in state. That was wonderful from a brand new high school.  I know that Kara is in Hawaii with her volleyball team right now.  I don't know how any athletes find any time to study.  But I guess their coaches carve out time for such things.  Nashelle is advertising a melodrama in her theater.  Next year we will get to attend performances.   Jill is finishing up her Real Estate class.  Shoshauna is scrambling to keep up with her 9 hours of graduate classes.  Spencer got a deer.  

Dad and I are doing okay.  We spent 3 days in Istanbul last week, and will probably travel to a couple of distant cities this week.  In between, Dad is working on arranging everything for the District Conference in two weeks in Istanbul.  I'm in charge of getting someone to do the music.  The MP told me whom to call.  She is willing and luckily I can be back-up if needed.  I hand-typed all the words in Turkish to the hymns we'll be singing.  It was an ordeal because the Turkish alphabet is different from ours, and I had to hand-enter by cutting and pasting the different letters.  Some keyboards have the Turkish alphabet, but mine does not.  

We had a loooooong session with the YVson Friday.  They use our apartment for skyping and district meetings.  There were about five meetings on Friday.  I provided lunch.  One set of YVsis looking for an apartment.  Right now all five are in one apartment.  There is space for five, but evidently cooking their meals is a big problem.  They don't share food, so everyone has to prepare their own meal.  I imagine they eat out a lot.  And actually Turkish food is rather cheap if you eat where the locals do. 

I hope you are all doing well.  I know you are all very busy all the time.  But hopefully you'll save some energy so you can help us get in and out of our recliners when we return.

Love,

Mother 

#107 Twenty Minutes (By Grandpa)

Dear Grandchildren,

Twenty minutes. That’s all it took for me to get a second opinion on the ear injury that I suffered five months ago during a routine cleaning. With the help of the MP’s wife, I had a conversation with the physician who watches over us folks in the Europe East Area. He made a couple of suggestions about clinics where I might find a competent Ear, Nose, and Throat doctor. He sent telephone numbers, though he did not know any doctor personally. I called. I made an appointment with a physician in Istanbul, sight unseen. We saddled up and went to the big city. On an airplane, of course. At the appointed hour, I walked into the doctor’s office and he motioned for me to sit down. I did. I showed him the charts with the results of three hearing tests at a university hospital within a couple of bus rides from our apartment. He spoke minimal English and I spoke minimal Turkish, or even less. Within a couple of minutes, another fellow appeared whom I thought was a second consulting doctor. Good, I thought, another competent and experienced person. But he turned out to be an assistant who spoke passable English. He was there to translate for us.

The doctor looked in my throat. He looked up my nose. He looked in my normal ear, finally in the damaged ear. He evidently could see nothing. I told him that I had received a steroid shot in the injured left ear. Through the assistant, he asked whether I had taken oral steroids. No, I said. He asked a couple of further questions. He then declared that for any treatment to be effective, it must begin within three days of the original injury. Next, he opined, my only recourse would be a hearing aid. At this date, he said, there was no possible way to correct the damage. None of this, if true, was shared with me by the physician who damaged my ear. So I walked out, went down one floor in the building, and paid my $110 for the visit and, with Gayle in tow, I left. The only thing that really recovered my day was to watch a replay of the BYU versus Toledo University football game that evening. Go Cougars! And don’t stop!

The YVs came over last Tuesday and we watched the Saturday morning session of General Conference. The experience was nice uplift. The MP forbade them watching all the sessions during one day — he didn’t want them binging. Fair enough. We shall have them over again to watch another of the sessions that is not translated into Turkish.

Our YV threesome is looking for an apartment. They found one that they liked but the landlord gave it to someone else who put money down on the place, something that the YVs did not have. In addition, the landlord and his wife came to church meetings last week and, well, they may have worried about what they experienced with us. Who knows? So the YVs are on the trail of another. They found one that looks really nice, much nicer than any of the apartments that our branch members live in. But they are effectively on hold. One more YV is in Germany, and when he returns there will be some changes. Our threesome will surely become a twosome and it is those two names that have to go on a rental contract. Since the companionship has not been announced because transfers are not for another couple of weeks, the YVs are waiting. Living five in their apartment. I can't imagine what it is like for them to each get into the shower every morning. A crowded place. But it will all work out within a couple of weeks and then all will smooth out. That is a happy prospect. In the meantime, each has to wonder, "Is it I?" when it comes to who goes somewhere else at the next transfer.

Yesterday I spent some time with an Iranian couple whom Grandma and I met in another city a few weeks ago. They are relocating to Izmir and will declare themselves refugees, if they have not done so already. They seemed genuinely interested. Part of the conversation went through a YV who knows a little Farsi from his time in Germany and a sister in Istanbul who hails from Iran and therefore speaks Farsi, as well as English. The sister in Istanbul made it clear in her part of the conversation that the church is not in a position to help non-members, just what she needed to say. We shall see whether the couple can push though this fact and still retain a desire to join our church meetings. They did not come to our meetings today. I do not yet know whether that is a bad sign or not.

We were twenty-five again in our Sacrament Meeting, almost the same crowd that we see every week. This time there were two investigators in the hotel room, fellows whom the YVs have been seeing and teaching off and on for several months, both before their stay in Germany and after. The YVs are trying to line some of them up for Christmas Day baptisms, thus allowing time for them to attend church services often enough to show themselves to be really ready to join our numbers. Personally, a Christmas Day event makes for a lot of interest and significance. A baptism on that date will register in their souls for the rest of their lives.

I love you and, of course, pray for all of you.

Grandpa Brown

#106 Another Week in Izmir (By Grandma)

The weeks are actually whizzing by.  It seems like I just wrote to you, and now it is time to write again.

But since I wrote last, I've had a root canal.  I'm sure you'd like to hear all the details.  I've had a little sympathy, but not near enough.  There isn't anyone here I can complain to so you get the whole story.

Our dentist is a member of our branch.  He was trained in the US.  He is also in the Air Force, so he goes for reserve training several times a year.  

I first went to him because I chipped a front tooth.  It looked pretty gross, and I finally took the plunge.  His first step was to x-ray me.  He said I needed a root canal.  I said "I know".  That tooth has been sensitive for a long time and I can't remember when I last ate on that side of my mouth.  But a wimp doesn't do anything until the very last minute.  

The chipped front tooth was simple, and repaired very easily.  I didn't feel a thing.  

But on Monday he began the root canal.  He doesn't use nitrogen.  So I geared up and endured the injections to deaden the area.  Then he was in my mouth for 1 1/2 hours.  He x-rayed me 3 times as he was working.  He couldn't get into the canal.  It had calcified.  But I prayed as he was excavating, and finally he could break through.  And filled the canal with stuff and put a temporary cap on.  He told me to come back on Friday and he would finish it.

As you still reading this?  So I went back on Friday expecting to have the tooth finished but lo and behold, he did two more root canals, and his fingers were in my mouth for two more hours.  Those roots were also a challenge to penetrate.  He said that if he couldn't get in, he may have to extract the tooth.

So that filled me with dread.  Extraction after all this????

But finally he was successful and he finished up with a nice crown.  I'd gritted my teeth for so long, that I was totally exhausted.  I returned home and continued taking my antibiotics.

I actually didn't have a lot of pain.  Initially I took Tylenol and that didn't help, so I changed to ibuprofen.  That was more effective.

While I was going through this Dad was in Istanbul getting trained on some church computer system.  The dentist knew dad was gone, so he said he'd call me that evening to see how I was doing.  He didn't call.  How could he have forgotten me so quickly?

I fed 10 people today after church.  I made chicken soup, but boiled a lot of noodles to put the soup over because I didn't know how much 5 elders would eat.  We seemed to do okay.

Well, I miss you all.

Love,

Mother

#105 Threes (By Grandpa)

Dear Grandchildren,

They come in sets of threes, except the waves of the ocean that come in sets of seven. (Don’t ask me how I know that. A friend who once lived in Hawaii as a surfing teacher told me that.) Now Grandma and I are hosts to a set of threes. In Turkey, we have often enjoyed an uneven number of YVs and that has meant a threesome in either Istanbul or Ankara, the bigger and more important cities. This time, with nineteen YVs on hand (one is in Germany still), our town has become the home for a threesome. In the threesome are one YV who has served more than eighteen months, one who has been out fourteen months, and one who has been in the field for five months. The senior YV in the other set is a trainer again and has a greenie. And the greenie looks really young. He is smart and already has a modest command of Turkish. But he just has a really youthful look. Like he just watched his older sister walk across the stage at her high school graduation and he still has two years to go. In the end, I am sure he will be fine.

But coming to our city was not so easy. On Friday afternoon, the greenie and his new senior companion left their orientation meeting at the branch house in Istanbul, pulling the greenie’s luggage down into the metro for the ride to the airport. The security guard at the metro entrance asked them where they were going and why they were going there. They answered honestly. Then the guard wanted to see inside the suitcases. Naturally, he did not have access to a scanning machine and he did not want two crazies dragging explosives into the metro from his station. They complied though they thought the request was unusual. When the guard learned that they were Christians, the conversation turned a little snippy, with him saying some rather negative things about the Christian faith. The Yvs kept quiet because they just wanted to get going since their deadline to be at the airport for a seven o’clock flight was drawing ever closer. In the end, the guard let them go but the two YVs missed their flight. With the help of the people in the mission office, their flight was changed to a much later time and they arrived in their apartment, where the other three YVs were already asleep, at 2:00 a.m. The greenie must be wondering whether the people here ever sleep. He came out of the airport a few days ago at 2:00 a.m. and then, two days later, doesn’t get to bed until about 2:30 in the morning, only sleeping a little before rising at 6:30.

I went to Istanbul for training in MLS, the church’s financial system which is coming to Turkey so that we are on the same page as the rest of you. I was in it until about three hours into the training. Then my mind began to wander as I became a bit concerned that we would soon run against a time when we needed to leave for the airport. We were practicing our MLS activities on a big screen computer (big, compared to my laptop) which is a dedicated instrument for church work. We had to pack that baby into a box and then do the same for a printer. It was a good thing that my accompanying counselor is an engineer. He figured out things pronto and we made our flight with a little time to spare. I feel a little bit smarter about the MLS system, but not a lot. For starters, I took the wrong pair of glasses and had a hard time seeing the tiny print on the screen as we were going through our paces. Fortunately, my counselor has been a ward clerk and knows the MLS system.

Grandma made the carrot cake that she promised to make on my birthday. Oh my! It has been heavenly, even the stiff, darkened part without frosting. Thank you! Thank you!

One of the satisfying things I did this week was go with the YV threesome to the apartment of our new Hungarian couple to help with some of the boxes that had come in a shipment. When we arrived at their home, two Hungarian women friends were helping in the kitchen and big bathroom. We were left to heft boxes into the baby’s room and another auxiliary room, eventually opening them in an effort to find utensils for the kitchen. We never did find the box with the utensils even though we opened almost every box. The sister is obviously still in a lot of pain from her caesarean section. They joined us by Skype this morning for church services since they cannot attend because of the new baby.

From a total of 16 and 18 attendees at our last two sacrament meetings, we shot up to twenty-five today. It included a Turkish couple who will rent an apartment to the threesome of YVs. When they learned what our YVs are doing, they more or less invited themselves to our church meetings, saying that they would like to join us. They now have a copy of the Book of Mormon and a pamphlet to read. They were very attentive throughout the meetings. That gives me hope. Who knows what these kinds of connections might bring.

Perhaps oddly, I have found my mind turning to Christmas already. We have scheduled a branch activity for Christmas Eve. Perhaps that has tugged on my mind. For a wobbly person like myself, I find myself growing excited about the possibilities of celebrating Christmas, even in a land that now has no Christmas tradition. But there was a day when the bells rang out all across this land, before the fifteenth century when Christianity was the main religion in this region. Those bells have largely gone silent. But in our hearts we shall celebrate and be grateful for what happened all those long years ago in Bethlehem. Truth be told, I still pray for the Bethlehem branch, which is the only church unit that can claim to be established in the town where the Savior was born. We still count as friends a few members of that branch. That place is in our hearts. I hope that it is in your hearts as well.

I love you and pray for each of you.

Grandpa Brown

#103 Dentist

It has been great to have the missionaries back.  But transfers are coming up next week and we are worried.  I love our YVs.... well, best of all the two who have been here the longest.  We get five new YVs on Wednesday, and therefore, there will have to be a lot of reconfigurations.  We will then have 19 young YVs in Turkey.  The biggest number so far.

Dad and I arrived at the airport in Istanbul just prior to the YVs' arrival from Germany.  So we could be part of the greeting and went on a bus with them into the city.  It was so fun to watch them arrive.  There were huge problems as they tried to enter the country.  One YV could not enter at all, and was sent back to Germany.  It is a complex story, but he cannot come back for a month.  It all has to do with visas, etc.  The Zone Leaders stayed behind to get him settled and on to a return flight.  

The MP's wife is very smart.  She really does a lot behind the scenes.  She insisted that all the YVs take their cell phones with them to Germany, and she had them all loaded with minutes before they returned so they could call us from behind all the gates, and doors when they arrived in Istanbul.  That way, we knew what the delay was and what was going on.   She was able to direct them and tell them what to do, and get new reservations for the returning YV.  So only 14 YVs returned on the bus with us.    

I was surprised to get a hug from the YVs.  They are not allowed to touch us ordinarily, but it was nice to get a hug on their return.  And now it is back to arms' length.  

The bus took Dad, Diane and I to the mission home to finish getting dinner ready, then took the YVs to their hotel, and then they walked to the mission home and we had a dinner.  The Torontos had just returned from Kazakshstan two days prior, so I'm sure having all this happen was very hard on them.  Diane had to walk up the hill 4 times to get enough food for the event.  And the YVs devoured it very quickly.  We had the elders, 3 service couples, the Torontos, and the BP from Gaziantep.  The YVs had been up since 2:00 AM so they went back to their hotels and to sleep.  

The next morning we had Zone Training meeting.  (We stayed at the mission home).  As you probably know Zone Training is usually just done by the YVs.  But this was more like a Zone Conference with reports, new information, etc.  It was a good meeting.  We had pizza and then the Izmir and Ankara people went to the airport.  We flew home with "our" YVs.

I chipped a tooth this week.  I had it repaired by a Branch member who is a dentist.  He did a great job. He'll begin a root canal for me on Monday... Ugh!  He is an American married to a Turk.  He is actually with the AirForce... came to Turkey with the AF.  He met a Turkish woman and married her.  He has stayed in the AF so he can get retirement.  So he leaves Turkey now and then for AF stuff.  But he works as a dentist in the AF.  His wife has just opened a shop near our apartment.  She sells fashionable clothes, all much too small for me.  

We flew 10 times in September.  Are you impressed? We had the same lousy "grilled" cheese sandwich on each flight.  I hope they change their menu for October.  

I was really looking forward to church today.  It would be back to "normal".  The elders are back, we have a new RS President, etc.  We were going to have our first RS.  But alas, I received a text yesterday from the RS Pres.  She had had her baby early.   It was due Oct 30.  She said she had surgery.  I don't know more details than that.  I'll take a dinner to them tomorrow.... walk, walk, walk, bus, metro, walk walk walk.  They had still been in a hotel and were to move into their apartment Oct 1.  It is all pretty far from us.  So our meetings today had to be adjusted again.  change, change, change......

I am relieved to have the elders back.  I worried that they'd never come back.  The Turkey president has extended his State of Emergency.  But we don't see much about it from where we stand.  There are still lots of warnings about US citizens, but who knows?  It looks like it is dangerous to be in the US.

I hope you are all enjoying the Fall. It has cooled a bit here but still warm in the days.  And last week an errant mosquito found its way into our apartment.  It woke me up with its fine several times during the night.  I kept putting the sheets over my head.  Finally in the AM I spied it on the wall and smushed it.  A lot of blood splattered out.  

Dad goes to Istanbul again this week-end.  I don't.  I should have my root canal finished by then.  I'll certainly keep you posted by that.

I saw a photo of Tanner in the Conference Center.  Did he get to attend Conference?  

I love you all!

Mother

#102 YV's Return (byGrandpa)

Dear Grandchildren,

Time sort of hung around. Or so it seemed. All last week, everything pointed to Thursday when the YVs would arrive back. Thursday finally came. Then all of our slow-motion activities finally tightened into something meaningful. We caught a flight to Istanbul about noon, enjoyed the toasted cheese and tomato sandwich which is now standard fare on all Turkish Air flights, and arrived in time to make our way to the international terminal just before the first YVs emerged. They came out in threes and fours until only three remained inside. They were dealing with an immigration issue for one of them. In the end, because of a glitch that occurred before the YVs departed two months before, one of the fifteen had to return to Germany for up to a month. The MP was on his phone almost constantly, getting a sense of what was happening inside the international hall with the one YV’s emigration situation, and calling people abroad who needed to know that the fellow was probably going back, and working out who could help the YV shorten his stay in Germany. After almost three hours in the airport, we hauled all the luggage onto a bus and headed for the hotel where the YVs would stay for a night.

The next morning, the MP held a zone training meeting for all of us. In many ways, it framed a reminder about the kinds of activities the YVs should be engaged in. They were out of Europe and back in the Middle East where the stream of life is different. Before six o’clock Friday, we were back in our city, with our four YVs. How do you spell Hallelujah? Since then, we have already hosted one lesson in our apartment, with others to come.

The big news Saturday was the arrival of our newest branch member, a baby named Olivia. She was born Caesarean section. Apparently she came early. Her mother said a week ago that she was due a month hence. But she is now here and, because she is the first child in the family, a lot will change in their house, or apartment. They have just moved in and are expecting a huge shipment of household items to arrive any day. So the Yvs and I will take it upon ourselves to assist with hauling the boxes. It is a lot to put on a family — to move into a new apartment, to welcome a new child, and to receive and arrange a bunch of goods for the apartment.

We were eighteen in our Sacrament Meeting today, ten in the hotel room and eight by Skype. We don’t download and watch the first couple of sessions of general conference as happens elsewhere in the Church. We feel an obligation to those who join us by Skype from afar to hold a Sacrament Meeting; and if we show a conference session or two, we cannot transmit such sessions by Skype. Therefore, we lose those good people. Moreover, needed translations of the sessions that we can view are not ready until a few days after the conference ends. So we instead soldier on with regular church services, adding in a translated talk to each of a later set of Sacrament Meetings in October and November. In this way, we hold a Sacrament Meeting and then invite branch members to view the talk that we have chosen for the week. (I send the links for the various languages to branch members in an email during the week before our next meeting.) I hope that this is somewhat clear. Maybe it is not. If not, I apologize. We hope that in some small way, one talk at a time, we can bring the spirit of the conference to our branch members.

My birthday came and went. Mostly went. Thanks for the kind greetings and sentiments. I am grateful for your thoughtfulness. Now that I am officially more than a year past the three quarters of a century in age, I want to announce that I feel about the same as I did last week. A little slow and inclined to fall asleep in the strangest places. Actually, I have slowed a lot. I don't run up any stairs, I don't run down any stairs, I spend more time in the bathroom than I used to, I am slower to put on some articles of clothing, and I surely don't look good in a bathing suit or anything like unto it. I can still ride a bike a bunch of kilometers, but it is flat where I ride. It is also safe. I don't dare ride toward any hills around here to challenge them. I am not certain that drivers see bikers. So I stay totally out of their way.

I love you and pray for each of you. Always.

Grandpa Brown