Dear Grandchildren,
Grandma seems to have finally wrestled our convection oven into submission. For a long time, it was her master when it came to baking, or almost so, making her efforts to bake something into little more than a shimmering illusion, with hard, dark crusts — so that you don’t think of her products as a total illusion. Everything she tried to bake came out a little less than she wanted, or a lot less than she aimed for. A batch of hard cookies a couple of weeks ago seems to have been the last of the building blocks (no, they weren’t as hard as building blocks; this is just a turn of phrase). Since then, she has turned out a couple of batches of banana cookies, a couple of batches of banana nut bread, and a batch of coconut cookies that the YVs are raving about as the best they have eaten. I knew that this little machine could not keep her down and would finally become submissive. All is well, and is now worth the wait to eat whatever comes out of the oven.
A little more than a week ago, the branch president in Adana approached me about giving lessons on the New Testament to branch members on a weekly basis. Hey! That was nice. I said yes, if we could do something every other week. He agreed. So I gave the first hour’s lesson last Wednesday evening on the first chapter of Luke. I did it by Skype. (Maybe I should find some way to record these sessions for myself. But I don’t know the first thing about that sort of enterprise.) It was a satisfying experience for me. I simply reread Luke 1–2 and then read a few pages from my commentary to prepare. The branch members seemed to like the hour of information that they had heard little or nothing about. So we shall try it again ten days hence.
For months we have been aiming at a branch activity at a local bowling alley in a hotel. We did this initially back in mid-June and had a wonderful turn out of twenty-three. Once again, we spread the word through the YVs. They promised a good turn out. And it was. Thirty-seven, including children, showed up for bowling and pizza. A family of four from Bodrum even showed up. A pair of YVs reserved five lanes and my agent friend and I went to a pizza place and got the owner to agree to set up tables for thirty (we were thinking of a lesser number, as you might guess). Twenty-five were non-members and nine are active investigators. In my humble view, it was well worth the planning, the arranging, and the cost for the almost four hours that we were together.
Our attendance was twenty-four in our Fast and Testimony meeting, nineteen in the hotel room and five by Skype. The testimonies borne were deeply felt and carried a message to the non-members in attendance. We followed that impressive meeting with our first bona fide Priesthood and Relief Society meetings led by our recently called priesthood leader and Relief Society President. I did not attend the Relief Society meeting, but the priesthood meeting felt normal and upbeat. Our leader opened by asking for volunteers who would help to bless and prepare the sacrament for the next week’s sacrament meeting. That was a first in our branch since we have been here. Then he proceeded to give the lesson in English, a language that he is studying hard to learn (he natively speaks Magyar, or Hungarian). He did a wonderful job, sticking to the teachings of President Hunter on the family (chapter 17). I can’t wait for more.
I have been assigned to help members of a branch in the southeast part of the country get ready for a temple trip a couple of months hence. Most joined the Church a little over a year ago. Many live below Turkey's poverty line and some are unemployed. So even with Church help that is available for first-time attenders, it is a tough task to bring everything together and make sure that there is enough support. The biggest issue that the majority faces is purchasing a passport, the most expensive in the world. The big question is where they can get money for that one purchase. These are people who have traveled little in their lives, except to Istanbul and Ankara. Our area's temples are in Ukraine and Germany. The Kyiv temple will be closed during the two weeks that they can most easily travel. So, if things work out, they will likely end up in Freiberg, Germany, much to the delight of the branch president who went to the Freiberg temple for his first experience. It will be an interesting meeting with him tomorrow to see whether we can make good progress.
I love you and pray for each of you.
Grandpa Brown
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