#137 "Sunday, January 29, 2017" (by Grandma)

Dear Family,

I’m not going to ready your dad’s letter before I write mine tonight.  So you’ll probably get two reports of the same week.  But of course, we are different people, so the reports may vary a bit.  Dad’s reports will be profound and a bit spiritual, mine will be profound and a bit ornery. 

I feel like we have very busy weeks but I can barely remember individual days as they fly by.  Our week included another trip to Istanbul for Zone Conference.  We had been invited to stay at the Mission Home with another couple that was travelling from Ankara.  It is very comfortable and the MP’s wife always provides a variety of cuisine.  We try to contribute to breakfast, but we notice that our contribution goes uneaten.  We usually dine on yogurt and granola when we are at home.  We take our own granola when we travel, but usually we leave a full granola box. 

Zone Conference consisted of talks by the MP and his wife, the Zone Leaders (we have no AP’s), and talks by Dad and me.  We were given the topic of the BofM and Joseph Smith.   I told about my history of BofM reading and quoted a lot from Scott’s talk on what the BofM says about fathering.  I figured that the elders would be fathers one day, and there are some wonderful examples in the BofM.   Dad gave a very good talk about Joseph Smith.  We almost always have pizza for lunch at Zone Conference.  I was interested that they announced that you shouldn’t take more than six slices of pizza to begin with.  Then, after everyone was served, you could take more.  Some elders immediately loaded their plates with six slices.  I ate two slices.  I’m not sure how many dad ate.  You can ask him.

We went to dinner one night with some of the senior couples.  One couple from Ephraim is going home this week.  WE have really enjoyed them.  They have been the Office couple.  They have invited us to stay with them when we go to Cassidy’s games.  They were newlyweds when they first came.  Both had been widowed.  They have lots of children and grandchildren between them. 

Most clearly in my mind is what happened today…. Sunday.  I began some spaghetti sauce, and then walked to church lugging two heavy bags of stuff.  Dad had gone earlier with other heavy items.  The elders now bring the sacrament trays, so we don’t have to carry them each week.  But today, they forgot them.  So we had sacrament on hotel plates.  Luckily dad had the sacrament cloth and the cups for the water.  I had reminded the elders Saturday evening to remember to bring them.  They said they’d for sure remember.  But they didn’t. 

Church went well, and we had 18 people in attendance, and a bunch on Skype.  Dad gave the Fifth Sunday Lesson on the beginnings of the church.  We need to be very basic in our talks.  And since they are all translated, we have to write shorter talks.

BTW…. I’ve begun to sing all the songs now in Turkish.  Our congregation is sounding better and better.  I’m probably not pronouncing things correctly, but I’ve made a lot of progress.

After church I hurried home to prepare dinner for one set of elders.  They were bringing an investigator to our apartment for a discussion, and I told them I’d feed them after that.  So I fed them and the investigator.

After they left another set of elders arrived for a Skype lesson.  I told them I’d feed them after that lesson and before the next lesson.  As I type, they are giving a Skype lesson in Farsi to some Iranian refugees. 

So I spent a bit of time in the kitchen preparing food, serving food, cleaning up, and then repeating the process with the second set of elders.

I’m enclosing a photo of a mother and daughter.  The daughter was baptized a couple of weeks ago.  She is eleven years old.  She is very good with her hands, so I took her some yarn and told her how to make the sashay scarves.  Today she and her mother showed up in church with finished scarves.  I was very happy to see the finished product.  She is a very talented little girl and pays the piano like a professional.  She also speaks 3 languages, but English is not one of them unfortunately. 

I am remembering that I took our YSA to lunch this week and Dad and I took a woman from the Hotel where we hold church to lunch.  We are good at going out to eat.

I made a very good dessert for the elders today.  It was actually vanilla ice cream with a fantastic hot topping.  It is made from buttermilk.  I will make it for all of you when we return home.

I hope you are all surviving the snow.  Well, I’m sorry the Browns aren’t included.  The Pearsons said their driveway was blocked by snow from the snowplow.  I imagine you are all getting lots of exercise.  I wonder how the elderly are surviving.  I know that the Rowleys can’t shovel, and there aren’t reliable youth on their street to help out.  Greg Moon often has a snow blower that does some sidewalks in our neighborhood.  It must be a good investment this winter.

Time is speeding along.

I love you!

Mother

#136 "Prophets" (By Grandpa)

Dear Grandchildren,

After holding onto the books in the Islamic Translation Series that BYU Press publishes and BYU’s Maxwell Institute sponsors for about eight months, I finally donated one set of the 14–volume collection to one of the local universities. Another set still sits in our apartment, looking for a new owner. All in good time, say I. I have sent an email to a professor of archaeology at another university whom I met about four months ago. I expect him to put me in contact with the librarian. I hope. These books form a very distinguished set of publications. On-line I have checked the library holdings of these two universities, and they own none of the volumes. From what little I have seen of the library where I visited with our YVs last week (yes, I dragged them along), I judge it to be a few steps below the standards of most universities in the USA. Perhaps the gift of the books will lift the quality of the holdings ever so little.

I have a heavy heart when I think of our few members in a city to the east of us. They are all Iranians. As refugees, they are hoping for a future in the West. But their nationality is now on a list that is part of a directive signed by the new US president. One of our acquaintances here, with her husband, had been accepted for relocation to the US during the coming summer with UN help. But now they are in limbo for another several months. Perhaps they will be lucky and will still be able to immigrate. Perhaps not. All of that sort of movement is now halted. I think it odd that a piece of paper — a passport, in my case — can aid or deter a person’s ability to move from country to country.

A new SV couple has arrived in Istanbul and the prior one is about to leave. The positions — secretary and financial manager — are very important to the overall functioning of what we do around here. The former couple, who arrived a few weeks after we did, has mastered the ways of doing business in this part of the world and have become enormous helps to us and to everyone else in the mission. The incoming couple have enjoyed a couple of extended experiences as SVs, including one in southern Italy, actually in Malta, with our current MP. So they are a known quantity, so to speak. The couple just celebrated their 53rd wedding anniversary and he came to Helaman Halls the same year that I did as a new BYU student, 1958. We are about the same age. He is an engineer. I don’t know what his wife’s background is, but she raised a family of seven children. That is worth a lot in my mind.

We went to our next-to-last zone conference last week, from Wednesday to Friday. The conference lasted most of Thursday. Grandma and I were featured speakers for about an hour. We were given a slot in the morning. Usually, any slot allotted to us comes in the afternoon when the conference is winding down and time has shrunk, largely letting us off the hook. On this occasion, we were prime time, so to speak. Grandma was to talk about what the Book of Mormon has come to mean to her over the course of her lifetime. I was to treat Joseph Smith similarly. Grandma did a bang-up job, as I knew she would. I was a different story. I said that my real acquaintance with the Prophet began only during my young mission days when I recited the story of his First Vision to investigators. On those occasions, the Spirit would come to me and sweetly let me know that the story I was retelling was true. After that, I quickly retreated into the Book of Mormon where I feel much more at home.

Today we were twenty-six in our sacrament meeting, eighteen in the hotel room and eight by skype. Our numbers at the hotel were buttressed by two visitors from the States, a couple of fellows who are in the sunflower seed business. Four in the hotel room were investigators, one coming for the first time. Two of our brethren helped with the sacrament for the first time, one youth passing the sacrament and the older fellow blessing the bread. I crafted our two meetings to answer questions of one of our investigators. She has been over a barrel on the issue of a modern prophet. Actually, any prophets besides Jesus. The YVs who are teaching her have spent two lessons on the matter of prophets, trying to help her to understand what a prophet is and that God has not left us to our own devices in the modern world without divine help.

For our sacrament meeting, I had asked two of our YVs to talk about how Heavenly Father answers our sincere prayers. In our combined meeting, I led a discussion on the First Vision and events that followed that event, drawing on the first lesson in the new manual based on the teachings of President Gordon B. Hinckley. In a followup lesson in our apartment, she said that she now believes that the presence of a modern prophet makes sense and she believes President Monson to be that person. We have been praying hard for her to see the light. Now she is on track to be baptized in a couple of weeks. Whew! Thanks be to the Lord for His help. We ended our meetings by giving a blessing to an investigator who is going through a rough patch in his life. He came for the first time in a couple of months. It was a sweet conclusion to our meetings.

I am finally beginning to feel the tug of home. I almost feel guilty making such an admission. I have pushed this sort of sense as far from me as I can. But, if any justification exists, I can sense that more and more pieces are falling into place here, pieces that are needed to make the branch a fully functioning unit which the Lord will recognize as His own. Ever since Elder Holland showed up in Istanbul about fifteen months ago and talked to the YVs and SVs about shaping church units that the Lord would welcome as His, I have been working to make our branch into such a place where He could come, or His servants could come, and recognize what is happening in meetings, as well as before meetings and after meetings. Among other things, I saw the wife of my new first counselor holding his hand during our combined meeting today. Why is that important or noteworthy? Because for about a year she has been less active, attending perhaps twice in that span of time. Now she is our Sunday School teacher and comes all the time. It is hard for me to describe what I feel like when she walks through the door each Sunday morning. And there are other little stories that I could tell. I don't know what the branch will look like after our departure, but it will work fine, I am convinced. At least I hope so.

I love you and pray for each of you.

Grandpa Brown

#135 "Letter Home" (By Grandma)

What can I write about?  I do want to communicate with all of you at least once a week.  I love getting your various replies, or little blurbs about your lives.  Most of the time I'm telling about things of days past.  And the fact that I'm writing about them means that I have survived another week, as we all have.  

 

Sometimes I read your father's emails before I begin my own.  I did today.  I'm still amazed that he can write with such clarity and depth.  I usually just relay an event, but he can capture the poignancy of it... Notice the big word I just used.  He really is gifted.  I hope that you have all inherited that from your father.  

 

He had a busy week and I only went on one of the bus trips.  They are very tiring.  Why should sitting on a bus be tiring? All you have to do is sit?  But after a 13 hour day, I could barely gather myself together for church today.  And your father had to gather himself ready for church and perform lots of functions, conducting, set-up, carrying computers, ordaining new priesthood holders, and not falling asleep while sitting in front of everyone.  I only have to lead the music.  Well, I had to make refreshments, package refreshments, choose the music, print copies, print names of songs and pages for a poster, carry my Bose, take the Turkish Hymn books, take my i-phone, load my tote bags, try to pronounce the Turkish words as we sing, look pleasant, and stand in front of everyone with my feet killing me.    I walked to church with my Sunday shoes on.  Not a good idea!

 

The baptisms yesterday were very special.  We took two elders with us for the long trip on the bus ride.  One of the elders had been teaching the couple in Farsi.  Can you imagine going on a Turkish speaking mission and then teaching yourself Farsi?  We have some very sharp elders here.  I see that dad has written about the day.  I think I’ll just copy him for my journal, if I only kept a journal.

 

Today I sent the following email to the parents of an elder who was recently transferred from our area:

 

I just wanted you to know I miss your son Elder Brady.  He was transferred from our Branch last week.

I know that transfers are part of the program and we must "endure", but we do miss his presence.

 He had a light in his eyes that attracted others to him and to the message he was teaching.

 But most of all I miss his observation of the needs of others.  My husband and I have carried every item needed for church services to our hotel every Sunday.  It is a long walk for us, and much to carry.  But we have done it, and have been grateful to not stumble along the way.  When your son arrived he offered to take care of the Sacrament trays and supplies and to bring them each Sunday.  That was a big help.  One less thing we had to remember to take.  He never missed a Sunday.

 This week-end we had two baptisms in a distant city.  We carried all the clothing for the baptisms and brought back to our apartment all of the wet clothing.  Your son would have offered to help carry the heavy wet clothing.  I noticed that all the elders pushed ahead of me when going through doors.  Your son would have let me enter first, or at least noticed if I was nearby.  He always offered to help when he was in our apartment and found a way to actually help out.

 So we have been spoiled by having him in our branch.  It is too bad we have to share him with the Ankara Branch now. Oh well, such is mission life as you know.

 Our original return date was December 2016.  We extended to March 2017 because there was no one out there to replace us.  Our Branch is very young and the "volunteers" have been the mainstays.  But we had five baptisms this month and several more on the horizon.  So we hope that Izmir Branch will continue to thrive.

 We've had 3 grandsons serving missions as we have been out.  Our children have said they loved hearing from the Senior Couples who served with their sons.  So we thought that you would like to know that we give your son an A+++++ rating for his service to our Branch and to us personally.

 Thanks for raising a great son.

 

I assume that others could write the same about our grandsons who have served…. And future grandsons and granddaughters.  It helps when they think about the elderly people they work alongside.  We really appreciate any time anyone offers to lighten our physical load. 

 

A set of elders is here right now giving skype lessons.  Another set followed us home from church and asked if they could do some translations for a couple of minutes.  We said okay.  Two and a half hours later they left after I fed them some French toast.  I didn’t have much around to feed them since we’d been gone so much. 

 

We’ll fly to Istanbul this week for Zone Conference… and again in three weeks…. And again in about two months…when we leave.  We’ve received our final departure notice… March 21.  Dad is trying to pay for an upgrade so he can endure the miniscule legroom.  He isn’t happy cramped in tiny seats. 

 

Thank you all for your continued support and your prayers.  I know that we have been lifted up.  I do trip now and then.  I know that one bad trip could be fatal for me.  Each time I’ve stumbled I’ve been grateful to not land on my face.  I only did that once.  We could not serve here if we were not ambulatory.  There are random obstacles on the sidewalks, many irregularities, and cars speed up if they see you in their path.  I’m amazed now and then at a bicycle’s or motorcycle’s sudden appearance just behind me.  I could have stepped to the right or left, right into the path.  And we have flown safely more than 80 times.   We have been healthy with only a minor cold or two.  And I didn’t get rabies!

 

Be careful in the snow in Utah.  Watch out for the sunshine in Arizona. 

 

I love you all.

 

Mother

#134 "Bus Personality" (By Grandpa)

Dear Grandchildren,

Some weeks take on their own personality. This past week was a bus personality, topped by sweet ordinations. After arriving back from Gaziantep about noon on Monday, it seemed that I was either getting on a bus or climbing off one. During a Skype session with a sister in Bodrum, the two YVs teaching her learned that her young daughters had been very ill, ill enough to go to the emergency room in the local hospital. She asked if someone could come to give blessings to her daughters. Of course, we agreed, either Thursday or Friday, if the MP approved the travel of one or more YVs. Then Grandma said to me, "You are free tomorrow [Wednesday]." It made sense to go as soon as possible rather than making her children wait. Because we had a YV threesome for a couple of days (one YV was still taking care of matters where he was living before coming to our city), I took one with me and left the other two as a companionship. Wednesday morning, off we went to Bodrum, the birth place of the important, fifth-century Greek historian, Herodotus. It is a cool three hours and fifteen minutes from the bus station here to the city limits there. But the ride is gorgeous and pleasant.

At the first check point, a soldier climbed on the bus and, after strolling through an almost empty bus, asked the YV to step off with him. Because YV’s papers were in order, the officer in charge asked the soldier why he had taken this guy off the bus. So the YV climbed back on. At the second check point, a policeman walked straight through the bus and stopped at our seats, asking, "Where are you from?" We evidently stood out. Not surprising, given the color of our skin. At the bus station, the sister’s husband met us and drove us to their home where we enjoyed a nice lunch. One of the girls was feeling pretty good and was very playful. The other was not. She didn’t touch any of her lunch. When the time came to give blessings, we gave four, one to each family member. I don’t know how many blessings the YV has participated in, but he did a good job. A report a day later from the sister told us that her daughters, especially the one who was really sick when we arrived, were doing much better, as was her husband who has not been at the top of his game for several weeks.

Saturday saw another long bus trip. Instead of heading south, we headed east to Denizli, a city not far from one of the seven churches addressed by the Lord in the letters that he dictated to John the Revelator — Laodicea (Revelation 3:14–22). This time Grandma and I went, accompanied by two YVs, one of whom had just arrived the prior Wednesday evening and speaks Farsi, the language of the couple whom I was to baptize. One of the YVs had arranged for a hotel pool where we had baptized another brother some ten months before. After changing clothes, we held a short service, virtually pool side. Then I stepped into the pool. It was not warm and inviting, as I thought from looking at it. Instead, it was cool, though not cold. I baptized the sister first, then the husband. Both from Iran. They have been with us faithfully for almost five months on Skype each Sunday, even though they are not able to understand more than half of what happens. (At Grandma’s suggestion, I have invited our Farsi-speaking YV to summarize for five minutes, at the end of the sacrament meetings, what has been talked about during the meeting so that the Farsi speakers know what the speakers have said.) We went to their apartment where the sister had prepared a lunch. We then confirmed them members of the Church (I performed the ordinances with the Farsi-speaking YV translating my blessing by sitting in front of them.) After confirming the brother, I had him remain sitting and ordained him a priest. I judge that if a man is worthy to be baptized, he is worthy to receive the Aaronic priesthood.

Even though our numbers were down in our Sacrament Meeting today — eighteen total between those in the hotel room (13) and on Skype (5) — it was a wonderful energizing experience. We sustained six brethren to receive the priesthood; three to receive the Melchizedek Priesthood in other branches and three to receive the Aaronic Priesthood in our branch (actually, we ratified the action of ordaining the brother as a Priest in Denizli on Saturday). Then one of our new converts, a fellow who is about forty, spoke about recognizing and overcoming sin in our Sacrament Meeting. At the end of our Sunday School, we ordained the two new male members from last week who were in our hotel room today, one as a Priest and one as a Deacon. As soon as we finished ordaining the two of them, I told each of them where I wanted them next week, one sitting behind the sacrament table and one sitting so that he can pass the sacrament. Perhaps significantly, the entirety of our two meetings today was conducted in Turkish, except for my conducting, with English translation only during our Sacrament Meeting. We are getting there.

As an added note to what was above, it was not that the bus trips were so bad. They were enjoyable for me. It was the time. In each case, I/we were away from the apartment for some thirteen plus hours. Returning was a pleasant experience, to say the least. The first time, when the YV and I went to Bodrum, we got back in town, took a shuttle bus to a metro station through streets clogged with traffic, and then traveled to the airport to meet his new companion, a YV arriving from Ankara. The thing that saved the day was giving the four blessings. Those were sweet experiences for me. I dearly love the non-member husband who welcomed us to his home. He is a gentle, loving husband and father. He has earned my respect as a wonderful human being and brother. And he is a Muslim man. Of course, with an LDS wife, he will continue to run into the Church and its teachings throughout his life. I shall be most interested to see what happens to him during the next few years. It will be good, I know.

I love you and pray for you each day.

Grandpa Brown

#133 "Losing It" (By Grandpa)

Dear Grandchildren,

Losing it? It seems that I am losing things at a slightly increasing rate, things that have importance to me. About three weeks ago, I lost a pair of sun glasses that I have had for a good ten years. They were cool looking cycling glasses with light gray rims. I knew that the fellows who run a nearby glasses shop looked enviously at my glasses whenever I wore them and walked by. Now I am reduced to my backup pair that has black rims and, sadly, has no distinctive flare about them. Woe is me. Then Saturday I must have dropped my nice gray beanie hat that covers my ears in the cold. It must have fallen on the floor of the hotel lobby while we were waiting for our taxi to the Ankara airport. It’s a rather distinguished hat that keeps my head warm and my hair in place. I called the hotel the next day and the clerk had not seen it. But he remembered me as the "old man." Sheesh. Now I shall have to wear a backup that I wear when riding a bike. That one has white writing on it which is not so cool. In light of these two losses, I now worry that I might lose my PJs or some such item and really be hurting. I guess it comes with the territory that I now accustomed to wander in.

That is not all. Two or three times a day Grandma will ask me what I remember about something important. Like when our flight is supposed to be (yesterday’s test). Of course I respond with an answer that is supposed to show that I know the correct information. And often I don’t. How embarrassing is that? The old brain isn’t what it used to be. As if I were ever good at remembering details. Ha! Well, details that aren’t at least 1,600 years old.

This week was a travel week. We ended up in Ankara for fireside on Friday and in Gaziantep on Saturday. It is sort of like our final tour. In Ankara, we spent dinner time with a former colleague and his wife. They are serving as humanitarian reps. They have plenty to do, especially with those who have special needs. They have been in the country since November and enjoy their work. He had once thought of a CES assignment. But there was no meaningful work for his wife. They passed it up and came to Turkey.

This past weekend saw a shake up among our YVs. One was transferred to Ankara. His replacement will be our Farsi speaker. Our other YV is headed to Germany with visa problems. His replacement will be a YV who left our fair city a few months ago. We hear he is happy to be returning. On our part, we shall be glad to welcome him back. He has warm connections here with members and investigators alike. The whole transfer process can really change the character of a small branch. And it will.

Missing the entry of three new members into our branch yesterday I counted as a loss. At first I did. But perhaps strangely, I felt perfectly at peace while it was all going on, we in Gaziantep, a real distance from our branch members. I knew that it would mean something both for us and for the members of the branch for us to be there. Yet, it now seems right that my new counselor conducted for the first time on the day that he would bring his daughter into the Church. And it seemed right that the meeting would be conducted in Turkish rather than English, which has happened regularly for the past nineteen months. I can feel that the branch is becoming almost fully Turkish except for two couples -- the Hungarian couple and Grandma and me. That development has seemed such an important step in my mind. I am glad that it came before we were riding off into the west.

According to our branch clerk’s report, 27 were in our Sacrament Meeting yesterday. (Grandma and I were in Gaziantep.) 16 were in the hotel room and all stayed for the making of the three new members. Eleven joined by Skype. The activities at the pool seem to have gone off without a hitch. We received a call about two o‘clock from one YV asking for the proper prayer in Turkish for the confirmation. We sent him to one of our Turkish branch Presidents who knew. So the three are now full members of the Church. I shall interview the two fellows during the week (the third was a young girl) and ask for a sustaining vote for their ordinations next Sunday to receive the Aaronic Priesthood. I don’t want to wait on something so momentous in their lives.

I love you and pray for each of you every day.

Grandpa Brown

#132 "A Week of Changes" (By Grandma)

How come we have to go through so many changes in life?  I'm not good at changes.  I like keeping the same car for years and years.  I like the same family members for years and years.  I've even liked the same husband now for 50+ years. 

But this experience has brought daily changes.  As you know baptisms can get rescheduled.  This happens all the time.  It is part of the territory.  This happened in our branch.  We had three baptisms today.  But guess who wasn't there?  We were in another part of the vineyard.  The dates had moved a bit around the calendar and when they finally settled we had other commitments that could not be moved round the calendar. 

So dad's new counselor, who speaks no English, conducted for the first time and was involved in the three baptisms.  And the elders also had the opportunity of doing everything without dad.  They called just before the confirmation and asked if he had the words in Turkish.  So there was a scramble to find the right words while everyone was changing their clothes.  Luckily we were with a BP who had the words and could tell them what to do.  You can't translate such things directly.  We fly back to Izmir tomorrow. 

Another blast to us is transfers.  One of our elders leaves for Germany in the AM before we can even say goodbye.  Another elder leaves Tuesday AM for another city and we'll get two new elders.  I'll have a farewell dinner tomorrow night.  The two who are leaving have had a huge part in the baptisms and the new members are hurting.  We shall see how we can survive without the two vibrant elders.

We spent one night in Ankara, the Capitol of Turkey.  We were able to have dinner with the Huntingtons prior to dad's fireside.  The H's are a new humanitarian couple there.  Ray taught at BYU. 

The next day we flew to Gaziantep in southern Turkey.  The BP picked us up at the airport.  We took him and his family to dinner that night.  It was a fun restaurant with specialty food.  Good thing we love lots of kinds of foods.

Dad and I spoke in sacrament meeting and dad taught SS.  It is a small branch and the only time they use English is when visitors come.  We had dinner at the BP's home in the afternoon.  She makes very good food and says she loves preparing food for us.  We love eating it.  She gave me a bunch of stuff to bring home.  I'll feed it to the elders tomorrow night. 

So we'll try to survive the next few weeks.  Things just keep swirling around us.  We may have more baptisms this month.

Love,
Mother

#131 "72 Days" (By Grandma)

Dear Family,

72 Days!!!!  What does that mean?  We received an email from the Office Secretary telling us to notify the mission office of our final plans for our release… Stake Pres, Bishop, Family, pay our bills, etc.  It hit me like a bolt of thunder.  Actually I guess it is like a shaft of lightning.  Does it mean that our time in Izmir is coming to a halt?  Part of me wants to put it off way in the distance because it means a lot of exit stuff to deal with.  Part of me wants to hurry it up because I’m anxious to see all of you.  Part of me worries that I’ll run out of sleeping pills before we return.  Part of me wonders if I’ll get enough fresh produce before we leave.  Part of me will miss our new friends here.  Part of me longs for a trip to Costco.  And so it goes.  I guess I have lots of parts.  And some of those parts have fleshed out a bit.  The bread here is wonderful and cheap.  And it is especially good with honey. 

I really like FB.  I know it can be junk, but for us it has been a wonderful connector.  We were able to see the 2-3 feet of snow posted in Istanbul this week.  Our friends to the north are slipping and sliding.  The elders will have lots of service opportunities shoveling snow.  We had 13 flakes of snow fall on Friday morning.  I ran to get my camera, but it was all gone in a flash.  

We’ve had a bunch of rain, and our ceiling drips with the rain from the roof.  But we have a bucket under it, so we are okay.  I also see many of the people we have interacted with in the past on FB.   Some of my FB friends are from college.  That was a long time ago.  Some live in distant lands and I’d never be able to know their addresses or phone numbers.  One of the women Dad worked with in Egypt… Madame Ida… contacted us on FB.  She told us to tell all of our children hello.  If I remember correctly you didn’t enjoy her Egyptian food.  I’ve even been in contact with my best childhood friend’s daughter.  My friend Joyce died when she was 62.  But her daughter posted a photo of her daughter who is getting married.  She looks just like my friend Joyce. 

We had a bombing in Izmir this week.  It was at a courthouse.  We have several friends who have worked there.  The security guard stopped a vehicle that was trying to get into the courthouse parking lot.  So the car blew up and killed several people.  But if it had reached its intended destination, it would have been much worse.  We are saddened every time something happens here.  We know lives are lost, jobs are lost, the economy is impacted and no one wants to come to Turkey.  If I weren’t already here, the news would keep me away.  But our day to day activity seems peaceful and safe. 

One of the challenges for me…. Have I already said this?  I forget from week to week what I write.  But a huge challenge for me is the shifting landscape.  No decision here is the “final answer”.  Each phone call, text, and email changes the prior one.  I know that this happens with missionaries a lot with baptisms.  But this happens with everything we seem to be concerned with.  We can never do a weekly planning because we are lucky if we just do planning by the hour.  And we have four elders who are also inserting their plans, and their change of plans into our lives.  Then we have mission-wide change of plans, then we have local and national events, then we have power failures, leaking roofs, etc.  But the bread is still cheap.

So church was good today.  It is amazing that I’m starting to stop worrying that no one will show up.  We seem to have people now.  And 17 today in the room and 11 on Skype.  Six of them were investigators, and good investigators.  Two of the men there have firm testimonies of the Book of Mormon.  I still take some food for our “break”.  I usually take some sort of cookie, orange bits and some crackers or nuts.  Someone brought a package of cookies today.  I’d made banana nut cookies for Christmas Eve and froze some.  They are still very good.  Yesterday I had a surprise group… for a baptism interview and I had some banana nut bread in the freezer that I microwaved.  Everyone liked it.  So, all the baking I did before Christmas is paying off.  And if I just have something I want to get rid of I can put it out and the elders will consume it.

I hope you are all well and enjoying school and work.  I’m surprised that several of our grandchildren do not like school.  I actually liked school.  But in my day and age there wasn’t much else to do but go to school, come home, and study.  I didn’t own an i-phone, a TV, a car, a snowboard, or a drone.  But I did have a cat and a ping pong table for entertainment.

I love you all.

Mother 

#130 "Close (with an ss sound not zz)" (By Grandpa)

Dear Grandchildren,

It seems that we are really close to seeing new members in our branch. Eight persons have baptismal dates set for this month. Today we were to see two, but they were postponed because of the illness of the mother. These two have been moved to next Sunday when Grandma and I will be out of town. We shall be sad to miss them. A third person, a fellow who has been coming off and on since last May, also appears ready to join. That will be next Sunday too, with us away. This man has a long reach. We expect that his teenage son will join in the summer after his intense schooling has ended. The man’s good friend has come three times to church services and to our Christmas Eve party. He told one of our YVs this morning that he has read almost through Second Nephi and feels that Nephi is his good friend. And he now has a testimony of the Book of Mormon.

I sat with the man who is to be baptized next week and interviewed him with the help of one of our YVs. In short, we talked about his faith and his testimony and his commitment and his willingness to live new covenants. I didn’t ask him questions in quite this way, but asked him about his belief in God and his Son, and so forth. He is very well grounded, I judge. And he will make a very solid member of the Church. I hope to see him receive the priesthood within a week of his baptism.

This man also works at the courthouse where the bomb went off last week. It is about four miles from our apartment. He said that the vehicle packed with explosives and other military grade weapons was trying to get into a parking lot at the end of the work day where about 200 employees in the building come to catch small buses that take them to various destinations around the city. The perpetrator’s intent, apparently, was to drive into that area among the gathering people before detonating the bomb. The vehicle was stopped at the entry and not allowed in. Whoever the guard at the gate was, he saved a lot of lives.

Perhaps oddly, as an SV, I felt I had to pull the plug on a pair of baptisms in a distant city that were scheduled for yesterday, Saturday. At first, a pair of YVs and Grandma and I were going to travel to the city and perform the baptisms and confirmations, basically taking the whole day. But the couple had not received their last lesson from another pair of YVs (in Farsi by Skype) and, after that, they had to be interviewed by one of the zone leaders, usually an hour’s process for two persons. Add to that the fact that the woman had to work late every night last week, coming home after nine at night after going to work at seven in the morning. So there was no way to squeeze in the lesson during a weekday evening. And I thought of her madly scrambling to get her apartment in order yesterday morning, and fixing food for guests, all the while sitting for a lesson and an interview during the same morning. It seemed a bit much. And the timing was too close if something needed to be fixed. For instance, for those of us going to the distant city from here, all of this action would occur while we were on the train, heading to the baptism. There was no room for any last minute adjustment. So with Grandma’s encouragement, I said, "Let’s wait two weeks." And that is what we are doing.

Oh yes. It snowed here a couple of days ago. The flurry lasted less than ten minutes. But the snow was genuine. Some of the plants around here have taken a hit from the sub-freezing temperatures that have grabbed at us during the past couple of nights. Nothing like Istanbul where hundreds of flights were cancelled a couple of days ago because of severe snowy conditions. Glad to be living in Paradise.

Our numbers in Sacrament Meeting reached 28 today, seventeen in the hotel room and 11 by Skype. We heard one of the YVs give a lesson on pride by Skype to a sister in Bodrum. It was impressive enough that I wanted others in our branch to hear its main points. For our Sacrament Meeting, a good feeling prevailed in the room the whole meeting. Of the eight whom we project to be ready for baptism this month, seven were with us — five in the hotel and two on Skype. Under the leadership of our MP, our YVs are to wait until a person has attended church services at least eight times before leading them to waters of baptism. These seven are walking the walk, and will be good, solid members.

For me, one of my daunting tasks has been to move our branch out of the paper record-keeping materials and into the world of e-records. That means going to MLS for keeping records of expenditures, contributions, etc. And much more. Simply stated, I lack the confidence that I can make all of this work. I have called one of our YVs, actually the youngest one, to serve as the branch clerk. (The MP encouraged me to take this step.) This YV seems destined to be here for a few months and can serve as a bridge between us and the persons who come into the branch leadership at our departure. He speaks both English and Turkish. And he is well suited by temperament. So I shall set a weekly time for him and me to meet together to see that our records are up to date and up to snuff. The call of a Turkish-speaking counselor and the call of this YV are intended to make the hand-off of responsibility as seamless as possible. I hope and trust that it will all work. (Here is where we all clink our glasses together.)

I love you and pray for you all every day.

Grandpa Brown

#129 "Kaput!" (By Grandma)

Dear Family,

I should be summarizing our events for 2016 in Turkey, but I don’t remember much.  It appears that events whirl around us so quickly that by Sunday I can’t remember the prior week, let alone the prior year.  So you’ll just get some random memories.  I’m sorry that Karilynne isn’t here because she has never missed a day of journal recording.  But I imagine she is so perfect because at some point we taught her the principal of journal keeping and she, being the eldest child, wanted to be an example. And she IS an example. 

We retired early on New Year’s Eve.  But I was awakened at some point by some shouting and fireworks.  I didn’t look at my watch, but I assume it was midnight and thereafter.  FYI… Heather used to set her clocks 2 hours ahead on New Year’s Eve so her children would celebrate 2 hours early and they could all go to bed.  Smart woman!  I doubt she can get by with that now. 

We awakened this morning to news that there had been another terrorist attack in Istanbul.  We had hoped that peace was on its way.  The Mission President had earlier told all of the missionaries to be in their apartment by 4:00 PM on New Year’s Eve to avoid any potential problems.  We heard that a lot of Turks stayed home that evening for the same reason.  We have received numerous US State Department warnings about threats out there.  Our basic instructions are to avoid crowded places, places where tourists gather, police and army facilities.  No place on earth is 100% safe, but following a few guidelines can bring comfort. 

As we headed to church we were saddened that some had died early that morning, and that dozens of others were injured and in hospitals, and more unrest exists among us.

But our church meeting seemed a safe haven.  It was our Fast Meeting.  We hadn’t heard that other units had delayed their Fast Meeting to another week.  I don’t think it makes much difference here anyway.  Most were not out partying all night.  Those who wanted to fast, could.  Our meeting was very good.  Dad bore his testimony but also taught about fasting, including the spiritual and donation aspects of it.  We had 3 non-members bear their testimonies.  Those three are very close to baptism.  One of them loves the Book of Mormon.  We held RS and Priesthood meeting after Fast Meeting.  We hold those meetings twice a month.  This is the 3^rd time we’ve had RS.  The RS president wore her baby in a sling for the lesson she gave.  WE had one sister join us on Skype, and three others in the room.  The lesson was given in English, Turkish and German.  Go figure!

We were happy to speak or see all of you except the Browns on Christmas.  I spoke to Roger and Toni a few days later.  It is wonderful to be able to step into your lives, if only electronically.  The elders all skyped their families form our apartment.  They were given 45 minutes to talk.  I don’t think I could talk that long.  I’m glad four of our families could be together for New Year’s Eve.  Thank you Cleggs for hosting AGAIN!

We had a great outing with two other Sr couples and the MP and his wife.  We went to Cannakale, Troy and Gallipoli.  The MP and wife travelled with us from Izmir and the other four joined us from Istanbul.  We had a travel agent friend arrange the trip for us, and he met us there and was our guide.  I’m amazed at how much history I do not know.  Dad, of course, knew a lot about Troy.  And he recited a part of the Illiad while we were there.  I’ve never been much of an historian.

The trip included meals and transportation.  We had a van take us to places, and Gallipoli required a ferry boat ride.  It was rather cold, but on the day we did most of our touring the sun shone.  Gallipoli was the location of fierce battles and many deaths.  The sea was red with blood in 1915.  I took some photos of the gravestones and I’m going to put them on Find-a-Grave.  Most of those who died were in their early 20’s, and were from Australia.  A pretty somber place.

I do spend a bunch of time in the kitchen.  If the elders are here over lunch-time or dinner I feed them.  That seems to happen often.  I don’t seem to be able to get ahead.  I made a big pot of chili last week and it was all gone at one sitting.  And so it goes.  I often add a bunch of bread to every meal because bread is very cheap and good.  I worried about all the left-over goodies from the Christmas Eve party but most of them are now gone. I only have to put a plate out when the elders are here, and stuff disappears.  So that is good.  Some of it goes to my waist-line also.  But not the entire amount!

Well, I assume that dad will write in wonderful detail the events of the past week.  He really is a gifted writer.  Did I ever tell you that I married a wonderful man! 

Love,

Mother

#128 "Troy & Galliopoli" (By Grandpa)

Dear Grandchildren,

It continues to amaze me how much my old chosen major of Classics still pulls me toward it whenever present. Last Monday, Grandma, the MP and his wife, and I climbed on a bus and headed north. Almost seven hours later, we were in Çanakkale and in a nice hotel. Two other senior couples joined us from Istanbul. The day was mostly overcast, windy, and very cool. The next day we headed for the ancient site of Troy, the place that saw the eleven-year war between the Greeks and Trojans as celebrated in Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey. I had visited once before with a group of faculty colleagues in the summer of 1997, almost twenty years ago. As on that occasion, I recited the opening lines of he Iliad, lines that I memorized as a student more than fifty years ago. Remarkably, no breeze, a bit of sun, and very few tourists and visitors at the site. As I walked around, I tried to visualize the city as it stood more than three thousand years ago, the setting for Homer’s long poems. It surely did not appear as it does in Hollywood recreations of the town.

From there, we drove north with our guide, a good friend. On a ferry we crossed the Dardanelles, the waterway between Europe and Asia. We landed on the Gallipoli peninsula, the scene of a set of very costly battles in 1915 between the Turks and the allies of the British Empire. (The peninsula was also the scene of the decisive battle between Athens and Sparta at the end of the forty-year Peloponnesian War in 405 B.C.) At least a quarter million soldiers lost their lives in the protracted conflict of 1915 as the English and their allies tried to push to Istanbul to get the Sultan to submit. The Turks, who resisted with all their might, kept them from their objective. The conflict had to major effects — the allies of England began to doubt their roles in the British Empire, sending cracks in the Empire’s unity, and Mustafa Kemal Atatürk came to the fore as a military leader, the man who would give shape to the Turkish Republic that would replace the Ottoman Empire. For me, it was a melancholy day, even though it was full of sunshine and no breeze. To walk in a few of the cemeteries that dot the peninsula, with tombstones that name the dead soldiers, most of whom died in their early 20s, slowly tore at my soul. I believe that everyone else in our group felt the same way. I had read a book on this campaign perhaps thirty years ago, but I recall almost no detail, just general impressions. In all, it was well worth the trip.

The next day, as we returned in a car that the MP had rented, we were under rain most of the way back. We need rain badly in these parts, but little has come. I can only hope that lots of moisture hits this place in the next couple of months or harvests from the fields will be a big challenge next summer.

We were all chagrined to wake to the news this morning about the murderous attack on New Year’s revelers in the night club in Istanbul early this morning. These sorts of things always have an affect on life around here. I can only pray for the Lord’s comfort to be with the families and friends of the dead.

My cell phone has a crack across its screen, the result of an accidental drop. I did not mean it. I promise. My laptop has a number of indentations, at least my mental indentations. I have not actually struck it. But my patience with certain functions runs short on occasion, I am sad to admit. Grandma is regularly trying to get me to calm down. She will even get into the middle of my online crises to solve them. And she almost always does. I was snorting around here about not being able to get into the computer that the Church supplied to take care of tithing entries and the like. She took my notes with a number of passwords scribbled among them and, with a little patience, figured out which the right password is. Because of my challenges with electronics, in my worst moments I have thought about going dark when we get home, dumping all but the most essential services. I don't know. For some reason, I don't seem to be cut out for the world that electronics presents me. For example, if I want to find a library book online, I have to know the name of the author or the title. If I miss, there is no forgiveness in the system. None. In the old days, I went to the card catalogue and, besides the book that I was searching for, I would sometimes find a bunch of other books that were relevant to my interests just from browsing among the nearby cards. A totally different experience which I have relished in my advancing years. 

On a cheerier note, we were twenty-five in our Fast and Testimony Meeting this morning, sixteen in the room and nine joining by Skype. Of the eight who bore their testimonies, three were non-members. For two of the three, their membership in the Church will be secured during this month, plus two persons who have been with us by Skype for about five months. I was encouraged to see twelve brethren in our priesthood meeting, four of whom are YVs and three are non-member investigators. I am happy with the promise of better things marching steadily toward our branch.

I love you and pray for you always.

Grandpa Brown