#37 "OVERDONE CHRISTMAS LETTER" (By Grandma)

Chrıstmas 2015

Chrıstmas letters can be long, medium or short.   So feel free to quit reading at any time.  If you read our blog you will already be up-to-date in our affairs.  If not, you can read on.  BTW our blog is pluperfect67.blogspot.com     Julianne updates it for us.

If you don’t mind, I’ll use our Overdone names for this epistle.  But all the Overdone children will have to write their own Christmas letters now.

Early this year Billy Sr got the bright idea that we ought to serve a mission.  Pluperfect, always willing to comply, finally said okay.  Then began the medical visits, the dental exams, the immunizations, the photos, the disposal of possessions, ecclesiastical interviews, and filling out forms.  

We were first interviewed in SLC for a Church History assignment.  It would be a stay-at-home mission.  We would write brief histories of church areas.  It sounded great to Pluperfect… Stay at home, take long baths, shop at Costco, do a little writing.  Perfect mission!!!!  But Billy Sr thought it was not the right assignment.

So, he said we need to push the “submit” button and formally apply for a mission.  Pluperfect resisted for a while, and finally pushed SEND.  And then we waited.  A call came to California.  Hmmm.  California?  We hadn’t thought of that.  Oh, well, we can still drive to Costco there.  Done!  

But wait, not quite.  We had a phone call from SLC asking if we’d consider another location.  Always adventurous, we said “yes”.  He said “put away your golf clubs and Bermuda shorts”, you’re going to Turkey, a new mission.  Gulp!  Hmmm.  Okay, what language do they speak?

So we started paying attention to Turkey.  We’d taken our children there more than 25 years ago.  We remember it being very hot and not being able to find anything to eat.  But we found things had changed a little.  It was still hot, but we could find lots of stuff to eat.

So our life of comfort in the USA changed dramatically this summer.  We arrived in Istanbul, spent two days and then flew to Izmir to begin our adventure.  Earlier a couple had found a furnished apartment for us.  They helped us get settled.  Then they flew back to Istanbul and we were “alone”. 

The first thing we noticed was that it was always hot.  Pluperfect’s hair wilted into wet wisps.  Her normal beauty was abandoned.  It was too hot to cook in the apartment, so we went to an outdoor café every evening.  It wasn’t until later that we discovered they all had indoor sections that were smoke-free and air-conditioned.  Most of the diners were in their 20-30’s and all were gorgeous.  Not a wispy hair anyplace.  There wasn’t an older couple visible the whole summer.  We don’t know where they were. 

Billy Sr enrolled in a Turkish class.  He said that all of the other students were brilliant and seemed to understand the teacher with no difficulty.  He came home with tons of homework and studied diligently.  He was loathe to admit that his age may be catching up with him.  Pluperfect had already accepted her age limitations and chose to stay home.  It is our consensus though that Turkish is the most difficult language we have encountered.  And we have learned several languages.  It can take up to 15 syllables to make up a Turkish word.  (only slightly exaggerated).  We have sympathy for the hard-of-hearing.  Living in a country with a different language is like that.  You have no idea what is being said around you.  If you do pick up a word or two, you can’t make a conversation with it.    

We live a block from the water front.  Pluperfect likes to go walking along the Kordon and watch the cruise ships pull in.  A time or two she has considered becoming a stowaway on those ships.  But their security is too tight. 

Billy Sr has had withdrawals about his bike riding.  He has taken to walking, but he really hates walking.  There are actually bike rental stations along the Kordon, but the seats are too low for Billy Sr.  He may manage to rent one eventually.  But he is able to read his Turkish study cards when he walks, so all is not lost.

We have missed tons of grandchildren stuff.  We haven’t seen an athletic event for six months, nor a musical performance.  We did see a movie.  We have no TV and can’t stream shows from the USA.  They are all blocked.  Our favorites are Downton Abbey and NCIS.  So we will have a lot to catch up on them when we return.  We couldn’t even watch General Conference.  We rely on Apps for our source of news.  We can’t read the newpapers. 

We have seen two couples from home:  The Durhams and the Petersons.  It was great to see them at a conference.  We fly to Istanbul fairly often.  Airfare here is quite cheap, and we have Zone Conferences monthly.  It just takes forever to get to and from the airport. 

A religious comment:  Paul, the Apostle, spent time in the area where we live.  We have read his writings with a new appreciation.   It is wonderful to study another part of the Early Church. 

We wish you all a Merry Christmas.  We miss all of you.  It would be such a luxury right now to be able to spend time with family and friends.  But we have a few new friends here, and we will enjoy them.

Love,

Billy Sr and Pluperfect

PS...FROM THE DAUGHTER...

For those of you who remember the first Overdone letters, they were shrowded in mystery.  My mom thought Christmas letters gave people "bragging rights" that they wouldn't normally take.  And even though our front door was always plastered in cards and letters from our closest family & friends, my mom chose to make a "tongue in cheek" Christmas letter.

The first year, she printed each letter on bright colored paper and made her slaves (us children) deliver them in the dark of night to the entire ward and she sent them annonymously to friends in the mail.  I think she sent a total of 7 letters that first year.  They were full of "bragging" about the accomplishments of her children (they were all embellished).  She included everything from  pictures of our great dental xrays and the sale price of lima beans at Smiths to the up-to-date gossip in the ward.  One time she put in a picture of my older sister's sunbeam class (she was now a teenager)...and that is when people started to figure out who the Overdone's were.  They recognized the children in the picture, and methodically figured out which mother must be masterminding the crazy Overdone letter.