Dear Family,
I just read your dad’s weekly letter. He reported I was not a “strong ancient site visitor”. He said that because he’d gone to two ancient sites without me this week. One, Ephesus, we’d visited 4 times so far, and the other Pergamon which is a 3-hour drive (bus, taxi, train) and has the same features as Ephesus, but admittedly different events took place there. But I knew that my interest in the site would be in finding ancient coins, checking out the WC, and wondering if it was time for lunch. So I “let” him go with a semi-colleague. They had a great day. That YA even brought cocoa and sandwiches. But I fared just fine “Home Alone”. So, I guess in the future I’ll refer to myself as NSASV or “not-strong ancient site visitor”. That suits me just fine. I’d rather be that, than the lovely wife….. even though I am quite lovely!
I only counted 9 cats on the way to church this morning. But I did see a bird eating the cat food. Does that count?
We are headed toward warm weather. It is supposed to be in the 60’s this week. WE’ll go to Istanbul near the end of the week for Zone Conference. Another GA will be visiting. He is the Area President for this Area and lives in Russia. He visited us a couple of times in Jerusalem and we took his wife and him to Galilee. At the time he was on dialysis, so our Center doctor arranged for him to have his dialysis in Jerusalem. Interestingly he’d had two failed kidney transplants. But later he had a 3rd transplant, and is evidently doing well. When he was in SLC his dialysis machine was in his own home.
We had a rather nice dinner today. I made Hawaiian haystacks without most of the usual stuff. We had five guests, 2 YA’s, 2 YV's, and a woman from Mongolia. I made two batches of rice. The first was too gooey. I guess the rice here doesn’t need as much cooking time. The 2nd batch was better, but still pretty sticky. I’ll get it right eventually! I bought a pineapple that tasted like cardboard, but we still used it. I bought one radish…. As big as a turnip… Maybe it was a turnip? But it was red. I bought some eggs to hard boil… I can still boil an egg. And I bought two chicken breasts that were huge. I made gravy with boullion (No cream of chicken soup here). I found some white stringy cheese. (there is no such thing as cheddar cheese here) And I bought a bag of frozen peas. The package said to boil for 20 minutes. I thought that was excessive, so I microwaved it for about 3 minutes and it was fine. I used some chopped tomatoes. I forgot that I’d bought a pepper that is still in the refrigerator. And I also forgot to use the mushrooms I’d purchased. One of the YV's hates tomatoes, so I told him he didn’t have to stack them on his rice. (I’m still rather kind). I’d make a grandchild eat their tomatoes.
I think the meal went well. We try to have a Sunday meal a couple of times a month with the members who are single. It is a challenge because I don’t know what to prepare. I’m good at spaghetti and chile, but that can’t be my only dishes. Beef here is very expensive, so I’d never buy a roast even if I could find one. AND I made peanut butter cookies again with the peanut butter sent to us from the US. I don’t know why they don’t have peanut butter here. There are lots of peanuts around.
We had fewer visitors this week because one of the YV's was ill. He did come one day wearing a surgical mask. I asked him what he’d do if he were home. He said his dad would recommend sweating out the illness with a sauna. I asked if that worked, he said it did at home. I’d never heard of that cure.
So, dad told you he felt an earthquake this morning. We were sitting adjacent to one another, and I felt nothing. Am I numb? I didn’t believe him, but I have an app that detects such things, and sure enough, there was an earthquake in Izmir at the time he felt it. He can be my Geiger counter. Hmmm… Maybe that could be a song…. “He is my gieger counter, and I’ll follow him”… or something like that.
Well, this certainly has been a great thought-provoking email.
I hope you are all well. Sorry about Josh’s challenges, Cass’s illness. Happy about Marinn’s Drill Team. I love hearing from ALL of you.
Love,
Mother
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