Dear Grandchildren,
Those who are returned volunteers from service in the field that is white and ready to harvest will appreciate the following story. It continues the story from last week. As I mentioned earlier, our YVs have been working with a fellow who is a refugee in a distant city. He was introduced to the Church by a man who lived in the same apartment complex and who had joined the Church long before arriving in Turkey (the member is now residing outside of Turkey). The YVs had set his baptism for last Sunday, Easter Sunday. Then the government decided it didn’t want refugees moving willy-nilly around the country. So the investigator was stuck and could not receive permission come. Ahhhh. That was tough news. After the YVs visited him a week ago last Saturday, he received a phone call from someone representing the UN who said that the refugee was to be in the capital city on Friday for an interview that could start the process to relocate him in another country. (North America is where most people want to go.) So the YVs began to scheme and plan how they were going to travel to the capital city and baptize this fellow because the branch there has a font. One scenario was to meet Friday late for the baptism. Another was to have the refugee apply for permission to go a day earlier and then Thursday would be the baptism date. One of the complications was that the refugee had to borrow money to take a bus because the UN does not pay transportation for such interviews. Finally, after going round and round, all seemed to be set for Friday evening. Then ...
Then Wednesday a fellow from the UN calls and says that the refugee’s appointment was cancelled and that a UN guy would call the next day. The refugee was beside himself. He had hoped for this interview for months and months, living in a smelly, cramped room and eating who knows what to survive on $30 a month for food. So the planned baptism was completely undone, with the YVs calling their fellow YVs in the capital city and cancelling all the arrangements. On Thursday, the same UN bloke calls and says to the refugee that he was to be in Istanbul the next day for his interview. Just as originally planned. Whaaat?? One wonders why these guys can’t get their schedules straight. So the YVs are thrown into another round of planning and scheming, wondering whether they can arrange to go to the capital city and take care of the baptism in the branch’s font. They called me a couple of times just to bounce one scenario and another off me. Should they plan the baptism for Friday night? Because the refugee had to stay overnight and did not have money for a hotel room, should they call someone in the branch to see whether he could stay in someone’s home. And because he needed to stay until Monday to take care of some business at his home country’s embassy, should Monday be a day for the baptism? Would those extra days cause trouble for a branch member who opened the door to the refugee? And so forth and so on. In the end, the YVs decided to wait until Tuesday of the coming week to see whether the refugee actually returns his room in the far city and doesn’t stay longer in the capital city for further business. Maybe this week we shall see this fellow in the water. Maybe. The Yvs have called a spa and asked about renting the Jacuzzi. The spa guy said fine.
This weekend was our branch conference, complete with the MP and his wife. We have been long-time friends, so it was rather natural to have them around. After I met them at the airport yesterday afternoon, Grandma and I met with them for an hour and a half. We then enjoyed a social evening and fireside last evening. Seventeen showed up. I had estimated twenty-five and have to pay for that number. We enjoyed a couple of meetings today, not General Conference. All of us who met at the hotel today came to our apartment for lunch. Of course, those who had joined by Skype were not in the neighborhood. The shoes in our apartment’s entry hall tell part of the tale. For our Sacrament Meeting, I gave a talk, a sort of "state of the branch" talk. It was short. We hit twenty-nine in attendance, seventeen in the hotel room and a dozen joining us by Skype. A total of nine people were in the investigator category. A sister from up north and a non-member couple with their two children arrived late for the services. But they came for lunch. Grandma has been knocking herself out for a couple of days trying to get the food ready. She outdid herself, as usual.
One of the dimensions that I worried about for our branch conference was whether everything was arranged and in place. Well, yes and no. And almost. One item that I forgot was to get the two persons together before the reading of the sustaining list, the one who read it in English and the one who translated it into Turkish. So their back and forth was amusing as they began. They soon found a rhythm and ended the sustaining list in good form. Another that I did not get done had to do with arranging for the prayers, both the invocation and benediction as well as the sacrament prayers. I had intended to take care of those items before our Sacrament Meeting, but some little needs popped up at the last minute that I needed to deal with, such as getting enough chairs into our hotel room, and I never got to them. Fortunately, Grandma was a good sport and offered the opening prayer after leading the music. And the rest worked out too. I guess that it was all a success because I was not released in the middle of it all.
I love you and pray for you each day.
Grandpa Brown
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