*80 "Putting on the Parties" (By Grandpa)

SKB at the tree of Pergamos

Dear Grandchildren,

Sign that points to the bathing pools

My interest in ancient stuff never seems to dim. This past week, a young friend from the branch, who has plans to become a tour guide, and I visited Bergama (Pergamos in Revelation 2:12). It was our second trip. This time we went to the old hospital that was dedicated to the god Asclepius, the Classical god of healing. Within its confines, the famous Roman doctor Galen plied his craft in the late second and early third centuries, taking time during his lifetime to go study medicine in Rome and elsewhere. He began as a physician for a group of local gladiators in Pergamos. I am sure that the wounds of those guys were pretty severe.

One of the bathing pools

The day was pleasantly warm. We followed part of the sacred path that led to the enclosure, entered the main gate, saw the place of the second most important library in antiquity (only superceded by the library in Alexandria until the fire that destroyed much of it in 48 BC; after that incident, the Pergamum library was raided to provide books/scrolls to refurbish the newly built library in Alexandria), the impressive theater that seated 3,500 people for plays and other high literary experiences, the bathing pools (now covered by a green growth and inhabited by small turtles), the temple built to honor Asclepius, and the hospital where some of the rooms are more or less intact.

For only the third time we hosted a branch activity outside our apartment. We had planned a bowling party for yesterday, followed by pizza at Dominos. The party went off tremendously. Twenty-three came, of whom only eight were church members. You can do the math. Fifteen were visitors. The YVs’ Turkish tutor and his son came as well as an active investigator and his son and a friend who expressed interest in the YVs’ message. And so it went. It was good that something positive happened this week. Two days before, the YVs got a text from a red-hot investigator to the effect that he felt he was moving too fast and would perhaps see them in three or four months. This from a fellow who said that he had a dream about the Savior three or fours years ago assuring him that he would eventually come to the truth about Himself. For this fellow to step down was really a blow that even I felt. I know that it hurt the YVs.

Not to be outdone by a mere pizza parlor, Grandma hosted fifteen people for lunch today, including a one-year-old from the Ukraine (and his parents and older brother and sister, of course). We all came to our apartment in 105 degree heat, but cooled down in the cold air stream of our AC that sits in our living room. Grandma is really the only one in the branch who can do this sort of thing, in part because we have the only biggish apartment in the branch which is reasonably close to where we meet for services on Sundays. Nothing that she served was hot, from the potato salad to the humus to the watermelon pieces. But there was plenty of heat in our kitchen when, a couple of days ago, she boiled the potatoes, etc. But hey! What are potatoes for if not to boil?

We were twenty-five in our services today, sixteen in the room and nine linked by Skype. One of our speakers is a branch president in the second largest city in the Ukraine and his translator was his good friend, a member of our branch, who took his Russian and turned it into Turkish. It was a nice touch. For, listening in by Skype, is a fellow from Turkey who is meeting with the YVs on the island of Cyprus, in a completely different jurisdiction from ours. That was the first time we have gone international with a Sacrament meeting. I do not expect that we shall see this fellow and the YVs who accompanied him very often. What we did was really a favor and, sooner or later, the man will have to join the local branch, even if he does not speak English or Greek, the official languages of the Greek half of Cyprus where he currently resides.

All the cool air left earlier this past week. I could almost hear the rushing noise as it was trying to get out of town. Nights were going down into the 60s, even down to 63 one morning. Now life outside has taken a turn for hotter temperatures. We have seen almost no one outside today. Except ourselves walking to and from church meetings. Because one survey after another has declared 2016 the hottest year on record, we have decided to willingly submit to the science that makes this declaration possible.  Our YVs will travel to cooler climes this week, one to Ankara and the other to Kazakhstan on special assignments. Hence, we shall probably stay pretty close to home unless we have to venture forth. And then only in the mornings and evenings. For instance, I have a voice doctor's appointment in the morning. Right where I want it. We hope and pray that you are well. Happy Father's Day to those who are fathers. I love you all. And pray for each of you.

I love you and pray for you.

Grandpa Brown