#95 Another Week in Izmir (By Grandma)

Dear Family,

As I prepare to write this it occurs to me that our children are probably not interested in a long rambling epistle detailing the events of our week.  They rarely asked us how our days went when they were young, so why would that change when we are in now our 70’s?

I know some of them just skim the letters.  So I thought I’d bold the important parts to save time in reading all the little print.

We had a very busy week.  We went south to visit two families in Bodrum.  Such trips always begin with either a bus ride or a train ride.  But a train doesn’t go to Bodrum, so we took the bus.  We went through two security check-points and guards boarded the bus and asked to see our ID.  We gave them our passports and they got off the bus.  When our bus attendant returned to the bus, and we drove away he passed out “our” ID.  We soon noticed that he didn’t have our passports.  The bus driver had to turn the bus around and return to the check point.  He had to drive quite a distance before he found a place to turn around.  When we returned to the check-point the security people said they’d sent our passports on ahead with the next bus and we could eventually catch up with that bus at the next station.  And we did.  We were happy to see someone flag down our bus with our passports. 

We had booked a hotel for the evening.  A husband of a member was the manager of a hotel fairly close to the bus station.  He met us at the hotel and they we caught a bus that took us near to their home.  After a bit of a walk, in very steamy hot weather, we arrived at their home.  

We had dinner there and a church meeting.  Two German sisters married two Turkish men.  They have six children between them.  Dad baptized two of the children last fall in the Sea.  One of the fathers runs a tourist boat.  The two mothers and two children spoke at the meeting.  Dad blessed and passed the sacrament.  The talks were in German.  Dad and I smiled pleasantly through the talks.  I’d brought some pictures to color and some little treats for the children.  The children are from 3-11.  This is the 4^th time we’ve visited them, so they are getting used to us by now.  On Sundays they get church through Skype.

The next morning we walked down to the beach.  I wish I’d seen it sooner because it was beautiful and many people were swimming there.  Next time…  We caught a bus, and made the trip back to Izmir.  We were not stopped by any security guards this time.

There is a church patriarch assigned to this part of the world.  He is a retired BYU Russian professor.  He comes to this Area several times a year and gives blessings in Russian and English.  This is his first visit to Turkey.  Dad gave most of the recommend interviews for his visit, including 9 of them today… some via Skype, some in Person, and some over the phone.  Dad also gave interviews to his own Branch members who wanted blessings.  (They would have his signature two times on their recommend) The Mission President asked dad to give the final interviews.  The MP is out of town. 

We enjoyed visiting with Gary Browning.  We took him to dinner last night.  And he came to our house today for dinner (we had IKEA meatballs) after church and after the blessings he gave to our branch members.  We had to reserve the hotel room for a few extra hours to accommodate his visit.  He is about dad’s age.  He was the first MP in Russia in 1990. 

We had another special visitor in Sacrament meeting.  An Elder who left six months ago, came back with his parents and brother on a tour.  It was nice to have him with us.  Dad asked him and his dad to speak in Sacrament meeting.  He says he missed Turkey very much.  He’ll be going to BYU-Idaho this year.

Dad and Brother Browning are going to Ephesus tomorrow and then he goes to other areas in Turkey to give more blessings.  He will visit 4 branches, then on to Kazakhstan.  I admire him.  He says he has given as many as 7 blessings in a day.  That is a huge challenge!

I imagine all of you are in the throes of school this week.  School doesn’t start here for several more weeks.  I hope that all the children will do well this year.  I actually loved school and found it very challenging to do my best.  I wasn’t the brightest, except in math classes and ping pong.

Thanks for keeping us informed.  We do read every little tidbit of information that comes to us from all of you.  Good luck in all your endeavors.

Love

Mom

#94 Patriarchs (By Grandpa)

Dear Grandchildren,

The first marker of our week was a visit to Bodrum, the modern city that sits on the ancient site called Halicarnassus where the important Greek historian Herodutus was born. We did not go to look for Herodotus, though that might have been interesting enough. We went to see two biological sisters — members — who live with their families in that city. The two women are originally from Germany and have married Turkish men. Of the six children between these sisters, the only child whom we did not see was the seven-year-old who was working on his dad’s boat as it sailed with vacationers on the Aegean Sea. To reach Bodrum, on Tuesday we went to the main bus station and bought tickets. That was not very adventuresome, except that our taxi driver drew some wrath when he parked in the path of incoming and outgoing vehicles from a big parking lot. I thought that was normal. The ride itself to Bodrum was long, almost four hours. The only adventure came when a soldier got on the bus at a stop and took everyone’s ID cards, including our new passports. When he returned and gave the items to a bus representative, our passports were not among the cards. That became apparent only after the fellow began passing the cards back to their owners. I could not see our passports in his hand. When he reached us, we asked about them. He strode to the front of the bus, announced the omission to the driver, and the driver turned around. By this point, we were ten minutes down the road. Back we went. The soldiers at the stop said that they had sent our passports with the next bus and we could find them at the end of the line, in the bus station in Bodrum. By that point, of course, we were in recovery mode, as in recovering the passports. Which we eventually did, I am happy to report.

Even though it was a Tuesday, we held a sacrament meeting after a very delicious meal at one of the two sisters’ apartments. Three weeks before (this will make me sound organized), I asked the two older children and the two mothers to give talks on reading scripture and praying. They did. All in German. But I was thrilled that they did, no matter the language. My roles were to conduct the meeting, and bless and pass the sacrament. Grandma’s roles were to choose and lead the hymns, and offer one of the prayers. Things became more interesting and rewarding for me when one of the three-year-old girls warmed up to me and wanted to sit on my lap. Then the other one did. I felt like a grandpa all over again.

I took some little plastic sacrament cups to replenish their supply that they take from each week. I did so even though I had learned a few days before that customs agents had stopped a shipment of plastic sacrament cups into the country because they would be bad for the environment. Fair enough. They do add to the plastic waste in the earth, and they don’t readily degrade. But what of the billions of plastic water bottles sold in the country? It seems that what is good for the goose should be good for the gander. Ah well. Now the people in Istanbul have ordered paper sacrament cups. That will show them.

I went to see my throat–ear doctor again. Same stuff. I arrived. I was led to the audiology department. I was led to the B-level testing lab where the equipment is really old. I was taken to the A-level testing lab where a bevy of students ran my ears through the paces. I was told that my ears are "normal" in terms of the beep-beep tests. The doctor has no clue what might have happened to create the dissonance in my left ear during the cleaning ten weeks ago. Maybe something in the middle ear. Maybe not. He advised that we wait to see whether the steroid shot of two weeks ago begins to work. So far, nada. Maybe I shall take up the invitation of the MP and MP’s wife to go to Istanbul to a high-powered clinic to see whether I can get a better diagnosis. I am thinking that the condition will be permanent. Grandma is tired of repeating things twice when she is talking to my left ear.

The big news has been the coming of a patriarch who is assigned to the Europe East Area. He has been coming at least twice per year for twelve years and this is his first trip to Turkey. People are really happy. He does not give blessings back home in Orem. He voices blessings in Russian and English, and only in this part of the world. He ends his trip next week in Kazakhstan. To herald his arrival, I lined up four persons in our branch to receive blessings. One in Russian, three in English. Unfortunately, one of the English-speaking members was unable to swing a free day to travel the four hours to our hotel where the patriarch was giving his blessings. But never fear. Something else should pop up. It did. A member of the Istanbul branch has been vacationing here with his family. So he was our fourth person. But he speaks no English and no Russian. Strictly Turkish. As it happened, one of our former YVs from Turkey has been in town with his parents and younger brother. He spent the afternoon with the Turkish-speaking brother whom he had known from his mission days in Istanbul and then went into the blessing to write notes so that the brother would at least have an idea what the patriarch had said. Here is the kicker. The former YV was scheduled to go to Ephesus with his family this afternoon following our services. That was the reason they came to our fair city. But he delayed their departure until about four o’clock in the afternoon to be with and support this Turkish-speaking brother. What a gift, I say!

I must say that I am still feeling a bit tingly about the generosity of our former YV who held his family from departing for their big visit to Ephesus by remaining with the Istanbul brother who was full of questions and wonder at what would happen to him during a blessing that he could not understand. By the YV’s patience, he was able to convey the majesty and treasure of an experience that his friend will understand only when his English blessing is translated into Turkish several months hence. The fact that the YV was willing to spend the extra hour taking notes for this brother, even though it meant a much delayed departure to a highlight of his family’s trip to Turkey, touches the essence of service and love. It cannot be visualized in clearer detail.

We were twenty-one in our sacrament meeting today, thirteen in the hotel room and eight via Skype. I am not counting the nine in the sacrament meeting earlier in the week. I am amazed that the Farsi speakers who join us from Denizli each week are willingly steady, even though they understand almost nothing of what they hear. I had asked the former YV and his father to talk about reaching out to others. They each did good work. I asked the patriarch to greet everyone and bear his testimony, which he did. I thought that the quality of the meeting was superb, all as a prelude to the blessings that he gave later in the afternoon. In the midst of the blessings, I interviewed nine persons for their patriarchal blessing recommends, four in Ankara and five in Gaziantep, some by phone and some by Skype. It was a very good day.

I love you and pray for you all every day.

Grandpa Brown

#93 Anniversaries (By Grandpa)

Anniversary Gift From Grandma to Grandpa

Dear Grandchildren,

Every year we celebrate Karilynne’s birthday and our anniversary one day after the other. It was no different this year. Just like the first time. Except our anniversary reached fifty and her birthday is a tick behind that mark. She will have her own inner scramble next year when she reaches the big five-oh. Perhaps oddly, I have never imagined myself as the father of a bunch of forty-year olds. But I am. And I am also beginning to act the part. Such as forgetting the simplest things and inserting a stagger or two whenever I walk in the nearby park during early hours of the morning. You know, an extra step to the left or to the right. Mostly I still walk in straight lines. Mostly.

About our anniversary, last Sunday we went to a hotel in town that, in certain of its rooms, features bathtubs. Grandma likes those tubs. Such rooms, I hasten to add, are not sea-view rooms. They are city view rooms, which means that you look across the street into an office building. A real treat, if you like that kind of view. But this time we lucked out. The young lady at the reception desk said that she had given us a sea-view room. It must have been at the end of a series of city view rooms and, indeed, enjoyed a look at the bay. But it was not a straight shot out of our window. We rather had to look to the right to see the sea. If you get my meaning. We spent a quiet evening in the hotel and then returned to our apartment the next day (by walking) after ordering a room-service breakfast that was much cheaper than the buffet breakfast offered in the restaurant.

I went to Istanbul on Friday for a district-wide priesthood leadership meeting on Saturday. As meetings go, it was a good meeting. All of us outlanders stayed in a hotel that is about a mile from the branch house. As less expensive hotels go, it is reasonably good quality. Our first activity came Friday evening when we all gathered at a restaurant and ate a dinner that was kind of like, "eat all you can, because you may never see food again." I was happy to walk back to the hotel rather than trying some sort of public transportation. Everyone else walked back too. Actually, we sort of staggered back in a group, glad for the exercise. The meeting itself on Saturday was full of appeals from the MP that we reach out to others in love and without judgment, including not judging what people wear to our services. I am just happy to see people walk through the door. I lost interest long ago in what people wear. Except for myself, of course. I still wear a suit.

At times I wish that I could set out profound reasons for us being here and serving in the way we do. But I don't. I am not a person who makes connections across the Cosmos and sees patterns in my life and yours that somehow point to a dazzling, grand scheme of things. Instead, I am one of those envisioned in the expression "out of small things" (D&C 64:33 and elsewhere). To be sure, the promise is that out of "small things" will come "that which is great." From where I sit, I cannot yet see anything that is "great" or anything like unto it. I have the faith that good things will occur, but not without a lot of hard work and sacrifice. People here have gone through a national identity experience recently, and many are still going through it. I am unable to really grasp what that means to them. I suppose that I would have to witness an attempt to overthrow the US government to come to a real empathy. However, I do trust that the Lord will take the current situation in this remarkable country and turn it to His purposes. I could be surprised, very surprised, if the time required for substantial numbers of church members here were not at least thirty or forty years. Perhaps many more. We, with others, are just chipping away, little by little, leaving people with positive impressions and the like. And those little things, I trust, will add up to something important in the end. I pray every day that the Lord's Spirit will rest on people of this and the other lands of Central Eurasia to prepare them to receive the message of the Restoration. Whatever might be happening in this regard is proceeding slowly. Very slowly. Who knows but what the current situation will open hearts and open minds? I would like to believe so. We shall be long gone before significant numbers embrace the faith. But embrace it they will. I believe that. 

Our sacrament meeting saw nineteen total people join us, eleven in the hotel room and eight via Skype. Of those in the hotel, three were visitors from Astana, Kazakhstan, a mother and two adopted daughters who were born in Kazakhstan. Their speaking services were offered by the MP’s wife, who was also in attendance as well as a SV sister from Istanbul. For the second week in a row, our speakers were not among the usual limited lineup. Hooray! Next week we expect to see a former YV and some of his family for our Sunday services. I have already asked that he and they speak. Naturally. Just spreading the joy. And opportunities.

I love you and pray for all of you.

Grandpa Brown

#92 Our OWN Trek (By Grandpa)

Dear Grandchildren,

One of the highlights of our week centered on a town north of here about three hours by bus. We went to meet a member sister who enjoys only sporadic contact with the Church. Add to that the fact that she has never told a family member about her joining the Church, and you can see that she is pretty lonely spiritually. When we arrived a little over a year ago, we learned about her but had no introduction. Since then, we have gone to visit her a couple of times and she has shown up in our fair city twice for services. Because the YVs were keeping up with her, their absence has made our urgency to keep track of her a bit more urgent. If you understand my meaning. So Grandma and I climbed on a bus last Wednesday for the trip. It seems that sitting is now my worst sport. I can’t do it very long without suffering discomfort. But we toughed it out. The sister was at the bus station to meet us. We caught a taxi to our hotel where we held a short sacrament meeting and I talked briefly about the eye-witness account of the institution of the sacrament that appears in Third Nephi. Then we went off to the town on the other side of the island, enjoyed a nice dinner, rode a boat to the other side of the bay, looked around a bazaar in the main city, and rode back on a boat to the island and to our hotel. We spent a part of the next day with this sister before coming back. This all sounds a little tedious, I know, but I assure you that it was an important moment for us and for her. We plan to return in a month or so. We want her to feel that we care.

Friday I went to meet my ear and throat doctor. As is customary by now, he stuck his little light and camera through my right nostril and down into my throat. I only gagged firmly twice. Not bad for an old guy. He declared my voice box to be in good shape. I said that my voice was about 60 percent of what it used to be. Then I went to the audiology lab to learn about my impaired left ear, the one that has not heard so good for the past two plus months. By good fortune, the really professional woman was there to run the hearing tests. At the end, she told me that in the low frequencies, my hearing in each ear is about the same. It is in the higher frequencies that my left ear seems to be impaired. Later, the doctor looked at the same charts and said that the hearing in each ear was about the same. He had no explanation for the dissonance that I experience in my left ear when I am in a noisy place. "Who knows what happens in the inner ears of individuals when they have a little duress?" Or something like that. He then gave me a steroid shot. I could feel a painful pressure all the way into my throat while he was squeezing the liquid shot into my middle ear (he had stuck the needle through the eardrum). Then I lay on the gurney for ten minutes, arose when the doctor’s associate appeared and said that I could get up, and then bled a little out of my ear. "That’s normal," she said. But I could tell that I was a little unsteady on my feet. So I walked out of that area to the waiting room where I took a seat for almost ten minutes before I continued my walking journey to the bus stop, taking care to walk near things that I could grab in the event that I began to pass out. I didn’t. I made it home ok, went to the bank, drew out some fast offering funds, and proceeded to pay some bills for some needy folks. I should know in ten days whether the steroid shot has begun to help my hearing. The MP’s wife has said that I can go to Istanbul to a first rate clinic if I feel the need for further help. We shall see.

One of the SV couples came to town Friday evening. He came to conduct a branch audit; she came to spend some time with Grandma. The last time we did one of these little audits, it was an gentle ride through the park. But this time, it seems, I was obliged to answer all kinds of tough questions and to produce receipts and documents to back up my expenditures. But that is as it should be. I should not have easy access to other people’s money, especially to donated funds of the Church. I was glad that I had been keeping receipts. They were in three different places, so it took a constant effort to bring them all to the table, one group of receipts at a time. In the end, I passed. Imagine. I never wanted to take another test in my life after graduate school, and here I was taking another test of sorts. Call me the amazing survivor.

It is Karilynne’s birthday today and we celebrate our Fiftieth Wedding Anniversary tomorrow. Yes, Karilynne was born the day before our first anniversasy. Actually, we are going to a hotel this evening that has bathtubs in its rooms so that Grandma can enjoy a real bath and not a shower while she stands in a small foot well, such as in our apartment. Happy Anniversary to us! If I can find a week in October, we shall go somewhere for a proper celebration. The weather is too hot now around here. Not like the reasonable cool in Teton National Park where we went for part of our honeymoon.

We have been enjoying sweltering heat and suddenly a wind blew in from the north, cooling down the place. Actually, Istanbul had a hard time getting out of the seventies a couple of days ago. Here, we were in the eighties yesterday. And we left our windows open all night, something that we have not done for months. But tomorrow will bring a rise to near normal temperatures, reminding me to enjoy each little cool puff of air. Please don't take those cool puffs for granted.

We were seventeen in our Sacrament Meeting and Sunday School today, nine at the hotel and eight via Skype. We were blessed by the presence of the other SV couple from Istanbul who spoke about the importance of families. They know because each lost a spouse in death, and she had to raise a group of three teenage children as a single parent. No easy task. They talked about personal experiences, enriching the meeting. I was really happy to have their input to our meeting.

I love you and pray for each of you.

Grandpa Brown

#91 Walking in another's mocassins (By Grandma)

Dear Family,

It was so nice to see many you on FaceTime at Tanner’s homecoming.  We feel sad that we aren’t among you.  We are grateful Shoshauna could FT Tanner’s homecoming and that Heather could send us a photo.  What wonders of technology!  Now, if it just didn’t take us many, many, hours and sitting in a straight-jacket to visit, we’d come and see you all.  Please don’t grow any older until we return.

Note to self:  Let’s give others some slack when they don’t perform as we wish them to.  When I was young I learned “Never criticize another until you have walked in their moccasins”.  I didn’t think I’d ever walk in an Indian’s shoes but I understood the message.  Two examples follow

1.  People in warm climates may not have the same energy that we northerners do.  I had some errands and visits to make yesterday.  I was gone from the apartment for 4 hours.  I visited a young girl to teach her how to crochet an item, and on that outing I rode two buses, and three different metros.  I also had to go to a market, so I walked a great distance….. all in the heat and humidity.  When I returned home I was totally exhausted and couldn’t move for the rest of the day.  I told dad he was the cook and would have to go out and find some dinner.  He did.  I wondered how people in hot/warm climates ever accomplish anything if they didn’t have AC.  No wonder some cultures take siestas!

2.  We have to walk to church.  I sometimes feel put out because I have to carry two heavy bags along the way.  Well, they aren’t as heavy as dad’s computer bags, but they are heavy for my weak petit frame.  But after yesterday’s outing I realized that walking to church was the easy way to get to church.  We have members who have to take buses, metros and even ferries to get to church.  They have travelled significant distances before they walk into our church meeting place.   They get the kudos!!  My walk is actually rather peaceful… Takes about 15 minutes, and I pass many friendly cats.  Most dogs are dozing, so I don’t have to worry about them.  Dad leaves about an hour before I do, so he can have his meetings.

Fast and Testimony meeting was today.  It is 4:00 in the afternoon, so we are almost through fasting.  I assume most of you are still just getting on with your day.

We have been requested to include Turkey and the return of the elders in our fasts.  And of course we include lots of other things that are pressing on our minds.  Our tiny branch is always in our fasts and prayers.  Today I wondered if anyone would be there.  (I always expect the worse, so I’m surprised when things turn out better than I planned). 

I’d say that today was our best Sacrament Meeting so far.  Saying that, I know that it doesn’t mean we’ve arrived.  But it does mean that we have survived another Sunday without the Elders.

We had visitors from Switzerland (2) and Pleasant Grove (5) join us today.  The visitors included two Turks…. One a member and the other his sister (1).  The PG family’s father had taught the Turk in Switzerland many years ago.  Clear as mud?  Never mind.  Their travelling group was 8.  That more than doubled our numbers.  Dad had asked Elchin to be the SS teacher.  The YVs used to teach SS.  Elchin is from Azerbaijan and is the animator I’ve spoke about.  His best language is Russian.  But he translated his lesson into Turkish and gave a very good lesson.  His Turkish was translated by one of our YA’s.  A little later a Turk from Istanbul joined us.  In addition we had Iranians, Turks, and Germans on Skype. 

As you know, I always provide refreshments for Sunday, but not on Fast Sunday.  Luckily Fast Sunday was today or we would not have had enough treats. 

One of our fears has been technology.  The YVs always handled that part of our meetings.  So now your father has had to get everyone connected by Skype.  And some are connected through computers and some through phones.  The amazing thing, is that they all got connected.  The hardest part was getting dad’s laptop logged into the wifi, but I helped him with thatJ 

We also made a major trip southeast this week.  We visited a few saints in Denizli.  They are Iranians.  We stayed in a hotel, had a sacrament meeting in our room, then went to the roof for drinks, and back to their house for more refreshment.  Korkut our YA who is from Denizli and is home for the summer helped with the translations.  We had two investigators also.  We travelled by bus one direction and by train the other.  Since we are over 65 years of age, we get train fare for 50% off.  Bus fare is about double that.  I think I prefer the train, but it depends on schedules which one we take.

We bought some ant bait that seems to work pretty well.  Hopefully the ant population will decrease in our apartment soon.  The ants don’t seem to bother dad, but they crawl up my legs and bite me.  And I don’t know they are there until I feel the sting.  Nasty little critters!

We see that Joel is making progress on our bathroom.  We know that Raynelle is now another year older.  And that Daniel and Nashelle have already been married five years.  Jill seems to prefer the Pacific Ocean to Gilbert, Arizona.  The Cleggs did the trek.  Julianne sent me her journal of the Trek. I had no idea so much advance planning went into it.  I think Kara is almost on her way back to St George.  And soon the Lehi grandchildren will begin at a new high school!  And in the meantime, we are getting older, and older.  I'll miss my friend Chris who died this week.  And congratulations to the Pinegars who have been called to the presidency in the Provo Temple.  Their assignment begins in November.

Thank you all for being the wonderful family that you are.

I love you,

Mother

#90 OUT & ABOUT (By Grandpa)

Dear Grandchildren,

Just as we were settling into an indoor routine that was keeping us in the apartment and out of the heat, we assigned ourselves some tasks that took us back out into the warm crush of air. Well, we were not fully at fault for spending time out there.

We had fixed our plans to visit some members in a distant city and hold a sacrament meeting when, the night before, just before going to bed, I noticed emails from the attorney who now handles our temporary residence permits. So while kneeling for our evening prayers, I mentioned the emails to Grandma. You’d have thought I slapped her. Knowing the end from the beginning in a flash, as she does, she knew that she and I had just been robbed of some sleep. She would not hear my protestations that in the morning we could take care of any matters sent by him. So we arose from our knees and went to the laptop to see what this fellow had sent.

He had sent completed forms for our annual residence renewals. That was a happy piece of news. What Grandma caught and I missed was the notation in a box that we had an appointment at the government office the next morning at 11:00, just before we planned to take a train out of town. It is not like there is a train really often. The next one was to leave about 5:00 p.m., far too late to meet people for the sacrament meeting because the train takes more than four hours to reach its destination. By good fortune, we had gone this route before and we knew that buses run every half hour from a big bus depot on the edge of town, but at three times the cost.

We went to the government office an hour early, hoping that our place in the queue would get us in and out in time to catch the train. It was not to be. It appeared that people who had appointments at 10 a.m., an hour earlier than we did, had all come early too. We were too far down the line. We finally walked from the small waiting room into the office at two minutes to eleven o’clock, just 120 seconds before our scheduled appointment.

In his email, the attorney said that we would just drop off the forms. Ha! We sat with the officer and answered questions and signed forms for a good twenty minutes. By happy circumstance, Grandma had put everything that she could think of into a few plastic sleeves. We had everything that the officer wanted except that the law had changed from last year. How? Our lease agreement was to show both of our names, not just mine. So, to finish the process, we either go back to the relocation agent and ask him to get the landlord to change the agreement to show Grandma’s name, all of which will take a bunch of time, or I write a petitioning letter saying that Grandma and I are married and she wants to be counted as a resident in our apartment, then get the petition and rent agreement notarized (about $20 for each notary action), and then return to the office with these documents in hand. This latter set of actions, my friends, is one task that we shall try to complete during the coming week.

How did the Thursday sacrament meeting go? It went very well. Thank you for asking. One of our YSAs, who has been working locally and living in his parents’ home, joined us, as did a family of three and their non-member friends. We were eight for our meeting. The little boy, seventeen months, was all over the hotel room during our service. The sister in the family gave a talk on the family — in Farsi. Four of us in the room understood perfectly, the other three of us did not. I don’t count the little guy. But I had told this sister to feel free to give the talk in her native tongue. Afterward, Grandma and I took everyone up to the terrace café for a drink of soda pop. This experience sort of rounded off the evening for everyone. Well, almost. The couple invited us to their place for the rest of the evening. We went, even though it meant a late return to the hotel. But that is a small price to pay for a little more time with these good people.

I am reticent to say that we had already scouted out this terrace earlier for a meal. When we arrived at the hotel, we received coupons for soft drinks on the terrace. I asked the manager, who is from North Carolina of all places, whether the terrace was a place with food. Yes, he said, sandwiches and pizza. So we went to claim our drinks and we ordered pizzas. We saw the young waitress go to a telephone and call someone. She was evidently calling for our pizzas. They arrived twenty minutes later in the delivery boxes from an outside pizza joint. They were a bit overcooked. Never mind. Later, Grandma discovered a real restaurant on the main floor of the hotel. It would have been a much nicer experience to go there for a dinner rather than into the heat of the outside rooftop terrace at six o’clock.

In our fast and testimony meeting today, we were twenty-eight. Yes, twenty-eight. Fifteen in the hotel room and thirteen by Skype. (One of our branch members said that he has come to think of that hotel room as a holy place.) Besides our usual seven who show up most of the time, eight visitors walked in, three from Switzerland, four from Pleasant Grove, Utah, and one from a street near our flat. The latter lady happens to be the sister of the Turkish fellow who now lives in Switzerland. I am not sure whether before that moment she or anyone else in their family knew that he had accepted the message of the missionaries years ago and has been a Christian for years and years. Surely, this sister now knows. The sister from Switzerland thinks that her Turkish sister-in-law would make a superb Relief Society President. How is that for an endorsement? We dedicated our fasting to the peace and stability of Turkey as well as to the well-being of the Church in the country.

Another tid-bit. Last Sunday, after I sent out my message to you, we had opportunity to talk with Tanner via Facetime, just after he had given his welcome-home talk in his sacrament meeting. It was wonderful to see him and hear him and visit with him. He hadn’t lost his South African accent. Just listen especially to how he says the name Jesus Christ. I was touched to hear him say this sacred name.

Frozen in our minds and hearts, despite the warmth in the atmosphere, are the images and sounds that come from you whenever we have opportunity to talk you via FaceTime. I guess that we could do Skype. But whichever medium we employ, the treasure consists of you. From last Sunday, it was clear that Hannalyn does not recognize us. And why should she? She is still very young and we don't show up in her world. But from the rest of you and your children we feel this warm bath of love and interest, even if the length of time we spend together on such occasions is counted in seconds. Thanks for indulging us. We love you all and hope and pray for your well-being and protection.

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

Grandpa Brown