#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