#112 Back Into It (By Grandpa)

Dear Grandchildren,

Twice in the last ten days I have found myself back in an environment to which I had become accustomed. I went to visit the heads of the two archaeological excavations in the city at the excavation sites. The one focuses on the original city that dates before 1,000 BC. The other has to do with the Hellenistic city that kept going for more than a thousand years, through the Roman and early Byzantine periods, and became known as Smyrna, a city mentioned in the New Testament (Revelation 2:8). I had learned about these two men from an acquaintance who runs a tour agency in town and to whom I was introduced by Ralph Atkin. After my usual pattern of putting things off, with my usual reasoning (they are probably away from campus for the summer), I emailed the two professors and said that I wanted to come to see their work. (It turns out that they were both at their respective sites all summer long while excavating. So my reasons for hesitating were flawed. I should have known that about archaeologists — they work during the summers.)

I enjoyed the visits with both and met others of their colleagues. They work at the two biggest universities in the area. And those universities own good libraries. So I asked each to set me up with his respective university librarian because I have two sets of books to give away from the Maxwell Institute. To grease the skids, I took an extra book from the Islamic Translation Series that BYU publishes, and gave it to each of them. I must now follow up. The librarians will be suitably pleased. I know that. And I hope to make a bit of a splash not only for BYU (they will not have heard of it before our meeting, I am sure) but also for the Church by inviting our YVs to any meeting wherein I give the gifts. I want these people to see our young men who have worked hard and saved money for their volunteer service, and have put off their own educations so that they can come to Turkey and serve others.

We were 23 in our Sacrament Meeting today. Sixteen were in the hotel room, of whom three were investigators and one a less active. Seven joined by Skype. The testimonies that we heard were exceptional. I especially wanted to hear from our YV who just learned this morning that he is being transferred to the big city of Istanbul after more than a year in our fair city. He will be missed. He has the institutional memory of contacts, particularly with less actives who at one time formed the substantial active membership of our branch before it was given a death blow by the x-ing of a former BP. Lingering in my soul I have the feeling that we need to make a strong effort to reach out to those who can join us by Skype. A cluster of regulars has attached itself to our weekly meetings. But I suspect that others who have joined us in the past need some firm encouragement to rejoin us. I keep worrying about them and their need for nourishment.

I keep waiting for the really cold weather to arrive. But on this sixth of November, with the sun shining and the air temperature at 70 degrees, I wonder now about global warming right here in our town. Typically by this time, the rains have begun in earnest and the daytime temperatures have dropped into the low 50s. No such luck so far. I have only worn my fleece coat a couple of times, and I felt that I was a bit over dressed for the weather. But I am planning to take everything in my closet to Astana, Kazakhstan, next week. I see that the high temperatures there are in the low 30s, with snow expected. Should be an abrupt change. I am looking forward to it.

I love you and pray for each of you.

Grandpa Brown