Dear Family,
The run-up to Christmas always has a different feel than it does here. As you will recall from last year, the celebration that everyone aims for is the New Year. But we are piggy-backing on the seasonal good will and heading for Christmas Eve. Full steam ahead. Christmas day should be interesting. We shall hold a sacrament meeting and then welcome the YVs later for their Skyping sessions with their families. Those sessions that involve them and their families will make our day all the more meaningful. We know how much they appreciate our hosting them.
The YVs all went home a few nights ago with a big bag for each companionship. In those bags were large wrapped presents, one for each young man. Those large presents hold a bunch of little gifts that, we hope, they will like. Some of these small gifts will surely give them sugar highs. But hey! It only happens once a year. We went to a specific store that we discovered last year. This store has the best selection of gift items that we have found. So it was worth the trip back and the lengthened arms to haul all of the things back to the apartment. With longer arms, we wish you a Merry Christmas from afar.
One of our senior couples arrived on Saturday. They spoke today in our Sacrament Meeting. (You don’t know how much we appreciate the voices of people from outside of our branch. We hear from each other frequently, and it becomes kind of old. If you get my meaning.) We spent most of the day with them. It was good to be with them and enjoy a conversation with people who are serving as we are. We took them to the old site of Smyrna and then dove into the old part of town where, as we wandered down the crowded streets, three fellows tried to entice me into their shops "just to look at a nice leather jacket." I have a hard time communicating with them that at my age I have zero interest. I am just too old to begin to freshen my wardrobe. Nothing against a nice leather jacket. Or a Turkish rug. Or whatever the person is selling. At seventy something, I have passed any acquisitive tendencies in my life. Well most of them. Except, perhaps, a new bike.
With the senior couple present, we held a ginger bread house construction party at our apartment. We built two houses. Well, the other guys did the building from a kit of already baked parts. With the help of the senior sister, we got the right frosting mix for the glue to put up the walls. Then it was a contest between the two construction groups who could put together the more interesting house. One house, of course, turned out a little better than the other. But everyone was laughing throughout the whole process, including the mother of the two YSAs who were present. The rummy thing is that we cannot eat either of them. They have to be around next Saturday at our branch Christmas open house. Rats!
Thirty was the final number for our Sacrament Meeting. I was pleased at the attendance. We expected a couple more investigators in the hotel room. As it was, we had nineteen total, with six investigators. Eleven joined us by Skype. The senior couple focused on the gift that the Savior is to us in our lives, without dealing much with Jesus’ birth. That will be the topic for next Sunday, Christmas morning. I also set apart my new first counselor and then I asked him to set apart his wife as our new Sunday School teacher. That was his first experience setting someone apart. I trust that it will not be his last. Though I did not understand his Turkish prayer, I sensed the love that he has for his wife as he spoke the words over her head.
I love you and pray for you all.
Grandpa Brown
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