Losing it? It seems that I am losing things at a slightly increasing rate, things that have importance to me. About three weeks ago, I lost a pair of sun glasses that I have had for a good ten years. They were cool looking cycling glasses with light gray rims. I knew that the fellows who run a nearby glasses shop looked enviously at my glasses whenever I wore them and walked by. Now I am reduced to my backup pair that has black rims and, sadly, has no distinctive flare about them. Woe is me. Then Saturday I must have dropped my nice gray beanie hat that covers my ears in the cold. It must have fallen on the floor of the hotel lobby while we were waiting for our taxi to the Ankara airport. It’s a rather distinguished hat that keeps my head warm and my hair in place. I called the hotel the next day and the clerk had not seen it. But he remembered me as the "old man." Sheesh. Now I shall have to wear a backup that I wear when riding a bike. That one has white writing on it which is not so cool. In light of these two losses, I now worry that I might lose my PJs or some such item and really be hurting. I guess it comes with the territory that I now accustomed to wander in.
That is not all. Two or three times a day Grandma will ask me what I remember about something important. Like when our flight is supposed to be (yesterday’s test). Of course I respond with an answer that is supposed to show that I know the correct information. And often I don’t. How embarrassing is that? The old brain isn’t what it used to be. As if I were ever good at remembering details. Ha! Well, details that aren’t at least 1,600 years old.
This week was a travel week. We ended up in Ankara for fireside on Friday and in Gaziantep on Saturday. It is sort of like our final tour. In Ankara, we spent dinner time with a former colleague and his wife. They are serving as humanitarian reps. They have plenty to do, especially with those who have special needs. They have been in the country since November and enjoy their work. He had once thought of a CES assignment. But there was no meaningful work for his wife. They passed it up and came to Turkey.
This past weekend saw a shake up among our YVs. One was transferred to Ankara. His replacement will be our Farsi speaker. Our other YV is headed to Germany with visa problems. His replacement will be a YV who left our fair city a few months ago. We hear he is happy to be returning. On our part, we shall be glad to welcome him back. He has warm connections here with members and investigators alike. The whole transfer process can really change the character of a small branch. And it will.
Missing the entry of three new members into our branch yesterday I counted as a loss. At first I did. But perhaps strangely, I felt perfectly at peace while it was all going on, we in Gaziantep, a real distance from our branch members. I knew that it would mean something both for us and for the members of the branch for us to be there. Yet, it now seems right that my new counselor conducted for the first time on the day that he would bring his daughter into the Church. And it seemed right that the meeting would be conducted in Turkish rather than English, which has happened regularly for the past nineteen months. I can feel that the branch is becoming almost fully Turkish except for two couples -- the Hungarian couple and Grandma and me. That development has seemed such an important step in my mind. I am glad that it came before we were riding off into the west.
According to our branch clerk’s report, 27 were in our Sacrament Meeting yesterday. (Grandma and I were in Gaziantep.) 16 were in the hotel room and all stayed for the making of the three new members. Eleven joined by Skype. The activities at the pool seem to have gone off without a hitch. We received a call about two o‘clock from one YV asking for the proper prayer in Turkish for the confirmation. We sent him to one of our Turkish branch Presidents who knew. So the three are now full members of the Church. I shall interview the two fellows during the week (the third was a young girl) and ask for a sustaining vote for their ordinations next Sunday to receive the Aaronic Priesthood. I don’t want to wait on something so momentous in their lives.
I love you and pray for each of you every day.
Grandpa Brown
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