July 11, 2016

Week 21

Selamlar! (Greetings)

Heyyyy!  We got transfers yesterday aaaaaand--Volunteer Blair and I are staying together and staying in Levent!  We are the only companionship staying together!  Also, Volunteer Blair is now zone leader!  An area in Izmir is opening soon so we will have two companionships there and two new volunteers will be here in the Istanbul area.(It's so exciting to see the mission growing!) This week wasn't very eventful although we made a new friend!  He is super nice and came to church yesterday! At church yesterday Baskin Cakir called a new convert into the branch presidency.  He is in his early 20s!  He gave the BEST talk and made some of the volunteers cry.  On Saturday we played futbol with a bunch of our friends and I think it helped them realize that mormons are normal people. haha. We are going to start doing this twice a month, so that will be good, keeping those good connections. We have a bunch of African members here who LOVE soccer!  They are really good at it and one of them is teaching me so that I don't have the urge to use my hands all of the time.  I think I hand balled it at least 10 times.  When I first got here, I kind of struggled with the culture but lately I catch myself singing along to the Turkish music and doing the same mannerisms that the people do here. As far as the language is concerned, it is a lot better, but I'm not where I want to be.  We are still taking lessons twice a week and they are really helping. Right now I just finished studying Mosiah.  Chapter 28:3 really hit me hard!  I'm starting Alma now.  Love you guys so much!  Thanks for all of the love, prayers, and support. iyi hafatlar (good week),

Levent/Istanbul--Many Mosques

The Rainy City