3 of the 7 churches in revelations

 Ankara Branch less a couple of families: L to R Hasan Pres./Dr. Jeffory Schwitzer [Member of the Seventy & East European Area President], his with JoAnn; our interpetor Seda; Meriç; Laura; Emily; Sandy holding Emily's two girls; Duard holding Laura's son.

Flight from Ankara to Izmir, only the mountain peaks show through the clouds.

 Carpet buying in Izmir, yea I finally bit the bullet, I am still trying to recover.

The konak clock tower in İzmir. For centuries İzmır was known as Smyrna, one of the seven cities John wrote to in Revelation. Until 1922 the city had a large Christian population, including thousands of Greek Orthodox. İzmir is Turkies third largest city with a population of about 3 1/2 million.

 A computer closing in İzmir at a handicap orgaization. They were training the handicap in the use of computers and assist them in finding employment.

While on the Cross, Jesus gave his Apostle John the charge to take care of his mother. The Greek isle of Patmus where John wrote Revelation is just off the coast of İzmır. The Catholic Church along with Muslims believe the foundation to this stone house was Mary's. A small chapel adjoins it.

One of the seven wonders of the Ancient World was the Temple of Artemus, this sculpture is one of nunerous artifacts believed to have come from it. So important was Artemus to Ephesuss economy that Paul was stoned and driven from the city when they thought his conversions would hurt the city.

 

The great theater in Ephesus that Paul was to speak in. Ephesus did become the center for the Christian Church about 90 AD after so many followers left Jerusalem. It was one of the seven Churches, John wrote to.in Revelations while onthe Isle of Patmus, a short ferry ride off the coast.

Excavated starting in 1999 and opened to the public in 2006, the Terrace houses in Ephesus allow you to see how wonderful a life the wealthy lived. Other than electricty, they had running hot and cold water in their kitchens and bathrooms, saunas and swimming pools. beautiful mosaics. The home were even set up so they were cool in the summer and heated during winter.

The famous library of Ephesus. It is said that Mark Anthony gave Cleopatra the volumns of writtings from here and the great Library in Pergamum as a wedding gift and had them sent to Alexandria Egypt which later was lost in fire. L-R Elder and Sister Schwitzer; Elder and Sister Abney and us.

Du & Sandy; Greg and Jo Ann; Marilyn and KC at the Temple of Trajan in Pergamum, the third of the three Churches spoken of in Revelations we visited. The other four are in the same general vicinity, hopefuly we will made it back down and have the opportunity to visit them. Here at Pergamun [Bergama] was another of the Ancient seven wonders, the Temple of Zeus. It was taken stone by stone and rebuilt in Berlin in their Pergamun museum in 1870. Another highlight here espically for Pres. Schwitzer  who is a MD  was a visit to the great mrdical complex built by the famos physician Galen who was born here in AD 129.

An amazing weekend with Elder Schwitzer

 

We just finished an amazing weekend with Elder Schwitzer and his wife.  It was a whirlwind of events.  We needed to pick them up from the airport and since we don't have a car or access to one big enough for us and them, we asked the hotel where we had their reservations if we could ride out with the van out to pick them up.  It was a beautiful van and a nice ride with them.  We took them to the Hotel where we handed them the keys because we had already checked them into the Hotel.  We had flowers in their room and a few treats.  We wanted them to feel very special and we think we accomplished that.

 The leadership of the Adana drove 5 1/2 hours to be with us.  So we invited them to dinner with us and the Schwitzers at a Turkish restaurant.

From there all the men headed to the meeting place for some training that everyone said was great. 

Sister Schwitzer and I walked down Tunali and looked at the beautiful clothes that are the trademark of Ankara.  We had a great time.  Everyone headed back to our apartment for a fireside at 8 pm.

We had several investigators, some friends and of course all the people from Adana and our own branch at our appartment Saturday night,.  Right around 30 people.  Since our branch is mostly women, to hear the Sprit of God sung so robustly by the men brought tears to my eyes.  Elder and Sister Schwitzer were right on with their remarks.  Our investigators seemed to enjoy the evening.  We had great good afterwards.  All were fed spiritually and physically extremely well this evening.

 This is our branch on Sunday with Elder and Sister Schwitzer.  We had presented them a hand painted Turkish plate.  Laura, is leaving in two weeks so we gave her a plate also.  Elder Schwitzer pronounced a most beautiful blessing on our branch.  It was very needed, moving, spiritual, and spoken humbly and sincerely to everyone there.  I will never forget that moment.  All was so silent for a while after that.  So beautiful.

After our two hour block we had a linger longer.  The girls in the branch fixed a delicious Turkish meal.  One of the gals is going to have me over to teach me how to cook this meal.  You will love it when I can fix it for you.   We have grown to love these little children.  The little boy will be leaving with his Mom at the end of this month and we will really miss him. He just loves Durd and always give me a kiss goodbye.

 

 This room doubles for not only our meeting place, but for everything else too.  We eat here, socialize, and have the best meetings ever.

 This little man is always here on Saturday and Sunday and this is the building where we meet.  Every Sunday Duard brings this little man a snickers bar.  We were thinking the other day that he probably doesn't even like Snickers and has a whole pile of them at home.  We had thought about getting him a wheelchair - then last Saturday, I saw him walk over to his spot, put out his cushion and sit down.  (not an invalid at all)  We love him though and I think he loves us back.  Kind of funny if you think about how sorry we felt for him.

Elder Schwitzer interviewed Hasan and we are still of track for his mission.  Getting him ready so far has included 9 different medical, dental, and eye appointments.  We think the worst is over, but you never know.  In this picture he doesn't look to happy because the day before he had several teeth removed.  He is such a happy young man and loves the gospel very much.

                                                                                                            

(picture of us on the Havas)

The time came that we had to take the Schwitzer's back to the airport so they could continue on to Istanbul.  We again asked the Hotel if we could ride in the van.  I guess we didn't make it clear that we wanted to ride back also.  When we got to the Airport we dropped off the Schwitzer's and the van left.  But then he pulled off to the side of the road and handed us his phone (he didn't speak English and had to have the people at the Hotel tell us something)  They told us he had another pick up and we could wait for two hours or find a different way home.  They also said we had to pay for the van right then.  We were lucky enough to have enough cash on us to do that.  As he pulled away and left us standing there, in the cold with no coats I started to laugh.  We always have an adventure and this surely would be one.  They have transportation from the airport to the city called the Havas (pronounced Havash).  We were on that for an hour to the main bus station.  From there, we hopped on the Metro to Kizilay. We then found a bus that we thought would take us close to our apartment.  Wrong bus.  We finally got off the bus and walked down the street to our apartment with me wrapped in Duard's suitcoat and he in his church clothes.  We did get some odd looks.  We were finally home.  What an amazing weekend it was!

I wanted to add this picture of a scout board of review we held the just prior to the Schwitzers visit. I am the Scout Committee for the Troop that supports the American and French Embassies.  It is a lot of fun to remain active in scouting.