Midas tomb and sites of Turkey

One of our members took us on an outing today. It was so good to get out of the city and to see the country a little bit. She took us to see the "Tomb of King Midas". He is the legendary king that whenever he touched something it would turn to gold. It was a great time.

The entrance to the tomb with Meric, she is our branch interpreter. Great gal.

This is the entrance to inside the hill where the tomb is.

Behind us are the gates to this ancient city where King Midas lived. The path we are on goes down quite a ways to these gates. They are very tall. I stood there and could just image carts and horses, and armored guards going through the gates


I put this one in so you could see that Du has not changed at all. He had us stop so he could take some pics of these huge fields of sunflowers that were just about ready to drop their seeds. I really enjoy this side of Du. It is fun to see what catches his eyes for pics. Now the video camera...that is another story

We visited this organization. He wants to set up a program that is very much like the DI. We have asked that he be able to visit the DI sometimes. Turkey does not have anything like selling your couches or craigs list or garage sales. He wants to pick up old furniture, refurbish and sell it. They would train the handicap while allowing them to earn income at the same time. After training they would help them find jobs in industry. Sound familiar.
He also wants to train the handicap in making wooden toys like the ones we are holding. This province is also going to do away with plastic shopping bags. So the bag he is holding is the prototype he is going to have them make and sell.

We have provided this organization with several canes for the blind. We are now going to provide them with several computers. University students are donating their time to teach and train the handicap on the computers which will enable them to use the computer to apply for jobs, and to get jobs using their newly acqured computer skills.

We just finished funding our first project and it has been delivered. It is for a kindergarten in a poor area. We will have a ceremony with the newspaper (hopefully) and will send you pics of this. We are very excited.

This is pic of a cart and horse just mosying along in major traffic. The one car slowed down so I could get this pic.

Every morning this man goes up and down the hills calling out to see if anyone wants water. They signal from their balconies and he runs it up to them. Very cool. Takes a lot of strength I think.

I have heard this little guy every morning since we have been here and finally saw him. He sells Turkey's version of little bagels and goes up and down the streets calling out. He does it in the most melodic voice. I haven't ventured to buy one yet, but he sure sounds great.

Inside a mall that is close to us. Another example of how modern some things are compared to things that are not. You can find it all here. Duard's expression is "modern medival".

Ataturk Mausoleum

Ataturk to Turkey, is like Lincoln to the US. He was very instrumental in bringing them into a more modern world. Everywhere you go here in Ankara, there are monuments to him, buildings named for him, and the main highway close to us is called Ataturk Blvd. This first pic is of the walkway leading up to the mausoleum. They really do love him here. So this is a crypt and a museum about him and their war of Independence.

We learned to use the Subway this day and had quite a great time learning more about how to get around without a car. The view is through the columns at the crypt and is a pretty good view of a portion of Ankara. Off in the distance you can see the spires to the Mosque - it is close to where we live. The soldiers did the changing of the guard ceremony every hour.


The Hittites were one of the ancient people who lived here. These stags in this formation were their symbol and is now Ankara's symbol. Ankara got its name from the Angora goat. The wool from the goats angora became famous. The people here have a great love for their ancient history.

These three pics are of where our little branch meets. Du is teaching our prospective missionary some things about the Priesthood. The podium is near them and sacrament table is off to the right.

Next to the sacrament table is the table with the CD player for our hymns. I am the chief button pusher here. I have had some challenges getting the right songs on sometimes, and then the numbers for the hymns up in Turkish and in English.

Du is doing a great job communicating with everyone in the different languages and manages to teach great lessons and give awesome tender talks.

This is from the podium looking back at the congregation. Our meetings last from 1 1/2 hours to two hours. Our High councilman speakers are the conference talks. The Turkish speaking members listen in Du's office and the English listen in the chapel room. My duties include speaking or teaching every Sunday, janitor, branch clerk, etc. Du has the same jobs adding to it Branch President and not understanding the language. it is a challenge at times, but there is no denying the enormity of the spirit in our meetings. We love our little branch and the members are amazing.

Trip to the Anatolian Civilizations Museum

We are on a hill looking at the ruins of an old castle from the Byzantine era. You can see below the city of Ankara. We caught Du with a little tongue action (licking the lips before the pic) It was a very hot day, but what a beautiful view.

If you look closely at the wall, those are all earrings that she has made and now selling. The little girl is selling bracelets. The other missionary is our one of our Country leaders from Istanbul.

This gal was selling the most beautiful hand work items. I bought a few things and went back a few days later to pick up a few more things and she was gone. she was so delightful and I hope I find her again sometime.

These pots are from times several thousand years before Christ.

We found these wonderful marble statues out on the grounds and of all things our heads were on them.

And they said these kinds of plates did not exist during the time period this is from in the Americas. You can see the tiny writing on it. We felt this was a highlight for us.

Trip to mosque

This is one of the spice markets I think is so charming. They have so many spices I have never even heard of and lots of the same ones I use. Very cool place.

Just a pretty park we found while walking around.

We came across this ceremony at a mosque we were visiting and it looked like a ceremony. Since Du loves talking to anyone he was right in the middle of the soldiers talking to them (or should I say gesturing) and found out it was a change of command. He was very excited to see this and so we sat in the hot day for about an hour to watch this.

The prayer thing went off and several men came out of the mosque and then to our amazement out came to coffins. We had misunderstood and what we were witnessing was a military funeral of a Colonel and a General. We had looked in our Turkey/English books for the word for congratulations. We were very releived we had not said that to anyone yet.

There were hundreds of these very intricate stained glass windows in this mosque.

You can see be comparison of the tiny people on the floor how massive this amazing mosque is. They say it is one of the largest in the world. The globe chandelier is the focal point and if you look closely there is a cirle around it of smaller globe chandeliers. You can also see the stained glass windows around the sides.

This is a closer view of the chandelier.

Outside in the day of this beautiful mosque. We had gone on a 5 mile hike to find this mosque, as we don't have a car here, and when we found it realized that if we had gone a different direction it was actually only half a mile from where we lived. So we did visit it again.

This picture was taken at night. I had read somewhere that the Bountiful Temple was the worst at light polution. I don't think so.....This was lit up with huge beacons all the way around it and it is massive and beautiful.

Visit to a Primary School, Misket

Evaluation of a project to furnish a kindergarten classroom with tables and chairs, blackboards etc. in a poor area, Mamak, in Ankara. Their were two buildings here, the one on the right and one more. The average class size was sixty. The government provide the property and the contruction of a beautiful new building, it even has an elevator for the handicaped; however, they do not provide any furnishings. A couple of other NGO's are looking at some of the other classrooms. The Headmaster , to my right is a dynamic individual, and very concern with educating the poor

Visit to the Paralysis Center

Yıdırım Yılmazoğlu: dırector of Paralysıs Center. Plaque shows L.D.S. Charities as one of the donnors

The sewing machines were donated by L.D.S. Charirities, including an Interlock machine. After several months training the handicap workers are placed in jobs in private industry. Note all workers are in wheelchairs.

Sandy & Yıldırım: He became paralized as a result of a bad operation. Prior to that he had been a very sucessful businessman. His father owns a large insurance company. After the operation he has devoted his life to helping the handicaped.

Three of the proud students showing off their work.

We are going to deliver thirty new wheelchairs to the Center in the near furture for new students and others they have found in need.

After this we visited the Ministry of Health to talk to them about other problems. They told us that the last program that the LDS Charities had done with them had completely eradicated the problem which was a very high mortality rate for babies because of lack of knowledge of how to resusitate a baby. They said because of the training the church did with the Doctors there, the training had spread through the whole country. It was call "The Neonatal Resuscitation Initiative". We trained 1000 of their doctors with the commitment from them that they would each train more. It worked well from both sides.

Our First Week

This is the sidewalk from the street leading to the door and entrance to our apartment building. The pile of black stuff is our luggage.

Du just got the door open and is looking at the luggage as if to say, "Do I really get to carry this all to the third floor. Yippee!!!"

This is looking from our front door down the entry hall. It is beautiful. You can see shoes off to the side. The Turkish custom is to take your shoes off when entering a home. I love it!! It is also Turkish to great new people in the building and welcome. We have had several come to our door. One awesome lady, in complete Turkish regalia came to welcome and of course we couldn't understand a word. She gave me a big hug and kiss on each cheek. I miss fired and got her right on the mouth. I have since learned you kiss left and then right. Or is it right and then left?

This is looking towards the entry and the big double doors leading from this frontroom to the entry. We are so lucky to have this nice open area.

This is looking from those double doors to the table. We left the door open so you could see we have a nice patio out this door.

Our Kitchen.

Our Office

Our bath and washroom. We have an on demand water heater in the kitchen that lights up whenever the hot water is turned on. So we always have a great supply of hot water.

These are our two interpreters and drivers. I think these girls are totally awesome. We will be great friends. I can't wait to tell you about them.

We have decks on both sides of the apartment. Very awesome. We hang our wash on one of them. This is the view from each of them. No dryers or dishwashers. They also have a thing against air-conditioning and with 104* weather I have lost about 10
pounds. I love that part!

This is our cute little apartment guard. I wish we could have caught his smile on this shot, but we will try again later. He talks and talks and talks and never can I understand a word he is saying. He really is adorable. He brought us bread.

In the evenings everyone comes out to the streets and walks around. Old, young, stylish, traditional- everyone. I love this tradition. Everyone greets each other and it is lots of fun.

I have been amazed with the great styles here. I tried to get a picture of the gowns in the window but it doesn't show very well. We went into a mall and I just love the clothes here. The styles for the most part are sylish, modest, reasonably priced and the designs of the clothes are awesome. Love em.

Our next post will have pics of some of the sightseeing we have done and some of the very important meetings we had.