Quick trip to the USA and Istanbul

This has been a wild ride week. A sad event put us into motion. Our country director for the Humanitarian missionaries, the husband of the tiny lady in this picture, passed away very suddenly. We happened to call when they were still trying to revive him. We quickly made the appropriate phone calls and got ourselves to the airport to fly to Istanbul to help. Duard was amazing with making the connections that needed to be made with the Embassy, consulate, and the local authorities in order to get the body out of Turkey in a timely manner. We were then asked to accompany her home so she wouldn't have to travel alone. After making sure his body was on its way home the three of us boarded a jet and headed to Tulsa, Oklahoma. As she was from Joplin, Missouri, Tulsa was the closet airport.

This is the couple from Moscow on the left, the Holmes. Ara an interpreter and very strong member of the church, and very tall. Sister Nickolaisen and Duard and Sandy.

This is the Branch President and his family from Istanbul. This is a very beautiful and strong in the gospel family. They are so wonderful. He sends us referrals almost every week. What a strong man he is. He was converted in Norway and Duard loves that he speaks Norwegian. His name is Murat Cakir.

This was when Sister Nicholaisen's family picked her up from the airport. They were very compassionate and sweet to her. They had brought a larger van so they could give us a ride to our hotel before they headed of to Joplin. Our hearts ached for her loss, but her strength was amazing. She was constantly lifting others. She said, "He died doing what he loved. I know where he is, because he was a righteous man. What else could I ask for".

We landed late on Tuesday night in Tulsa, spent the next day in Tulsa and on Thursday morning we headed back to Ankara. I only got a little teary as we passed over Maryland and then landed in NYC for just a short time. So close to loved ones and so far away. Missing everyone is very hard at times, but I know I am doing the right thing by being here for a short time.

We went shopping at Walmart in Tulsa. What a treat! I didn't ever think I would say it, but oh well. We bought too much stuff and ended up having to buy a suitcase. (we had only brought carry on's so Sister Nickolaisen could use our suitcase quota on the airlines to bring both hers and her husband's things home). On the way back to Ankara our suitcases took a trip of their own to Amsterdam and Munich. We don't know how they did it, but they were only one day behind us getting back to our apartment.

When things were calm in Istanbul we stole away for a few moments here and there to see just a little bit of Istanbul. What an incredible city. There is so much to see here. I think you could spend a year here sight seeing and never see all of it.

This is the doorman of our hotel. I wanted you to see the Santa (which is a female store mannequin with a Santa Suit on). You can also see the poles decorated with trim and a star on a wall. Interesting since they don't celebrate Christmas.

Come on Du, look at all this stuff and I only want this hat! (no, I didn't get it). This lady was rolling out the dough for this restaurant. They roll things out with the flat little rolling pin she is using. I have tried to use it, but still can't get the hang of it. I just thought she was so beautiful.

This is one of the two most famour mosques in Turkey. It is called the St. Sofia. It is now a museum. Originally it was a church, but after the Ottoman's, it was turned into a mosque, and now it is a museum. So beautiful.

This is part of the aquaduct system that is still standing that they used to bring water into the cisterns that held the water. This aquaduct is so large that the cars drive right through it as you can see.

This is inside the cistern. It can hold about 200,000 tons of water. There is just a small amount of water in the bottom now. This is the largest of over a hundred known cisterns that are beneath the city. It is really breathtaking to be down there and see just how huge this cistern is. It was forgotten about for 100's of years and one day a man saw people dropping their buckets down these holes and coming back up with water. He searched around and finally found an entrance down to the inside of the cistern. It is not used now for water storage, but I think it still could.

This head of Medusa is at the bottom of one of the columns and there is another of her head that is sideways. They don't know really why this is like this, but it is very interesting.

Duard loves the fact that a James Bond movie was filmed down here. "From Russia With Love", there is a seen where Sean Connery is rowing around columns in a canoe.

Closing Ceremony for Women's Center

This was a fun closing ceremony. The center is setup to teach the young single women how to read and write. They will also be teaching them skills like sewing and computer work so that they can find employment and still remain at home and not have to leave the children. These women typically have several chldren and the fathers have left them. Some of them are grandmothers that the moms and dads have both left. Before they could take classes, they had to have a place for the children. The lions club fixed up the building and arranged for teachers for the children. We furnished the furnishings for the children. We will be working with them to obtain better sewing machines for them to learn on in the future.

These are some of the women and children who will be taught here. Classes began right after the ceremony. They also told us they will be starting classes for the Irag and Iran refugee women next month. We feel so privledged to be part of such a great project that will benefit many women and their families.

This is one of the women's classrooms. You can see how old the machines are that they will be starting to learn on. But they are starting to learn.

Elder and Sister Pederson with the Lions Club District Governor

The Lions Club President, District Governor and other officals at the closing

How they tow your car in Turkey...

We thought you might enjoy seeing how they tow your car in Turkey. It happen within about 1 and 1/2 minutes. First they put the hooks around the tires. Raise it up. Swing the car around to the truck. Put it down on the truck and away goes your car.

Beyond the ceremony

At the end of the wheelchair ceremony they had a performing group that were handicapped perform. We found out that they had performed all over the world in many different venues. I found this girl particularly expressive in her movements.

They performed with their wheelchairs and used their chairs not only as a means of movement but as props also. It was very beautiful.

Of course I had to get right in the middle of them after they performed and really enjoyed their spirit and their joy of dance.

This little baby really got to Du and me. She just let us love and kiss her. She would smile and hug back. I got a little teary for a minute thinking of all the hugs back home I was missing, but recovered quickly because I was so grateful for this little girl's love and sweetness.

Maybe she just knew how much we miss all of you....

On Sunday we had one of the most spiritual meetings I have ever been to. There was a man [Roger Andersen], visiting from Alpine, Utah doing business with Turkey Aerospace. He bore his testimony and his eyes were filled with tears as he expressed how amazing the feeling and spirit of Christ that was felt here. He is missing in the picutre as he left right after Sacrament meeting to pick up his boss at the airport, and of course I am taking the picture. I need to learn how to do the timer on my camera. What an amazing day this was. This was our total branch that live close, plus the four missionaries visiting us.

Left: the Nickolaisen's from Istanbul.

Middle: the Holmes from Moscow.

Right: well, you better know who that is. (we have lost a combined weight of 55 pounds. You can see how saggy my clothes are - Yahoo!!! love it)

We had an amazing Turkish meal here before we went to the ceremony. Great food, great company - who could ask for more.

Ceremony of Wheelchairs

Our wheelchair project was a success. The Municipality of Yenimahalle, a 2 1/2 million suburb of Ankara with the Spinal Paralysis Center prepared this wonderful ceremony. They had wonderful food and the event was organized better than any our East European Directors had seen before. As we came in they had all the chairs out with the name of the person it is going to on it. As we don't give chairs away to the family unless the recipient is with them, this worked so well. They picked up their chair and came into the ceremony for food, awards, and entertainment.

The Mayor and several dignitaries from the community and National Party officials were in attendance. It was a beautiful evening and turned out to be a very happy event. The Mayor gave out the awards.

This is a copy of the glass wheelchair they gave to us and to the Spinal Paralysis Center that participated in making the event successful.

The recipients were so happy to get the wheelchairs. The parents were so happy also. Many times we found that for the parents to go anywhere they had to carry the children, or just had to stay home with them. This not only gave the recipients some freedom, but also their families.

The man in the wheelchair is the director of the Spinal Paralysis Center, Yildrim. He is a very capable humble sweet man. We have really enjoyed getting to know him and his organization.

After the awards had been given, we took pictures of us with the recipients, or at least as many as we could catch. This little guy we thought was the essence of what we do. He was so happy not only to get his wheelchair but to get his picture taken.

There were many smiles, a few tears by us and many many memories that will stay with us forever.

Birthday Party

I always say that everyday while living in Turkey is an adventure. We seem to have an extreme high and an extreme low and everything inbetween daily. Today one of our members invited us to her home to a birthday party that she was giving for her neice Elif. She said there would be several friends, her mother and sister, her two neices and another mother of one of her friends. We were excited all day for this adventure. At 6 pm we decided to leave our apartment and head for the street where Meric (our church member) was going to pick us up to take us to her home. As we were shutting the door I said to Du "Do you have the keys?" He realized he didn't just as the door to our apartment closed locking us out. . . .So begins another adventure. Since Meric was picking us up and the party was at her house we decided to forget it for the time being and hopefully get in somehow when we got home. Du also said that he did have our church keys and if worse came to worse we could sleep at the church. Oh, okay Du! So off to the party we went.

These women welcomed us and were some of the nicest people I have met. This is Meric's Mother and she is so darling. She is also a Dr. and just the nicest person.

This is Meric's beautiful sister and her two beautiful young daughters. The one on the left was just getting over food poisoning and was not to lively this nite. Her name is Zenhep. The girl on the right is Elif and it is her party.

this is me with the sister and her two daughters. I am still the shrimp of the gatherings. Everyone at the party was taller than me again.

Oh yeah! it look likes I am taller than the mother.

This sweet lady put her arm around me and gave me the sweetest hug and of course I got a little teary. It was so sweet, but it also made me homesick for the hugs of my family. I do miss the hugs of everyone.

They celebrate birthdays just like we do. With a birthday cake and candles and singing happy birthday, although it was sung in Turkish. It sounded great.

Meric and Elif

Can you see the beautiful feeling these new friends have in their eyes. I just love them.

I thought this picture of Du and Elif was about as sweet a picture as you can get.

About 9:30 we told Meric that we ought to go home so we could work on getting in our apartment. She helped us call someone to meet us at the apartment. Since we got there before the locksmith Du said he wanted to try to get in by himself. So he borrowed a credit type card from Meric and headed up to the apartment while Meric and I stayed downstairs and waited for the locksmith.

In just a few minutes Du had successfully unlocked the door and got us inside. Hooray for those spy skills he is so good at. So without to much effort we were back in our apartment safe and sound, Meric was on her way home, and a disappointed locksmith had to be turned away. All in all it was a great day.