Monday Feb. 24, 2014

We met with an investigator with the Elders today. This is a 40ish y/o man who is a Karate and health instructor who is looking for something in life.
He is divorced without children and would like to start a family. We told him it's never too late! During our conversation in which the Elders translated, our investigator said; "you know Turkey IS the center of world and all religions come back to Turkey". We told him the Gospel of Jesus Christ is more than a location, that the Gospel is experienced in a person's heart. He kept talking about Turkey and what an important region of the world it is. We told him how much we enjoy living here and hope to see more sites of this fascinating place. The Turkish people are prideful just like every other race on earth. It will take time to have the Lord soften them to be able to hear what the message is really about. Our lesson was on prayer and our investigator read from the Turkish version of the B of M. It was amazing to listen to him read, see the young elders teach, and realize that the work is really going on here!
Yesterday we went to the Grand Bazaar in the old old section of Istanbul. We saw the Blue Mosque and the Hagia Sophia and will go back to tour both of them very soon. We covered alot of territory to in order to find our way there and back to our apartment while the Bauers are still here to help us find our way around. We so appreciate the other missionaries! We were on the train coming home and I had my wallet stolen! The train was very crowded and a couple of men stopped dead in their tracks as everyone was getting off, and we all piled up behind them. I took my hand out of my pocket to keep from crashing into one man and that's when it happened. My Temple recommend and drivers license and some missionary pass along cards were in it, no credit cards, thank Heaven!!
Maybe they will benefit from the pass along cards. One can only hope and pray!!
I'm so excited about learning more and more about the Gospel and how it applies in our lives. What a great plan Heavenly Father has for us. What an enormous amount of love He has for each of us. I wish people could accept the Gospel and get on with repenting and growing closer to the Lord, letting the refinement take place and experience the joy of knowing what we know.
I hope all is well at home!
We love you all,
Sister Ercanbrack