Hi Everyone!

Terry is getting to be quite the judge of quality of the Islamic call to prayer called the Adhan, here in Istanbul. Along with the prayer sounds, we hear dogs throughout the area howling as the prayer begins! We thought perhaps the prayers were recordings but as we have listened to these calls 5 times per day, we realize they are sung by different people.  Terry has his favorites and has decided that the early morning 5:30 prayer is a newer man that is coming up in the ranks, and the evening prayer is the most accomplished prayer. We are becoming accustomed to the prayers and they remind us to pray as well!

We hope you all got a chance to see and listen to Conference this weekend. Our Branch President is one of the Turkish interpreters and is SLC this week. We will have a showing of conference at the Branch next Sunday.

The Muslim families are so much lıke the Mormon families it’s quite amazing! They are very conservative, family oriented, humble and kind. Of course Mormons are not the only ones who behave in this way but we are so happy to see how important families are over here. Islam and Mormonism are very very similar in so many ways. The good people who live their religion are not the ones we hear about on the news. Don’t believe everything you hear about Islamic people, you would seriously love and care for them as you do your neighbors at home. As you probably know alcoholic drinks are not allowed in the Islamic faith, and I have never seen a person drinking alcohol over here.

Its election time over here and the assembly of people on the streets has been impressive. Police have been our breaking up the groups of political demonstrators as they walk in the streets and stop traffic. The prime minister has blocked Youtube and Twitter access because some negative political messages were posted about him, and people are very upset.  I was brushing up on my piano on Youtube and have been “cut off”! It feels very strange to not have the freedom of access to communication as we did in the USA.

We met a young man who works at one of the local restaurants where we like to have lunch and he has agreed to teach us Turkish. Hopefully he can make more sense of the language for us!

Thanks for you emails and words on Facebook. It is so wonderful to know you are alive and well!

The Gospel is so vital and so important to study and I am eternally grateful for the Book of Mormon! Get your hands on a copy and read it with a prayer in your heart to know of the truthfulness of it.

You are in our prayers and we love you all!

Elder and Sister Ercanbrack