Dear family and friends,

What a great week we had in Turkey. One of the major perks of our mission is being able to travel and see some wonderful places, and meet some amazing people. That’s just another plug to encourage everyone to serve a couples mission. It’s so great!

Just a quick story about the beginning of our trip. We had an early flight to Moscow at 6:50 and our taxi driver had to pick us up at 5:45 in the morning. It takes about 25-30 minutes to drive to the airport, depending on traffic, and when we were almost there Norm asked me if I had his passport. I took stuff out and looked through my whole purse and found mine but not his, so we stopped the car and he looked through his brief case and suitcase but couldn’t find it. Our flight was leaving in 30 minutes and we knew we would never make it if we turned around and went back home, but we had no choice. You can’t go anywhere in Russia without your passport. So we got back home and we both ran in the apartment to look for the passport but couldn’t find it anywhere. We started wondering if maybe he had left it at the post office the day before when he went to pick up a package, but it was still very early in the morning and the post office wouldn’t be open for a few more hours. I went back out to the taxi to wait while Norm kept looking in the house. While I was sitting in the car I emptied my purse out on the seat and out came Norm’s passport. I ran back in to tell him I had it and he was just getting up off his knees from praying that we would find the passport and that our trip would not be ruined. We SPED back to the airport hoping to catch the next flight only to find that because of weather delays our flight was still there. So we checked in an hour late and took off two hours late but we still made our connecting flight in Moscow and arrived in Istanbul on time. Two little miracles that day – finding the passport and a delayed flight. My question is: Why do these things happen? What’s the lesson to be learned? Without either of us saying anything to each other, we were both mad because I thought Norm should be responsible for his own dang passport and he thought how could I be so blind and not see it the first time. All I can say is it’s a good thing we’re on a mission and being guided by the spirit or we would have probably killed each other that morning. OK. End of story. Ps – another good reason to go on a couples mission!

Istanbul was amazing! I think we have been in Russia so long that we are just used to the “unfriendly” people here because Istanbul was the happiest place we have ever been. Everyone, and I mean everyone, was happy. The taxi drivers, the bus drivers, the vendors on the streets, the waiters in the hotel, the people in the shops, the waiters in the restaurants , the people walking on the streets. Everywhere we went people would smile, say hi (in English) and ask how they could help us. It was such a shock to us we couldn’t get enough. We loved it and had so much fun talking and interacting with people that we didn’t want to leave. The minute we stood in line to get the flight back home to Moscow, we knew we were back in Russia. No smiles and LOTS of pushing. Oh well, what a nice retreat.

Our humanitarian conference was also wonderful. It’s so nice to be with other senior missionaries to compare stories, commiserate, encourage, and just laugh with each other. We were taught by both President Lawerence, who is the first counselor in the East Europe Area Presidency, and his wife. They were fun to be with and are both very knowlegable, spiritual, and motivating people. We also had two days of training and learning about humanitarian work that is being done in Ismir, Istanbul, and Ankara - Turkey, Kazakstan, Kyrgyzstan, Armenia,
Georgia, Vladivostok, St. Petersburg, Moscow, Voronezh, and other small cities in Russia, Belarus and Ukraine. There is so much variety in all of these places and things that can and can’t be done are so different. The Church is still not recognized in Turkey, Armenia or Georgia so the missionaries are tagless and work on their own without any young missionaries. They have very small branches, anywhere from 3 to 20 members, the senior missionaries hold sacrament meetings in their homes and no proselyting can be done. It’s all so different and fascinating and everyone loves their missions the best. Isn’t it interesting that the Lord knows exactly where we will be the most effective and be the happiest? Yet another reason to serve a couples mission.

This week is transfer week again. It seems to come up so fast and I’m never prepared to lose any of our wonderful missionaries. We get so close to them, have so much fun joking and laughing, depend on them to be here the minute either of us has a problem on the computer and Love, Love, Love teaching investigators with them. They are a joy and an inspiration to be around. We love them, we’re proud of them, and are constantly amazed at their resilience to rejection. Luckily, only one of them is leaving this time and we get another greenie straight from the MTC. Like I’ve said before, it only takes a few minutes and I love the new ones too so, it’s all good! They are the very BEST reason to serve a couples mission.

I always post our pictures on facebook, but I know that some of you aren’t on facebook, so I’m going to add a few pictures to this letter. Remember, we love you all so much and miss you even more. You are always in our prayers and we love hearing about all that you are doing. Remember that we are ALL missionaries by the examples that we set for those around us of loving and giving. “Have I Done Any Good In The World Today?” That’s our motto!
Love,
Mom, Dad, Michele, Norm or whoever we are to you!