In the Bleak Mid Winter, and the Sunshine

We continue to go back and forth from Croatia, Slovenia, and Turkey, although we are spending more time in Croatia the next 3 months due to Turkish visa laws. We've had snow, rain, and freezing temperatures in Croatia, and short-sleeve-wearing, warm, sunshine-y weather in Türkiye, and sometimes on the same day! We begin the day in one place and fly to the other, switching weather completely. What an adventure we are having! Today we saw this lovely double rainbow out our window.

We attended a baptism today and it was very unique! Luz and Jose only speak Spanish. So the Croatian members talk to them in Croatian, the elders translate that into English and speak to Pablo their friend, and he translates into Spanish for them. There was alot of translation going around at this baptism and yet the spirit was still there and we are so happy for them! Every baptism is a joy!

We often have opportunities to join in teaching lessons with younger missionaries. Recently,this scripture was used to show how God loves all His children. It is meaningful to us.

We often get asked if we prefer serving in Croatia or Turkey. The answer is both! We love and miss the Croatian members and friends when we are in Turkey, and we long to be with our Turkish friends and members when we are in Croatia. The one thing that is very different is the language. There are many more English speakers in Croatia, and Turkish is just a harder language to learn. So we feel we communicate better in Croatia and have to rely on Google translate more in Turkey, which usually works good, but occaionsally does lead to a few funny translations!

We love many things about both countries, but especially the people! Speaking of people, here we are at our recent Zone Conference with the most wonderful people! This is one of 3 zones in our mission.

One of the highlights of this month has been holding the very first Relief Society and Elders Quorum meetings on January 12, 2025. It was very emotional for Sister Bates. She read some of the same words spoken at the very first Relief Society meeting in 1842. There were about 20 women in attendance at that first meeting and the organization has now grown to over 7 million members in 188 countries! It is the largest women's organization in the world and now our sweet sisters in Antalya are enjoying its blessings. The same can be said of Elder Bates and the first Elders Quorum meeting held here. (Remember we meet in a conference room so the Elders Quorum gets a nice conference room table to gather around!) We love our branch and the numbers grow each week.

On a recent trip to Slovenia to meet with a hospital about doing some Humanitarian work with them, we had the opportunity to straddle two countries at the same time. In this picture, Sister Bates is standing in Gorizia, Italy, while Elder Bates is standing in Nova Gorica, Slovenia. During the war, there was a huge wire fence running along those cement posts. People would try to pass things through, like food or cigarettes, to those living with communism. There were guards there and people would get shot for doing so if caught. We were overwhelmed with what that day must have been like for both sides when that fence came down!

We were treated to a delicious pizza lunch by our Italian friend, Davide Lotito. No one eats pizza with their fingers and no pizza is pre-cut into triangles. You cut each piece individualy with a knife and fork. And the bane of Italians on a pizza is pineapple. It's a big no-no! The pizza Sister Bates is having here has buffalo cheese on it made from the milk of a buffalo. "You can milk a buffalo?" says Elder Bates. Yes you can and the cheese it makes is very good!

Now for a couple of history lessons! In Zagreb during the war, there were a series of tunnels built underneath the city. They are just fascinating to see and we tried to picture 1,000's of people huddled here to escape bombing. Today one of the tunnels is a pedestrian walkway from one side of the downtown to another. We didn't even know it existed; the entrance is hard to find, but it was very interesting. They decorate it with lights and other things for Christmas. You can google Grič Tunnel to learn more.

From Antalya we drove about an hour and a half to Demre and saw ruins that date back to 500 BC! Only 30 minutes away are other ruins we visited in Perge. They have excavated artifacts there that date back to 3,000-4,000 BC! It felt like the ruins we saw should be behind glass and protected, but they've survived this long, I guess they will survive hundreds of daily tourists walking around! We love wondering what life was like then, in these same places we now live.

Some extra pictures just for fun!

Any guess what this is? Powdered Sugar? Cake mix? No. It's corn meal. It doesn't say that anywhere on this box in any language but that's what's inside. Shopping can be full of surprises!

All cashiers are sitting when they check you out. In all stores.

Turkish lira

Dinner with friends. This is the night we had our first "thick" hot chocolate. I know that's not a word you usually use to describe hot chocolate but they make it thick here and it's very cozy and delicious on a January night!

We pass this door mat every single day in our apartment building. Do they know what it says in English?

Throughout our apartment building there are signs for fire extinguishers and even hooks for them to hang, but no fire extinguishers.

To cross busy streets you go up these very tall escalators, walk across, and down another one on the other side.

They often have produce for sale like these.

Not sure you can read the graffiti behind us but it says, "Foreigners go home."

These are some stairs that lead to a swim in the Mediterranean Sea.

A castle all lit up for Christmas. This was on New Year's Eve because that is when Santa comes to Turkey!

Can you see this family on this scooter? Dad is driving, Mom on the back, and a baby held in Mom's arms in the middle. We see families on scooters together often.

These are towels hanging out to dry in front of a barber shop. Everyone uses these dryer racks. Including us.

Does this sign mean "No trumpets allowed?"

These are pebbles on the beach of the Mediterranean Sea. They are quite beautiful.

Look at this tram crossing in front of the cars. You really have to keep your wits about you when you drive here.

A toilet in the Istanbul airport.

Lots of smoking, and below, a hardware store. No Home Depot here. The smaller stores display their products out front.

We hope these pictures may be interesting, but this is our purpose!

We want you to know that the gospel of Jesus Christ is a blessing to all who will take the time to get to know Him. Look at the characteristics he shows as you study the New Testament. Then look for how he shows those same characteristics in your own life. For example, as he healed a blind man and completely changed his life, notice how He will come to you and completely change your life and heal your blindness. We truly do "see" where we did not see before. We are grateful every hour for Him. We love being His missionaries!

Sretan Božić, Mutlu Noeller, Vesel Božić! (Merry Christmas in Croatian, Turkish, and Slovenian)

We have had the busiest month of our mission by far.  We have loved it!  

We've been back and forth between Croatia, Slovenia, and Türkiye several times.  We also went to Italy. Lots of time spent in airports this month.

Here's the highlights:

Baptism of Berhan in the hotel swimming pool.  Elder Bates memorized it in Turkish.  Later when Berhan was confirmed, Reid spoke in English.  When it ended, first thing Berhan said in shock was, "I understood everything!"  It was a true gift of tongues miracle!

Training in Rome, Italy

These are the amazing people we are blessed to work with. 

We also went to the Temple and did a little sightseeing 

On Thanksgiving Day in Türkiye, we went to the "Theater"! 

The theater was actually the Termessos theater.  We hiked to the ruins. 

They date back to before the birth of Christ and they are still in good condition!  

The sound quality (carrying of your voice) was so amazing.  

They aren't sure what these many individual little caves were used for. They think they were baths.

We weren't expecting this, but when we drove around a corner 

we saw Turkey's "Mount Rushmore".  This is Mustafa Kemal Atatürk

Founding father of the Republic of Türkiye

The Busiest part of our month was the Humanitarian Hygiene Kits we provided for 3,200 individuals in a variety of vulnerable situations, from women and children escaping abuse, to forgotten senior citizens, to refugees just arriving in an unknown country.  It was such a blessing for us to participate in. 

This is Ivan Majc, the Area Communications Director from Slovenia.  

Elder Hladky from Austria, helping Davide from Italy. People from all over helped with this project!

Don't be fooled by this picture of me.  Reid moved all the heavy items!

We were lucky to be a part of this Church News article:

https://www.thechurchnews.com/living-faith/2024/12/23/adriatic-north-mission-hygiene-kits-service-project-light-the-world/

Our Branch is doing really well and we love each person.  We always have guests who are sincere seekers of gospel truths.  Here is where we hold church for now - in a hotel conference room where we usually have between 15 and 20 people in-person plus another 5 to 7 joining us on Zoom. 27 is our all-time high.  We are searching for a building to hold church.

We had the first Antalya Branch Christmas party!

Here are some of the members and friends at the Christmas Party.  

Many said, "This is our very first Christmas party!"

It was rainy and cold.  Most of the women stayed warm by the fire, while most of the men cooked outside.

    A long time member, Yuce, (above) and a friend, Kemal, being baptized soon (below)

We are so thankful for these amazing missionaries!

Sister Krum, Sister Teran, Elder Olivera, Kemal, Elder Cheney, and us

The feast.  We all got stuffed with Turkish food!

In early December while we were in Croatia, we went to the Christmas market in the center of Zagreb.  

It brought us some Christmas cheer! 

We also delivered Christmas gifts to 4 NGO's and we were warmly greeted.

These are the nice people we work with at the Zagreb Red Cross.

Back in Turkey though, they don't celebrate Christmas.  

We decided to spend Dec 24 & 25th staying busy so we wouldn't miss our family so much.

On Christmas Eve we enjoyed going to the Antalya Museum.  We loved it!

The pot below is dated as being 5,000-7,000 years old!

They have excavated all of these statues near Antalya.  There were several rooms filled with them.

Most of them are larger than life-size and in amazing condition! 

We like thinking about the ancient history that's taken place right where we live.

The most common missing feature on the statue's is the nose!

Then we went in search of St. Nicholas' church in the Old Town section. We found it, and some Christmas lights, too! Everyone here says that the real St. Nicholas is from this area  From Wikipedia:  "Saint Nicholas, known throughout the world as Santa Claus, was born in the ancient Lycian city of Patara, an important city on the Mediterranean coast of Türkiye." 

Then we stopped for hot chocolate and pomegranate cheese cake!

On Christmas Day (and week) we delivered some goodies... 

.

...and had a traditional Turkish dinner with friends. 

Our friends have to be our family for now.  

Speaking of family, the hotel staff here calls us their family; that's how long we've been here!  

They even left us a beautiful tray of fruit because they knew we were celebrating Christmas.

Our work is not about sight seeing.  We blog about that, but it's not what we do much of.  It is about serving our Savior.  We love Him and we love being in His service.  We loved the peaceful joy we felt thinking of His humble birth.  We loved the joy of sharing Christmas with people in Türkiye who have not experienced it before.  The gospel of Jesus Christ is real and powerful and changes people's hearts all over the world.  It is changing us.  We hope it is changing you.  We wish you a Happy New Year ahead, with spiritual growth in 2025, a closeness to your family, and a loving and forgiving heart.