I never thought in my life that I would ever learn Turkish as a language or had any desire to travel to Turkey, but that's not what Heavenly Father had in store for me. Instead, this past weekend I found myself in Istanbul, Turkey, which is the sixth largest city in the world. Everything about the trip was chaotic and reminded me of the special circumstances of my call. Although I have seen so many miracles and done a lot of work behind a computer screen, I was so thankful that I was able to be in person with the people I had been meeting with on zoom for over a month. One of my favorite experiences of what happened in Turkey, since I don't have enough time to share the whole trip, was when we meet up with our friend Yıldız. We had just hung out with the entirety of Istanbul's YSA, which was incredible, and were heading to meet our friend. The Elders were leaving with some of the YSA, but some of them were concerned about leaving us alone. One of these people was a guy who's name is Cenk, who was just worried about our well-being, the other one was a guy named Jared, who wanted to stay with us because he didn't want Cenk to get us all lost. So, here we are with our friend and these two guys walking in the front and back of us like bodyguards. We ended up sitting in a cafe and just talking when a cat came in and was so sweet until it got up to your face and tried to bite it (which may or may not have happened to me). Anyway, that was a fun experience to be with the members and our friend.
While I was in Turkey, I had a couple of firsts. I went into my first mosque, I had my first Turkish döner, and I had my first Pepsi. I got to bear my testimony in Turkish in an actually Turkish Church meeting, and so much more. Anyway, I will include a ton of pictures, sorry for the shortness of this email. The last thing I wanted to share was a quote from Jeffrey R. Holland from a talk that my mom actually invited me to read called "Are We Not All Beggars". In this talk, he states
, "For one thing, we can, as King Benjamin taught, cease withholding our means because we see the poor as having brought their misery upon themselves. Perhaps some have created their own difficulties, but don’t the rest of us do exactly the same thing? Isn’t that why this compassionate ruler asks, “Are we not all beggars?”11 Don’t we all cry out for help and hope and answers to prayers? Don’t we all beg for forgiveness for mistakes we have made and troubles we have caused? Don’t we all implore that grace will compensate for our weaknesses, that mercy will triumph over justice at least in our case? Little wonder that King Benjamin says we obtain a remission of our sins by pleading to God, who compassionately responds, but we retain a remission of our sins by compassionately responding to the poor who plead to us." I know that as we reach out to others in love and compassion, we will have a deeper capacity to understand our Savior and to become more like Him. I have seen this so much on my mission, and I just want to bear my testimony that I know that we each have divine potential and worth. I know that service brings us closer to God and that we as we serve we are better able to understand His love for us.
Sincerely,
Sister Calder
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