Turkey Training

This "Evil Eye" amulet is found all over Turkey and is kept to protect you from evil thoughts, like envy and jealousy. The symbol is found all over the Mediterranean area and can be seen hanging from doorways, on doorknobs, on bracelet's and necklaces. Once you know what it is, it kind of freaks you out!
And so Elder & Sister Davis are here in Turkey, a superstitious country, surrounded by Evil Eyes, Ancient Temples to False Gods, where Alexander the Great conquered. This is tough! We sacrifice so much already; time away from our families, the expense of living in a foreign country, unable to communicate with anyone....what a hardship we must endure...and now we are here surrounded by Evil Eyes? Oh, the mental anguish! Sister Davis can hear the sad violins starting to play right now...
Okay, that was a bit over the top, and we know you aren't buying it. But if you have been reading this blog you know that things can be somewhat difficult for every senior missionary couple. But the three nights we had in Turkey were a godsend. We not only needed to be around other CES senior missionaries to hear their stories and find out what they are doing in their missions, we needed the training we got from our beloved director, Henry (don't even try and call him Brother Kosak), and his colleagues from the European East Seminary & Institute office, located in Moscow.
Henry is from East Germany and was a member of the church behind the iron curtain. He has remarkable stories about what life was like as he grew up a Latter-day Saint in a Communist Country. Our religion is all about freedom to choose and yet the East German Saints struggled with even small freedoms. And through the faith of those humble East German Saints, the government allowed the church to purchase land and a build a temple, behind the Iron Curtain. An almost unheard of event.
Henry is one of those remarkable priesthood holders who is both spiritual, inspiring and irreverent at the same time. He brings laughter and love to everyone he meets. And his wife Elke is both beautiful and intelligent. Henry has been called to be the new mission president in Germany so this was his farewell conference.

The first night the 17 CES missionary couples introduced themselves and told how many grandchildren they had. Henry was keeping track of the numbers on a white board and it was quite comical how fast the numbers were adding up. The final count was somewhere near 288. We got to include Brandy's baby in that count since she is due this week!

Each morning we started with a hymn, prayer and then we divided into scripture study groups where we were assigned a topic to research in the scriptures. One couple was the facilitator in the group. Elder & Sister Davis thoroughly enjoyed it.
We were taught how to be administrators for the Institute and Seminary Programs and what our roles were as Couple Missionaries. At one point, Henry forgot one of the couples names and he apologized and said,
"Oh, I am so sorry. My name is Professor Alzheimer's and everyday I have new students."

The weather was quite cold for Turkey, about 40 degrees which wouldn't have been bad except for the wind. We kept our coats on outside, that's for sure. And it was hard to leave our room and go back for training when you had a view like this from your bedroom balcony. In case you were wondering, that is the Mediterranean Sea, past the swimming pools.
Things we learned from our teacher training...
Don't be afraid of silent moments in class. That could be when the Holy Ghost is speaking to the student. Teaching is not talking and telling; It's observing and listening.

A common mistake is to spend too much time studying the lesson and not enough time deciding how you will teach it. A good teacher is never totally prepared...you have to be able to step beyond what you have prepared to go into unknown territory...like when a student asks a question, or when the Spirit directs you to teach something else.     Ask the right questions!        

 We learned a whole lot more but we don't want to bore you all with two days of teacher training! A "Henryism" we learned..."It does not matter how ugly or unorganized our priesthood leaders are, they still hold the keys and we sustain them

President Bennet told the story of a young man in Eastern Europe who came into an LDS Chapel one night. He told the Branch President he wanted to know more about the Mormon faith. The Branch President asked him how he came to find the building and the young man said, from the internet. He had been studying our beliefs on Mormon.org. When he was scheduled to meet with missionaries he came with a white shirt and tie on. They asked him why he was so dressed up and he said, because he saw pictures of what Mormons wear online and he wanted to look like them. The internet can be a great tool in missionary work.
You already know that our stomachs were full at this conference and this day our heads were full of all sorts of new and exciting information and by the end of the conference our hearts were full also. Full of the love we had for all the new friends we met and for our inspirational leaders. Thank you all! It was the BEST!
A group of FANTASTIC people....