Turkey opens for LDS missionary work

[CardiacCoug]

WTF? You have to be kidding? What kind of madman would make that request? That's just unacceptable for someone who calls themselves a servant of the Lord.

Yeah that wouldn't have bothered me at all 15 years ago -- I would have considered it good advice and obvious that parents shouldn't be made to worry about dangerous situations.

But now that I identify with the parents and think of my sons as the potential missionaries in a few years that really does seem awful. Sort of makes me hope that my kids just do Study Abroad and the Peace Corps instead.

[Jeff Lebowski]

WTF? You have to be kidding? What kind of madman would make that request? That's just unacceptable for someone who calls themselves a servant of the Lord.

As a parent (he was my son's friend and served at the same time as him), that was my reaction too. He thought it was pretty cool. Showed us photos of bruises from the clubs, broken hand, etc.

This guy had the perfect personality for a mission like this. Tough as nails. He had some incredible stories (not just the beatings). You could make a movie out of his mission experience.

[pellegrino]

As a parent (he was my son's friend and served at the same time as him), that was my reaction too. He thought it was pretty cool. Showed us photos of bruises from the clubs, broken hand, etc.

This guy had the perfect personality for a mission like this. Tough as nails. He had some incredible stories (not just the beatings). You could make a movie out of his mission experience.

I would have raised hell if this had been my son, no matter how cool he thought it was. It's just shocking to think that 1. they would put missionaries in that kind of a situation and 2. try to cover it up. If a country/area is that dangerous then the missionaries shouldn't be there. There's no point to it.

[wuapinmon]

I would have raised hell if this had been my son, no matter how cool he thought it was. It's just shocking to think that 1. they would put missionaries in that kind of a situation and 2. try to cover it up. If a country/area is that dangerous then the missionaries shouldn't be there. There's no point to it.

The elders in Cieneguita, Costa Rica in 1994 were studying upstairs one morning when a woman was shot in the head directly in front of their house. They were not moved out of that hellhole of an area because the Church had just built a new chapel there (complete with a 24-hour nightwatchman). When I look back on it, it didn't bother me then. Now, I can't imagine leaving anyone in that situation. Her blood stained the concrete for months.

[Solon]

Bulgaria has to be one of the most dangerous missions in the church. They would probably be happy to be transferred. The parents at least.

I had a student last year who served a mission in Bulgaria. She was kidnapped twice (grabbed off the street, blindfolded, thrown into the trunk of a car). Kidnap me once, shame on you. Kidnap me twice . . . .

Not at all. My wife's Aunt married a Turk and they live in Ankara. She loves it there. Turkey is a secular republic and is nothing like the majority of the Islamic countries of the Middle East. While you see some çarşafs (Turkish Burqas) worn, only about 1% of the women actually wear them.

In my experience, this is true of Western Turkey and, to a lesser extent Ankara (in central Turkey), although Islamist parties have recently made big political gains, raising fears that Turkey was shifting to the conservative right (esp. with freedom of the press).

Eastern Turkey is still extremely conservative. I once spent a summer doing archaeology near Diyarbakir in a little hellhole called Bismil. It was deep in Kurdish territory and very religiously conservative.

For instance, when I came down with cholera, the female nurse on duty at the town's little clinic couldn't give me a shot in the butt. So she had the male janitor do it (he was still holding his mop).

The majority of people in these little towns still lived by strict Muslim standards governing relationships between the sexes (which is why I got arrested in Northern Cyprus, for walking around town in a group of mixed gender).

It was a hell of a summer.

It's been over a decade, though. Maybe things have lightened up.

I thought Arabs couldn't be baptized because of the whole "not their time because of first to last to last to first" thing.

There was sister companionship in my mission (18 years ago) that was denied baptizing a Arab due to this rule. Did they open proselyting to not just gentiles?

Turks aren't Arabs. Don't know if that makes a difference since I don't know about baptizing rules.

[Mormon Red Death]

Turks aren't Arabs. Don't know if that makes a difference since I don't know about baptizing rules.

They don't link their ancestry to Ishmael?

[Solon]

They don't link their ancestry to Ishmael?

No. Turks are from the steppes of Central Asia/Mongolia. They arrived in "Turkey" around the 11th century and assimilated into/conquered the ruling Arab/Persian Muslims.

ADD: It was the Turks that conquered Constantinople in 1453, but the Byzantines had been largely insignificant in the region for a long time. Incidentally, the name "Istanbul" is a corruption of the Greek for "to the city" (eis thn polin). It's not a Turkish word at all, but reflects the Greek influence that has been in Ionia since the Bronze Age.

[Katy Lied]

Sort of makes me hope that my kids just do Study Abroad and the Peace Corps instead.

That's not sufficiently safer, imho. Peace Corps has its share of murders and robberies and rapes. Study Abroad has a lot of date rape and petty crimes. Your kids dont have 10pm curfews-- they stay out in the pubs until 2 or 3am.

[clackamascoug]

How Exciting!

As a kid we lived in Yalova/Karamusel Turkey for 2 years. I was baptized in Lake Iznik, by the ancient city of Nicaea. I can still smell the ekmek.

[Solon]

How Exciting!

As a kid we lived in Yalova/Karamusel Turkey for 2 years. I was baptized in Lake Iznik, by the ancient city of Nicaea. I can still smell the ekmek.

Ekmek varma?


Çok güzel.

Cool story, clackamas, to have been baptized near Nicaea. I wonder how many LDS can claim that.

[jdtonks]

Missionaries in Turkey?

I am working and living in Malatya. I would love to know how to get in touch with the missionaries. I don't know if there are any assigned to this area, but if there are I would realy appreciate it.

[Jeff Lebowski]

I am working and living in Malatya. I would love to know how to get in touch with the missionaries. I don't know if there are any assigned to this area, but if there are I would realy appreciate it.

Then why is it that your IP address routes to a site in the US?

[wuapinmon]

Then why is it that your IP address routes to a site in the US?

I've watched enough Homeland that that seems fishy.

[The_Douger]

The elders in Cieneguita, Costa Rica in 1994 were studying upstairs one morning when a woman was shot in the head directly in front of their house. They were not moved out of that hellhole of an area because the Church had just built a new chapel there (complete with a 24-hour nightwatchman). When I look back on it, it didn't bother me then. Now, I can't imagine leaving anyone in that situation. Her blood stained the concrete for months.

I went to Chile on my mission, and an inactive member kid (maybe 15) a street over got shot in the head when he was messing around with some friends and they decided to get in to a neighbors shed and take something.

I was pretty uneasy about that area to begin with and they didn't move us out either.

In a different area I remember seeing from about a block away a guy get shot. We were in some scary areas at times.

[Uncle Ted]

Then why is it that your IP address routes to a site in the US?

Folks should take the time and learn how to use TOR if they want to be a dog on the internet.