Call to Prayer

For those of you who are not aware, one of the five Pillars of Islam is to heed the call to prayer 5 times a day.So, here in Turkey each day, five times a day, from sunrise to sunset, the muezzin (mosque official), calls, or rather sings, from his minaret the same call each time. However, it never seems to bore me to listen to because there is a lot of variation in the tune each time, and it never sounds the same twice.

I have spoken a number of times with friends in our branch about this call to prayer. One of our friends lives directly across from the cami (pronounced jah-mee) and gets an earful some mornings as early as 5. It is funny how we have all grown to love the sound, and independently

decided to take the call as a personal reminder and challenge to not only pray when we wake or bless our food, but to take the call to prayer for what it is intended, and try to at least say a small prayer in our hearts, to pray more often and with more intent.

Today, as I have every other day, I heard the call to prayer. I only heard it twice, but I noticed particularly because it was in such stark contrast to what was going on around me. The first time was during the middle of testimony meeting at church. Since I have taken it as a challenge to be more mindful of prayer during the call, I stopped to think. I was standing at the back of the chapel near the open door with Matthijas, and I felt compelled to just walk straight up to the pulpit and bear my testimony. I know Johannes won't believe it since I never do, but I did.

I think it was a combination of the fast we were doing for Johannes and other members serving in Baghdad, and the added consideration of the commitment I have made to myself and the Lord when I hear the call to prayer. For the first time in years I was propelled up the stairs, with screaming a child in my arms, to bear my testimony.

The second call to prayer I heard while watching Fiddler on the Roof with Arcadia. We were talking about the similarities between what we believe, what the Jews believe and what the people here in Turkey we believe. It reminded me once again of my favorite quote from President Ezra Taft Benson "Every truth in all the world, we believe". It is a reminder that even though we have the restored gospel and all of the blessings that entails, we do not necessarily have a monopoly on eternal truths, and we can learn many things from many people. So, not only am I grateful for the gospel, I am grateful for the experiences I have had with many different types of people and cultures, and for the lessons I have learned that help me better understand the gospel and better obey it's principles.

(The cami in the photo above is in the old quarters of Izmir. We got this view from the balcony of a carpet merchant's shop).