I was going to take the day off but I woke up at 5:00am and since I work so hard to get on local time and on a schedule I didn't want to mess with it so I went to the hotel gym for an easy workout, 30 minutes on the elliptical, 30 minutes of weights. I asked the local IT guy from the hotel what they said in the Muslim prayer song that plays throughout the city in every Mosque 5 times a day, figuring everyone in Turkey was Muslim. He said, "how should I know, it's in Arabic, no one here speaks Arabic" Anyway, he was very annoyed that they played it 5 times a day and said only about 5% of the people here actually follow it. I thought that was really funny and related it to Utah, I once had a friend from Memphis come visit in Utah and the first thing she asked was "where are all the Mormons" can you imagine what the out cry in Utah would be if 5 times a day they played church Hymns from every ward house in Utah. Non-Mormons would riot I'm sure. Apparently Istanbul is fairly liberal when it comes to religion but most places in this area are not allowed to choose. All I'm saying here is next time someone complains about Mormons in Utah, tell them to come to the Middle East, they will appreciate what we have a lot more.
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