Beyrout, Syria.

July 11", 1894

Dear Mother;

Yours of June 5" and Alices's were so interesting that the closings were reached with much reluctance. Don't be afraid of getting your letters too long ( and do not be afraid of writing too often) It had been three weeks since I had heard from home. My continual cry, you will think is, more letters. Annie's which was also very interesting I received last Sat., one week later July 7". I still look for a letter once a week though often am I disappointed. Write, me at a time if thereby letters will be written oftener, but the fatter the letter the better, and the more the merrier. 

I am well and getting on quite nicely. We expect to go to Damascus the 1" of the month. if it is so we can get away, where we will remain a few weeks after which I probably will go south to Haifa where some of the saints are. I shall like that very much though it will necessitate my learning the German language better which the branch there speak but I can be making about the same advancement with Arabic. Bro. Robinson will be obliged to go north where there is another branch of the church sooner or later, he being president of this mission now. Damascus will be very interesting to me and I desire to make a trip and short stay there before going south as I may not get up in these parts again. I may take a trip to Ba'albek from there. That is a very historic and interesting place. Damascus you know is quite Biblical in its history.

We are having rather quiet times; but a splendid opportunity for studying. We run up against a good many who speak English and tell them our purpose here, hand them a tract to read and bear our testimony to the gospel we have. A great many know who we are but some of the citizens are none the more sociable for it. Especially the American ministers. Our neighbors across the road almost within whispering distance have gone to the mountains where it is cooler, we miss their gentle voices though they do not pass the time of day to us. Perhaps they will get cooled off enough to speak to us while they are dwelling in the breezes of the Lebanon.