Meet my buddy Josh
Super cool caves around the waterfalls all around the mountains.
Hello, friend.
I like these girls. A lot. (McKenna Hughes, Jenny Pattison, Eliza Smith, and Chelsea Clayton)
Alright but the real stuff from this week was our trip to JORDAN. Yes. I just spent 4 days in Jordan. Madness.
We woke up early and started our drive through the desert to the Jordanian border (marked by a giant 'Bon Voyage!' sign). It took a while to get through, but we eventually made it! First stop was Mt. Nebo - the tradition site of where Moses saw the Promised Land and was buried.
We’re standing on top of this mountain overlooking this
bleak, endless desert. But it was beautiful because we knew that this was what
Moses saw when he looked at the Promised Land. And even if it wasn’t what the
Israelites had imagined, it was theirs. I think that we make our Promised Land.
Our attitude and actions and repsonses are what make hard things in our life
beautiful. We also went to Machaerus – Herod Antipus’ summer palace where John
the Baptist was imprisoned and beheaded. We talked about John a lot – how his
role was to prepare the world for Christ. John 3:30 expresses John’s
understanding that Christ’s role was to ‘increase’ and in His ministry, it
would be John’s time to ‘decrease’ and step down. Which I’m sure would have been hard
for him.
Petra at Night. One of the coolest things I've ever seen. My camera couldn't pick it up, but these paper lanterns illuminated the Treasury. SO cool.
Next day: PETRA. Holy cow. If I have ever previously said that
I felt like Indiana Jones, scratch it from the record because I don’t think
that I can ever get as close as I did then. PETRA. Unbelievable. I saw the
famous treasury, hiked up to one of the High Places of worship, hiked back down
and then up to an amazing monastery, and then rode a camel back through the Siq
(red rock canyon). I can’t even describe it.
(Also… Daddy… I may or may not have done something that
would make you incredibly proud… Think along the lines of your Egyptian Pyramid
escapade… It was awesome.)
The Siq
First view of Petra
New friends! Meet Dimi.
The High Place. Spectacular.
Ride a camel through ancient ruins? Check mark.
The Monastery.
That night, I was a busker on the streets of Amman! My friend Eliza and I played guitar for a pretty big crowd on Rainbow Street! So fun.
Next day, we went to the Jabbok River. This is where Jacob wrestled with an angel of the Lord for a whole night. The place is a dump. But I loved it because it represents and overcoming of the crappy things in our lives. Its a story of an incredibly strong desire for reconciliation and protection from God. Powerful stuff. The best stop of the day was... wait for it because you're going to die of jealousy.... THE ROYAL AUTOMOBILE MUSEUM. I saw the Aston Martin DB2 and the Mercedes 300SL Gullwing. May have shed a few tears as I thought about car shows with my Dad!
Aston Martin DB2 - this car is especially cool because this was the car that introduced Aston Martin as a legitimate European sports car competitor. Not to mention the face that it is beautiful.
The Mercedes 300SL Gullwing. Just one of my favorite cars of all time ever. And I got to see one with my own two eyeballs.
That night we went back to Rainbow Street and I got to meet up with a friend from school this past year who was on a scholarship from Jordan! So fun to catch up with him. He was also Carson's (rightmost dude) TA for Arabic last semester! Small world.
Next morning we got to see the only church building in Jordan and it was beautiful. I was so overwhelmed with the Spirit and with gratitude as I saw how proud and thankful the bishopric was for the building. It made me so excited to serve. I could really feel how much the members in Jordan value the gospel. The absolute weirdness of having two Stake Centers on a single street corner (as is the case in multiple places in Utah) has never struck me more than when I was sitting in the church building looking at my Arabic hymnal. We in the United States are so lucky to have such easy access to Church. These people have fought for it so hard.
Last stop of our time in Jordan was the Jordan River. You can imagine how powerful that was.
To anyone who is reading this and has any questions about the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and what I believe or what I am going to do as a missionary in Berlin for 18 months, please do not hesitate to ask me or go to mormon.org.
I am back in Jerusalem safely. There is quite a bit of tension surrounding the deaths of three abducted Israeli teens and then a retaliatory murder of a 17 year old Palestinian boy in a neighborhood close to the Jerusalem Center. But we are safe and on lockdown - no time in any part of Jerusalem. We do get to go outside of Jerusalem: I spent yesterday in Tel Aviv. Safe and sound. If you are interested on what is going on here, keep in mind that the media skews a lot of what is going on with this situation. However, I think that Al Monitor is usually a pretty good source.
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