Septemnding

Well these weeks sure be flying by I tell you. I CANNOT believe we’ve only been here for a month, like where does the time even go?! I’m pretty stoked for October though- cooler weather, our Petra trip, oh yeah, and GENERAL CONFERENCE!!! Yup, es gonna be goood.

Kasey and I visited the Citadel this week so she could leave her boyfriend some notes before the Jerusalem center students would be visiting it. Ain't she just the cutest?!

This week, the BYU Jerusalem students got to come visit Jordan for a couple days which we were extremely excited about in our apartment because my roommate Kasey’s boyfriend is there this semester which means they were gonna get to see each other! #wuvtruewuv Our buddy Rohan and I most humbly accepted the invitation to accompany her in showing حبيبها “hubeebha” (her boyfriend) and some of the other students around and chilling with them in the hotel (we can’t travel in less than 3’s after dark with at least one male). I was super excited to meet Kasey’s dude AND ALSO THE HOTEL HAD 2 POOLS AND 2 HOT TUBS AND A BIG GYM and seeing as this AZ girl hasn’t been able to swim since we left the states (except for Wadi Mujib last week), I guess you could say I was looking forward to getting Kasey, Rohan, and I over to that hotel just as quickly as possible. Made for some pretty late nights but totally worth it. Good times.

Yesterday, we had a cultural day planned by our lovely teachers and it was also Ustaz Kirk’s birthday, so naturally we had lots of food and cake (yes those are separate, cake is not food) and each class had been working on a presentation of sorts this week so we all had to showcase those too. All of the groups got pretty creative and it seemed like everyone had a pretty good time, especially all our Jordanian teachers. They got a kick out of us! Of course, I’ll use any excuse possible to get dressed up and be silly so naturally I wasn’t too disappointed about having to put a lil skit together. Good times!

Last week we talked a lot about the Arab Israeli conflict in class and knowing that our hearts were going to be pretty heavy after all that, Ustaz Kirk included part of Isaiah 19 in our regular weekend translation assignment. I didn’t understand a lot of it in Arabic which I was pretty frustrated about, but we always break em down in class and then I went back and studied it in English and wow. 

21 And the Lord shall be known to Egypt, and the Egyptians shall know the Lord in that day, and shall do sacrifice and oblation; yea, they shall vow a vow unto the Lord, and perform it.
22 And the Lord shall smite Egypt: he shall smite and heal it: and they shall return even to the Lord, and he shall be entreated of them, and shall heal them.
23 In that day shall there be a highway out of Egypt to Assyria, and the Assyrian shall come into Egypt, and the Egyptian into Assyria, and the Egyptians shall serve with the Assyrians.
24 In that day shall Israel be the third with Egypt and with Assyria, even a blessing in the midst of the land:
25 Whom the Lord of hosts shall bless, saying, Blessed be Egypt my people, and Assyria the work of my hands, and Israel mine inheritance.

The Lord has promised to heal them as they become entreated to Him again, and that the Arabs and Israelis will someday be able to live together peaceably. That’s huge. Really meant a lot to me.

There are a lot of these here key decorations (this one’s attached to the shape of Palestine) with the wordعائدون written on it which means "the return" or "the returners." Many of the Palestinians here say that their parents/ grandparents who left their homes during the 1948 and 1967 exoduses, believing that they would only be gone for a short while, locked their doors and brought the keys so that they could obviously go back home. Many of them have those keys or a decorative key hung up in their homes as a symbol of their hope that they will again be able to return to their homeland. 

I kinda want one because looking at it just reminds me of Isaiah 19 and the fact that they may be without peace and access to ordinances and covenants now, but someday ان شاء الله، سوف عائدون الى الرَّب God willing, they will return to the Lord. All of them. The Jews AND the Palestinians. {عائدون They return.}They will understand the true identity of Jesus of Nazareth and will fall at His feet. The imagery of every knee bending and every tongue confessing that Jesus is the Christ gets me all choked up and just seems to ignite something in me. And if we think that that’s just naturally going to all come together and happen on its own, we should probably go back and reread some scriptures, because that’s definitely not how God has worked ever. We’ve got some work to do being His hands and helping bring about the fulfillment of these promised blessings. And that’s our job!! As the seed of Abraham and as those who have been blessed with the knowledge of the doctrine of Christ and the ability to make and keep sacred covenants, we are to be a blessing to the people of the world in bringing them His truths. The Abrahamic covenant has definitely been one of my favorite study subjects since the beginning of my mission; it's just so cool!

Sidenote- won't end up buying one of those lil key thangs cuz we have to cross the Israeli border in December aaaand they won’t let copies of the Q’ran etc come through, sooo didn’t think that the Israeli soldiers would necessarily love a decoration that’s about as pro-Palestine looking as they come either, even if I were to try and explain that for me it’s more of a symbol of a spiritual return rather than the physical one it’s intended for. I might make my own when I get home though!

Welp, I’m still in love with these people and trying just to soak it all in. Sometimes I still have to pinch myself and remember I’m ACTUALLY HERE! September has been incredible.

Wadi Mujib/ I just wanna stay here forever Wadi you expect?

Oh my wow, seriously, our Wadi Mujib extravaganza today was AWESOME and just what I needed. Guys, the water was peeerfect and it was seriously sooo pretty and just wow today was the bestestest. Here's some more pictures, in case there weren't enough all over social media lol.

Drink water, kids

Pre hike

 We had to pose there after all the other couples did 

Oh look, it's a Greg!

 And a Jaren

 Kristen, Sydney, mwah, Greg

 Awh, look at lil Zach

 Photo Credit: Greg. Who else

 Under the waterfall

Sunday night, Asia, Ustadh Kirk, and I got to go have dinner with a sweet Syrian family I met in the park a couple weeks ago. They're refugees from just across the Jordan/Syria border in Daraa and were active participants in the peaceful demonstrations/resistance against Bashar Al-Assad after his brutal response to the young boys who, hearing that Tunisian/Egyptian dictators were falling had written on a wall, "You're next doctor," or something along those lines. I opened up a can of worms I hadn't quite intended to by asking what they thought about the Arab Spring, but boy am I grateful that I did and you can bet I'll never forget that conversation. 

The father is a very humble and hard working man and though his eyes always seem to be smiling, speak volumes of his passion for freedom and the battle that's still waging for his people. He's been through a lot. I couldn't help but get emotional as he recounted his experiences and the awful things he'd witnessed in his country. No freedom of speech or right to privacy, the way those 10 year-old boys were tortured and their bodies mutilated, the way the communities rose in disgust and utter horror, the military wiping out innocent civilians, women and children dead in the streets, schools being bombed, missiles leaving cities desolate followed by more to stop those rushing to the aid of those who had been wounded in the first round, a brother missing, this uncle left dead, aunts and nieces being forced to watch their father interrogated at gunpoint, no one knows if the nephew has been imprisoned for 6 years or if he's been killed too, leaving everything and everyone familiar, fleeing the country and seeking refuge, trying to rebuild, trying to make a life for your family in a new and safer place, but the war isn't over. 

"There is always blood on the doorway to freedom. I would happily give my life if it meant freedom for Syria and if they try to force me back, I won't go without a gun. I was never armed before, Arabs make terrible soldiers, but I'm not going back unarmed." The way he spoke of freedom, what he was and is still willing to sacrifice for it, how proud he is of his fellow Syrians who have likewise stood up to Assad and to all of those actively involved in the Arab Spring- we've become pretty detached as Americans from those who made our freedoms possible and sacrificed everything for it, but I think I got a glimpse of how it may have felt to listen to Thomas Paine, or Nathan Hale, or John Paul Jones, hearing  the flame of desire and hope, the fight for liberty inside every human being given shape and voice. I am so grateful to be an American, for the freedoms I most definitely take for granted. These people want nothing more than to pursue life, liberty, and happiness, same as us, and their sacrifices and struggles I pray won't be in vain. It's not looking good for our Syrian friends. Russia, China, and Iran have made it pretty impossible for rebel forces to keep fighting at all, and many are packing up and going home not happy that they'll still be oppressed under a crazy power-hungry tyrant, but tired of fighting and of instability for their families. My heart aches for them. And while I left that sweet family's one room apartment just in tears and in pieces for them and the fact that I CAN'T FIX THE PROBLEM, I know that listening and caring and sympathizing with them and offering some encouragement and upliftment does good for them and for me. It's just baffling to me that for so long I've just seen these foreign conflicts/world events as news articles and pictures, sad stories that you can just turn off or tune out whenever you want to and now they're real people and real places and real problems. My problems now. You think I can just go home after this and get on with my merry life happy to have seen some sights and had some experiences while my people are still out here struggling for freedom and survival? Not a chance. There are things that are important and things that just plain aren't and there's a heck of a lot of work to get done while there are still feeble knees to strengthen and hands to hold and eyes to lift upwards and hearts to turn to the Savior. Really really grateful for these experiences.

We finished our bag/leather/purse class this week! None of us (Sydney, Greg, and I) were super interested in learning how to make purses pursay (lols) but we made some great friends in the class who we'll get to spend more time with here shortly aaaand I'm really looking forward to a few cool leather projects when I get back home. Just some ideas floating around in my head, you know. And I'm excited to give my bags away to some of my friends out here.

 Bag #2!

On Thursday, Sydney and I ended up having a really neat conversation with our 15 year-old neighbor, Minan, and it's just always super fascinating to peak into younger cultural perspectives! (This is especially true with younger females, as they're definitely caught in this interesting pull between tradition and embracing change and open minded like ideas from the Western world right now.) I'll be super interested to see what does and doesn't change, culturally speaking, here in these next 10 years or so.

I'm honestly not sure how, because I've been trying to be so careful, but I must have eaten something this week that really didn't agree with me (I have some food sensitivities) and I had to spend a few days in bed and close to the حمام "hamam" (bathroom-there's your Arabic word for the week and if you drink anywhere near as much water as I do, it may be the #1 most important word for your Arabic vocabulary.) Gold star for you if you got that. Anywho, it's been tricky for me to find things I can eat round these parts that I don't have to spend a lot of time prepping cuz #aintnobodygottimeforthat and so it seriously made my whole life when Kristen, Greg, and Sydney  told me they'd found the gluten free store we'd heard about and were picking up some "halal/kosher/edible" things! Just wow. I legit got teary eyed biting into a piece of bread haha  pathetic, I know, but I just have some of  THE BESTEST NICEST FRIENDS IN THE WHOLE WORLD and I don't deserve 'em!

I'm definitely happy to be feeling better and probably wouldn't have missed church yesterday or that hike today even if it killed me...

Life is mighty fine out here, and these field trips outside of the city are the perfect change of pace and break from all the school work. They sure keep us busy busy out here, but it's so good. :)

Just Amman :)

Also, shout out to Sydney for somehow taking the worst pictures of me at the most random times...How does she do it? I'm really not sure. Don't worry, I'll get her back real good. https://sydslivro.wordpress.com/