Jordan- my 3rd favorite country.

 Ok so I’m caught up now. We got back from Jordan last night! It was AMAZING. I hate saying stuff like that- "It was so amazing! I loved it! It was so fun!" Because people don’t comprehend how fantastic it actually was. So I’ll explain it to you. We departed the JC (it really has become home) and headed to the Jordanian border crossing. It’s only about an hour drive but with the check points and border crossing, it took 3 hours. We went ot Mt. Nebo, where Moses viewed the promised land that he would never set foot on. There's also a sculpture of the serpent on the staff, because that story happened somewhere near where we were.

It’s a super dramatic story: King Antipas made an alliance with the Nabateans and married the daughter of their king. But then he fell in love with Herodias, his niece AND his sister in law. Struggles. He convinced Herodias (the niece) to divorce her husband and marry him. Herod Antipas respected John the Baptist and listened to him often. But, he condemned the marriage because it was against the Law of Moses for a man to marry his brother’s wife while he was still living. This made Herodias (the niece) mad and during a birthday party for Antipas (in the palace where I stood) the daughter of Herodias danced before the group and Antipas promised her anything she wanted. After consulting with her mother, she asked for the head of John the Baptist. So he ordered him to be executed, and he was immediately beheaded and presented to Herodias and the daughter.

Anyway, then that night we had an amazing welcome to a hotel. We drove up to La Maison Hotel Petra and there were men outside in long white robes with their headdresses on aiting for us with two horses, juice, and bread with oil and spices. I felt so fancy, let’s be honest.

            Tuesday we did PETRA. Most amazing thing ever. Nabateans know how to make cool things. I rode a camel. We had an exquisite lunch. 

Can you see the remnants of the carvings? It's a man with his camel. The feet and skirts are there.

from inside the Siq- our first view of the treasury!

The TREASURY! And my camel friend, I named him Abu (from Aladdin)

me on a cliff in Petra

Marcie and I with our matching jackets and scarves. Chilly day!

We love Indiana. Not sure who this is. Credit to SJC.

Nabatean soldiers- they did a cool dance for us. 

super flattering picture of an Muslim man putting my headdress on the Bedouin way "Gehl come here you need Bedouin headdress. Free." Then he almost forced me to do the eye makeup because it would look good on my brown eyes with the scarf. But I was freaked out and said no. But I learned something new! 

      Wednesday we went to King Abdullah Mosque. So the kingdom of Jordan has a King who is married to a Palestinian woman he met when he was a prince. His dad was the king before him, King Hussein, who had like 4 wives (at different times) and King Abdullah’s mom was a British woman, so he doesn’t look very Arab. His wife is beautiful, they have 5 young children, and the people love them. We had two Jordanian army guys and a tour guide the whole week who came everywhere with us. The tour guide was Muhammad. We love Muhammad. 

Muhammad and I at the Jordan River. When I came up to take the pic, he said "You are so beauteeful. But I have veddy beauteeful wife as well." Hahaha

He is a Muslim and is very religious, very kind, and very fun to be with. He has 3 kids and one of them came with us on the last day (Odee who is an engineer student finishing up college and loves Coldplay). So when we went to the Mosque, we covered up, took our shoes off, and went inside. 

Muhammad explained a lot about Islam to us and I never realized how similar it was to our gospel. It really is so similar in many ways- our belief in God, in prophets, in modesty, the restoration, the split of Sunni and Shi'i (LDS/RLDS concerning the succession of prophets), chastity, fasting, prayer, etc. I gained so much respect for Muslims just from knowing Muhammad personally. He called us “tigers” whenever he got on the headset and he sang for us when we were in an ancient Roman theater on Thursday. We sang as well....

Yes we sang "What Dreams Are Made Of" from the Lizzie McGuire movie in  an ancient Roman theater and choreographed and video recorded it. Yes. We did. 

Citadel of Amman- the tall columns are the remnants of the Temple of Hercules (yes we sang "Won't Say I'm In Love" from Hercules. 

Then we did the Citadel of Amman, Museum, went to the Jabbok River (where Jacob wrestled with the angel), and headed to Jerash. Jerash is home ot the best preserved Roman cities and it was SO FUN. That night we had free time so we took a taxi and went to a Safe Way and got American snacks. We had a taxi driver on the way home who couldn’t speak a lick of English, but we somehow got to know him and he taught us some Arabic. He loved us so much that he only charged us 1 dinar for the ride, but we forced money on him because he has 4 kids. He was so nice.  I love Jordanians.

Marcie, Meredith, and I at the Citadel of Amman


      Thursday we went through down town Amman and got a driving tour of the city. It’s so pretty. In the rich area, it reminds me of the rich area of Houston or California. Palm trees, nice cars, limestone mansions. We did another museum, the King’s car collection, ancient Roman theaters (we sang- the soldiers everywhere we go and sing always stop and take pictures of us and listen to us sing). 

Then, my favorite thing: the Jordan River, where Christ's Baptism site is. We sang primary baptism songs and Come Follow Me, and a devotional. Then we went down and got in, Carrie fell in (best line of the day: FREAK I just got baptized.). So Israel and Jordan meet on the banks of the Jordan River. We were 15 feet from Israel! There was an Israeli flag right across the river! But if I had crossed and set foot on the other bank, the soldier watching us would have blasted me to pieces. So after an amazing day, some serious hymn singing, maybe some Disney singing, and endless laughs, we headed home to the JC! 

~home sweet home~

the Jordan River

the actual believed site of the Baptism- scholars have measured distances and studied descriptions and this is the exact spot! unfortunately, there's no water left after all this time, but it's still cool. 

my FAVORITE person, Carrie. She's an RM and the nicest, funniest person. She took a little swim in the river. On accident.

"The Holy Ghost descended as gently as a Dove" Yes there were doves on a cathedral bell tower on the banks of the Jordan River. 

a little bit of an awkward photo. But I'm standing in the Jordan River so who cares.


xoxo M