Day 1 in Jordan

Alright, saddle up your camel or whatever. It's time for a trip to Jordan! You're going to love it. Jordan is a fascinating country. I liked it a lot. It is a very educated, modernized country and we had tons of fun there. I think you will too...


The Jordanian flag is all over the place. There's lots of patriotism here.

And they LOVE their kings. King Hussein is on the left. He seems like a nice guy. His son, King Abdala is the current king. His picture is on billboards, framed at the McDonalds in the mall, on street corners. It kind of reminds me of Big Brother in 1984. He likes to go around incognito and make sure that people are getting the services they're supposed to. He seems to have done a lot of good for the country and he's usually pictured with his wife and kids, so the emphasis on family is good even if it's kind of weird.

The proselyting rules aren't quite as strict in Jordan as they are in Israel; it's more self imposed by the Church to maintain political nuetrality and not cause too many issues. Muslims in some country are sentenced to death for converting to Christainity. It's a crazy life over here. But President Monson promised us though that if we pray for the borders to be opened to missionaries, miracles will occur. These boys are practicing to preach when that happens. So keep praying! These are good people and they need the gospel.

I just have no idea. There is toilet paper neatly tied onto this tree for some reason at the top of Mt. Nebo. "Where Moses saw the Promised Land and died." Our tour guide said that at least 25 times with his funny Jordanian accent. Perhaps this is to honor Moses?

We're looking out over the Promised land from the same place Moses first saw it. That's pretty cool. He didn't actually die after that, but he was translated from this spot. As was Elijah. (It was harder to imitate that)

Here's a better picture of the view from Mt. Nebo. This must be the other side though because I can't see the Jordan River. Anyway, it's a good idea of the landscape in the region. Lots of hills. Lots of dirt. Lots of hot.

Mosaics are a big deal over here. This is a mosaic map in Madaba that was created as a map for the pilgrims. It's a big deal for archeologists and historians who have been able to find some ancient sites because of this. And for tourists it's just cool. It's a huge map covering the whole floor of a church. The part in the picture is just the city of Jerusalem.

This is the Crusader's castle at Shobak. I suppose I look a bit too girly to be a crusader but I liked the castle.

"Who's that trip trappin' on my bridge?"

Now James looks like a crusader! I told him to look triumphant and he succeeded.

Our triumphant look is a bit more dainty.

We were on the bus FOREVER. But Rachelle and I had lots of fun... obviously.


When we got to the hotel, it was time to get out all the pent up energy, so Karyn and I jumped on the beds for a while and tried to capture the fun with the timer on my camera...



It kind of worked.

More fun in the hotel room!

Karyn has a bit more grace than I...

We all went out to get icecream and I looked over and saw Michael feeding Ian. These two are hilarious. They have the funniest 'bromance' I've ever seen.

We had a fun walk around the town of Petra and a nice chat on the wall with Matt and Karyn. We enjoyed music blasting from taxis, shops that were all called "Indiana Jones something something" and of course the smell of the hookah. What's not to love?