Across the River Jordan, from the West Bank to the East

We got home from Jordan Thursday evening, and since we have midterms next week it was an extremely busy Friday doing homework. I am relieved to have a day of rest and document my travels.

Jordan was an amazing experience. The first day we went to Mount Nebo, where Moses would end his journey as he looked across the valley to the promised land that he would never set foot in. It was on Nebo that he was translated (if you believe what Alma teaches). There was a beautiful monument erected to Moses there also:

Not far from Nebo was Madaba, where we stopped to see the oldest map of the Holy Land that still survives. It was made of over 2 million tile pieces, and sit in the floor of a greek orthodox church. The highlights of the entire trip for me were Petra and Jerash. Petra was breathtaking. The entire site is immense slot canyons that have resulted from thousands of years of water runoff. The slot canyons expand into sandstone valleys whose walls are cliffs with gigantic ruins carved right out of the sandstone cliffs. I pulled out my Indiana Jones hat, payed a local to ride his camel on one of the trails, and decided that I was just livin' the dream. It was so hard to capture the epic nature of everything with my camera, but here is a taste:

Today I was officially called and set apart as a primary teacher for the valiant 8 year old boys. They are wonderful little guys, the newest members of the Church. They get a little squirmy and anxious, but I feel so privileged to be reminded what Jesus meant when he twice taught the Nephites that we must, "repent, and become as a little child." Way to go Mom for putting up with all of those primary kids for so many years :) For some reason, I think the four boys I have are much more well behaved than I was in primary . . . .

I love you all, and I will try to blog a couple of times this week so I can share more!

Shalom aleichem,

-SJM