A Historic Day in Jordan!

Today was a fantastic day at church. We went to the Amman 1st branch (small congregation) of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It was the first worship for the Arabic language branch of the Church here in Amman. All of the worship meetings were held in Arabic. One of my favorite parts of the services today was the Sunday School lesson. In the lesson the teacher quoted this scripture from the Book of Mormon, "For the Lord God giveth light unto the understanding; for he speaketh unto men according to their language, unto their understanding" (2 Nephi 31:3). It was such an amazing experience to be present for the first worship services of the Church to be held completely in Arabic in Amman.  It's exactly as Daniel said in Daniel 2:45, the kingdom of God is rolling forward as a stone cut out of the mountain without hands and it will someday fill the whole earth.

Complaints and Patience

One of the most important things that I have learned so far from being married to Josh is that complaining is such a waste. It sucks the energy and drive and happiness right out of you and makes it hard not to be miserable! Josh is the best example of this (of not complaining, not of making one miserable) that I have ever observed in my life. That fact was brought to my attention again as I was looking through our pictures from our two-week Spain trip that we took before we came to Jordan. I noticed several photos connected to instances where I was (sadly) less than patient and complained either vocally or just in my mind, while on the other hand Josh would just smile a little, take it in stride, do what he could, and choose to be happy.

So here are a few pictures and blips of memories from Spain along those lines:

In Spain we were trying to be thrifty and so we bought some stuff for breakfasts and lunches at the grocery store. They had these "juice milk" boxes, which sounded gross until I tried one and found that they tasted surprisingly good. So when we went back the next time we got more, and I chose a flavor called "Cirtus Blend" or something like that. It sounded good at the time (I was thinking "creamsicle in juice form" in my mind), but I was SO WRONG! It was basically the flavor of two parts grapefruit juice and one part watery milk...blech! I couldn't even get more than two sips of it down, but before I could toss it Josh reached over and chugged the rest, even in spite of my firm declarations of the disgustingosity of the stuff. The next day he drank another, and the next day another without any complaint. I was grateful that they only came three in a pack, but even more grateful for what I learned from him and those three juicemilks.

We had been walking around all day and it was really hot. We were debating whether to go home or see one last thing, and decided to walk up to this Egyptian temple that had been brought to Spain stone by stone and rebuilt there. (We thought it would be kind of cool, and in some ways representative of the fusion of our two lives and paths of interest: a building from the Middle East in Spain.) When we got close, we found ourselves at the bottom of what in my mind qualifies as a VERY LONG flight of stairs. I looked at it and just thought "Really? Are you serious?". (This is may or may not be in part due to the fact that he is in much better shape than I am, but...) after a quick water break Josh just kept walking and started on up, and since he was holding my hand up I went too. Maybe it seems like a little thing...and it is...but it is definitely something I will not forget. I am glad we both have things we can help and lift the other in.

You are looking at "La Muralla Arabe," which got me really excited when I saw it on our tourist map of Madrid. At the time I thought that "muralla" meant "mural," and so I was expecting some great masterpiece of Arabian-influenced artwork. We wandered for a while in search of it, dodging a wedding and cars driving too fast on narrow streets along the way. No one seemed to be able to tell us where it was, and we ended up at the bottom of a big hill only to be told by a passing couple that it was near the top of that hill we had just descended. I was frustrated and tired (again :) and Josh suggested we take a rest in a garden we had passed. I was too stubborn to do so until after we found the Arabic Mural though, so we kept on. Eventually we got here, and we read a faded plaque that proclaimed this to indeed be "La Muralla Arabe." It was Josh who figured out first (the non-Spanish speaker...embarrassing! :) that "muralla" actually means "wall" - we were in fact looking at a very old wall remaining from the Arab occupation of Spain! I was frustrated, but Josh wanted to go down and look at it and we ended up really enjoying ourselves as we sat in the garden inside the wall for a bit. It was a lesson to me on how to make joy and good memories out of unexpected events.

I think there are different brands of people when it comes to complaining, or to making any choice between right and wrong. "Good, better and best" doesn't just apply to decisions, but also to the motivations behind the decisions we make as well as how we choose to react to the circumstances we find ourselves in, no matter their source. It's interesting to me because I don't think that the reason for doing something wrong matters as much as the wrongdoing itself, but the reason for choosing to do something right does matter as much as or more than the rightdoing itself. I feel much better equipped to make more "best-motivated" decisions and have more positive reactions because of Josh and our three-and-a-half months together so far. ALRIGHT MARRIAGE, WOOHOOOO!! :)