Ma Ha Baa

Goat Project

2008-09-01T07:55:00.000+03:00

Well the goat project has finally gotten underway and we delivered 20 pregnant goats to ten needy families in a small town called Al Mazar. Hope the goats survive long enough for the families to learn how to take care of them! I learned a lot about how to determine what is a good goat and what isn't. It was fun learning how to pick goats to buy. I won't tell you what I learned to inspect and how to feel for quality, but they were soft!

Anyway, Robin and I (mostly me) are looking forward to visiting the goats and see how they are doing. I might even check on the families and see if they are doing OK also. Enjoy the pictures of some of the goats and people who received them.

August 29, 2008

2008-08-29T07:53:00.001+03:00

MarHaBA Dear Family and Friends,

Where to start? So many things going on I really don’t know where to start. Time is rushing by so fast. I started writing this letter on the 15th and then again on the 22nd and now here it is the 29th. I’m determined to get something written today. All through the week we think of things we could share with you and then when it comes to writing it all down, my mind goes blank!

The last few weeks we have attended several ceremonies for the distribution of the Wheelchairs to the handicap and several more ceremonies for the distribution of the Humanitarian goods to the needy. It’s always humbling to be apart of that. But, the thing we enjoy the most, is going into the individual homes, meeting the families and getting to visit with the people. That’s the most rewarding part of our work…….Seeing lives change and hope given to those that have so little. We are blessed to represent all those that give to the humanitarian cause throughout the world and witness those that benefit from their giving.

Yesterday we were in Al Himma making another inspection of the water project. The temperature in the Jordan Valley was way up in the 100’s with lots of humidity. It never occurred to me that Jordan would have this much humidity! But it does! Jordan has such a variety of terrain and weather. It’s one of the things so intriguing about Jordan. The villages we are doing the water project in is within throwing distance of Israel. The Yarmouk River, which is very low at this time, is the border between Jordan and Israel in the north. On Israel’s side is a huge Banana tree Farm. It’s an impressive site. The contrast of green against the brown barren mountains is shocking! It is a perfect rectangle shape on the side of the mountain that you can see for miles and miles as you come over the opposite mountains into the valley. We have been spending a lot of time trying to get this project up and running. It’s finally starting to come together and should be completed within the month! So many obstacles along the way! So many things out of our control! Who would have thought this would have taken this long? Not us! But we have been told by the water specialists that water projects usually take over a year and more. But, you know how dad is? When he starts something he is determine to get it done! We have learned so much about things that we would have never expected to be involved with.

Last Saturday we had another Humanitarian Container come into Jordan. We distributed this one to the villages near the Dead Sea. It was so hot! We had to wait 4 hours for the truck to get there. The truck broke down on the way up from Aqaba. What are we going to do with these truck drivers? It’s always something! But after the truck finally got there we unloaded the whole thing in 2 hours. Our record! Everyone was great! This was the best container yet! Every society working together…. helping each other load their individual trucks to take to their communities to distribute.

We are approaching Ramadan. Starting Monday the Muslims have a 30 day fast which is called Ramadan. They fast each day between sunrise and sunset. During the night they feast and celebrate with their families and friends. I remember last year right after we got here it was Ramadan. No body is allowed to eat in public even if you aren’t Muslim. We heard of several incidents last year of people being put in jail because of being seen eating in public. Everything slows down during this time because most people are home sleeping during the day until it is time to break their fast which they call “breakfast.” All through the night there will be big celebrations in the streets with shouting, loud music and lots and lots of food! Oh well! We are getting use to all the celebrating that goes on around here! We just turn our fan on high, close the windows and sleep with a pillow over our head instead of under.

We pray that all is well with you. We enjoy hearing from you and appreciate getting news from home. It’s nice to feel somewhat connected!
Thank you for you prayers and the support we feel from you. We have been blessed and we have been stretched!
I like this quote.....

“To get you from where you are to where the Lord wants you to be
Requires a lot of stretching ……and that generally entails some
discomfort and pain” Elder Richard G. Scott

We love you!

Love, Your Jordan Missionaries

August 9, 2008

2008-08-09T07:48:00.001+03:00

MarHaBa,

Another week already! Where does the time go? We just got back from a ceremony in a community call Manda. We were invited as special guests. It’s always interesting to go and see what happens. We were escorted by some of the local police. In truth, we had bodyguards! I ask….do we need protection? I think it was more a gesture of honor. We love these people!

We have been without water for 2 days now. Normally we get water delivered one day a week. It is pumped to the roof and stored in metal tanks. But with the water shortage we haven’t gotten water in 3 weeks. It’s becoming a real concern through out Jordan. We hope we get some soon. We have several 5 gallon jugs of water stored for this very reason. Thank goodness for listening to the Prophets! We have been really pushing to get the Water Project done this month. Not only for the water purification aspect of it, but the project will include several large water storage tanks that will be a major benefit to the people.

It’s late! And I’m tired……didn’t get much sleep last night. There was a loud wedding street party going on last night, or should I say into the early morning hours. All the normal celebrating!

We love and appreciate you all. Thank you for the support and love we feel from all of you.

Love,

Your Jordan Missionaries

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July 26, 2008

2008-07-26T07:43:00.002+03:00

Our Dear Family and Friends,

This week has been one of those weeks that kept us in a whirl wind. We just have to remind ourselves to laugh sometimes! We have come to expect the unexpected, but even when we prepare ourselves for that…… we still are surprised! How do we even begin to describe some of our experiences? I’ll try to give one example…… One of our projects is a Water Project in the very northern tip of Jordan, a very poor area with no clean drinking water available accept bottled water brought in from one of the larger cities an hour away. A real problem! We have been working on this project since October of 2007. Between the research we did, consulting World Water Experts, piles of legal paper work, Lawyers in 3 countries, Banks in 4 countries, the Jordanian Government, LDS Charity officials, Church Leaders, local Municipality, local contractors, the list goes on. We now have the green light to start! Send the money! We wait! And wait! But where is the money? NO MONEY? Somewhere between Salt Lake City, New York City, Frankfort Germany, London England, and Jordan, the money is lost! No one can tell us… or will tell us what has happened to it. With substantial sums of money being transferred from the USA going to a Middle East country apparently gets everyones attention! I mean a lot of attention! It’s probably accurate to say our names are on several agencies lists. After numerous international phone calls, emails and visit with the USA Embassy the money suddenly shows up almost a month later. We ask no questions. So, late last night we drive to Al Himma to finalize the contract with the money now available. Hooray!!!! So, that’s the condensed version!

We were able to finish up two other projects this week that we have been working on for a few months. Another Hooray!!!

Audiometer machine for testing the deaf and Sound Room Project for CBRC (Community Based Rehabilitation Center). We are very excited at how that turned out. We had some “opportunities” bringing the Audiometers into the country, but with the help of good people, knowing the right things and the right people, we now have it at the Center ready to train the technicians and start the testing process for the people of North Jordan.

The Princess Basima Leadership Training at JUST University. Yesterday we finished up our week at Jordan University of Science and Technology It has been a wonderful uplifting experience to interact with these young people.

Another adventure this week …. Back and forth to Amman dealing with Customs concerning another project. But, that’s a story for another time. We really are grateful for all we have been able to do and learn. It truly is amazing how the Lord qualifies us for His work. We often have to remind ourselves to remember the words of Thomas S. Monson.
“Don’t pray for the task equal to your abilities
But, for your abilities to equal your task”

We thought you might be interested in our Branch Newsletter. Perhaps it will give you an idea of our little group here in this part of the world. We pray that the Lord’s blessings will pour into your lives. We miss you and think of you often. Thank you for your prayers and support!

Love,
Your Jordan Missionaries

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July 18, 2008 Friday

2008-07-18T07:38:00.002+03:00

I was sitting down to write some of our experiences this week. I haven’t been very good over the last few months about just writing. So I thought I’d send some of our journal summary entries. It’s not about projects. Mostly about people and events.

After church (Friday is the Sabbath in Jordan) we decided to visit some of the members. We didn’t have a very good turnout at church and perhaps part of the reason was that it has been around 100 degrees over the last few days. Weather here is often a big factor in getting the people to attend. If it’s too cold and windy they don’t come….if it’s too hot they don’t come. But it is that way with other things. I’m always a little surprised with this attitude. But, I have to remember that it’s part of their thinking and culture. We visited with Samoor and Hooda Tashman family right after church. They invited us for dinner along with the BYU students. I made a good American moist chocolate cake. The Jordanians love chocolate. But, of course who doesn’t? When we are invited for a meal, it’s always a huge feast! They keep piling the food on your plate. If you eat it too quickly they pile more on. If you don’t eat it fast enough they ask why you don’t eat and bring you something else. The people are so gracious. The Tashmans have declared us “family” and we love being with them! We laugh a lot and seem to understand each other even with the language barrier. Ibrahim, one of the sons who recently returned from a mission in Africa, speaks good English so he helps interprets for us when he is there.

We had some disappointing news came up in one of our conversation with one of the members. For the last 4-5 months we had a woman named Amill come to church with her 3 children. The last few weeks they have stopped coming. The children have loved coming to primary and have been wonderful to teach. Very sweet children! In fact, there were a few times that she couldn’t come but the children came anyway, I was a little surprise at that. When I asked Ban if she knew why they weren’t coming any more? She said….. “Oh, sister this is not good! She is a spy.” She goes on to say that she was sent from one of the other three Christian churches in our village to get names of everyone who was coming and find out what we do. I guess she was secretly taking pictures with her camera phone and taking the handouts that we had made for the primary children back to their leaders. So, apparently they are trying to start up a program like primary in their church. The interesting thing about this whole situations is that they preached very heavily against the Mormons, which has caused some problems for some of our members, and then at the same time want to copy some of our programs and activities. In any event, my heart sunk! I love the children and feel disappointed they won’t be coming any more. Who knows, maybe they felt something and some day other avenues will open up for them. We won’t give up on them! Our greatest persecutions come from other Christians not the Muslims. Jordan has a council of Religious leaders that determines what other religions will be accepted in Jordan. Jordan is made up of 95% Muslims with only 3 % Christians and the other 2% other religions. The Christian on this council are against other churches being established in Jordan. There are basically only 3 Christian religions acknowledge in Jordan, the Catholics, Baptist and Greek Orthodox. We exist only under the Center for Cultural and Educational Affairs and LDS Charities. We are in the process of trying to buy a building for the Center, which will be a big step for the Church to own property in Jordan. There have been some obstacles with some legal and Governmental issues but hopefully that will be resolved soon.

A few Fridays ago a young man showed up at church. He is 25 and has been a member for almost 10 years. Ibramhim, our young return missionary, saw him in town earlier that week and invited him to come to church. He DID! We spent several hours talking with him in English. He speaks very well and was excited to use his English. We were very impressed with him. We exchanged phone numbers and he invited us to go to his house to meet his mother and brothers. So, on our evening walk we walked over and had a wonderful visit with his family. This young man had a large envelope in his hands and started pulling out what appeared to be treasured items. He carefully unfolds his baptism and priesthood ordination certificates along with some other papers that he obviously valued, then, he reveals a CD of hymns and asked if we would like him to play it. At this point he begins to share part of his story. He is now serving in the Royal Guard as one of the security guards for the King and the Royal family, which is one of the greatest honors that a young man in the military can receive. I can see why he was chosen. He stands tall with a confidence that is striking, but not arrogant. His overall demeanor is impressive in the fact that he is pleasantly good looking, but approachable, and at the same time leaves you to wonder…. that, there is much more to this young man than meets the eye. It’s a challenge for him to be allowed to come to church because of serving in the Military. Our Branch President was also in the military and several years before he was to retire he was ordered not to attend church or he would be dismissed with a dishonorable discharge and a disgrace to his country and family. So for 2 years he could not attend church. We are so blessed to have the freedoms we enjoy in the States.

A week of events.

· Witnessing a Muslim wedding celebration. One of our members, Virginia, is an American married to a Muslim. Her children are all raised Muslims, which is the law under the Islamic order. Her oldest daughter married 6 months ago but was not considered legally married until the wedding celebration. In the Arab culture the Groom pays for all the wedding. Including getting the brides make up and hair done. The bride is then made up in a full elaborate gown. She is dusted with a white glitter all over her body. During the week of various celebrations men and women are separated. At the final celebration it’s just the woman invited in with the groom and bride, where they sit on a special throne following the wedding march and ceremony. Men wait outside or in a waiting room because the bride is not covered. She is dressed in her wedding gown and only other women and the groom can see her uncovered. The grooms mother and sisters are all dressed in gowns because he is family and they can unveil in front of him. There is music, dancing, chanting, clapping and much celebrating among the women. Outside, the men the same kind of celebrating but add some fireworks, gun shooting and some fighting! This, I’m told! I wished I could have taken pictures, but it is forbidden because of the uncovered women.

· Birth of a baby girl Taakwa. Last Saturday we were working with one of our projects and we get a call from Wigdan, a good friend that is ready to have a baby. She needs a ride to the hospital. She has had 3 of her other children at home, but was having some problems with this one. This is her 6^th child. So we left our project and picked her and her husband up and took them to the hospital. She gets examined and told that she will have to be cut. So she tells us to take her husband home and asks if we can cone back tomorrow. We didn’t really know what was going on because of the language barrier. So before we knew it we were driving Abitarik home and leaving her there by herself to go through the birthing without anyone. I cried most of the way home. Just a different culture? We get a phone call at 7 the next morning telling us she had a baby girl and if we could pick up Abitarik and bring him back to the hospital. We do, and when we get at the hospital she is ready to go home. So we load up the cute little bundle and mom, along with the proud dad and take them home. It was a very tender time. I couldn’t help but think of my own grandchildren that have been born since we have been gone. I guess the Lord blessed us with this experience to help us feel not so left out.

This week has had its ups and downs. We have had some set backs with the water project and Audiometer project. But, it’s not an adventure ….unless you have the unexpected. That’s the thrill of the adventure, uh? Oh, and we are having a thrilling adventure! We are blessed in so many ways, and growing in so many. Would we have ever thought we would be here in Jordan? Doing what we are doing? Meeting the people we are meeting? Our lives have certainly been in enriched! We are grateful that we have been willing to take this step and trust the Lord. We dare not to think of what we would have missed…… if we had not taken the step into the unknown and have the thrill of the adventure.

We love you all. We miss you all. Thank you for the support and prayers.

Love,
Dad and Mom ....Your Jordan Missionaries.

June 25, 2008

2008-06-25T07:28:00.002+03:00

June 2008

MarHaBa….Keef Hal Leek

This has been a hard newsletter to get off. We have had some wonderful experiences this month along with some very heart wrenching experiences. Sometimes it is so hard to “get on with normal life” when experiences change you! We ask ourselves so often “Why have we been so blessed with so much?” More about that later! To start off …. We had a wonderful zone Conference in Egypt the beginning of the month (see the attachments). When we got back… it was “Catch up”. We have been finishing up some projects and starting others (more on the projects next time). We received a call from the Irbid Director of Social Development wanting to meet with us again. Mr. Ahmad Ishmarat had recently met with the Jordan’s Minister of Social Development, Hala Latoof. Now, you must know that this level of government controls all our comings and goings within the country of Jordan concerning Humanitarian efforts. So, we have been praying and working hard on developing good relationships with the Ministries. The new Minister is a woman and has just recently got back from the USA where arrangements had been made for her to attend BYU’s Women’s Conference and tour Welfare Square in Salt Lake. She was given several opportunities to dine with different church leaders. She has come back excited and educated with a different outlook of LDS Charities. She never imagined how big and world wide our efforts reach. We will be meeting with them in the next week and discussing several new programs that will involve the efforts of LDS Charities and the Jordan Government. It’s exciting to see the work move forward and opportunities open up. We often stand in amazement!

We have been meeting with many communities and their leaders in the northern part of Jordan over the last month. We have had a few very emotional experiences trying to help make changes for the welfare of these people. One, I will share, but will not go into much details, is a man of 68. We were taken to his place of existence, because that is all you could call it. He was lying on the ground in the cave-like shelter with nothing over him but a filthy shredded blanket with flies swarming around his lifeless body. His boney face was covered by tangled matted hair. The smell was horrific! He had evidently experienced a stroke and his family had just thrown him away, so to speak! In this culture one does not step into tribal or family affairs. But in this situation many of the community leaders had been secretively notified and they took us with them because they think we have “wasta” (someone who has pull and power) and no one would question us. What an emotional experience! Well, this man’s life has changed… from being at the bottom of life to having some hope and purpose to his life. I can’t begin to even describe the feelings, the time and emotion that this situation as brought us through. And this is only one person of so many, not only in Jordan, but throughout the world.

We are sending the attached newsletter with some reluctance because of the experiences that have followed our trip to Cairo. We feel so blessed, and feel so much gratitude for the opportunities that have changed our lives and hopefully have changed others.

We pray for you all. “ MaSaLaama”

Love,
Dad and Mom (Your Jordan Missionaries)

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Tuesday, June 3rd, 2008

2008-06-03T09:13:00.000+03:00

MarHaBa to all our wonderful children and grandchildren.

It's been a busy week. We are just getting over bing sick. A little food poisoning. NO Fun! But we are better now. Just in time to go to Egypt. We will be gone the whole week with training and some sight seeing. Fun Huh? Hope you all are well. We sure love you and constantly pray for you! We will report to you all when we get back to Jordan.

Love,
Dad and Mom

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Friday May 23, 2008

2008-05-23T21:08:00.000+03:00

Friday May 23, 2008

MarHaBa,
It’s a beautiful day today in Jordan…..wonderful weather with clear sunny skies and a slight calming breeze. The warmth of the sun fills our souls with such gratitude and peace. I’ve often wonder why we talk of the weather when we don’t quite know what else to say? But today the weather is a reflection of what I feel inside. The blessings keep pouring into our lives! We constantly stand in awe as we stop and pause to see how our life is unfolding. Over the last week we have witnessed many miracles of how the Lord directs the affairs of our lives and the lives of our family and friends. I don’t know why it surprises us sometimes! But, I feel humbled and blessed to recognize His power and His guiding hand in our life. I am reminded of a quote I recently came across …

You have God who hears you
The power of love behind you
The Holy Spirit within you
And all of heaven ahead of you

Today was our Sabbath. We had a large group of BYU students come up from Amman to attend our church meetings in Al Husn. There are 50 students here for the summer to continue their study of the Arabic Language at the University of Jordan. We will have a group of 15 every week taking turns to attend our branch. You could feel the energy from these young people. It was great! After church we invited those that came up to come to our apartment for dinner. Wow, did they eat! It was fun having English speaking people here, but all they wanted to do was use their Arabic. Oh well! I guess we will have company for “Friday dinners” for the next few months. It reminded us of our family Sunday dinners in Kentucky. It was wonderful! Oh, we sure miss that!

We continue to stay busy. We have finished up a few projects recently and continue working on others. But, there are so many more out there. The hardest thing is to determine what the Lord wants… for this area… for this time. So we constantly pray for His “will” to be known, and how we best can serve!

We think of you all often. We love you and pray for you. Thank you for your support and prayers.

Love,
Your Jordan Missionaries

This weeks newsletter

May 12, 2008

2008-05-12T21:07:00.000+03:00

MarHa Ba

Just wanted to wish you a "Happy Mother's" day to all of you mothers. Hope you all had a wonderful day.

I've been trying to improve my computer skills. So what do you think? It's late and we got to get up real early in the morning to take care of Customs and Paper work in Amman for a container coming in, so this will be short, but attached is our latest newsletter. Sure love you and pray for you always!

Love,
Dad and Mom

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April 26th, 2008

2008-04-26T08:15:00.000+03:00

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April 18, 2008 Friday

2008-04-19T07:38:00.002+03:00

As Sa lamu Aleekum (Hello, Peace be upon you)

Well, it has been another week already! We are getting ready for our Zone Conference this coming week. We will be hosting the conference here again. We will have the new couple from Egypt, the couple from Syria and the new couple from Lebanon. There is finally a humanitarian couple back in Lebanon. It was very uncertain for a while because of all the unrest in the country. Remember, we were first called to serve in Lebanon. I’m glad we are here in Jordan. We have seen the Lord’s hand in this decision. I am truly grateful for knowing that. Isn’t it amazing how He works things out? I’m so glad He is the one really in charge. That is…. if we let Him!
We constantly look at each other and say…. “We are in Jordan”!

Today at church we showed one of the sessions of conference that was translated in Arabic, because none of the members had seen conference at all. We had to get it separately recorded in Arabic. When it started one of our members started crying because the voice she heard was her son (He was the one translating the Arabic for all the Arabic speaking members’ through-out the world) Houda has not seen her son in almost 2 years. It was such a treat to sit and watch the members listen to a voice they knew once belonged to their little branch. Dad and I followed the speakers with our notes we took watching it in English. When President Monson, President Eyring and President Uchtdorf was first called in February I printed out their pictures with their names and posted them up in the church so the members could see who their new First Presidency was. It was good to see them look at the video and then at the pictures and relate to who was who. We just take for granted what we know and understand.

We are grateful for the experience serving here. We are grateful for the restored gospel of Jesus Christ and to have the opportunities to feel His Atonement in our lives. We have seen it work! We have felt the power that comes in allowing Him to take charge and lead us though our uncertainties. We are truly blessed to feel His love and guidance in our efforts to serve here in Jordan. Particularly we are blessed to know He is watching over you, our children while we are away. That is a great comfort to us, to know you are all in “HIS HANDS” and under Heavens watchful eye.

We love you all so much! We pray for you and think of you constantly!

Thought:
"The Lord can do remarkable miracles with a person of ordinary ability
who is humble, faithful, and diligent in serving the Lord and seeks to
improve himself." President James E. Faust

Love,
Dad and Mom... Your Jordan Missionaries

This weeks newsletter

Friday, April 11

2008-04-12T07:29:00.003+03:00

Keef HaLeek…..

Today was our Sabbath. We had a choice experience today. We had a young man graduate from primary. Yay! He was ordained a deacon this morning. Since our little branch is a little out of the ordinary from some of the other units throughout the world it was decided to ordained and sustain him in sacrament meeting in the hopes to set an example to the others to follow and even some of the older men who have not received the priesthood yet. It was such a sweet experience to look upon his face and see his excitement. As he took his place in front of the sacrament table with much reverence and humility, I was struck with emotion. My thought was…… “here” is the future for Jordan.

These past few weeks have been a “roller coaster ride”. Starting with a three day experience with Jordan’s customs and the “Secret Police”, known as the MaHabRot . This is not your friendly neighborhood policemen. Hours and hours of questioning! I thought for sure Dad was going to be taken away to “who knows where”. We were trying to get some educational supplies that were sent from the USA into Jordan. The Humanitarian Department has a creative program for children and even adults to educate them with health issues. It is a puppet presentation with a fold out stage. The puppets have names such as Alcohol, Tobacco, Drugs ….. do you get the picture? Well, imagine those labels written on shipments papers coming into Jordan along with “The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints". Which we are not allowed to send any religious material into the country. No wonder, WE were being questioned and interviewed???? But, finally after opening the package, explaining the contents, allowing the officials to play with the puppets, many silent prayers and holding our breath.... then, a breath could be taken! All is well! Dad was able to “walk”. The supplier was NOT thinking, I guess? We are working with several communities who are planning Health Fairs. We suggested they use their schools and teachers to do this puppet demonstration to help educate their community. This is how it all started! (I know Dad sent you the written statement that he sent to our area office and then was sent on to Salt Lake to the Presiding Bishopric concerning this issue. Just thought you would like to know some of the story behind it.) It has been a learning experience for sure!

A few days after that ordeal we had a car run into the back of us. (That story is on the newsletter page) Then with several other “challenging” (as Granddad use to say) opportunities, we just felt like going home and hiding in our apartment. But we didn’t. We faced the sun …..and moved forward!

Well, enough of that. We sure love all of you and pray you feel the Lord’s love and strength in your daily lives. Thank you for you support and prayers.

Thought: "When you get knocked down....
The only way to stand ....
is to kneel."
Love,
Your Jordan Missionaries

This weeks newsletter

March 21, 2008 Friday

2008-03-22T20:13:00.004+03:00

MarHaBa…..

Today is Mother’s day here in Jordan. So, being in Jordan we wish all of you mothers a “Happy Mother’s Days. It’s hard to believe it is also Easter this Sunday. So … Happy Easter as well! We celebrated both today since it is our Sabbath day.

We have been blessed with beautiful spring weather and have been able to take walks after we get home in the evenings. As we walk we like to greet the people in Arabic greetings, but everyone wants to use their few English phrases with us so they greet us back in English. The most popular phrases are …. “What’s your name?” “How are you?” “I am fine, thank you?” It’s so sweet to hear them try to talk to us in English. We have been surprise how many people we come across that know who we are. But, I guess being the only Americans in a small town word gets around, uh?

It’s late and we have an early appointment in the morning. But, I want to express how much we appreciate the love and support we feel from you all. Most important the Love and support we have felt from the Lord as we struggle to understand our role in all this. I’m beginning to understand more and more the role the atonement has in my own personal life and in our family’s life. The miracle is that it works! How does it work? I don’t know? But, when the PEACE comes….. and, HOPE replaces the doubts and fears …… it is the tender mercies of the Lord….. It is the Atonement. The pure LOVE of ONE who has felt it all. For this, I am so grateful for. How could we do this without him? We often try though, don’t we?

We love you all so much and constantly pray that you will feel that. We know the Lord will bless each one of you and help you in all that you do. May we all trust in Him and feel His love.

“Remember who you are”

Love,
Dad and Mom .... Your Jordan Missionaries

This weeks newsletter

March 7, 2008 Friday

2008-03-07T07:24:00.003+03:00

MarHaBa….

This evening we got a call from our Branch President. He invited us over to visit with him, his family and other relatives. As we drove up we saw chairs and people every where. We looked at each other and just had to smile! Oh, the memories of being back in Kentucky on those warm Sunday evenings with chairs clustered together, good family conversation and laughter. It was an enjoyable evening as we talked… but mostly listening to the jabbering of Arabic and sharing the laughter. We thought of all of you.

Today after church we attended another Muslim wedding celebration out in the eastern desert. After we arrived I was escorted to the women, dad to the men. Of course we were fed and guess what? Yes, Mansif again. The bride was sitting on her throne in a white glittery gown. Yes, they have thrones that they sit on. They place them on a stage-like platform as the other women dance around chanting and admiring the bride. The bride looks like a porcelain doll. They powder the bride down with a white glittery powder and paint her face with heavy make-up. The hair is fixed up and she is adorned with gold jewelry. Most all of the other women will take off their head dresses and let their hair fall loose. This is the one time they can dress in gowns and other party dresses. Of course there are no men allowed. After the celebration everything gets put back on and the women are then covered from head to toe as they leave.

We got two more projects approved this week. One will be a Health Fair in a community called Fayha and the other is another Wheelchair container. We are staying busy and trying to be productive and wise in our efforts. Keep praying for us!

Today was warm and spring is in the air. It’s exciting!
We sure love you all. We miss you! Have a wonderful week!

Quote: "The harder the conflict the more glorious the triumph ......
What we obtain too cheap we esteem too lightly."

Love,
Dad and Mom.... your Jordan Missionaries

This weeks newsletter

February 29, 2008 Friday

2008-03-01T02:14:00.003+03:00

MarHaBa ……Keef Hal Leek?

The end of February all ready? Where does the time go? It is so hard to believe we are approaching March with Spring on the horizon. We are told that Jordan is beautiful in the spring with green covering the country side with the accent of beautiful colored wild flowers. It is already starting to get green here. It doesn’t look like the same place. We love our drives through-out Jordan and seeing the different areas that make up this wonderful country, the mountains to the deserts…… the valleys to the rolling hills. But every place has its share of rock and stone. We have enjoyed a few warmer days lately with the sun shinning and the temperature getting warmer. It’s great to feel warmth again.

Great news! We just got our big water project approved through Salt Lake. It first had to go through Germany and the area President then to the Water Specialists and finally to Church Head Quarters. It’s been a long process. We have been preparing and working on it for the past few months. We are excited to get started and put the plans in motion. This will be the first for Jordan in that area. Clean water is a real concern here. If this is successful it will be a pattern for many others through out the Middle East.

Elder Robert C. Oaks our Area President will be here in Jordan tomorrow. We are looking forward visiting with him. We will only have him here a day. He is touring all the Middle Eastern countries. There are some real concerns with Lebanon and Syria. Trying to determine whether putting missionaries back in those countries or not. Remember…. we were first called to serve in Lebanon and then we were changed to Jordan. We will see what happens! We are grateful to be here in Jordan and having the opportunities we have had so far.

We are so blessed. We often ask ourselves….. Why us? We have grown and stretched in so many ways. We have learned a lot and often don’t feel qualified to do the things we have done. But, we keep trying! And keep learning! I love the quote from Pres. Monson. Which has become a constant prayer of ours.

“Don’t pray for the task equal to your ability…..
But, for your abilities to equal your task.”

We love you and miss you all.

Love,
Your Jordan Missionaries

February 23, 2008 Saturday

2008-02-24T06:10:00.002+03:00

Grandparents again! Congratulations to Nathan and Jani. Our 9^th grandson and 14^th grandchild…… what a cutie! Eli John Cotton. Dad was very touched and got quite emotional saying the name and looking at his cute picture. We are indeed blessed!!!!!

This week marks our 6^th month into the mission. We got about 6 e-mails from different missionary couples we were in the MTC with. After reading some of their experiences we feel very fortunate to be here in Jordan. We have had so many opportunities to be involved with many good productive projects. It seems that is not the case in some of the areas of the world. We feel very blessed to be so busy! Even when there are days we might think different.

Our 2^nd wheelchair container came with no real problems. The distribution went well with only a few little aggravations. But, after the last one we have nothing to complain about, right? This week has been full with getting the wheelchairs out to the people. We went to a wheelchair ceremony in the Mafraq desert. It was quite impressive. As we drove up into a large field looking out over the desert, there in front of us were huge tents set up with runners of colorful flags flapping in the wind and draping across the ceremony area. Large pieces of carpets laid over the dirt that indicated the path we were to follow. I don’t know where they got all the carpet, but I bet there were many homes in the area with bare floors and empty rooms. We were led to one of the tents with several soft chairs and sofa’s lined up in front with bright red pieces of material placed on each seat. Hands were stretched out with the motion that we understood that this was our reserved seats…… we were 2 of the honored guests! After the ceremony, of course, we were invited to eat a feast. Mansaf …....again! We should feel honored. This is the dish that is to be the meal of all meals. Not our favorite! It is said that….. “it is all in the presentation”. The presentation is quite the ceremony. The meal is brought in on huge round trays that are set before you. The meal is hidden under large thin sheets of bread that are draped over a goat head. The head is set in the middle of a mound of rice as the skeleton jaws gape wide opened. Then with a sudden jerk of the bread being snatched away….. the head is unveiled and the steam from the rice finally escapes. Surprised? Only if the eye balls are still there! Now, that’s when we decline the honor of being honored. We draw the line with eating the eyeballs! We wanted to get pictures but it didn’t seem appropriate at the time. Last night we were guest at another dinner and were offered the tongue. Another honor! We never know what is in store for us. We just smile and take a deep breath!

We hope all is well with you. We sure love you and pray for each of you daily

Thinking of you always!

Love,

Dad and Mom

Your Jordan Missionaries

This weeks newsletter

February 15, 2008 Friday

2008-02-16T02:58:00.002+03:00

Hello….. yes, even in Jordan this is a common greeting, but add the Jordanian accent,

Hope all of you had a wonderful Valentine’s Day. I woke up and there sitting on the counter was a red rose from your dad. I don’t know when or how he managed to get it…. I won’t even ask, but I was impressed.

We just got back from visiting some families in the Branch. The Tashmans had invited us for Mansaf. A typical local dish of rice and lamb/chicken with a strong yogurt sauce that usually smells so BAD that it is even hard for Dad to get passed his nose. But we do our best! Like we have said before, the people here are so kind and gracious and always inviting us to eat. After dinner Dad got caught up in a friendly game of UNO. I laughed so hard! What a fun family! We speak very little Arabic and they speak very little English but we seem to understand each other. Some things are universal.

Tomorrow we finally have our 2nd Wheelchair Container being delivered out in the East Desert of Mafraq. We are relieved that this one has come without any real problems. But the real test will be tomorrow. We will start early and it will be an all day project to unload and distribute 250 wheelchairs to all the NGO’s and Societies. Making sure that the right sizes go to the right places will be my job. Dad will take care of un-loading the container. Sounds like fun, uh?

We hope all is well with you. It is so wonderful to get your emails. We enjoy feeling like we have had a nice visit with you. It’s such a great and easy way to communicate. What a blessing to be able to sit down and say what’s on your mind and send it with just a push of a button. Modern technology, Isn’t it amazing?

We send our love and prayers. We appreciate all of you and thank the Lord for blessing us with so much. Have a great week.

Love,
Your Jordan Missionaries

Here's this weeks newsletter

Friday 9, 2008 Saturday

2008-02-10T00:33:00.001+03:00

As -Sa Laam Aleekum

Let me begin by saying how grateful we are for the blessings we have.... Our family, friends, health and the knowledge we have of the Savior Jesus Christ. This past few weeks have been a little emotional. I'm not sure why. It's been a time of reflection and soul searching. I remember as a young mother feeling frustrated and wishing I could "be there" for all my children in all that they did and all that they were involved in... But having 8 active children that was not possible, and even now it is still not possible. In every stage of life we come to... there is an "evaluating point", and we have to decide how we go forward. Whether in a physical way, or an emotional way I've come to realize that "change" is an important part of the Lords Plan. We are given those periods to make changes and to improve. To you, my children, how I wish I was there to help each of you. My feelings are much the same that I remember as that young mother. The one difference is.... being so far away I know I can't be there right now. I am constantly praying for each one of you and each one of our sweet Grandchildren. We love you all so much! The comfort that comes to me is I know the Lord is guiding this family in all the changes that are going on in each of our lives. It is truly a blessing to have children that love one another. Who are each other's friends. Who are willing to help and support each other through the "changes". I certainly know it is not always easy or convenient. So, I thank each of you for being the people that you are. I've asked myself.... "if I knew what would be going on during this time would I have gone on this mission?" I won't answer that! I'm just glad the Lord gave us the conformation that it was time to go. Aren't we glad that the Lord knows the beginning through the end? Aren't we glad that it is HIS plan we are trying to live and know it will "all work out for our good?"

My prayer is that you will all constantly feel our love and our support no matter the distance. We in turn are constantly feeling each of your support and love no matter the distance. We are grateful for this opportunity to serve in Jordan. We are grateful to be having the experiences that cause the 'stretch marks' and reminds us that we are growing. Thank you for your good examples. I pray that you feel the strength of the Lord in each of your lives and know He is very mindful of you and what you are going through. He is very near...... and that is the real comfort that I seek for each of you.

Quote "Enjoying each day is an opportunity. But worrying about
the things and events that make up each day is a choice."

Love, Your Jordan Missionaries

Here's this weeks newsletter

February 1, 2008 Friday

2008-02-01T06:55:00.001+03:00

As-Sa Laam Aleekum (Greetings, Peace be upon you)

We’re back!...... It has been a few weeks since we have sent out our “Jordan Missionary news.” I don’t know how time can go by so fast. The days are filled with so much to do. This past week as we have been out driving around Jordan we have spent time reflecting on the service that our dear Prophet has given throughout his life. What a tremendous example of service in action. We appreciate all of you that thought of us over here and took the time to email us the news of his passing last Sunday. Thank you!

We had our district conference a few weeks ago with Elder Kopescke. It was wonderful to be instructed and edified! We have had the opportunity to have him here several times over the last few months. I guess the Middle East continues to be of great concern because we are constantly being checked on and watched over. It’s good to know we are being “watched over” as we try to “watch over” and serve the people here in Jordan.

The other missionary couple, the Dews that were serving here in Jordan has recently gone home. We will miss them. They are not being replaced. So we have spent that last few weeks going through all the “stuff” that has been accumulated over the past few years by the different missionaries. What a job! We’ve been sorting through boxes and boxes of papers that have represented the files of humanitarian records, and church related material, not to mention all the other stuff. Being Country Directors of Jordan has had its opportunities! It’s just taken a lot of time and concentration to get everything updated and organized. BUT… I’m beginning to see some noticeable results. You know me…give me something to do when I see the “before” and “after” results…. I’m driven! Dad’s been teasing me about that!

I was reading some words of Dad’s that he wrote down in our “Quote and Thoughts” book today. I thought I’d share one of his thoughts. Remember how Dad is always writing thoughts in his planner?

"I love to fish. I have come to know that Christ does too. If I will let him,
He will take me fishing to lakes that I never knew before." JFC 12/1/07

Just something to think about! We sure love you all. Have a wonderful week and "remember who you are"!

Love,
Your Jordan Missionaries

Here's this weeks newsletter

January 11, 2008 Friday

2008-01-11T06:49:00.000+03:00

As-Sa laam ALeekum ....Hello, Peace Be Upon You

Can you believe it is already mid-January? This week we have hit the ground running! With the Muslim holiday Eid over and our Christmas and New Year behind us now we are back to work and catching up with reports. We had many good opportunities to give during the holidays with heaters, blankets and Humanitarian kits. So many grateful people! We had asked our church members to think about some families in their neighborhoods that were in need. We told them we had set aside some humanitarian items that we had ordered in our last container so they as families could go and seek out those in need and distribute the items as they saw fit. I think some were a little surprised that they were given that opportunity. We have felt strongly about getting the members more involved and helping them serve others. It is often very hard for them to think past their own needs and their own 'wants.' But by recognizing the needs of others they will realize how blessed they really are, and by serving.... they become more aware of others around them and learn to 'love' with action! It's a win-win situation! The people that live here know the needs better than us.... we just need to help some of them want to reach out and give!

We pray that all of you are off to a good new year and enjoying the opportunities of setting goals and planning "new beginnings" I have always appreciated the New Year tradition of setting new year resolutions. It's like having a new start or new beginning in life. Somehow it brings 'hope' and 'excitement' as we challenge ourselves to be better. I love the statement that Elder Neal A Maxwell said, "God loves you to much to leave you where we are now... He knows you and what you are capable of." I find much comfort in that statement along with other quotes that I
have kept in my scriptures and read often.....

"Remember... Life is a journey.....we are not here to stay. We are not here to stay in the same place, the same situation or the same phase of life. We must move on! So much of who we are is where we have been." -Pres. Hinckley

"The reason why we are here.... is to see if we still choose His plan"

Well, excuse me for getting off on all that. I think it is mostly for me.... to remind myself of what I want to do, and to be, as I strive to become a better person in the year 2008. Thank you all for your goodness and all the support you give each other and us, your Jordan missionaries. We love you all and pray that this year will be your best ever!!!!

Love, Your Jordan Missionaries

2008-01-04T06:47:00.000+03:00

MarHa ba.
Hope you enjoy the pictures and our account of the past few weeks with Laura.

Merry Christmas!

2007-12-21T21:18:00.000+03:00

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL !

We wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a joyful filled New Year. Dad and I have felt so many blessings this past year and constantly realize how truly blessed we are to have the children and grandchildren we have. As we reflect on the birth of the Savior and recognize the blessings that each of us have as a result of his life, I am humbled by His sacrifice to all of mankind. Our time here has greatly increased my appreciation for the love the Lord has for all His children all over the world. May we all feel His love in our lives as we strive to serve one another in all we do. I love this time of the year!

It is really very hard to believe Christmas is in just a few days. We just put up a small Christmas tree that was left here by one of the past missionaries. It has been so busy that we haven’t had much of a chance to do that. But we finally put one up, and now it seems a little more like Christmas around here. I pray you all are enjoying the holiday feeling of this special time of the year. Our Christmas gift is having Laura come. We are so excited to have some family here to share this season with in this holy land of Jordan. It has been very humbling to realize that we are not far from the birth place of the baby Jesus. The tradition here in the Middle East is that the Christ child was born in a cave. There is not an over abundance of wood or trees around here and the land is very rocky. Everything is made of stone or rock. As we have traveled around the country and have visited some of the historical sights and seen the ruins of the past civilizations, it is easy to understand how this tradition has come about. The stables were built in the side of the hills or mountains out of the rocks. The stables were often built as the foundation of the cities as it gradually went up the hill sides. This is where the residents or traveler would put their animals before they came into the city. Also, in many of the cities small shops and trading centers were set up the same way, to catch the people as they went in to town. It has been very interesting to see the culture and understand some of the traditions of these people. The scriptures have come alive to us as we begin to understand more and more about the traditions and culture of the people from the Old and New Testament area. In many ways some of the customs have not changed over time. The parables of the Olive trees have much more meaning and understanding as we have been able to witness this process. The Olive Tree pruning is very remarkable! The sheep, goats and the shepherd analogy has much more meaning as we daily see the lone shepherd on the hillsides watching his flock from sun up to sun down.

Not only is this the time of year that we as Christians celebrate the birth of the Savior it is a time that the Muslims have a big holiday called Eid. Many animals are being sacrificed during this time, sheep, cows and camels. Mostly sheep! I have never seen so many sheep in my life. All penned up in small temporary fenced in pens, waiting for someone to select them for their sacrificed offering. The custom is to sacrifice an animal of great worth. For some it may be a lamb, for others a cow and for the very rich, a camel. They slaughter the animal and keep a third of the meat for their own family, the other third is given to extended family and the last third to the poor of the community. The other day the phrase…”as a lamb led to the slaughter” was permanently printed in my memory. We watched a large sheep taken by two small boys each grabbing a front leg and leading it to the place of sacrifice. The sheep hobbled along, and then gently laid down as the older gentleman, took the blade of his knife and proceeded to finish the sheep for sacrifice. It happened so fast with no resistance from the sheep.

A few days ago were invited by one of the organizations we have worked with to visit one of the hospitals to give small gifts of flowers and candy to the patients. Very much the same custom we have at Christmas time to visit the less fortunate. We met the hospital administrator along with some businessmen and a reporter for the newspaper. We paraded in and out of the hospital rooms taking pictures. We felt very uncomfortable so we stayed back from the group and visited with the patients and enjoyed shaking or holding their hands and greeting them the best we could with our small bits of Arabic. I am constantly surprised at how these people treat us like we are someone of great importance. As we visited with many it touched my heart to see the condition some of them were in. One of the women grabbed my hand and said "Shookrun" over and over again- which means "thank you" she started to cry. All I could do was lean down and kiss her checks and tell her "Shookrun"!

We have had so many wonderful experiences these past few weeks. So many I can't begin to share. I wish I could express the feelings we have for these people. But I know that many of you know what I mean as you reflect on your own missions and how you loved the people that you served. I know why we do this... because we begin to learn to love as the Savior loves. As we became parents we understand some of this but as missionaries we begin to know it in a broader sense. We will be forever grateful for this opportunity and pray we can make a difference... somewhere... for someone here and there.

I know Dad wrote yesterday and sent some pictures. We also wanted to attach a few more with this email. As Dad said in his email we hope this finds you all well, happy and healthy. We pray for you and think of you often. We love you so much!

We also have been asked to include many of you on our weekly letters to our children we hope all is well for you and your families. May we all have a wonderful Christmas and Happy New year. WE LOVE YOU ALL!!

Love,
Your Jordan Missionaries

2007-12-21T08:36:00.000+03:00

Overlooking the Sea of Gallilee

Mark, Keef Hal Lek,( How are you)

2007-12-18T08:33:00.000+03:00

Hope this find you and your families well. Robin and I are fine and enjoying ourselves greatly. We are looking forward to have a wonderful Christmas in the Holy Land of Jordan. One of the things we are going to do is go to a mountain over looking Jerusalem from the Jordan side of the river and watch the lights of Jerusalem come on after a sunset. Even though the Muslims don't celebrate Christmas , they have a big holiday awaiting the new year. It is called EID Al Adha and they sacrifice a lot of sheep and goats. They keep half for their family and give the other half to the poor as a gift. Robin and I have seen thousands of sheep and goats being penned awaiting their fate for the holidays here in Jordan. As for us, we will have a good beef roast and some pie. (Even though, I have come to like the taste of sheep meat when we have eaten at some Jordanian homes). We have met some wonderful people and have come to realize that people all over the world can live in peace (if the news media will not tell us differently). We appreciate each of you and enjoy your letters.

We pray that you will have a wonderful Christmas and New Year.

Sincerely,
John and Robin Cotton

2007-12-11T22:13:00.000+03:00

Robin and I just got back from a day of wheel chair distribution to some charitable organizations in north Jordan. It has been a good day. Tomorrow we drive to Amman and pickup our area supervisors from Frankfort Germany who are here in the country for a review and somewhat of an audit. They are the Heisses from Utah. We are expecting to work them hard and show them what we are doing. Here are a few pictures I took today while we were working, and one of mother making a pie for the Heisses. As you can tell from the kitchen, she is in heaven. We have a nice upscale apartment here in Al Husn that reasonable compared to US standards... ($475 month).

Sure love you guys and look forward to us calling every now and then.

MarHaBa, Keef Hal Leek?

2007-12-09T02:58:00.000+03:00

MarHaBa, Keef Hal Leek?

Has it been a week already? The weeks are going by so fast. But some of the days seem to drag on forever. That doesn’t make any sense, does it? But I’m sure some of you know what I mean! We have had some good things happen this week. We were able to get most of the things done for the Orphanage this week. It was so humbling to watch the faces of the children and the Nuns as we delivered all the bunk beds and clothes cabinets. In Jordan none of the homes build closets in the bedrooms. You purchase separate clothing cabinets for the clothes. Of course many of the homes are only tents and shacks. It still amazes me how some of these people live and stay warm in those shabby homes with winter arriving in full force. Even the concrete homes stay so cold because of no built in heat. Most of the homes are heated with little propane heaters. Thank goodness the Orphanage was able to build in wall Water Heating Systems which they will only use a few hours a day. We also were able to furnish a large capacity washing machine, which isn’t that big compared to what we have in America. One side is a tub and the other side is the spinner. It reminds me of our portable compact washer machine we got for our apartment when we first got married, 37 years ago. There is no such thing as electric dryers here. Well, in Amman, but to the rest of Jordan, Amman isn’t even considered “Jordan”. The locals here make the statement… “There is Jordan and then there is Amman”, Amman is NOT Jordan. Oh well. It has been a wonderful experience working with the Orphanage. We have made good friends. I think the biggest thrill for the Nuns was when we brought in the kitchen appliances. A large gas stove with a large oven, refrigerator, but the highlight of it all seemed to be the chest freezer that we surprised them with. They were all so appreciative. The children were running from one thing to another. Full of smiles and eyes wide with wonder!!!

A few days ago we went and visited with a society in Aljun. A village settled in the mountainous area of Northern Jordan. We met in a very humble shop with a Muslin Man and his wife. The woman was dress in all black covered from head to toe. The only thing that was exposed were her eyes and hands, which is very common here in the more rural areas of Jordan. The women are totally covered. As we sat and talked with them through a translator it struck me with great emotion as I could see the kindness in her eyes, and as I looked down, the hard work in her hands. The biggest challenge is knowing what we can do to help these people help themselves. We are learning how to assess the areas and the circumstances, and get them to come up with some ideas of their own. From there, work on a plan together where they can feel a part of the
solution and sense some hope and success. Isn’t that such a gospel principle? We are beginning to feel a little smarter in our efforts to serve. The miracle in this work is seeing how the Lord works through us, as simple common people who can make a difference when the Lord is directing the moves!!!

Happy Nuns are always enjoyable to work with along with our interpreter Magdee.

Mom is a magnet for children. Where she goes they go.

It is interesting how different each day can be. One day we are working with the very poor in very humble circumstances. They next day or even later in the same day we are meeting with Judges and Parliament members. Presidents of Universities and Doctors or Hospital Administrators. All wanting to help make a difference in the lives of others. It is wonderful to be apart of something that brings so many different kinds of people together for the same cause. We have wanted to get the members of the church involved in giving service. Many have very little of their own and often don’t think of reaching beyond themselves because of that. But there are a few that think beyond their own circumstances, and are very caring and wanting to help their neighbors. So we had a project where we got heaters, and we got a container with blankets and coats and other much needed supplies and asked them to think of people they knew who were in need of these things. We have been able to go out with many of them and provide some immediate relief. It’s been a wonderful experience to watch these families give, and not only see the happiness of the receiver but the excitement and joy in the givers faces. It has increased the awareness to a higher level and it seems to be contagious with each act of service. The more you give the more you want to give. Another gospel principle! One of the families we went with took us to a small one room house where a mother and her children lived. The Father had abandoned them a few years earlier when he decided to marry his wife #2. In the Muslim culture a man can marry up to 4 wives. There are no laws to protect the woman and children if a man decides to totally leave them without any financial help. They are still married but... This mother works at one of the schools cleaning and after that she finds odd jobs to help support her little family. A hard life. My heart aches for so many of these good people.

Tomorrow we leave early to go to the Jordan Valley. We have another meeting with Mayor Rafa’ to work through some more details to get this Water project off and running! There are so many things to consider and learn. We have been communicating with the Water Specialist assigned to us through Salt Lake. He has been very helpful and supportive. In fact they have learned a lot from each other. You know your Dad. When he wants to know something…. he researches, studies, and asks a lot of questions. He has learned a lot about this particular Water Treatment system that we are proposing for this area. This kind of system has not been done through the Humanitarian Department in any other area throughout the world. This is a first! Less expensive with no drilling. This will be a “pattern” for other areas in the world. If it works and is successful we will be doing many more like it. This has been a good experience for Dad and a lot of work for us! I think this has been a little surprising to see the information and knowledge that Dad has acquired about this process in such a short amount of time. Oh well, time will tell.

We are so grateful for the experiences and the blessings of serving. We love you all so much. We pray for you & know that you are all in good hands…THE LORDS HANDS!

Love, Your Jordan Missionaries

Pictures...

2007-12-09T02:00:00.000+03:00

MarHa Ba

2007-12-01T04:19:00.000+03:00

November 30 , 2007 Friday

MarHa Ba,

It has been another busy week. We have had a wonderful Zone conference with Elder Kopischke. What a privilege! We are so grateful to have the opportunity to be instructed and uplifted by one of the Lord’s servants. It has been a treat to get to visit again with the other country directors of Lebanon, Egypt and Syria. It is so beneficial to have these opportunities. We realize more and more what a choice opportunity that has been given to us to serve here in the Middle East. We still don’t know why *WE* are here, but we are trying very hard to “not get in the way of the Spirit”. The Lord is in charge! We just have to let Him lead the way...be willing to follow... and be willing to WORK hard!

This week we had a young missionary return to Jordan. Elder Ibrahim returned from serving in Ghana which was split, and then he served in the newly formed Sierra Leone Mission. It was so nice to finally meet Ibrahim. He is just as good as the reports we have heard about him. Maybe better! It is such a rare thing to have a Jordanian serve a mission and complete it. His family has been members for many years and he had an older brother serve and return from a mission also who now is at BYU. The Tashmans are such a good family. Ibrahim did not speak much English when he left but he was put with several American companions and they helped him learn English. He said by the time he was out 8 months he was doing pretty well with the Language. Ibrahim is having difficulty speaking Arabic now. He constantly is talking in English. His father and mother just patiently listen to the "gibberish" and wait until their son realizes that they can't understand him and then Ibrahim starts over in Arabic! It reminds me so much of Aaron, Nathan, Sarah and Alan when they came home from each of their missions. It is such a humble thing to watch those missionaries come home with so much humility. As we talked with him he made a statement that struck me with such emotion. He said, "My mission doesn't end today. This is the day I start my mission to my people." He will make a BIG difference here in this small Branch in Northern Jordan. I will share with you some of the history of some missionaries that were called from this area, then you will see what an accomplishment that this is for a Jordanian to go and return. Years ago when many people were joining the church in Jordan for various reasons, (not the right reasons) there were about 4 or 5 young men called during the space of several years. They left for the USA, to the MTC, and then on to their assigned missions. None of them finished. They all left their missions and stayed in the USA and haven’t been back since. The last missionary that was sent in 2002 never made it to the MTC. He got off the plane in Chicago, changed his ticket and went into hiding. Now that was shortly after 9/11. The church reported it to the FBI and there was a huge nationwide search for a young Middle Eastern man somewhere in the USA. It was not a good situation. They finally found the young man and after much interrogation he was sent home to Jordan. The church has never allowed any more Middle Eastern missionaries to go to the USA. In fact, it is a very long process for the young Jordanian man to be approved for any mission. It has to go directly to the First Presidency because of the past experiences. This is why it is such an accomplishment for the Tashman brothers to even go and especially return.

On Monday mornings, we are teaching several English classes at a private school. Last week we arrived early for the 8 AM class and the Superintendent invited us to come to the "playground" which is a very large pavement area where the 400 youth gather in rows from oldest to youngest, all in their uniforms. While the students stood at attention we listened to them sing their national anthem. This was followed by another patriotic song in which we recognized the words "Arabee" (Arabic) and "elordon" (Jordon) sung over and over. Those little ones really sang the songs with zeal. I still can see their faces and their standing at attention in my mind. It was very impressive. When we first walked out on the steps in the front of the assembly, many of the children came running up to shake our hands and speak their little bits of English. The little girls wanted to kiss me as they do on both cheeks. I think it is something they go off to brag about to the others who weren't so lucky! They are always so happy to see Americans. We are such celebrities here. As we stood there watching their presentation I had the thought flash through my mind "Where else could we be having such opportunities?" We are truly blessed to be here and to have all the wonderful adventures we are having here in Jordan. What will we ever do when we return home and again and become the ordinary home town folk we really are? We are teaching a class of 7th grade girls in this school along with several administrators and teachers. The plan is to teach them and then leave teacher and student manuals with them so they can teach the classes themselves. They separate the boys from the girls once they reach the 5th grade. These girls are bright, wide eyed, and very eager. They were chosen to have “the Americans” teach them because they were selected as the “top” in their classes. We tried to keep them busy and active because the cold weather is here and there is no heat in the buildings in Jordan, so they were wearing their coats and some of them had hats on during the class. We were grateful when we could get in our car and turn the heat on!

We talked to a “Water Specialist” who just returned from Africa that the church has assigned to us for our water project. It constantly amazes me the level and the magnitude that the church works through. In a week and a half we will have some authorities coming from Frankfort Germany to audit our files and records for the 2007 year and check on the projects that Jordan is involved with. We also had to give an accounting to Elder Kopischke when we had an interview with him. The Lord is truly “guarding” and “guiding” this work.

We are grateful for the opportunity to serve the Lord here in Jordan. We are truly blessed. We pray that you all are doing well and that this holiday season will bring you much joy and peace. It is a blessing to have you in our lives. We love you!

Love,
Your Jordan Missionaries

Quote repeat...
“Don’t get in the way of the spirit!”

MarHa Ba

2007-11-25T02:54:00.000+03:00

November 24, 2007 Saturday

MarHa Ba,

Keef hal ik? Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving! On Thursday we were invited over for Thanksgiving dinner by an American family, the Steeds. We had known the Steeds in Kentucky, while he was serving at Fort Knox. We had no idea that they were stationed here in Jordan. They have been here for almost for 3 years. He had heard that “John Cotton” was here from Kentucky, he got our number and sure enough we knew each other. In fact it was about four years ago their family had us over for dinner after we had made a visit to Brandenburg for some church business. Isn’t it a small world?

We are now trying to recuperate from the last few days of baking and preparing Thanksgiving dinner for the American Peace Core Workers. The food was great! I can’t believe we pulled it off. It was a true Traditional Thanksgiving meal with a few creative ways of making some things. It was very enjoyable. We didn’t have the 65 that we thought might come. We ended up having around 50. But we did have plenty of food for everyone. I couldn’t believe the piles of food on some of those plates! And they kept coming back for more! Good thing we cooked for an army. So many wonderful young people doing so many wonderful things! I think between the Traditional Thanksgiving meal and being able to visit with one another made it a memorial day for them. Most of them don’t have many opportunities to be with other Americans while they are here. It was fun to watch them interact with each other. They were all so appreciative. It was worth the lack of sleep and the hours of baking to see their faces.

The elections are over! I know it must seem silly to go on about some election, but it has been quite the experience! We were cautioned not to go out much on Tuesday while voting was going on. The people get a little crazy. The Jordanians will tell you that themselves. Let me give you an idea of what we experienced! The elections for the local Parliament positions were Tuesday. All day there were dozens of groups and supporters gathering in the streets. Not just along the sides but in the middle of the streets. There were many main streets we couldn’t pass through because of the mobs. I guess many were taking every opportunity giving last minute speeches and forming rallies to encourage votes. When night came and the votes were in and counted… then the real party began. As we sat at home working on reports and reviewing our day we could hardly concentrate. The noise was in full volume…..The sound of loud honking and revving of engines; cars and trucks racing up and down the streets honking their horns in unison. People running back and forth yelling and shouting in celebrating voices. While others were chanting and clapping as they danced in stepping rhythm. Many cars were just left sitting in the roads with the lights still on. Fireworks were going off and lighting the skies. The sound of gun shots blasting in the air. So much noise! When it was time to go to bed we couldn’t sleep! It was crazy and wild out there! Even the rain wasn’t putting a damper on the celebration! The Jordan people sure know how to celebrate. There were many huge feasts being prepared! We could even smell it in our closed up apartment! On Monday we saw the meat markets getting ready for the celebrations. Fresh whole skinned animals hanging and decorated for display with tails still attached. They keep the tails on to let the customer know what kind of goat or cow it is (or should I say was). The Shami goat is the “Prime choice”. It is saved for special occasions. Beef is an expensive meat and also used for special occasions. The owners stand proudly by waiting for the right person to come and make a purchase.

Well, we finally got our resident card. This has been a long process. We can now stay in the country. Then we go through the whole thing again next year. On Thursday morning before our Thanksgiving meal we had to report to the police and go through more series of filling out forms and going through more procedures. This time we were fingerprinted. Not just one, but all 10 fingers individually. Then we had our picture taken. We felt like we were about to be locked up. But fortunately we did not have to go through an interrogation with the secret police. We were warned that we probably would have to, but someone is watching over us.

The Water Conference was good. We learned some things that will help us with our water projects. We meet many people from all over the world. It is interesting that so many different countries were represented and the conference was here in Jordan given in English with no one else from the States but us. English is the universal language for sure! We were invited back next year and asked if we might give a presentation. Maybe by then we might know something! We just acted like we knew what we were doing!

This week will be busy. Starting Tuesday we have our quarterly Zone conference with Lebanon, Egypt and Syria. This will be our first since we have been here. It is in Jordan this time. Elder Kopischke is presiding from the Quorum of the Seventy. We have to come up with a power point presentation. Since Dad is Country Director he is reporting on Projects that Jordan has done for 2007. I have to do one on Transitional Records. Where is Aaron when I need him? We have had such little time to prepare for everything. And since it is here, we have meals to organize and workshops to set up. Some things don’t change, do they? Where does all the time go?

Well speaking of time. It is getting late and we have to get up early to be at an English class by 8:00. We are both so tired so we will say “Ma sa laama.” We are so thankful for you all. It is such a blessing to feel your love and support. Thank you! We have been blessed!

Love,

Your Jordan Missionaries

A few pictures...

" Vote for ME" ..... election stickers that were put on everything. This doesn't even come close to show you what is is really like!

Our local butcher Happy at work!

Mar Ha Ba

2007-11-17T05:30:00.000+03:00

November 17, 2007 Friday

Mar Ha Ba,

This letter has been a little hard to think about writing. I haven’t known how to start or really what I want to write this time. This past week has been very emotional for me. Sometimes I feel like I am watching someone else live my life and I have been removed from the reality of what’s happening. I’m not sure why I have felt some uncertainty, or why I have not looked forward to writing this week’s newsletter. But, like with anything we don’t feel like facing it’s time to just DO IT!

I’ll start with expressing my love and appreciation to the Lord for His “Tender Mercies”. Even with the news of my Dad’s death and the struggles that I wrestle with being so far away and not being able to do anything to help….. I have felt moments of peace and love. What a blessing! This week has been full of many wonderful opportunities for us as Humanitarian Missionaries. The Lord is constantly reminding us of how much He has His hand in this work. We have been working very hard on several projects and trying to get them approved through proper channels so we can actually get them completed and working to serve the people. The Orphanage has finally been approved and we are so excited about it. This Orphanage is in a mountain area called Anjara. The building has just been completed and now we will help with furnishing it for the young girls that will be living there. The girls are currently living with the Nuns and the numbers are increasing with each month. So this will be a wonderful thing for both the Nuns and the girls. A few weeks ago while we were visiting we met a young 16 year old girl, Kristine who just arrived from Amman. She was brought there because her American father had abandoned them and her mother died. She looked scared and angry. We went back this week and met with her again and she was doing much better. We used her to translate for us because she speaks a little English and the Nuns don’t. Father Hugo speaks a little but he is out of the country visiting his family in Argentina for a month. The next project we just got some approval on is a big water project in the North Jordan valley. We have met with many different people over the last month trying to get as much info as we can to get the right people involved. We got a call last week from Dr. Malkawi. He is a Professor of Geotechnical and Dam Engineering. He also is Vice Pres. of Jordan University of Science and technology. He had heard about us and wanted to meet with us. He speaks very good English and our visited was great. We discussed our interest in doing a water project in Jordan Valley and asked his opinion on a professional level. He was very encouraging and stated that the area we are considering is in great need of clean water. The area is very poor. He then invited us to the MENA Water Conference that is being held with Germany and the Middle East. He is the chairman over the conference and thought this could be very helpful to our work. So it looks like we will be sitting in on a 3 day conference this week with water specialists from Europe and the Middle East. So we will act like we know what we are doing. Dad has been reading and studying up on “Water”. We have had so many different opportunities and many varieties of projects to work on. We are learning a lot about a lot of different things.

We are meeting tomorrow with several different Societies to get another Goods Container and another Wheelchair container together. Hope we can have some success in getting this one through the Ministries this time. We should, because the elections will be over. YEAH! I am glad it is almost over. I don’t think this place could hold any more signs or posters. It is so unbelievable! There is not a flat surface in all of Jordan that does not have a poster stuck to it!!!!! We’ll have to send some pictures.

We are starting to teach some English classes to a private school and one of the Universities in Irbid. We enjoy this! We have met so many wonderful young people. They teach English grammar in the schools here but most of the children and young adult don’t have much opportunity to speak it. So we teach Conversational English and work on their pronunciation.

HAPPY THANKGIVING! It’s so hard to believe that it is almost the end of November already. We will be cooking a big Thanksgiving Dinner for the American Peace Core workers here in Jordan. They are so excited. Many don’t have much contact with civilization. We thought it would be around 35 but last count was 65! OH my! What have we gotten ourselves into? It has been interesting to try to find the ingredients for a Thanksgiving meal. Many things we will have to be very creative in coming up with something.We’ll give a report next week. Think of us while you eat that delicious Thanksgiving meal. We’ll think of you!

Well, I feel much better! Thank you all for the support and words of
encouragement. We love you all!

Love, Your Jordan Missionaries

2007-11-06T04:48:00.000+03:00

These first two pictures are us receiving a humanitarian trailer for 10 charity societies and unloading it for distribution

Us with The mayor of Al Himmra Community and NGO society president, (possible water project)

Us at Umm Qays Village a 600 ad old village over looking the sea of Galilee, Israel, Syria and Palestine. We were having a private dinner (because they want us to work with them). I had barbecue goat and lamb, mother had her chicken.

Jedayta village diaper re-mfg, by hand- How would like to re-make the diaper before you could use it!!!

MARABA... Keef hal leek?

2007-11-02T05:15:00.000+03:00

November 2, 2007 Friday

MARABA...Keef hal leek?
HELLO...how are you?

We are doing much better this week as far as Humanitarian work. We did get the Goods Container here. YEAH! We were a little concerned that there may be problems, but all is well! The container of Hygiene Kits, New Born Kits, School Kits, Blankets (wool and quilts), Clothes, Coats, and Shoes was delivered yesterday! Hooray!!! It was a very busy and hectic endeavor. We had a huge semi trailer packed to full capacity. We unloaded at one of the neighboring fenced in school yards so we could contain the unpacking process. We had 10 Societies receiving goods. All were there with trucks (Some I would question as such?) to haul their goods to their communities and Societies. It was quite the sight to behold. We had to make sure everyone was getting what they were allotted, which took some planning and organization. Of course some were not as content with what they were receiving and wanted more. Some things are the same no matter where you are, huh? But, all in all it went very well. We had some help from a few good men from the church who have helped with this kind of thing before. They were so helpful. I can’t imagine accomplishing all that we did without them. It was a long day! It is very humbling to see things from this end of the humanitarian chain. I have been involved with putting many Hygiene Kits, New Born kits and school kits together over the years. Even tying some quilts. But to be on the other end seeing them come into this country is such a wonderful feeling. These people are so grateful for these kinds of things. What a blessing to be able to experience both ends of this marvelous work.

After church today we went to a dinner appointment in Al Harima with General Soleiman Bawaneh, a retired 4-Star General in the Jordanian Army. We had met him and his wife several weeks ago and they invited us to their home to have dinner. We had a wonderful visit. What was so nice we were able to be in a wonderful home environment! We met their 7 children, 5 daughters and 2 sons, their ages 14-27 years. We were told again, that we are like Jordanian family with our 5 daughters and 3 sons. All the children speak English and are very well educated. The youngest son plans to go to the States for College. He is studying for the ToeGee which is the test that all last year high school students must pass to continue their education to the University level. It determines if they graduate from high school or not. They study for the full year, taking classes to help prepare them for this big test. It is such a big deal here. The General speaks fairly good English, but his wife very little. But in spite of our language difference me and Ferial have begun a good friendship and seem to understand each other well enough. We are meeting with them again on Wednesday. The General will take us to meet some of the NGO’s in that area. There are so many poor families in Jordan, especially in the small villages. We will take some Hygiene and school kits to the school that his wife works at, so she can distribute as she sees fit.

Another interesting thing that we have to laugh at... the campaign posters stuck everywhere. It is election time here and it is quite the sight to see. One thing I do admire the Jordanians for is how they honor their King. Every where you go. And I mean everywhere, there is a picture of the King. And in some cases the King, Queen and their children. Large permanent picture along all the streets, government buildings, stores and every home or office building there is a big picture of the King. Even in the most humble homes there is a picture of the King. Right now there are elections for Parliament positions, which I don’t quite understand how that works because even after the election the King has the final say. Well, back to the campaign signs. When I say stuck, I mean stuck, on everything you can imagine. We were out in the Eastern Desert early this week and we were trying to follow the road signs and couldn’t tell where we were going because there were campaign posters stuck right over all the road signs! All you see now days is faces of all those running for Parliament. They want to add their pictures along side the King. It is really something. I don’t know how it is going to get all cleaned up. We will see!

It is so hard to believe that November is already here. We are planning a big Thanksgiving dinner the Saturday following that Thursday for all the Peace Core workers that are working in Jordan that are from the United States. They seem to get very little support and many are working out in very remote places that they have little contact with civilization. We have met a few of them already and they are doing such good things for the people here. We plan on having around 25 as of last count. We will have it at the Amman Center as it seems to be centrally located for most of them who will be traveling long distances. We talked to one of them today and she told us that everyone is so excited to be able to have this opportunity. It will be an enjoyable time for us as well. We will miss being with our family but this will help fill the void of not being able to have Thanksgiving dinner with our own family.

Hey, I made Cotton Rolls the other day! I was very surprised that they actually turned out. They were a big hit! I really didn’t expect to be able to make or bake that sort of thing here. But if there is a will, there is a way, right? I was a little afraid of our gas oven. I thought maybe it would explode! The stoves are very different here. You know Dad, he was determined to get it working so I could do some baking. He fettled, and fettled with it and would not give up until he got it working with some efficiency. I think he was even a little worried about it exploding on me. We even found an oven thermometer...YEAH! Speaking of appliances. Laundry is a long, long process. We have a washing machine, which I am very grateful for. But it almost looks like a child’s toy. It is front loading and all you can fit in it is a few pieces of clothing at one time. Thank goodness we aren’t real big people or we would be in trouble. One washing load takes 2-2 ½ hours. Yes! But one advantage, it takes very little water and that is good because water has to be managed very carefully. We only get water once a week. The metal storage tank is on the roof and it is filled through holes from a big truck that pumps the water up to each tank. My dryer is on the roof also. It stretches from one end of the roof to the other. I have enjoyed hanging the clothes out on the line. The view up there is wonderful. I often gaze out across the land and I’m at awe with where I am. We can see for miles and miles. And as I look across at all the other roofs I see clothes flapping in the wind. I think, they're not so different than mine!

We are very grateful and feel so blessed to be serving and growing in so many ways
We love you and pray for each of you

Love, Your Jordan Missionaries

As -salamu Aleekum

2007-10-26T05:06:00.000+03:00

October 26, 2007 Friday

As -salamu Aleekum,

What a week! It’s been a real roller-coaster ride all week. A lot of “highs” along with some “lows”; Some good …some not so good. It is times like this that causes me to reflect on the many blessings we have as Americans. The privileges we are entitled to, and the opportunities we can experience through righteous leadership. I can't really share the not so good, but I will share the good news-

The good news is that we have met so many good, good people in Government positions here that also in their spare time work in the NGO’s and often because of their experiences serve as a Director or President. We spent all day on Thursday with one of these good Government Officials. A wonderful and caring man! He introduced us to his 2nd wife. He is Muslim and they can have up to 4 wives. He only has 2 and has 14 children between them. We met about 6 of them when he took us to his house later that day. He told us we were like Jordanians, we have many children also. We like to show off the pictures of our family. They really enjoy looking at all the blonde hair! We met in his office early that morning and he took us all around the Jordan Valley which covers the areas that border with Syria and Israel (Palestine). At one point from where we stood, we could've thrown a stone and hit either of those countries. We felt so official going through all the “check points” along the way. When they saw who we were with, we went right through! It still amazes me seeing the jeep-like tanks and machine guns lined up along the roads. We had wonderful visits with many new NGO’s. We have a lot of promising projects with a variety of needs. Our main focus for this area will be to organize a “Water Project,” that would serve 25,000 families and give them safe, clean water. This will prove to be very beneficial. We are working hard to make this happen. We are also making evaluations into establishing other goat projects, a Bee project, a Literacy program and a Diaper factory. There will have to be some training and careful monitoring. But if we can help people help themselves and give them hope for a better future we will be accomplishing what we are here for. What a blessing to be part of bringing hope!!! After visiting and making some assessments it was getting late into the day and the next thing we knew we were winding up the mountains up to Umm Quays which we had visited a few weeks ago when we had the Single Adult conference for the Middle East. The Mayor was giving us a private dinning experience, overlooking the beautiful view of the Sea of Galilee with the mountains and valleys far below. We drove through a back private entrance of the Historical Ruins (Roman city that Christ had supposable came to several times) the restaurant is built up on the top of one of the cliffs overlooking the whole Wadi (valley). What a breathtaking site! We were not expecting such a feast and such treatment. We are constantly humbled by the generosity of these wonderful people. Tomorrow we are having 146 kerosene heaters delivered to give to the Latino Catholic Church in Al Husan, The Greek Orthodox Church in Erbid and the Greek Orthodox Church in Amman to distribute to their needy and poor. We are trying to build good relationships with the other Christians in this area and enjoy helping them serve their people. Very few homes have heat. So you know Dad, he is not one to wait around until the knock is at the door. He wants it ready and in operational condition when “Mr. Winter” is beating on the door. Sunday we will go to Ajlun again and try to finalize the inventory for the Orphanage. I am very excited about this project. We love working with Father Hugo Semone and Mother Superior Maria. The Father is from Argentina. I thought Aaron would appreciate hearing that! He speaks many languages and is such a humble man! We hope to get these children in their new home before winter hits. This is just a few of the projects we are working on. We are staying busy and trying to represent the Lord in a way that His gospel is recognize even though we can’t preach in “word” we have many opportunities to preach with “works.”

Church went well today. We had a good turn out, considering. Last Saturday we had a Branch picnic and rented a bus to take the members on the activity (only 1 family has a car). Having that time together and letting the members visit must have helped because today we had one of the best turn outs since we have been here. Primary still has its challenges. I am very humbled to think that here in our North Jordan Branch of the church we are the only *all* Arabic unit in all the world. That puts me on my knees!!!!

We love you and pray for you! Thank you for all your prayers and support.

Love, Your Jordan Missionaries

AS-SA LAA MU ALEE KUM

2007-10-20T18:56:00.000+03:00

October 19, 2007 Friday

AS-SA LAA MU ALEE KUM (Hello…. Peace be upon you)

Another week, already! We first want to say “THANK YOU” to all of you that write us. What a blessing to feel such support and encouragement. It’s been wonderful getting your e-mails; we look forward to them so much. It’s great to hear what’s going on in each of your lives. It sure helps us feel connected and not so far away. Isn’t e-mail great?

We have had a good week. We have had the opportunity to meet with some of the Government Officials this week. Introducing ourselves and letting them know we are here in this area and what we are doing. The president of one of the NGO’s that we have been working with wanted to take us to meet the Governor of Al Husan and the Director of Social Development. Then we went to meet the Governor of Irbid. We had wonderful visits and hope to be meeting with them again soon. Irbid is supposable one of the largest populated cities in Jordan. I always thought that Amman was bigger. Amman is much more modern and has many more different cultures residing there, but Erbid has more people living in the city and the outlining areas. When we drive in the downtown sections of Erbid it is quite the experience. We see all variations of life styles. A live goat may be tied up in front of one of the small market shops and the next minute you don’t see it and then it is dragged back in front of the shop, dead, ready for gutting and being prepared and skinned right there on the street. The next shop might be a beautiful clothing store. Then the next could be a “hole in the wall" hardware store or fresh produce market. No rhyme or reason to the set up. There are so many different little markets and shops all over the city with the people living on top or behind/beside their business. I really don’t know how they all stay in business. But it seems to be a real social gathering for the owners and their families. If they don’t have enough change they run over to the next business and see if they have any. When you get outside of the downtown area the houses are clustered together throughout the countryside. Some live in tents, some live in very poor circumstances and then others have nice homes. There are a few people that have become rich because of the war and have come here to live because things are much more settled here than Syria, Iraq or the other Arab countries. That’s comforting to know. We are still on an on-going alert and have a plan to evacuate at any given time. Irbid is not far from the village we live in. We have some of our members of the church that live there and have to take taxis or the bus to get to church in Al Husan. It’s a challenge.

Ramadan is over. There have been celebrations going on all over the country. It’s one big party. We go to bed listening to loud music playing and fireworks going off. Gun shots blasting in the air with yelping and howling! This is the time for many weddings also. Yesterday we came home and heard drums playing from one of the neighboring homes. I looked out our kitchen window (we live on the second story of our building) and saw a large group of men filing out of the gate in one massive force, dancing and chanting down the street with the women and children following. It is the wedding dance for the groom and all the males gathered for the wedding celebration. It was so fun to listen and watch them. It was so impressive to watch them dancing in rhythm and listen to them chant their songs. It reminds me of "line-dancing” but much more rhythmic and Jordanian.

------------------October 20, 2007-------------------

It’s Saturday morning and I’m trying to finish this up. Our alarm went off this morning. Now, we have two alarms that go off at different times. One at 5:00 am... a loud speaker chanting a long on-going chant over a loud speaker from the nearby Mosque and the other is the bus starting at 6:15 with 4 rapid honks and then one long held honk that seems to last for minutes with another 30 seconds later. So we pick which one we want to get up to. Our problem? We can’t turn them off!!!!! The horns go off every 15 minutes or so for the rest of the morning till about 9:00. We live by a bus stop that picks up and drops off the university students.

Yesterday at church (remember Friday is our Sabbath day) we had a Peace Corp worker come with her father, mother and brother that were visiting from the US. We had them over for dinner after church along with 2 other missionary couples that were visiting. It was enjoyable having them over for the day. For a pre-dinner meal we served them some Zatiar (a spice that resembles thyme), some Jordanian bread (which resembles Pita bread), and some olive oil used for dipping (olive oil made from the trees that are grown here). The Zatiar is placed in a small community bowl and the olive oil is place in a small bowl and the bread is placed on a large platter so each person can take one and tear it in bite-sized pieces. Then you dip the torn piece of bread in the oil then in the zatiar and EAT! You never second dip, that’s the rule!! Cut some cheese and serve some fresh fruit. The Jordanian way to serve a guest fruit is to bring it out on an individual plate with a knife and let them cut it themselves. Dad loves it! This week our landlady, Zooha invited us over for a wonderful Jordanian meal. She is Christian, Catholic, does not speak English, is about 65 years old and has been a widow for 6 years. Such a wonderful person! We have grown to love her! She takes care of us...we take care of her. She has 3 sons who have all graduated from Birmingham Alabama University in the States and 3 daughters who are also very well educated and speak English. None of her sons live close by, but all her daughters live around this area. We have been so blessed to have such good living conditions.

It’s time to get back to work! Always something to do... somewhere to go... and people to see! We love you all and pray that you are all blessed with the strength and energy to go accomplish your dreams and righteous goals with a strong desire to make a difference. You are all so wonderful and have blessed our lives so much!

Love,
Your Jordanians missionaries

Quote:
“If you don’t stand for something…… You will fall for anything”

Pictures!

2007-10-18T01:32:00.000+03:00

Us at a 600BC Roman church and small city that is in the process of being restored. We had the privilege to tour how they were doing it and watched them dig. You ought to see the mosaic floor of tile they uncovered and even a stone coffin.

This is a picture of the prophet Elijah's town where he was born, Tisbee. Remember he was a Tisbite as recorded in Ist Kings 17. You can see into Israel in the background. This place was near the Village Ajlun where we had worked.

Robin painted a Disney picture of Pluto on the wall of the Orphanage in the kindergarten class room

John with some orphanage boys (my new friends) at Ajlun Latino Church after we just got done with a service project painting and fixing play ground equipment there

Ma Saa al Kheer, Good evening!

2007-10-15T01:39:00.001+03:00

I’m a little later in writing this week. We just got back from the northern mountains of Jordan….. such beautiful country, with breath taking views, and wonderful historical sites. We were part of organizing a 4-day conference for the Young Single Adults in the Middle East. Egypt, Lebanon and Jordan were all represented. It was a wonderful experience being with these young people ranging from 18–30. We had several Americans that came that have been in Egypt going to school or working. They were a big help in helping us communicate with most of them only speaking Arabic. Many of the American students in Egypt are there because they are studying Arabic. It was good for all involved. On Friday we went to an area called Tishbe of Gilead, which is supposed to be the birth place of the prophet Elijah, the Thishbite.(Kings 17-2 Kings 2 and 2 Chr. 21:12-15) I just finished reading about him. It makes him come to life seeing the area.) Tishbe is an ancient village, it looks deserted, but there are still a small number of people living in some of the old ruins. Overlooking Tishbe are some old ruins of a large Christian church with beautiful hand carved stones and mosaic floors. This church site, called Mar Elias, was destroyed by an earthquake many hundreds of years ago and is said to be one of the oldest Christian churches in the world. On Saturday morning John and I were in charge of a service project. We decided to help one of the churches we have been working with as Humanitarian missionaries. It is an old Catholic Church that has an orphanage and school. It is in an area of Jordan called Ajlun. We started with fixing the many broken windows in the school, which would be a real problem since the cold weather will be here soon. They have no heat in the building and the children have to wear coats during school and most don’t have gloves to wear. But, we are working on getting some heaters for them through LDS Charities. The children have been playing in a concrete parking lot because the playground has been in shambles. We came in and fixed old broken swings and built new ones. Fixed an old beat-up merry-go-round and painted it with beautiful colorful colors. Found and brought in an old see-saw that we had welded and fixed up. Fixed the fences and took out barbwire that was all over it and painted all the poles in bright colors. Raked the dirt and evened out the deep ruts. Now, I have to add we had a hard time finding rakes. There is not much, I mean NO grass here to rake, but here is a lot of dirt and dust. Inside the kindergarten we painted cartoon character on the dull drab colorless walls. One of our missionary couples had some artistic family members visiting from the states and they came the day before to draw them on the walls so we could come in on Saturday to paint it. WOW, it looks great, so colorful and inviting. It is so wonderful to be a part of so much good, coming from so many different kinds of people and from so many different parts of the world. It was quite a sight to see. Especially seeing these young adults from different cultures coming together for the same cause.

Our next adventure was visiting Umm Qays one of the 10 Decapolis cities. This is a historical Roman city that Christ had visited many times. Still has the stone colonnaded main street running through the ruins. Within the city there stands a very large semi-circular theater- all the seats, and the stone seats actually had backs which also were carved out of stones with such beautiful stone carvings. Throughout the whole city there are beautiful detailed carvings with huge pillars and archways still standing in such magnificent glory. But the most breath-taking site of all was the view. As we stood on top of the mountain we overlooked the spectacular view of the Jordan valley, the Sea of Galilee, and the Golan Heights with the sunset starting to rest on the back drop of the mountains in the distance. It was a magnificent sight to behold. I felt such reverence standing there, witnessing such beauty and feeling the sacredness of this holy land of Jordan. Not far off where we stood was the spot that is recorded in Mark and Luke in the New Testament when Christ cast out a legion of devils, who then entered the swine and “the herd ran violently down a steep place into the sea, (they were about two thousand;) and were choked in the sea”). Well, enough of our history lesson for this week. It was a wonderful conference and everyone seemed to have a very good and rewarding time.

We had our first real authentic Jordanian Ramadan meal this week. We were invited to Al Hamra a community in the desert for a “break fast” by Abdulla Al Wash, president of one of the societies we are considering to work with. This meal is the evening meal that the Muslins break their fast. During Ramadan they don’t eat or drink during the day light hours. So by the time evening comes they are ready to feast! We were invited and introduced to members of the society. I’m sure they wanted the opportunity to show us what they do to serve the communities in that area in the hopes of partnering with them. There is a great need with their focus on aiding the handicapped. We weren’t sure what to expect. We had felt a little reluctant and apprehensive because of some past negative comments. Nothing to do with us, there had been some misunderstandings and miscommunication concerning another matter long before we got to Jordan. But we went…. praying in the hopes of clearing up the matter. As we were looking for the place, we saw Abou waving us down. He is a tall black man we had met a few weeks ago while at another society whom we had felt a friendship with immediately. We both felt relieved and very happy to see him. When we walked up and started meeting the other members we felt peace and felt good about being there. We were very welcome. It’s those feelings that you thank the Lord for!!!! When we got the invitation that morning I knew I would probably be the only woman there. I was! Women and children do not eat with the men; they stay back in one of the back rooms and wait to eat after the men finish what they want. We were invited into a small room that had two bare metal tables set up. On each table there were three very large round platters of rice piled up into a mound with meat (I think it was chicken) placed around the base of the rice. We all stood around the tables, left hand behind our backs, right hand ready to dig in. Now, can you picture this…. me, the only woman in the middle of all this, no spoon, no napkin just six big community platters with each having 4-5 men digging in, all at one time. I wished I had taken a picture! The rice is rolled up into a small sticky ball with the right hand (must be the right, has something to do with the customs) and then the thumb is used to flip the rice ball into your mouth. Now, I have to tell you, they did eventually bring me a big spoon to eat with. But I did try the hand thing. You would of been proud of me. Dad had a good time. You know him- He said he thought it was a great idea. It sure saves on the dishes!

We think of you all so often and pray that you are all well. We love hearing from you and thank you for supporting us through your emails. We feel so blessed. We are learning and growing with each experience and thank the Lord every day for His love and tender mercies in our lives and yours. Have a wonderful week! Have some fun!

Quote: “You won’t get any fun out of the things you haven’t done”

We love you all,

Love your Jordan Missionaries

Cottons from Jordan

2007-10-05T21:30:00.000+03:00

Just thought I would write a short email and give a report of Robin and my activities this past week. We traveled over a portion of the northwestern side of Jordan. It is exciting to be in some of the areas of the country that the Bible talks about. This country looks just like you can imagine, dry desert. The one thing that I didn't know is that the entire northwest is mostly mountains. (pictures below) There are a lot of small town and villages but there is a surprising number of bedouin (pronounced, BED O WIN)- sheep and goat herders that still are nomadic and travel around the plains with their families. They live in one place for about 6 months or so then move on looking for grass and forage. We have seen some of the damage to buildings that occurred during the 1970 civil war here in Jordan between rival Muslims, Christians, and the government. Mostly we have seen a third world country that is slow to change due to traditions and culture. Just a light hearted report.... I like the way they PARK their old cars and trucks here. If you are driving and get to to destination, well you just stop and get out! I MEAN, you just stop and get out! I call it "if you can stop, you can park!!" Sometimes, they even leave you enough room to drive around. Be advised, I don't go into a small town or village during the busy part of the day, because there is always a traffic jam with horns and threats to match the confusion. Nobody drives in the lanes even though there are lines. You see it's important to straddle the line in case you can't decide which way you want to go. This happens a lot on single lane roads, so the sides of the roads are worn out from cars being run off the side to avoid a head on collision. I've developed a real nack for finding the wide parts of the road and laughing at the cars behind when they fail to look ahead. We have met some wonderful people who are really trying to make a difference with what they have. We've seen people do things with little or nothing that make us want to be better stewards and less wasteful. We're learning not to take anything for granted. Hope you and your families all are doing well.

October 5, 2007 from Robin

2007-10-05T20:01:00.000+03:00

Mar ha ba,

Keef ha ik….how are you? My, how this week has flown by! Our weeks are so mixed up. With Friday being the Sabbath and the weekend starting with Thursday evening, and then Sunday being the beginning of another work week…. We don’t ever know what day it is. But we stay busy and keep going in one direction or another. We feel we are finally getting a little more comfortable with the NGO’s we are meeting with. We had a wonderful day yesterday visiting. The first Society we met with will be the head NGO of the Wheelchair container we are bringing in. In about 2 weeks we will have 250 wheel chairs delivered and they will be distributed among 15 other designated societies throughout the area. Each wheelchair has an individual waiting for it. Except, we keep a few on hand to have when the need arises. There are so many people here in Jordan that are crippled. When we walk along the streets we often pass people (it has mostly been men) with no legs at all. They use their arms and hands to pull themselves up and scoot along with flip-flops in their hands so the palm of their hands will be protected. It brings tears to
my eyes to see the conditions that some people have to live with. There is such a demand for wheelchairs. The church has a wonderful program all over the world to distribute wheelchairs to the needy. Each container that comes in has 250 wheelchairs with 5 different sizes. We are trying to get another Container project ready to submit and hope it will be here in December before Christmas.

As we walked to church today we were listening to the Catholic Church bells chime. It was a beautiful sound. I’ve never heard the bells ring with such melody. The morning was beautiful and sunny with just a hint of a cool breeze. It was beginning to feel a little like Fall. Yeah!!! We looked at each other and commented on how much we were going to miss sitting on our front porch in Kentucky and watching the leaves turn. But we are excited to be here. We continued to walk along in the street; Yes, we walk in the street, because the sidewalks are usually piled with dirt, rocks and are rutted up so bad that it is impossible to walk without breaking an ankle or something. We looked up and what do we see coming toward us? Goats! Lots and lots of goats! The herdsman was bringing them right down the middle of the street. It’s something you see everyday here. But, I must admit, for a while I wasn’t sure if they were going to let us share the road. As we passed Dad shouted out “Keef hal ik” and he answered back “Kway-is” which means “good”. We swapped smiles and walked on! Just another day in Jordan! We love it! We are looking forward to conference this weekend (Your weekend, ours will be over) Oh well! We are leaving tomorrow to go to Amman to The Center for Cultural and Educational Affairs under BYU. It is the umbrella that the church operates under here in the Middle East. Every year BYU students come to the Middle East to study or for other reasons and it is through this Center that they operate. We have a satellite there so we can get conference. We will stay with the Bradford’s who are the Center’s Directors. They will be leaving next month. We will miss them. Since we are 7-10 hours ahead of you, we will have our first session starting at 8 p.m. Saturday night, the 2nd session will start at midnight and the Priesthood session at 4:00 a.m. Sunday- We are excited … an all night broadcast! Yahoo !!! Then Sunday we do it all again unto the early morning hours of Monday. We will be think of all of you while we watch conference and eat our M &M’s. It’s family tradition! Got to keep those going. Now, I just have to go on an M&M hunt to find some. But if we can’t find any please eat a few for us, OK? I WILL be thinking of each and every one of you as I sit there. Send me some “Brain waves.”

Today in church Dad bore his testimony in Arabic. I was so impressed! He actually sounded like he knew what he was saying. He’s something else! We have been asked to help in our little Branch of the church here in Al Husan. Dad is working with the Branch President and I’m helping in Primary. It is very challenging. The Jordanians have a different mind set in how they raise their children (or at least in this area of Jordan). They allow them to run and play during the meetings or in any other place you might see them. We have to lock all the rooms while we are in sacrament meeting because they are allowed to roam throughout the building and the outdoors. During primary we have to have someone sit in front of the door so they don’t escape and wander off by themselves. They are very active, as you know children can be. The hard thing for me is I don’t speak Arabic, YET. Notice I said yet! I’m trying to learn. I have felt impressed to concentrate on the music. Music certainly is the universal language of the world! The children have had very little exposure to the primary songs. We don’t have them translated in Arabic yet. So it is a huge job finding the right words in Arabic and match it to the music. I am learning my first two songs in Arabic to help teach the children. I have NO musical ability! Today I sang the Popcorn song to them with all the motions. They loved it. They followed with the motions and said… “Arabee, Sister Robin. Arabee.” They wanted me to teach them it in Arabic. It is so frustrating! So I will work on that. Miracles? I’m praying for a miracle! I didn’t think I had much to share this time. It’s a good thing uh? We hope and pray that all is well with you. We absolutely love your emails. It helps us keep going! Thank you so much for all that you are. We’re so grateful for the prayers that are said in our behalf. We have felt the power that comes through them. It is such a blessing to feel the strength of the Lord as we strive to do what we can to serve these people in Jordan. We feel very humble in this undertaking and know without a doubt that the Lord is moving this work forward and we are trying to keep up. Keep praying! We sure love you! :-)

Love,
Your Jordan Missionaries

Quote for the week: Emily shared this with us from the Relief Society Broadcast. I wanted to pass it on. (we haven’t gotten it here yet)

“Don’t pray for the task equal to your ability, but pray for your abilities to equal your task.”
Pres. Thomas S. Monson

September 28, 2007 - Pictures

2007-09-28T20:20:00.000+03:00

Robin holding one of the babies of a less active member's family we were visiting.

Robin with some of the women who own the goats.

Me and more goats. I DID get some flea bites and now
own a fresh bottle of 100% deet insect repellent!

Over looking the town we live in. Reminds me of a

song we've all heard, "This is My Town"

September 28, 2007 from John

2007-09-28T20:14:00.000+03:00

Hello, Maa Ha Ba

Thought I would do a quick check in. Robin and I are well and enjoying our assignment. We are learning just a little Arabic each day (sway ya). The weather here is still hot in the low 90's. We expect it to change in about a month to the lower 70's. This tine of year is the Muslim 30 day fast called "Ramadan." They don't eat or drink anything from sunrise to sunset for 30 days. If you are caught doing so in public, you go to local jail and pay a fine regardless of if you are Muslim or not. We make sure we get a break at our home at lunch time! We have found some wonderful people here who want to accomplish the same things we do in helping their people. We have also found some who are dishonest and out to get what ever they can. It's amazing what a crooked smile will tell you. The people out in the desert area villages are great. They want to feed you and talk forever, but we sometime must leave before they try and give us all the food they have. We will soon be the only two Americans in the town we live in. The other missionaries that are serving in northern Jordan are going home in a few months. We are used to the double take looks we get when we are out among the people. We are also aware of the anti-western feeling the Palestinian people have for us and we don't go near any Palestinian refugee villages. There is a history of western influenced aggression through Israel, that these people always keep in their minds. Israel is a subject you never bring up, even though Jordan is the most neutral of the middle eastern countries. This country is a melting pot for refugees and militant Muslims, due to its more free society and laws. King Abdullah is smart to stay neutral in middle eastern politics and have open door policies towards the US. With this he gets a lot of aid and trade benefits from us and our allies. We will try and partner with a recognized charitable organization to accomplish things that assist the people to become self sufficient and less reliant on aid. Things don't change much around the world when it comes to welfare. The people out in the country and desert villages who have nothing and work everyday are the ones who hardly have anything. They are the ones that accomplish the most and are most appreciative of the help. Many of those that live in the cities (but not all) are the ones that want you to just hand them things and not have to work for it. Over all, we enjoy the new associations we are having and have met many wonderful people we now call our friends. Just a note...IT IS AS DRY and AS ARID YOU SEE ON TV.....Well enough of humanitarian politics. Hope all is well with each of you and if you get a chance email us back. We appreciate all you do.

Keef Hal ik from Jordan

2007-09-28T20:07:00.000+03:00

Keef HAL ik (How are you?)

It’s hard to believe we have been here in Jordan for three weeks. We have learned a lot and still have so much more to learn. We have been trying to get our home office organized. Going thru folders and getting familiar with all the Organizations and what has been done in this area. We have been going out every day to several areas visiting and getting to know the different leaders of the Organizations we might team up with. The other day we met with a Dr. Zaid, Vice Director of the King Abdullah University Hospital, which is the biggest hospital in Northern Jordan, a very impressive man. In fact, he is the most educated and sharp individual we have met with. What is most interesting and surprising is that he had attended BYU in Provo, Utah for several years soon after he got married. Imagine that? What are the chances of meeting a Jordanian here that went to BYU? We would really enjoy the opportunity to work with Dr. Zaid and the hospital. We will meet with him again soon. We went to our first Engagement Party. It’s a big deal. It’s like any big formal reception back in the states. It’s the custom for the groom’s family to throw a big party with dancing and loud music (and I mean loud!) So the groom can show off his “bride to be” and shower her with jewelry. Lots and lots of gold jewelry…. rings, necklaces, bracelets, and earrings. It was fun to watch the groom try and put the earrings in his fiancée ears.

We had to laugh. He was getting so frustrated. The men here are usually in their mid 30’s before they get married and they usually marry someone in their early 20’s. They have to save up to impress a young ladies family. Most all the marriages are arranged between the parents with the help of extended family members. But all have to be in agreement. Even the Arabic men that are raised in the States or in Europe will come back and go through this procedure with the hope they can get their new bride back into the country they came from. And that is not easy. Many wives are left here for years waiting to get clearance to join their husbands. They are very proud people and want to keep their traditions alive. Many cousins marry each other. We have felt very welcome here. I think about you, Sarah, every time we are greeted by someone. The reeting here is always one kiss on the left check and then the right 2 or 3 kisses or whatever the person decides. Sometimes it seems like a hundred. But men don’t kiss woman and women don’t kiss men. I give a hand shake to the men but they always wait for me to extend my hand first. It is an honor for them if I shake their hand. Most women are very hesitant and some won’t shake a man’s hand except in the church.

We talked in church today and had one of the members translate it into Arabic. His name is Emad Abwi. But we call him Brother Emad. Good man. Everyone in Jordan is address by their first name. Even in a professional environment, it is Dr. Mohammad or Mr. Mohammad. (There are so many with that name) But the proper or formal way in Jordan, is addressing you through your oldest son. My name would be translated as, “Mother of Aaron ” or “Um thar Aaron”

This past week we went to one of the Catholic churches in one of the small mountains cities. We meet with Father Joseph and Mother Superior Maria. This is our second visit with them. We will be returning again this Wednesday and check on the possibilities to help them with the orphanage that they a building. They also operate a school that the Christian children of that community attend. We understand there is a big division between the Christians and Muslim since 9/11. Yes, even in this small city they have been greatly affected by 9/11. Father Joseph is a wonderful man and he works very hard to help all people. He has very little to work with. Dad is excited to go back and personally fix the play ground (garden, as they would say) that is in hambles. Fix the broken windows in the school before winter sets in. You should have seen his eyes gleam. I could read his thoughts. “Oh, I can fix this!” He is already making his list to put a “Humanitarian tool kit” together. I’m actually a little surprised that there isn’t something like that here already. But, I guess it is because it hasn’t been too long that Humanitarian missionaries, or I should say “Volunteers” have been allowed in this country. Since we are the Country Directors, we can change that.

We miss you all. It is always so wonderful to get your e-mails and read about what everyone is doing. We often reflect on the wonderful memories that we have. Those precious memories have carried us through those times when we have felt alone and misplaced. I certainly have a greater appreciation for my children, who left home to go to a far away land to serve the Lord and the people of that country. Thank you, thank you, for being our example. We have felt so blessed to feel you support and love as we are away from you. We continue to pray for you all and our thoughts are always with you.

Our quote for the week: We must not only give what we have; We must also give what we are. Desire-Joseph Mercier

Just Checking In

2007-09-24T23:02:00.000+03:00

We have been busy and really enjoying ourselves. This is like a vacation after the weeks we had just before we left. We sure appreciate all the support from each of you. We don't have everyone's email addresses and wish you to forward this along to everyone. Sure do love you all...

Love Elder and Sister Cotton

September 22, from John

2007-09-22T20:48:00.000+03:00

Everyone, (Mostly my sons and son in laws)

Sure do love you and thought I would share some everyday events with you about driving here in Al Husn and northern Jordan. Lets start with driving. All the main roads are all torn up all the time. (Ben, this one is for you)... Just when you find a nice stretch of highway where you can get to really get going, you begin to think of police and speeding tickets (you see, I'm doing about 120 kilometers now) OUT of no where there is a *SPEED BUMP* across the entire road. No warning, no markers, no signs... just skid marks. These suckers are about 12 inches tall and not tapered!!! Who needs COPS when you got unannounced speed breakers? I hit one the other night coming back from a desert town at about *70 MPH*. I am a believer in Honda suspensions and straight momentum....

Now lets talk about traffic lights. The lights are strategically placed so when you stop, you can't see them turn green. No worry, because the car behind you can see the light and he will lay on his horn and give hand gestures when the light turns! I have a new game I play. I watch the traffic from the oncoming sides begin to slow down and I try to time the green light. So far I'm beating about 1 out of every 3 horns. Your mother gets kinda scared when an on coming driver tries to beat his yellow light and it turns red on his side. There are a lot of skid marks in the intersection. That's a dead give away, it's a quick turning light! I'm catching on!

Where there is a divided highway, don't miss your left turn exit, because there is a concrete barrier between the other side and you won't get a chance to turn around for about 10 miles. They make them just high enough that your car will bottom out just as you center it, leaving you straddled. We see cars all the time with 6+ people out pushing and pulling while cars go by blowing their horns.

Let's talk about painted lane lines. At least I thought that's what the were. Rather, I have come to know these are for centering your car over for quick lane maneuvering. Don't expect a blinker because most are broken and if he's in front of you, he's got you right where he wants you! I've come to know Everyone wants to be in front. The painted lane lines just mean you can get 4 cars in 2 lanes battling for the lead.....For Real!! If it's a one lane road then 3 cars all pull up to a light and it reminds me of when we were in high school drag racing down South Cobb Drive from light to light. Occasionally I find myself in the front line and enjoy pushing the Honda civic up to 6000 RPMs in between shifts to clear the mess behind me. Not much of a race when you're up against 20 year old Datsuns. Your Mom just says...JOHN !! and grins.

You don't have to worry about deer running out in front of you because they don't exist. In fact I don't think we have seen anything dead on the road. BUT look out for loose goats and stray sheep while your driving out away from the cities. They think they own the road. A ram goat *WILL * protect his flock and literally butt your car. Dodge Ram Pickup trucks got nothing on these guys!!! Well say hello to the police on the Watterson and be thankful for no unannounced speed breakers...
Love Dad

September 21, 2007 from Robin

2007-09-21T21:24:00.000+03:00

Marr HA-ba (Hello) to you…. our dear Family and Friends,

Hope all is well with all of you wonderful people. The shock of being here is slowly wearing off. It’s so interesting how ones perspective changes with time. I have little trouble now going down the streets smelling the smells and seeing whole skinned goats or sheep (striped of all their dignity) hanging from store to store. As we walk the streets of Al Husan, the small Jordanian town we live in, we also pass cages and cages of live chickens waiting to be freshly purchased and prepared for someone’s dinner The market stands are everywhere at this time of the year. Fresh produce lined up all along the highways. Now, I have to admit that this produce is not what you are use to seeing in the nice clean grocery stores or even the produce stands in the states. After we purchase our vegetables and fruits we take it home and give it a clorox bath. Then let it air dry. Safe to eat?

We are getting around fairly well now. We have traveled to other areas of Jordan this week visiting NGO’s (Non-profit Organizations). We were up northeast close to the Syria and Iraq borders earlier in the week. Yesterday, we traveled to the Jordan Valley (Waddie, as they put it) the area down along where the Jordan River runs separating Jordan and Palestine (Israel). The lowest point on earth, supposedly. A beautiful valley nestled among mountains! We stopped and visited Jacob’s Tel in a small community called Dayrala, meaning city of God. This is where, as tradition has it; Jacob and Esau meet for the first time since Jacob was given the birth right. While there, we had the opportunity to visit a Center that takes care and schools some of the younger poor children of that area. Such sweet little faces! They all wanted to shake the American’s hands. There were about 80 or so children between the ages of 3-5. When I looked into some of their eyes I couldn’t help but think of my sweet grandchildren back in the states. How very blessed we are! I’m so grateful that my grandchildren have such wonderful homes to live in. To have 2 loving parents who are in a position to can take care of them and bless their lives with so much.

We experienced our first “check point”. Road blocks set up, searching for terrorists. When they realized we were Americans, the soldiers nodded, smiled and let us go without any problems. We nodded back as we passed a camouflage jeep-like tank with a soldier manning a machine gun ready for action. A bit intimidating, don’t you think?

As I sit here and write I’m listening to two different sounds. (Remember Friday is the Sabbath day here in the Middle East.) In the distance I hear the chimes of the Catholic Church. And then the “call to pray” from the Mosques. It is such a stirring sound echoing from tower to tower. Today is starting the 2^nd week of Ramadan. It has been a real learning experience for us concerning this culture. As I mention in my last letter there is no eating during the daylight hours. They fast for about a month. We were warned that if anyone if found eating in public during Ramadan, Muslin or not, they go to jail! We found out that a young man from our little branch was locked up for a day because he was caught either drinking or eating in public. So we hide in our apartment away from any windows to eat our meals. We are having a good time with this!

As we travel through this holy land of Jordan we are constantly amazed at where we are.

Sometimes it feels like we are going back in time. As we drive in our white Honda Civic we pass many small communities of Bedouin tents with small herds of sheep. Out in the middle of a dry barren field these people set up their tents made from large goat hair blankets. In the summer the weave is very open and when it rains it absorbs the moisture which closes the weave and locks out the rain or cold. Quite impressive! Some stay in the same area for months and some for years. Most of the permanent homes are made of concrete (bullet proof) and have flat roofs. It is the dream of every father to have his sons’ build a home on top of his. So, in many instances we see 3-5 levels of houses built on top of each other. The apartment we live in has this concept in mind. Our land lady is a widow and all her sons live somewhere else. She hopes one day that at least one of her sons will come back and live above her.

Everything here is the same color……the color of dirt, dry sandy dirt. The homes are the color of dirt. The ground is the color of dirt. There is very little green at this time of year. The only green is the trees. But the trees here are a very drab green. Every where you look you see olive trees. They are not very big trees. But yesterday while in the Jordan Valley we saw many very large olive trees that are said to date back to the time of Christ. Over 2 thousand years old. What an impressive sight!!!

We are enjoying the time we have together. It is such a blessing for us to work and learn together. There is so much to learn about this culture and these beautiful gracious people. We have been here a little less than 2 weeks now. It’s hard to believe. We are working on our Arabic. John is doing so well in trying to communicate with the people.

I’m also learning some words and phrases. Everyone is so encouraging and try to help us speak and pronounce the words. We have laughed a lot at each other. Arabic is not the easiest language to learn. I’m sot sure if I’ll ever be able to read it. It all looks like “chicken scratch” done in cursive.

We love you and pray for all of you. May you continually feel the presence of the Lord in your homes and families. And may you feel His love and direction guide your lives to experience success and much happiness throughout this week. “In SHA ala” (God willing)

With love from the Holy Land of Jordan,

Elder and Sister Cotton

September 21, 2007 from John

2007-09-21T20:30:00.000+03:00

We love you and Hope that you enjoy our communications. Your mother is working on another email with more details. This one I wrote almost kilt me....Remember"'I'm show me a picture and just tell me you love" ....Love dad

By the way, I'll never complain about the US roads again and I always will know which way the wind blows from the looks of the cedar trees!!

Everyone, MARR Ha Ba (Hello)

Hope this finds all of you and your sweet wives well. We have been busy getting use to the country and the culture. We live in a small town in northern Jordan named AL Husn. The middle eastern people are as peculiar and customadic as we thought they were. We have come to find out that we as Americans are as as proud and arrogant as they think were are. Boy! I'm already a different thinker.

They have their customs and cultural lifestyles that only generations will change. We stepped back 800 years when it comes to customs and culture here. Our living conditions are very favorable, so we will not complain. We are getting into this NGO contacting and finding they know who we are and what we got and how they can get it !! Unfortunately some of the NGO are dishonest, Can you believe it !! Fortunately we have come across some that are the Salt of The Earth when it Comes to helping their communities. We are trying to partner with them as possible. I was called into the Branch Presidency of the North Jordan Branch (35 members). We keep a low profile and don't proselyte nor talk about the Church. The Mo Ha Ba rot, or secret police will start calling us in to ask why we aren't out giving things away, because they know what we are suppose to be doing. I guess it's like that in some of your areas. We have been blessed with visiting some of the sights that are recorded in the Old Testament. Yesterday we visited a NGO Day care in Day Ra la in the Jordan Valley, North of the Dead Sea. Historians here in Jordan say this city was once named Succoth where Jacob meet his brother twin Esau. (Remember Esau sold his birth right and Jacob became the firstborn.) Jacob had not seen his brother since. They made up with each other here in this village. We could see the river Jordan in the distance and Israel to our west. The "West Back" is not much to fight over, but the beautiful fertile Jordan valley is. They call it the "bread basket" of the middle east. Vegetables can be grown here all year long! attached some pictures so you can see mountains on both sides of the valley. This is also the area that the Israelites crossed over the Jordan going into the land of Canaan. I could just imagine the Israelites all lined up on this side of the river getting ready to cross over into their promised land. Please keep us up to date with your activities as possible. We enjoyed your friendship in the MTC and expect it to continue.

Sincerely John and Robin Cotton

Just Checking In

2007-09-17T21:31:00.000+03:00

We love you and hope all is well. Yesterday we we near the Border to the north visiting a NGO and thought you would like to see the areas we work in. Your Mother will give you a full account later. She is the detail person. Me I'm just "just show me a picture" kind of guy and tell me you love me!

Your Jordan Missionaries

2007-09-14T22:36:00.000+03:00

We attended our first Sacrament meeting in Jordan. Yes, it is Friday, but it is the Muslim observed “Holy Day” so here in the Middle East our Sabbath is Friday. We walk to church because most of the members do not have cars so they either walk, take a taxi or bus. We are very fortunate to have a car but we felt it would be better if we put ourselves in their shoes. Our little branch reminds us of the beginnings of the Carrolton Branch only in Arabic and some culture opportunities. We were asked to bare our testimony in church and had a translator help us. It was so sweet to look down at those humble members and feel their excitement of having new missionaries again. We have felt so welcomed and have been treated like royalty. We have visited many of the members over the last few days. Such humble people! One of the members, a sweet little sister about 60 years old, named Sister Sameer (everyone is addressed by their first name) lives in the oldest building in Erbid. I felt like I went back in time. We walked down a rock path that you could almost picture Christ himself would have waked down. We entered a small court like area through a wooded oval door. A lemon tree growing up through rock and dirt whose branches spread over the small area. We came to another door that took us into a one room house where she has lived almost her life. Very humble circumstances…. “The widows Mite”. She had prepared for our visit all day. She gave us probably every thing she had. I felt so humble watching her serve us with such pleasure. What a wonderful experience to see that kind of love and service in action.

Every day we hear the “call” to pray. As we look out over the city there are many towers with huge speakers announcing prayer 5 times throughout the day. This Thursday started the holiday called Ramadan which the Muslims fast all day from sun up to sun down every year which lasts for almost a month. No one can eat! We are told not to be seen eating during the day. Everything closes down in the afternoon so people start preparing the big meal when the fast ends for that day. Around 6:00 p.m. you don’t see any one outside. The streets are empty and businesses are closed….. they are all inside eating. About 8:30 p.m. the city comes alive again. I’ve never seen anything like it it’s one big street party. Everyone, including the women and children are all out in the streets till early in the morning. Then the next day repeats the same as the day before.

We are getting settled in our apartment and it’s feeling more like home. We have to use our water very sparingly. There is a big tank on the roof and it gets filled once a week. We also have to turn on a hot water switch when we want hot water to start the boiler to get hot water in the pipes. We buy our drinking water in big 5 gal jugs because the water is not safe to drink or cook with. It’s been interesting to adapt to our new culture. The market places are taking a while to get use too. Things are not very clean here and we have to be very careful in what we eat and how we prepare it. Brings back a lot of memories from the days we spent in Pakistan.

Well, I just wanted to share a few of our experiences here in Jordan. It’s late and we have another very busy day tomorrow. We are meeting with some of the NGO’s (Non Profit Organizations) that we will be working with. We will also be teaching an English class starting tomorrow. We are learning a lot and praying a lot.

We sure love you . We feel your support and love every day. The Lord has blessed us so much. We are all constantly having the opportunities to grow and learn through our individual experiences. Gratefully, we are not on our own! So......onward we go! You are the best!

Love Elder and Sister Cotton

We are HERE!

2007-09-11T22:42:00.000+03:00

WE are here,

After spending two days in Amman, we are in AL Husn. This city is approx 60 miles north of Amman. We found our apartment (pictures above) and mom is in the process of tearing it apart and cleaning to her standard. I am trying to learn where all the computer files are and how things work. We have another couple here (the Dews) who are helping us get acclimated where this area. The culture shock should hit about Friday! We miss you all and look forward to the emails. We hope all the birthdays and other events we have missed all went well. We love you all.....Dad

To all of you.....

As Dad said we are finally here and trying to settle in our apartment. It is very nice. We almost feel we are in a little palace looking out over the city. From the outside you walk into a steel rod iron front door that brings you into a foyer area with marble stairs going up to another foyer like area. Then there are two big heavy wooden doors that go into our apartment. One door goes into our office area off from the kitchen and the other goes into a big living room area with a large dinning room. Off from that is a large balcony. Each room has very large windows with bars over each window and heavy metal-like blinds that are attached outside each window to open and shut from the inside when needed. I feel like I'm in a fortress. From each of those rooms there are heavy wooden french doors that go into a wide long hall way that attaches the rest of the house. We have two large bedrooms with large windows like I described earlier. Two large bathrooms and a small laundry area. I even have a small washer machine. Yeah! The kitchen is very modern, bright and open with very nice cabinets with a lot of counter space. I did not expect to have such a nice place to live. We meet our land lady yesterday when we got here. Very nice. Doesn't speak any english but she invited us in and served us some 7-up. It is the custom here when you receive visitors you always serve them something. We are told that when we visit all the organizations that we will work with that we will be given something either to drink or eat. Sometimes it can be a problem because we can't always eat the food because of the sanitation situation and because of tea, coffee or some other drink we can't have. It offends them if they can't serve something to us so they will often run to the store to get a 7-up. When Dad went to the police station to register for our residence visa for Jordan a young officer offered him something to drink and Dad said 7-up so the policeman was gone awhile and returned with a can of 7-up from the corner store. It's the custom here to do what ever it takes to serve your guest! I thought of Sarah on her mission and all the food she was offered. Well, I'm going to have to do a lot of praying to stretch my stomach.

We had a wonderful time in Frankfort. We met the other missionaries serving in the Middle-east and the other humanitarian missionaries serving in the Central Eropean Areas. Every day we had training. Elder Oaks our Area authority was there several days and then one of his counselors the other days. We learn so much that our heads are still spinning. On Saturday we all went to the temple. It was so wonderful to have that opportunity.

We have really missed not being able to e-mail and call. While in Germany, for some reason we could not e-mail out but we could receive e-mail. Thank you to all who e-mailed!!!! It has finally hit me! I'm not just on a little trip. I'm here to stay for a while. I have thought of all of you so many times and pray that you all know how much we love you and appreciate what wonderful people you are. I've even sent some "Brain Waves" out to you since I couldn't e-mail. Hope you got them! Well, we need to get some work done and finish getting situated. You Kentucky folk we are 7 hrs into the future. You Washington folks we are 10 hrs. into the future. So it's morning for all of you now and it afternoon for us in Jordan. Just thought I'd tell you all that the future is bright I love you all so much.

To you, Walker................... Hope you had a Happy Birthday!

To you, Sarah and Adam...... Hope you had a Happy Anniversary!

And to you, Amie................. Happy Birthday Thursday

Remember who you are!

Love MOM

Pictures from Germany

2007-09-04T22:54:00.000+03:00