Our new Church, new Puppy and new Semester

Sunday, February 16--From Tom:

New Church: Friday was the last church service in the old Swiss Embassy building. We will be moving into our new "church" in a few weeks. In the meantime we are meeting in one of the members homes, ( mini-palace of embassy staff). The new church is the very first property that the LDS is able to own in Jordan and it has been due to the humanitarian service that the church has performed here.

Our new Facility for worship and offices for humanitarian services on ground floor. 

It will be nice to have heating, air conditioning, sound system, restrooms and classrooms. We'll have a major open house where we can bring key people in the community. This should accelerate the ability to perform the humanitarian work here in Jordan. It is in the Abdoun  District, near most of the embassies and the ex-patriot neighborhoods, below the Abdoun Bridge. Who would have thought this would happen in Jordan?

New Puppy:  Remember how we have been plagued by wild dog packs roaming at night through the orchard around our home? While a number of the dogs have been shot, the packs continue. We've just gotten used to them. A few nights ago, I heard loud growling, snapping and whining outside our rear door. I went out and saw that a large white dog had cornered a small puppy next to our rear door. It looked like it was going to attack. I did my best wolf imitation, snarled and bared my teeth and pretended that I was going to throw  rocks. The big white dog ran away and the little puppy immediately bonded with me as the Alpha Dog and won't leave. We now have a puppy.

Our new pet, "Poopy"  the Puppy. 

Home Teaching: Ronna and I have been asked to be Home Teachers to three wonderful families. Pat Hicks is a single woman of about 30 who came to Jordan to teach English. She works at the Greek Orthodox Elementary School. She is very independent, dedicated, intelligent. She takes the bus everywhere and attends both the Arabic speaking branch and the English branch. She just wants to understand the Arab culture.

We also visit President Handricksen's family. He is an IT expert with the US Embassy. Emily home schools their children. Clair, age 9, sometimes leads the singing in Sacrament meeting. Andrew, age 7, always sits with us and wants to be a storm chaser. This week in church as he was sitting with Ronna and making little comments, Ronna would respond quietly and nod her head to give emphasis. He looked at her and with this earnest little grin, asked "why is your skin so wobbly?" She responded, "That's what happens when you get old." Such sweet honesty.

Our third, is Lim Horn. He is an immigrant from Cambodia who is serving as Army support in the US Embassy. He served 3 missions in Iraq, one in Afghanistan. He is a convert from Buddhism. His parents were caught in the Pol Pot holocaust of Cambodia. After many years they escaped to Thailand and finally came to America. He's an incredible fellow who has come through a lot. He calls his family each night.  

Chhenglim  "Lim" Horn, from Cambodia, in our Elders Quorum Presidency. 

New Semester: We start Spring Semester in one week. Hopefully, we will have it figured out by then. Ronna will have 3 English Comm I classes. No more remedials, Hooray!! She also will be setting up a writing lab. She'll do great. I have two classes, one to teach Professional Practice again. The other will be Design Psychology.  I'm also trying to get a study program in New Hampshire, recruit new students from Jordan, recruit new faculty and assist the dean. Last week I got sent to meet with President Hazboun to overturn an opinion of one of the Vice Presidents over the student exchange program. It's getting interesting.