Tashman Family Conversion Story

Two year ago, Sayer went with his cousin Amr to church on a Friday morning in Al-Husn. He was barely eight years old at the time. Little did he know the affect that one decision would have on his entire future, and the future of his family.

Sayer liked church, and wanted to come back.

The current branch missionaries (the Hiltons) contacted Sayer's family to ask their permission for him to come to church regularly. The Tashmans were impressed when the Hiltons came to visit, and Sayer's mom said, "sure, why not let him go to church?"

The Hiltons continued to visit and befriend the Tashmans, Sayer continued to go to church, and eventually it was Christmas. The entire Tashman family went to a branch Christmas activity, and were so impressed with the kindness of the members and the feeling they had at the activity that they decided to attend church the next week.

Samira decided that the Mormon church was better than the Catholic church, and she, Sayer, her oldest son Tamer, and daughter Halla were baptized.

Tamer is 19, a senior in High School. He translated Sacrament Meeting today. He is my favorite translator because even though he sometimes makes mistakes, he tries to translate everything without skipping. Also, he uses words that I understand. Tamer is a kind, funny, intelligent, patient person, who I love.

Abu Tamer (Tamer is the oldest so his parents are "Om Tamer" and "Abu Tamer") is talking about getting baptized at the same time as the youngest son, Thair.

Tonight, I went to their house and ate mensef, the traditional Jordanian dinner. The feeling I had in their home was similar to the feeling I had in my home as a small child; peaceful, comfortable, intimate - family. I felt home, thousands and thousands of miles away from my real family/home in the States.

END NOTE:

Amr continued is continuing his missionary efforts by serving a full time mission in South Africa.

Tashman Kids

I ate dinner at Tamer's house today. Here are Tamer, Halla, and Thair, Nedal's cousins, some of my favorite people in Jordan

Don't you?

Murad's little brother whose name I forgot always wears this bracelet. He is one of 25ish Mormons in the Al-Husn Branch.

Sacrament Meeting in Jordan

Today, in church, Virginia told us about a phone call she got from Hannah.

Several years go, there were three branches in Jordan: the Amman Branch, the Al-Husn Branch, and the Irbid Branch. Because of inactivity, lack of priesthood-holding members/full tithe-payers, and people joining the church to get humanitarian aid, money, and visas to go to the states (to serve missions), they combined the Irbid and Al-Husn branch.

Hannah was a member of the Irbid Branch. She and her family are from Iraq, and as such recieved quite a lot of persecution. Already, Christians consitute only 2% of the population of Jordan, and Mormons are a minority in that group. On top of that, there is extreme prejudice against Iraqis, and apparently most of the persecution was from other (currently inactive) branch members. Sister Bradshaw said the abuse was physical as well as verbal - fist-fights even. annah would routinely call the police.

It got to such a point that Hannah and her family couldn't stand living here anymore, so they moved back to Iraq. Hannah and her husband and kids, her sister, her brother (the former Branch President of the Irbid Branch) and his family all moved to the Kurd area of Northern Iraq. Sister Bradshaw says it was a very emotional parting. "She left with her temple recommend in hand, knowing that there would be nothing." Iraq does not currently have any organized LDS wards or branches, besides those on military bases, or perhaps in the Green Zone.

Hannah called Virginia last week to ask her to pray for her and her family. They are living in a house with three other families. Every day there are bombings around their house. Neighbors and friends die. Virginia asked the branch to pray for Hannah and her family.

I am asking you, whoever may read be reading this, to pray for Hannah, too.

It's difficult for us to put ourselves in Hannah's position, to understand the kinds of daily problems faced by her and thousands of others in Iraq. Hearing stories like Hannah's reinforces my desire to learn Arabic. Learning the language will help me learn and understand the problems of this part of the world.

"Problems in the Middle East" are not in a seperate box. They may seem very far away when you have your own car, you eat whatever you want whenever you want, take half an hour long showers multiple times a week, and have a job that pays more per week than the average Jordanian gets per month (approximately 200 JD's, or 250 USD - PER MONTH). The problems are relevant. The people here are real. They matter.

I hope that I can inspire you to learn more about this place. I want you to care about Jordan, and Iraq, and Palestine, and Israel, and the entire complex world of the Middle East.