BEIRUT

It's 2:14 in the morning and I am at the missionary's house in Monsoureah, Beirut, LEBANON. I just got off the phone with my mom, wishing her a happy mother's day.

Today I went to church in the Beirut branch. They have church on Sundays. I translated the meeting into French for Alexandra, the branch president's wife.

It was District Conference, so all of the missionaries were here. In fact, I have been hanging out with them quite a bit. Oh how I love senior couple missionaries.

I saw a picture of Dil Parkinson with the members he taught. I have known his son Levan for the past 2 months, sine the Youth Conference. So cool. They are Armenian.

Bro Akiki and his wife took me on a mini-tour of Beirut. We drove around and saw the methaf, les corniches (the boardwalk), American University of Beirut, a statue for martyrs in the main square near the mosque and the old roman ruins, the parliament, centre-ville, Lebanese American University in Hamraa, and Hezballah protesters in tents under a bridge of the main highway.

Lebanon has a really unique history. It is so different from Jordan. I feel like I'm on vacation. I feel like I'm on another planet. I feel like...this is PARADISE to me. I understand everybody. They speak Arabic, English, and French.

"Tboste fe lbnan?"
"NAAAM, fa'alen" - a possible conversation when I get back to Irbid.

Irbid. Millions of years away.

I LOVE LEBANON. I will write more about this later.

When I was a 16 year old exchange student in France, I promised myself that someday I would live in Paris. I decided to promise myself the same thing. Someday I will live in Beirut. It might be wise to wait until after the new US Presidential elections, though.