Hymn One: The Morning Breaks

The Hymn begins by testifying of the restoration of the Gospel. Isaiah spoke of the day when the Light and Glory of God would come forth and fill the earth in the Last Days (ISA 60:1-3). We testify that God's Light began to burst forth and fill the earth on a spring morning in 1820 when God the Father and His Son appeared to Joseph Smith.

The First Vision led to the establishment of the Church of Jesus Christ in the Latter-day and the beginning of the gathering of Israel after her long disbursement. The purpose of the Lord in gathering Israel is to gather her into His house, put Israel under the everlasting covenant, and endow her with power. This Hymn narrates the above summarized timeline. The first two verses testify of the restoration of the gospel, the third verse narrates the gathering of Israel, and the fourth verse refers to the Temple when Israel is brought before the Lord at the veil, after making covenants, in order to be endowed with power.

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Recap of our Arabian Adventures

SO there are many many stories that are to be shared with you all about our adventures. It is almost impossible to think of where to begin. So, to try and start this task, I will begin by finishing off our adventures in Jordan, then move on to Egypt.
Well, Zaytoon International has become the biggest sensation in Jordan. We had an amazing time with the youth in Naur. They are amazing kids who have completed some astonishing tasks.
Zaytoon International is the NGO that we went to Jordan with. Ryan wrote the curriculum for the group. And it took off like a plane. A really cool plane... We had 20 kids in the class from ages 14-24. They were taught volunteerism and problem solving and management through community service projects, much like an Eagle Scout Project. The youth were told right at the beginning that they had a month to identify and carry out a project in the community within a month and with no money. It was a little daunting. But it worked....
We had 5 projects go through and they were amazing. The first was a clean-up of the community center itself. We all got together and cleaned up the gardens and laid new tile.
The next project was a clean-up of the local park. We picked up trash for a few hours... Yes, there was a ton of trash...

After that, some municipality workers came and dug up the dead plants and trees to clean up the area. Because of this, the youth were able to complete the third project of putting in new trees and shrubs. The youth were able to get all the trees donated from local nurseries. Oh also they got the tiles donated by a local company for the community center too!

The fourth project was putting in new benches into the park and new sand underneath the swings. Again, all donated! AWESOME!

The final project was a non-smoking campaign put on by our youth. They worked with a pharmaceutical company and they donated flyers, t-shirts, hats, pamphlets and other supplies. We had about 200 people from the community come and there were presentations by a karate group, Ryan gave a speech and there were lots of different stations for people to participate. It was amazing. It was even broadcasted on national TV! So cool!

We were so proud of the youth. It was amazing to be part of all this. The youth raised so many supplies for their projects all on their own! They raised around $7000 worth of supplies!
So yes, Jordan ended well. It was very hot and we got so excited to finally go to Egypt...