Denver & Fort Collins Temples

 Around noon on Tuesday I took a short flight to Denver, Colorado to visit the Fort Collins and Denver Temples.  I had not yet performed ordinance work in the Fort Collins Temple.  I picked up my rental car and discovered that the Denver area has toll roads.  I'm sick of toll roads after living in the Washington D.C. area for a few years, and because I was not in a hurry I decided to avoid tolls during my one-day trip to Colorado.  I drove 90 minutes to the Fort Collins Temple.  When I left the Denver Airport the sun was out and the temperature was quite pleasant.  As I arrived in Fort Collins the rain was coming down lightly, the wind was blowing, and the temperature had dropped at least 10 degrees.

 The first two photos are the Fort Collins Temple.  It is new and beautiful.  Prior to entering the temple I stopped at a local soup cafe and enjoyed a large bowl of lentil and buffalo-sausage stew.  Then I returned to the temple and attended an endowment session during which I felt like a combination of an old man and an ADHD youth.  When I wasn't dozing off I was fidgeting in order to avoid dozing off.  Lesson?  Don't go to the temple in a state of exhaustion.  

Following the endowment session I drove 90 minutes back to the home of my Uncle Doug and Aunt Denise.  Doug was waiting for me when I arrived.  We chatted for a few minutes and then retired to bed.  Cole (Doug and Denise's 13-year-old grandson) was kind enough to let me borrow his room for the night.  The next morning I chatted with Erica (Cole's mother) and her two other sons for a bit, and then I drove 45 minutes to the Denver Temple.

I performed some initiatory work at the Denver Temple and then I drove another 45 minutes back to the Denver Airport to return home to Utah.  I enjoyed my short, but productive trip to Colorado.

My rental car.  Notice the license plate?  Now THAT'S customer service.

Total cost of my one-day trip:  $45

$11 - Airplane Ticket (I used points and only paid the airport fees)

$6 - Rental Car (I used points)

$13 - Food

$15 - Gas

Sudanese engagement party

This is one of my favorite foods here in Khartoum.  Za'tar-Mozzerella pizza thing.  It's called a "fateera."

Last night I had the privilege of attending an engagement party for Sumaia's niece.  And what a party it was!  The decorations were beautiful, the food was great, and the company was wonderful.

Sumaia's older sister and the proud mother of the bride.  Unfortunately, my iPhone camera did not do her justice.  All of the ladies looked beautiful in their traditional Sudanese robes.

The young men of the family. :)

Sumaia's extended family welcomed me as one of their own.  They even took me to the dance floor.

The happy new couple.  

I went home at midnight.  That's the latest I have stayed up in quite a while.  Good times!

Thank you, Sumaia and family, for your hospitality.  You are amazing people.  God bless the newlyweds!

Men are from ???

Sarah is the nice Ethiopian girl who takes care of my place here.  I walked into the space where she keeps all of her cleaning supplies and found this book.  I recognized the cover, but I only knew the words "Men are from. . ." and "Women are from. . ."  I had to look up the other two words - Mars and Venus.  I never thought I'd see that book in Arabic.

My Thanksgiving dinner - grilled chicken and delicious yellow rice.

I'm sure many of you remember Sumaia.  She and I worked together from 2004 to 2006, but I never thought I would have the pleasure of meeting her again in her home country of Sudan.  This week I spent some time not only with Sumaia, but quite a few members of her extended family as well.  They are wonderful people!  We visited a horse track where some of her nieces and nephews are learning to ride horses.

Friday morning I went to Sumaia's family home and enjoyed a little program put on by more of her nieces and nephews.

They made fun of my Arabic because I use formal Arabic when I talk.  Most people use the dialect of their country of origin.  It would be as if I were to speak Shakespearean English back in the States.....sort of.

What fun was had by all.  The man on the left is Adil, Sumaia's brother, and those are his children.

Preparing for our spoon-in-mouth-carrying-lime race.

On your mark. . .

Get set!

Go!

Umm, Sumaia, why are you still holding your spoon? :)

Not coming in first.

You and me, buddy.  Let's do it again.  Ready......go!

Yipee!

Enjoying some delicious food.  The bowl of red stuff on the right is called Milaah Sharmoot.  Years ago Sumaia told me about a traditional Sudanese dish called "Sharmoot."  I was shocked because the only definition I knew for "Sharmoot" is a male prostitute.  Milaah means "Stew."  So does that mean I ate "Prostitute Stew?"

Chatting with Sumaia's father.  He still speaks pretty good English.  He obtained a degree at what was then known as Fresno State College, back in the late 1960s.  Small world.  I told him about my family connection to Fresno.  Granny/Mom, did you know a Sudanese student back then?

Yesterday was Day 3 of the LDS (Mormon) church's Light The World program.  

https://www.mormon.org/christmas/in-25-ways-over-25-days/jesus-helped-others-to-see

One of the options to serve was to "Read a book to an elderly person with impaired vision."  I had fun reading to Sumaia's 90-year-old father while he corrected my Arabic now and then.  I read from his autobiography.

Today is Day 4 of the Church's Light the World program. 

https://www.mormon.org/christmas/in-25-ways-over-25-days/jesus-worshipped-his-father

One of the suggested ways to participate is to "Visit a temple or other religious site," so I chose to visit St. Matthew's Cathedral here in Khartoum.  They had some lovely organ music playing inside.

 ". . . to the ends of the earth."  Indeed.

Drinking from the Nile

Some friends and I drove three hours north of Khartoum, Sudan, to check out the Nubian pyramids of Meroe (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nubian_pyramids).  The site is only 60 miles north of Khartoum, but the roads are bad, which increases the time it takes to reach the pyramids.

After three hours of bumpy roads we all needed a bathroom, so we used the "bathroom" near the pyramids.  It was actually very clean and did not smell bad at all.  I was told these pyramids receive an average of only 1000 visitors per year.  Perhaps that explains why the bathrooms remain clean.

All of the camel owners were ready for some business.

Sudan has far more pyramids than Egypt, but they are much smaller and largely unknown to the world.

A team of Germans engineers (with Qatari financing) is currently helping to restore some of the pyramids.

Well-preserved, ancient Facebook posts.  King:  "Built another pyramid this week."  Queen:  "Went skinny-dipping in the Nile with my maids last night."

Talking to our guide.

"Pick my camel!"

I picked Abd-al-Aleem's camel, whose name is Faris.  Faris is six years old.

We stopped for lunch at the "Italian Village," which is located 1/2-mile from the pyramids.

Inside the Italian Village.

On a boat at the spot where the two Nile rivers (Blue Nile and White Nile) converge.

The captain let me drive a bit.  At one point he turned to me and said, "Did you know that the Nile River is the only river in the world from which you can still drink?  It is very pure water."  I thought, "Sure, buddy, if you want to end up in the hospital."  He went to the back of the boat, filled up a water bottle straight from the river, and proceeded to drink.  Then he offered the bottle to me.  I said, "My friend, you know American stomachs.  Very weak."  The White Nile and Blue Nile converge right in the middle of a large city (Khartoum, Sudan), where all kinds of garbage and sewage is dumped, and where people and animals bathe and excrete waste.  Yummy.

Sunset on the Nile