Morjes!

Welcome to my blog. I write about fitting in, sticking out, and missing the motherland as a serial foreigner.

Places where I've attended church worship services

Just because I got to thinking about it.

United States (Several congregations in Oregon, a few each in Arizona, California, Idaho, and Utah, and at least one each in Alaska, New York, Missouri, Vermont, and Massachusetts)

Japan (Kyoto, Tokyo)

Russia (Moscow, St. Petersburg, Krasnoyarsk)

Czech Republic (Prague)

Syria (Damascus)

Jordan (Amman, Irbid)

Israel/Palestine (Jerusalem, Tiberias)

Lebanon (Beirut)

Turkey (Istanbul)

Egypt (Cairo)

UAE (Sharjah)

Qatar (Doha)

Oman (Muscat)

Kuwait (Kuwait City)

Setting aside the platitude of "the Church (of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) is the same wherever you go," I have to say that Mormondom is a very small world sometimes. We have shown up at random branches in random foreign countries before and run into people we know. It happened to us in Kuwait, in fact, where we knew no fewer than four individuals in that congregation from previous years of our lives.

When we went to church in Oman, the speaker mentioned in his talk a story about a girl we knew in Amman.

In Egypt, I gave a talk in church about the Armenian Mormons in Turkey who were evacuated to Aleppo, Syria in the early 20th century. When I was finished, an American lady who was visiting church that day came up and said to me, "oh, my grandpa was one of those Armenians and you actually said his name during your talk."

SMALL WORLD.

In conclusion, the most beautiful Mormon chapels I've ever seen are the ones in Israel/Palestine. The Jerusalem congregation meets at the BYU Jerusalem Center. You can see the Dome of the Rock from the chapel. In Tiberias, one whole wall of the chapel is a glass window looking out over the Sea of Galilee. Of course, a close third place has to be the cultural hall in Moscow with neon green felt decor and gold balls on the walls. Or perhaps the car repair garage where we met for church in Kyoto. Not.

A new semester

Blogorrhea re: Kuwait