Today we went to Assos, which is a Greek acropolis. It was the most gorgeous thing in the entire world. This is also right where Paul was teaching in the New Testament. I loved walking around the ruins, and then sitting down and pondering for a minute. Apparently there was a time when Paul was teaching and then the ship went from Trios to Assos and he walked it on foot. And we don’t know what happened on that roughly 3 day journey but we can imagine that he had a lot of thinking to do because this is right before he preaches his last sermon in the Asia Minor in which he testified that he would not be coming back again to the Asia Minor, sails to Rome, testifies there and gives his amazing last testimony and is stoned. This is probably where he realized that his work was almost done, that his planned trip to Rome wasn’t going to go how he expected. Maybe he even knew that he was going to his death?
As you can see our days are so crazy I don’t have time to even think about a mission call, but then I read my scriptures, or sit down for a quiet moment and I realize how bad I want my mission call. I know with my entire being that I am supposed to be going on a mission now. I was worried that I would not ever have the confirmation that I really needed to be on a mission because I have just always wanted to go, and as D&C 4:3 says, if you have a desire, you are called to the work. But now I have had so many experiences that have helped me know that I, specifically, am needed to preach the gospel to a certain group of people. And now, with this testimony of the gospel, and a testimony of my mission I just really really really really really really really want to just know where I am going. It is cool because a couple weeks ago, even one week ago, I did not feel ready. I just wanted to have a firm testimony of the divinity of my call, that I can know it is from God. And now I think I do. I know that God is sending me where I need to go. So now it is just a waiting game. And I am going crazy just writing about it so I am going to stop now. I will tell you when I get it.
Assos
Next we went to Pergamon, which was a huge Greek acropolis.
The auditorium. It was huge. Two of my friends raced to the top and they were exhausted when they got to the top. Talk about running bleachers!
The Library of Pergamon. This was the third largest library in the world at the time and contained something like 2000 scrolls.
You can't see super well from this picture, but Jessica laid down her scriptures on the top, and we were joking that we were taking the gospel to the Gentiles, because this is one of the cities that Paul preached in. So we are actually pointing at her scriptures.
Then we had a super long drive in which I wrote this entire thing for the past four days . . . . .
Then we got to the hotel, which was actually an all inclusive beach resort at Ephesus on the edge of the Aegean Sea. That night we went to dinner with a huge buffet (and I had these African banyais that were divine—little balls of honey syrupy goodness) and then we went and played around/dipped our toes in the Aegean Sea that we weren’t allowed to swim in after dark. Naturally the water from dipping my toes in went almost to my mid thigh, because you know how dipping your toes in the ocean works. Haha, actually I was reenacting the slow motion Chariots of Fire with my friend Jake Slater and I splashed in the water a lot. That is why my pants were wet. But it was really funny. We also played the “When I think of” game with Chelsea and Jenny and Jessica Smith, and that game gets really funny. On the way up from the beach to my hotel room I got in the elevator with two of my friends (Ben Lenhart and David Banta) and this Turkish man. As we are going up the man turns to me and says “Did you see the belly dancers tonight!?!”. I laughed and said “Uh, no, I must have missed them”. Ben then got out of the elevator, trying not to smile, and David stayed with me and kind of walked me to my room which turned out to be a good thing because this guy apparently is staying in a room near mine. It was really funny because the one hard and fast rule that they made after last semester was that there is NO dancing in Turkey. I feel like I am in the middle of footloose or something, but that is a serious matter here. Apparently they have more than one incident with the Turkish men and us “loose” American women. So there is No dancing and No taking Turkish baths. So it was funny that he asked me about dancing because the Turks love dancing, and the kind of dancing they do isn’t Western line dancing, that’s for sure.
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