Baptisms in Jordan?

I knew the church had a presence in Jordan but I never thought I would spend the summer witnessing baptism after baptism here. All together I've seen 5 and only one of those was for an 8 year old child of an United States ex-patriot. The rest were all Arab individuals, 3 men who have been attending the branch here in Amman, and one woman from Syria, who had to come to Amman to be baptized. One in particular, Samir, will be a solid member of the church and begin to take more and more leadership roles in the next few years. I admire him greatly for his insight into the gospel, for his dedication, and for the positive influence he has already had on other members of the branch. In particular, I believe the other two men who were baptized reached the point where they wanted to only after seeing Samir take that step and realizing that despite different misgivings they might still have they too could take that leap of faith and be baptized. Seeing all of those has made me so happy and excited about the growth of the gospel here in Jordan, even if it is slow, consists mostly of non-Arabs, and is only one Christian at a time. It's growing.

My favorite was the Syrian lady because it was such a distance she had to travel and she was really nervous about the experience. For her, church had consisted of 4 individuals, herself, the senior missionary couple, and a BYU grad who was studying Arabic in Syria. Coming to Jordan to be baptized was a huge step for her in accepting the gospel but she was concerned about how well she would be accepted, if there would be people there to support her, and if what she was doing would really make a difference. She was surprised to find so many people there, so many of them young Americans, and so many who were excited for her and spoke to her in Arabic. The actual baptism was the best one I had ever seen. In many ways it reminded me of time spent in the Southern United States of America where Evangelicals and other Christians have a sense of excitement about the gospel that exceeds the conservatism of the LDS faith. However, one thing I have realized is when something is excited and needs expressing, even a group of American conservative Mormons will deliver. The minute she came out of the water the entire group of about 50 people who had crowded around the outdoor font in order to get the best view broke into an unadulterated applause reserved for the best music performances. If there could possibly have been an encore to this number one would have been delivered after the applause of the audience but since this was the culminating moment it simply received the praise that it got. I can't really describe the excitement and happiness I felt in the moment when she came up. I knew it was a big step for her but the spontaneous applause made me want to shout for joy and had me thinking of the descending of the Holy Spirit on the people as recorded in the first chapters of Acts. It was a marvelous event and one that will not soon be forgotten amidst my tales of Middle Eastern adventures and experiences.