Best Souvenir Ever

There was nothing to do in Amman. The only activity they publicized was "The Royal Automobile Museum of Jordan." Heck to the No. We spent a great deal of our time walking around the city. Some acquired pounds of ice cream, some pounds of illegal dvds. Both the ice cream and dvds were mediocre. Most enjoyed chocolate, snickers, and bueno flavored ice cream, while the most purchased genre of choice was chick flicks among the women of the JC.

I really took no interest in purchasing illegal dvds. One, because I'd rather have a high quality movie, and two, because the movies in those stores really aren't that great anyway. Case in point, I furiously searched for the hit holiday classic, "Dead Noon." I knew my brother's full length feature film was marketed to Best Buy, Wal Mart, and the black market, so I felt it my moral obligation and duty to search for this awful movie. 

Since there was nothing else to do, we hit up several different black market movie stores. I kept digging through endless piles of movies like "House Bunny," "Land Before Time 34 - Escape from the Witch's Castle," and "Rambo 213 - Rambo Goes Nuts." I thought I would for sure find a movie like "Dead Noon" among the lot, but after two days, my search yielded no results. I was depressed. 

My friend Esther and I decided to return to the black market movie store one last time to purchase all three seasons of "Arrested Development" for only 40 dollars. Esther was standing in line at the check out, the clock ticking as our 10:30 pm curfew was approaching. We had enough time to make it back to the hotel, but we were cutting it close. I decided to look behind me in one last effort to search for my brother's movie. And then, it happened. I saw it out of the corner of my eye. "Dead Noon." I had acquired a copy of my brother's film in a black market movie store halfway across the world. I started crying.

I have been proud of my brother Matthew in a lot of ways. He is one of the most loving, kind, thoughtful, spiritual, realistic, honest people I know. He served a mission, keeps good track of all his siblings and friends, has an honorable job, but I have never once shed a tear because of his accomplishments. Things that ultimately make my brother who he is, things that are much more important than this awful movie he produced, directed, wrote the screenplay for, and so much more have never made me cry. It was at this silly moment that I was proud of my brother, and I was bawling.

I was halfway across the world, and this stupid movie connected me to my brother in Salt Lake City. Memories filled my brain of all my brother had done for me, for the example he has set and continues to set, for the good person he is, and I was proud. I also missed him. All the people at the JC are very smart, and it's really taken a toll on my self confidence. There are times here when I have felt like I know nothing. It was at that moment that I realized I know something, something that a lot of other people probably don't know, and that was I know my family. I know my family better than any book I've read, more than the scriptures, more than any band or movie, more than any important moment in history. And, in all honesty, that's what matters the most.

I quickly asked the store owner if he had any other copies of "Dead Noon" to which he responded, "no." If there would've been 50 copies of "Dead Noon" at the store that night, I would have purchased all of them. Either way, I can say that I bought out all of the copies the black market dvd store had of "Dead Noon." Unfortunately, I received a strike on my record at the JC because of the extra time it took me to purchase another DVD. (You acquire a strike when you are out past curfew.) But, it was most definitely worth it. 

Realizing that you know your family through finding your brother's hit holiday horrible movie cult classic in a black market dvd store when you're millions of miles away? Now that's something to be excited about.