The Holy Land

Palm Sunday

2009-04-10T01:35:00.001-07:00

While I was exhausted and not really looking forward to waking early and getting out to more activities - Shabbat gave me a great day of rest and relaxation and rejuvenated me for Palm Sunday. A beginning to the Holy Week for the Christians in the Holy Land and near to the time of Passover, Palm Sunday marks the beginning of a very bush week in Jerusalem and the lands surrounding. I didn't know much about the activities of the day so we spent some time researching what woudl be best to do, and decided to attend a Luteran service at the Church of the Redeemer in the heart of the Old City. A crusader aged church that has a beautiful atrium in the center - it was a beautiful location which was very fitting for the beautiful service that took place within. The services began outside the church with a processison of palm fronds and singing, afterwhich we all took seats in this small church (the "Mormon University" students taking up a good half of the congregation). The service was all in English (fortunately), and was really very beautiful and inspiring. They read a portion of the Passion account from the book of Matthew, but it was read in a more theatrical form in that there were several readers and a narrator so that you could differentiate really well where the dialogue existed. This along with prayers and hymns made up the rest of the service. I'm not sure quite how to describe the spirit that accompanied this meeting, but I can say that I defintely felt what I think they term Spirtual Envy similar to what I felt at the Western Wall. After the service concluded we were able to mingle with the congregation and find out about them - a Presbyterian lady who was in attendace made a comment to one of the students that she "liked the Mormon people - who liked to be called Latter-Day-Saints", right? It was neat to talk to someone from the States who had heard about us and had positive feedback. Most the people here in the Holy Land know who the Mormon's are, but are not allowed to know much about us. But anyway! That was a very inspiring way to start the day.
After this we spent a bit of time in the city before heading back to the Center to meet up with the rest of the students and members of the Branch as well to attend the Palm Sunday walk. I heard from the Lutheran pastor that there were 50,000 people who would attend this Palm Sunday walk, and while this may still have been a bit of an exaggeration...there were a lot of people there to commemorate the Triumphal Entry of the Savior. Young children lined the streets with Palm Fronds asking for a shekel or two so that you could hold a palm frond yourself as you walked. Beginning in Bethphage (I belive) the Mormon students joined in many other Christian faiths in walking the route the Savior walked as he entered Jerusalem, and came through the city gates. The heat was almost unbearable and the walk was long but it was definitely worth it. We held back until almost the end of the long procession and sang some Hymns as a group before a smaller group of us decided to try and make it further ahead in the procession and move a long a bit more quickly. This was a great idea because it really helped me to be able to enjoy many of the different sects and see how they each worshipped. Songs were sung in many differing tongues and people each raised their voices in praise of their Lord. We passed by many important sites including Gethsemane and the Mount of Olives, and were able to visualize the many people that would have been there welcoming the Savior in to the city gates. We were able to study this account just yesterday, and once again it was a great coming together of personal experiences and scriptural accounts. We were even interviewed by an Italian television cast and appeared on TV! One of the local Monks familar with us as students even saw us.
Instead of turning around and making our way back to the Center, we decided (maybe foolishly) to continue on through the Old City in to West Jerusalem. There we treated ourselves to some frozen yogurt (it had been a long hot day), and then ordered a cab back to the Center. I'm not quite sure what I did for the rest of the evening, although I'm sure was pretty insignificant compared to the events of the day.
I think I'd like to commemorate Palm Sunday more conscioulsy from here on out because it's a really great way to begin focusing and thinking about Easter earlier on - an event often overlooked in the Western World.

Eilat - Apirl 4th

2009-04-10T01:17:00.000-07:00

I don't know who's idea it was to take another all day field trip the day after our return to Galilee, and while I was kind of upset at first it ended up to be a good thing. The morning came quick and early (in fact I'm not sure I felt like I slept much at all), and then we were on a bus on our way to Eilat. A portion of the Red Sea (I have now seen Med and Red...I'm still waiting for Dead), this area contains some beautiful tropical fish and coral reefs. It was an optional field trip but almost everyone signed up, and so at 6:00 in the morning we all clambered on to the bus and started our trek back to Egypt...almost. It was a very long bus ride and most people were pretty calm due to exhaustion and so we slept most of the way there.
When we arrived we got all geared up with snorkeling equipment and headed out to the beach! We were a little disappointed because the weather didn't look as promising as it had the few days before - in fact it was fairly overcast and a bit windy as well. That was ok though because as soon as we plunged in to the freezing cold water we soon warmed up and were out enjoying the fish and the sites. Unfortunately I found I was a fairly poor swimmer! Something I had not realized before, and I inhaled quite a bit of salt water - I guess those swimming lessons as a child didn't do a whole lot for me (sorry Mom and Dad!)
When we finished swimming we spent some more time on the beach relaxing, chatting, and enjoying our non-Ein-Gev sack lunches (the pitas from the JC are much tastier). We then set out for the boardwalk nearby to explore a bit and do some shopping. Then it was off to dinner at the same Kibbutz we ate at on our way to Egypt. The food was decent and the gelato that came after was incredible - just what the doctor ordered. Or what the professors ordered...either way! So that was fun experience and something else to add to the incredilbe list of experiences I've had in the Holy Land!

Galilee

2009-04-09T06:50:00.000-07:00

So basically this entire field trip was far too much for me to capture in one blog post - and I should have posted several to try and capture the incredible spirit and all the fun we had but I have been too much of a slacker to stay on top of these things. Instead I think I'll make this kind of another summary post and try and capture some of my most favorite events. Let's start with...
Meggido:
The location of the great Armageddon certainly doesn't seem like a place of war - it was absolutely beautiful. It began to rain a little when we got there which reminded me the reason the country was so green (not its typical state - how lucky am I?) There's a lot of history that takes place here as well, so it was neat to have Brother Skinner explain everything to us. It began to be occupied in 5,000 BC and...well there's a lot I could expound upon here but I think my biggest impression was one that I've had repeatedly while I've been here - the similarity of many of the ancient religions and our own. Brother Skinner emphasized the similarity in temple worship particularly.
The Synagogue at Nazareth:
When the Savior proclaimed that no prophet was accepted in their own country he wasn't exaggerating at all. Those who heard Him proclaim his Messianic divinity rejected him in a synagogue very similar to the one we were able to see on our first day of the trip. We sang several hymns including Jesus of Nazareth and I Believe in Christ. This was one of the stops where I could really picture the scriptures coming to life and playing out.

Ein Gev:
The resort we arrived at and stayed in was really very beautiful. "Bungalow" is what they called the little apartment rooms we stayed in - and they overlooked the Sea of Galilee from almost every window. We could observe the tranquility of the water during the day, as well as the fast rising and frequent storms. The first night we ran down to the beach in the middle of a rain storm and jumped and laughed - it was really a great introduction to the rest of the week and the facilities we stayed in.
Mt. of Beatitudes:
Yep - we've all read this account a time or ten, and now I've been to the spot they suppose this took place. We spent most the week divided up in to our religion classes, and so we were able to have a lot of devotionals on site which was a huge benefit. We had classes the day before this field trip, and so it was neat to learn about it from the scriptures one day, and then visualize it on location the very next. The Mt. of Beatitudes, Brother Wilson reminded us, was a time when Christ lifted his followers in to a mountain (high apart from the rest of the world), and taught them how to lift themselves above everyone else.

St. Peter's Primacy:
This was actually one of my favorite stops - it was the location where Christ asked Peter "lovest thou me?" It's also the place at which Christ prepared a meal for the apostles after he told them to cast in their nets and they were able to catch lots many fish. It overlooked the shores of Galilee (as do most places in the Galilee area...surprise surprise), but I think the thing I loved most about this site was actually the man who ran things there. He commented to Brother Wilson about how he lived a life a bit lacking of other people, kind of lonely, and how he always loved when the Mormon students were brought over because there was something different about us as youth. That was a really neat thing to hear from him, it's incredible how many of those types of experiences I've had since being here, it's not just something you've been told in Sunday School over and over again.

Synagogue at Capernum:
So whereas the synagogue in Nazareth is a good representation of what the synagogues would have looked like in Christ's time, it isn't widely accepted as an actual location that Christ would have gone to - the Synagogue at Capernum is a lot more defaced and weathered but it is widely accepted as a place Christ would have actually walked.

Ginosaur (so I'm not sure what this means but what we did was take a boat ride across Galilee):
Taking a boat ride across Galilee was definitely a highlight of the trip for me. Brother Huff's class experienced a bit of difficulty when they were traveling across, there was quite the storm on the water that day, but for us the water was nice and calm. I guess it was nice to have both right? It's funny how the Sea is actually more of a lake than anything else - I'm not sure what I was expecting. After our voyage across the Sea (ha ha) we visited a museum in which was located the "Jesus boat" as they have named it. Infact this is the official name for the exhibit! It features a boat pulled up from the bottom of the lake which dates to about 2000 years ago. It was neat how well it was kept together and the mental image it provided!

Rafting:
So we got to go on our own raft! They called it kayaking but it definiltey was not! Bryan, Miriam, Moon, and Ryan Money and I made up the group. We were one of the first groups out, but the last one to arrive - whether it be because of our lack in "kayaking" skills or our frequent tips of the boat no one will know...or will they! We sure had a good time though, and the area was really very beautiful. How often do you get to kayak down the Jordan River? And I don't mean the one in Utah!

Fish Restaurant/Tiberias Frozen Yogurt:
One of the infamous activities of the JC Galilee trip is the Fish Restaurant trip. The class is taken out to dinner to a fish restaurant (which is kind of a relief from the food of the kibbutz - it gets a little old). The thing about these fishes is that they leave the heads/tails/scales/eyes all on and you get to sift through them to find the meat! It sounds pretty much as disgusting as it looks. I'm not much a fan of fish myself anyway, so this was kind of a challenge to me because the other dinner option is pizza and well...I actually like pizza...especially because it doesn't seem to be staring back at me when I eat it! I decided to try the fish for the experience more than anything else and found that I actually enjoyed it quite a lot! The restaurant was a lot of fun as well - playing with fish heads can be quite satisfying...or...fun? I don't really know the right word to describe it. After dinner they bused us out to Tiberias for gelato or frozen yogurt and a walk around some of the same kinds of shops that we've been seeing since being here in Jerusalem. It was a lot of fun and a break from classes and field trips to enjoy doing something a little more "normal" with friends here. (If you call fish head dinners normal).

Gamla:
I'm not gonna lie, the movie we watched here to explain the actual significance of this place was SUPER cheesy, poorly translated and well...boring! Besides that my allergies had been affecting me all morning and...to sum it all up I didn't really take a lot acacemically from this place. What I did enjoy, however, were the visual aids I was able to take from here! They had set up a house that could have been similar to that of Christ's time, and they explained to us how some of the tools and rooms were used. You could picture the need to sweep the house to find the Widow's Mite, and why you cannot put Old Wine in New Bottles. This experience was akin to Neot Kedouim in its signifcance.

Tiberias Shabbat:
I feel so privileged to have now partaken of the sacrament and particpated in a church meeting in buildings overlooking two of the most reverenced and beautiful places in our church history. Shabbat with the Tiberias branch took place in a branch home that looked very out of place for the place it was found. At the end of a long driveway and behind a crooked green picket fence stood the home, which we approached and were welcomed in by the Branch President and his wife. I've mentioned this before about going to Branch Members homes here in Jerusalem and feeling the cammraderie and kinship with members of the church all over the world, and this same spirit accompanied this building and the people that were found within. You could see that the church spared no expense to make the building as beautiful and yet efficient as possible, and the room in which we held sacrament meeting had large windows in it that overlooked the Sea of Galilee. The meeting began with Come Come Ye Saints, and was sung in Spanish, Russian and English - accomodating each of the members of the branch and their mother tongue. While the words didn't blend together perfectly, the feeling behind them was one. A few members in the program were able to speak and we were allowed to wander around the building a bit to see what things were like. The best part was probably after the meeting was over and we were allowed to mingle with the Branch Members. What incredible people they are - truly lights on a hill to other people in the world. It's because of people like them the church will hopefully one day reach the Holy Land and be able to spread forth its message.

River Jordan:
We visited one River Jordan site when we were on our way back from Jordan, but we had another stop at a different site (disputed as the site of Christ's baptism) on the way back from our Shabbat meetings. The place was very peaceful and surprisingly not busy at all so we were able to enjoy some quiet time here. The facilities were very well kept and manicured which was nice, it really helped to be able to envision what had taken place here, and while it was neat to have a devotional right on the shores of the River Jordan in the other location, this place helped me to more fully be able to visualize the event.

Mt. Tabor:
This is one of the speculated spots for the Mt. of Transfiguration experience to have taken place. There was a winding narrow road that led up to the top, and fortunately they hired several taxis to take us from the spots where the bus' could not pass so we didn't have to hike up. The view from the top was absolutely breathtaking, you could see for miles and miles. Once again we had a discussion led by Brother Brown and Brother Wilson which will forever change the way I read that account in my scriptures, and will probably change the way I view the Restoration of Keys account in the Doctrine and Covenants as well. Picturing heads of dispensations - Moses and Elijah coming to comfort and strengthen Christ as He was about to undergo the most difficult of sacrifices ever made in human history was awe-inspiring. The church that commemorates the event was beautiful as well - and in true Brother Wilson style we sang inside - this time a few of the hymns being I Know that My Redeemer Lives and the Spirit of God (I write in the locations we sing these in my hymn books, which makes it almost as precious to me as my scriptures!)

Church at Nain:
The Widow of Nain was a miracle Christ preformed that I have not paid much attention to before study of it in the Holy Land. Brother Wilson has taught us that we have no scriptural evidence that Christ knew of the Widow before he went to visit her, but that he would have had to have spiritual promptings to go out of his way to visit the little village of Nain to preform a miracle for her. This site is often forgotten on Christian tours of the Galilee and so it seemed very fitting that the location of the church was rather rural and out of the way compared to many others we saw. The small Palestinian family who is in charge of the church seemed to expect our coming, and greeted us at the doors when we arrived. There was a small boy, maybe two or three years old, amongst the rest of the family who also came out to meet us. He stopped and posed for about a million pictures from all of the students, and you could tell he had practiced before. The spirit of this sweet family really touched me and reminded me that just as the Savior did not forget the Widow of Nain in days past, he would not forget this little family either. My heart just ached to bring that truth to them sooner rather than later - but I guess patientce often makes things all the more sweet when they come to pass.

Caesarea Phillipi:
I did not know what to expect at all when we came to this site, but I was pleasantly surprised. On the way down we visited Caesarea Maritima, and both of these locations were very familar to me in name but I was not so familar with what occured at each location. I soon learned that Caesarea Phillipi was a very important site historically and scripturally because of Herod Philip and Peter. Here Herod Philip built his capital here which included a Pagan temple to the God Pan, in which unholy "worship" would take place and pigs would be sacrificed and then thrown down in to a body of water which symbolized hell. This whole complex is located in the rocks at the base of Mt. Hermon, and from it springs a beautiful part of the Jordan River. It was in this lcoation Christ told Peter that he would build his church upon him - seeing the site made this statement and the ensuing conversation so much more meaningful and understandable. You see because it's built at the base of a mountain, Christ could very well have gestured to the mountain behind him on which was built a false temple and told Peter that he was a different kind of rock upon which the true church would be founded. He also said that the gates of hell could not prevail against His church, which could have been in reference to the gates that covered the opening in front of "pool of hell" in to which animals were sacrificed to the Pagan god Pan. This was all VERY interesting to me and a lot easier to visualize - and it is easily one of hte most beautiful areas in Christ's mission.

Swine and the cliff:
So we visited a spot that is similar to the place where Christ would have cast the legion of devils out of the man and in to the swine. This really shows us the significance and reverence we should have for our physical bodies, and why they are referred to as temples. This area was also very green and beautiful - and it was kind of fun as well, I think you can see why!
Nimrod's Fortress:
This was one of the very last stop - if not the very last stop of the trip, and because of this I was VERY tired by the time we got there. Because of this I got NO historical significance from here at all, but I did get some pretty pictures! The view, as always was breathtaking, and we got some fun pics there as well!
Templar's Tomb:
We visited a few other sites but one of the last ones we saw was a tomb in Haifa commemorating the lives of two LDS missionaries who served in the Holy Land in the late 1800's. It is because of the holding of these two (and four or six others) that the church was recognized in the 1970's by the State of Israel, and part of the reason the Jerusalem Center was able to be constructed. While their story was very sad, it was also very happy for me because it contained a lot of hope. I am forever grateful to these two young men and their sacrifices on behalf of the entire church. It reminds me a lot of the members that are here now and the great sacrifices they are making as well.

We saw many other sites that consisted simply of beautiful views and awesome scenery, I could name them but I think that might just get overwhelming - espeically since the names wouldn't be very familar. There were several fields of flowers and waterfalls, however, and so I think I'll include a couple of those pics!
Some other things around Ein Gev...
Spending time on the beach
There was quite a lot of "down time" and time to relax while we were at the resort. Unfortunately for me this probably consisted a bit too much of sleeping, but there was also a lot of time we were able to spend just playing, reading, contemplating, and walking along the beach of Galilee. It was really incredilbe to try and imagine the Savior walking the same steps and looking out across the same vista. One of my most favorite memories is looking up at the crest of a hill Brother Wilson pointed out as the city of Safed. This is most likely the place the Savior referred to as the "city set on a hill" which light should not be hid under a bushel. Once again the scriptures came alive, and now everytime I read that passage I will not forget the glittering lights on the distant hill that I saw. One of the Tiberias members actually lives there today - a literal and metaphorical incredulity.
Bonfires
We had a few bonfires while we were here which typically consisted of treats, visiting and some music. Mike playing the guitar and the smores were some of my favorite parts, although it was also fun to see everyones Bible skits, play "How's Yours", and sing some campfire songs. What can I say, you can't go wrong when you doing something on the shores of Galilee
Pita and Hummas
Let's not lie...the sack lunches were...well...absolutely awful. Because it was a Kosher Jewish joint, we couldn't have meat and cheese sandwiches so instead we got meat and cucumber sandwiches on semi-soggy bread, and so when we got to stay in for lunch (when we had class at the Kibbutz) I loaded up on the mini pitas and incredible hummas. If there's one tribute I have to make to the Holy Land when I get home, well ok so this isn't the most important one...maybe if there's two tributes I have to make one of them is definitely to learn how to make good pitas! These ones were so awesome that I in one meal at six of them! No wonder I've just been gaining weight since I got here! How can I even complain?!
The Raft
Ok so the rules of Galilee were strictly no swimming, but we could wade in up to our ankles. We frankly observed these commands!...of course! Although one thing that was kind of funny was the construction of a raft out of waterlogged wood. Sadly I was not a part of the construction of this or the sand sculptures that were frequently found on the beach, but I was part of the observant crowd which greatly enjoyed it all! Not quite the jesus boat but almost!
Class
The best part about this program as a whole is the fact that we get to learn and then see. I'm going to be forever grateful for the amazing professors and directors we have here and all that they make possible for us.

Brother Wilson gave us a quote as we were studying the New Testament from President Monson that talks about getting to know the Savior better. President Monson states:

"Let us, in the performance of our duty, follow in the footsteps of the Master. As you and I walk the pathway Jesus alked, let us listen for hte sounds of sandaled feet. Let us reach out for the Carpenter's hand. Then we shall come to know Him....We will discover He is more than the Babe in Bethlehem, more than the carpenter's son, more than the greatest teacher ever to live. We will come to know Him as the Son of God, our Savior and our Redeemer." I felt Galilee overall was a great way to do this, although to be honest the most important thing I took from Galilee was that by physically walking in steps the Savior walked in isn't what he's talking about. To truly come to know the Savior we have to follow His actions and lifestyle overall - and I'm hoping that I can do that better from now on although it is definitely a continual process.

My Best Birthday...oh wait

2009-04-06T21:33:00.000-07:00

Ok so I know this happened quite a long time ago - but it was such an awesome experience I figured I needed to blog about it anyway.
The date was March 22 - a Sunday, but more importantly it was Moon's birthday! An exciting experience to be sure. Miriam and I talked about the possibilities we had to celebrate, and came up with a few different ideas we could play out throughout the day. We actually had a field trip planned so let me just put a big parentheses in here (

Neot Kedouim was the name of the nature reserve we went to - where we had a guide who told us all about Bible living and everyday life. Some of the activities we participated in included herding sheep and goats, crushing herbs to make toppings for pitas, observing writing of a Torah scroll, making and eating pitas, lifting a bucket out of a well, and a few other activiites. It was really neat to get a feel for the countryside away from the city as well as learn about what people during Bible times did on an everyday basis

). Ok so we got back from our field trip and I needed to organize something - and quick. The sun was starting to go down already and we needed to make it through the Old City to West Jerusalem before it had done so - and accomplish some errands along the way. Our group was comprised of 13 people including: Kara Schumacher, Elyse, Miriam, Matt, Bryan, Ken...umm...I'm gonna look up the rest and insert them here later lol. It was a pretty great group though. So I ran out ahead a little bit with Bryan and Matt and ran in to Abdul's and sneakliy grabbed the ingredients for Cherry Pink (This AWESOME drink created specifically for apartment 410) we went in to Aladdin's and a few people ran down to Omar's, and then we rendezvoused (I had to spell check that word 3 times) back on the main street in the city. We made our way towards West Jerusalem and happened to stop by a certain dress shop on the way to the restaurant. The guys weren't thrilled with this but they willing went along with it. The best part was probably the fact that Bryan found a certain pair of pants at this shop as well - HA! So then we were off to dinner at this little pizza restaurant which was a lot of fun. Three more people joined us when we got there, Hayley, Josh, and Lindsey. We were the only ones in the small shop which was probably a good thing because we dominated most of the space. Everyone sang happy birthday to Moon and we all went around and said something that we liked about her. Dinner being a success - check. Dessert was inevitbaly next, so we took a poll and it was split between wanting gelato and hot chocolate cake - so we decided to go for both! People were starting to get worn down from all the activities and anxious to start packing for Galilee, so we decided to call a cab and start heading home. They told us 10 minutes, and about 30 later we called again - we got the 10 minutes trip several times before they actually showed up, so we made the best of our extra time. Right off the main street - Benyahuda - we started pairing off and waltzing! It was SO much fun - spontaneous and hilarious too. The best part was when some local Palestinian guy showed up and wanted to participate. He took turns dancing with each of the girls, but seemed to have a special thing for me, he grabbed my hand over and over again. If I could post a video clip on here I would, and it would include him attempting to do some sort of hip lift...I don't know it was kind of weird! Luckily the cab driver showed up before too much more dancing occured. Well...kind of. The ride back to the Center was kind of crazy as well - more dancing as always. Including a private show from each of the boys. HILARIOUS! Jacob Curtis was probably the most funny.
When we got back there were still a few things that needed to go down - one of which was a flash dance. Awesome right? So we put that on, although I'm not gonna lie, I kind of spoiled the surprise when I announced it to the computer lab right in front of Moon. It was still a good time, but I kind of wish someone else had put the music together cause I definitely don't have dance worthy music. A small cherry pink party was all that was needed to finish out the night - so amidst packing, writing papers, submitting applications, and the like we mixed up some Cherry Pink and called it a night. What an awesome day it was!

Bethlehem and beyond...

2009-03-20T15:37:00.000-07:00

Tuesday was a really great experience – one I’ve looked forward to since I came here in fact! We were able to have a field trip to Bethlehem and visit the sites surrounding the area Christ was born.
We started off the day with crossing through one of the Israeli checkpoints in to the West Bank where Bethlehem is located. Unfortunately, even though it’s only six miles from where we live, we’re not allowed to visit here by ourselves – the center takes great care of us and doesn’t want us to be in any potential danger at all. They expected that to take between half an hour and an hour, but we got through quickly and soon met up with our Professor who teaches Modern Near Eastern Studies of Arabs, and were able to have a lecture by a few of his colleagues about the Palestinian-Israeli problem and the history surrounding that. It was very interesting and I was grateful to be able to attend that, but the next part was even better. Our Professor teaches at Bethlehem University, and so we got to attend a lecture by him at his home school, with some of the students in his classes! We were shown a film about the resettlement of many of the Palestinian people during the 1960’s, and learned a lot more about that. We were then able to ask a panel of students questions about the anything we wanted – the conflict, their schooling, social life, etc. It was very interesting to be able to relate to these people who are doing the same thing as I am right now, just in a very different context.
We ate lunch at “the tent” and that’s really what it was. A large tent situated in Bethlehem where we had pitas for appetizers, and then French fries and kabobs for lunch. It was neat to socialize with everyone in this kind of a setting, because we don’t get to “go out together” much in the same way we might at home. It was also fun to see how happy our Professor was to be able to take us around his home town and give us a tour of his favorite sites and places to eat.
After lunch we went to manger square and the Church of the Nativity. This was really neat because it is the oldest church that is still in tact, in the world. It dates back to the 4th century AD, and was built on top of ruins of another church built even earlier. Because of how old it is, it is considered by many to actually be the birthplace of the Christ child. The church was beautiful, the only downside was there were lots of people visiting and so it was hard to be able to see everything. We got in a line to go down to the grotto, the place where Jesus would have been born, and only got to see the spot for a few seconds before we were herded out of the room by a nasty mean Priest who kept yelling at everyone to be silent. Ok...you tell me…where’s the irony in that? I was kinda mad after cause I didn’t even get a good picture of the inside! And let’s face it, how many times am I going to be able to go to Jerusalem in my life? That’s right…probably never again! Stupid priest guy…some dude in a robe on a power trip…yeah.
After that we got to wander around the square a bit, shopping is always a good thing right? Actually I kept myself under control pretty well if you ask me! (Running out of money always helps this problem). It was interesting though, cause the hot item everyone was looking for was Bethlehem Blankets, and they were no where to be found! We were able to see an exhibit of many nativities from all over the world, this seemed rather appropriate considering the location.
The rest of the night was definitely the best part of the experience. We were able to go back across the borders to Shepherd’s fields – a place where in ancient times the shepards would have likely dwelt on night’s like the night the Christ child was born. Considering it was only a few weeks before this event would have occurred – the weather is even similar to how it would have been then. We were able to go as a religion class which was neat, because we had a devotional there. Several students prepared a small biographical sketch of Herod, Joseph, Mary, The Wisemen, The Shepherd’s and Elisabeth – it was really neat. We were also able to hear some Christmas Hymn’s on the Guitar from Mike and Annie – and I was even involved in a small sinigng group of six people who sang Mary’s Lullaby. It was a night filled with the Christmas Spirit more than I’ve felt in a while. Truly something I’ll treasure and take home with me.
As for the rest of the week – I’ve just been studying for tests and finals! Today we had our last one – Musallam’s class. It was such a relief and you can sense the drop of tension and stress in the building. After the test was over we all ran outside and yelled for joy – and then decided to go down the road and pick up an ice cream at one of the local shops. On our way back we met some of the young local boys, who showed us the small cage filled with puppies right near to where the center is! We had fun playing with them and then spent the rest of the night relaxing and preparing for Galilee! It’s been a great week overall.

2009-03-10T03:02:00.002-07:00

Jordan was INCREDIBLE, I know it's probably horrible to say and against some kind of rule, but I'm pretty sure I enjoyed Jordan more than Egypt! The pyramids were incredible but what I loved about Petra was the fact that it was all secluded from the rest of the world (as opposed to the pyramids which sat in the middle of a city). Petra, besides being the location that Harrison Ford walked in Indiana Jones (and yes, many wore "traditional" hats to commemorate the occasion), is the location where the Nabatean people made their community. It contains the treasury (which is the famous structure from the movie), as well as various other caves which served as tombs and homes, a amphitheater which resembles Roman structures very closely, a high place of sacrifice, and a structure similar to the treasury - but on an even larger scale - the monastery. We were able to have a guide tell us all aobut the history of the site on the way in, and then were free to roam around and explore for the afternoon. I decided to visit the Monastery and the High Place of Sacrifice, and while it was a rather long hike (hot too), it was most definitely worth it. One of the neat experiences I had here was with a Bedouin family who still lives in Petra. (There are many, which I was rather surprised by). We were walking down from the Monasery and I noticed a mother stationed by one of the many tables filled with souveniers. She was sitting on the ground with three or four young children, and they were attempting to eat lunch. Their meal was very meager and I felt really bad for them! Many of these children are used to get money from tourists, but these children simply sat. As we passed I pulled some crackers I had out of my bag and gave them the remainder of the package. The mother was very grateful, and the children danced behind me smiling and waving for quite a distance. It made me so much more grateful for what I have, and sympathetic to these people who know no other way of life. After we hiked to the monastery we were able to eat lunch at a great restaurant located right in Petra! They had the best falaffels I've ever had! On the way out we hiked up to the High Place of Sacrifice (which was quite a difficult task because I was so tired by this time!) and we were able to see a great view of all of Jordan, it was most definitely worth it!
Another incredible site we were able to visit is called Jaresh - it is known as the best Roman ruins out side Italy, and it most defintley was. There were pillars everywhere, as well as structures used for worship and the like. We were able to go in to a structure that looked simliar to the collosseum (at least to me). As we were listening to our guide explain what the structures were, a dressed up band came out and began playing music. The JC is all about dance parties - apparently - and this was most definitely the best one! Brother Brown and Brother Wilson even joined in the festivities for a few minutes! We got to finish wandering around the ruins, including walking down an ancient Roman road in which you can still see the ruts from the wheels of chariots! It's hard to imagine the things that happen there without actually seeing people wandering around, but this sure gave me a great idea! I really liked the market here as well, because I was able to get a couple of cheap and beautiful oil paintings! The last thing we were able to do here was attend a show which depicted some of the typical atheltic events the Romans would put on at Jaresh. Many of them were gladiator like fighting. After this we were able to go meet the actors, and I got my picture taken with one of these guys - I like to call him "pecks". He was SO hilarious, he put his arm around my back and kept telling me to look in to his eyes, and then he'd growl at me! HA!
The last day we were there we stopped at another mosque and learned more about the Islamic religion. This mosque was more specific about the attire of women, and so all of us had to wear full-length black dresses (which we all felt really great about...). It was neat to get another perspective here, and I learned a lot of new things I hadn't before, which is always good! It's incredible to me how similar the Islamic religion is to our own as well.
The last significant stop we made in Jordan was most definitely the River Jordan. There are a few spots in the Holy Land which claim to be the site of the baptism of Christ, and while I'm not sure in which place it really occurred - this place seemed as good as any to me. It was kind of in the middle of no where, which I actually preferred, and had the same spirit about it as the Garden Tomb. We were able to have a devotional there and talk a little bit about the life of Christ and the beginning of his mortal ministry (which if it didn't occur here, than somewhere similar to here.) One of the points I thought was really interesting was just as Christ descended below all things in fulfillment of the atonement, he was submerged in the lowest body of water on earth when he was baptized - this was a physical manifestation of something he did for us spiritually. I'm so excited to be starting New Testament and learning more about his ministry.
Some of the other highlights of the Jordan trip were most definitely the mall in Amman, where we made some local friends and ate at a pizza hut (which tasted very American actually!) The DVD shop where we were able to get..well...cheap ;) movies was pretty good as well because we were able to increase our movie library here at the center by quite a bit (not that we have a lot of time for moving watching).
The day after returning from Jordan we had another field trip planned for Tel Aviv, and while everyone was excited to go visit the city it was definitely hard to make myself get out of bed and go, we were all pretty worn out from Jordan. We made it though, and it was worth it for sure. The first stop we made was at the Diaspora Museum, where we were able to learn more about Jewish traditions and the way they were able to maintain their national identity despite all the many deportations and scatterings that happened to them. This was really interesting to me because I realized, once again, that the Jewish ideas and traditions are really not that different from my own.
The next stop we made was at the hosue in which the State of Israel was established. I think everyone had lost focus by this time because I noticed quite a few nodding heads during the orientation movie, and I'm a bit to ashamed to say that I participated in a game of signs during the presentation...I probably shouldn't admit to such activities. We were allowed to roam around the city for most of the rest of the day, so I headed to the beach with a group. It was perfect beach weather, warm enough to be able to appreciate the chilly water, but not hot enough to be completely uncomfortable sitting up on the beach. Unfortunately we weren't allowed to swim, so I rolled up my jeans and walked along the surf of the beach. Stephanie, Miriam and I even collected some old water worn pieces of glass (they look kind of like transparent rocks now) so that we could make some kind of "Jerusalem mosaic" out of them. It's a little big fifth grade arts and crafts, but everyone needs creativity time...right Mike? ;)
Shabbat was a good break for everyone, and while I always enjoy our Shabbat meetings, this one was especially good because it was fast and testimony meeting. It's nice to be able to share thoughts and experiences here in fast and testimony meeting because we are all able to relate to one another, and so it's more like adding someone else's feelings and perspectives about the same things you're experiencing to your own. After church the majority of the students made their way over to the Garden Tomb - a lovely place to spend the afternoon. On the way over, Miriam Sarah and I decided, after passing several groups of children and youth walking home from school, that we wanted to befriend some of the local children. We resolved to stop and talk with the next group of girls we came across, and before too long we found ourselves outside an all girls school - outside of which were many groups of young girls! We started talking to one group where there were girls ranging from about seven or eight up to thirteen. Some of them weren't able to speak English very well, but that was ok cause those who did translated for us. I made a few friends, and it was really neat to be able to feel part of the community that way.
The Garden was especially beautiful that day, the sunlight streaming through the trees above, and the various groups raising praises to their Savior many of whom did so through song. My favorite group was the Nigerians who seemed to greet us upon arrival. I was able to sit and contemplate for a while, and then after hearing somone several feet away start singing "Rise and Shout" I joined some of the other students in talking with an LDS travel group who was here visiting for a few weeks. It was neat to see some people from home, it really emphasized to me the fact that within the church we are all brothers and sisters, and it really felt this way. At the end of our trip here, we were able to raise our voices with many others in singing hymns just a few feet from the entrance to the Tomb. I decided on this day that this could be the "other grove", if you know what I mean.
So even though we had finals coming up , they scheduled ANOTHER field trip for the next day, but it was worth it. (I'm pretty sure I say that like...every two seconds.) This one was the "Herodian" field trip, and it was neat because it is something that isn't too far away from here, but I hven't done it yet. Basically we were able to walk on the same steps Christ would have to get up to the temple complex. There was something very real about this place - maybe because it's one of the few we know the Savior legitly walked. (Yeah...I just wrote legitly). After that we went through a few museums which were ruins from the Upper City of Jerusalem, a place where Lehi probably lived during Book of Mormon times. It's neat to learn all about the Bible here, especially because it doesn't seem to be of particular emphasis in the States, but it was also neat to remember that our church has foundations here as well.
Well this blog is beginning to become excessively long so I'll just wrap up with a few more activities. This week was Purim, which is basically like a week-long Jewish Halloween...kinda. It's a celebration of the story of the Book of Esther, and as part of the celebrations everyone dresses up! We learned quite a bit about it from our Judaism teacher, Ophir, and then we were able to go experience it for ourselves! Miriam Moon and I dressed up as a Rock Band, and Bryan was our manager...although I'm not sure if he looked like that - you'll have to decide for yourself. There were a few who thought other things about his costume...I wonder why...but anyway! We went to synagogue with the Wilson's and listened to the story of Esther in Hebrew (and also made friends with some Jewish girls from the states). Afterwards we went out to Benyahuda Street, where the real party began. So we didn't really party all out like many of the people did - instead we hit up Sambooki's for hot chocolate cake and brownie pastries. Probably the best thing about West Jerusalem. (Don't worry mom, I'm trying to get the recipe so I can make it for you).
The other important visit we made this week was the Separation Wall visit. We were lucky to have a man who has worked a lot with the United States and Near Eastern relations come and explain to us his perspective on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Everyone here seems to have their own opinions about the whole conflict, obviously, but it was interesting to get a new view. He emphasized the fact that if a two-state solution was not reached it may be impossible to solve the conflict.
Last night, we had a pretty sweet game of capture the flag going on - Pirates vs. Ninjas naturally...I mean what fun is a dance a game...anything really without dressing up? Yeah - none at all. While the Pirates were pretty vicious and scary...the Ninjas definitely had better moves, which I think is really a redeeming factor and reason enough for us to win. The game ended with a few people angry at one another but...it was ok cause we all made up over a few games of Uno. Awesome right?
Well that's about it for now. Shabbat was incredible - as it always is. And maybe your prayers this Sunday can be for me - cause I'm not sure if I'll be able to keep up with my blog without some divine intervention!

Just another week in paradise...

2009-02-27T14:54:00.000-08:00

So I think I'll just do highlights for the week again - sound good to everyone?
1. Last Sunday (which to me always feels like Monday because we have our sabbath meetings on Satrudays...but anyway). We set out, in the rain, to an Italian Israeli Artifact Museum/Synagogue. It was kind of an odd combination of purposes for a room, but it worked out pretty well. There were some pretty old pieces of woodwork (some dated back to the 1500's), so that was pretty awesome. It was fun to wander around, but my favorite part was probably the man who worked at the front desk - I probably should have asked his name but unfortunately I didn't. He was really friendly and joked around with us a lot. Something that I've not done that I want to do more, I realized after this, is just talk more with the local people here, and learn from them. After all, they are the ones that know the most about this area, and I can learn from the culture by being in it!
2. I also bought my olive wood this week, the next day (Monday) actually. I got a beautiful nativity set that I love! As well as a statue of Christ that looks a lot like the "O Jerusalem" pose that Greg Olsen painted.
3. FHE - the same day as the olive wood actually. I have a pretty sweet family, and we decided for this week we'd play Around the World Pingpong. I did pretty well the first round, I actually got it down to where it was just me and two...or maybe three of the guys - but they got me out.
4. Went to the Princess Basma Center for Disabled children again (Tuesday), although this time it wasn't a tour, instead we were there to help the children. The only problem was that it was the last day for many of the children and their mothers to be participating in the program, so they were out in the Old City at the Dome of the Rock for the day, so that meant there were only two children left at the center. One was a young boy , I belive his name was Hassef, who was blind and had a syndrome problem as well (I think probably down syndrome). It was really sad because his mother had to be constantly holding him, he was so restless, and she also had to constantly wipe the spitup from his mouth (he had to be fed every two hours because of the rate of his fluid loss). The next little girl's name was Raneen, and she was a bedouin child who had a hard time interacting with other children. We played Legoes with her and tried to get her to talk to us, but it was pretty difficult, it was nice to spend time with the kids though, I really enjoy them a lot! I can't wait to go back again.
5. Then next day (Wednesday) we went to Hezekiah's Tunnel, which has been one of my favorite field trips so far (I think I probably always say that). We started out with a video (one in 3D!! Super cool), that showed the way the City of David looked during Christ's time, and the conversion to how it looks now. We were able to see the ruins from King David's palace, as well as walk through Hezekiah's tunnel itself. The tunnel was used to bring water from the more plentiful part of the city down to the bottom - and it collected at the Pool of Siloam. It's still filled with water and so we got to slosh through it all to the very bottom, where we talked more about the Savior and the man that he cured of blindness at the Pool of Siloam. It was a really fun experience because we talked and sang Disney songs all through the tunnel, and then we got to have a spiritual experience as well.
6. Volleyball that night, ok so we didn't really play a game, it was more like Elyse, Matt, Moon and I messing around trying to pretend like we knew what we were doing. Four people honestly isn't enough to have a full game of volleyball anyway - right? Maybe that can be our excuse. What ended up happening was Moon, Matt and Elyse spent some time laughing at me as I "practiced my hops" (in other words tried to figure out how the heck someone who is 5'3" is supposed to spike the ball).
7. The Seder dinner (Thursday) So our awesome Judaism teacher, the same one who accompanied us to Mt. Herzl, came to the center and assisted us in putting on our own Seder dinner! It was pretty long, and the food was - well - the main course tasted pretty regular but I wouldn't recommed bitter herbs on a regular basis. The best part about this was everyone got to particpate in something if they wanted to, so we had students participating in everything from singing the traditional songs, to the reading of the Haggaddah itself. I helped set up for the dinner, and then was one of the narrarators, so I sat right next to Ophir and his son, Shimei (I'm not sure if that's how you spell his name...but that's ok). Shimei was quite the character - especailly for a four year old! I was really impressed with how smart he is, and as soon as he warmed up to me he was more than willing to jabber my ear off. He told me the entire story of the Passover (complete with how much he hates the "bad guy Pharaoh"), and then had me hold up, in the middle of the program, each page of pictures from his Haggaddah to all the students at the dinner. I also had the great opportunity to take him to the bathroom...four times. Yep, four times! He had the system worked out pretty well, he'd say he had to go to the bathroom and start jumping up and down, but then really he'd just run in real quick, and go explore after - making it quite a while before we could return to the dinner! He was really smart and lots of fun too
8. Edek Refadim St. (Friday) So we had some classes and things this day, but then I was able to go with a few other students to this awesome part of the West part of Jerusalem. The reason we went was for a cute jewelry shop, but we had a lot of fun wandering around the rest of the area as well. There are a lot of neat cafe's and shops, so we want to go back when it isn't raining so hard. It was a neat discovery though!
9. Humanitarian Aid/Elder Neuwenshwander: We're lucky right now to have many guests from the church Humanitarian Aid leadership for the area staying with us - one of whom is Elder Neuwenshwander (I don't really know how to spell his name - sorry!) We were lucky enough to hear from him in a fireside on Friday night, and then again in Sacrament meeting for Shabbat! It was a lot of fun to hear his takes on Humanitarian Aid and the things that we've been doing here, as well as his testimony of the Savior. He even came and atended one of the sessions of creating Hygeine kits and boxing them - that was really neat as well. I'm really glad we've had this opportunity to serve while we've been here.
10. Bodyball!! Ok so I don't think the creation of this game was intentional - but it's pretty awesome! Basically you try to get an exercise ball to hit one of the pads that line the end of the gymnasiums, without the other team knocking it out. It's kind of confusing, but lots of fun to play. You can use your entire body to move the ball back and forth across the court, and everytime you hit it you have to make some kind of intimidating yell at the other team. Another plus is it's quite the workout! (You should ask Elyse how she likes bodyball...or maybe you should ask Bryan...I'm not really sure).
11. Studying for finals. So the way the classes are set up here, we have to take a lot of our finals halfway through the course, so we can start the next course (which builds on the last). I guess the only ones that really do that are our field trip class and our religion classes..but yeah - that's pretty much all I've been doin today! Studying for finals! I got so lost in homework that Moon even made a movie about me being lost and how worried she was! Stay tuned for more details.

So I'm headed out to Jordan tomorrow early and that's why I wanted to get this post out before I left! Sorry there's not any pics but I'll add some when I get back!

Quite the plethora of events...

2009-02-21T08:18:00.000-08:00

I've known since I got here how blessed I am to have the opportunity to be here, but it wasn't until last week when the new director, Brother Brown, gave us a fireside about the history of the building that I came to truly appreciate the opposition that the church faced in the construction of the center, and the value that they place on the center as a learning opportunity for students. President Kimball picked the land plot in 1978, even though it was not for sale, and many people said it wouldn't be possible. They thought they could have the land plot secured in 6 weeks - but it wasn't until 18 months later after much difficulty with various organizations all around Jerusalem they were given the ok to go. The bottom part of the building sits on an Israeli "green zone", meaning no one is allowed to build there, and the top part had to be below a certain height because of the Lutheran group that holds a piece of land with a magnificent view of the city above us. Against all the opposition that came to the center, they began construction and tried to think of ways to pay back the local society for taking up a piece of land on their beloved Mt. Scopus - and came up with the idea to grant 10 Palestinian students every semester a full-ride scholarship to BYU (incidently one of the Palestinain members of hte branch here attended BYU on this scholarship several years ago). The construction company that started building the center was told they'd never build in Israel again - and now the "Mor Company" (as they've named themselves..."Mormon") has been in charge of construction of the Supreme Court, Foreign Ministry Building, and many other promiment places. Brother Brown said "Even with the enormous opposition - the center went on."
He informed us that the center was to bring the city in to the building. The corridors are cobblestone, and are covered in some places and uncovered in others - reflecting the atmosphere of the Old City and the shopping areas that are also sporadically covered. The architects also wanted the building to "live" and "breathe" along with the land, and an important part of that was bringing light in to the building - thus the many windows and beautiful arches. You can feel the life of the building through the changing light throughout the day. The brethren even declared the building temple quality. My favorite quote of the night was "This is a place that holds the Lord's eye, His eye is upon this place." The night was really incredible, and made my appreciation for the center grow even more - if that's possible.
The next day was pretty incredible as well, we got to visit the Holocaust Museum of Israel called Yad Vashem. This was quite an emotional experience, that I'm not sure I was ready for. We learned so much about the Jewish people and their experience through the Holocaust, it's incredible to me what they had to go through, and how seemingly ignorant the rest of the world was. One of the most powerful quotes I recorded from the Museum was by a member of the Jewish community of Germany (at least...I'm pretty sure that's who it was, sorry for the uncertainty), anyway, it said "Tomorrow we will be heading towards the Great Unknown in full awareness and at peace. If we are meant to live, all the better; and if not,..." I can't imagine living in that kind of fear. At the end of the museum tour which was filled with awesome pictures and video clips, we entered a memorial for the children who died during the Holocaust - all 1.5 million. It was built by a Jewish couple who survived the concentration camps, while their 5 year old son did not. Inside was only a few - probably less than 5 - candles that were reflected thousands of times off of many mirrors. The room was dark besides the light that eminated from the candles, and on a speaker a man read the names, hometown, and age of the children known who died echoed throughout the building. At the entrance were nine pictures of Holocaust victim children - it was really powerful. While Yad Vashem was definitely a great experience, almost as good was the experiences we had with our guide. He was from the states originally - a retired lawyer named Larry who is now living in the Holy Land and guiding tours both here and occasionally in Poland. He started asking all sorts of questions about our religion, and while at first they were things about population and more...demographic questions, they eventually switced to be more doctrinal, and we had to tell him we weren't at liberty to discuss that while here. It was so sad to me because it was such a great opportunity to share the gospel. One of the other students, Stephen, remarked at branch prayer tonight that their guide, a different lady, commented on the respectfulness of the Mormon students, and how even though she had led groups of Mormons through before, there really seemed to be something different about our group - just like President Faust she mentioned something in our eyes. It really gives me chills to know that we can have that kind of effect on people. It's such a great resonsibility too!
After Yad Vashem we met our Judaism teacher, Ophir, at Mt. Herzel, a site commemorating the establishment of Israel as a state. It was really neat to learn about this history as well, I really appreciate the fact that we're getting all sorts of history here, scriptural, political, and national. There was a group of young students here, as Ophir described them "playing army". I guess one thing they can do as Israeli older youth is learn about the state and about the army by participating in the army for a short period of time. It was fun to see that devotion and love of country as well.
That night we had a really fun volleyball tournament planned! My team (Rachael, Priscilla, and Jeff), the Cat's with Kippa's won our game, although it was close! Luckily for me I had the best fans on the side lines, my roommates came to cheer us on and even made a sign! It's always fun to have exciting things going on around the center, as well as the things we get to do outside!
The next day, Thursday, was pretty much all free! We decided to get a troup and go hit up a lot of the sites around the Old City we hadn't seen yet. The Chruch of Mary Magdalene was first on the list, because it's only open on Tuesday and Thursday mornings. It was a beautiful building really close to the Garden of Gethsemane. Inside the artwork was unique and beautiful as well, that is one thing I really respect about other religions, I love the artwork that frequently adorns the places they worship. Josh, Miriam, Moon and I got a bit lost on the way - but we finally made it and met up with a bunch of other students. After that we decided to head in to the Jewish Quarter of the Old City for some PIZZA! (It'd been forever since I'd had some decent pizza so it sounded amazing). It's incredible how different the various quarters of the city can be. The Jewish Quarter is very clean, and the shops are more like mall stores than shacks. The pizza was really good, although we had to put up with a lot of hassling from an owner of a different pizza shop, who claimed his was much better and cheaper as well. (I tried both, he was wrong! ha).
The next landmark was the Dome of the Rock or the Temple Mount, depending on which religious group you're talking with. It was neat to come here because I hadn't yet, and it's a pretty key tourist spot. Moon and I played wheelbarrow with a few young boys who were wandering around the grounds, it was pretty fun! It reminded me a lot of my brothers and how much fun they are. I was taking some pictures of the beautiful Heidi when one of the security guards approached us and told us that we had upset some people (Heidi was advised by Moon to "loosen up" for pictures, and was perceived as having been dancing!) A fuming lady with a head scarf and a face the brightest shade of red I've ever seen came stomping up to us screaming in Arabic. At first I thought the guard was kidding - but it became obvious quickly that he definitely was not. We went to grab our things and he said to us again "You've got to be faster - it's time to go". So that was an interesting experience for sure! I guess we need to be more careful not to offend others here!
Dormition Abbey was also a lot of fun, a really beautiful chapel that contains a crypt which was the burial spot of Mary Magdalene. It was fun just exploring around this area as well, we got to see an awesome statue of King David, and also the room where the Last Supper took place (although it looked a little like they had done some restoration work to me ;) ). We had to hurry back because with all the rain the sky has been darkened with clouds and we didn't want to get back to the center too late. We were going to stop by Omar's on the way back, but we got lost on the way and so we just went straight back to the center!
The in center activity that night was volleyball as well as a ballroom dance class put on by Lara Mayfield. She and Matt Huff taught us all the ChaCha, and I'd have to say that for only having 17 guys for 63 girls...or something along those odds, we did pretty well for ourselves! And while the Cat's with Kippas didn't win our game that night, we still had a pretty good time - in fact I may have to pick up volleyball as a hobby!
Four hours of class were in store for us yesterday, and feeling pretty worn out from the activities of the night before and the long, late hours studying - after class I decided to nap. And by nap I mean...NAP big time. I slept from lunch until about 4:30, Miriam woke me up just in time to run out to catch our group as they were heading out. Our Judaism professor arranged for groups of 20 of us at a time to attend a Jewish Synagogue for Friday night Shabbat service, which was quite the experience! We arrived a few minutes early, dressed in what we would probably term as Sunday Casual. Ophir explained to us a little bit about the service and gave us copies of the songs that would be sang so that we could follow along and join in if we wanted. The services were held in a building that doubled as a scouting building, and was filled with metal folding chairs. It was partitioned in the middle with curtains to separate the men and the women. We took our seats, all the students kind of split up so that we could experience the meeting with other members of the synagogue surrounding us. The service was filled with singing different Psalms, all of which were in Hebrew, of course - and I was surprised at how great everyone sounded together. There was even a point during the service where women got up, grabbed hands with their neighbors, and danced around the perimeter of the chairs. (I'm pretty sure the men got to dance around even more than we did!) The purpose of the Friday night service is to welcome in Shabbat, which I think is really great because it shows they are truly grateful for Shabbat and the things it brings them. We picked Ophir up on the way to the service, but because of Jewish customs and beliefs he was not to ride home in a car, so we bid him goodbye at the door and jumped back in the vans. It was pretty cold so I was grateful we were able to ride home! The service was really beautiful and filled me, as frequently happens in this land, with spiritual envy for another religion. It makes me want to incorporate certain aspects of their religion in to my own beliefs.
Shabbat started out great - even before I got out of bed. It's been threatening to rain all week, and while we've got a few drops here and there, there hasn't been anything too substantial until last night. The thunder and lightening is even more impressive when it's viewed through the many windows in the building (I guess we're living with the building again). I woke up to the rain pounding on our window, and although I didn't really appreciate it then, I was able to in sacrament meeting. Like I've said before, we hold our meetings in the Auditorium, in which one entire wall is windows - the wall we face actually. The speakers today were framed by the storm - which was both incredible and awful. I'm sure those of you reading this know how much I love the rain, so while many of the students were a little sad at the implications of the rain on plans for the week, I was ecstatic. The best moment for me was when Kari, the most talented violinist ever, was playing a medley of There is a Green Hill Far Away, How Great Thou Art, and I Stand All Amazed, and behind here a great bolt of lightening struck, and not more than two seconds later lightening clapped. It was, to me at least, as if God himself was approving of the song and the circumstances. The line from the song How Great Thou Art kept sounding in my mind: " Shabbat here is so incredible, I feel, because it is spent the way sabbath days should be - totally focused on Christ and bringing oneself closer to Him. The great part is it's almost completely self motivated - which just shows the caliber of the students here - they're awesome! I look up to each of them so much.
Anyway, I feel bad for posting such a long blog but it's been a really incredible week and I can't not share with everyone. Thank you all for reading and keeping up with me, all your support and love is really important to me.

Just a few days later...

2009-02-16T06:04:00.001-08:00

Well we've really done a lot in the past few days, but I guess I've just gotten out of the habit of blogging cause I sure haven't in a while! Maybe what I should do is just give a summary of events, and list some of the highlights, then I can continue my "regular blogging habits" and keep you all updated a little better! So the last time I blogged, I believe, was the political t-shirt day so...here we go!

1. Pools of Bethesda (Thursday): This was pretty awesome, its the site where Christ told the man who had been waiting by the pool to be healed to get up and walk. What an incredible miracle! The ruins looked really legit, which is cool cause most stuff here is just a church built on top of a supposed site. The grounds surrounding the pools were very well groomed, and the church of St. Anne that was at the same site was really beautiful as well. Wandering around with Jeff and J.J. was a lot of fun because I got to know them both a bit better, and lets face it, who wouldn't want to do that? I'm pretty sure the best activity was when we all decided to freeze in front of a group of tourists. It was pretty hard not to smile or laugh, but we pulled it off well. The next most exciting thing was throwing rocks in to an old cistern - it was pretty dark so we couldn't really see how deep it was, but the rocks sure fell for a long time! (Oh, and that picture is of SNOW! I know it's not Utah snow but...it's Jerusalem Hail/Snow)

2. Talent Show (also Thursday): So I was a little nervous about this at first because people were hesitant to sign up, but it turned out to be a GREAT show. There are so many talented people here, and it was awesome to be able to see them show that off for everyone. Talent shows have always inspired me, and so after this one I decided to make some goals for myself. One of the things I did with this was make my own "Bucket List" (I know it sounds cryptic but it's actually awesome). Goal #1 SKYDIVING. Don't worry, I remember I'm afraid of heights, it's just something I'm gonna have to get over.

3. Friday the 13th (Friday): Basically I don't need to go in to all the details about this day, because it really was kind of cursed! But it started off with Miriam spilling a LOT of toothpaste on herself (a lot sounds better than a little regardless of the true story), and then somewhere in between Moon happened to misplace a box of...give or take...20 brownie pastries, while at the same time losing her Diet Coke and getting some green makeup instead of black (trust me, it's a big deal). The redeeming event of this day was our Freaky Friday the 13th dance party. (I know...we sure do have a lot of dance parties, but if they're awesome you really can't hold back!) It was supposed to be a Valentines Day Dance, but lets face it - who wants one of those? This was lots better! Moon was the expert for all of our make-up, and she made us look pretty dang creepy. I was Joker from Batman (if you can't tell), and Miriam was some creepy doll thing. (IT?) Moon rocked the dead Indian look...and if I could go through everyone else I would cause there were some awesome costumes. Anyway, it ended up being a pretty good day

4. Shabbat (Saturday): I can't ever really say anything bad about Shabbat because they're always awesome. Sacrament meeting was sweet as usual, and then after all the girls noticed they had surprises on their door steps! The "JC Gentlemen", as they termed themselves, bought all the girls roses! Sweet huh? We thought it was pretty awesome. So after all the commotion from church meetings and flowers settled down, Miriam and I went downstairs to visit one of the service couple missionaries here, Brother and Sister Thomas. Sister Thomas used to be in the General Young Women's Presidency for the church, and we really want to learn as much from her and Brother Thomas as we can while we're here (and everyone else of course, we just decided to start here), so we asked them if we could come visit before dinner. They graciously agreed and so we got to visit with them for a while about how we liked things here, and some of their past experiences. It was really a great "Sunday" activity! That night we had a pretty good Valentines Ward prayer, in which several people got singing Valentines. The highlight of that had to be when President Allen dipped his wife and gave her a great Valentines Day kiss! We had a great game of signs going after that - you can never go wrong with JC signs! (That pic is Apartment 410 delivering Valentine Candy to the guys!)

5. Shopping and Touring (Sunday): So...yeah...I'm still pretty bad about this (don't worry Dad, I'm trying to budget better, and I'm getting better at it too!), but...basically this morning Miriam, Whitney, and Priscilla decided to go to Aladdin's to get some money for the next few weeks, we were running low on "sheks" (as we term them), so we set out for Aladdin's and then decided to stop by the t-shirt shop in the Old City. I probably mentioned this place before, but it's worth mentioning again so I will. It's htis awesome place where you can get t-shirts that have just about anything on them! You can pick the color and then the color of the logo, and voila! He makes them for you on the spot. We definitely have too much fun here. We had to hurry back to the center for the next event, so we ran back home - barely making it up the hill to get ready for the next event!

6. Ringing the bells at YMCA Tower (Sunday...again): About a week ago Emilie asked me if we'd like to join her and her roommates to go play the bells for all of Jerusalem, about 60,000 people, accompanied by Brother and Sister Squires. We agreed and were really excited about it, but then the day we planned for fell through because we had a schedueling change with classes. We re-scheduled for yesterday, and it was a good thing because this has been one of my most favorite things since! We all got to practice with a partner on an organ off to the side (only getting one run through), and then we were to play the bells for everyone to hear! It was pretty nervewracking, and kinda hard to get used to! Emilie and I made a great team, however, and I'm sure that no one was disappointed with our rendition of "Ode to Joy" (at least...I'm pretty sure that's the song we played!) Afterwards a group of us wandered through the city, stopping at some famous hotel...the name escapes me, I'll look it up later, and then to some Windmills and an Art Community. We meandered back through West Jerusaelm and finally got back to the center with a couple new skirts and a few pounds heavier from brownie pastries. Oh! And we also visited Omar this day, which was pretty neat - he's the man who does the incredible Mormon Olive Wood carvings you've probably heard about associated with Jerusalem. I'll try and post a picture or two once I pick one out! The rest of the night was spent studying for Ophir's quiz in Judaism class...ugh...

7. Ophir's quiz in Judaism class...ugh...(not to sound redundant ;) Today): So this was pretty much awful. It's ok though, I'm getting over it because you know what?! I'm learning! I just wish I had an awesome pic to post on here of my score like Chelsea does - good thinkin Chels!

8. Lounging around (Also today): So after that I basically...well...I wish I could tell you what I did! I think my brain needed a little bit of a breather, so that's what I gave it! (Don't know if it was the best choice or not, but regardless, that's what I did!). I took a nap, read a little bit of a book, called Dad...talked with some kids around the center - it was pretty great. Then after dinner we had FHE, which was awesome because it consisted of a great spiritual thought (provided by Team Start and the "Quote Book"), and then watching Anastasia and singing along! What a great family I have here - we always have lots of fun!

But basically that's been what's going on! I'm sorry I haven't been very good about updating, I'll be sure to keep on that and umm...I hope you're all doing well!

2009-02-10T07:53:00.000-08:00

So I'm really sorry I didn't blog yesterday, not because everyone back home is dying to read my next post (that'd just be too cocky of me to assume), more because we had a pretty amazing day and I didn't share anything. The only thing was it was so amazing and so long...that I think it wore me out because I went to bed just as soon as I possibly could - which meant no blogging.
We began by visiting a few sites that were important in the times of David and Goliath; a lookout where we could oversee where the battle would have taken place, as well as fields that would have been important to David as a shepherd. We also visited a field similar to the one where David would have slain Goliath. Chris, Miriam, Stefanie and I were able to construct our own paper box Goliath the night before, so everyone took their turn slinging rocks at it and trying to see if they couldn't kill him. (Chris was finally successful and after taking the giant down, proceeded to follow the rest of the Biblical account by running across the field and "cutting off" Goliath's head). After that we visited several sites that had caves dating from 2,000 to 2,300 years ago - the Hellenistic times. Some of these caves were huge water cisterns, while others housed pigeons (they would harvest fertilizer from these pigeons). Others still contained olive presses in them, which were very well preserved for how old they are, and one of the most fun ones was an old tomb (we actually fit 26 people inside of one tomb!) We had a lot of fun running around and exploring in these caves, (Brother Huff called it "splunking") because while some of them were part of a national park and easy to navigate, there were others through which you had barely enough room to fit yourself - meaning you had to wiggle your way through. We ate lunch outside of one of these and made friends with an awesome chameleon who was way more tame than I expected him to be. The cool thing was it really changed colors depending on what it was by! It turned bright yellow-green when we put him by our yellow lunch sacks, and black when I put him on my shirt! So that was pretty cool. One of the other really neat things we got to do in the caves is sing hymns all together. We all bring our small hymn books to the different sites we visit, and take the opportunity to sing when we can. We're especially lucky when the acoustics improve our sound. Singing the hymns really makes the spirit so much stronger no matter where you are.
After all that exploring we were allowed about an hour and a half to eat dinner and clean up before FHE. Usually we just meet with our FHE groups here at the center, but last night each "family" was assigned a real family in our branch to go visit. We had the opportunity of sharing a lesson and singing songs with one of these families, as well as playing a game and eating a treat! (The treats were incredible, I miss American desserts so much!) We had a lot of fun with the Peterson's and their children, and it hit me while we were there just how consistent the church is around the world, and that the spirit of the Lord really does reside in the homes of righteous members. I commented to Moon that I really did feel at home with them, it was a really great night. I love that we call one another brothers and sisters, because that's really what it begins to feel like.
Today I was just planning on studying, but Miriam and Moon convinced me it would be good to go out to West Jerusalem just for an hour or so and take a little break. I hesitantly agreed, my decision was made mostly because of the awesome mission we were set on. Today happens to be election day in Jerusalem, and about a week ago on one of our field trips Moon and I noticed the different party members standing around the city trying to persuade citizens to vote for their candidate. It was then that we got the idea to try and find election t-shirts for one of the candidates. We set out to West Jerusalem with this in mind, but after eating some brownie batter filled pastries and asking just about every t-shirt shop and person we could think of where to find these shirts with no positive feedback, we got a bit discouraged. We were about to hit up McDonalds and then head back to the center when I got an idea - you see we've kind of made friends with the workers in the camera shop we got followed in to by the creeper guy, and so I thought we could just ask the workers there if they could help us at all! At first they said they weren't sure where we should look, but then after thinking for a minute one of them suggested we head up the street about 5 minutes, and we'd find the headquarters for one of the candidates. We set out in to quite a storm, and on our way there I'm kind of surprised we weren't blown away, because it was pretty windy! Not too far away, however, we found the building he had sent us to, and although it looked kinda sketchy, we went in. I honestly thought by headquarters he meant a center to vote at, but as we walked in and saw all the people rushing around, we realized this was one of the candidates offices! We poked our head in to a few rooms and saw the man himself...this is the part where I'd put his name if I knew it...but unfortunately I don't, all I know is he's some Communist guy that is one of the worst candidates, you'd think this would make it worse but honestly I think it just improves the story. His secretary scurried out to meet us and said "Can I help you with something?" Moon asked her if there was any way we could buy one of their t-shirts and she looked back kind of sternly and said "Why?" I got kinda nervous until she came back with "...buy?! I give them to you free!" She went in to one of the side rooms and grabbed four t-shirts (Allison was awesome enough to come with us) and some posters too! You should see the cocked eye-brow on this guy, it's SWEET! We jumped up and down and yelped a little, and some random old guy growled back at us before laughing. We walked back outside and took a picture in front of the building, and as we were about to leave some random lady came up to us and said she was writing an article for an American Newspaper and wanted to know if she could take our picture. We agreed (hopefully we don't get in trouble for that one!). So look for us in the Lubbock Texas paper if you're there! It was getting really stormy at this point and the wind blew a huge piece of metal off the roof, it about hit us on the head - so we decided it was time to go. We walked back in the rain, stopping at McDonalds to get the biggest hamburger I've ever seen. The taxi got us back to the center just in time (we have to be back before dark), and even though I was gone way longer than the hour break I thought I deserved, it was most definitely worth the hastle.

The Pita-Nator

2009-02-08T10:51:00.000-08:00

So I've always known that I have a problem - I love to shop. I thought at first that the shopping here would be like souvenier shopping and would eventually not appeal as much as it did at first, but I think I was wrong! We went shopping today and it was a lot of fun, I got some SWEET genie pants and some custom made t-shirts, my most favorite one is a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle one - Hebrew style. I also got a Coca-Cola one, and one that says Peace, It's a Beautiful thing (That's probably my favorite one). I also bought a sweet ring for one of the shopowners who is pretty well known at the center. He was training his nephew from New Zealand on how to sell and that sort of stuff, and my roommates and I were his first customers! It was a lot of fun to just spend some time doing "normal" things here. I think tomorrow a bunch of people are going to see a movie, that'll be fun too cause it's also just normal.
The most exciting thing that happened today, howeer, was the pita eating competition I was involved in! Several of the students here like to give me a hard time because I like to eat a LOT of pitas...at all meals, everyday. Yeah it's pretty bad, the weight that I'm gaining definitely comes from toasted pitas filled with peanut butter and honey. I may actually have to talk to the District President because I'd definitely consider it an addiction - ha just kiddin. But anyway, when I was talking with Bryan, Miriam and Shelby about it at lunch today we decided we should have a pita eating contest! We talked with the cook about it to see if they'd have enough pitas for everyone, and he said he'd have us backed up if that's what we wanted to do - so we decided to do it! Before hand Miriam and I properly prepared by getting our war gear on. We entered to a screaming crowd and the song "Eye of the Tiger" playing (ok so the screaming crowd part may be made up but the song definitely wasn't). At first we decided to have a 20 minute time limit, but the braces and spikes were really slowing me down, and I was confident I could out eat them, so we said no time limit and just decided to see who could eat the most period. It got pretty intense, and I'm not gonna lie, there was talk of throwing up as a group afterwards. (That'd be quite the waste of pita if you ask me). One thing we didn't really take in to consideration when we planned the pita competition, however, was the fact that we have visitors staying in the JC right now, and so graciously on behalf of them, Sister Allen asked us if we could stop the contest while we still could. It was probably a good idea anyway, although while my competitors were slowly dying out, I'm pretty sure I could have kept going and taken them all. The final scores were Miriam - 10, Richelle - 11, Bryan - 14, Shelby - 15. I may not be the fastest, and I think that's why I was a little behind but I definitely have the best endurance (thanks mom!) Even the guys said that they had bet on me - I guess the world will never know who could have really won.

Shabbat

2009-02-07T13:37:00.000-08:00

Today was a really neat day, I guess Shabbat always is here, although I think it may have more to do with my attitude towards things than how it actually is. I really feel like the church is the same all around the world, and I'm really grateful for this new perspective that I've gained!
Besides having just a "normal" fast Sunday, we were really lucky to have the Presiding Bishop of the church come speak to us in a fireside tonight. We were able to sing I Need Thee Every Hour as a choir, and then afterward we heard both from Sister and Bishop Burton. He gave a baseball analogy having to do with Ted Williams and his incredible baseball skills. Apparently the reason Ted was so incredible is because he had amazing eye sight, which caused him to have a batting average of 400, which hasn't been had since. Ted could see which direction the ball was spinning or moving before it got to him, but only for a split second. Bishop Burton likened this to life, and being able to have a slight advantage over others as Latter Day Saints, in that we have the spirit to help us see just that little bit better. It was a really neat fireside, and a great way to end the night. "Sunday" meetings are really great here, I find myself being spiritually fed at every moment.
Tonight my roommates and I busted out this weird fruit thing we tried first in Jericho, called a pumemelo - it's kind of like a mix between a lemon and a grapefruit! It was fun to cut it open and share it, there's lots of neat fruits here which I love cause...well I love fruit. That sounded pretty bad - and maybe it's cause I'm so tired! I think I should head out - oh, and p.s. the last pic is me talking to all of you! I love you all!

CREEPER!

2009-02-06T09:58:00.000-08:00

Ok so we've done some pretty neat stuff here, but today was definitely one of the most adventurous so far. Emilie wanted to go out to West Jerusalem to buy a new flash drive, and I agreed to go with - so we recruited a few others and called a cab to come get us.
We got to the Canon store and although none of us noticed at first, a sketchy guy with yellowed hair and a green jacket followed us in. He was staring really intently at our group of girls as we looked at a camera for Anne, a flash drive for Emilie, and a charger for Moon. One by one we all got a little creeped out (except for Moon cause she hard core and super tough), and as we talked about it a little more we all gravitated towards the back of the store. Christine, Breana and I were standing by the back counter when he approached us with a note. It had some Hebrew writing on it, and then some incoherent English words at the bottom. We blew him off, told him we couldn't help him and moved to the front of the store, where he followed us again. Emilie approached him directly, and after asking him if there was anything we could help him with and getting no response, we all started to get a little more worried. We asked the shop keeper if he worked there, and he replied that he didn't and that he was even a little creepy to the shop keeper! He asked us if we had a man with us, and when we said no he told us we might want to call someone - so we called security. At this point the guy was passing Emilie more notes saying that the devil had closed his mouth so he couldn't speak, and talked about...well I won't tell all but lots of other really disconcerting things. Moon and I were outside practicing our Martial Art skills when Security showed up and escorted us to their van. I guess it wasn't as big of a threat as we thought, cause the whole way home they were teasing us about beating up the crazy 80-year-old "Santa Claus" as they called him, but we were all still glad we called! Some deranged old man was definitely not normal, especially when he would NOT stop staring and the content of his notes was...well...less than friendly. You'll have to check out the pics to see how awesome it was! Ha
Other than that I've just had dinner and worked, for the second night in a row, on a Humanitarian Service project as part of my committee. It's actually really neat, we're putting together Hygeine kits for people in Gaza, because it's much less expensive to buy things here and assemble them, than in the states and ship them over here. When the head of our committee replied that we could do about 250 kits or so to test the project out, they replied that we'd have to do at least 10,000, and we took the project on anyway! The final total we have to output is 11,500, and they need to be done in 2 weeks! Anyway, it's super fun because we all get going so fast...and we just get to chat and have fun! That's what the pictures are from - there's one of a group of people, and then another of Stephen and I practicing sealings - HA! (I was inserting the kits in and he was pushing down the lever to seal them, we thought it was a pretty good joke though! Well I hope you all had a great day, hopefully not as interesting as mine though

Field trip days...

2009-02-05T11:57:00.000-08:00

So today was about the perfect balance between field trips and studying. We're having midterms this week and next, so everyone is feeling a little stressed which makes it hard to really enjoy what we're seeing - so that's why days like today are about perfect.
We set out for Jericho first, which was really neat because we got to see one of the oldest stone structures in existence - well that is if archeologists are dating it correctly. Supposedly it goes back to 8000 BC! It's a stone tower that is pretty large! They've excavated all around it so you can see it pretty well too! Another stop we made was at the ruins of the Winter Palace of Herod the Great. We talked a lot here about Herod and the type of person he was, and how the things he was best at were killing and building large structures. It was actually pretty neat to learn more about "Herod the man" as opposed to "Herod the King". I got some pretty sweet pictures here too. Another stop we made, this one was pretty quick, was at the spring of Elisha, and the tree of Zacchaeus. One interesting thing about the Holy Land is there is a site for every event you could imagine in the scriptures. It's kind of neat, and almost comical at the same time. We stopped at both these places, and took some pictures and read our scriptures, so that was all very good.
The last place we stopped was the Quruntul Monastery - a church built literally on to the side of a cliff. The location is some caves where supposedly Christ went up to commune with God, and was tempted by the devil. Monks have lived in these caves for a long time, even before the monastery was built, and so it was interesting to see their quarters and the lifestyle they had, and still have. The church happens to be Greek Orthodox, and it is absolutely beautiful. They had magnificent paintings of Christ and Mary, as well as the apostles all in front of an altar on one side, and on the other, framed right on to the side of the natural rock, was one of Christ triumphing over the devil. Everyone got really quiet - our entire group - and we were allowed some time to just ponder over the events. It was interesting because while I don't usually feel the spirit so strongly in places like this, it was very powerful today. In an FHE lesson we had this past week, one of the students was talking about spiritual envy...or something like that, I'm not sure exactly how he worded it, but basically he said it is really a neat experience when you are able to feel the spirit around other religions, and be inspired by their method of worship, even if it's not exactly what you believe. I think that is so important to remember here, because we're learning so much about all these other religions. This is most definitely what I felt today - so that was really neat! After we were even allowed to sing hymns outside, what a great day!
Afterwards it was mostly just studying and getting ready for cleaning checks tomorrow! I was also able to go running around the center which is always inspiring because of the incredible view! Well thanks again for always reading - love you all!

2009-02-04T12:17:00.000-08:00

So today was a lot of fun! I can’t believe they gave us a free day so soon after the Egypt trip but I guess they think we have a lot of sight seeing to do because we had the whole day off. A group of students here went to a zoo in West Jerusalem a few weeks ago, and said that it was a lot of fun – so me and a few others decided that might be something fun to check out, and planned to do that first. The animals were absolutely incredible! It was so much fun. It was really dead when we first got there, we were practically the only group in the whole place, which made it even more fun! It was actually a really beautiful facility, and the animals were exotic and beautiful as well. The cages often allowed you to get really close to the animals (much closer than Hoggle Zoo), so that was lots of fun too - we got a lot of really neat pictures. It was actually called a "biblical zoo", so we thought that'd be something neat too - but then we realized all animals are considered biblical because of Noah's Ark! I think watching it must have reminded everyone of an African Safari because at one point everyone burst out singing the Lion King, and it happens to be the movie playing in the student lounge as I speak...or blog...or whatever.
After the biblical zoo we convinced our History professor to meet us at the Israel museum (what a great guy - it's his day off too), and give a tour around. The museum consists mostly of an exhibit called "The Scroll of the Book" and then a model of the Old City during the time of Christ's life or shortly thereafter. We visited The Scroll of the Book first, which was an oddly shaped building representing the lid of a scroll jar which housed remnants from the Dead Sea Scrolls found in the caves at Qumran not too many years ago. These scrolls contain texts that match closely to many of the Masoretic texts from which our Bible comes from. Many of the passages found in these books are identical to those found in the KJV today - so that's pretty cool that even with the imperfections it does have, much of it is just like the original version. The exhibit was really neat because not only was the building shaped like a jar, the exhibit that displayed the scroll looked like a huge scroll itself! The particular one on display right now happens to be the temple scroll, which is one of the longest Dead Sea Scrolls found. It talks about the perfect temple and how it will be caused to be built by God at the end of days - kind of an interesting concept! Anyway, it was really neat to see that, and then afterwards Brother Skinner talked to us about the Old City in Christ's day, and gave us a walk through of where Christ would have gone during the last week of his life or so, up until his crucifixion. It was neat because a lot of things have really changed since then, and so it's kind of hard to envision where these events all occured - this really brought the past and future together.
The last event for the day was Egypt night at the Center. Everyone dressed up for the costume contest, and we had LEGIT chocolate cookies - it was pretty exciting. Miriam dressed up like Nefertiti with her hubby Akhenaton (Bryan) - it was pretty awesome. Moon and I decided that instead of trying to dress up like an Ancient Egyptian, we'd take a more modern take on things. I've got to explain something in order for you to understand our costumes fully. In Egypt when you use public restrooms, you have to PAY!!! There's attendants standing outside of every restroom holding toilet paper, and you can't enter until you pay some money, and then they hand you the toilet paper (an entire two squares or so, which is unfortunate if you happen to get sick from the Egyptian food). Moon and I decided that we'd go as Egyptian toilet paper attendants. SWEET huh? Well I thought it was, and we won the contest for most creative! I'll let you decide for yourself

Planes, trains, and automobiles...and boats...and camels...and horses...wow I'm tired of traveling!

2009-02-02T06:06:00.000-08:00

Hey everyone! Well I'm back! I hope you all missed me at least a little bit - cause I sure missed all of you and your comments and support! It's funny because even though the Jerusalem Center isn't "home", it sure felt like home last night when we drove up to the front gates and I could finally sleep in my "own" bed. It made me realize again how much I love being here. But anyway...on to the week long summary!
The first day we set out, on our way to Egypt, we stopped at a few important places both in terms of the scriptures and the history of Israel. Beersheba, Ben Gurion's tomb (one of the first Prime Ministers of Israel), ancient ruins at Av Dat (there's a group picture from here), and then the Wilderness of Zin, which was probably my favorite stop of the day. The Israelites roamed here for nearly 40 years, and I couldn't imagine spending more than 40 minutes there! I can understand how they'd be frustrated and confused about things, and even though we constantly shame them for complaining so much it's a lot like what we do in and out everyday - the Israelites were just people like me! I'm pretty sure I would have complained too if put in a similar situation, so it made me want to work on that a little, cause I sure have less to complain about than they do. Well anyway, that night we stayed at an interesting Jewish civilizaiton called a Kibbutz. The people there live in an exclusive society where everyone works for and is paid by the leadership of the society. It's kind of like a trade system, they are all provided with everything that is necessary for living (food, lodging, etc.) by the community, and contribute to these things through their jobs, and then they are given an allowance to get anything beyond that. It's kind of a neat idea, and the people who live there are super happy so that's good. They provided us with an awesome dinner and some nice accommodations, and in true JC spirit we held a dance party outside our rooms - it seems we have those everywhere we go now.

The next day we did the "traveling thing". We finished driving the buses to Egypt and got to see a glimpse of the pyramids before the sunset and we went to bed. Our hotel was really nice there, and it almost made me feel guilty to see the poor all around, and the nice food and lodging we had. It made me realize just how lucky I am to be born in to the family I was, and to have the gospel in my life, many of these people will never know what that's like. Anyway, we had ANOTHER dance party that night, this time in the front lobby of the hotel, which was hilarious because all the front desk workers and even some of the tourists waiting in the lobby started taking pictures and recording us! They made it sound like they threw the party for us, but I'm not altogether convinced they didn't do it just for their own entertainment! I can't really blame them though, a bunch of US kids who think they can dance but really...well anyway. The next day we hit up all the Egypt "classics" - the pyramids, the sphinx, and a papyrus factory it was a really full day! The pyramids were incredible, and going inside was really neat even though it was super hot. We got some fun photos too which was awesome. We had a few more stops later that day - the old capital of Egypt, Memphis, and then Saqqara. These towns were out in the country more which was neat because we got to see a different side of Egyptian life.

Luxor took up the next couple of days, where we got to see lots of different temples as well as the Valley of the Kings where there were the tombs of many of the New Kingdom pharaohs - including King Tutankhamen (I'm sure you've all heard about him). I didn't realize before how many similarities there are between the Egyptian religion and our own - their heiroglyphic carvings are very reminicent of things that we have in our church as well. I got lots of neat pictures of that but I won't post any just cause of space...so if you're interested let me know! It's some pretty cool stuff. Having the professors go along with our tour guides was definitely a plus, we learned so many cool things I wish I could share all of them with you all! The hotel was really fun, we got to realax a little and go swimming some too; we also took a sailboat ride, a carriage ride, and also a camel ride, so those things were really neat. In light of all of that, however, I would say the other main event in Luxor was the bazaar - and it was CRAZY. I went two different nights, and it was really fun to see what kind of cool (mostly useless) stuff you could get for as little money as possible. It's kind of intimidating at first because all the shopkeepers are cat calling and trying to get you to buy things from them, but once you get over that it's really fun. One night me and my group of friends started out and coincidently met up with one of the boys who worked at our hotel making bread. He showed us around and we ended up getting a more local tour than we bargained for! We jumped in a street van with him, the kind that leaves the door open while they're driving and you just jump in and out, just so that we could make it to the other end of the bazaar. It probably wasn't the best idea but it sure makes for a great memory! Let's just say that we left our hotel that night to take a night train back to Cairo from Luxor, and our little journey almost made us late catching the bus back to the trainstation! The train was certainly interesting by the way...it was probably the most disgusting method of transportation I've ever experienced. I'm sure glad I don't have to undergo that too often. And I'm not so sure you could call what they served us for dinner food - yuck. The next day we visited a few synagogues, which were really neat because 1 - we got to learn a lot more about the Islamic religion and 2 - I got some awesome pictures, sorry but I just have to brag a little bit! That's where the awesome pic of the beautiful Andrea is at!
We did a few other fun things along the way, including fun times on the bus (playing Truth or Dare, tyring to have bus dance parties, sleeping, cramping in to teeny tiny places and getting to know your neighbor way better than you ever thought you would, and yes...for all the Nelsons reading this, even playing some MORMON BRIDGE!!! I was honestly surprised when I found others knew how to play, and those who didn't loved learning!), but I've probably given way too much detail already, so I'll end with the highlight of the trip, in my eyes anyway. After leaving Cairo we set off through the desert toward Mt. Sinai. We reached Morgenland...not altogether sure if that's the name of the city or the hotel or...both, but that's ok! And after eating dinner we were allowed to crash, which was good news because our wakeup call came at 2:00 am. We set out for the trailhead, which was really not too far from where we were staying, and started up the path. I'm not gonna lie, I really struggled in the beginning, I knew I was out of shape but I guess I just didn't realize how far out of shape! I felt bad because a lot of the kids got really sick on this trip, and they had to deal with that as well as the difficulty of the climb! I really admire them a lot. Luckily for me, I had Elyse to help me keep my mind off how tired I was, by reminicing about B*Witched and other childhood fads we had in common, and then lots of other friends to chat with and help out too, and about halfway up I started to feel a lot better about things, and was able to enjoy the hike more. It was neat to pass different groups of people along the way, and chat with them for a little while, and then continue on. One of the guys in our group gave a great anaolgy about the hike and life, and how it's not so much the end of the journey that matters, but more the intended destination and who we become along the way, I really liked that. It was cool too because he walked up to us, gave his anaolgy, and then continued on. Not a lot was said but it was all really powerful. It hit me, too, about half way up all the incredible events that transpired on that mountain. Moses himself walked the way we did (minus the nice beaten trail), and was able to communicate with God from the top. Reaching the summit and looking out over the valley, especially being able to see the sunrise I had no wonder as to why God would choose mountains, particularly this mountain, as a temple - it was easily the most beautiful thing I've seen.
Well there's a summary of the Egypt trip! Like I said I'd love to tell you all more about it but time just doesn't allow it and...well I'll be surprised if you can make it through all of this! I hope you're all doing well, I love and miss everyone! Thanks for sharing in these experiences with me, it just makes them even better.

The Garden Tomb

2009-01-24T14:02:00.000-08:00

So I didn’t have time to blog yesterday cause I was out having too much fun! HA! I don’t feel bad at all. We had classes in the morning and then almost the entire day off so that we could get ready to go to Egypt. I was going to do some homework but…I mean how much fun is that? And Moon had left her wallet in West Jerusalem the day before so we used that as an excuse to go play a little. We decided to go to the open market and get some dried fruit and candy and things for the Egypt trip because the food there is…well…sketchy at best. The entire city was REALLY busy because everyone was getting ready to party on Shabbat, and so it was hard to even walk through all the people, but it made things a little more interesting. After picking up some supplies and then making our way back though rapping Jewish men and awesome shopping-cart-riding-singing men…we called a taxi and came back to the center.
After dinner (which I randomly fell asleep for an hour before), I started some laundry (and may or may not have accidently flooded the room…woops…) and then went to play some games with kids from the center. Let me just say that Sardines on the Jerusalem Center grounds is way cooler than Sardines back home. About half way through the first game, I remembered my laundry and rushed down to pull it out. Only problem was they had locked the door an hour early! Anyway this is getting way too detailed, I”ll give you the summary: me, laundry room, my ipod and dancing. That’s basically how it went down – and no, I don’t know how to dance but I thought it would be cool to try, and I was alone anyway so it doesn’t really matter right? Then I spent the rest of the night running around the Center discovering some pretty cool secrets about the building, and chatting with good friends. (If you’re a JCite…no…I can’t tell you anymore secrets, it’s against the rules. Anyone else feel free to ask!)
Today we had Church which was every bit as amazing as it always is. We got to perform I Need Thee Every Hour in sacrament meeting, and the spirit was very strong. Afterwards we all set out for the Garden Tomb, another place people believe the tomb of Christ could have been located. What I appreciated about this place as opposed to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher was that it was outside, and actually felt like it could have been the place Christ was buried. We had a guide tell us about the different parts of the Garden and Tomb area – an American Baptist preacher who had a lot of personality and flair – it was really neat to learn about everything and the evidence they have to support this place. The guide kept emphasizing, however, that it doesn’t really matter if we know the exact location of the events that transpired there or near by, what is more important is that it happened and that we have faith in how it can change our life. I realized that is how a lot of things are in this life: instead of worrying about all the little details that have only to do with mortality, we should instead worry about eternal implications of the actions of others and of ourselves. Anyway, that was a super neat experience which we ended in singing He is Risen, Christ the Lord is Risen, I Know That My Redeemer Lives, and How Great Thou Art. There were some Nigerian folks taking tours through the garden as well, and on How Great Thou Art they joined in singing, it was amazing to feel the fellowship we had with these brothers and sisters in the gospel. I’m so grateful for all these experiences!
Well I guess that’s it for now! My computer isn’t going with me to Egypt so I guess I’ll just have to keep an amazing journal and fill you guys in when I get back! Look forward to an EXTRA long blog then!!! Love you all

Dance Party Ya!

2009-01-22T13:50:00.000-08:00

Today we had lots of classes again - they're trying to cram them all in before our trip to Egypt next week! After we got out of class a group of five of us decided to go out to the city and get a few supplies before the big trip. It took quite a bit longer than we expected, but we spent our time pretty efficiently I felt, and we got lots of good treats! No one wants to be getting sick in Egypt...we have a 12 hour bus ride home without any bathrooms...need I say more? After going to the city we just had dinner and then an evening of fun and games...even though it should have been studying!
I have some crazy cool roommates and awesome friends here, and we decided to throw a "flash dance" party in our room (it was all Moon's idea...if you don't understand I can explain - Moon is one of my roommates). We decided the dance party would be from 9:45 until 10:00, and we'd go crazy! It was SO much fun. Not long enough that everyone got tired of it and didn't have any fun, but long enough that everyone could get in to it! We were making so much noise we had girls from the floor under us coming up to see what was going on - the Branch President even showed up! We thought we were going to get in trouble but all he said was "you girls have got to stop!...wait until I can go get my camera!" It was awesome! :D Well that's all for tonight!

Kotel Tunnels!!!

2009-01-21T07:36:00.000-08:00

Sorry I haven't written in a few days (I'm sure everyone is actually a little relieved because I always write so much!), there's just been a lot of studying and not much sight seeing going on! Today, however, we had a scheduled tour first thing this morning at the Kotel Tunnels. I mentioned visitng the Western Wall last Shabbat, and the Kotel Tunnels are right near this site. I'm going to try to explain this the best I can, but I'm not sure if it'll make much sense, so maybe the pictures will help! Basically when the temple at Jerusalem was destroyed in 70 AD, the retaining walls surrounding the temple complex were also torn to pieces and turned in to piles of rubble - except the Western retaining wall. There is a portion that is still visible above ground (the Western Wall I talked about before), but the rest is buried. This happened because the next civilization to come build a new city replacing Jerusalem decided that instead of building on the old city of Jerusalem (which sat right next to the Western Wall), they would build arches on top of the city to create a more stable foundation, and then build their city on top of that. These arches started out from the Wall and then continued outward covering much of the Old City. Because they built several levels of arches that ended up being as high as the Wall itself, it leveled out the city streets with the very TOP of what used to be the Western Wall - making the Wall nonvisible from the streets. I hope that made at least a little sense! The Isralei's here have started an excavation project that winds through all these underground arches, and reveals portions of the actual wall as it existed in the time Christ lived! It's really quite an amazing thing, and has been one of my favorite activities so far! So that was really neat and I learned quite a lot as well!
After that we came back to the center, and I joined my committee in starting one the projects we're heading up. Everyone here is put on a committee so that they can be involved, and the one I was assigned to is the Humanitarian Aid/Community Service committee. At first I was a little skeptical about what I was going to be doing, but now I'm EXTREMELY excited! BYU has relations with a center for disabled children here called the Princess Basma Center for Disabled Children. Kids who have cerebal palsy, hearing and vision impairments, mental handicaps, and all sorts of other disorders are able to come here to have schooling with other more "normal" children, and also have supplemental help. The mothers of these disabled children also come to classes with them, and are taught the best way to cope with the handicaps, and the best ways to help the children progess. The center was founded in 1987 by a woman named Betty Majaj, who herself gave us the tour of the center. She is quite an amazing woman and was named one of the 12 women of peace in a book: Making Their Own Peace: 12 Women of Jerusalem by Ann Madsen, one of the members of our church, it's quite the accomplishment! We're going to be able to assist children in learning, play with them, help with water therapy exercises, and maybe even paint a mural to represent our group on one of the walls. I can tell this is going to be one of the best experiences and I'll keep you updated more as I'm able to spend time there!
Thanks for enduring another long blog post! I'm glad you're all able to share in these experiences with me, I miss you all lots!

En Kerem

2009-01-18T13:22:00.001-08:00

So today was incredible. The center gave us an entire day off to go see whatever we felt like, and they’re really pretty trusting so we get to explore and go as far as our shekels will take us. I usually don’t plan to go in the groups I end up with, and today I wanted to spend a good amount of time studying, but after hearing everyone’s plans I just couldn’t resist going out myself. One of the bigger groups of students decided to leave at 7:30, right after breakfast, and head out to the Haddasah Hospital, a Medical school where there were some beautiful stained glass windows, called the Chagall Windows, each representing one of the tribes of Israel. And then we started down to En Kerem (or something like that…) which is the supposed place of John the Baptist’s birth. We actually got lost a few times on the way down, but it was all good cause a nice local guy helped us find our way. When we finally got there, I was surprise, while the church itself wasn’t really large like many of the others, it was located in the most quaint town I’ve ever visited. The streets were so beautiful, cobblestone roads lined with little cottage style homes, flower pots lining the window seals and freshly washed laundry hanging from the balconies. You think I’m exaggerating but I’m not, I told everyone that from now on when I was having a bad day, those streets would be my “happy place”. After we visited there we were supposed to go up to the Church of All Nations, but my group got a little lost because we were at the tail end (my roommate and I usually are because we’re in the back taking pictures of everything we see), and we got stuck back in an ultra orthodox Jewish convent. It was extremely beautiful as well, and we were the only ones there so it was like visiting a ghost town. When we found out we were supposed to be there, however, we got a little panicky until the Monk managing things just told us to jump the fence. It was so funny! By that time it was a little too late to see the Church of All Nations, so we just decided to stop by a local gelato shop…best decision of the day! The gelato was amazing! I thought it was cookie dough flavored…but it had some kind of chocolate candy bar thing in it, and it was to DIE for. Ok I’m not gonna lie…I had two of ‘em. After that we were all pretty exhausted so we called a taxi and headed home! The evening was pretty chill, we just studied a lot and ate dinner, followed by more studying and then ultimate classic…the Prince of Egypt! The people here are just so amazing and everyday I spend with them I have more fun and love it even more! I’m so lucky and grateful to be here, and I know the Lord has hand picked every person here for a reason. Thanks for all the love and support!

The Garden

2009-01-17T05:57:00.000-08:00

So I wish I would've written yesterday but I was too tired after our crazy night out! Luckily I've got my journal next to me so I can keep you all updated :D The beginning of the day was super boring cause we had four hours of class - and only two classes. The information was really good, but it's really hard to sit that long, and it didn't help that I was really tired. It was nice though, after class I took a three hour long nap, and was almost late to the information meeting prior to going to the Western Wall (otherwise known as the Wailing Wall). My roommates were still sleeping too, so at the last minute we all rushed upstairs and listened to Professor Skinner give us some history so we'd know what we were going to see; some of the remaining portions of the original retaining wall that surrounded Herod's temple in Christ's day. It's a very holy site for many people, most especially those of the Jewish faith. Because it was Friday night, it meant the beginning of Shabbat and so many Jews were at the Western Wall at sunset to begin worshiping. The wall is surrounded by a plaza where people were greeting each other and talking together, and then there are different sides for men and women to worship, and so we all had to split up. (They're afriad if the men are with women they won't be able to concentrate very well, and so men engage in singing and dancing, and the women are only allowed to do the same when their sound level is less than the mens. It's kind of hard to explain and a strange concept but I guess I can see where they're coming from!) Each of the girls wrote a prayer on a piece of paper and went and put it in the Wall, and afterwards we met some Jewish girls from Los Angeles who explained to us a lot about what the Wall meant to them, and why they are here in Jerusalem. It was neat because while they weren't really practicing Jews, they're all here to learn more about their heritage and traditions, and we found a lot more in common with them than I expected. After that we joined a different group of girls who were singing and dancing traditional Hebrew songs; it was a lot of fun. This group had traveled to Jerusaelm for their Birthright (a similar journey as the other girls we'd met), and at first they couldn't figure out where we had all come from and why all of a sudden there were lots more girls than they started out with, but after a minute the leaders kind of laughed and formally invited us to continue singing. It was kind of an awkward but funny situation. The experience was really incredible in a lot of ways, it was fun to get involved in the Jewish faith, and it was also neat to see how devout the Jewish people are.
Today we had church again, which was amazing as usual. It's neat to have such a close group of friends and be able to share all kinds of experiences with them. Afterwards about half of us headed over to the Garden of Gethsemane (it was the first time there for me). We walked through Orson Hyde Park to get there, and I was amazed by the beauty of the trees and the view that we had of the Old City walls. Me and a few others were at the tail end of the group, and as we were taking pictures in front of the gate leading in to the Garden, one of the gardners let us in to a locked off portion that wasn't publicly accessible, and about five of us got to spend time in an area all by ourselves. I wrote in my journal and took a few pictures; it was an incredible experience I'm excited to have again soon! I just want you all to know how grateful I am for my Savior and hope that even if you're not here with me you can feel the power of the things I'm experiencing through what I write. Thanks for all your support and sorry if I write way too much sometimes!

A demonstration

2009-01-15T04:31:00.000-08:00

Hey! So I haven't posted in a few days because not a ton has been going on, but I thought it was about time to update you guys. (Ok so really I did a lot yesterday but was so tired after I didn't post and...well yeah). Like...two days ago? The city was closed and so we just stayed in and studied most the day, but in the evening we had a member of the church living here in Jerusalem who works for the U.S. embassy come speak to us. He explained the situation going on in Gaza right now, and gave us a great, simple, easy to understand history about everything. (I took a lot of notes and I know this is kinda nerdy but if anyone wants to read them let me know and I'll send em to ya!) So that was really good and educational, I felt so much smarter afterwards. And then yesterday we had field trips all day! We visied sites like Beth-el, where Jacob had his famous ladder dream and where Samuel heard the voice of the Lord. And we went to shepherds fields and looked out to where Bethelehem is - the world of the Old Testament is really a lot smaller than I imagined it to be. I wish I could remember everything I learned about, I need to take better notes next time, because I never realized how many amazing experiences happened in such a small amount of space! One of the places we stopped was on the Mount of Olives, from which we had a great view of the Garden of Gethsemane. I haven't been able to visit there yet, but I'm really excited to. Along with visiting these places, we were able to visit a few other cathedrals and churches. Thats where a few of the pictures come from! Today after we got out of classes (we only had two hours), some of us decided to go shopping in the Old City again. This time I actually bought a few things, but I'm trying to be really careful because I still have so long to shop and have fun! I think the highlight of today was eating lunch outside of the center. We had a burrito like wrap called Schwarma - and I fell in love instantly! I'm probably going to be having lunch outside the center all too often. I've also fallen in love with a candy bar called a Bueno bar - there's nothing to even compare it to in the United States! Maybe if you're luck I'll bring you one home ;) After we had done a couple hours of shopping, the center called one of the girls in my group on her cell phone, and told us there was a demonstration going on outside of one of the gates in to the Old City, and that we were to leave the city immediately. These things usually aren't any harm at all, just extra precautions the center makes - I just wish I see one so I could photograph it! (Which is totally against the rules by the way). Anyway! Sorry for blabbing on for so long. That's whats been going on in the Holy Land!

School is the same...

2009-01-12T12:56:00.000-08:00

So today was kind of a slow day if you ask me. We had our first day of language classes (Hebrew for me and Arabic for many others), so that was interesting. My professor is a very energetic woman who seems to be perfect for many of the students here. She's very positive and tells us that Hebrew is easy! English is hard. I'm excited to learn because I think it will help me interpret the scriptures better too! After classes I was just planning on studying, but a big group of people decided to go visit the Rockefeller Museum...and what can I say - I'm easily persuaded. And besides! I decided if a lot of people were going today then they wouldn't be going later and...I dont' want to miss out on anything while I'm here! The museum was really neat, they claimed to have things dating back almost 200,000 years! (And no that's not an extra 0, I double checked!) It's weird for me to think of things being that old...the concepts many people have are different from mine lol. But yeah it was interesting and all, and afterward I just...studied a lot more! The director says that this is the most studious group he's ever seen, and that's saying a lot because he's almost done here and has seen several semesters of lots of students! I don't know if that's a good or a bad thing though - lol we're supposed to experience while we're here! But anyway I guess tonight is not very exciting - here's a few pictures anyway!

The Old City

2009-01-11T07:00:00.001-08:00

So today we were allowed out in to East Jerusalem and the Old City for the first time since our orientation. As an extra precaution we were to have five people in each group, and no one was supposed to be back after sunset - no one seemed to mind the extra restrictions because they were so excited to finally be able to go explore! My group decided to exchange our money for shekels at the very end so we weren't too tempted to shop - and we went exploring first! The Old City is beautiful in a very different way than most people would use the word, but I just love everything about it. The people are so interesting it's hard not to stop and just watch! One historical site we visited in between shopping was the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. I got some pretty amazing pictures inside, that's what one of the posts is. As we were nearing the end of shopping, it started to rain - and not just a little bit, as Aladdin the money changer said "raining not only cats...but dogs too!" (That's what the one picture is of - don't look too closely I LOOK like one of the wet dogs!! HAHA) There are may nice shopkeepers here who cater to the BYU students, and give them fair deals so it's fun to talk to them. The money changer even has a whole wall dedicated for BYU students to leave notes when they leave for future groups. It's funny how they really can tell we're from BYU, I'm sure it's our clothes and skin color, but I like to think it may be in small part due to the light President Faust says is found in many of the students eyes. Well anyway! I guess that's it for today. We have a dinner tonight and then opening of the snack bar party - and as for me...I gotta hit the books! Oh and p.s. MIKE! The fire engine picture is for you!

Shabbat!

2009-01-10T07:51:00.000-08:00

SHALOM!! Hey everyone! So I know it's Saturday but we are just finishing up our first "Sunday" in Jerusalem. Over here the locals practice sabbath on Saturday, and it is one of the only areas in the world where the First Presidency has given the church permission to hold church meetings on the same day as the culture in the surrounding area. It was kind of weird at first but I guess I don't really have my sense of time back anyway - so it didn't really bother me. There is actually a branch here in Jerusalem, and they meet in the Center. There are only about sixteen members total - most of which work for the US consulate here in Jerusalem, and so are Americans. There is one lady from England who has a wonderful accent, and a Palestinian woman as well. We didn't get to hear much of the her story, but what we did hear was pretty amazing. She grew up here (in Bethlehem), and got baptized when she moved away to study at a university. She then moved back to this area, because she is working for the U.N., although she is not allowed to live in Jerusalem anymore because of her choice to become a member of the church. She has a special pass that allows her in to the city because of where she works, but even then sometimes she is denied access - she barely made it to church today. There have been, in the past, months and years where she wasn't allowed to go to church at all, and yet she has remained strong on her own, and is an amazing example for her people. She taught the Relief Society lesson today and I was very impressed with the amount she knew and how well she was able to convey her message.

Church was amazing not only because of her lesson and story, but for other reasons as well. We have a choir here that almost all the students participate in, and we held our first practice and preformance today (kind of funny that they were on the same day, I know). We hold church in the Auditorium which houses a beautiful organ and has windows that look out right on to the city. (You can see a picture of the organ and then of the city from the auditorium). The branch members all come here and stay around the center until dinner time (they don't have lunch on Shabbat, and so they wait about three hours until we eat). After sacrament meeting and the musical number, we all had Sunday School together in a dome topped building, and it was probably the most spiritual lesson I've ever attended. Everyone participated, and the lesson took off in a direction I'm not sure even the teacher anticipated.

Anyway! Things are going really well over here, sorry to ramble on for so long. I hope everyone is doing well at home and enjoying themselves as much as I am! Thanks so much for the support - love you all.

2009-01-09T07:53:00.000-08:00

So this is an amazing picture of me and my roommates on our first day of school! How cool is that?! Haha. I know that I look SUPER nerdy but that's ok cause we just figured our moms wouldn't want to miss out on that just because we were in Jerusalem. We had Old Testament classes today as well as an Ancient Near Eastern studies class, both of which were very interesting. The professors here are amazing and you can tell they love the people and the students a great deal. Because our travel and study are integrated, we get to learn so much more than just doing one or the other - I couldn't imagine it any other way! After classes we went and played around a little bit, and took some more pictures of the city and of ourselves in the traditional Middle Eastern dress. I think we fit in quite well!

A city divided

2009-01-08T02:39:00.000-08:00

So we just took our first tour of the city of Jerusalem. It's divided in to two parts - East and West, and then contained in East Jerusalem is the "Old City". Right now as an extra precaution we're not allowed in to East Jerusalem because it is Palestinian occupied and with recent conflicts is a bit more dangerous - this makes things difficult because that's where most the shops are located! I guess this is bad for my camera and good for my wallet right? Well anyway, with a tour guide we were allowed today to see most everything, and let me tell you there is a LOT to see. It's fun to see all the shops and different people there are, but more amazing are all the historical sites that are just right next door. The Dome of the Rock and the Temple of the Holy Sepulcher are only a few. It's also interesting to see how the people change so drastically from East to West Jerusalem. East Jerusalem is occupied by Palestinians (like I said before), and West Jerusalem is more occupied by Jewish people. Their life styles are very different and this becomes evident in the places they live and the shops they keep. It'll be neat to learn more about this! I was telling some of the others here that I can't imagine coming here and not having the opportunity to learn like we do from our classes - it will make the experiences so much more meaningful. Well anyway its off to lunch now! More later

Twenty-four hours and three nasty airplane meals...

2009-01-07T11:38:00.000-08:00

Hey everyone!! Ok so the good news is I made it in one piece - the bad news is that I am VERY tired. I guess that's to be expected after nearly 24 hours of straight travel! It's worth it though because the center is the most beautiful place I've ever been in my entire life. There are balcony's and windows that line most of the building and look out on the city of Jerusalem...I know this is supposedly a place of war but I've never felt more peace just from looking at a city. The evening started out with dinner and then an introduction of all the professors, after which we got to take a tour of the center and see all the different areas. It's amazing to me that this place is nearly 20 years old because it is so well preserved it looks like it was built yesterday! Anyway I'm very tired so I think I'll take off and get some rest but look for some pics and more updates later!