Shphelah Field Trip

Today we went on a full day field trip. We left at 8:00 a.m. and got back at 6:00 p.m. It was a really really long day. But it was probably my favorite field trip so far.
The field trip was to show us the Shphelah (Shephelah or low-lying hill lands) that are between the coastal plains by Gaza and Tel Aviv and the Judean Highlands where Jerusalem is. There are five valleys that lead up to the highlands so at the base of each valley is a city to protect Jerusalem. The first one we went to was called Lachish. This place was really cool. There were ruins everywhere and we found a ton of pottery pieces and some arrow heads. At this city, the Assyrian king Sennacherib tried to scare the Israelites into surrendering and denying their God. They started lay siege on the city by building a ramp up the side of it to climb over the walls. There are still remnants of the ramp so it was really cool to see. King Hezekiah prays and asks God for help and God promises that He will deliver them if they trust him. Luckily for them, the people decide to trust the Lord and Sennacherib returned to his own land and was killed by his own sons. All this is found in Isaiah 36 and 37. It was really fascinating to read this story while sitting on the very place it happened.
The next place we went there was a huge underground pigeon farm type thing. It was really cool. There was also a Hellenistic time period olive press, house, and cistern. It was interesting. We are going to get to make our own olive oil within the next couple of weeks. I am really excited for that!!
The next place we went was called Bell Caves. It was basically a huge old water cistern that is now a cavern. We got to sing in there because the acoustics were really good. We sang "All Creatures of Our God and King", "Christ the Lord is Risen Today" and "The Spirit of God". It sounded cool, but I liked the experience of singing at the Augusta Victoria Church better. But it was still beautiful.
The next place we went was where the Israelites met the Philistines for battle with Goliath. We stood on the Tel and looked over where each camp would have been. And then we went to the bottom and got to throw stones with slings. It was so much fun and I was really good at it :) I could definitely kill someone with a sling if I needed to. I am going to buy one in the Old City and bring it home!! During this whole thing our professor gave a really cool spiritual thought about David's confidence and trust that the Lord would deliver him. He asked us if we had that confidence to face our Goliaths head on. He compared it with Hebrews 4: 14-16 about "coming boldly unto the throne of grace." He asked if we had the confidence to face our Father in Heaven. Then he sat back and let us think about it for a moment. Then he said that if we take the time to be silent and feel the Spirit the way we were feeling it at that moment, then we would know that we did have the confidence/boldness. It was really amazing. Spiritual experiences, I have noticed, come at times when I least expect them here. This story comes from 1 Samuel 17.
The final place we went was where the story of Samson took place. We didn't spend a lot of time there because we were late for dinner, but we went over the story in Judges 14-16. It is actually a tragic story.
It was a really great day. A long day for sure because by the time I got home I was covered in a layer of sweat and dust. Gross. But I have some great pictures that will hopefully come up soon!!

Losing Track of Time

Well I noticed that I hadn't posted in a long time, but to be honest so much has happened and yet at the same time nothing at all. I survived my eight hours of class that turned out to be nine hours. I went to the city some more. This past week was a Jewish holiday so there were tons of people everywhere and parties all over the city. I went to the Israeli Museum on Sunday and we did a homework assignment. It was basically a huge scavenger hunt all over the museum. It took us a few hours and then we rode the bus back home which is not a good idea because it made me super sick. The drivers here are crazy!!
This week with school hasn't been too bad, but I have had a couple of papers and time just seems to go too fast! This week was Sukkot so there were made different Jewish parties and dances going one. At one point we went to the Western Wall to watch the "Whacking of the Willows", but unfortunately it wasn't as crazy as everyone made it sound. There were alot of people there with their willow branches jumping or swaying. It was interesting.
This week for field trip we went to Jericho and that was interesting. It was a bunch of ruins. I love field trips, I really do. However, during them I am just hot and sweaty and tired of walking and looking at rocks. But afterwards, I look back and I am glad I went and I learned so much. That is basically how everyone feels though. Tomorrow we have a field trip that is all day. We are doing some caving or something, but I will write about it tomorrow.
Friday night we had a dance party in the JC. It was crazy and so much fun!! I wasn't going to go at first because sometimes I just get self-conscious about that type of thing. But oh man I am glad I went. So. Much. Fun.
Sabbath Saturday was amazing as always. The choir performed again, but this time is was a prelude music. We sang "Jesus, Once of Humble Birth". It was really beautiful. Definitely my favorite thing to do here is when we all sing together. It is amazing. The Spirit is so strong every time. Then I was in Nursery with my little girls, Brooklyn, Tabbi, and Lydia. They are so much fun. We go to singing time with the Primary and it is so touching to hear them sing. I love it. The rest of the day I just talked with people. I have slowly been making more solid friendships with the people I have met briefly. It was really great.
Today was our free day. I signed up with Michael, Kirk, Caralee, Emily and Joey to play the Carillon Bells in the YMCA tower for all of Jerusalem to hear. It was amazing. I got a couple of videos. We started at eleven with the chime. Then we played for the next hour, taking turns doing duets on the bells. We played songs like "Follow the Prophet", "To a Wild Rose", "Somewhere Over the Rainbow", and my personal favorite that I dedicated to my friend Gabby, "When I am Baptized"! It was so much fun!! I signed up to go again right before we come home. After the bells, we walked through West Jerusalem through a pretty neighborhood and then meandered around until we got back to Jaffa Gate and then headed to Damascus Gate to head home. On the way home, we stopped at Zedekiah's Cave which is this huge tunnel and cave under the Old City where they got all the stone for the temple. It was so cool! We took some great pictures, but my camera died so I will have to post them later.
Midterms are this week so it is going to be crazy. But on the bright side: I am in Jerusalem. And on the even brighter side: I will be in Turkey this time next week.

Negev

Hot. Windy. Dusty. Desert. That about sums up the Negev. Today was field trip day and basically it was just another look at the geography around Jerusalem and a little bit of history as well. The first place we went was a Bedouin women’s weaving center. The Bedouins are a nomadic people that the country of Israel is trying to modernize by building towns for them with houses and schools. It is similar to what the early American’s did with the Native Americans with reservations. It has caused some conflict as you can imagine. But, we visited the weaving factory where they are empowering women to work and support themselves. It was interesting.

Second, we went to a place called Arad which is south of Jerusalem. It has ruins of an Israelite civilization on one side from about 3000 B.C and then a Canaanite civilization from about 1200 BC on the other side. It was interesting. Both had signs of “temples” with a holy of holies area and alters. Walking among the ruins reminded me of the old castles in Germany.

The last place we went was Beer-sheba which has to do with Abraham and Hagar in the book of Genesis. It was very similar to the first site. Except in this one there was a huge water cistern that was excavated under the city so we got to do a little bit of caving. Well, that is kind of an exaggeration; it was more like walking underground with hard hats on. It was really cool. It was a pretty long day.

We played volleyball for FHE and I did better than most people so I thought Andrew would be proud. But, it is going to be an even longer day tomorrow. 8 hours of class. Yikes. 

Pictures from Week 2

Ascension Church  

Judean Wilderness

Augusta Victoria Church

Augusta Victoria Ceiling

View of the City

Bethlehem in the background

This picture is to show the West Bank Wall

Samwil

Samwil

West Jerusalem Plaza

Clover Map

Downtown West Jerusalem

First time eating Schwarma

Gelato!! 

Money exchange

Baklava

Walk around the city wall

The Old City

Jerusalem and the JC in the background

Walk

View over the city

Orson Hyde Park

Where the soldiers would "cast lots"

McDonald's is EVERYWHERE

Venders in the Old City

Shekels

Shekels and Argots

Free Day: Tel Aviv Trip

I love Sundays. They are the best because they are our free days. So today me and about twenty other people went to Tel Aviv which is right on the beach of the Mediterranean Sea. It was so much fun. We got two vans to take us which was about a 50 minute drive and he dropped us off right on the beach. We then split up into different groups but my friends and I had spent some time planning what we were going to do. We went to Old Jaffa and went to an art gallery, a jewelry museum, a military museum, a flea market, a mosque, and then finally to the beach. (Daniel: apparently this city is the place that Andromeda was going to be sacrificed to the Kraken, but then Peruses rescued her from Clash of the Titans. I thought you would like that.) Anyway, the beach was so beautiful. We spent hours jumping over the waves and diving into them, walking on the beach, or just soaking up the sun. It was so relaxing. When we dried off, we went up the street and bought some schwarma for dinner. It was pretty good, better than the one that I had the other day. I think that schwarma was really talked up though, it’s definitely not the most amazing thing ever, but I like it. Then we got ice cream J

The last part of the day was the best. We sat on this wall by the beach and watched the sunset. It was the most beautiful thing I have ever seen. It really makes me think about what a wonderful world that we live in. Heavenly Father has truly blessed me to be able to see sights such as the sunset. It is one of my most favorite things.

On the drive back, our van driver blasted his techno music and we had a small dance party while sitting in our seats. He thought we were hilarious. We just laughed and laughed.

It was a great day. Field trip day tomorrow!

Singing on the Sabbath

Today was another great Sabbath. I finally have decided to join the ward choir, so hopefully Sister Stevens will be proud of me. We have had two rehearsals including today’s and we already performed a song. It was crazy that we were ready. It was “Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing” so it was pretty easy, but it was beautiful.

Today is Yom Kippur which is the most holy holiday for the Jewish people so they don’t drive cars. So out of respect, the people in our branch were asked to not drive as well which made church basically only us students and the faculty. Because of that, I was asked to substitute in nursery for my professor’s three year old girl Tabi. It was pretty fun, but hard to keep her entertained. I was working with another girl named Kristen and she tried to teach a short lesson, but that didn’t work out too well. But, it was fun to just play with her.

We went to the Garden Tomb today as whole group. It was really amazing. We went on a guided tour and then the director of the site asked us to sing a few hymns. The last song that we sang was “I Know that My Redeemer Lives” and it was amazing. So many people stopped to listen or record us. Many people had tears in their eyes and they thanked us afterward. The spirit was really strong. It was one of the only times that we are legally able to bear testimony of this gospel in this country.

Going back to Yom Kippur, it technically started last night at sundown so as a group we walked to the Western Wall to see the Jewish people worship. It was very interesting to sit at the wall and watch the women (there is a division between the men and women) go up to the wall and pray. Most would pray in Hebrew and if they got really into it they would sing and sway. It was a very reverent and actually holy place. I got to go up to the wall, put my hand on it, and say a little prayer. Just thinking about all the young women that came before me and what they sacrificed to get to where I was standing was really humbling. It is interesting though because the more time I spend learning and observing the other religions, the more convinced I am that we have the truth. The whole truth. It has really solidified my testimony in the restored gospel and the atonement of Jesus Christ and I am so grateful for it.