The Past Week in a Nutshell

Sunday.

I went and voluntered at Saint Vincent's school again. I was with the little girls again :) Oh it was the best. We spent a lot of time in the city exploring, but then I just hung out after I got back.

Monday.
I had class as usual. But then we had a blood drive so I got to donate blood in Israel. It was pretty cool. Nothing exciting. The rest of the day I was really too tired to do anything so I wrote my papers that were due that week.
That night we actually had a field trip to the Kotel Tunnels. They are tunnels that follow along the wall of the Temple Mount. It was really cool. I have pictures.

Tuesday.
We had a Jewish Quarter field trip. We went to a lot of museums and saw a lot of ruins. There was a spot where the original temple wall stones had been pushed onto the ground and the stone street had almost collapsed. It was pretty interesting. When it was foretold that not a stone would be on top of another they weren't kidding.
After our field trip we got to do our own thing so I went into the Temple Mount where the Dome of the Rock is! After 2 1/2 months of seeing the Dome every day I finally got to be right next to it! It was so beautiful. We tried to get in to the actual building, but they didn't let us. But, it was just so amazing. Then I went to West Jerusalem and got a crepe :) It was delicious.

Wednesday.
We had the Christian Quarter field trip in the morning. We went to about fifty different churches. It was interesting. Two of the places that we went had huge organs, so they played for us. I love hearing the organ. It is amazing. We went to St. Francis Church, Church of the Redeemer, the Alexander Nevsky church, the Church of the Holy Sepulchure, and  St. Mark's church. St. Mark's church a place that is suspected to be where the upper room for the Last Supper was in. That was pretty cool. The lady there told us all about how God, Jesus, and Mary have visited there recently which was interesting. She was a little crazy, but her faith was very strong and that counts for something.
When we had free time I wandered in the Old City. I bought two cool t-shirts and then we headed back to the center.

Thursday
I had my New Testament midterm this day. I did pretty well so it wasn't a big deal. Later that day I went to the Jewish Market. It was a big flea market in West Jerusalem. I didn't end up buying anything except a schwarma that I split with three people. Then I just walked around with everyone and just explored.
Later that night we had a special fireside by Elder Tad Callister who was visiting for our Stake Conference. He talked about the validity of our church. It was pretty interesting.

Friday
We had one class and then I spent basically the rest of the day in my room reading Dan Brown's new book Inferno. It was amazing. I did take a break at some point to go to the city and explore on the rooftops. It was pretty fun. But as soon as I got back I got back to reading my book. Some of it took place in Istanbul so it was really cool because I knew and could picture the places they visited. It was a great book. I recommend it :)

Saturday
We had conference and it was great. We had the Callisters, the stake president, the area seventy, and Brother Macmillian speak. It was really great.
After church I speak the day outside cathcing up on a conference session I missed.
Then Elder Callister, The Kachers and the Macmillians held a Q&A session for us. Basically alot of the questions were about dating or Elder Callister's book the Infinite Atonement. It was really nice of them to do that for us.
It was a pretty great Sabbath day.

Sunday
Today I just spent the day doing laundry and packing and cleaning for our Galilee trip. We leave tomorrow morning and I am super excited!
I did go out to the city and bought a wood carving of the Savior. But, other than that it has been a real chill prep day for tomorrow.

Pictures will come soon.

Primary Program

This Saturday we had the Primary Program. It was the cutest thing in the world. My three girls are so precious and everyone loved them. The theme was "I am a Child of God" and I got to say a little line about families and then I helped the girls say their lines. This has been the best calling ever. It was also the best birthday present!

It was a pretty great birthday! Everyone sang to me several times, I got chocolate ice cream, my door was decorated, I got a lot of cards, got a new hoodie, and got to talk to my family which was by far the best part. It was a great day and will always be a birthday to remember!

Lydia, Josh, Tabby, and Brooklynn 

Free Day: Mount of Olives Outting

Today we only had class until 9 which is the biggest miracle in the world! So we got to have a free day! I went with a bunch of people to all of the churches on the Mount of Olives. The first one that we went to was the Russian Orthodox Church of Maria Magdalene. It was beautiful. There were a lot of beautiful paintings of Mary. Also right next to the church is the old Roman rode that Christ would have walked on His way to Bethany or to Jerusalem. It was so cool. It was one of those random times that I really felt the Spirit testify that this is the land that Christ lived in. It was pretty awesome!


Next we went to the Jewish cemetry. It is crowded. All the Jewish people bury their families there because they believe that Christ will come from the east, which is the Mount of Olives. It was pretty interesting.


After that we went to Dominus Flevit Church. It was crowded and busy and to be honest I don't remember anything significant about it. But, we are visiting it again as a class so maybe I will learn why it is important later.
Next we went to the Tombs of the Prophets where Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi were buried. It was a cave that we got to explore with candles as our only light. It was pretty cool and spooky.
The last thing we did was go to the Church of the Ascension. BEST EXPERIENCE. Right when we got there a group of singers from Moscow started performing. It was simply amazing. I had chills the entire time! I just loved it. It was so inspiring and uplifting and you could tell that the other members of the church were really touched. I don't know how else to describe how great it was. I am going to try to upload a video of it so that you can hear it.

O Little Town of Bethlehem

Bethlehem was crowded. We went to a church where it is suspected that Christ was born and we waited in line to reach the actual grotto for an hour. It was interesting to see all the people that worshipped that place. We were going to go to another church, but our bus was late picking us up that morning so we did not have time to go because we had to make it to our lunch appointment. Lunch was amazing. We all sat around these tables and couches while the waiters brought us piles and piles of pitas and hummus, bottles of Coke and Sprite, kebabs, French fries, onions, and baklava. It was so good and so much fun!

After lunch we went to a shepherd's field and had a Christmas devotional. We read the Christmas story and sang Christmas songs. Then we watched the sunset. It was beautiful. Surprisingly when the sun when done there was one star (well in actuality it was a planet, but for the sake of the story it was star) over the city of Bethlehem. It was really cool. 

It was a good day. A little crazy and exhausting, but a great day. It was a great way to start the week, especially the week of my own birthday because I got to think a lot about the significance of the birth of Christ. 

Jordan Journey

After a very long week of heck, we got to go on a four day trip to Jordan. We left early Monday morning to make it to the border before the traffic got too bad. We went through the border with no problems, got a new bus, and met our tour guide. Our tour guide was nice and was full of knowledge. He also had a natural talent to talk for hours about absolutely nothing. Needless to say, I was very happy to arrive back in Israel, leaving him at the border.
The first day was a lot of driving and some stops. We first stopped at Mt. Nebo which was pretty cool. We stopped at a few other places, had lunch, and then headed down to Petra.
Petra was BY FAR my favorite day in Jordan. We had about an hour tour walking into where the main ruins and then we were set free for about six hours. We could explore wherever we wanted and it was so much fun! I rode a camel, saw the Treasury, climbed up 800 steps to see the Monastery, shopped, played with the kids, hiked, and hiked and walked and walked. It was the best day. I was exhausted by the end. But after we met back up we had a three hour drive to Amman so we all slept on the bus.
On Wednesday we went around the city of Amman to the temple of Hercules, then to Jerash, then to an automobile museum, and then to a mosque. It was a very busy day and to be honest, after Petra, everything seemed lame. It was fun, but Petra was the best!
On Thursday we went to a theater that is in the middle of Amman. We spent an hour or two there. I ended up watching a bunch of kids doing flips off the walls and stuff. It was pretty scary to see them because I thought they were going to smack their heads on the ground. After that we went to this random antique store and stayed there for an hour. I guess the only reason we stopped there was so that we could have KFC delivered. Yes, Kentucky Fried Chicken. It was delicious!! Probably the best I have ever had. After that we headed to the Jordan River, which was the second highlight of the trip. We sat on the river’s bank and sang hymns and read Christ’s baptism story. It was really cool. On side of the bank belongs to Jordan and the other side belongs to Israel. So there were soldiers protecting the borders to make sure no one snuck in. On the Israel side people were being baptized. It was super interesting to watch and a little weird because they were wearing white dresses that we completely see-through when they got wet. Awkward. But it was still a very spiritual experience.
After that we headed to the border to go back to Israel. It is so much easier to leave Israel than it is to get back in. I happened to be the first one in line so I forged the way for some people. I got my bags checked, when through security, went to the first passport check, answered all the questions I was supposed to, got through the second and third passport checks, and then finally found my bag and waited for everyone else to arrive. No one did. After about twenty to thirty minutes of waiting, three other students joined me. After more waiting we saw an employee walking our way. We were told that we had to go back through because one of the students dropped the “s” word; students. While going through passport checks upon entering Israel, we are not allowed to say that we are students because by Israeli law, we are not. We had to have a special form that says we are students which we don’t have so to avoid all the confusion we are supposed to say something along the lines of, “I am participating in a religious program in Jerusalem for three months. I live on Mt. Scopus.” Well, after about an hour of calling all the right people and explaining to the Israeli employees and guards, we were all able to make it through again. It was quite an ordeal, but most of us thought it was pretty funny and I was proud of myself for making it through all by myself.
We made it home safe and now it has been back to business as usual. We started classes again, had Sabbath, and then a free day yesterday. On Sabbath we practiced for the Primary program which is this coming Saturday! I am so excited! For the free day I walked all over West Jerusalem. Jerusalem is so much bigger than I think it is, and then I start walking and I remember. We walked a good ten or so miles. But it was a great day and now we are about to head out the door for a field trip to Bethlehem, which I will save for another blog post.

Petra

First glimps of the treasury

The Treasury

The Monastery 

So Happy to be on a camel! Next goal: ride an elephant

Thanks for the ride!

Little Bedouin Boy

Temple of Hercules

Jerash

Me and Sarah at the theater in Amman

Caralee, me, and Angie holding up the wall

At the random store waiting for lunch. We got bored. 

River Jordan! 

The Garden and Rooa

After a horrible, terrible, hard, exhausting, frustrating, and awful week of finals, I needed a good weekend. And luckily, it was. We started out Friday night with a Halloween party for the staff kids. We all got dressed up and I was surprised at the costumes that I saw. I was in a group of people that dressed up as characters from Peter Pan. I made/put together all of the costumes. I was pretty proud of myself. We had Peter Pan, Tinker Bell, Wendy, John, and I was Michael Darling. It was really fun. 

Sabbath days are always wonderful. There was a huge LDS tour group that came into town so our sacrament meeting was packed. Nursery was a little hard after Halloween, but I love the kids. We have been practicing for the Primary programs which is on my birthday! Best present ever!! 

After church a group of us went to the Garden of Gethsemane. I had heard a lot of things about how it was really disappointing, but I loved it. It was not what I expected. There were soooooo many people, however it was still so peaceful. It was an eye opening experience to be able to witness people from all over the world, speaking all different languages, from all walks of life, but all understanding the importance and sacredness of the garden. It was beautiful.

Garden of Gethsemane

Garden of Gethsemane, (the gardener told us that some of the tree's roots are
more than 2,000 years old. Think about what that means!)

After the Garden, a group of us walked up the hill to the Orson Hyde Memorial Park, where Orson Hyde dedicated the Holy Land. When we got to the top of the hill we all sat down to look out over the city from the Mount of Olives. One of the guys from the group pulled out a book and began to read aloud Orson's prayer. It was really cool to be there and to read that. Orson gave the prayer on about October 24th, 1841, so we missed the anniversary by a couple of days, but it was a great experience to do that.

Orson Hyde Memorial Park

Rooa!

For our Sunday free day, I went to St. Vincent which is a school for special needs children. This is my second week that I got to do this and it has been, so far, my favorite experience here. Last week I worked with a girl that was twenty-one, named Ayat. She couldn't speak, but she understood Hebrew, Arabic, and English. She could communicate by pointing to pictures in a book so she told me all about her birthday, which isn't until February and she wants Lego! She was so amazing. This week I went again, but I was with the little children. I was able to go with Nichel, one of my friends here, whom I ADORE! We got to work with two girls. Fatmah who was three and Rooa who was two. I wanted to keep Rooa. She was the cutest thing I have ever seen. She is two but has only mentally developed up to a four month old. She was just so smiley and happy. It was such a wonderful experience to volunteer there because this entire trip is all about me. Me things, I want this, me me me me. But this was all about the girls and just being there with them and giving them attention that they don't get very often. It was a much needed experience to take a step back and care for another person for a change. If I come home with an extra body, don't be alarmed :)

Me and Rooa

We are leaving for Jordan tomorrow!!!