Shabot Shalom!

Shabot Shalom!! (Basically- Welcome Sabbath)

Wow A LOT has happened since I last wrote! I just got off the phone with my Pops- SO good to talk to him! Thanks Daddy!!!

Okay last friday night was the Jewish celebration of welcoming the Sabbath (Shabot Shalom) at THE Western Wall!!! SO COOL!!!! Man, those people know how to celebrate. I think we should add a little bit more umph to our church celebrations. The section touching the western wall was split with a Women's side and a Men's side. The Men's side was filled with soldiers and all the different sects of Judaism and they were louder and more boisterous than the Women, but the Women's side was really fun to! The Girls sang at the top of their lungs these great Hebrew songs and they would form layered circles and dance. They would pull us in and sing and laugh and dance. It was SOOO much fun!!! I love celebrating with the Jews! It was really sweet- the next day, Shabot, a girl in Relief Society shared her testimony- she talke about how she feels "bad at Relief Society", (I had to chuckle- who feels "good" at it?) but she said how the Jewish girls were such good examples of including everyone and physically pulling us and other girls into their circles. She said that is how she would have Relief Society be like. And I couldn't agree more. I am learning so much from these different cultures and their religion. The Muslim call to prayer reminds me to think of my Savior and to pray. My Mom pointed out to me that I am learning from these people becuase they are LIVING their religion. What good examples. I love them!!!
I just got back from an amazing field trip! We went to Jericho and it was gorgeous! Jericho- the land of Palm trees, really delicious fruit and love nuts! :) We saw the Mount of Temptation (where it is said Jesus was tempted by Satan), King Herod's winter palace remains (where some think because of the time of year, that this is the place the wise men would have come to talk to him), the walls of Jericho, and the Road to Jericho on the Wadi Qelt. King Herod's winter palace was basically an archeolgical site- which I LOVED! We could see the formations of the rooms, some of the walls were still standing. There were parts of columns standing, a huge hot tub room was in pretty good order, and we stood in the throne room where the wise men would have met with Herod and we saw the huge swimming pool where he murdered his nephew Aristobulus. The walls of Jericho were only bits and pieces in a wall of dirt, but we saw the oldest man-made structure in the world today- a tower type structure built in the Neolithic age. We also saw the glacis formation that would have been the foundation for the walls of Jericho. Beneath the glacis was burn marks left from bricks from the time of the walls of Jericho. My teacher said that our ancestors would have blew the horns and shouted and climbed over the fallen walls right where we were. It is so neat to think of the people we are learning about as our ancestors. They really are. I definately feel that I have a heritage here. The Wadi Qelt with the road to Jericho (or the road to Jerusalem- depending on where you want to go!) was sooo neat! Jesus Christ walked that road. We saw a Roman aqueduct over the path that might have been there when Christ walked it. The good Samaritan story would have taken place there if it was real. My teacher pointed out that the Priest and the Levite that passed the injured man would have probably been on their way to Jerusalem to do temple service. if they had touched him, they would have become unclean and therefore unable to perform their temple duties. My teacher talked about how we need to make the best choice over the good and better choices. The Priest and the Levite were doing good things, but the best thing would have been to help the man that fell among the thieves. Me told us to promise ourselves that we would never pass to help the person in need in order to do better or good things. I will remember that lesson forever.

Walking to the Western Wall I was talking to a friend and for some reason wondered if I need to keep praying and pondering if a mission is still right for me. At the wall we met lots of wonderful people from all around the world. We talked with one woman and her daughter that was from Holland. It was so hard not to be able to share what we believed to these people! Talking to this women and her daughter- I had this HUGE feeling of love for them. I wanted them to know the truthfulness of this gospel SO BAD!!! I wanted to share the truth with them soo badly! That was a tender mercy for me to see that my desire is there and that a mission is still a good choice for me. I am SOO EXCITED!!! There is another girl turning in her papers while she is here and it is so fun to talk to her and be excited with her. I know that I am learning all these wonderful things to help my testimony to grow but also to share it with others on my mission, in my future family, and in future seminary or sabbath school (That is what they call it here!) lessons. I know I am not learning it solely for my personal use- I feel very responsible to share it.

I have been sick a lot of this week which hasn't been fun at all- it is so hard to miss out on such fun things in the city! We have also been on lock down in the JC. It started yesterday and is going on until we leave for Turkey- which is TOMMORROW!!!! I am SOOO excited for Turkey- Istanbul, Ephesus, etc... AHH!!!! Back to the lock-down: it was Israeli Independence Day starting Monday evening and ending on Tuesday evening (we went to the festivities in West Jerusalem which were so fun! The JC crew had a huge dance party in the street and the locals were filming us and taking pictures! haha crazy Americans!). The Palestines call it the day of Disaster. They have been having protests in leu of the Israelis celebrations and festivities. We have been hearing explosives. And our neighbors have been setting off explosives everynight so it sounds like it is right outside our windows. It is so crazy!!! As our security guy put it, "It is a war..." I am not too worried. The security said they don't think it will escalate, but for now we can't even go outside on the porches because the Palestinians will worry that we will in-form Israeli soldiers about them. So for now we are just trying to enjoy and not get nervous about hearing explosives outside. Woohoo!!! We are in the middle of the conflict- literally- look at a map. It is kind of exciting for me, others are worried.

But we are going to TURKEY TOMMORROW!!!! AHHHH!!!!! We have had as couple of lectures on what we are going to see and what to expect and things. The teachers are SO excited to go because they have been to Egypt lots of times and Turkey hardly at all. We are basically a guinea pig group so this should definately be an adventure! Hey I am ALL up for Adventures!!!

So I will not have access to a computer or phone really so this is my last word for a week. OH!!!! I got a calling- Seminary Teacher!!! It is in the blood! It is more like how we did seminary in Montreal- our student does the daily lessons at home everyday and we meet for an hour on Shabot. Me and Michelle are the teachers for Megan Judd- one of our teacher's daughters. I LOVE teaching Seminary!!!! LOVE IT!!! And we are doing D&C which I am ALL over- esp. after Susan Easton Blacks classes this year! Holly and Andrew are skyping a kid from Tiberius to teach him seminary each week. CRAZY!!! I love being a part of the Jerusalem Branch.

I was a bit homesick this week. But I am doing better and having so much fun!!! I still can't beleive I am here!!!! I get to go out to Old Jerusalem everyday after classes. I get to have professional Professors teach me abou the Holy Land, the Conflict, and the Old Testament. I am learning so many great things and my testimony is growing SO much!!! I am stressing a bit about making sure I am making the most of this experience, but I am trying to just relax and not stress so much. I know i will do better if I don't stress. But I am definately going to come home changed. That is for dang sure. I will make sure of it. :) I love the Holy Land! And I love all ya'll!!!
Abby and Jack- Please write me!!! i would love to hear from you!!!
And roomies- I love and miss you a lot! Hope you are having fun in Provo and India!
Ali- I love and miss you girl! And gurl I would be so happy if you called me at 1 in the morning! Are you allowed to call me now? Probably not, but if you can- please do!!!! I was SOOO sad I couldn't be apart of the phone conversation, but as Mom pointed out, I will be able to talk to you soon!!!

LOVE YOU LOVE YOU LOVE YOU LOVE YOU!!!! HURRAH FOR ISRAEL!!!!

A Grateful Heart

Hello hello!!! So sorry, I could not figure my blog out becuase everything is in Hebrew, but someone showed me how to get it to English! And I am not allowed on facebook- so don't feel bad if I don't reply to your messages on facebook!

This is simply incredible. My thought when I woke up today was "Another best day in Israel!" This place is so special- the perfect word for it. It is so easy to feel the spirit. There is also another spirit here. Or the same, just special. So many sacred and wonderful things have happened here for thousands and thousands of years. The feeling is just awe-some. One of my friends; Kerri Allison, said the other day "I can't express how much this means to me..." I again felt a huge rush of gratitude to be able to have this opportunity. I am so blessed. This is just amazing.

I LOVE THE OLD CITY!!! It is soooo much fun! I am sure I eventually will be itching to see every site but for now I love just wondering around the Old City. The culture is so different. The more I get comfortable, the more I love it. The way we have to act is so particular- I can't look men in the eyes, you have to be super blunt with the shop keepers and little kids who want to try to "help" you. But I really love this people and this place. I had baclava (not sure if spelling is correct) yesterday on the street and it was AMAZING!!! OH MY GOSH!!! I about died. The food here is soooo good. Different, but so yummy! Pitas are my favorite as well as falafals! They have galaxy bars and Mars bars and I am excited to try their chocolate! :) They streets are filled with little gummy stands. There are some great shapes- sunny side-up eggs, vampire teeth, ice cream, pizza, etc. and they are sooo good! Better than American gummies for sure. They are a favorite with all the JC students.

I am feeling safer and safer as I get to know the people and land. Me and a friend read in the New York times yesterday that Americans are being discouraged from travel in Israel and then they listed a bunch of potential safety issues like suicide bombings and kidnappings. We chuckled. Security hasn't even mentioned it, nothing has changed. So I feel pretty safe. I am pretty confident that if you keep the JC rules, you will be fine.

We had our first field trip on monday, and boy was it amazing. The sites we went to was Gibeah of Saul (hill of Saul- where Saul's palace was and David and Jonathon lived there too!), Nebi Samwil (the burial of Samuel- crusaders built it and King Richard couer de Lion lived there!), the hill next to Ramat, seven peaks, and St. Augusta Victoria Chapel/Cathedral (not sure which). From these sites we could see Beth-el, the place where Abraham bound Isaac, the city with the two bears and Elisha story, The Land of Ephraim, the platuea of Benjamin, Gibeon (Joshua and the Amorites, and King Solomon (shoot I am pretty sure it was King Solomon) asking for Wisdom), Bethlehem, Moab (where Ruth is from), the hill where Mary and Martha lived and where Jesus walked from to Jerusalem during the last week of His life, the Old City of David, etc.

Being in and seeing the actual sites had an incredible feeling. The stories were so much stronger! They are so much more real. I can picture where it took place. I definately felt the spirit in all of these places- even for the sad stories because they all are true and happened. Standing on the hill next to the hill Ramat, overlooking Bethlehem, I had a wonderful spiritual experience. This gospel is true. Jesus Christ truly was born there and truly lived here and truly lives now. He is a real person that lived on this earth and walked where I am walking and payed the ultimate price. In my old testament class we talked about how Abraham had a subsitute that could step in for the sacrafice- Christ. And how many other stories always had Christ as the substitute. Christ had no substitute. He truly atoned for our sins a couple miles from where I am now. I know this because I can feel it.

We were able to look out to the hills of Ephraim and our teachers kept stressing that this is our heritage. We really have heritage in this land- it is so neat. I truly do feel like this is a home for me. I feel connected to this place very much. They also keep stressing that what we are reading is our family history. Wow. That is so neat. One activity we did in class is write down an important person in our life, what their characteristic we admire is, and what characteristic of ourselves do we admire. The person next to us randomly picked one of our answers and threw it in the trash. Our teacher asked us if God asked us to sacrafice that thing, would we be able to put God first and obey? I had a hard time with that. The card pulled from me was the person I admire- and I had written Dad down. I know I am going to have to prove that I will put Heavenly Father first, but it is hard and I really hope I won't have to give up a member of my family. My reaction was very interesting to me.

I have grown so much already. I feel like I have been here a long time. I have already experienced and seen so much! It is so crazy! I am so happy. I know because I felt it this Saturday (our Sabbath) and other times of the week, that I will be able to share this with others- in my family and on my mission. I am so excited to share this gospel. Jesus Christ LIVES!!! And I love Jerusalem. HURRAH FOR ISRAEL!!!

WOW WOW WOW

OH MY HEAVENS. MOTHER OF PEARL. One of my fav. quotes of the week "We can look at the Dome of the Rock while eating dinner. What up!!!!" -Jefferson

My heart is so full of gratitude. It is spilling over. I am so happy. I still can't believe I am here. I am pretty sure my mind and body are in shock mode. My body from the flight and time change, and my mind because of the spiritual uplifting and culture shock. I cannot WAIT to show you guys(family) Jerusalem! Okay, enough of the feelings and craziness that probably don't make sense.

So I traveled in a group of five to Denver and then to D.C. From D.C. we joined a big group of kids on the flight to Vienna and then to Tel Aviv. My group of five has had quite the adventure and experience. Both of our connecting flights were pretty tight. We had to sprint to catch the plane to Vienna! A girl named Ashley sat next to a person who threw up on her brand new scriptures, Erica had a huge bird poop on her arm and they lost our luggage. We still haven't gotten it back yet, but hopefully by tonight it will be here. Hopefully.... Underwear can only be turned inside-out once. Everyone is joking about how good our blogs are going to be.

It has been utterly amazing. My heart is filled with tears everytime I look out of the JC (Jerusalem Center) and see our view of Old Jerusalem with the Dome of the Rock. We hear the Muslim call to prayer five times a day- including 4 in the morning. Our Brance President said we will eventually be able to sleep through it. I woke up this morning to it and just smiled and reminded myself I was in Israel. !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Everyone is so nice and trying to get to know each other. There are some real characters. I already have a deep love for everyone! Yesterday we took a tour of the JC and had a bunch of orientations. Everyone is split into two groups with the religion professors. We will switch teachers when we move to New Testament. My Professor is Muhlstein. He is awesome and I love his family. Between the two religion teachers we have 11 children in the JC. He split our group into Hogwarts houses with group leaders- I am in Slytherin. I was happy about that for some reason.

Today we had breakfast at 6:30 and OH THE OASIS IS THE BEST PLACE EVER!!!! THe food is amazing and healthy. I LOVE it!!! And we eat outside with the view. Freaking incredible. We had more orientation and then we split into groups with seven people and we each group had a teacher/advisor/person take us on an orientation walk of Old Jerusalem. OH MY GOSH. I LOVE IT SO MUCH!!! Total cultural center. I am in love. All forms of religion and peoples and old alleyways and markets and diff. food and dress and language and did I mention that I love it?! You can tell that most of the streets and walls and arches have been there forever- probably when Jesus Christ was here. When Jesus Christ was here. HERE. WOWZA!!! This is so incredible. This is sooooo INCREDIBLE!!!! This is just amazing. I still can't get over it. I absolutely love it here. There is just something about it. It is already a part of me. There is just something special here. Oh yeah and the garden of Gethsemane is about a hill away. WHAT?!?! I tried a falafal today- AMAZING and Israel ice cream- YUM!!! There are soldiers everywhere with guns. creepy but cool. Oh and it was so great and funny- there would be these security guys from the JC popping out of nowhere in the city. "Wait I've seen you before... oh your with us!" It was so crazy to just see them all of the sudden and then lose sight of them! It helped me feel safe. They showed us this place where we can go on the top of the roof and have a great view of the city! Family- I'll have to show you! LOVE YOU GUYS SO MUCH!!!! I am having the best time ever and I am just so grateful for this opportunity and I can't wait to have more adventures!!! I am so happy to live here. It feels like home.

HURRAH FOR ISRAEL!!!!