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!!!