One Last Post

Well...it's official. In 5 short days I will be sitting on a plane heading towards the JFK International Airport in New York. I will be leaving Jerusalem and leaving what has become my home and my family for the past 3 1/2 months. It feels pretty strange. I feel like I haven't been here for very long at all, but at the same time it's kind of hard to picture what life was like before Jerusalem sometimes. As sad as I am to leave, I realize that I can't stay here forever, and am excited to move on with the rest of my life. Today is the last Sabbath that I will be here in Jerusalem. This morning before our church meetings I got up and went and sat on the balcony on the top level that overlooks the whole city. As I was sitting there, in great company I might add, I thought about when Christ sat on the Mount of Olives before he made his Triumphal Entry into the city of Jerusalem that would mark the start of the last week of his mortal life. He lamented over the wickedness of people of Jerusalem.

   

Matthew 23:37: O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!

The people of Jerusalem at that time were so wicked--enough so that they crucified our Savior. It breaks my heart to think that our world was the only world wicked enough to crucify the Son of God. He was the only perfect being that has ever walked this earth, yet they did not accept him. Being here, though, and learning all about the life of my Savior, as well as living in the area of his actual ministry, has helped me personally to learn to accept him into my life even more. With him, anything is possible. It is because of his Atonement that I am able to be cleansed of all my sins, to be comforted in all of my sorrows, to be renewed in my hope that I can one day return and live with my Father in Heaven. I am so grateful for my Savior and for all that he did and continues to do for me, and for this land that I have had the great opportunity to live in and as a result come closer to Christ. Today as I overlooked the city for one of the last times, I remembered that although Jerusalem might have been wicked once, there is still a lot of good in the world. I felt so at peace. Whatever the future may hold for me, I can face it head on with the help of my Savior.

Psalms 147:12: Praise the Lord, O Jerusalem; praise thy God, O Zion.

Thank you Jerusalem for everything you taught me, and for giving me this opportunity of a lifetime. You will never be forgotten! 

Galilee

Last Thursday we got back from our 10 day trip to Galilee! It was so wonderful...probably my favorite part of the trip thus far. We stayed at a resort right on the Sea of Galilee and alternated between staying at the resort and having classes and going out on fieldtrips. It was hot and sweaty but so worth it. There is not much that could top laying in a hammock watching the sun set over the very same Sea that Jesus sailed so long ago.

Mark 4:39: "And he arose, and rebuked the wind, and said unto the sea, Peace, be still. And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm."

Here are just a jumble of random pictures from the trip...

Standing by a boat that was recovered from the Sea of Galilee that is thought to date back all the way to the time of Jesus!

I love this picture because I am a giant!

Sunset after our fish dinner. Yes I ate a whole fish...eyeball and all!

Outside of a potential site for the baptism of Christ at the Jordan River

Susan is so fantastic. I love her. I don't know where we are here...

Touching the old floor of the Synagogue Church

Winnie the Pooh Tree

No clue where this is. Susan, Alvin, and moi

Mt. Carmel. Where Elijah battled the Priests of Baal

Beautiful Caesarea!

Just a Few Thoughts and a Long Overdue Update

So first off before I get into the extremely condensed version of my life in Jerusalem since my last post I just want to apologize to everyone who sent me an email in the past month or so and to whom I haven’t responded. My hotmail wouldn’t send emails but I have since gotten a gmail account so I will write you soon! Also I want to apologize for being the biggest blog slacker ever...but we all knew that I would be so maybe I am not that sorry. Anywho here is the fast forwarded version of what I have been up to for the past few weeks, or at least the parts I can remember.

1. We went to JORDAN! We were there for four days and got to see a lot of really cool things. Among my favorites were Petra—a super cool archeological place with sweet rock formations...Indiana Jones anyone?—and the Jordan River. I say this almost every post but probably the most intense heat I have ever experienced was at the Jordan River. We walked down to the site where Jesus was supposedly baptized by John the Baptist, and man crazy monkeys was it sure hot. Besides that, though, it was really special. We sang some hymns and read about Christ’s baptism...really powerful. So Jordan was a great trip all around. Actually it was probably my favorite trip thus far, and not only because we got to see really interesting places. The people that I was with just made it great...I just love everyone here! 

In Jordan at the place where Moses overlooked the Promised Land

Petra!

Donkey

 2. A few days after Jordan we had a day field trip to Bethlehem if I remember correctly. It was fantastic. We saw some really beautiful churches, including the beautiful Church of the Nativity. My favorite part of the Bethlehem field trip, though, was when we were sitting in a shepherd’s field. Dr. Harper talked to us for a little while, but then he gave us time to just sit there and ponder. That is kind of where my thoughts are stemming from for this post. As I was sitting there contemplating Christ’s birth and what it meant to me in my life, the phrase “wise men still seek him” kept coming to my mind. I thought about the ways that I try to seek for Christ in my life, and came up with the obvious and familiar seminary answers. But then I realized something that I really needed to be reminded of. I can find Christ in everything that is around me. I can seek him by looking for the good in others, and recognizing that his hand is guiding almost everything that we do in this life. I can seek him by striving to be like him. As I mentioned earlier I just love the people that I get to associate with here in Jerusalem, and I really feel like I have come closer to my Savior just by associating with the people here because they all have such Christ-like qualities. It is often through them that I am able to feel of Christ’s love, so in that sense I truly believe that one of the best way to seek for Christ in our lives is to recognize all the many things that he has blessed us with. I definitely needed to remember that.

3. After Bethlehem I don’t really remember specifics on what has happened. All I do know is that it has been a lot of fun! I am basically becoming a regular at a Jewish bakery in the Old City...super delicious. I have seen a lot of cool sites including Tomb of the Kings, Hezekiah’s Tunnel (that was before Jordan), Tomb of the Prophets, more churches etc. A few days ago we went and got a tour of the Kotel Tunnels, which are underground tunnels that expose almost the full length of the Western Wall, and are very possibly streets that Jesus himself walked. Neato! Something that the guide said that I thought was cool was that “there are people with hearts of stone, and there are stones with human hearts.” Going to all of these sites and places with such extensive histories behind them reminds me of just how much we can learn from the past. Especially being in Jerusalem, “the stones” can literally tell us the stories of what happened here so long ago. I love it!

Ok enough of the longest blog post of life. I have a few more thoughts that I wanted to write but I will have to save them for another day. Also...my camera broke in Jordan. So the only pictures I have are the ones from Jordan that I took before that. Yay. Luf you all and congratulations if you made it to the end of this post! 

More pictures from somewhere in Jordan

Beautiful Sunset

Natalie! She is no joke probably the sweetest girl I know

Getting ice cream for Dana's birthday!

Touching Hercules Hand :) 

Doesn't Alvin look great in my sunglasses?

Wise Words from Aladin

So sometimes we meet a lot of awesome people as we are wandering around the Old City. Thursday as we were coming back from the City we stopped off at the money changers...Aladin! He is a pretty funny guy, and asks me everytime if I play basketball. Anywho this time as we were leaving he gave us some wise words of advice...

"Live your lives and love it while living for good, and don't be afraid of death"

I love all of the little random life lessons that I seem to learn everyday here. Also...we met this cute little girl named Annie while we were getting shwarma's in the city. One of the only Arabic words I know is helwe...which means beautiful. So I tried to tell her she was beautiful, but she just smiled really big at me and laughed.So cute.

Annie...and delicious shwarma! :)

This Actually Happened...

This is Alvin wearing my skinny jeans. Enough said.

Look at that face...he is so precious.

Best Parents Ever

Since I am too far away to do anything for my dad this Father's Day, I figure that this meager blog post will have to suffice as my gift to him. So dad this post is dedicated to you! BUT... I am also going to dedicate it to mom as well because I missed my Mother's Day blog post because I was in Turkey. So really I am going to invent my own holiday here and call it Parent Day (although it already exists apparently on the 4th Sunday of July...but who really celebrates it? I am still taking credit for inventing it). Anyways...there are so many things that I could say about my parents, but to avoid being to long and boring I will condense it to just a few lines of what I love about both of them.

Mom - I can't even describe in words the impact that you have had on my life, and the impact that you continue to have! All I can say is you are one of a kind, and everyone who knows you would agree. I don't know anyone with a more dedicated and caring attitude. I hope I can be even just half the mom that you are one day!

Dad - Thanks for always being the person that I could come to with any problem. You always help me to put things into perspective and help me remember that things will work out for the best. You are the kindest, most gentle, and most patient person I know. You have always told me that I need to find someone with a good heart, so if I can find someone just like you then I think I will have accomplished that!

Thanks for being the best parents ever! I feel SO lucky/blessed to have been born into your family. So much so that I feel bad for all those people who didn't have you guys for parents...no offense to anyone else. But thanks for everything mom and dad. I LOVE YOU!

I just love them.

Sometimes I Make Silly Choices...

So...this past week I was somehow convinced to go on a no sugar-diet. Say What? It’s so true that you never really know just how much you want something until it is gone. Except in this case I actually do know how much I want sugar all the time. Anywho...it may or may not have lasted only like 4 days. But still...the whole time I just wanted chocolate. Or a delicious waffle from the waffle bar... 

Banana Boom waffle from the waffle bar. Mmm. Also I love Rachel Ely.

Neot Kedumim

For our field trip this week we went to Neo Kedumim—a biblical landscape reserve. So basically we got to go back in time a little ways and experience some biblical life. We tested out our sheep/goat herding skills, crushed some hyksos, and made pitas and lentil soup! A valuable life lesson from our herding expedition can be found in John 10:4...

4) And when he putteth forth his own sheep, he goeth before them, and the sheep follow him: for they know his voice.

Sheep follow the shepherd whose voice they are familiar with and can trust. Similar to us, it is easier to follow our Savior’s example when we recognize and know how his Holy Spirit speaks to us individually. I am so glad that I was able to be reminded of this wonderful gem of knowledge!

Me, Alyssa, Goat, Alvin, Becca

Snorkeling in Eilat

For our free day this week we went to Eilat to go snorkeling! It was fabulously fun and hot... I saw some super cool fish...and I got to hang out with some really awesome people for a whole day. I love my life! I also got to hear all about the wonderful life of Alvin Green on the bus ride home...definitely a highlight.

I love Dana and Alyssa!

Gethsemane

Last Sabbath I finally got to go and visit the Garden of Gethsemane! I have been here for a month and a half with the best intentions of going almost every Sabbath, but somehow things kept coming up. But I finally went...and it was great! I still find it hard to wrap my head around the fact that I am finally getting to visit all of these places that I have just had to imagine in my head ever since I was little. The Garden of Gethsemane in particular has always been a place, though, that I have struggled to picture in my mind. What Christ must have felt and gone through is just way beyond my comprehension. The whole time I was there I had these verses from the Gospel of Luke running through my head, especially verse 44.

 41 ) And he was withdrawn from them about a stone’s cast, and kneeled down, and prayed,

 42) Saying, Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done.

 43) And there appeared an angel unto him from heaven, strengthening him.

 44) And being in an agony he prayed more earnestly: and his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground.

I can't even fathom how much pressure and pain it would take to cause blood to come from every single pore of Christ's body, and it breaks my heart to think that my sins added to his pain. I am so grateful that he performed the atonement, though, because it provides us all a way to be forgiven and to one day return to live with our Father in Heaven again. As Professor Huntsman would say... I just love Jesus!! 

Gethsemane!

Zoo-in it Up

This past Sunday we decided to be adventurous and make the long trek across the city to the Zoo! And when I say that we made the long trek I actually mean we took the bus...but still it took a little while. Anyways it was great. We saw a ton of strange animals that I had never seen before, as well as a lot of really interesting looking birds.

Trying to be birds... (from left to right: Becca, me, Natalie, Rachel, and Rachel)

We also saw some kangaroo-ish animals! When I was little my dad used to call me karen kangaroo, so naturally I had to get a picture with them...

They are small...but there they are in the background! (Hannah, me, and Natalie)

After the Zoo we went to West Jerusalem to a Farmer's Market type thing called the Shuke. I got a doughnut, a chocolate eclair, another mysterious but surprisingly delicious baked item covered with nuts and chocolate, and gelato! Then at dinner I had two pieces of chocolate cake. Mmm. It was definitely a good day.

We Love Jon Schmidt!

Today was SO great. It was great because it was the Sabbath and the Sabbath is always great, but mainly it was great because we got to see JON SCHMIDT perform at the Augusta Victoria Tower. It was crazy. We were just sitting in Relief Society and our president casually announces that he is doing a concert tonight in Jerusalem. I was so excited! I am most definitely a huge Jon Schmidt fan. I love his music. I have dedicated countless hours trying to learn "All of Me" (my favorite), "Tribute", and "Waterfall" among others. Cool thing is he played all three of those tonight :). Anyways...who knew that I would get to hear him play all the way in Jerusalem! Life is fantastic. Thanks Jon for taking time out of your tour to play for us...it was greatly appreciated!

We were sitting right behind him at first!

After the concert

If I Wasn't In Israel...

If I wasn't in Israel right now....I would be attending my little brother Dallin's graduation tonight. I am actually very sad to be missing it, but I made him promise to take a lot of pictures for me. I still can't believe that he is graduating from high school. Time just goes by way to fast! Seriously...I feel like it wasn't long ago at all that Dallin and I were both in high school together...me in grade 12 and Dallin in 10. That was a fun year. I would always make weird faces or try to embarrass him when I saw him in the hallways, but Dallin being the cool kid that he is just thought I was a weirdo. But anyways....let me tell you about Dallin. Dallin is the baby of our family, and he and I were the only ones left at home for 3 years. Because of this, I feel like I got to know him a lot better than many of my other siblings, and as a result he became one of my closest friends! He is an amazing athlete, super smart in school, and plays both the piano and organ excellently. Despite all these talents, though, what amazes me the most about him is that he is still so humble, even when he is constantly being showered in praise. He is nice to everyone, and is just one of those all around good guys with a good heart. I love that about him because boys like those are rare these days! So thank-you Dallin for being a great example to me, and I am so very excited for you to be at BYU next year with me. Good luck with your valedictory speech tonight!  I love you D-bud!

true friendship :)

Sunrise Service

So this is kind of jumping back a bit, but this past weekend was the Jewish holiday of Pentacost. Our Israel professor, Ophir, told us about a special sunrise service that they have at the Western Wall in celebration of it. It was a sunrise service, which obviously means it starts at sunrise. Most of us students here at the JC wanting to experience as much culture as we can decided to attend! So, we got up at 4:00 a.m. and left for the service at 4:30 a.m. After trekking up the hill to the city in the dark, and walking all the way to the Western Wall, we finally made it to the service. Little did we know, though, that by "service", our professor meant that basically it would be super crowded, there would be people everywhere reading their Bibles (in fact the tradition is to stay up all night reading the Torah..the Torah being the five books of Moses), and people praying at the wall. So there really wasn't much for us to do but watch people. Was it interesting? Yes. Was it worth getting up at 4:00 a.m.for? That's debatable. Still I am glad I did it. Later in the day we also attended a Pentacost service at Christ's Church that was actually very interesting and enjoyable. My favorite part was singing the surprisingly modern songs about Christ while being accompanied by a guitar, piano, and two vocalists. Super cool. Overall I am glad I was able to participate in this special Jewish holiday!

Rachel and I after the sunrise service - Western Wall in the background

Samson and Delilah

Yesterday for our Field Trip we ventured into the Shephelah region of Israel. It was a full day field trip, so I was pretty exhausted by the end of the day. Not to mention that the scorching hot sun was blazing down on us all day (seriously it may have been the most intense heat I have ever experienced in my life), AND we were fully clothed. Nonetheless, it was a great day! We went to five different sites, including the place where David defeated Goliath and where Samson met/"fell in love" with Delilah. Some of the kids in our class acted out the story of David and Goliath, and we all got to practice using a sling shot afterwards, so that was fun. However I think my favorite story of the day was that of Samson and Delilah. I honestly did not know much about their story before yesterday, besides the fact that Samson was not supposed to cut his hair because that was the source of his strength. I am not going to tell the whole story, as I am sure most of you already know it. But I do want to share what Dr. Huntsman said regarding how it applies to us. He said that just like Samson, sometimes we can become "blinded" by people. He was applying this directly to dating relationships and falling in love and such, but I think it applies to all relationships. Anywho, he essentially said that sometimes we idealize people in our minds, and fail to see red flags that may be popping up everywhere. I thought this was super interesting, and is something that I am always going to remember. We are shaped so much by the people who we associate with, so it is important to surround yourself with good people as well as be a good person yourself so that we can make it easier on ourselves to be able to always choose the right and do what the Lord asks us to! That is it for my little tangent. It was very poorly expressed, and there was much more to it than that, but at the time it really did strike me. Regardless, here are a few pictures from our trip in no particular order.

Nate and I trying to be the same height

In a cave where they raised pigeons for sacrfices and such

Behind us is the Valley of Elah where David fought Goliath

Arab Culture Night

This past Wednesday night was our Arab Culture Night!! We got all dressed up in our Arabian attire, had an authentic Arabian dinner, and then learned some Arabian dances. It was really fun and interesting to be able to experience a little bit of the culture here. We also had two famous world renowned locals who read the Qur'an at the Al Aqsa mosque here in Jerusalem come and show off their skills to us. They have memorized the entire Qur'an (imagine memorizing the Book of Mormon), so that in and of itself is amazing. Then they use their voices to make reciting the memorized passages musical and almost song-like. Way cool. So anywho they recited some of the Qur'an to us, as well as did the "Call to Prayer." The Muslims pray five times a day, and thus we hear the Call to Prayer five times a day here because they play it over a loud speaker over the whole city (the first one being at 4:30 a.m.). Anywho...moral of the story was that it was a great night! It takes forever to upload photos here...so here are only two of the better pictures I have from the festivities. :)

Oh Geoff...

Aladdin (Nathan) and I

Ruins, Magnum Bars, and other Turkish Adventures

This past week we got to go to Turkey!! We flew out on Sunday Morning and arrived in Turkey Sunday afternoon. We went on a Tour of the Seven Churches, places where Paul preached during his travels. The first day we visited a beautiful local mosque and then visited the beach of Anzac. Anzac is where a lot of soldiers died, but I do not remember in what war.

At Anzac

From here it gets a little hazy...honestly I am the worst at remembering what we did which day, as well as remembering the names of all the places we visited. So I am just going kind of jumble everything that we did into one. We saw a lot of ruins which were very cool--my favorite of which being the city of Ephesus. John lived in Ephesus before being exiled to the island Patmos, and returned there after his exile. Paul wrote letters to Timothy who also lived in Ephesus which we find in the bible. It's so amazing to be able to actually be at these sites that people we read about in the Bible lived and taught, and try to imagine what their life would have been like back then.

Heather and I standing in Ephesus and pointing the exact same picture in the Bible

We also visited the city of Troy! Obviously Troy is where the Trojan War was fought. The soldiers hid in the giant wooden horse to get past the gate of the city...we all know the story. It was cool. And we got a picture with a giant wooden horse.

I am in the bottom right window...Lane and I struggled to fit in one window

 Throughout the rest of the trip we saw more ruins, visited both the famous Hagia Sophia and the Blue Mosque, and ate a ton of delicious food! My new found love are Magnum Bars. Magnum Bars are delicious ice cream bars that come in many different flavors. My favorites are the Double Chocolate (chocolate ice cream, a layer of chocolate fudge, and dipped in delicious thick milk chocoate), and the White Almond (cookies and cream cream cream with white chocolate and almonds covering the outside). Delish! Just a heads up...please don't be shocked when I come home 20 pounds heavier than when I left.

Magnum Bar!!

Outside the Blue Mosque

And that was our Turkey Adventure!! We took a red eye flight back to Israel last night, slept in, and had a short sacrament meeting with just our group this afternoon. It was sad to leave Turkey because seriously it was such a blast, but it was nice to sleep in my own bed again!