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!

TURKEY

So we are leaving for Turkey in approximately one hour. We will be there for a whole week...so exciting! That is all.

Babies

We were walking in the Old city the other day and came across these cute little guys! Boxes of baby dyed chicks....I wanted one so bad!

I want one!

Precious

A Day in the Desert

Our field trip this past week was basically through the deserts of Israel. It was way hot, and we got way sweaty, but it was so worth it. We went Beer-Sheba (a place where Abraham lived) and Avdat. We also visited a weaving place in Negev. The women in Negev are not allowed to work outside the home, so this weaving agency is a network that helps the ladies set up weaving in their own homes, and then sells their products for them. It is way cool because then these mothers who are earning money can help to support their daughters in their endeavors (such as going to university), whereas traditionally in the home the money went towards the boys. Here are some pictures from our trip.

Top of our hike

Cool stairway in the rock

First Falafel!

I had my first Falafel!! It is a favorite dish around here that consists of chickpeas made into a patty and deep fried, which is then put into a deliciously fresh pita and topped with various veggies and sauces. Yum!

Western Wall and SISTER BECK

Tonight we went to the Western Wall to watch  the people bring in the Sabbath. It was crazy how many people were there. The Western Wall is the last standing wall from the platform of Herod's Temple which was destroyed who knows how long ago. The people still use it as a synagogue, though, and is considered to be the only open air synagogue in the world. So on Friday nights everyone comes to the wall to bring in the Sabbath by writing prayers on a piece of paper and stuffing it into the cracks in the wall, reading scriptures, and singing Hebrew hymns. It was actually quite interesting to watch. The best part part was that there was a Mormon tour group from Utah there, who just happened to have Sister Julie B. Beck with them! So as everyone was waiting somewhat reverently to get their turn touching the wall, all of us girls were whispering and pointing at Sister Beck. Then we all went over got to meet/hug her . No big deal. Then we touched the Western Wall. It was a great night! We couldn't take pictures at the wall tonight because it was technically the start of their Sabbath, but here is a picture from when I went during the day a few days ago.

I am going to put a prayer in the wall before I leave. And by a prayer I mean I will probably put like three wishes or something and hope they come true through the magic of the wall. :)

We have only been here a week but I already feel like I have gotten to see so many cool things! We had our first "field trip" this past Monday and got to travel around to different lookout points to kind of orient us to the City of Jerusalem from a distance. Our religion professors are the ones that kind of lead the field trips, and it just amazes me how much they know about the bible. It's like they have dedicated their whole life to studying the gospel or something :p. In short, I have had amazing experiences so far and I am looking forward to more! I get to live here for the next three months! Here is just a sampling of the places that I seen thus far.

Group walking all the walls around the city

Me with the Old City in the background

Little door

The Augusta Victoria Tower and Church of the Ascensions. We sang "All Creatures of our God and King" in here and it was BEAUTIFUL! 

At the Cenotaph of Samuel. This place overlooked Gibeah...a city in the Bible that I didn't even know existed until now!