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!