Jericho

Here are some pictures! I'll write a little more about my adventures when I get a spare moment.

The Mt. of Temptations. 

Jericho- Oldest city in the world!

The Negev

This is a site of excavations at Beer Sheba, where Abraham spent a lot of his days. The drive here gave me an appreciation for the distance Abraham traveled to Mt. Moriah with Isaac. It's a good 50 miles through the hot desert. They made us wear hard hats because we went underground to look at their water system. Cool, huh?

Alright, not the best picture, but this one is for Shelane. Look who is sitting behind me! Tyler! He told me fun stories about freshman year on our bus ride to the Negev Desert.

First stop of the day: the BEDOUIN weaving project! Bedouin- as in the desert dwelling tribal people in the Negev. It is a non-profit organization where they teach women skills that will provide them with opportunities. One of those skills is weaving! The process of making a rug is so intricate. They start with sheering the sheep/goats and from there they make the yarn, dye it, and then weave it. Altogether one rug takes about 6 weeks to make. What patience! 

Lizzy and I with a bunch of woven rugs behind us. We should have held one up- they are quite the pieces of art.

This is at Tel Arad where some remains of old Israelite temples have been found. You can't see it, but we are standing in front of an altar. Hezekiah shut temples like these down because they started to adopt pagan practices and ideas. Makes me grateful for all the beautiful and sacred temples we have today!

Walking the City Wall

Cute Lindsay and I at the Dome of the Rock!

Again, the Dome of the Rock.

The Rampart walk- it is hard to tell, but this is actually on top of the wall of the Old City. It's about an hour and a half walk to make it from beginning to end.

Hygiene Kits

I forgot to mention that a good chunk of the day yesterday was spent making 2,100 hygiene kits! The center has a ton of service opportunities throughout the semester and this was the first one. Everyone worked quickly and diligently until Gangnam Style came on during which everyone left their packing stations and started dancing. By the end, the whole thing was just a big dance party. We know how to make service fun!

Adhan and Shabbat

First of all, I realized that I haven't written about one of my favorite things I experience every day, multiple times a day, here in Jerusalem. That is the "adhan," or call to prayer. When I first got here (and was not used to the time change yet) I woke up to it every morning around 5:00. The chant blares through all the speakers from the mosques 5 times a day and the people faithfully turn toward Mecca to pray. It is pretty incredible how devoted the people are here- both those of the Islamic and Jewish faith. Tonight I got to experience Jewish devotion and worship. We aren't usually allowed in the East city after dark, but we all took a field trip to the Wailing Wall to experience what it is like the day before the Sabbath. The wall is separated by gender, so all the girls grouped together and we made our way through the crowd to the wall. There were groups of Jewish girls and women standing in circles singing songs and many people were standing toward the wall reading their book of scripture aloud and in silence. Many were praying. Some had written their prayers down and put them in the little cracks in the wall and others prayed as they touched and kissed the wall. It was pretty neat to see and touch the remaining wall of Herod's temple. After we saw it, we made our way back up toward the entrance and found the boys from our group wearing their kippahs and dancing and singing in the circles with the Jewish men. It looked like quite the party! Unfortunately, as girls we were not allowed to join in. Watching it was quite the experience in itself though! I wished I could have captured some of those moments on my camera, but we weren't allowed to take pictures. Here are some from another day.

It has been so fun to be able to explore the city. I went with some friends on Wednesday and as we were walking through the streets, we made friends with a local who insisted on taking us on a tour to see his church. We followed him up and down the streets to the church of the Holy Sepulcher where he stopped and after he talked for a while, he offered us coffee ad tea. Though we had to refuse, it was a kind gesture  and we all felt a little more cultured having spent a few moments with him.

The Castle Gates Opened

We are finally getting out and oriented with Jerusalem now! We all agreed that until yesterday, everything seemed unreal, like we were all hanging out in a hotel room with a beautiful view just talking about having adventures. Some kids described it as being stuck in a beautiful castle. Now that we have gotten out, everything has started to come to life. The history is real, the culture is real, the people are real, and the gospel is real. Now, I must warn you- I am discovering that the things I see and feel cannot possibly be described in my words and cannot be appreciated by the photos either. Regardless, I will do my best to paint the picture.

So yesterday we took our first tour around the city. We walked through the streets with our identical blue backpacks and around every corner there was a vender waiting, business cards in hand, for "the mormons"! Apparently the students do a pretty good job of keeping them in business each semester. There is a strong and different smell everywhere you go- I can't say I love any of them. Walking through Damascus gate and into the Old City reminded me a little bit of Guatemala. Both sides of the rocky path were covered in trinkets and souvenirs being sold by the local people. We eventually made it to West Jerusalem, which is very different from East Jerusalem and the Old City. It was like being in a third world country, crossing the street, and all of a sudden being in a first world country with what I imagine to be somewhat of a European feel. For those who have been all these places, maybe I am way off, but that is what it felt like to me. Though it is all new to me, I am looking forward to making these places my stomping grounds.


Today we went on what they refer to as the "Jerusalem overlook field trip." As you can probably imagine, it was kind of the "big picture" tour. We went a lot of places, but my top three were the Augusta Victoria Tower, Nabi Samwil, and Bethlehem overlook. We started at the Augusta Victoria Tower where we climbed 211 stairs to the top and looked out over Jerusalem and Judea. It was pretty neat to look out and identify so many gospel and historically rich places. The coolest part about Nabi Samwil was looking down into the valley and reading about in Joshua about the Battle at Gibeon. Joshua commands the sun and moon to stand still, and the Lord sends hail to help the people win the battle. I could almost imagine it all happening in front of me. My favorite place was the Bethlehem overlook. As sat and looked over Bethlehem, where Christ was born, I could see the shepherds in the field. We had just sung "Far, Far Away On Judea's Plains" and the words "Glory to God" rang in my ears. Christ was born to this earth, He lived, He died, and He lives again. Glory to God. What an incredible experience.

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Something else clicked today. My professor mentioned the revelation in Doctrine and Covenants 45:48-53. It talks about how, at the Second Coming, Christ will stand on the Mt. of Olives and the Jews will see the wounds in his hands and feet. The Jerusalem Center is sitting on the Mt. of Olives, which means I live in the place where Christ will set foot when He comes again. How awesome is that!

These are both taken in the Augusta Victoria Church/Tower. I love these girls! The other pictures are on my roommates camera because mine died. I'll post some of those when I get them :)

This picture was taken at Nabi Samwil where people traditionally think the tomb of the Prophet Samuel is. Behind us is the valley where the battle of Gibeon took place.

Garden Tomb

We finally got to leave the center today! After church meetings (because Sabbath here is on Saturday instead of Sunday) we all walked to the Garden Tomb. What an amazing experience! To see the place where Christ was likely placed after the cross, and even more incredible, the place where the stone was rolled away and the angel said, "He is not here, for He is risen...Come see the place where the Lord Lay." (Matt. 28:6) No doubt, there is a special spirit there. The tour guide told us that the BYU students have a reputation for being great singers and he expected to hear us sing, so we did, and it was one of the coolest parts of the whole experience. We aren't allowed to talk about the gospel at all here, but we are allowed to sing, and I have learned that sometimes singing brings the strongest spirit of all. As soon as we started, many of the tour groups stopped and listened. As we walked out, they were lined up on the walkway and smiled at us as we passed. Many of them said, "God bless you." It was one of those feelings that makes your heart warm :) One of the greatest parts is that it is close enough that we can go every Sabbath!

Now everyone is chillin' out at the Shekel Shack (the hang out in the center with all the bean bags and snacks). Every Saturday night we get free pitas with peanut butter and wanna-be Nutella. Yum! 

Finally Here!

Jerusalem! After a lot of traveling and no sleep, I am finally here! As soon as we got to the center, the faculty and staff had a schedule to keep us busy until bedtime. Between the lack of sleep we all got the night before we left and the 24 hours of traveling, we were all pretty much zombies, but they wanted us to adapt to the time difference quickly so they made us stay awake. My roommates and I didn't get the best sleep because our apt was FREEZING! When we woke up in the morning and looked out the window, we found out why. Jerusalem is blanketed with snow! (about 5 inches and it is still snowing). The center isn't really built for the cold and snow, so we all wear our coats to class and everywhere else. Apparently they haven't had snowfall like this in 10 years or so.  I got some pictures that I will upload eventually. The internet isn't good enough to upload pictures here at the center, so I will have to upload them when I go to the city. We are all confined to the center until they give us a full security orientation which probably won't be until Sunday. I'll be able to tell more about Jerusalem once I have actually gotten out to see it!

The center is beautiful. It will be really interesting to live, eat, sleep, study, go to class and have church all in the same building. Since I haven't been able to get out and explore, my favorite things so far are the awesome middle eastern food and the students. There are some awesome students in the program, and though I don't know everyone yet, I can tell we are going to have a party together. The adventure begins!