"The Lord is my shepherd"

Today for our field trip we went to Neot Kedumim which is a biblical landscape in Israel. This was one of my favorite field trips thus far. It was our last field trip with the woods which I am sad about. Next week is finals and then we switch teachers. Neot Kedumim is an attempt to re-create the physical setting of the Bible. They made it about 50 years ago. We learned about the significance of nature, shepherds and the land of the seven species in the bible. 

Herding sheep and goats was so funny. It was pretty hard actually. Sorry I went a little bit crazy on the pics. I thought they were just so cute.

"drink ye every one the waters of his cistern"

This reserve was so beautiful. I love nature.

"Cleanse me with hyssop that I may be pure; wash me till I am whiter than snow" Psalm 51:9

We crushed up hyssop which is a plant, we put the hyssop and olive oil on pita bread to eat. Yum. I know the hyssop looks a little sketch...haha.

i have a couple crush on them

booty had me like

coolest duck i ever saw

pita bread

tea

lentil soup

We ate lunch and also made pita bread, lentil soup, and tea. It was so fun. Everyone helped, I felt like we were camping. This field trip was so chill I loved it. Israel has so many surprised I love it.

my name in hebrew

We got to see a guy who writes the torah. This last part of the field trip was very interesting. It is truly amazing how much they worship the torah and obey the words in it. Everything is significant of eachother. The torah takes about one year to write (copy) on to a scroll, sometime of animal skin. It's amazing how much they put into it. It has to be perfect, they have to wash themselves before they write "God". A whole torah scroll can cost about $35,000. So crazy.

I know that the Lord is my shepherd and knows us all individually. He is the good shepherd and we should follow and listen to Him. Heavenly Father has so much patience and love for us.

ein gedi.

Today we went the Ein Gedi National Park and it was SO fun. It literally was the best day ever. We just hiked and swam all day and those are my favorite things. It's near the dead sea which was an hour drive. About 35 of us went, we left on vans. 

We hiked to this waterfall and it was so fun.

"provo allstars"

me and the boys

We then hiked to a spring and a temple. The hike was a bit harder. It got pretty hot.

a cave we sneaked into

David's waterfall

israeli beavers

dead sea

Floating in the dead sea was the funnest. It was also so funny. Just everyone bobbing around. It was the coolest feeling. Luckily we get to go back as a whole group for a field trip. If you looked closely at the water it looked like glass. The water was stinging a lot of people, but I was totally fine. I'm glad I didn't get any water in my eyes. We swam out to the middle of the sea but we weren't supposed to. It was so gorgeous. The water was so blue and the salt of the rocks looked so cool. There was a guy who put mud on our bodies. It was so funny. Apparently it is good for your skin. 

Eric really had to pee on the way there and had to pee in a plastic bag...HAHA not kidding. It was the funniest thing in my life. We all bonded over it. It was so weird knowing he was peeing right behind me. On the way home we were dancing like crazy, our bus driver had the best music and we made up choreography. It was tons of fun. I love everyone here and I don't want these experiences to end. I'm already getting sad knowing the semester is almost half way over. The last night here is going to be so sad I can't even imagine.

Tonight Haley and I ushered for the concerts they put on here. Every sunday the center has famous musicians come and play. It is very popular. People come from far away just to come. There was a lot of old people, it was cute. The holocaust survivor came tonight. We greeted everyone at the door. Tonight it was classical music and there was a violin, clarinet and piano player.