getting in the swing of things.

Okay so sad news, my iphoto freaked out and deleted my pictures from monday, our first fied trip. I was really sad. I have a few from that day that I got from others so I posted some of theirs. Our field trip was to get us more oriented with Jerusalem. We looked at different over looks around Jerusalem. Our center is North East located on Mt. Scopus. I still can't believe I live here. The center is beautiful.

Our first stop was Augusta Victoria Tower which is on the Mount of Olives and provides a 360 degree view of Jerusalem and Judea. It took 233 stairs to get to the top of the Augusta Victoria bell tower, which was definitely my work out for the day. The view was amazing. It is a Lutheran church that also includes a hospital. The church is beautiful, we sang hymns and it sounded beautiful. It's amazing how well music can bring the spirit.

Our second stop was seven arches hotel lookout. We rested there while Brother Seeley shared some words. Brother Seeley and Brother and sister woods went on the field trip with us. In this picture are my good friends, emma and alicia. This view is from the East. Our third stop I have no pictures of but we went to Tayelet which gives us a view from the south. It was beautiful. Brother Woods shared some words with us there. He is such a great teacher who really loves the scriptures. We also ate lunch there.

Our forth stop was the Bethlehem Overlook. This was my favorite stop. It was absolutely gorgeous and the spirit was SO strong there. We all sat around as Brother Woods spoke. We sang hymns and pondered the scriptures. Christ our Savior was born here and walked these plains. We will eventually go down to Bethlehem, It is in West Bank and it is crazy to see the wall and how close the west bank is. Lower down were sheep and little boys were herding them, what a crazy job.

there are so many cats here! they are kind of cute actually, but definitely so NOT touch them.

Our fifth stop was Nabi Samwil where they believe Prophet Samuel is buried. We went inside the synagogue and not going to lie it was so weird. Just not something we are used to. There was a men side and a womens side. We couldnt really see anything on the women's side. It was just a white wall and people were praying in this tiny room. I honestly had no idea what was going on. You could see a lot of places from this spot. 

On tuesday Chris got his mission call to INDIA! it was super awesome cause he got to open it in the Garden of Gethsename. How cool is that?! His heritage is from India and he wanted to go there so it is perfect and super special to him. I'm super proud of him!

The church was super pretty. They have the prettiest mosiacs. The spirit was very strong in there. You had to be very silent. It was very special and neat. It was crazy and so surreal being at the garden of gethsename. I have heard the story of Christ suffering in these gardens and i can't believe I am actually here. The garden wasn't as I expected though, it is pretty small and gated off. I was kind of sad that we couldn't walk on the grounds. It was really pretty though. We get to visit here or the Garden tomb every sabbath day. I know my Savior atoned for my sins and bled and died for me personally.

On the way home the cutest little girl wanted a picture with me. I love the kids here!

I love the dirty streets here. and i love taking pictures here. i cant wait to take more.

On thursday after classes we went out to the city and did the ramparts walk. It was such a nice day out. The walk around the old city wall was really fun and cool. We were also very hyper, i just love the people here!

Standing on top of Damascus Gate

Creeping on children.

soccer fields

lol

the sunsets here are so pretty, this doesn't do it justice.

School is very intense here. I love my classes though. We have officially started all of them. Old testament with Brother woods. He knows the scriptures so well and is a really good teacher, he is also the bishop of our ward branch. Brother Seeley is our ancient near eastern studies. He is really funny and knows so much about hte middle east and archaeology and such. The class is pretty interesting. We have Palestine with Bashir Bashir. He is SO funny. It's hard to understand him sometimes with his heavy accent. He always calls us "my friends" and our class "a party". We have Ophir (we call him by his first name) for Israel/Islam. He is also very funny and a awesome teacher. All of my classes are super interesting. There is so much reading and information thrown at me that it is hard to intake everything. I have hebrew with Ms. Goldman. She is awesome. She has been teaching here for years. We already learned a lot our first day. I can tell the class is going to be super fun. We sing songs and draw and such. I'm really excited to learn hebrew. It might be a little challenging though. Shalom means hello/peace and shabbot shalom is what you say when you are bringing in the sabbath. 

           This week has just made me realize how much reading and homework we will have. luckily we only have most of these classes half of the semester. I am still in love with the oasis food. I can't get enough of it. I am making great friends and everyone here is such a good example to me. So for the jews they start the sabbath at sundown friday night. So yesterday night (friday night) all of us got to go to the western wall at sunset and that is where a lot of the jews go to bring in the sabbath. It was amazing! We weren't allowed to take pictures because it was a very holy time and place and so it would be disrespectful if we did. There were SO many people there! Everyone was in their sunday best. The boys had to wear keepas so go in. We wrote down prayers and put them in the wall. Everyone was praying and it was such a cool experience. If you ever go to Jerusalem do this!! Lots of people were singing and dancing in circles and we got to join them. The girls were SO inviting and nice! It was so fun to talk to them and hear their stories. It's crazy that they don't have a leader but all these people go and worship the same place. It's crazy how much they they care about the wall where their old temple used to stand. These people are amazing and I am starting to love the jews. We then watch indiana jones because part of it was filled in petra, where we are going! SO cool! I can't wait to go. Later that night we had the grand opening of "The Well" (because everyone needs to fill their canteen). It is our student food stand in the student lounge. We had the best dance party ever! It was seriously so fun. It is probably the highlight of my time here haha. It bonded us as a whole. We then played "mow" a card game you play with uno cards. It is so complicated that I can't even explain it. But i love it. I get a high off it. 

Saturdays (the sabbath) are always the best. Church is SO good. It is 10x better here I swear. Maybe that's bad to say but I really look forward to it. I want to tell you a story about a women who visited out ward today. She was born and grew up in Jerusalem. She was not a member but she saw an ad for a byu scholarship and she applied for it and got accepted. She didn't know why but she felt like she should go to byu. and her family thought she was crazy. She then was converted at byu. She moved back to Israel and the only church ward she could go to was the one at the center. She was really determined to go to church and she needed a permit to get into Jerusalem because she is a palestinian, and you have to live in jerusalem if you are a palestinian. So she had to go 1.5 hours to get to a whole in the wall so she could climb through. But before she did she had to look for soldiers and had to make sure they weren't looking. Then she had to run and climb over a 10 foot wall and then run some more in a field. She then had to find a bus to take her to the jerusalem center. And not all buses would let her on. She did this for 14 years ever sabbath day until in 2007 she got caught by the guards and was almost arrested. She had so much dedication. I think this story is just amazing. I feel guilty now for the days I didn't want to go to church. Then she got a job with the united nations so she could live in Jerusalem and she then was relief society president. She then felt like she should quit her job and everyone in the ward thought she was crazy. She then felt like she should serve a mission but she didn't know why. She just got back from her mission. She was at church today because she got a 3 day permit. She probably won't be able to come back to church for a while. She is truly an amazing women who touched my heart. I love Jerusalem more and more everyday. I am learning so much about the cultures here. Each day it surprises me more and I can't wait for the rest of my journey.

song of the week/semester: Jerusalem: Matisyahu

garden tomb + dome of the rock.

i love haley.

So it is super weird having the Sabbath on a Saturday. I don't know if I will ever get used to that. Church was really good though! I am in the choir, even though I can't sing. We have sacrament on the 8th (top) floor. When you sit down there are huge windows facing the city, it is a beautiful view. You can't even look at the speaker because it is so bright outside and the city is so gorgeous. After church we went to the garden tomb. It's so weird how it is in the middle of the city. When you enter it is so peaceful and quiet. There are chairs all over. On easter the place is packed. We had a tour. The tomb was smaller than I thought it would be. There were quite a few people there. We sang some hymns and the spirit was so strong. We don't know if this is where Christ was resurrected but that doesn't matter, what matters is that we know it happened and why it happened. That night we played a bunch of games. Mormons love games. I am making lots of friends and I love everyone here!

View from the Jerusalem Center! I can't believe I live there. Gorgeous. It's like living in a hotel.

Today (Saturday) is our free day and so we got to explore the city all by ourselves. We got a little lost but not too bad. I feel like I already know the city pretty well, I recognize some people even. Also guys like to wink at you here, it's a little creepy haha. The center gave us sack lunches which was really nice. We walked around the city for a bit, at the market. I already have so many things I want to buy, it's bad...I love the feel of the old city. The vendors really want you to buy things though and it's a little annoying.

We went to the Western wall where the Jews go to pray. It is a wall from the Temple Mount which is closest to the Holy of Holies. It is very sacred to them. Right when we got there I just kept going straight into the wall and then a guy was like you guys aren't allowed to be in here, they will get mad at you. I'm glad he told us because we were going into the guys side! That would happen to me. There is a girl and guy side which is really interesting. They write down their prayers and put it inside the wall. We got a picture with some soldiers! It's pretty scary that they just carry around machine guns.

As we were walking we ran into some little boys playing with marbles. We joined them. It was real fun. I love talking to them. I just love kids here. and in general. They wouldn't let me get a picture with them so this is the best I got.

YES, this is the dome of the rock. Coolest building I think I have ever seen. It is SO beautiful. I love the mosaic tiles. It's crazy to think that this was build several years ago. How did they make this?! Before the dome of the rock many of temples were built and destroyed here. This is a shrine located on the Temple Mount in the Old City. This is a very sacred place for Muslims. We are not allowed inside. It was kind of bad because Haley and I got in trouble for posing in front of it as you can see in the second picture. It was really awkward. I got in trouble a lot today. But so did a lot of others. Many believe this is where Prophet Muhammad ascended into Heaven and where Abraham prepared to sacrifice his son Isaac.

Damascus Gate

I love it here and love the people I am meeting. I never want to leave this place. I took a five hour nap today and missed dinner...So that's why I am still up and am very hungry! Breakfast is in 4 hours haha. We have to be in the center by 12 and can't go in the Old City after sunset. We can go in West Jerusalem but with at least one guy. We always have to be in groups of three when we go out. They each gave us phones so that is nice when we need to contact each other. I have a bunch of homework and we have only had two classes haha. We have a field trip tomorrow so I am very excited about that. Our rooms are really nice! I'll take pictures later and show them to you. Each room has a balcony overlooking the city. I still can't believe I live here. The weather is a little cold. It is 50 degrees. When you walk up hills you get hot but then cold anywhere else. The sun is out half the time and it's mostly pretty foggy. It will soon get pretty hot though. There are lots of hills in Jerusalem. So that will be my work out? Haha. The boys live a floor above the girls. It's sometimes weird that we live in the same building. We each are in a committee and I am in the memories committee, how fitting is that? I just get to take pictures and put a slide show together at the end. And we are making tshirts i think. Our hashtag is #jerucrew14. I'm still so amazed at this place and how all these religions live in the same place but do not really talk to eachother. The spirit is so strong here. I can't believe I am walking on the grounds where Christ walked. This is a one in a lifetime experience and I love it. Hurrah for Israel!

let the journey begin.

I finally made it to Jerusalem! I already love it here! I got to the SLC airport around 9 and there were so many kids waiting in line to check in. My bag was 49 pounds so that was lucky haha. Everyone off the bat was meeting each other and everyone is super nice. Our flight to JFK was about 4 hours. I sat next to an Israeli and it was really interesting talking to him. He was about in his 30's and was going to visit home for 5 days for his birthday. He was super nice and telling us about Israel. He says he loves Tel Aviv. I hear it's party central at night...but we're mormon so yeah haha. So that flight wasn't too bad and then we had a 3 hour layover in JFK. The flight to Tel Aviv was 10 hours and 40 mins. But we were sitting on the plane for about an hour and a half before we even took off. I almost finished my movie by the time we left haha. The flight wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. I slept for about half of it. I hate sleeping on planes though. They gave us dinner and breakfast. The Tel Aviv airport was super nice, it was so weird cause it was night time and we had just had breakfast. The Jerusalem Center staff greeted us with open arms. They were so happy to see us. Everyone here is SO nice. I already feel at home. The building is BEAUTIFUL. I can't get over that I'm living here. The night we got there I stood out on the patio on the 8th floor, saw the city, and right then and there it hit me that I was in the Holy Land. The rest of the night we had so many orientations and such. They finally let us free at like 10 and then we had to unpack and I didn't get to bed until like 1. I only have 2 roommates so that's pretty nice, more room. They are awesome.

Breakfast is pretty much at 7 everyday. It's early. But somehow I do it. The food is way yummy!! There are some american food and Israeli food. Some food is better than others. Most of it is really good though! There are some authentic foods and I'm just like I have no idea what that is, but it ends up being good. There are palestinians and Jews that both work here. The first picture is off my balcony in the morning. It is so beautiful, the picture doesn't do it justice. The prayer calls happen like 5 times a day, and one of them is at 5 in the morning so that's always fun...so far I have just woken up then and can't go back to sleep. Hopefully I get used to it. This Thursday was more orientation. I feel like they are just repeating themselves haha.

We got to go on a tour that morning though! We got into groups of like 10 and walked into the old city and west Jerusalem. It was so cool!! I had so much fun. Jerusalem has a lot of trash and they honk their horns like crazy. That will get some getting used to. Pedestrians do not have the right of way here so you have to be careful when you cross the street. We weren't allowed to take pictures on the tour but I snuck in a few. So that's why I barely have any. And we aren't allowed to upload pictures, so I can only upload a few anyways. I love Jerusalem already though. Basically everyone knows who were are, especially the vendors. Random people will say "Hello mormons, welcome to Jerusalem". I love it haha. These little boys on the street were soooo funny and cute and trying to talk to us. They were throwing rocks, I guess that's what kids here do? And they were doing the gangnam style dance. SO funny. I love little boys haha. The old city is really cool and is surrounded by a wall. It is like a market with so many turns, I will for sure get lost. The Holy Sepulchre is super cool. It was interesting watching them, they do things very different than us. In there is where they Christians think Christ's tomb is. We walked to the West Jerusalem where it is more modern and everything is made out of this white stone. It is very pretty. They let us roam around by ourselves. I learned so much already and have so much more to say but I just don't have time for that haha. We are not allowed to proselyte at all so that will be hard, but everyone knows about us and we have a good reputation here. I want to make friends with the vendors and people. I can't wait to go back to the city. We aren't allowed to go into the city on fridays before 3 because that's when the muslims have there holy time or something...haha. I just can't wait to learn more about the culture and everything. I have had sooo much information in my head, it's hard to think straight. After the tour we had more orientation. It never ends. We all had the worst jet lag. I was so tired. Luckily I got to take some naps. There are 82 kids here. We have more boys than girls! I think we have 43 boys and 39 girls. 8 are from BYUI and 5 are from BYUH and the rest are from BYU. I still see new faces and I am trying to memorize everyone's names. It's fun meeting new people. Thinking that we will all be so close at the end is great. Everything is just so amazing. Today, (friday) we had our first day of classes. I had old testament with Brother Woods and Near Eastern Studies with Brother Seeley. They were both super good and interesting. SO much reading though. Our schedules are jammed back. I hope I get enough sleep...so far I have gotten about 4 hours of sleep every night. I will get more though, jet lag is just the worst. But it is worth it because I am here in the holy land! I still can't believe it. I'll just be casually looking out my window and see the dome of the rock and be like what im here?! I just love it. I am so blessed I am here, it's a once in a lifetime opportunity for sure. Sorry I am babble a lot and not the best writer....this is mainly for me and my family. I love you all and miss you! See you in 4 months 'merica!

we fish you a merry christmas.

Merry LATE Christmas! oh and happy new year! I can tell 2014 is going to be a good one with lots of adventures. I have no idea what this year will bring but I am excited for it. It was so nice being home and with family. Here is a catch up on how I ended my year great. My dad took us rock climbing and it was really fun. i love rock climbing. my fore arms were sore the next day.

My dad took us rock climbing and it was really fun. i love rock climbing. my fore arms were sore the next day. 

Snowflake lane! Can you tell Paul enjoys my company? We then went to five guys after. So yummy.

Christmas Eve was filled with Christmas movies and games. My mom made a yummy dinner and creme brulee!

On Christmas morning I got the best Christmas gift! I got to skype David! He has been out over year. Crazy how time flies. It was good talking to him.

 I mainly got clothes for Christmas and things for Jerusalem. It was a really good Christmas and one I will never forget. We went to Grandma's and wow we were all so hyper. I don't know how grandma and grandpa handled us. We had a yummy dinner and gift exchange. We also took a traditional fisher pic.

 Fun night out at Wild Ginger! We ate out a lot haha.

 My dear friend Kaitlyn had a her farewell talk last week. It's crazy that all my girl friends are leaving on missions. She did such a great job, Virginia is lucky to have her! I'll miss her!

 We went to seattle one day and went to the pacific science center because we had free imax tickets we needed to use. We saw "the hubble" about the space telescope, it was pretty cool. We then went to get starbucks and went to kerry park for the view. We then went back to the pacific science center to see the laser show cause we also had free tickets. I don't know why I hadn't done it before. It was so cool! Then as we left we got dicks burgers. Man I love Seattle.

 New Years Eve this year was an interesting one. My family had their annual party and we went to that, played some just dance 2014 and then left to go to the ysa stake dance. Let me tell ya, it was WEIRD. weird people, awful music from 2011 and just some awk shiz. I still had fun though. It was just a weird new years. I wouldn't want to spend it with anyone else though besides my woo girls. I love them! It was our last time for a while that all of us will be together.

 Brittany, Brian and I went to Grandma and Grandpa's for dinner and games. It was a good time.

 Can't visit home without going to Sammamish cafe! gosh i am obsessed with food.

We went skiing and Stevens Pass. It was a beautiful day and had just gotten 8 inches of fresh powder. It was perfect. I had a lot of fun and loved being with my family. It was really cool when it got dark and seeing all the lights in the snow.

Yesterday I took Hayley's and Tori's mission pics! They are just too beautiful for their own good. They are going to be awesome sister missionaries. I'm going to miss them so much. We had panera bread with kaitlyn before hand! Goodbyes suck!

I have now left Sammamish and I am in Utah for a couple days before I head of to Israel. It's still crazy to me that I am going. I am SO excited for the adventure ahead of me. Check this blog if you want to see what's going on with me in Jerusalem. Peace out america.