Service Project

On Fridays it is busy in the city because of the incoming Sabbath. For our protection, we stay inside the center until 3 pm. This afternoon we had opportunity to make school kits for children in need. The Jerusalem Center makes 15,000 school kits and 15,000 hygiene kits a year! The kits go all over Israel and neighboring countries.

 We had so much fun! We blasted music in the garage and had an assembly line/dance party.

 We made 1,500 school kits in an hour and a half!

I spent the rest of the day working on the mural for the elementary school. I have it all planned out and ready to go! I'm so excited to start painting. On Monday we head to Jordan for a week, so we will start the mural after.

Jericho Field Trip

"The walls will tumble,
The walls will crumble. . .

One more mile to Jericho!"

I've had Hillary Duff's song "Jericho" stuck in my head all week. I don't even remember the real lyrics. . . Anyway, I went to Jericho today! We drove down into the Judean Wilderness-- 1,300 feet below sea level!

It turns out, there are a lot of Bible stories in Jericho, so get ready for a lot of history. . .

Coming in at 10,000 B.C, it is the oldest city in the world. I can't even imagine how old that really is.

The original Jericho is obviously ruins, but there are still some pieces left. These adorable dogs were just chillin' on the tel!

Below is a neolithic tower that is really really old. It was a lot bigger than the picture makes it look. I can't imagine how they built structures so large and so sturdy to last thousands of years.

We then saw the city wall. This wall was built after the children of Israel came and destroyed it, but if you look carefully in the bottom left of the picture there is a pile of mud and inside is light redish bricks. They believe this pile fell off the original wall, possibly when the walls came down in the story found in Joshua 6.

This is Elisha's Spring, or the Spring of Jericho. In 2 Kings 2:21 Elisha heals the waters at the source, which is right here in this picture. It's one of the few places in the bible where we know exactly where the story took place! This spring is the reason anyone could settle in the harsh desert of Jericho.

In Luke 19: 4-6 Zacchæus climbs a sycamore tree to see Christ. This is a Sycamore tree in Jericho.

Matthew 2:19-- Herod dies. In the center of the picture is the ruins of Herod's winter palace. He died here. In the top left there is a mountain. This is the traditional spot for the Mt. of Temptation as found in Matthew 4:8-10. 

And finally, my most favorite spot of the day-- The Road to Jericho. This has been my favorite view so far. It was gorgeous! This is traditionally where the story of the Good Samaritan would have taken place. It is also the road Christ traveled on between Jerusalem and Jericho. The Mt. of Temptation is just behind the camera, so he would have been fasting for 40 days and night in this terrain.

Under the Center

 We toured under the center. The building is terraced into the hill, so beneath it is a concrete hill and maze. It was really steep and dark, so I was more focused on not hitting my head than taking pictures.

 At the end was a large room where past students all signed their names. I added mine to the mix! I didn't recognize any names. There were too many . . .

Mural Prep

As a tradition and service to the community, we are painting a mural in the local elementary school! I have been asked to design it! I am honored and so excited for this project. We went to the school and looked at previous designs.

The school is covered in murals! It is beautiful. I have a lot to live up to. Here is my space:

It's small, but it is right in the entryway. They asked for me to include flowers in the design. My specialty! I've already started planning. More to come!

Nagev Field Trip

We went to the Nagev Desert! Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are from here. We started at a Bedouin weaving factory. The women showed us how they make yarn and weave blankets. They gave us a drink that had lots of herbs in it. It was really strong, but thankfully Nick finished my drink for me. It felt like "The Other Side of Heaven" when they give him the gross drink but he doesn't want to offend the people so he acts like it tastes good.

We then visited Beersheba. Abraham left Beersheba to sacrifice Isaac at Mt. Moriah (Mt. Moriah is where Dome of the Rock and the temple mount are now located). In this picture you can see the ruins of a government city around his time. It was amazing to see the rooms and layout of everything! (Notice how green it is. . . winter is the rainy season. In summer this will be a brown desert)

The people built a huge water system deep into the hill to bring water into the city. We walked down the well and into huge caves underground!

The next site was Tel Arad. A tel is basically the ruins of an ancient city. This tel was of a Caananite city and a satelitte temple. Jerusalem was the main temple, but other areas had smaller temples. This city was from 3,000 BC!!

We saw the Holy of Holies for this temple. The temple was decommissioned by the Romans and buried, but archaeologists found and uncovered it.

Adventures

 Today was a day full of adventure! We walked around Dome of the Rock. It is gorgeous!

 Then we checked out the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. It was huge!! There were so many different passageways and places to explore.

 We saw the place where this church believes christ was laid to be annointed before being placed in the tomb. Then we felt the hole in the rock where they believe the cross was placed into the ground.

 After we ran into a little pita bakery and the men let us try thier cookies.

 We met up with more people to take a long walk across the city wall. It was a great view! The walls were high and steep.

 On the way home we ran into a bunch of kids. The boys played soccer with us and the girls taught us how to dance. They spoke English really well! I was impressed. They were so sweet.

Happy Birthday to Me

 I had an amazing birthday thanks to all the wonderful people here!! They made me this cute sign and Chaille gave me the awesome sweatshirt I'm wearing. I wanted to buy it last week, but I didn't. She surprised me with it!

A group of us went to the Garden of Gethsemane after church. It was gorgeous. We got to walk around the garden (it's behind a gate) and go into the church there.

 Lizzy was perfect and played me songs on her violin! I'm obsessed. I recorded the entire thing. She even let me play it and is going to give me lessons!

 My roommate Jacque gave me a wonderful surprise. She managed to get me a birthday letter from Elder Langford!!! I've known her for barely two weeks!! I don't know how she did it, but it was so thoughtful. Best day ever. 

At dinner everyone sang to me and I blew out a candle on an apple pie pastry-ish dessert. They all wrote me birthday notes. Everyone here is amazing! I also felt so much love from home. Thank you everyone for the emails and messages!! 

Sabbath at the Western Wall

Western Wall on a regular week day (no cameras on the sabbath)

We went to the western wall!! It was the most amazing experience of my life!!  It was unreal. Tonight was the start of the sabbath, so there were TONS of people. Everyone was packed on top of each other to get to the wall. They were split men and women and they were singing and chanting and dancing and praying and crying and it was so amazing. We slowly worked our way to the wall and got to touch it and add to the paper stuffed between the blocks. Of all the things I've seen here, the wall has been the most powerful. The wall was different because of all those people. Their faith was palpable. We met a Jewish woman from New York and we asked her to tell us about what was going on. She was amazing! She was the kind of lady you would see on the street who is super stylish and in a short skirt and I would totally judge her. But she told us all about God and how she is trying to have a strong relationship with him and how she knows she wears bikinis and isn't as good as she needs to be, but she is working hard to be the kind person God wants her to be. She told us all about being faithful and making sacrifices like having to walk all the way back to her hotel since she can't drive on the Sabbath. Then we asked her about Christ. She said he is just a man and she doesn't even know much about him. She literally couldn't even tell us more than "he walked on water and died somewhere around here." She said she is waiting for the Messiah to come. The entire experience just hit me really hard. There are so many good people in this world who are doing their best to be close to God. All those people praying out there--kids, teenagers, adults. . . but they are lacking the most important part of the gospel--Jesus Christ. I got so emotional looking out at all of them. Christ is going to come. He is going to show himself to all those Jews and they are going to realize who he is. They may not know him now, but one day they will. I never understood how they could not get it, but they are just going by what they know, or don't know. They want truth and are doing their best, they just got lost along the way. I can't even describe what it was like to look out at all those people, knowing what I know, and literally not being able to tell them anything. But I felt Christ's love for all those people. Christ atoned for us so we can all be saved. Those people don't know him yet, but one day they will again meet their Savior. This experience has given me a lot of hope. There is a lot of good in this world. People are still doing their best, and Christ will make up the difference.

Shopping

 After class we walked into old Jerusalem and explored the shops.

 We stopped for lunch in West Jerusalem (the modern part comparable to Europe). I ate my first falafel and ate it in a lafel. . . ? I think that's how you say it. It was delicious!!

Then we found our way back into the old city where we met Shaban and his son Omar. They gave us grapefruit juice and let us dress up in traditional clothing.

 I stopped into a jewelery store and saw a gorgeous silver and Eilat ring. It is the national stone of Israel. The store owner was a really good salesman. He gave the speech, (many shopkeepers give it) "For tourist the price is 150 shekels. For students the price is 130 shekels. But for the Mormons, the price is 100 shekels." The store owners love us because every semester they get a new group of 80 students who are ready to buy everything. I bartered for the first time and managed to get him down to 70 shekels. I bought it! My first buy in Jerusalem= $18. I'm in love with the ring and proud of myself for walking away with only one purchase for the week.