So this place is incredible! I don’t know how else to put it. We have done so much that I feel like I have been here for weeks. Sunday was our first day of classes, they were all really interesting and I love my Old Testament class. Our teachers name is brother Judd and he is so knowledgeable and entertaining. It is fun to be able to learn about a story in the Bible, and then just look to my left to see where that story happened! How cool!

          After class we had the rest of the day to ourselves. We went with 4 others and just wanted to explore the old city. Just in wandering we found what some religions believe to be the birthplace of Mary and then somehow ran into the Pools at Bethesda! We paid a few shekels to get in and it was really neat. I love the story of Christ telling the crippled man to take up his bed and walk. We may have walked on a few of the stones that Christ did!

          Next we traveled through some of the more residential parts of the Old City where kids were running wild! They are cute and love to try and play games with you. They love to play soccer and one kept trying to pass it to me. There were these two young boys, one pushing the other in a shopping cart. We laughed at what they were doing and they were so pleased with entertaining us that they attempted to follow us the whole way home. One had an old remote and kept pointing it at me and pressing buttons, Scott says he was trying to find the mute button. There accents are so precious. They all take English classes in school and know how to say “hello” in the funniest way… never gets old.

          We traveled to go see Jimmy, one of the Mormon lovers who does the olive wood carvings. We have made a good friend here, Jason, I call him Dean. But his parents knew Jimmy and must have bought an entire museum from him considering the way he treated us! He took us to a really nice restaurant down the street where he got us all the most delicious food in this world. He sat with us and talked for probably an hour or so and we had so much fun.

          Let me just say that blondes are unusual in this country. Not the kind of unusual where they don’t like them though… The men here are not shy about their complements. A man even yelled, “I love you” from the other side of the street the other day. It is so precious how protective my brother and other boys are when they speak up. It might be a smart idea to cover my hair in a couple areas of town. There is really no danger at all… but just to avoid the attention and worry from the boys with me.

          Today we went on a wonderful field trip traveling to some of the best views in Jerusalem. First we went to Auguste Victoria which is a Church of the Ascension. We then traveled to an abandoned building where underneath King Saul had begun to build his kingdom. Next was the town of Gibeon which they talk about in Joshua 10 and 1 Kings 3. Here was a Mosque and a Synagogue all in one building. Some believe that the Prophet Samuel was buried here and there were lots of people praying inside. The fourth place we visited was Haas Promenade, a ridge with a beautiful view of the city of Jerusalem and we were able to understand more of the geography. We know that Abraham had to travel over this ridge to get to the spot where he would sacrifice Isaac. He talks about it in Genesis 22:3-4. Lastly we got to climb up to a spot overlooking Bethlehem. It was an amazing view and we got to sing a few Christmas songs while we were up there.  

          My mom tells me that people are wondering what it is like here since the news of Bin Laden. Today is also the Holocaust memorial day. I really haven't noticed anything different but I know our security has been doing a lot to check up on things and make sure we are safe. The security here is fantastic. We took a tour through the city on a Friday, which is the day the Muslims worship and we aren't allowed to go into the city. We had security all over the place and they were legit. They kept popping up around corners and I felt like the President's daughter. The government should hire them. Anyways, we plan on going into the city tonight and we will have to see if anything is different.