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Free Days

An Israeli playground... nice, right?

Scott convinced me to take this 40 minute bus ride to En Karem on a free day even though I really didn't want to. I made him promise me two hours of shopping time, but I'm so glad I went. Zechariah and Elizabeth lived here and this is where John the Baptist was born. There was a church dedicated to him here. There was also the Visitation Church. Where Mary came to visit Elizabeth and tell her the news. There was this statue there that I loved and all those things behind it are Mary's song or Mary's prayer or something in all different languages... I don't remember, but it's cool!! 

On another free day we ran out to see some sites before we had to be back a write a paper. This is the Russian Church of the Ascension. They wouldn't let us go up the tower but we were able to go into the separate church which was really pretty. 

The Tomb of the Prophets. Everything is pitch black so we had to find our way around with candles 

We get a nice view of this beautiful church everyday on our way to the city. This is the Church of Mary Magdalene. We finally went to go see it with some free time. 

Merry Christmas from Bethlehem!

Not very often you get to celebrate Christmas on the 4th of July! This was one of my favorite field trips so far!! We have started our New Testament study and I love it. First we started the day at Herod's summer palace. Herod's tomb was also here. We learned about how awful of a man he really was. It was actually pretty neat to spend the 4th of July here. We were able to talk about how grateful we are to live in such a wonderful country with leaders that we appoint. Our teacher shared an interesting story about when they were in Egypt last semester. He said they were talking to a man about the situation there and the man asked him what our country does when a president won't leave. He tried to explain that that just wouldn't happen and the man could not comprehend that. We are so lucky to have a stable system and while I love living in Israel, it often makes me realize how much I love the US. 

The hill behind us is Herod's Palace

We are actually sitting in Herod's pool.

We are thinking of starting a band... I think we will call it the Plain White T's. It's standard field-trip uniform. 

After Herod's Palace we went to Bethlehem University. It was very, very interesting to hear the things they had to say about the Israeli-Palestine conflict. We had the chance to talk to the students and get to know them. It was crazy to hear about their dating life and what is acceptable. We got their names and will find them on facebook when we get home!

This is where some believe the Savior was actually born

We made it to the Church of the Nativity. It was not at all what I had expected, in fact, I didn't really like it. It was turned into a very touristy area which was expected, but I don't think anything even resembled what it would have looked like back then. I don't mean to be so negative, I was really happy I got to see it and it is interesting to see how other churches preserve these holy sights. 

Another possible sight of the Savior's birth. 

By far my FAVORITE part of the trip. We were able to go out to this shepherd's field and overlook the city of Bethlehem. Possibly where the shepherd's were abiding the night of the Savior's birth. There were still flocks of sheep there and you could just picture Mary and Joseph coming into the city. We were given some free time to look over at the hillside and write in our journals. I thought a lot about the shepherds there and how sensitive they were to the Spirit. They were in such humble circumstances but so willing to run to Christ when they were visited by the angel. I also thought a lot about Mary and her situation. How difficult it must have been to be told that you are going to be pregnant without marriage, living in a small town and knowing that others will talk. I admire so much the way she responded to this calling, she just wanted to follow the will of the Lord. We were able to sing Christmas songs and listen to musical numbers. Those songs will have a whole new meaning to me now and I am so grateful for experiences like this one. 

Something else we learned while in this field... this is a possible spot of Ruth and Boaz! Also, David almost positively had his flock here... pretty amazing!

a few of my favorite things

I think this camel liked me. Ever since Petra I just have this new love for camels! I am going to miss them.

The night we got back from Jordan a bunch of us got tickets to Matisyahu! Concert was a blast even though we didn't understand most of it.

This is right outside the Knesset, which is the house of representatives in the State of Israel.  We weren't allowed to bring cameras inside but it was really interesting! Scott especially loved it. 

These are spices. I promise. We got to make them on one of our field trips and it tastes delicious. The food here is awesome, but I am anxious to get a frosty and some Mountain Dew. 

I LOVE GUMMIES!!

So many captions that could be used... I'll leave it up to the reader. 

We took a field trip to the Separation Wall. It was very interesting to hear some stories and learn more about it. 

I just think this picture is great. Should be in a Coca-Cola ad. The people here are so generous and I've really learned to love them. Sometimes their generosity can be a bad thing though. When asking for directions, they consider it rude to not help. So even if they have no idea, they will give you directions and you can't be surprised when you end up on the wrong side of town. 

Me + Jordan + Harrison Ford = One HOT Trip

This was our first stop on the Jordan trip. Mount Nebo! Unfortunately it was really hazy that day but it was cool to be there.

This is at Herod's Palace in Machaerus. It was this very place that John the Baptist was held and eventually killed. 

PETRA!! 

This place was so awesome!! I felt like Indiana Jones coming through and getting the glimpse of the Treasury. It is as amazing as it looks on the movie. They wouldn't let us go inside though... probably a fear of us getting our heads chopped off. I think people don't realize that there is so much more to this place then just the Treasury. We spent 8 hours here and that still didn't feel like enough. We took about a 40 minute hike to the Monastery which was also amazing. Did PLENTY of shopping, had a nice lunch, climbed to see some tombs and did some more shopping. We rode camels quite a distance and I was giggling like a little girl the entire time. We just kept laughing and yelling "I'm on a camel!" We got a video of us saying it over and over, super funny. We then took horses back up to the top where the buses were waiting for us. It was so much fun but incredibly hot. If it were any hotter it would have been... really hot.  

Ok, funniest story. Scott was feeling a little ill when we first walked into Petra. So ill, in fact, that he let this nice man convince him to wear "Bedouin sunglasses"... happens to be the same thing most of us call "eye-liner." The rest of Scott's day was spent convincing everyone that it wasn't makeup. 

This is from the inside of the Monastery looking out. We are spelling Petra if you couldn't tell.

This is my camel, adorable right? We named him Obama, I felt like I was going to fly off when he ran. Dad will be happy to know that I bought him and am bringing him home. 

These are our teachers! From left to right is Judd, Muhlestein, and Chadwick.

Shobak Castle. This castle had crazy caves and passage ways and tunnels and we were just able to explore for a while. 

This is the Citadel and Museum. Hercules' statue was here! More importantly, this is the place talked about in 2 Samuel 11. The battle was coming here and King David had stayed home instead of going to war. It was also in this very place where Uriah the Hittite was killed on orders by David. We were able to talk about the difference in the two men. Uriah was true to his principles, David obviously wasn't. I learned that no one is going to be watching over your shoulder all the time making sure you are doing what's right. We must make the good decisions on our own.

We just made a quick stop at this river, but it was one of my favorite stops on the trip. This is the Jabbok River. Jacob crossed this river and had quite the experience. Jacob was told to return home even though it was dangerous. Esau was there and was trying to kill him, but he went anyways. He sent all sorts of gifts and then divides his family in half. That must have been so difficult for him to know that he may never see his family again. He knew that his family could be killed, but he had faith in the Lord and was willing to follow the desires of the Lord. We can only have that kind of faith when we are willing to give up everything we have to follow Him.

JERASH!!

We know it in the scriptures as Jershon. We had about two hours to explore all these ruins. It was really fun but one of the hottest days of the trip. It was amazing how large this place was. We saw a couple theaters, temples, and all sorts of cool stuff!

Scott played a few games of Thumb War with this boy who was trying to sell us gum.

Another solid performance from Scott at Jerash.

Love this skirt... but it has a mind of it's own in the wind. The best part is that this spot where I'm standing is exactly where the statue of Diana, the scandalous goddess,  would have been.

Scott was too embarrassed to get a picture with this man. There was a bagpipe player and some drummers giving us a little performance in the theater! It was awesome!

We went shopping in Amman in a less-touristy area. Women like these two were every couple feet selling vegetables and all sorts of things.

The Jordan River was probably my favorite stop on the trip. We were able to learn a lot about John the Baptist here. I guess I hadn't realized the lack of praise that John received, especially towards the end of his life. There was one scripture that even talked about how he knew he needed to decrease so that Christ could increase. Our teacher asked us what we could decrease so that Christ could increase in our lives. There are so many things that can get in the way of the important things, such as Christ. We also were able to talk about why Christ was baptized. 2 Nephi 31 tells us that it was to "fulfill all righteousness." Not everyone understands this, that the Savior did this to fulfill a commandment. There can be commandments or promptings in our life that we don't understand, but like Christ, we should do them anyways to fulfill all righteousness or simply show love to our Heavenly Father. 

The JORDAN RIVER!

Get this... we saw a dove at the Jordan River. Coolest thing! It was a really neat experience. 

Overall, Jordan was amazing. I am learning so much I am worried my head will explode. I am so grateful to be here and learn all these wonderful things from such amazing teachers. 

Better Late Than Never!

I’m feeling guilty I haven’t written in so long. The days here are just getting shorter and shorter! Hopefully no one is sick of me going on and on about how much I love it here. I realized that I haven’t talked about my classes much! I love Old Testament. I think I forgot about the Old Testament when I came here. I just expected to learn all about Christ’s life, which we will… but I am really enjoying it now! Our professors here are geniuses. It is amazing how they can make you feel so dumb but help you to learn so much all at the same time. We’re almost half way done and my notebook is quickly running out of space.

                Last Thursday night we had our informal talent show. A friend and I decided that Scott has to do something since he is the comic relief of the J.C. So we put together a news cast that played in between acts. Two boys and I were the field reporters and we went around doing interviews and such on funny things that have happened around the center. Scott and our friend, Jessica were the live anchors and we had the tape play the interviews. It… was… awesome. I will have to put the entire news cast on the internet somehow so everyone can see it. Scott made it look very professional with an introduction and theme song. We even had a news ticker running across the bottom saying funny things. It was a hit!

The news team

                Recently we’ve been on a few field trips. One was our Shfelah trip where we saw all sorts of great things! The valley where David slew Goliath, lots of tombs, more cisterns and part of the path of the Ark of the Covenant. We have seen so many cisterns that a few of us made up a song to the tune of “Sisters” from White Christmas. Mom would be proud of me. The next trip was to the City of David and through Hezekiah’s Tunnel. It was so cool!! The city of David was amazing to see and it just makes the scriptures come to life! We went through the tunnel and got nice and wet. It was pitch-black so I was happy to have an excuse to wear my headlamp, I love that thing.

                At the end we stopped at had a little devotional at the Pool of Siloam. In John 9, Christ healed a blind man on the road that we walked on and then told him to go wash in the Pool of Siloam. I was standing right there!! We read through the story and learned some really awesome things. Christ healed the man with clay that he made out of dirt and “spittle.” And then told him to go wash in this pool, which was not the cleanest. We talked about why Christ would heal this man with such unclean things. Why didn’t he heal him with oil and herbs? Well let me tell you… If he would have used oil and herbs, then people could have said that it was the medicine that healed him. Using these dirty things made the healing more of a miracle. Later in the chapter the man bears testimony of Christ and said, “Whether he be a sinner or no, I know not; one thing I know, that, whereas I was blind, now I see.” At this point, the man had still never seen Christ. I think that is so neat that this man who was healed could have such a testimony of a man that he had never seen before. Christ comes to him later and tells him who he is and the man believes. Such a cool story and I got to be right there!