Week One

Wow, so it has been one week since I last updated my blog. Oops. I was meaning to do it more on a daily basis. I will try do better in the future. So I found that I can post pictures on my blog, so everyone get excited and fasten your seatbelts! Ok, well maybe not, but I hope the pictures I show you help to give you a better feel of the Holy Land.



Friday May 1, 2009
It took me forever to remember what I did on this day, but don't worry I remembered. I went to the Orson Hyde Garden with some friends and then to the Garden of Gethsemane. Afterwards we went to the Old City.



Me in the Orson Hyde Garden, which was amazingly beautiful and sacred, holding the Dome of the Rock in my hand. yep, yep that's right. I am holding it in my hand.






The Garden of Gethsemane. It is really sad because there are so many tourists and tour groups and vendors around the site that you can't get any peace and quiet and it is extremely hard to feel the Spirit and truly appreciate what happened here.




Lesson 2: If the site is holy, build a church on it...and name the church after the thing that makes it holy. I think it is so sad that they do this. This is some church, I would venture to guess that it's name is The Church of Gethsemane. This church was built on the spot where they believe Chirst actually suffered and atoned for our sins. It is right next to a super busy highway and this is Kristen Boyd's artistic photo of the pillars at the front of the church, and me.

Oh boy oh boy oh boy! Look at all these shoes! not to mention they are beautiful Nike shox...for cheap! Like $40. Oh the temptation. I don't know how I am going to spend four months here without buying a pair, or two, or three of sweet awesome inexpensive name brand shoes! I was in shoe heaven...sigh...

Saturday May 2, 2009 - Shabbat (Sabbath)

Church on Saturday was definitely different. It was different that church was on Saturday (because my time clock was already so messed up from flying over [we didn't even know what day it was when we got off the plane in Tel Aviv] that it felt like Sunday), but Sunday (I just wrote Monday...oh geeze) was weird. I always think it is Monday after Shabbat, but it is really Sunday. Sacrament meeting was held in the Auditorium, which is beautiful and has an amazing view. Holy cow. Most of the time during the meeting I was looking out at Jerusalem and the Old City rather than looking at the speaker. The Sacrament was so much more meaningful for me being in the Auditorium and seeing Jerusalem, just because it really hit me that this is where the Last Supper occurred, and this is where it all happened. The atonement happened right here. This is the whole reason we have the sacrament. Sunday School and Relief Society were good. Later that night I played some intense fussball (or however you spell it). It was pretty much amazing. Everyone who played is of a high skill level and the games get very intense.

Sunday May 3, 2009

Free Day! A group of about 9 other kids and myself went to the Old City and around. We were in Jerusalem from 8 am to 5 pm. The weirdest parts were that we went shopping on Sunday, and all other Christians were in church, but we weren't. Not to mention that tourists were minimal today, because most of them are Christian. Oh the extra space on the streets and the lack of obnoxious noise was definitely amazing.

We went on the Rampart's Walk which is the walk on top of the wall that surrounds the Old City. It was used militarally until like 1968. It was pretty sweet. Since you probably can't read the sign it says, "Watch Your Head." hehe. Yep, I had to.

This is for you, Rachel! Too bad she won't get to see this until August. Oh well, hehe it was fun taking an almost exactly the same picture as what she took for me. This is at the Pools of Bethseda where in Christ's time people who were ill came and waited for the pool to ripple, which meant that an angel had touched it and that it would heal the first person to enter the pool (I probably didn't get all the facts right, I am just giving the general story).

My first visit to the Western Wall. It was definitely different than what i expected and the pictures do no justice in conveying what it is actually like. Not to dash your hopes, but it is not as cool or different or amazing as you would think it is. Lesson 1 in the Holy Land (especially the cafeteria): Nothing is ever like what it is supposed to be. Nothing is like what you had believed or imagined it to be, no matter how much research you do. But, it just adds more surprises to life!

The rest of this week has just been academics. Oh they require so much reading, and it is pointless reading. Anyways, this is not the place to vent my frustrations with the structure of classes and such. But field trips are fun and awesome and I am excited for more of them! I will have some more exciting photos for you soon! example, a shop burning in the Old City. oops...that is one of those eccentric things I think I am supposed to refrain from posting on my blog...too late now :)