Outside the Center

This afternoon I had some time to walk around the grounds of the Jerusalem Center and play with my camera. Here are a few pictures for you to enjoy.

Dome of the RockFront door of the center Looking out from the 8th floor of the center
This is Katie and I in front of the center on the 7th level. To the left you can see the big windows of our chapel.

Visit to the Hospital

Thursday afternoon I was able to go with two other girls to a hospital just down the road from the Jerusalem Center. We went as volunteers to help feed the babies. Below is a picture of the nursery. While we were waiting, one of the nurses called us in to see a baby boy who had just been born. They were all so tiny and it was so fun to see all of them.

I sat for about 45 minutes trying to get this little girl to drink her bottle. She just kept falling asleep. I couldn't stop smiling as I held this little infant in my arms. It was a wonderful way to spend the afternoon!

On our way home from the hospital we stop to talk to some kids that were out playing by the street. While we were talking we were attacked by two boys with water guns. These weren't wimpy water guns either. They were the kind that had backpacks filled with water. We escaped with minor damage and I am sure they got a good laugh from it. I think we are going to go to Toy Land and get our own water guns so we can defend ourselves next time!

A few more pictures from our trip to Egypt...

Below is a picture of the Step Pyramid which was the first pyramid built and later led to the building of the great pyramids. After walking around the area I was walking out of the temple structure a young man grabbed my arm. I have gotten used to just ignoring anyone that I pass by but I was surprised that a white tourist would try to stop me. As I turned back around I realize that it was someone I knew. This young tourist was actually a friend of mine from my freshman year at BYU. He just completed his mission in Romania and his family had picked him up and they were doing some traveling and then visiting his sister who is on a mission before going home. What are the chances that I would see him in Egypt at the oldest pyramid in the world. It was a very fun surprise.
Here is a picture of the kind of boats we road down the Nile River on.Camel Ride! Luxor Temple at Night

This is the tomb of the famous King Tut. The interesting thing is that he really was an insignificant king but he was made famous because his tomb was the only one found that had not been found by the tomb robbers. All of the treasures found in the tomb now fill one level of the Cairo Museum. Inside the tomb they had the mummy of King Tutankhamun. I loved seeing the mummy in the original tomb he was found in.

Trip to Egypt!

Egypt was so much fun and I saw so many amazing things. It was amazing how much we packed into a week. After a lot of warm bottled water, no fruits or vegetables, and every person getting sick, I think we were all glad to see the Jerusalem Center again. With everything that we did it would take me hours to share all of it but I will just give you a sample of a few of the things we saw and did.

On our way to the border on the first day we stopped at a Kibbutz in Israel for a tour. Stepping off the bus was like stepping into the sauna. I was amazed that they have been able to keep anything alive. And just my luck...they took us for a tour of their dairy operation. I don't know if I have been on a vacation where we have not visited a dairy along the way,the streak continues. They milk about 600 cows three times a day and produce 60-70% of the milk in Israel. They give the cows showers 6 times a day where they shower them for 1 minute and then turn on the fans for 2 minutes. It was quite interesting.

The Great Pyramids! The pyramids were amazing and it was so wonderful to drive into Cairo and see them in the distance. The night that we arrived we went to the light and sound show at the pyramids. If you look closely you can see the outline of one behind our heads. Kristen, Me, and CathrineThey switch which pyramid they allow tourists to enter and we were lucky enough to go into the "Great Pyramid" which is the largest one. It was a long climb into the center and inside I thought we might run out of oxygen with all of us in there. Tomb area is about the side of a large living room with a tall ceiling in the center of the pyramid. The size of the blocks of stone are amazing and the size of the pyramid even more impressive. It was quite the sight! Below you can see us sitting on the bottom layer.After a day in Cairo we took a flight to Luxor which is south of Cairo. We all got on and found our assigned seats. After taking my place in the second row I found out that I was sitting first class! The flight attendant came and pulled the curtain behind my head and the six of us in front of the curtain just started laughing. We were brought a hot towel, warm drinks, and a meal while the rest of our classmates and teachers were out of our sight and received a small drink. We could not stop laughing! Who would have guessed I would sit first class on Egyptian Air. I am guessing that will be my first and last time sitting first class but we lived it up and got a lot of laughs out of it. Traveling the Nile River. We were in Luxor for two days and in that time took almost every form of transportation available. This included: airplane, bus, taxi, sail boat, camel, motorboat, horse carriage, and train. My favorite was the camel but I had some fun experience on all of them. Karnak Temple. The oldest parts of the Karnak Temple date to about 2000 BC. The temple is mostly the product of the New Kingdom pharaohs and each pharaoh added on to the temple. The pillars are huge as you can see in the picture and every wall and pillar has engravings on it and many depictions of important ceremonies. Always a time for firsts! We went to lunch at the Hard Rock Cafe. It was my first time in Egypt, my first time at the Hard Rock, so I thought it might as well be my first time for a hamburger. It only took 21 years and a trip to Luxor, Egypt to try a hamburger! On our final day we woke up at 2 am to climb Mt. Sinai. The sky was beautiful and it was difficult to have to look where I was walking. I have never seen so many stars in the sky. We made it to the top after about 2 hours and waited for the sun to rise. It was freezing cold on top so we huddled together for warmth as we waited. It was a beautiful sunrise! After spending a week looking at some of the greatest creations of man there was nothing that matched the creations of God. After seeing what Moses had grown up seeing, I understand better Moses 1:10 where he says, "Now, for this cause I know that man is nothing, which thing I never had supposed. But now mine own eyes have beheld God." He had been surrounded by the greatness of man but found out as I did when I sat on top Mt. Sinai that man is nothing.

Headed to Egypt!
Tomorrow morning I will be leaving for Egypt. We will be there for the next week and I am sure that I will have great pictures when I get back. This past week has been packed with many exciting things. The Pope has been living next door all week so we have had soldiers on the side of our building. They were protecting the Pope but one of the guys made a flyer that said "Thanks for protecting us from the Pope" and gave it the the soldiers. So don't worry we are in good hands here :)

We also had a few great visitors last Tuesday. Governor Huntsman and Attorney General Mark Shurtliff and their party ate dinner with us and then provided our forum. The week was also full of classes and our first midterm. We are all looking forward to a great vacation in Egypt! Here is a little update on a few of the things I did last week.

It is hard to believe that another week has gone by. On Sunday we went to Ien Kerem which it the town just east of Jerusalem where John the Baptist was born. It was nice to get away from the populated streets of Jerusalem and visit this quite little town. The landscape was beautiful and we were able to go up and hike up a few trails on the hillside. Idaho girls! Kristen, Amy, and Rachelle are from Bosie so we tried to recreate Idaho in our picture so if you look really hard you might be able to see why we look so funny.This is at Mary's Spring. It would be a great watering hole except for the fact that there is a big sign warning that the water is not safe to drink!So I can't figure out why this picture will not go the right way but oh well. I have officially been to the lowest city as well as the oldest city in the world. That's right, we went to Jericho! This is my friend Ashley as we began out day at this great city.Do you see anything wrong with this sign? If not read it again! This has to be one of my favorites so far.This is up on the side of a cliff that we climbed to the Monastery of Temptation. This is where they say Satan tempted Jesus to turn the rocks to bread. It was amazing how they built out from some caves and made this monastery. This is looking out on the city of Jericho. And you my look at what I wearing and think that it was cold. Wrong, it was very hot but we had to have long sleeves going into the monastery and wear a scarf over our heads. Don't get the wrong idea, it is warm here :)Here we have all of the students in the program. 79 in Total! These are the people I spend all of my time with, and I mean ALL of my time. These people are wonderful and it is amazing how one can make best friends in a matter of days and weeks when you spend 24/7 with them! After the sites in Jericho the bus dropped us off at this location and I never caught exactly where we were. Where ever it was it was an amazing sight to see! It is Shabbot again! After church today we went to the Garden of Gethsemane. We went into a quiet garden that they keep locked next to the main site where all of the tourists go. It was nice to take some time to ponder the atonement and the sacredness of this location.

HAPPY MOTHERS DAY!

More adventures in Israel.
First of all, this first picture is for my Dad. I thought he would like that we found this sticker on a window in the middle of the old city. There are a few shops that cater specifically to the LDS tourist and some that cater to the BYU students. There is one stop in particular that all of the students do there shopping at. He has BYU Jerusalem T-shirts, sweatshirts, scripture cases and I am sure he claims...anything we want. He also pours us a drink of lemonade or something else any time we stop by. I am pretty sure that he makes almost all his money off of the students that come here each semester. So after that, it wasn't to surprising to find something like this in another part of the city...This week we really got started into our classes. Because we go on field trips we have to use the time that we are in the Center for classes so some of the days can be pretty long. I am learning so much here and I love the chance we have to learn about something and then actually see it. Last Monday we went out to a few different outlook points to get a better feel for the layout of the area. As you can see in the picture below, it was a little difficult to see everything that we were looking for due to the heavy haze. I think this was the only day that it was that hazy. Just our luck! Understanding the geography is important to understanding the history. These are my roommates...(left to right) Savannah, Mandy, and Brigitta. This is on our way to the Western Wall. Behind us is the Mount of Olives and you can see part of the Garden of Gethsemane just above our heads.

Friday night we were able to go as a group to the Western Wall as the Jews welcomed the Sabbath as sundown. It was a great experience and we had a good time talking to a few Orthodox Jewish girls, and watching some of the dances, and hearing them sing. One interesting thing I learned was that not to long ago there were houses and buildings that filled this area and there was only about 4 meter thick strip of space that people were able to go down along the wall. After the 1967 war they came in and just cleared out the area so that it is accessible. The cracks of the wall are just filled with little pieces of paper with prayers written on them.

Today we had a wonderful Sabbath service. I am still getting used to having church on Saturday. There has been question as to why we worship on Saturday here. The branch president said, "the Prophet has given approval to do so." That was a good enough answer for me. Due to the area, Saturday is the best day to do it. Today I was also reading about Sabbath in the Bible Dictionary and found something interesting. It said, "The change from observing the last day of the week to the first day of the week is not so important as is the concept and principle of the Sabbath." The day is not so important as the principle of our worship.

After our meetings we went to the Garden Tomb. After a long walk through the crowded streets, the Garden Tomb was a sanctuary from the chaos of the town. This is the most peaceful place I have been thus far. It was beautiful and it was wonderful to sit and feel the spirit here.

A DAY IN THE CITY...
I know my mom said that I wouldn't be able to blog but I have found that I can compress the pictures and put a few on. Today we had a free day and spend about 8 hours walking around the city. There is so much to see and I don't know if I have ever walked so much in one day! Around 5pm I was standing on top of a building looking out over the city and spotted my home way off in the distance. I suddenly realized that the little building that I was looking at was where I was headed next. Lets just say it took about an hour to get back to the Center.

This is Where I live. The bottom 5 levels have apartments for the faculty and students. Level 6 is the student level where we have our cafeteria, classrooms, lounge, and gym. Level 7 has the office and then level 8 is the library and a few other rooms they use for tours.
This is what I see when I step out on my patio. This is me and my friend Lisa on some roof tops inside the old city. We went exploring and ate lunch up here. As a side note I might add that they want us to blend in and yet require us to carry a water bottle around with us in a bright blue carrier. Can I just tell you that everyone knows who we are. As we pass by the shops they will say. "Oh the Mormons, we love the Mormons!" Lets just say that we really don't blend in :)
These were a couple of cute boys that were talking to some of the guys in my group. And yes, that is The Dome of the Rock that you see in the background.

Today is fast Sabbath here in the Holy Land. It will take a little time to get used to having Sabbath on Saturday. There is a branch here which is mainly made up of the students but we also have a few people from the area as well as a few travelers who come. A lady in the relief society presidency is from Bethlehem. It is kind of funny to hear someone stand up and introduce themselves and say they are from Bethlehem! She said that she grew up down the street from where Christ was born but had to go to Provo, Utah to really find out who Christ was. We hold our sacrament meeting in an assembly hall that is basically a large lecture hall with a stage in front and large arched windows that look out over the city. As we had the sacrament and as testimonies were born, it was amazing to look out at the city and think that this is where Christ taught in the temple, walked the streets, had the last supper, atoned for our sins, was laid in the tomb, and was resurrected that we too might live. It is a powerful experience and I know that Christ really did come to the earth.

I made it to the Holy Land

After a long plane ride and a few time changes I have made it to the Holy Land. As we pulled up to the center I was amazed at the beauty of this place. We are living in what you might call a 5 star hotel. Every window looks out on the city and it is still hard to grasp the reality of actually being in Jerusalem. Walking through the city definately a new experience. I feel like it is one giant maze and I now know why we have to go in groups of three!

There is great security here. It is nice to know that our security guards always know when we are out and start looking for us if we are not back when we should be. It is also a new experience to have someone standing at the gate waiting for our return from the city. We finally got our cell phones and id cards today so we were able to go out to the city on our own this afternoon after classes. I went with a few poeple to the Orson Hyde Park. The story behind this park is very interesting. There is an article about it at lds.org. Check it out: (David B. Galbraith, “Orson Hyde’s 1841 Mission to the Holy Land,” Ensign, Oct 1991, 16)