And they went down to Jericho

Today went to Jericho on a field trip!!! It was soo great, it is the 2^nd lowest city in the world. Jerusalem sits at 2700 ft above sea level whereas Jericho is 850 ft below sea level, we dropped thousands of feet in elevation within 15 minutes! It was soo cool to be in the valley and look over and just see this huge uprising of the earth, like a giant mountain range but then I realized that we were in this huge crack in the earth, that the mountain range was really just normal level. It was sweet. We got to see the remnants of Herods palace which was awesome!! Also, we saw the mountain that is traditionally thought to be the Mt. of Tempation, where Satan tempted Jeses while he was fasting. We also went to the ancient road that led from Jerusalem to Jericho. It was awesome!! The road overlooked the Judaen wilderness! I got some sweet pictures of that. Jericho was just awesome! And to be on the ancient road that Christ walked on was really special. Also, that road is where the story of the good Samaritan occurred, it is amazing to me that it still exists! We had a really nice devotional up there about how we need to get the big stuff done and be moving along but we shouldn’t stick to a schedule so much where we are avoiding doing nice things for people or cherishing the little moments. It was really applicable to me because here we are so busy and it would be so easy to just lock yourself in the center and just study but I know that I won’t get anything out of this if I do that. I need to take advantage of enjoying the small things like walking through the city or talking to a local or doing a humanitarian project. I hope I can always remember that lesson throughout my life because it is so easy to get caught up in every thing we have to do and to lose sight of the things that are most important. We also sang a few songs at the lookout, you look to the left and see Jerusalem and then to the right at Jericho and straight forward the Judaen wilderness. It was breathtaking. I always mark in my hymn book the date on the song we sing and where we sang it, I think it will be awesome to look back at my little hymn book and be reminded of my little experiences. We also saw Elishas spring!

This afternoon me and a group of people went into Jerusalem to the Jewish quarter and saw this beautiful synagogue called the Hurva synagogue. It is renovated and newly built but still has the old wall on one part. It is beautiful! There were great views of the Jewish quarter up there and a great sunset tonight. I got to see tons of adorable roof top gardens and sitting areas which were really neat, I love the views I got from up high! It was getting dark so we had to basically run back to the center!! We were with tons of people though so I didn’t feel unsafe, just we needed to get back because were not allowed to be out past dark. It was a really nice day, I am happy and well, recovering from my sickness!!! YAY!