A Great Day

Bullet points -Today started with New Testament, how could I not love it? -I ate falafel for lunch at the center; falafel days are my favorite -I realized how I am a slight germ freak. We were in the Old City and a bunch of the girls I was with stopped to buy gummies from the street side vendors. I saw a few flies walking on the gummies and I just couldn't do it. I can't eat food from shops where stuff is sitting out for the bugs to crawl on and where people give it to you with bare hands!! Maybe someday I will be able to but I only have 3 weeks left here and I just don't see it changing any time soon. -I bought souvenirs for mom and sisters!! It was really fun!! I love buying stuff!! -I am soaking up the city. I went to a church today, The Church of Mary Magdalene and while there I realized how every church here smells the same, this is due to the fact that they have incense and candles in every church. I will forever have that smell engrained in my memory. -I have 3 weeks from today left in the Holy City. I have mixed feelings but mostly postitive. I am so excited to find out what the next chapter of my life holds, it seems so unclear because being in Jerusalem I can't really control much but I know that whatever happens will be the Lord's will and it will be the best thing for me. I am sad to leave this Holy City. Jerusalem brings so many people together and it truly is a wonderful place. I love it. I stayed out today from 4 pm until 9. I loved it. Only a few more days like this!! -We went to West Jerusalem tonight for dinner on Emek Refaim street, this super nice fun Israeli street. I ate a delicious salad with peanut sauce marinated chicken; hello divine!! After I got some plain vanilla fro yo with dried cranberries, dried coconut, strawberries, and walnuts. I can't wait for fro yo with Grantler this summer!! Hello Kokomo!!! -All the Jewish mothers have really modern strollers. Maybe I am just way behind the times but I am in love with all these mod, minimalistic strollers. I can't wait to have one of my own haha someday... -There is this festival of foods in Jerusalem right now; it consists of tons of booths with fun foods to try and buy. I loved it. -Life is good. -Almost forgot. Our van ride home was the best thing ever. The driver put loud American music on and we danced in the van with the special blue lights that are in his van shining down on us. It was soo fun. I loved it. We were all going crazy, all 13 of us in our ghetto Jeru van. Loved it. I almost told the driver to do another lap around the city because we were having such a blast. I resisted though. -Can't wait for summer sing alongs in the car with my sissies; best thing is that Jasey will have her permit and guess who is over 18? ME. That means she gets to drive me around, woot.

Pictures!!!!

Staring out at the Red Sea. I love it.

Jumping for joy at the Red Sea!

Me, Synth, Michelle, and Tessa laying out on the shores of the Red Sea after snorkeling.

Synth and I standing in an arch of the Roman aqueduct which brought water to Ceaserea, one of the big port towns of ancient times.

Pondering while staring out at the Med Sea

The boys racing on the chariot race track used by the Romans of ancient times. I am sitting in the big stadium that faced the track and the sea.

Notice how this part of the water is all surrounded by rock. It was a man made swimming pool fed by the sea. It has a graded bottom which gently slopes down and everything!

Oh Hey Roman theater and blue sky and me, looking good in the aviators I might add. Thanks mom! :)

me, synth, lindsay, and tashara in the roman theater in Ceaserea

Jumping pic on the overlook of Mt. Carmel

At the beautiful gardens which overlook Haifa

beautiful grounds of some religious center in Haifa

Me, Linds, and Denise and Haifa

Bottom of palace/religious center place

John A Clark was one of the first missionaries to have ever come to Israel back in the 1900's. He sacrificed a life long dream of going to BYU to get an education to fulfill his mission call. Sadly, he died of sickness while in Israel. He is buried in a cemetery in Haifa along with a few other latter day saint missionaries and the first converts of Israel. The boy in the picture is Cory, he is in our group and is an actual relative of Brother Clark. Pretty neat. Because these members are buried in this Israel cemetary it helped the church build the Jerusalem center because the church was able to prove that they had already had an influence in Israel before Israel was made a state in 1948. Really neat.

I am obsessed with the Med.

In front of the light house in (I think) ha

girlfriends and I

In a tunnel somewhere along the coast of Northern Israel

My amazing teacher Bro Muhlestein and Martin fencing in the crusader castle.

Oh haiiii Mona Lisa of the Middle East. Beautiful mosaic carpet found in a house located in Muhraqa (I think)

Gorgeous mosiac floor in ancient house

gotta love the mosaics.

Me and Emily Judd, she is my Old Testament teacher's daughter. Cutest, most sassiest thing ever. I love all my teachers kids here at the center. They are so great and it really makes a difference to have them in our lives.

Ancient street in Sepphoris. Notice the wagon ruts in the rock, awesome.

Me and Kels, happy to be in Sepphoris.

Syria outlook in the Golan Heights.

Bunker tunnel from the war, really cool!

It was such a foggy day!! The fog cleared just for a few minutes so we could have the view that you see in the above picture that I labeled Syria outlook.

View from the top of Nimrods Castle. It was so beautiful.

Nimrods Castle

Arch in Nimrods castle, seriously such sweet remains.

Water fall

Grotto of the false god called Pan.

Ancient city remains of Tel Dan.

False worship altar in Tel Dan. Remember the story in the scriptures where Jeroboam sets up centers for false worship in Bethel and in Tel Dan? Here is the one in Tel Dan!

Boys in the group worshiping the "golden calf" of Neal. They are kneeling on the spot where the golden calf would have been placed for worship.

Beautiful tributary that runs into the River Jordan

Notice the dark line in the middle of the wall, it is the ash line. This place was burned down and used to have a really thick ash layer which we can still see in the wall remains.

Stone manger just like the one Jesus would have been laid in.

Us girls in the chariot at Megiddo.

View from the top of Mt Tabor, a site that could be the Mt of Transfiguration.

The windy road we drove up to get to the top of Mt Tabor. We rode in these vans with these drivers that took the turns so fast haha it was quite the adventure!

Church to commemorate the Transfiguration

This church has 3 tabernacles or places of worship. The main, largest hall has a Jesus mural while the two small halls have a Moses and Elijah mural.

Moses Mural

Denise and I outside of the branch meeting house in Tiberias

Tiberias branch meeting house. The missionary couple lives here and takes care of the grounds and runs church every Sunday.

Reminiscent of a sand drawing I did back in 2007.

Sunset on the Sea of Galilee.

I love me some carpet mosaic!

Wildflowers are everywhere in Israel right now! It is absolutely gorgeous. This was on a hike I took that was east of the Sea of Galilee in the mountains.

View from the end of our hike, sooo pretty!

Some of us on the hike. Our tour guide was from the Kibbutz that runs the hotel we stayed at. He is in his late 50's with this huge scraggly white beard haha sooo great! He was awesome.

My favorite hike ever. The views were unsurpassed by anything. Who knew I would come to Israel and see the prettiest country I have ever seen?

Me sitting on 1st century synagogue steps in the city of Gamla. 1st century means they were around at the time of Jesus. Meaning, if you preached in all the synagogues around the Galilee, which the scriptures said he did then he would have preached in this synagogue and perhaps sat on these steps. This was a really special place for me. It is a city set in the hills, you can see it from the Mt of Beatitudes, and it was a city who was always on the political front of things, fighting against the Romans. My teacher believes it may be the city that Jesus refers to as the city set on a hill referenced in the Sermon on the Mt.

Me in Chorazin, an evil city that Christ refers to in the Bible.

Dr. Chadwick, the expert, sitting on the Moses seat.

Water fall on our hike

Mt of Beatitudes

Sea of Galilee right outside of St Peters primacy.

Capernaum. That octagon in the very middle is said to be Peters house. It is 1st century ruins and close to the synagogue. We talked about while we were here how Peter provided Jesus a place to lay his head. Jesus never really had a home and Peters house was the closest thing he had. It was really touching to realize how much Peter loved the Savior.

Wall of the synagogue from the 3rd or 4th century. Notice the dark part of the wall. That is the foundation of the 1st century synagogue in which Jesus would have preached.

Neighborhood right by the synagogue in Capernaum. Jairus would have lived here. The Savior healed his daughter.

preserved boat that was found at the bottom of the Sea of Galilee. This boat dates back to Jesus' time and is like the boats that Jesus and his apostles probably used.

Sea of Galilee

me and the sea of Galilee

We sang Master the Tempest is Raging on the sea and we talked about how peter came out and walked to the Savior. Our teacher told us how Peter was always trying to get close to the Savior, he wanted to be where he was. We need to be like Peter and desire to always be by his side.

Me and synth at the fish restaurant. Yes I did eat a whole fish with the head on it!! NO I didn't eat the eye balls or the fins. I cleaned that fish good though!! I never suck on chicken bones or like get all the meat off of a chicken wing but I definitely made sure this fish was meatless when I was done with it! Such a fun experience!! Oh and these fish were tilapia, caught from the Sea of Galilee.

Our first day in Galilee on Mt Arbel overlooking the Sea of Galilee.

Church of the annunciation in Nazareth. This church is built over the ruins of ancient Nazareth and commemorates the annunciation of Christ to Mary.

Lots of different countries donated a piece of art work that was specific to that country depicting the relationship of Jesus and Mary how they view it. Grant served in the Baltic mission which includes Lithuania. Since Latvian wasn't there I went for second best, hence the Lithuanian picture. Seeing how many different countries donated artwork made me realize how the whole world reveres Christ. There are so many believers on the earth, I think we all have a lot more in common then we think.

This is inside the synagogue in Nazareth. This synagogue was built on top of the synagogue that was present in Christ's day. We had a lovely devotional in here and sang hymns.

Me holding a little lamb in Nazareth village, a man made teaching facility of what life would have been like in Nazareth at the time of the Savior. The lamb seriously was sooo cuddly!! I almost buried my face in his wool then I realized he was a dirty little lamb so I didn't but I dunno what it was about holding that little creature, I just wanted to love on him!!! His mom didn't want us loving on him though haha she was close by the whole time and kept making noises at us.

Synth and I jumping in the Roman theater of Beit Shean. This was my favorite city ever. The remains were so intact that you could actually imagine a real live city. We saw the main "cardo" or road through the city with the Roman columns, the bath houses, the theater, etc. It was a huge excavation site. Beit Shean is one of the city of the Decapolis mentioned in the Bible meaning that people from there probably went to hear the Savior speak in Capernaum.

The city with the Tel in the background

Roman bath house. So all the mini pillars were to hold up a fake floor. So the steam would come in and go around all the mini pillars and warm the fake floor helping the bathhouse stay warm and steamy. So innovative!! I love how they were so in tact still!

Me and Bethany on top of the Tel.

Me and the south western pinnacle which is the one where Christ probably stood when Satan was tempting Him to jump and be saved by angels.

Me, Victoria, and Synth after a day out in the city. Oh haiii Dome of the Rock!

A nice, very *non posed* picture of me in the Armenian quarter of the Old City.

Inside the Ecco Homo where it is believed that Pilate judged Jesus.

Me and Synth inside the huge cistern which is inside the Ecco Homo.

Inside the western wall tunnel, here is a model of Herods temple and the temple mount. Amazing, isn't it?

posing on my balcony on a sabbath

This is inside the Western Wall tunnel which runs along side the Western Wall which is the wall that held up the ancient Temple mount. This floor is the original floor of the old Roman plaza. Jesus would have walked on these stones.

me touching the ancient western wall

Inside Damascus gate.

Just me in the Old City

This is the Holy Sepulcher which is built over what some believe to be Christ's tomb. I have gone in here before and touched a rock that was believed to be brought up from the tomb. Our professors here don't think this site is valid but it is still amazing because it is revered by so many people and it is amazing for what it represents. I took this picture during the Armenian mass procession thing. There are three denominations that own the church. We have the Armenian church, the Greek Orthodox, and the Roman Catholic. Each sect has a different part of the church in which they worship and they all own different things that commemorate different events in Christ's life. The one thing they all own together is the big stone slab which is inside the entrance to the church which is the stone on which they believe that Christ was prepared for burial.

Most beautiful cathedral of my life. Me and my friends were on our way to the Holy Sepulcher when we stumbled upon this beauty of a church. We were the only ones inside, it was so nice. The paintings on the ceiling were spectacular, really gorgeous. Many famous popes have visited this cathedral, I read it on the wall!!

In front of the door to the prettiest cathedral I have ever been in.

Me walking in the Old City on a Sabbath