I am back!

So it has been a marathon of finals and I have been insanely busy studying and playing...lots to catch up on! This is on the beaches of Tel-Aviv! I love Tel-Aviv so much, it is very much like a European resort beach town. It felt so good to be on the beach:)



Purim Festivities~A night to Remember

Last week was a major Jewish holiday and the last night is an all out party! We dressed up- went and I think that is one of the first times when we actually fit in! Purim on Benehuda Street is quite the sight to see. Silly string, poppers, horns, drunk people, men with Kippas dancing everywhere haha! Anyways it was definitely a highlight:)


Bethlehem~Shepherd's Field

I loved Bethlehem. We went to the Church of the Nativity to the place which is believed to be where Christ was born. Apparently, this is the one place believed to be the true spot where the event happened. As the atonement and the Resurrection are somewhat guesses....they say this is the most accurate. We also visited Bethlehem University where we received a lecture and mingled with the students a little bit. Bethlehem University is Christian and Muslim. It felt a lot like a High School to be honest because it was pretty small. But it is a really nice school and it is cool to see two very different groups of people working and learning together. Shepherd's field was a great experience. At Sunset we went to Shepherd's field and read through the story of Christ's birth in the book of Luke. As we were sitting on the hill looking out over Bethlehem there was a twinkling star directly over the Church of the Nativity...quite poetic as our New Testament teacher put it:) I think sometimes it is hard for my mind to comprehend how unbelievable these experiences are. Sometimes it hits me and sometimes it doesn't.


Lately the Palestinian Israeli conflict has dominated much of our conversation and comes up in almost every aspect of our lives here. We visited the Separation wall with a journalist and it was really interesting. Visiting the wall opened my eyes to how devastating the situation is here in Israel. People's lives are incredibly impaired and it is hard to believe how much Palestinians go through just to get to work, if they work in Israel. All the checkpoints and searches they have to deal with make their drive to work sometimes 2-3 hours. Our Modern Near East Professor who teaches us Palestinian history is from Bethlehem and we have had multiple classes canceled due to his inability to get through the checkpoints. There is really no lesson better on the Palestinian conflict than that. Also, a woman who comes to church here from Bethlehem was not able to come across the border for about 6 months and therefore was unable to go to church. She is an amazing woman with an unbelievable attitude in her situation. With a family who completely disapproves of her religion and a separation wall with checkpoints that prohibit her from going to church it would be very difficult to stay faithful and not give up. This woman is an unbelievable example to me.

In these past few weeks studying has been so overwhelming I found myself during my study breaks visiting the Palestinian friends i've made in the past few weeks...and making more. I love these people so much. It is going to be hard to leave for many reasons, but I think one of the hardest things will be leaving these people i've developed such a special connection with. The kids are so sweet and so helpful in their homes. One of the woman I've currently gotten to know and speaks pretty good english. It was so great to be able to communicate and have a full discussion. I mentioned how sad I was that I hadn't reached out to the people sooner in the program. She agreed with me and we talked about how incredibly distorted people from the outside world have of the Palestinians in general, when in fact the people all around here are incredibly sweet and loving. This woman actually had a friend at the Jerusalem Center 10 years ago when she was young and they would go out at night together and go do things in the Old City. She lost contact wiht her after 4 years and she was really excited to meet some more people from the Center. Today we went and cooked lunch with one of our friends and let me tell you homemade Arabic food is go-hood!

I am doing great and heading off to Galilee for about 2 weeks, so I will have lots to tell when I get back. Miss you all and hope all is well:)

Walking the streets of Jordan

I went to Jordan this past week and experienced yet another gem of the middle east. It is really amazing to me how Egypt, Israel and Jordan all have a very different feel to them. The Jordanian people are great people. I really enjoyed talking to them and seeing the type of lifestyles these people lead. Jordan was surprisingly very westernized...we went to Mecca Mall. It was pretty cool, HUGE but sort of felt like any other mall.

On our way to Petra we stopped at Mount Nebo where Moses is said to have stood and pointed out the promised land to the Children of Israel. Also, it is where they said Moses was buried or possibly 'translated.' After Mount Nebo we went to Maddaba and visited the St. Georges Mosaic Map Church. Only parts of the mosaic were left, nevertheless it was beautiful.

The first highlight was Petra...Indiana Jones Baby! It was so amazing...walking the trail with rocks in orange and red shades towering above your head with a small glimmer of light shinning in through the top is such a cool feeling. The fact that it is all natural is so mind boggling to me. Also, the fact that these people just looked at the rocks and said, lets build a monastery in that thing..seriously so cool! Anyways, it was also really interesting to see how the bedouins live, and try to sell you their dirtied up jewelry! There is a beautiful monastery with a great lookout point to you have to either hike up to or you can ride the donkeys. These donkeys are pretty crazy, but Tamarra and I decided to go for it. It was so much fun haha! We made it to the top except Jack(my donkey) had a little bit of trouble with his footing, I was worried a few times but we made it.

After Petra we made our way to Ammon, this was a more westernized area. We went to Jarash, the Jabbok River and the River Jordan. Jabbok is the river where in Genesis it talks about Jacob wrestling with God...where he sees him face to face, and his name is changed to Israel. It was the most beautiful and peaceful overlook. Jarash was awesome as well...the Roman ruins are unbelievable. We sat in the one of the theaters that seat hundreds of people and enjoyed a band of retired Army Generals on drums and bag pipes. In Ammon we were able to visit the Branch building in Jordan. The Branch president spoke to us for a bit and it was really interesting. He works in the intelligence sector of the army and has some sweet stories. The one thing that stuck with me about the whole thing is how much he stressed is how the middle east needs the Gospel. They don't know it yet, but they do and someday they will accept it. People here are curious. He had some really interesting stories. Even though there is such a small representation of the church there today and they aren't even recognized as a church I do believe that someday the church in Jordan will have quite a presence.

Our last day in Ammon we visited the Mosque of the Martyr King Abdullah Bin Al-Hussein where all the girls had to wear black cloaks. It was pretty creepy I must say, I felt a little like we were in Harry Potter haha. In the mosque our guide talked a lot about the Muslim faith and gave us a demonstration on how they pray. Some things really stuck out to me regarding the Islamc faith I was unaware of before. First of all there were a lot of similarities to the LDS faith that were highlighted. Most of all the focus Muslims have on family. Also, the fact they do not drink alchohol and keep the Sabbath Day Holy. Another fact that I found interesting was a question that was raised about what a Jihad is. It is a Holy War, however I have been taught or under the impression of in the US that a Holy War is militant. However, the true definition of a Jihad is the inner struggle between oneself and Satan.

After visiting hte mosque we went to the Citadel which had a museum that contained original portions of the Dead Sea Scrolls(copper). I wasn't aware of this but one of our professors Dr. Skinner was on the international team for translating protions of the Dead Sea Scrolls.(Leviticus) Something he said that stuck with me is the Joseph Smith Tranlsation of the Bible is actually closer to the actual translation of portionos of the Dead Sea Scrolls than our actual King James version of the Bible.

I would say a highlight of the trip was our visit to the River Jordan. We walked a long beautiful path to the spot believed to be where John the Baptist baptized Jesus. Today it is only a small pond of water because the river has changed its course over the years. We continued walking and ended up at the banks fo the River Jordan. Peaceful, simple, beautiful is what the River Jordan is to me. One of our professors talked to us about John the Baptist and his important role in Christ's life as we were sitting on the banks of the Jordan River. Something I never realized before was that John the Baptist was so highly thought of among the people he knew that He must decrease and Jesus must Increase. It must have taken great humility on his part to present Jesus to the people and baptize him in the River Jordan. How willing are we to lay the groundwork and then step back. I think John the Baptist can serve as an excellent example to us. I had never realized this before but I feel my understanding of John the Baptist's important role in Christ's life is so much more real to me.