Eilat of fun with Elder Holland and Elder Cook!

October 16th to October 22nd

This past week has been full of awesome stuff! It all started on Monday with a trip to Eilat to snorkel in the Red Sea! We got up at 5am to eat breakfast and head out by 6am for the long 4hr drive down. We were all split into 2 buses. Each bus had 2hrs to snorkel, and my bus was the first group that got to snorkel. We walked out on this boardwalk into the middle of the water over all the coral, with stairs that led to the water. The water was really cold at first but the sea life was really cool! Specifically there was a big coral reef where all the colorful fish were congregated. It was so gorgeous! We all dove down to look closer at all the sea life. It was so pretty!! After our 2 hours of snorkeling, we got 2 hours of beach time while the other group snorkeled. The beach was pretty rocky, so it was hard to swim, but it was nice to just lay out, listen to music, and take fun pictures with my friends. Plus it was really cool because across the water we could see Jordan, off to the Southeast we could see the coastline of Saudi Arabia, and parallel to the beach we were at was Egypt. All in one place! It was so cool! After that we all took a bus to the city where me and my friends walked around an outdoor and indoor mall, and checked out the boardwalk/pier that was getting set up for a concert or something that was happening that night. There were shops all along the beach, and it was so pretty. Me and my friends found a souvenir store where we all bought friendship bracelets that had the colors of the israeli flag. After wandering, we ran back to the bus and drove back to the Jerusalem Center. It was just a nice relaxing day being able to swim in the Red Sea.

I did not end up going on the Red Sea trip, but me and my roommate Faith, and my friends Lexie and Brianne all stayed home together. Faith and I woke up at 6 to eat breakfast and grab a sack lunch from the kitchen, and then we went back to sleep. We ended up waking up at 1:30pm.... we did not feel guilty at all about that though haha. We then cleaned our entire apartment and made our roommates' beds for them. We went upstairs and knocked out all of our homework for the week and our many papers that were due this week for finals. We did this until about 5:30 when I woke up Dylan and facetimed him for an hour (he gave me permission to wake him up and do this because of the time change:) haha). We then ordered food and had it delivered to the center. The center actually paid for our dinner so we went big. We all got a meal and then we got a couple extra meals to share. Between us four we got two fajitas, two quesadillas, a burger, and shwarma. We ate almost all of it too. Then we all went into the movie room and put on mud masks and got candy and watched a chick flick together. It was the most relaxing and accomplishing and fun day ever. We were able to spend time together just us girls and have the center practically to ourselves and have good wifi because of nobody being there ;) haha

On Wednesday we had our City of David field trip where we checked out the original city of David was located. Everything we saw was so fun to see especially while we were learning about how they built the city to be prepared for war and to make water more accessible to the people. Hezekiah's tunnel was definitely my favorite part of the field trip. Back in the day Hezekiah (not him.. but his servants) built this tunnel underneath the city to bring the water into the city and pool at the southern end of the city to also avoid enemies from sneaking in through the original Giheon Springs. At the beginning and very end of the tunnel, the water was pretty deep! It went to about mid thigh, then for the rest of the tunnel it only was about ankle or mid calf deep. It was so cool!! Right after that we headed back up through another tunnel that they used for sewage back in the day to make it back up to the top of the city to catch the bus back to the JC. When we got back we got to press the olives that we picked last week with the actual old olive press that they used back in the day. It was so cool! And not too hard actually. We pushed the press around and around crushing all of the olives while a couple people scraped them off the sides and out of the middle so the giant stone would crush them. We then put the crushed olives into these netted bags and put them into a press that would squeeze out all of the oil into pots in the ground. We learned how much work it is to get olive oil.

This was the mascot I think for the City of David

Right before Hezekiah's tunnel

The end of the tunnel

This was our last field trip with our Old Testament teacher, Bro. Judd. He is awesome and we are really going to miss being in his class

After we crush the olives, we scoop them into those round baskets to be carried over to the actual olive press to get the oil

The Olive Press

This week has been bitter sweet, it was the last week of most of our classes. We are finishing up our Hebrew class, Israel class, Palestine class, and Old Testament class. I'm so sad to not have Hebrew class especially. It was literally my favorite class and I loved my teacher! In only a month and a half we learned so much Hebrew. We learned how to read and speak Hebrew, we learned the alphabet, how to write in Hebrew, and common phrases. All of our teachers here are the best and I have really enjoyed all of them. One little side note for those of you from our home ward... our Palestinian teacher looks exactly like a Palestinian Brandon Martineau haha. We have a couple pictures and a video we can show whoever is interested (Ursula) and we hope you see it from those, but it is much easier to tell in person. It has been hilarious to see him as Brandon this semester though haha. Other than that, we have been surprised with a visit from Elder Jeffrey R Holland, Elder Quentin Cook, and Elder Hamula of the seventy. It has been INCREDIBLE to be able to be in such an intimate setting with the apostles!!!! They arrived last night to take a picture with everybody, so right after dinner, me and Kelsie went to the 8th floor where the main entrance is to "wait to go into the auditorium for the picture" but really we wanted to watch for the them to come in through the door. A few of our friends were there too. Right as they were walking in, we were standing right across from the front door, and Sister Holland was the first one through the door  with her arms wide open wide ready to give me and Kelsie a hug! She ran right up to us and gave us a big, long hug and thanked us for being her welcome committee. She is the cutest!!! Then Elder Holland was directly behind her there to shake our hands. Immediately we were very excited to tell him that we knew his granddaughter's husband, Logan Smith (shout out to you Logan! haha). They were very excited and said they loved him and loved hearing about the connections we had. I quickly greeted Elder Cook and his wife and Elder Hamula and his wife. They were all so nice and seemed happy to be there. It was SOOOOO COOL to have a one on one interaction with 2 of the Lord's apostles!!! Before the apostles all walked away after greeting us so that they could start their tour, Elder Holland walked right up to me and grabbed my face in his hands and patted my cheeks. He said "we will see you later." I felt so starstruck and happy I can hardly remember it happening, but everyone said that my face was so cute and happy and in shock. It was such a fun special thing he did but meant so much to me. Plus me and Kelsie got to sit directly behind Elder Holland in the picture we took with him!!!! Unfortunately he specifically requested from us to not take any personal pictures with him, so we only have that group picture with him, but at least me and Kelsie can crop the picture so it looks like we are the only ones with him and his wife! Haha! Then today, they all joined us during our sabbath service and then had a fireside this evening. They mostly spoke about the main reason they are here, which is the Orsen Hyde 175th anniversary, but they also had amazing messages and a brief Q&A with the entire Jerusalem District. It was such an amazing experience. Plus they joined us for dinner here and were present during my friend's mission call opening during dinner! It was so cool! I just love them and I absolutely love being in such a close place with them. Today we got about 6 hours of nonstop spiritual high more. It was so incredible. We all feel emotionally and spiritually drained. We now know how the people felt when Christ was ministering to them and he needed to send them home for a break to ponder on the words that he spoke and to let them rest so he could continue the next day. Today I fasted for a couple things and got answers throughout the entire day which was really special too. 

Our Palestine teacher, Bashir Bashir

Our Hebrew teacher, Judy Goldman

Overall, today was probably my favorite day here so far. I am so grateful for the opportunity to be here and for the opportunity to keep seeing Elder Holland, Elder Cook, and Elder Hamula multiple times a day. I have never met an apostle before, so this has been incredible. I am so grateful for their words that they have spoken to us. They have helped me solidify my testimony in so many ways. I love my Savior and am grateful for his sacrifice and for the Plan of Salvation and the role that he played in it. I am grateful that I am able to live with my family forever and for the atonement which helps me repent for my sins and have a constant companion and somewhere to turn when I am broken. I am grateful for personal prayer and revelation. I am grateful for our living prophets and their guidance and counsel and testimonies. I love the gospel and my Savior and my family and the prophets and my friends here in the holy land and Dylan and for all of my opportunities I have been given recently and for the scriptures and for temples and just everything! I am on such a spiritual high and I am so happy. I love you all! :) <3

This was a quick picture I snapped while our friend was opening her mission call of Elder Holland and Elder Cook eating dinner with us :)

Arab and Israeli Culture!

September 25th to October 15th

Wow! What a great month! So sorry it's been awhile, but I'll try to catch everyone up on what's been happening! The main highlights for the first week after Jordan was our Arab Culture night. We took one night to all dress up like Arabs, decorate the entire Oasis (cafeteria) and eat Arab food, and then be taught how to Arab dance. It was a blast!  The man Shabbon from the city who loves us Mormons has a whole collection of Arab dresses for us to borrow so that we don't have to go out and buy anything for one night. He is always so kind, and this is just one example of how he goes above and beyond to treat us Mormons so well and thanks us for the business we give him. Everyone went ALL out! The decorations were so fun and the dancing was a bit tricky, but really fun! It was a lot of fun taking an evening and fully experiencing the culture that we live in. We had a devotional where a couple men came in and sang the call to prayer to us and we were able to follow along and know what they were saying and what it meant and then they took questions for clarification. We then ate delicious Arab food and then went into the gym where a few Arab girls taught us how to do Arab dancing. The following week we dedicated to the Jewish culture by having a Passover Seder with our Israel teacher, Ophir Yarden. The Seder lasts for about 2 to 3 hours and involves a lot of musical numbers, reading through the story of exodus, speaking in Hebrew, and eating really good food! Everything in that dinner symbolizes something special in the Jewish religion. We went ALL out for that night as well. We all dressed up nice in church clothes (minus ties for the guys), the guys wore kippas, the Oasis was all decorated and completely set up with books that walk us through the Seder, and a head table where Ophir and his son joined us to walk us through the service. We all signed up to be apart of each special music number. All of the musical numbers were sung in groups and all in hebrew, except for the one that me and Kelsie signed up for with some of our closest friends here. It was the one song that was in English and could be funny. It listed the 13 important symbols of the Passover, so we made our own version of the "12 days of christmas" mixing in the Jewish traditions! It was awesome and everyone LOVED IT! If you want to see a video, go check out my Facebook page! I posted it there :)

The past few field trips the past few weeks have been a lot of fun! We explored Jericho, the Shephelah valleys, Neot Kedumim, and Yad Vashem/Mt. Herzel. Honestly for Jericho, there wasn't much to see because there isn't much left from Jericho, but we did see the oldest artifacts in the world left from the city. There are some remnants of the mud brick walls that date back to the time of Joshua. During our Shephelah field trip it was really cool! We got to see where David and Goliath battled and even got to practice throwing stones with our very own slings. It was a lot harder than it looked. We even stacked some grates on top of each other to represent our own Goliath and attempted to hit it! I failed...haha it was so hard! It was incredible to see who hard it was for us and how David was so confident he could slay Goliath he only took 5 stones and was able to sling his stone just right to kill him. It is times like this where I can see the Lord's hand in the doings of his servants. The other really cool part of that field trip was when my class and the other class were both at different cities in the valleys, Lachish and Azekah, and each had a mirror. We were able to use the sunlight to signal to each other from so far away! It was so awesome!!! We did this to show how people in different cities communicated through fire and smoke and how it is possible to communicate and send a signal from so far away. The Neot Kedumim field trip was a lot of fun as well. We were given the chance to try and herd some sheep and goats around circles and into designated areas. It was so much fun and tricky when they would be stubborn and stop at trees or bushes to eat instead of do what we wanted. Plus Kelsie was OBSESSED with the goats and wouldn't stop holding one of them. OK I LOVE GOATS. Everyone knows it too haha every time they see or hear that theres goats they always call my name and get excited with me. It was so incredible because when we were herding the goats and sheep we were able to see who hard and almost impossible it is to move a large group of them form place to place. However, people like the Lord were able to do it so easily. They are wonderful leaders and shepherds showing such love for their animals that they would "leave the 99 to go get the 1 lost one." Then later we were given ingredients to make our own pitas, lentil soup, herbal tea, and ancient popcorn (I forget what it was called) (It was fried wheat) outside! It was so cool and actually really delicious! We made all of these on a fire and only given the ingredients. They gave us date honey which the people back in the biblical times would eat to make their food sweet, and it was so delicious. All of the food was really yummy except the herbal tea. It was peppermint flavor but it tasted like Silly Putty... The Yad Vashem/Mt. Herzel field trip was lead by our Israel teacher, Ophir, and was all about the Holocaust. Mount Herzel is a cemetery for the Jews and it was amazing seeing the recently buried leader of Israel who just passed away a couple weeks ago. It was a very emotional day seeing the museum that they had and the different monuments, statues, and rooms that they had dedicated to different things that happened during the Holocaust. Outside they had an arch with rebar sticking out of the top representing the next generation of Jews that were killed and not able to rebuild their homes and families on top of that. That generation was almost completely wiped out. My favorite room was the room dedicated to the children that perished. When you walk in, all of the lights are off and the walls, ceiling, and floor were covered in mirrors with one candle lit in the middle. It made the illusion that there were hundreds of lights representing all of the children, while a woman was reading off a list of the names and ages of all the children. The other representation of this light with billions of reflections was the Abrahamic promise that his seed would be more numerous than the stars in the sky. It was extremely emotional and hard to see all the hardships that the Jews had to go through. I went through with my friend, Kaue, and at first we were wondering why the Jews would't lie and say they weren't Jews to save themselves, but then we thought about what we would do in that situation. I would never deny my faith just to save my own life, so why would we ever expect anyone else who believes in their faith the every deny it just to save themselves. I loved the screens in every room with survivors who would tell their stories. They spoke about seeing their family members die or seeing the disgustingly, horrifying things that they saw. It was so sad. One man even saw Nazi's lining up the children and babies and one by one taking them and smashing them against the wall until they died and how his parents were hiding him between them so he would have to die like that. It hit me so hard that someone could actually do that and not feel bad about it. It made me want to do everything I can to protect my children in the future from any pain that they could possibly experience. The only other fun thing we did was go around the entire center and pick all of the olives in preparation for pressing olives to make olive oil for us to take home! Sadly, a lot of the olives were dried out but it was still a really cool experience.

Jericho

This was a place where the people held doves for sacrifices and other needs

Slinging rocks at "Goliath"

Herding the flock

Kelsie REALLY loves goats!

Making pitas

Making pitas and lentil soup

The final product

Herzel's grave

This was the room of the eternal flame that is always lit in memory of the Holocaust. On the floor is all of the names of all the concentration camps.

My friend, Kaue, and the awesome view behind us that is hard to see

Olive Picking :)

Kelsie found these acorn tops that she called "finger kippas" and of course somehow she convinced everyone to wear them