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 :)