Day 37

Old Testament this morning, then just an hour of ANE. We were talking about the things we're going to see on our field trip on Monday, so it was exciting. And we didn't have a quiz! Which was even better. We had sandwiches for lunch (a bunch of different types of bread, meats, cheeses, tuna and egg salads etc.) and then hung out in the Center til 3 when we could go out.

Since tomorrow is the Jewish Sabbath, they always make this bread called halla bread on Fridays. This was the first time I'd gotten it, but it was so good. We had to walk over into West Jeru to get it, and as usual we passed a party on Ben Yehuda St. They had up a bunch of stands and a huge screen with music videos on it. We didn't have much time so we didn't stop but it looked like a lot of fun. We found a bakery and got a couple loaves to share between 4 of us. It's this big hunk of braided bread, super flaky inside and kind of sweet and a little sticky on the outside. We ate a bunch of it on our way back but I made sure to save some for tomorrow. We only have two meals on the Sabbath- breakfast and an early dinner- so it is always really nice to have some snacks in the room for right after Church and right before bed.

We ran through the Old City on our way back to run a couple of errands. I stopped at an olive wood place to pick up a Nativity for Aunt Jenny- it is beautiful, you are going to love it!- and then to Bassal's. I bought some genie pants from him the other day but I only had 20 shekels and they were 25. He said I could just bring the 5 sheks back later, but it's been almost a week now since we couldn't go out for so long. Anyway, when I went to give him the money he goes, no no it's ok I forgive you it. Some of the people here are really cool like that, very friendly and not super sticklers, and those are the people you know you will keep going back to buy stuff from because you just love them so much.

After a quick dinner, 20 of us hopped in taxis to head over to the Synagogue. Our MNE Israeli teacher set up these trips so all of us could go in groups to see the Shabbat services. It was a really neat experience. They mostly read/sang a bunch of the Psalms and some Torah verses, and we tried to follow along in the little books. I was impressed yet again by how devoted the people are to their faith. The service lasted an hour and a half, and they have another Shabbat meeting tomorrow morning for about 2 and a half hours. There were a lot of young girls there about our age, and a few really old ladies. The men and women were separated by a screen in the middle of the Synagogue, which was really a boy scouts building that is converted into a synagogue for the people in the community every week. At one point one of the old ladies started a line walking/dancing around the women's seats. Did I join the line? Of course I did. It is so fun to be a part of the way they worship, because it is really joyful. Even though it's different from the way we do our Church meetings, you can tell that they rejoice so much in worshiping God and reading the Torah as often as they do. There were a lot of people who prayed silently during a lot of the meetings. From what we've learned, their prayers are mostly repetitions of Torah verses, but you can tell in their faces that they really mean what they are saying.

When we got back, there was a movie going called Journey of Faith. It's this documentary about Lehi's family and how they wandered from Jerusalem through the Arabian peninsula and then sailed to the Americas. There were a lot of archaeological elements, things that were discovered after the Book of Mormon was translated that corroborate the stories, which was really cool. They also talked about how difficult it must have been for them to take their families and travel for months in the desert, camping at oases for a few days and then making the long trek to the next water source, for miles and miles. The landscape looks a lot like what we drive through on our field trips- a whole lot of nothing. It is so amazing that they were able to survive that and that Nephi and Lehi were able to stay so strong and faithful throughout the whole thing. The best part was that Brother Hamblin, our ANE teacher, and Brother Brown, the assistant director of the Center, were both in the movie. It was like being back in class!

I'm soooo tired, and really excited because tomorrow is District Conference and Church isn't til 11, so I will finally finally get a chance to sleep in!!!