Day 94

Today was a beautiful Shabbat. I woke up and went to choir this morning, sang before Sacrament, went to English Gospel Doctrine and then we had all combined for third hour since it's the fifth Sabbath of the month. I loved everything we learned and we were really encouraged to go to the temple, which I can't wait to do as soon as I get home.

After Church I went with a group over to the Garden of Gethsemane. It was really cool, we had all read different talks by General Authorities about the Atonement and talked about them and shared our testimonies. They call it the Living Prophets Society. It was the first time I've gone, but I want to go to more meetings because it was a really neat experience to talk about that while we were there in the Garden.

Later we had a fireside by Sister Qumsiyeh, our relief society president. She is from a town near Bethlehem and talked about how she was able to learn charity during her life growing up with the Palestinian/Israeli conflict, and how she was able to come to love the soldiers that were such a source of pain to her. It really inspired me to be a better person and be more full of charity, especially since I have so much less of a reason not to feel charity for all of the people around me.

Tonight we are doing another roommate sleepover with mattresses on the floor, a movie and some popcorn. I am so excited!

Day 93

We had 3 hours of New Testament in the morning... soooo long but also really really good. At 3 when we were allowed to go out into East Jeru I went with Katie and Natalie and a couple of others to the Garden Tomb, and we just spent about an hour there. It's always such a peaceful place. I started reading Jesus the Christ, by Talmage, and I enjoyed it a lot. It is always a really neat experience to read about or talk about events in the Savior's life so close to where they actually took place. As usual, there were a lot of other Christian groups there, singing and preaching. I love all of the different kinds of groups that come in. They are from all over the world and they all have their own way of celebrating the resurrection of Christ and it makes it so fun.

Last night we went to the Western Wall again as a group, but this time me and Katie dressed up like Jews. We wore dark skirts and simple shirts and wrapped our hair in scarves. We stayed away from our own group, and tried to copy what the Jewish women were doing. We walked the way they walked, read the prayer books, and prayed like they do. It was really really cool because it made it such a different experience from the last time we went to the Wall. A lot of people would say things to us in Hebrew, and we were treated like we were one of them instead of tourists. They were a lot more courteous than they can sometimes be when they know you're just another American there to just check it out. It was such a blast.

Day 88 (and Jordan)

Sunday was a half field trip, half free day. The field trip was to Herodian Jerusalem, a lot of parts of the Old City from the time of Herod. We went under the city to some of the old roads and bridges that were around during that time, we saw the remains of a house that was burned down when the second temple was. Then we went down to the Temple Mount. First we walked around and saw where parts of the original walls were still there from when they were torn down by the Romans. Then we went through the Citadel to some stairs that would have been there during Christ's life, and were probably the ones He used when He went to the temple. Throughout the whole day we read a lot of scriptures about the temple and the Old and New Testament, and it was really cool to see the scriptures kind of come to life.

That afternoon me and my roommates Katie and Natalie did some shopping for Jordan. Our roommate Jessie couldn't come, so we bought stuff out in the Old City and got stuff for us too. That night we had a toga dance party, the Bar Kokhba Revolt (geeky history reference; at least we know we learned something during Judaism class). We stayed up pretty late packing and playing.

Early Monday morning we got on the bus for Jordan! Our first stop was at Mt. Nebo, where Moses saw the promised land for the first time and then where he was translated later on. Then we went to this really old castle and walked around the walls. It was super windy, and it made it seem even more adventury. Next was a spring that was the headwaters for one of the rivers that leads into the Jordan. At our hotel that night we walked around the little town. We went to a bakery, and then we went to the hotel pool to swim for a while.

Tuesday morning we woke up early and headed to Petra. It was absolutely amazing. The Treasury and the Monastery were incredible, and there were so many other unbelievable tombs and buildings built into the cliffs. It was all red rock, so it looked like southern Utah, it was really pretty. Probably my favorite part was walking around and talking to all of the Bedouins. They were all trying to sell stuff, but if you just sat down and got into a real conversation with them they were really fun to get to know. One girl came up and talked to me and Katie for a good half hour, and I loved finding out a little bit about her life. She lives in a small village, and she wants to be a guide when she grows up. She is 14, which is the normal age for girls to get married in her culture, but she says that she never wants to get married because single is better. That night we went to a new hotel in Amman, and we got to walk around the city. There was a small "mall" down the street, mostly just a food court with a couple small stores. There's a movie store, with 100% legal, totally legitimate DVDs for $1.50, and we all picked up a couple new movies. We watched Eclipse that night, and there was this black shadow that kept standing up in front of the camera of whoever was filming it in the theater.

Wednesday we saw Jerash, the Roman city with the best remains outside of Italy. We got to walk around, see the cardo and the arches and the ampitheater. A few people in the group got up to sing to hear the acoustics. Me and Bridget got up and gave an amazing rendition of I Wanna by the Spice Girls. Then we got to go see a reenactment of Roman legions marching and chariot racing and even a gladiator show. It was really really fun. We had the best lunch of the trip that day, these pitas that were kind of like fajitas. It was delish. Then we went to an overlook of the Jordan River. It's been getting smaller, but that part of the river was really wide still and it was really beautiful. That night we walked around the city some more. I went with some people who wanted to go to the mall, and someone told us we could walk there but then we found out it was 15 k away, so we started heading back and we almost went to this super ghetto circus but then we decided against it and instead we went back to the hotel, dyed my hair and watched the Last Song.

This morning we went to a mosque in Amman, one of the biggest in Jordan. All of the girls had to wear these black robes that looked like graduation gowns with hoods. We couldn't help making a few 'wingardium leviosa' references. The mosque was beautiful and the guide told us about the prayers and what the Muslims do when they go to the mosques on Fridays. Then we went to this Citadel and museum, and saw some of the ruins and artifacts that have been found in Jordan. Last, we went to Bethabara, the baptismal site of Jesus Christ. We dipped our feet in the river, read scriptures about His baptism and saw the Byzantine church that was built there.

We were back at the JC in time for dinner, and it felt so good to be back. It was fun to see the 10 people who stayed at the Center- we missed them a lot. It's nice to be in my own bed with all my roommates. We have exactly 2 weeks left, and even though we've done so much there's still so much left to do. I'm really excited for the next few field trips we have coming up, and to find some other awesome things to do out in the city during our last few free days.

Days 86 & 87

We had class yesterday morning, for 4 hours. We only have a couple of days of class left when we get back from Jordan, and then we'll have finals. The classes seemed to be endless at the beginning of the semester, it's so weird now that they're almost over.

I actually haven't been feeling very well the past few days, so I didn't go out yesterday. I rested and slept through most of the afternoon, and then last night we had a talent show. I did a Tahitian dance, and it was so fun to get to perform. I really miss it a lot. There were a lot of really fun, really clever talents. Some people did skits, some did songs, all of them were super creative but still showed a lot of legitimate talent. It was definitely a highlight of the week. After the show, me and my roommates pushed all of our mattresses together on our floor and watched Legally Blond. The mattresses literally took up the entire room- we had to put the chairs on the empty bases of our beds. We left them there for most of the day today too, and it was kind of really exciting.

This morning I still felt sick, so I spent the day in the Center again, taking some medicine and trying to get better. I had toast and soup for dinner, and hopefully one more good night's rest will let me fully recover for our field trip tomorrow morning. We had a fireside tonight by the Becksteads, a couple from Haifa. They are a really sweet old couple, he is a very accomplished rocket scientist and it was cool to hear about their life as he pursued that career. After that, we watched Indiana Jones: The Last Crusade to get us all excited about going to see Petra in a couple of days. I honestly can't wait, I think it will be a really really cool week!

Day 85

We had class in the morning, a couple of hours of New Testament. The whole time we could hear these explosive noises coming from outside. We weren't really sure what was going on, but later we found out that it was all of the Jewish students celebrating their graduation exams. They kept doing fireworks pretty much all day. After class we had an orientation meeting for Jordan, since we leave on Monday. It was kind of like the one for Egypt, but not quite as intense. We're not supposed to eat fresh vegetables or drink the water, but most of the food is ok, even fruits if we peel them ourselves.

We had our field trip after lunch, to Herodian and Shepherd's Field. Herodian is one of the many palaces that Herod the Great built around his kingdom. It is a fortress, but with bath houses and pools and lots of other luxuries. During the Bar Kokhba revolt, the Jews turned part of it into a synagogue. We sat there and read some scriptures about Herod. Even though he did a lot of evil things, like killing a lot of his family and having all of the innocents slain, we talked about some of the good things he did like building a lot of really amazing buildings all over the Holy Land.

The next place we went to was Shepherd's Field, which overlooks Bethlehem. It is one of the very likely sites of the angel's visit to the shepherd's to announce the birth of Christ. We had some quiet time there to read and explore, and then we had a Nativity program. People acted out Mary, Joseph, the Shepherds, Wise Men, and Angels, and we sang a bunch of Christmas hymns. The Nativity is something I've done a lot of times, usually at least once or twice every Christmas season, but it was really an amazing to do it there with Bethlehem in the background. After the program, Brother Brown told the story of Christmas from the other side of the world. He talked about the signs that the people of the Americas were looking for that would tell them that Jesus was born. It was so cool to see both sides of the story told side by side, and to remember how important that event was to all of us all over the world.

Day 84

Today was a field trip to the Christian Quarter of the Old City. Instead of renting the nice tourist buses for the day, we got a city bus to take us over to New Gate.

Some of the places I had already visited, but it was cool to go back and hear all of the history and stories that go along with some of the churches that we walk past every day. The first place we went was to the Lutheran Church of the Redeemer. There was a pretty garden in the middle and we sang some hymns in the chapel out of their hymnbook, which had some of our songs, like Angels We Have Heard On High, and some that we don't have, like Amazing Grace, Come Thou Fount, and Go Tell It On A Mountain.

The next place we went was the Church of Alexander Nevsky, a Russian church with some really pretty paintings telling the story of Christ's arrest through His resurrection. There was also a small hole through one of the walls that is supposed to be the traditional "eye of the needle".

Next we went to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. I've been there at least 5 or 6 times at this point, but there were so many little chapels that we went into today that I didn't eve know existed. It is co-owned by the Armenians, the Roman Catholics and the Greek Orthodox, and the keys are held by a couple of Muslim families so that the relative cooperation between all of these sects can be maintained. It was really fun to explore all of the little side rooms all over the church- you could really get lost in there with all of the nooks and stairways there are inside.

Our last stop was at St. Mark's, which is another competing site for the Upper Room where the Last Supper took place (honestly I think the place we went yesterday is more likely the real one). A lady named Justinia from Iraq gave us an introduction to the church, and mentioned some of the miracles that have taken place there. There is a painting of Mary the Mother and Jesus as a baby that was supposedly painted by Luke while Mary was still alive, and people who have prayed there have experienced the gift of tongues and the healing of cancer. Downstairs was the upper room- it's downstairs because things are always built on top of each other in this city, so all of the old buildings are usually deep underground.

We had a sack lunch, but I came back with a group before lunchtime so we ate out on the grass on the 7th floor. Then I spent the afternoon napping, reading scriptures and trying to get ahead on some of the reading for this week. We get to "sleep in" tomorrow because breakfast isn't til 8, which is actually really exciting for all of us :)

Day 83

We had our New Testament midterm this morning, so me and Jessie woke up absurdly early to get in a little bit more studying. Right after the test we had class again, and then 2 hours of ANE. By lunch we were all a little wiped out, but we went out into the Old City anyway and it ended up being a really fun afternoon.

I went out with some people who I don't really hang out with that often, and it was really fun to get to know all of them a little bit better. We went to Dormition Abbey first, which is a supposed resting place of Mary. Under the church there is a crypt with a tomb that has a likeness of Mary over it. There were the most beautiful mosaics all over the two levels of the church, but there was also an angry man who walked around and wouldn't let us take pictures of certain things. We love these people.

After Dormition Abbey we went to the Upper Room, which is where the Last Supper took place. It wasn't a very big place, but we sang some hymns there and it was really cool the way it reverberated in the stone room. The next place we went, King David's Tomb, a lady came up to us and asked if we were the ones who had been singing at the Upper Room. We said yes, and she thanked us and said that it really helped her to feel something there, which can be hard when places are flocked with tourists. It was really neat to talk to her, we felt like we were able to do a little bit of missionary work. Even if we couldn't tell her about the Church, at least we could share the Spirit with her.

Next we went to a small Holocaust memorial museum that was next door, and then we tried to go to Schindler's grave but it was locked. Apparently there are some weird hours that we didn't know about. So instead we headed back to the Center. On the way we saw a big commotion at the Western Wall, so we stopped there to check it out and discovered that it was Tisha B'av, a day set apart to mourn the destruction of the temple. The Jews can't shave for 3 weeks before, they can't sit on an upright chair that day and they all go to the Western Wall and fast on the day of. I put a prayer in the Wall while we were there, it was cool to be there during the day with all of the people.

Last night was dinner, reading, and a cool Book of Mormon movie. I was still tired from waking up so early so I went to bed early, and it felt so nice :)

Day 82

It was a free day, and for the first time in a really long time I just kind of bummed around the JC all day. I didn't feel too bad about it though, because there were a lot of people doing the same thing. I woke up, went to breakfast, and got back in bed for a couple of hours. Then I read some scriptures, read some of my book, worked on some homework, did some studying for the NT midterm, watched a movie, had some roommate bonding, and went to bed kinda early actually. It was nice to have a relaxing day. Even though we just got back from Galilee, which seemed relaxing, I realized just how tiring that trip was with our back-to-back field trips at the end, especially. With about a week until Jordan, I want to stay rested because that will be another packed and non-stop trip.

Day 81

We had a free day, which means breakfast from 7:30 to 9:00 am. We left right after that to go to mass at the Terra Sancta monastery. It was in Italian, and it was really cool. The different priests said the prayers and homilies and we just followed along with sitting and standing and kneeling with the rest of the small congregation. After the service Father Angelo did a question/answer session with us, and he told us a lot about his life previous to becoming a monk and what his daily life is like now that he is one. He was hilarious. He told us that being a monk means "no money, no honey, and nothing you can do about it." He also told us some of the jokes that he would play while people do confession. He is definitely a unique priest.

When we were ready to leave the monastery we went out to the door but it was locked. All of the other priests had left and we were locked in! Father Angelo got on his cell phone and tried to get ahold of the guy with the keys but we ended up having to go up onto the roof and down the fire escape down to the back parking lot to get out of the building. We ate our lunches in the Old City, and then ran a couple of "errands." We stopped at Shaban's for some people to exchange money, and then we stopped at the camera store so I could buy a new one. I ended up getting a pretty good camera at a pretty good price, so it was a successful shopping venture. We took the bus home because one of the girls who was with us sprained her ankle in Galilee and is still on crutches.

Back at the Center it was kind of a chill afternoon. I read a little bit, and did some of the study guide for our New Testament midterm on Tuesday. After dinner I let my roommate Katie cut bangs in my hair. She was really nervous about it but she did a really great job. There were at least 5 or 6 other people getting their hair cut tonight, it was definitely a party.

Day 80

Today was Shabbat. I meant to wake up this morning to go to the Garden of Gethsemane, but unfortunately my alarm clock ran out of batteries sometime during the night. It was still a nice morning, I went to breakfast and then choir practice before Church. We sang Come Along, Come Along and it was really fun- it's the first time I've sang in Sacrament meeting with the choir.

After Church me and Natalie visit taught and took hallah bread to our girls. It was a big hit. Everyone loves them some hallah bread. Then we had a relief society enrichment activity about journaling. It got me really excited about keeping a better journal and doing a personal history. I have loved blogging over the summer, but I don't know if I'll keep it up when I get home. I definitely want to start keeping a more day-to-day journal of the normal every-day things that go on in my life, even if it's just a short paragraph or something.

This afternoon I spent a lot of time reading my scriptures and writing in my journal. After dinner we watched another segment of the Messiah movie, a series that Brother Brown produced that goes over different aspects of the Savior's life. This section was on the Sermon on the Mount and some of the other things that took place in Galilee, and it was fun to see each place and go, oh, I've been there. I talked to my family and that was awesome too. I miss everyone so much and I can't wait to see you all next month!

Day 79 (and Galilee)

We left on Monday for Galilee, and we stopped on the way at Caesarea Maritima, an old Roman city, with a lot of ruins. It was really beautiful, right on the water. We also spent some time at Nazareth, visiting a couple of Churches of the Annunciation and one for Joseph. It was a pretty small town, and it was fun to walk between all of the different churches and kind of get a feel for what it might have been like when Jesus was growing up there.

Tuesday we had class in the morning while the other class went on the field trip. We started out with the annunciation and the birth of Christ. After lunch we had free time, to play on the beach and in the water. We did an ultimate frisbee tournament, and my team one! It was way fun. We had a bonfire that night and then played games on the beach.

Wednesday our class headed out on a boat across the Galilee. It was incredible. We stopped in the middle to have a devotional, and we talked about the events and miracles that took place at the Sea during Christ's ministry. We stopped at a museum that has a boat from the 1st century that they found on the shore of the Sea one year when the water level was really low. It is a really good example of what the fishing boats would have been like that we read about all the time in the New Testament. The next stop was the Mount of Beatitudes, which was absolutely amazing. We read through the Beatitudes and then we had free time to look in the church and write in our journals. That was probably my very favorite of all of the places we went in Galilee. After that we walked down to a couple of churches down the hill- one dedicated to the loaves and fishes and one that commemorates Christ's first visit to His apostles after He was risen. Our final stop was Capernaum, which has the remains of Peter's home. Christ lived in this town for a year and a half of His ministry, and there is a synagogue there that He would have gone to and taught at. That night we had a couple of hours of ANE after dinner. It's cool now that we're getting into stuff that is more familiar, more Greek and Roman history.

Thursday was another class day with free time in the afternoon for playing. We had class out on the lawn overlooking the Sea, which was awesome. In the afternoon we went on a rafting trip down the Jordan River. Most of the time was spent attacking each others rafts and lots of it was spent in the water, it was such a blast. That night for dinner we went into Tiberias for fish and ice cream. There was a really cool boardwalk with lots of little stands. Me and Bridget got hennas and some bracelets.

Friday was a hike day. We went to Gamla, which is an ancient fortress on a ridge in the middle of this valley, so we had to hike down the valley, up the ridge, along the stones that are still there from when the fortress was conquered by the Romans, then back down and up the other side again. It was hot but fun. Next we went to Qazrin, a village that has been partially rebuilt so you can really see what houses would have been like in the time of Christ. They are all made out of stone, and they are really dark inside. It was easy to see why lamps were such an important aspect of their lives, because even at 11 am it was hard to see everything inside. We were back in time for lunch and then about half of us went on this waterfall hike. It was nice to finally get to wear shorts for hiking, because it was really hot but jumping into the pools along the way was so nice.

Saturday was the Sabbath, and we went to Church at the Galilee branch house in Tiberias. We had a fireside that night where branch members talked about what it meant to them to finally have a branch and a meetinghouse that were so close instead of having to drive several hours every week to go to the Tel Aviv or Jerusalem branches. They all had really cool stories of why they are here in Israel and what it is like to live away from many other members and in such a small branch.

Sunday was class and free time again. I did a little bit of homework but mostly just fun reading and then playing in the water. It was the perfect temperature all week, and sometimes it would get waves like in the ocean, where you have to jump up and go over them.

Monday we had a field trip to a couple of old cities to see the synagogues and ruins there. Next we got to go to Gan HaShelosha, these natural pools from spring water. There were three really big pools, and waterfalls between them. We got to swim there for a couple of hours and it was the perfect way to feel refreshed and ready for the rest of the sites we would see that day. After swimming we went to Nain, where Christ raised a widow's son from the dead. We talked about how He cares for the individual, and we sang some hymns in the small chapel there. Our final stop was at the Mount of Transfiguration. We had an amazing lesson from Brother Manscill about all of the things that happened when Christ took His apostles there. There was a beautiful church there also, and there were some Italian tourists there. We sang some hymns, and they all stopped to listen to us and some even started videoing us. It was really cool, because we felt like they could feel the same spirit there that we did. We don't get to do any kind of missionary work here, so it's nice when we do get chances to share the spirit without breaking the rules.

Tuesday we went to an old Roman town and walked through the ruins there. We did a kind of nature walk through some of the headwaters of the Jordan River that come out from springs right out of the rocks. It was cool because Brother Manscill put his ipod on through our headsets so we could listen to music while we hiked. We went to Caesarea Philippi, where Christ promised the keys to Peter, and then to Nimrod's Castle, a crusader fortress that was pretty intact and you could walk through the tunnels and up the towers. That night we had a bonfire for our class, with some fun parts and some spiritual parts. We had popcorn, scones and s'mores, and first we did some funny stories from our professors and then we had some testimonies from a few people in the group. I performed the Me Ke Aloha dance, one that Lani taught us that is about Christ. It was really special for me to be able to dance it there, since it was like my way of bearing my testimony.

Wednesday we went to Akko, another crusader city on the shores of the Mediterranean. We learned about the knights that came there and got a chance to walk around the city. It kind of had a little bit of the flavor of the Old City here in Jerusalem. We had another bonfire that night for the whole group, and it was a big testimony meeting. It was an awesome experience and the perfect way to end our trip to Galilee.

Thursday we stopped at a couple of places on our way back to Jerusalem, first we went to Sepphoris where there are some really beautiful mosaics. There is one that they call the Mona Lisa, and it really was pretty incredible compared to some of the others we've seen. The next stop was Megiddo, which was a crossroads in ancient times and always one of the first places to get conquered during wars. Megiddo is what all of the revelations about Armageddon are referring to. We went to an overlook of the Bahai Gardens (think Temple Square type views), and then to the Templar Cemetery. We all slept most of the way back to the Center, and it felt so good to be back in our own rooms.

Today we didn't have class so the laundry room was pretty much packed all morning, but I got all of mine done and cleaned up the room a little bit too. After lunch I went with Katie, Jessie, and Lindsey to West Jerusalem for some waffles and ice cream from this awesome little hole-in-the-wall restaurant called Babets. We hung out on Ben Yehuda for a bit, checking out some of the boutiques there and picking up some hallah bread for tomorrow. Then we changed money at Shaban's, and met a group of JC kids at the Austrian hospice. We did the Stations of the Cross with Father Angelo, the Fransiscan monk who showed us the Hyde Door a few weeks ago. It's a big thing that pilgrims do when they come to Jerusalem. After the traditional walk along the Via Dolorosa, Father Angelo gave us a private tour of some of the places in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre that are not usually open to the public. We saw an old chapel and did a procession through the church. He told us a lot of cool things about the church, one of them is that because of all of the different groups staking claims on the church they instated this "status quo" policy a few hundred years ago, so now nothing can be changed about it. The benches are from the 1600's or something and they can't wipe down the picture frames, even though they're starting to get kinda grimy. A couple of Muslim families are actually the ones who have the keys to the building, so that none of the Christian sects can take over it. After the tour I took the bus back to the JC for the first time. It was really nice after a long day of walking to not have to climb that hill again.

Some Galilee pictures- I will post more when I can collect them from everyone I mooched off of after my camera broke:

At St. Peter's Primacy- the apostle's church

On the boat going over the Sea of Galilee

On the Mount of Beatitudes

Me and Jessie at the Roman Aqueduct

At Caesarea Maritima

Day 78

We got back today from our trip to Galilee, which was absolutely amazing! It was fun and spiritual, I learned so much, I really got to know people better and I feel like I got to know the Savior better while I was there. We had some pretty incredible field trips, like the Mt. of Beatitudes, the Mt. of Transfiguration, and Caesarea Philippi. We had some fun excursions too, like hiking to waterfalls and rafting down the Jordan River. There were some great firesides and devotionals too. We stayed at a resort run by a kibbutz, and it was sweet. The food wasn't the best, but we were right on the beach so I could wake up every morning and read scriptures or write in my journal with my feet in the Sea of Galilee. It really was the most amazing experience. I kept a pretty good journal of everything we did and saw there, and I will try tomorrow to condense it into a nice summary to post, hopefully with some pictures too. For now I have a bunch of laundry to do, and some catching up on reading and studying. We have our first test on Tuesday for New Testament, and we covered so much during the trip that there will be a lot to review.

P.S. I loved having mail waiting for me when I got back! Thanks Grandma and Grandpa!

Day 67

Happy 4th of July!!! It was a pretty good one for us here at the JC. It was a free day, and a lot of it was spent getting things ready for Galilee but there was a lot of time for fun too. This morning we went to Aladdin's to exchange money and then to the YMCA. Me and Jessie had already been there but Natalie really wanted to play the bells. Brother Whipple let us play some patriotic songs, and I played My Country Tis of Thee. It was pretty fun, especially the parts where he jumped in and played some of the harmony or other random parts that made it sound really cool.

We walked back through the Old City and did some shopping on the way. We bought some cute bangles and I finally found a nativity that I love. Before we left we stopped at the Our Lady of Zion Convent, which is part of the Via Dolorosa. You go underneath the convent and there are a bunch of Roman-era roads and stairways that you can walk through. There is a game carved into the floor in one of the rooms, and it is supposed to be related to when the soldiers cast lots during the flagellation. We have to do site reports for New Testament, which is where you read scriptures that have to do with the place that you are at and then you write a short personal reflection. We have to do 20 of them before the end of the semester.

We got back to the Center in time for dinner, which was a full-out 4th of July barbecue!!! Almost. There were salads and hot dogs and hamburgers (veal and lamb) and potato chips and apple pie and vanilla ice cream and corn on the cob. It was one of the best meals we've had here so far. They even had sprite and fanta. After dinner when it got dark we did sparklers.

I have done a bunch of laundry, packing, cleaning, etc. for most of the rest of the day. We leave bright and early tomorrow morning at 6:30 and we have a pretty full day of field trip stops before we get to the kibbutz we're staying at.

Day 66

Today was a really great Shabbat. I woke up early and had some time to read scriptures out on our deck overlooking the city. Church was awesome, we had an amazing Testimony meeting and the other classes were really good too. After Church I walked down to the Garden of Gethsemane with some friends. It was very peaceful there- quiet, not crowded at all, and it was a great opportunity for me to write a lot in my journal and just think about things. It's been getting a lot warmer, and the walk back up to the Center was really hot. But it was definitely worth it for the experience. We only have 3 or 4 more Shabbats left, and I want to make the most of them.
After dinner I rested for a little bit, and later we watched this movie for a fireside that was about Christ. President Brown, one of our directors, helped produce it and it was cool to see him in the movie. He is very smart, and he knows a lot about Luke and a whole bunch of other stuff. We love him. The movie talked mostly about Christ's pre-mortal existence and how He was the Jehovah of the Old Testament. I loved that I recognized the scriptures they were quoting and the stories that they related to it. I can appreciate things like that so much more now that I have studied and understand the OT better.
Tomorrow is our last day before Galilee! I started packing a few days ago because I was just so excited to go. I can't wait!

Day 65

Today was our first day of New Testament. I loved it! It was basically an introduction to our new teacher, Brother Manscill, to what the class will be like, and what we will be learning this semester. We talked about all the different parts of Christ's life that we will be studying, and I was getting really excited because this is really why I came here, to learn more about the Savior in the place where His life, death, and resurrection happened.

After NT we had our Hebrew and Field Trip finals- piece of cake. They were really really easy, and it was nice to just have it over with and have absolutely nothing to stress about for the rest of the day.

At 3 I went with a group to this restaurant in the Old City where you can eat on the roof. We had all already had lunch, but they had delicious lemonade and it was really fun to sit on the rooftop, looking out over the city and seeing it from a different perspective. The lemonade had big pieces of mint leaves in it, and it was probably the best lemonade I've ever had.

After the restaurant we ran by Shaban's to get money for Galilee, and then stopped at the co-op on the way back to the JC to get some snacks for Shabbat. Tomorrow is Fast Shabbat, and we always try to have something to eat after Church because it's a long time before dinner.

Tonight was spent mostly resting, although I did get a little bit done on the reading for our first NT class in Galilee. I am getting so excited for the trip, and all of the things that we'll get to see and learn about while we are there, and I just can't help but want to get started now!

Day 64

We had our Old Testament final this morning, and it feels so good to have it be over! I felt really confident about it, so hopefully I did well (fingers crossed). After lunch we had Hebrew, our final is tomorrow so it was good to review everything. Our teacher also showed us everything that they do in her family for Shabbat, including lighting the candles, saying the prayers, eating the hallah bread, and singing the Shabbat Shalom song. We sang a few other songs too, and even reenacted a Jewish wedding. We held the tallit over the "couple", sang the Hava Nagila song, and then lifted their chairs up in the air. It was really fun, I love all of the cultural things that we learn in that class, because they help us understand the things we see and hear about sometimes, especially in West Jeru.

After class I went with some people along the top of Mt. Scopus over to the Tomb of the Prophets. The tomb is basically catacombs, kind of caves that were all connected with nooks in the walls for the bones. Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi were supposedly all buried there. The coolest part was that it was so dark, and we didn't have flashlights, but there were candles there that you could use. It was fun to walk around and explore and scare each other.

I am really excited because this is the first night in a VERY long time that I will get to sleep before 11. It has been such a long week of studying, but we have our last 2 finals tomorrow and they are the easiest ones. I am so excited for Galilee too- we have a countdown in our room: 3 days left!