ahhh! i have not blogged this week because so much has happened and i don't know which parts to blog about. another reason i haven't blogged is because i haven't been able to get over to hebrew university to upload pictures and i feel like i need to post pictures with every blog post. but you know what, i'm not going to stress about it! i can do whatever i want on my blog!
this week has been amazing! it feels so good to be in school. i feel like i have a purpose for the first time in a few months.
i already feel like i'm becoming such good friends with the kids here. i can't imagine how close we'll be in three months! i love my teachers and their kids and the rest of the staff here.
i love the city. i can't get enough of it.
i still love the call to prayer. i am obsessed with it. it gives me chills to hear it while i am looking out at this amazing city that has so much history behind it. sometimes i imagine that jerusalem has a soul. i think weird things sometimes. but i really feel like it's alive! it's so old and has so many stories to tell. man, if walls could talk...
on monday, we went on a field trip and one of our stops was bethlehem. we sat in a little field and sang christmas hymns. there was even a shepherd that brought his sheep to us so we could take pictures of him! (obviously it was staged so he could get some shekels out of it, but still!)
yesterday we had a service project where we stood in assembly lines and made school kits for local elementary schools. aka it was a backstreet boy sing-a-long. it happens to the best of us.
last night, we had the really neat opportunity to go to the western wall and celebrate the beginning of the sabbath at sundown with the jews. i LOVE the western wall. it is so special to so many jews and they are so sincere in their worship there. i can learn a thing or two from them even if we don't share the same beliefs! some people were dancing and singing in the square, some were touching the wall and reading the torah and praying. it was very cool to experience. the coolest part about it is that i was at the wall, touching it, and looking at the people around me and guess who was standing right next to me? JULIE B. BECK! the last general relief society president! we talked to her for a bit but when i first saw her, it took my mind a second to compute who i was seeing. in jerusalem.
today was by far the best day i've had here so far. we went to church (the sabbath is always on saturday here), then a group of us went to the garden of gethsemane. it was really cool. we were talking to a gardener there who said some of the olive trees have been there since before Christ was born. the garden used to be a lot bigger, but they have only preserved a few smaller gardens and used the other land to build churches and stuff. we went into the church of all nations, which is right by the garden. there is a slab of rock which is supposedly the rock that Christ knelt on during the atonement. i didn't know this, but you can ask a priest or whoever is presiding over a church if you can sing hymns and usually they'll let you sing in their church if you ask. so we asked and sang "be still my soul." the sound was so beautiful and it was such a great song to be singing in gethsemane. a bunch of people gathered around to listen to us sing and took pictures of us haha! but it was a memorable experience.
we came back for dinner and then our whole group went to the garden tomb, which is just right in the city. there is just a sign on this busy street that says garden tomb and you walk in this gate and there is the most stunning garden that is so quite and peaceful! you would not believe that there is a modern, busy city right outside. it is so gorgeous. by far my favorite place we've been to so far. there are these hilarious old british men that have come to volunteer that took us around the garden and told us the history behind it. they made it very clear that there is no way to know for sure that Christ was crucified and buried here. but they showed us all these parallels from the scriptures that strongly suggest it. at the very end, they stressed that it didn't matter where he was buried. as the volunteers shout, "HE IS RISEN! AMEN! HALLELUJAH!" as funny as they were, it was a very peaceful experience. we walked around the garden, saw the spot where they think golgotha might be, and then went into the tomb at the very end. i loved it so much! when you are walking out of the tomb, there is a sign that says "he is not here--for he is risen." we sang a few easter hymns. we sing a lot, haha. but the point is....it was a really good day and i am in LOVE with the garden tomb!
i love this experience so far. but i had a hard time transitioning the first week. i wanted to call home a lot. i felt a little lonely. but i'm over it, and feeling so happy right now. i know i am so lucky to have this experience. i am so grateful to everyone who has supported me in coming here. my parents especially. i would not be here without them!
ok, sorry for my ramblings! i can 90% guarantee that there will pictures later this week! right now we're going to watch "prince of egypt" in the student lounge. i love that movie...does anyone else wonder why the egyptians have british accents?
this week has been amazing! it feels so good to be in school. i feel like i have a purpose for the first time in a few months.
i already feel like i'm becoming such good friends with the kids here. i can't imagine how close we'll be in three months! i love my teachers and their kids and the rest of the staff here.
i love the city. i can't get enough of it.
i still love the call to prayer. i am obsessed with it. it gives me chills to hear it while i am looking out at this amazing city that has so much history behind it. sometimes i imagine that jerusalem has a soul. i think weird things sometimes. but i really feel like it's alive! it's so old and has so many stories to tell. man, if walls could talk...
on monday, we went on a field trip and one of our stops was bethlehem. we sat in a little field and sang christmas hymns. there was even a shepherd that brought his sheep to us so we could take pictures of him! (obviously it was staged so he could get some shekels out of it, but still!)
yesterday we had a service project where we stood in assembly lines and made school kits for local elementary schools. aka it was a backstreet boy sing-a-long. it happens to the best of us.
last night, we had the really neat opportunity to go to the western wall and celebrate the beginning of the sabbath at sundown with the jews. i LOVE the western wall. it is so special to so many jews and they are so sincere in their worship there. i can learn a thing or two from them even if we don't share the same beliefs! some people were dancing and singing in the square, some were touching the wall and reading the torah and praying. it was very cool to experience. the coolest part about it is that i was at the wall, touching it, and looking at the people around me and guess who was standing right next to me? JULIE B. BECK! the last general relief society president! we talked to her for a bit but when i first saw her, it took my mind a second to compute who i was seeing. in jerusalem.
today was by far the best day i've had here so far. we went to church (the sabbath is always on saturday here), then a group of us went to the garden of gethsemane. it was really cool. we were talking to a gardener there who said some of the olive trees have been there since before Christ was born. the garden used to be a lot bigger, but they have only preserved a few smaller gardens and used the other land to build churches and stuff. we went into the church of all nations, which is right by the garden. there is a slab of rock which is supposedly the rock that Christ knelt on during the atonement. i didn't know this, but you can ask a priest or whoever is presiding over a church if you can sing hymns and usually they'll let you sing in their church if you ask. so we asked and sang "be still my soul." the sound was so beautiful and it was such a great song to be singing in gethsemane. a bunch of people gathered around to listen to us sing and took pictures of us haha! but it was a memorable experience.
we came back for dinner and then our whole group went to the garden tomb, which is just right in the city. there is just a sign on this busy street that says garden tomb and you walk in this gate and there is the most stunning garden that is so quite and peaceful! you would not believe that there is a modern, busy city right outside. it is so gorgeous. by far my favorite place we've been to so far. there are these hilarious old british men that have come to volunteer that took us around the garden and told us the history behind it. they made it very clear that there is no way to know for sure that Christ was crucified and buried here. but they showed us all these parallels from the scriptures that strongly suggest it. at the very end, they stressed that it didn't matter where he was buried. as the volunteers shout, "HE IS RISEN! AMEN! HALLELUJAH!" as funny as they were, it was a very peaceful experience. we walked around the garden, saw the spot where they think golgotha might be, and then went into the tomb at the very end. i loved it so much! when you are walking out of the tomb, there is a sign that says "he is not here--for he is risen." we sang a few easter hymns. we sing a lot, haha. but the point is....it was a really good day and i am in LOVE with the garden tomb!
i love this experience so far. but i had a hard time transitioning the first week. i wanted to call home a lot. i felt a little lonely. but i'm over it, and feeling so happy right now. i know i am so lucky to have this experience. i am so grateful to everyone who has supported me in coming here. my parents especially. i would not be here without them!
ok, sorry for my ramblings! i can 90% guarantee that there will pictures later this week! right now we're going to watch "prince of egypt" in the student lounge. i love that movie...does anyone else wonder why the egyptians have british accents?
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