The Final Countdown

Wow, these last few days (especially today) have been incredibly rough.  I just said goodbye to majority of the students as the went to the airport. Luckily there is still a group of kids that are leaving at 2 am so I have company but man, I lost it today saying goodbye to everyone. But these past few days have been an incredible spiritual experience as we finished off the life of Christ sequence. 

 We started off at the Garden of Gethsemane where we had a testimony meeting and devotional.

 This is the chapel that was built in the grotto where the three apostles slept during the atonement.

 This the church of flagellation which is the church that portrays the scourging that happened to the Savior. It is also the 2nd stop on the Via Dolorosa so where Christ picked up the cross.

We made a pit stop at the pool of Bethesda, where the man was healed by Christ because he had no one else to help him into the pool. The picture is of the underground cistern which could have been a possible location of the man.

The next day was my good friend Jess Sloan's 23rd birthday so we celebrated out in the city. We first broke onto the rooftops in the Old city and we found this cool ceiling vineyard.

 While walking up some random street we found this hole in the wall bakery and these kids gave us a good price for hot bread. They then proceeded to give us a tour of their home. I had never seen the inside of any of the houses. It was small and rundown but I learned some cool facts like; the houses are owned by the churches in the area, the church will renovate the houses, it is passed through generations, andif you sell your house it goes for 2-3 million! Location, location, location

 This is Sloan at our favorite SamBooki bakery!

 We found some time for urban shoots

 Then went to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre

 I also made the best purchase of the semester, it was a John Cena shirt. John Cena is HUGE here in Israel (he is a WWE wrestler in the states) but all the kids wear his shirt so we had to get one.

 Last night we had a slideshow of the entire year and then received our shirts for the semester. We had time to take pictures with our friends. These are the girls that I have spent pretty much all my time with, we are the "shack pack"

 good friend kimbo Hoffman

 "The crew" well like half of the crew, but the people I hung out with 24/7

 Adam and I

 Adam, Rob, Linds, and I

Canton

Man, I am going to miss these kids like crazy. This experience exceeded all expectations. I am so sad that it is coming to an end but I know all good things come to an end. Now I am excited to go back and share my experiences with everyone. I am also excited to have like 20 new best friends back in Provo. Let the next adventure begin

Never Stop Exploring

EIn Kerem and Field Trips

 Yesterday we had a free day so we went to Ein Kerem which was the birthplace and home town of John the Baptist. This quaint little down was packed with churches commemorating different monumental times of John. The church to the right is where Mary met Elizabeth after the annunciation.

 Here is the well where they met.

 Inside of the church with several mosaics about Elizabeth

 Mary's spring

 This is another church and this is the place where John the Baptist was born. It is very similar to the cathedral of Christ's birthplace.

 Another far away shot of the birthplace

This is a picture from the other side of the hill and you can see the steeples of the three churches.

Afterward the hour and a half bus ride back to Jerusalem we hung out in west Jerusalem. We found this cup and had to get pictures. 

 This is the one of the stores where they sell kippas. They make every imaginable logo, TV show, food, movie, etc on the kippas.

 Today we had a field trip that started the last week of Christ. The first stop was at Lazarus' tomb, which is where Christ raised Lazarus from the dead. This was very important because this is the first time that he was very public about his miracles and he raised him after 4 days.

 This is a view from Dominus Flevit which is where Christ wept over the destruction of the temple.

 This is St, Peters in Gallicantu church which commemorates Peter denied Christ three times

 These are the ancient stones where Christ would have walked after the Last Supper to Gethsemane.

 A statue of the denial

The St. Peter's church has an ancient church underneath which could have been Caiaphus' house which would have been the place Christ would have been scourged and stayed the night before his death.

HP7PII

 Two nights ago I went to see Harry Potter! AHHH I was so excited to go, I had my final the next morning and Harry Potter was higher on my priority list. No worries, I still did good on my final. The movie was amazing but the movie theater was a little weak. The screen looked like a home theater. As you can see Adam next to the screen and he was almost as tall. As for my movie review: better than I thought and life changing.

 So as we were walking out of the theater we realized that we were on lock down and not allowed to leave the movie theater. If you look closely at the picture there is a backpack outside of the door. In Israel if there is any unattended bag they will call in the bomb squad to examine it. This bag was left there so we got to witness the bomb squad work their magic. Everyone was so nonchalant about this because it is such a normal occurrence. Then it hit us that if this happened in the US that it would be such a big deal and make national news. But here it is just another day in Israel.

Scott outside of the theater pointing out the evidence of the backpack.

 This is what we were doing instead of studying. Typical night at the JC

 This morning before church I went to the Garden tomb and snapped these photos.

I have began my last week as a JC student and it is harder than I expected. I am going to miss this place and these people. Luckily I still have a week with my parents and Amy and Jared. They arrived safely in Israel this past week! They are up north in the Galilee and they are loving it :) I can't wait to see them. Shabbat Shalom.

More pictures

 Here are more pictures of Masada

These are pictures from Ein Gedi, the waterfalls. I forgot to mention that this is the location where David found Saul in the caves. He had the opportunity to kill him but he spared his life to set the precedent of not killing kings, good move on his part. This is the picture of my friends cutting the seam (like in the story)

 Our favorite bakery, Sambooki. We stop here almost everyday!

 The Call to prayer clock

 Independence Park game night

 Pictures of churches

It may be a few days until I post again because it is finals week and we will be in studying and writing papers all day :(