Sorry about my lack of postage.

Wow sorry guys about the past few days. I have just been super busy but we have a lot to catch up on. Lets start with the field trip that we went on last Thursday. We went to the churches around the Old City. This is a picture of us in the "Upper Room" which is actually in the basement of the church. We had this firecracker of a nun who gave us a tour of the room. I got yelled at a few times, oops. But this is the place where they think that the Last Supper occurred.

The next stop was the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, which is the traditional site for the crucifixion, anointing, burial, and resurrection of Christ. When you walk in you see the Stone of Unction which is a sacred rock for many people. Thousands of people flock here to touch this rock because it was the rock that Christ was anointed on.

 This is the top of the Hill of Golgotha and where the cross was placed. To make it clear, the professors and most Church leaders do not think that this is the correct site but it is still a beautiful church that commemorates it.

This picture was taken in front of the shrine where the tomb was. 

 The above picture is what they call the "eye of the needle" It is an opening on the sides of ancient gates. This is found within St. Mark's church. The picture below is us in front of the mosaic that details the walk from Gethsemane all the way to the Restoration.

This is St, John's church which is the oldest church within Jerusalem!

The next day we had our shopping extravaganza! WOOO. I saved all of my souvenir shopping for this day, I scouted, shopped, and prepared for this day and it was magical. I bought more things than planned but still spent less than expected. I was carrying bags galore but luckily I had a shopping sherpa to carry all of my things. 

That night we had our formal talent show, I was actually in it! I sang Phantom of the Opera, just kidding but this was a picture of us afterwards.

Yesterday we had a great field trip, it started off with a stop at Qumran which is the caves where they found the Dead Sea Scrolls Last week I went to the Israeli museum and saw the Dead Sea Scrolls. The story about these caves is that there were two young shepherd boys that we were throwing rocks and they heard pottery shatter in the caves and voila they found the Dead Sea Scrolls.

 Look at the black holes in the background and those are the caves. There are tons of caves in the sides of the mountain.

The next stop was at Masada which is one of the largest city/ tels. This was the last stop for the Roman Siege and it is still in great condition! The story about this location is that the people here did not want to come under hostage or be taken so they decided to commit suicide. It is a really sad story, the leaders of the community first killed their wives and children then they drew lots to kill each other and then the last person committed suicide. But there was one woman and her two children hid in the cistern so they told the story.  They then burnt the city so the Romans could not have any of it.

 This was after we drew lots. I was the one who got killed.

The next stop was the Ein Gedi Nature Reserve and there was these wonderful waterfalls. It was 107 degrees outside so it was soooo hot. We were dying out there so when we got to the waterfalls we flung ourselves in them! There are lie five levels of waterfalls so we would swim for a few minutes and then hop up to the next one.

 

The next stop was at the Dead Sea, wow was it salty! It is true you can just wade in the water. Like half of our bodies were out of the water at all times.

 

 The water is boiling hot though, woo. It is also the worst tasting water that I have ever had. There was a strict no splashing rule because if it even got close to the eyes it burned. Our skin was so smooth when we got out. It felt so nice.

 Model Pose

Today we had a free day so this morning we went and saw the Bar Mitzvah's that occur every Monday and Thursday morning at the Western Wall.

 We found this street on top of the roofs so we hiked it and took this urban photo.

 This is a view from out chapel. It is going to be so boring to sit in church now. I've been spoiled.

Field Trip Day part 1

So I am a few days behind so I will start off with Sunday which was a free day for us so we set off to the town! During the morning we meandered around the old city just absorbing the culture. We made our way to the Armenian Quarter and we found a new church! It is a Franciscan church. This church was gorgeous and had the largest crucifix that I have ever seen. Then today we went on a field trip to that same church and we found out that Orson Hyde stayed here when he was dedicating this land and had carved his name into the door. cool huh?

We arrived at the perfect time because we got to see a baptism! 

The next stop was at another church that was actually closed but the security guard allowed us to go in (the perks of being mormon). So we had our own time within the church and then we saw a staircase going down so we had to check it out. It was pretty spooky because there was no lights so we had to just use our cameras. We found out that it was the catacombs. pretty eery but way cool.

Afterwards we headed over to West Jerusalem and we saw a protest happening. There were all these people in tents and mini houses. They were protesting the high living prices.

So we kind have a slogan at the JC and it is "Never Stop Exploring" we say it all the time. While we were at the North Face store in the Mamilla we found out that it is also their slogan so we picked up a ton of cards that said it and we carry it around with us. 

This is our "Never stop Exploring" look

That night we went out to eat on Ben Yehuda street, there are always street musicians and we always have to stop and dance so this is my friend Adam, breaking it down for us.

We went Israeli dancing that night and then played games in the park. We were out for 12 hours! So exhausting but amazing. 

The next day we went on a field trip around Jerusalem. The first stop was at the Burnt House, which was a ancient house that was owned by wealthy Sadducees. 

One of my favorite things that we went to was the archaeological park that contained some of the original stairs and gates. This was a cool experience because we know that Christ was at these steps and at these exact gates.

The story where Christ was tempted by Satan at the Pinnacle of the temple. Well this is the Pinnacle and the next picture is the actual stone where the trumpeter stood. 

This is the ancient market area. Possible location of Christ yelling at the vendors?

The last days in the Galilee

 Like I said before on the last day on our Galilee adventure we drove down the coast and we made our way to Haifa. Emily and I are posing in front of the Bahai'i Gardens. These are one of the prettiest gardens that I have ever been to. unfortunately they were locked on the day we went so you should google it to get a good picture of them. But the gardens were produced by the Bahai'i religion and they believe that all religions bring you to God. So this garden represents all the major world religions, sadly they do not accept Mormonism and it is pretty much the only religion that they think is wrong so we don't have a section dedicated to us but thats ok, it was beautiful.

 The next stop was at the Haifa cemetery where we got to see the grave markers for the first missionaries in the latter days that came to the state of Israel. This was a very spiritual and special experience for us. We learned about two men who gave up everything; their families, education, and work to go on missions to the Haifa area. Sadly both of them died of diseases while serving but they were the ones who started missionary work here! Today this is a HUGE deal and part of the reason why I am allowed to be here in Jerusalem. When the government tries to tell us that we are a new religion and that we came out of no where we can show them these head stones and prove that we have been around since the 1800's. I am so grateful for those men and the sacrifices that they made so I can be here today.

 The next stop was at Caesarea. This was an ancient biblical town where Herod the Great lived and named it Caesarea after Augustus Caeser. There is a large hippodrome where they had chariot races, large pools, and large theater. It was so gorgeous because it was right on the ocean and the cool breeze just felt so nice. This was one of the nicest ancient Roman cities that I have ever been to. We saw one of the dungeons or prisons where Paul was most likely imprisoned.

 The rest of the pictures are just some extra fun pictures. There are a few other places that I went and I have not posted about and I will just have to skim over...sorry.  One of the days we went floating down the river Jordan and I think that was the highlight of my trip! We just got these large rafts that fit like 6 people. The beginning we stayed calm and floated down but then things got physical. Some one flipped me out of the boat and war broke out. We spent the next two hours floating down finding all of the rafts from our groups and laying siege on them. The river was only a few feet deep so nothing bad happened but it was soooooo much fun! We named our boat USS Democracy and we had our own wolf cry and secret signs. It got intense.

 Tel Dan

 So when we were in Tiberias we came across these gems. They are full body jumpsuits that are neon and say "Don't Be Jel." But everyone was super jealous of them.

 We previewed these puppies at the bonfire. (They call them fire bons in Israel) The nights in Galilee were the greatest. We always stayed up way too late for our own good but it was the only time that we were not dying of heat strokes. We had bonfires. We went night swimming, hopefully my professors aren't reading this because it was against the rules. We would play games all night. Watched the woman's final soccer match. Watch movies. Just sit and share stories all night. Good times.

 While in the Galilee we made a music video called the Sea of Galilee and this was a snap shot of us singing. Watch we are the next N'sync or Backstreet boys-- girls version.

We even have a groupie! 

I feel like I just keep on saying how amazing the Galilee was, but it was! It is really sad because this experience is coming to a close but I consider the Galilee to the last hurrah! And it exceeded all expectations.

The next few days in the Galilee

 We started off the day with a  field trip to Tel Dan, which was actually a beautiful tel (I know that sounds like an oxymoron). But it is a a nature reserve so it was a gorgeous hike. You may recognize the name from the saying "from Dan to Beersheba" Well this is the Dan from the scriptures.

 There is a man named Dan in my group so he was the star of the day. In this picture everyone is worshiping his "golden calf." The reason why we are doing this is because this is the exact location of where the Sins of Jeroboam started!  Crazy that they have pinpointed the altar for the beginning of idol worshipping

Tel Dan is also on the border so it was temporarily turned into a war zone so this is was a bunker and we are doing our Charlie's angels poses.

Ceaseria-Phillipi

 

 

 

 

 

 

 This is a castle that we stormed. It has no biblical reference but this was the coolest castle that I have ever been to! I loved and there was so many things to explore, that is why I love things like this in foreign countries because there are no boundaries or no off-limits. We could go to through all the underground tunnels, cisterns, and just never stop exploring.

Large water cistern

The next stop was at Chorazin which was one of the three main preaching cities of Christ. There was a large synagogue, a classic four room house, and they found the seat of Moses here. 

This picture is an example of a "mote and beam" in our eyes.

This is for you kat :)

I am not sure if any of you have seen this but it is considered as the Mona Lisa of the Middle East. It is a beautiful mosaic of an unknown woman. 

The next day we drove up along the coast and we hit a few sites like Ceaseria and Acre. 

Acre was a very large crusader city, in this picture our teachers had a sword fight. Got to love them. Muhlestein beat Judd

 We were able to make a quick pit stop at an overlook and also go to the beach. So these are just a few pictures from that.