Jerash

Jerash, Jordan is the best preserved Roman city. It was one of the ten cities of the Decapolis and was a major urban center during the turn of the millenium. It was incredible to walk down the Roman, paved walk-way, which was half a mile long, and pretend to be a Roman noble. Passing fountains, shops, and hundreds of sky-high columns. I loved this city, especailly the reinactment at the hippodrome... The hippodrome is where they used to have fights and chariot races! They partly restored this one, which is a mini mini-version of Circus Maximus (but still sat 15,000 people), ir order to do these reinactments and beleive you me, that was the best $10 i have ever spent!!!! They had a roman legion come out and do weapons drills and prance around, then had gladiator fights where the audience determined the ultimate fate of the loser: " La mort! La Vie!" as the little french boys were chandting and screaming behind me. Hilarious! One of the gladiators was a BIG boy struttin around in a little skirt down in the sand and i obviously took an instant liking to him. haha i whistled and yelled at/for him and in return, he would raise his sword at me and flex his pecs, sending them a'bouncin. HAA!!!!! I nearly died. Afterwards, I took a picture with him. He said "Can I see you later? Come closer? Green eyes? Goddess. Can I see you later?" haha i swear those are the only english words they teach these arab boys.
I also got a ride in a chariot, nearly trampled by said chariot driver, and a jumping picture with a hord of old, armed Arabs :)

Petra!

Ok if anyone told me they had one day in the Middle East and asked what they should do, I would say, without hesitation, to GO TO PETRA! It is the most amazing city! Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade shows the treasury of this city, huge pillars and sculptures carved into the rock cliff face. Petra is sooooo much more than this though! There are dozens and dozens of tombs, temples, buildings, caves, etc carved into the rock everywhere in the canyon and valley. Various niches and shapes carved into the walls. It is soooo cool! One of the best parts is you can just hike up and around the mountains/valleys and just find these things everywhere! Egypt was amazing, but you really felt like a tourist. Here, I felt like an adventurer, or a Persian Princess on my white horse too to visit the Nabateans in my silky, gem encrusted outfit. AH!!!! The structures were built by the nabateans between 600bc-200ad and in their later years they had a lot of Roman influence. Consequently there is a huge ampitheater, originally Nabatean but expanded by the Romans, reinactment markets, and all kinds of stuff.ah. I can't even express how awesome it was, especially since I'm pretty sick of relating all the stories. On the way back up the canyon, I got to ride a horse! I asked the horse leader for the reigns and he let me just take off through Petra! Petra=Exceeded Expectations. Pictures to come!

Elder Holland came to Town!

SO yesterday I had a really awesome, really hard, really rotten day. But it was LIFE ALTERING! SO Elder Jeffrey Holland came into town... and the place was in a bit of an uproar. But first, the beginning of the day. (O and background; I have been in charge or organizing a trip to a cool cave and the churches/birth place of john the Baptist and it has been quite the undertaking. NOTHING went right in the planning of it) ok I have made a goal to do my scripture study in the morning, the early morning, every day before ANYTHING. Breakfast, working out, class, you name it. So obviously I have not been getting a ton of sleep, but it has been so rewarding. So Sunday rolls around and it didn’t occur to me to do my scripture study in the morning because I was going to church you know. BIG mistake. I just felt like I had a rock on my soul throughout the entire meeting. I was trying so hard to feel the spirit and be teachable and to listen, but every time I had a cool spiritual thought or insight, someone would come up to me and say how they decided not to go on the trip I was organizing and were super rude about it, even though they were the ones who had previously committed to going. I was really stressed about it and it made me so frustrated! I wanted to have an amazing spiritual day! It was even the day of the primary program. Ha-ha hilarious. 14 kids in the primary, and it was everything a primary program should be. Loved it- when the kids sang "Families can be together forever" and "I love to see the temple", it made half the audience bawl- myself included. I’m so excited to have a family. Not in a rush- just excited ;) .So the rest of church was like that: almost spiritual high, then a crashing stressor. Bah! Then came dinner. I walked up to the line all nonchalantly, and was told that elder Holland would be joining us for dinner. What?! Ah! ha-ha we all kinda freaked out. It was like the Christmas anxiety you know. Like "SANTA!!! SANTA'S COMING!!! SANTA! I KNOW HIM!!!!!" but when he walked in the room, this beautiful peace distilled over everyone and even though the room completely revolved around him, it felt calm. Neat experience. Then we had a fireside where he spoke. The beginning musical number was a rendition of "Master the tempest is raging" (which is one of my favs ps) and was THE MOST BEAUTIFUL MUSICAL NUMBER EVER. It was seriously haunting. We have some of the most talented people here I swear. Then after Elder Porter (first quorum of the 70), his wife, and Patricia Holland spoke, Elder Holland hit the podium. Literally. One of the first things he said to us, after kissing his wife's hand and publically thanking God for her existence and daily effect on his life (so sweet), was "Don't you dare go home the same person." his talk stemmed from two things: 1- the scripture in Luke from the end of Christ's sermon on the mount when he says 'be ye merciful, even as your Father in Heaven is merciful. IN all the other accounts of this, the apostles say he said "be ye perfect, even as your Father in Heaven is perfect". Elder Holland then took this to mean that perfect and merciful are synonymous, giving us a conceivable goal and reality of perfection. Wow. k then 2- he took " the most powerful day in the entire BOM", where Christ visits the Nephites and talks about how, when he told the Nephites he was going to leave, the Nephites' eyes welled up with tears as if to beg him to tarry. Christ's "bowels were filled with mercy and compassion".
Some powerful conclusions were: MERCY ALWAYS TRUMPS JUSTICE, and we must all be a little more merciful: say thank you one more time, say I love you one more time, one more kind word, one more smile. It was amazing! I recorded it, but the recording isn't the best. O well! Then after, I got to give he and his wife a hug! Special experience.
O and the field trip thing I was in charge of today turned out fantastic and I know it was 100% by divine intervention. Phew!

Yad Veshem: The Holocaust Museum

Today we had the amazing opputunity to visit Israel's Holocuast Museum and it was an incredible and HARD experience. The museum is impressively well done; just the architecture of the building holds so much meaning. It is a triangular underground tunnel, cutting through the mountain. You can see the exit, but must navigate through all the side rooms in order to reach it. I have never felt the way I felt today walking through this museum and witnessing the rise of the Nazis and anti-semitism, then the start of WWII, deportation of Jews, and their evental extermination. 6 million Jews were massacred in less than four years, 1.6 million of them were children. I felt so wretchedly heartbroken and I can't even bring myself to talk about some of the graphic images and stories I saw and heard. It scared me so bad to SEE what evil mankind, my brothers and sisters, are capable of doing to eachother. The power of satan and interesting paralleles to the way he and the nazis work were frightening. It really was a tramautic experience, but I'm so glad we got to go. I think it is so important to know what men without love will become. We need to be aware of these evils in our society, which are alive and well, and take measures to erradicate them. In a very confusing way, it was also good to feel anguish- it reminded me how soft my heart has become and how much I want to keep it that way. Two of my favorite quotes from the exhibit were said from indivduals who risked everything to help a jew: "I do nto know what a Jew is, we only know what human beings are" -(Pastor Trocme)
"I know that when I stand before God on judgement day, i shall not be asked the question posed to Cain- Where were you when your brother's blood was crying out to God?" -(Imre Bathory)

It is also interesting to note the way the Palestinians have been treated by Jews here in Israel. Why does the world not remember?

Joke is on Becca!

The security guards here at the center are BIG jokesters. We are always playing little tricks on each other and goofing around! The other day, my good friend Becca went up to the security office to ask them a question, and when she walked in the door, she saw him duck behind a desk. She paused for a second, then saw him come up and go back down quickly. She laughed and said, tauntingly, "Hey!...Are you hiding from me? I see you-" then she looked down and saw the prayer rug he was kneeling on. He was totally praying! Haha! She turned bright red and high-tailed it out of there. I will never let her live that one down! Needless to say, it has been a bit of a cultural adjustment for us all, being sourrounded by other kinds of very religious people.

Herding Sheep on the Shephalah

Today we went to a bible lands garden thing where they grow all the plants in the bible and show us the various daily processes like making bread, cooking, sowing, reaping, grafting, etc. He had us attempt to herd some sheep/goats. It was pretty hilarious; those are HILARIOUS animals. We didn't do so well... then the guide taught us how as well as a HUGE lesson on shepards, on leadership, and, in my opinion, on Christ: Shepards lead from the back. They see what is before, around, and behind the sheep. He knows the sheep and is responsible for them. There is always a lead sheep/goat and, interestingly, it is always a female. The Shepard has a special relationship with this sheep and trusts her to listen to him, even though he is behind. The sheep know his voice. There is a "legend" like story about Moses when he was a shepard: he was herding the sheep when he discovered one gone. He left the herd and found the one sheep drinking from the stream. Instead of yelling, scolding, and punishing the little sheep, he put the little on his back and said, " I am so sorry. I did not know you were thirsty". This can be equated with parents whose children who stray... He also told a story about a 600 head herd in Jordan that happened last year. The herd was grazing among the cliffs (cliffs are everywhere around here) and the lead sheep lost her footing, falling off the edge and to her death. The other sheep trusted their lead sheep so much, they all jumped off the cliff after her. None survived. How well do we trust and follow our leadership?
Super cool eh? i am blessed with new insights every day! BAH! i can barely keep up with them!!!!!!

The Dead Sea!!!

Today, I organized a group of 14 girls to go down to Ein Boqaqe to hike and swim in the dead sea! It was incredible. We hiked up a wadi (stream bed) and found these series of waterfalls and pools. It was lush and beautiful right in the middle of the nasty arid Judean wilderness! The Dead Sea is the most incredible thing ever- but tastes worse then the nastiest Ocean Barf I have ever experienced. NASTY. I felt like an astronaut! You float!!! WOW it is like swimming in oil. We got the special mud and did a mud skin treatment. So fun. And, true to form, I can cross one more thing off my bucket list: swimming in the Dead Sea- the lowest point on earth!

My random favorite things now!

1- I LOVE my head lamp flashlight. I almost didn't buy one, but $15 at walmart has brought me so much joy. Caving is 100% amazing with a headlamp!
2-Candybars. I have never loved them before, but now i'm a little obsessed. There aren't really baked goods here, so those are THE thing. O dear I hope I break this habbit!
3-Pita bread- breakfast, lunch, dinner, desert: Legit pita bread makes the whole world better.
4-MAIL!!! O wait. that was already a favorite thing. and I haven't gotten any here. hm.
5-The scriptures! They already were, but now the Old Testament has entered my heart. :)
6-My pink plastic, 25 cent headband. With my hair in the between, awkward stage, it has been a life saver because my hair is SO frustrating when it won't stay out of my face! Espcially when i sweat buckets everyday walzing up and down these steep hills.
7- Fanny pack- i wish I could bring these back to fashion. They really do rock and are 100% convienient.
8- MY CAMERA!!!! I have developed this obsession with photography and I take tons of artsy pictures and lots of them turn out darn good if i do say so myself. My dream is to have a great camera. Like a canon Rebel or m11 or something. sigh. but my little cannon sureshot has done some amazing things!
9-Sweet potatoes. the cafeteria is so good here and makes the most delicious sweet potato soups, sweet salads, salty salads, fries, cubes, you name it. so good. there are no words.

Hezekiah's Tunnel

So today we went on a field trip to the City of David! In other words, the orginal Jerusalem built when King David conquered the Jebusites and established 'Jerusalem'. There are all kkinds of ruins and things are clearly seen! I stood where David would have when he saw Bathsheba...and of course we re-inacted it as acurately as possible :) In the city of David, there is the pool of Siloam, Hezikiah's tunnel, and Warren's shaft. Ok, sorry for the history lesson, but if needs to be explained! K Warren's shaft was a passage way from the city on the hill to the stream i nthe valley. In fact, the Jebusite city fell becuase Joab climbed up through this water shaft into the city! In order to keep that from happening again and to protect the water source, King Hezekiah dug a tunnel bringing the water from the Gehon spring right into the city. This tunnel is over almost a fourth of a mile long and goes through the mountain limestone!! We got to climb through this tunnel, hunched over and flooded. We got soaked up to our wastes and a few people dropped their flashlights, but it was stupendous!Super neat!