Egyptian Transportation-Egypt Day #4

Okay, I'm repenting. I'm sorry I has taken so long to finish our report of Egypt. So here is day #4 which was one of the most amazing days. I feel lucky I get to talk to you about it. We woke up this morning in Luxor. I walked out onto my balcony and our hotel is right on the Nile River! It got better when after breakfast we met to head to our first site and we were being picked up by carriages! Yup, these sad little horses that pull carriages all over Luxor. I sat up front and the driver let me drive! It was really fun. Our horses name was Cindrella and I don't remember the drivers name...typical to remember the horse! It was the first of the day and so the driver let me canter the horse. I was impressed, despite the sad look of the horse, he kept a very nice gait. They train them a little different... Oh, but aside from Elana, none of you care about the horse so I will move on.
We started at the Karnak Temple with our amazing tour guide Refaat. He is AMAZING. He was educated in archeology and holds the official title of Inspector of Antiquities. That's right, when there's a dig going on, he's the one they take the stuff to and he tells them all about it! He said he did that for a while but prefers to be a tour guide! Brother Seely said he is the best in Egypt and we loved him.
The Karnak Temple is one of the 7 wonders of the ancient world and took 1700 years to build! I can't tell you all about it because I have pages of notes from this place but here are some of the highlights. I learned that the Pharaoh's had a birth name, given by their parents and then they had a coronation name, given by the priest when they were anointed to be king. We see the cartouche all over the place with both names. I learned how they put up the huge Oblisks. I'll have to take a picture of my notes to explain. Stay tuned... The coolest thing by far was seeing what they call the Gate 6 or the Holy of Holies. Here you see carvings and hieroglyphs explaining that the king is first being washed, then anointed, giving him the onyx or life and finally being presented at a barrier or veil to the gods. My favorite carving is called the sacred embrace where you see the god taking the king by a shoulder and the words carved below say, "I give you protection, eternal life, stability, power, health, inside your heart like the god Ra, forever." Pretty amazing stuff for those with eyes to see. We could understand all of this because of our amazing tour guide Refaat! We love him! (See picture below)
Next we visited the Luxor Temple 3 miles away. There was an avenue of Sphinxes that connected the two temples and there are several of the Sphinxes that have been uncovered but the rest are under the city of modern day houses so who knows if they will ever be excavated.
So much! Hopefully the pictures do it justice.
We went back to the hotel for lunch and then after lunch we had a Faluka Ride across the Nile! A Faluka is the name of the sail boats here. They are beautiful! We got to the other side and literally (for Miranda) only took a few steps before mounting a camel! Now that was an adventure! They ride very different than a horse but I got the hang of it pretty fast. Our ride back was on a simple passenger ferry of sorts. We had free time the rest of the evening so we decided to go to the Luxor Museum before dinner. It was really cool and just the right amount of stuff. Not like the Cairo Museum where you might have to spend several days in there to see it all. Here we begin the task of understanding all the different crowns you see on the kings and gods. You can identify who it is by the crown and their head sometimes (i.e. if it is a hawk) We are beginning to understand what we are looking at and that is pretty exciting! We swam a little after dinner if I remember right or maybe we swam before dinner and did the museum afterward...its all beginning to get fuzzy to me! But the long and short of it, was that we had an amazing day in Luxor, Egypt!
Oh wait! I remember what we did after dinner! The Ostlers had to be up until 11pm anyway, because that is when we all have to be back at the hotel and so they decided to go out shopping and Deb and I joined them. Really fun on one hand because we like spending time with the Ostlers. Not so fun on the other hand because when you are with adults, the vendors think you have money and won't go as low in the bartering. We went to a bazaar and just looked at things but then we went searching for another bazaar we had heard about. I think we found part of the bazaar and we bought some scarves but then these two men who were helping us out told us about this local bazaar they wanted to take us to. Craig was convinced we were going to see a local Egyptian bazaar and we followed them through the neighborhood only to find ourselves at the door of a local shop, no doubt a friend of a friend. Well we had been deceived! It was particularly funny because just that morning Brother Ostler had warned us about not falling into these traps because you may quickly find yourself miles away from the city and in a dangerous situation. Well we all gave Craig a hard time for it but it was worth the experience! We came home dead tired and the hotel beds were hard but it didn't even matter, I slept well!

Christmas in May

So yesterday we went to Bethlehem. It was an amazing experience with very mixed emotions. Many of you might not know, but Bethlehem is really close to Jerusalem. Like 15 min south of the Old City by car. We left the Center at around 2pm and drove over there. The crazy thing is that as Israel and Palestine are working toward a solution to the conflict, the Israelis have built a huge retaining wall called the Separation Wall which defines the borders of the West Bank and making it close to impossible for people living in those areas to leave and come to Jerusalem. The Wall was built beginning in 2003 and there were several people who worked on the other side who lost their jobs and had to change their occupation because they can’t leave the West Bank, our Islam teacher, Adnan, works at the Bethlehem University and about two weeks ago, he couldn’t get out to come and teach our class, so it was canceled. Intense, is the only word I can think to use when I try to describe the atmosphere around the Wall.
As we approach the checkpoint, we see the huge wall: about three feet thick and 25 feet high, there are little lookouts every few hundred feet. As we enter the checkpoint, that allows us to pass into Bethlehem, we see this sign that says that it is absolutely illegal for anyone with an Israeli citizenship to enter. We continue toward the gate and are stopped as some guards check for passports and ask what we’re planning on doing in Bethlehem. On our way in they didn’t even get on the bus to check, but the way out the Israeli Military Police got on and just walked though the bus, looking at us (the girl guard smiled at us :) ). After the checkpoint, we proceed through the wall. I can’t quite describe what I felt as I passed through this wall. An immediate sense of oppression. I could instantly feel that I was entering a place where pain, passion, despair, and anger were a huge part of their lives. The wall coming from Jerusalem was clean, no graffiti, but immediately after we passed into Bethlehem you could see graffiti, statements of defiance, and pictures of faces on the wall. It made me so sorrowful for the whole situation. The municipal of Bethlehem had so many plans for the year 2000 and around the city as we drove in we could see remnants of those plans to enlarge their tourist base. But the conflict and the wall snubbed those dreams and aspirations indefinitely. I continued to feel that way for a few hours. I went into the tourist center and bought a few postcards of the wall that were very poignant in what they conveyed to me. As I was buying the cards, I asked the clerk if I could ask her a question about it. I told her how I was feeling and asked her what she felt about the wall. She said, “We feel like prisoners. It changed a lot of things for us here in Bethlehem. It makes it much more difficult to travel, even in the West Bank. It is a very hard thing.” I believe her. The more I learn about the conflict, the more I see of its complexities, the more I feel like the only possible solution is for Christ to come and establish His Kingdom. There will have to be a lot of unselfishness on both sides for any solution to work.

But we had another interesting time when we got to Nativity Square. You can see that three different churches or denominations that have contributed to the church that is over the grotto where the traditional site of the birth of Jesus is. Helena, mother of Constantine, is said to have discovered several sacred sites, including the church of the holy sepulcher when she was here in 325AD. To enter the church, the gate was once huge, but at sometime (I can't remember when) they filled in the gate and made it smaller than the height of a person so that when anyone enters, they have to bow down to do so which had cool symbolism in it. Once we got in we got in to this huge line that would lead us to the entrance into the grotto. The throng of people made it really loud and the group behind us was pushing so much. We have really learned how to "block the gap." In the church the walls are completely covered with icons and images of kings, priests, virgins, I don't even know what. When we finally walked down the 14 steps into the grotto you see on your right the star that marks the birthplace of Jesus and then down below the stone manger where he was laid. We took pictures and then left the grotto. It was interesting to see these older women behind us who had traveled far to visit this place and were crying and so emotional over it. I wished I could feel the same way, but because of all the drapes and pictures and lamps and just visual noise, it made it really hard. We left the church and once back in Nativity Square we had time to shop. We went into this Tourist museum and they had this floor that had a ton of Nativities from all over the world! mom, you would have gone nutz! We took a few pics an then left and walked around. I wasn't planning on buying anything but we went into an olive wood shop and I ended up buying a nativity for a pretty decent price too. I also got a cool bone box that is going to be one of my wiseman boxes.

We left Bethlehem the separation wall and the West Bank all at once, and went over a mile or so to the Shepherd's Fields. We had a sack dinner and then had a really cool christmas program as a class. We had Joseph, Mary, Angels, Shepherds, and Wisemen all tell us about their experiences and lots of musical numbers. It was so special. The feelings I had there were completely different from those in the church in Bethlehem. Sitting in the field, looking over Bethlehem and through rows and rows of olive trees I was able to picture a Christmas in Judea. It was so special. Every Christmas I'll be able to thing of the Christmas Eve celebration we had as a class in Shepherds Fields. The faith of all involved for all people involved is so amazing. My feelings changed from sadness to contemplation to joy just in the few hours of the field trip. Joy to the World! The Lord is come! Let earth receive her King! Merry Christmas from the Holy Land!

Friday exhaustion - Egypt day Six

We woke up from a horrible night sleep in a sleeper train and were bussed to our hotel in Cairo. We had breakfast and about a third of the group at this time was sick. I was extremely lightheaded and had a terrible sore throat. I was dehydrated because when ever we wanted to drink water we had to purchase bottled water. I had about 3-2 liter bottles but I guess that was not enough. Most of the people had stomach problems.
When we got to the hotel we had breakfast and then had a sacrament meeting in one of the hotel meeting rooms. Jenn organized a beautiful arrangement of a hymn and a choir to sing it. We had to close the curtains of the room and not refer to the meeting as a church meeting due to Egyptian law. The spirit was very strong as we passed the sacrament in the land of our forefathers and also realizing the importance of where we were. It was the end of a very eventful week and my testimony has been strengthened by the things I saw. I will never forget the sacrament meeting I had in Egypt.
After sacrament meeting we went to the Citadel, it was a beautiful mosque that was in Cairo. We were all so very tired. We took off our shoe (I had bear feet) and walked around in this beautiful building overlooking Cairo.
Then we went to the Cairo museum. This museum has many of the treasures found in King Tuts tomb. It also had mummies some of the famous ones like King Ramses. There was also a room dedicated to the mummification of animals. Way cool! The only problem was that all of us were extremely exhausted. We were almost like the mummies walking around the museum, taking any moment we could to sit down and rest for a while.
Then we went to the Hard Rock Cafe in Cairo for lunch. We all perked up when our hamburgers and French fries came to our table! However we had to eat them plain with just dressing no veggies or cheese because of the way their fruit is handled could get us sick- we could only eat things that were cooked. Well, after devouring the hamburger they played American music and we all danced the YMCA.
After the delicious lunch we went to a bazaar where we got to go barter a little. I was on a quest to find a University or College t-shirt. I asked around but my quest was in vain, unfortunately I left that bazaar empty handed- but don't worry I did by lots of stuff in Luxor for memories.
After the bazaar we went back to the hotel and received our new room assignments. We also received our cartuches, and then went to dinner. The hotel made us a large cake with fruit on it (meaning we couldn't eat that part). And we had an impromptu dance party in the reception and we danced the night away!!! There was a singer in the reception area that was singing in Arabic and we even got some of our teachers and some other tourists to dance with us. It was a lot of fun! We went to bed kind of early because we were so tired and also we would have to wake up at 3:30am the next morning to begin our journey back to Israel.

We love finals and our amazing teachers!

Okay Blogger Fans,

I'm sorry that I haven't finished my blog for Egypt, but we have been literally bombarded (thats for you, randa) with finals and readings for classes. Its quite ridiculous what we are required to read for these two 1 credit classes we have on Judaism and Islam. They are way interesting for sure! but with our classes that have more credit weight and then field trips, the recovering from Egypt, the sleep, the wanting to go and spend time in Jerusalem...it makes it really hard to want to read hundreds of pages of reading. 

Anyway, the story of my blog today is on our teacher th

at we have. I'll save the best (Craig ostler, my uncle) for last.

So, today we had our final for our J

udaism CLass. It was probably the most ridiculous test I have EVER taken. We all pretty much failed it. yah. thats about it. The lecture for that class is awesome! organized, interesting (most of the time), and applicable to our other classes, but this test had 30 questions and some of th

em were from class and some were from the reading, but he chose questions that were so random and little from the reading. It was awful

 and we all failed. SO we'll see what the curve will be. But the picture is of our teacher Ophir Yarden. He is a jew, he has a skin condition and lost all his hair and so its hard for him to hold his Kippa (the little hat the jewish men wear), he has like a suede kippa and it 

supposedly stays better.

After the Judaism final we had about an hour to study for our Islam/Palestinian Final. That was insane. I couldn't focus as we were trying to study for it and in the end I was just like, Okay! enough! and I went and took it. It was so much better than the Judaism test! it was actually things we had talked about in class AND  it proved that we actually learned something.  We'll see how it goes, because I did bomb one question. 

Adnan lives in Bethlehem but he studied at the University of Michigan and then at Harvard. He was really objective in his t

eaching and I really liked his classes to a certain extent, but the day we got back from egypt and he was talking about the Sykes-Picot Agreement I completely didn't understand at all what the heck he was talking about! anyway. It all turned out 

okay. we'll see what our grades will be. 

I wanted to put a video of Craig, our religion teacher, online as he acted as a Daughter of Zion and the twinkling of the toes. but it was taking too long. I'll have to YouTube it I guess. :D that'll teach him for giving us hard tests. 

THis last picture is for Miranda. Look! you're here with us! in a cute little orange tin can! WE LOVE YOU!

So. Life is good, we love jerusalem and we have a few more days before we head to the Galilee. We'll try to see if we can keep you a little more

 in touch there. We have a final in Old Testament tomorrow and a field trip to Bethlehem and the Shepherds fields. Its going to be great. Love you all!

p.s. okay so I posted this blog and then mitchell was reading it and said, "How come there aren't any pictures of me in it?"  he looked so downcast and trodden (those are words from the Old Testament, see? I'm learning something...) so I had to go and take a picture with him. we decided to take really awkward pictures like the ones of Me with my teachers where its all awkward and we cant touch. so here's mitchell and me in our awkwardness. enjoy! awkward!!

Pyramids one of the seven wonders of the world Egypt: Day Three

We woke up in Cairo Egypt. Walking like Egyptians! We had a full day ahead of us and by the end of the day we would be 200 miles up the Nile river in Luxor. Because we were considered tourist due to a visa/passport thing we were required to have a tour guide. Our tour guides name was Hassin. We all loaded in the buss and went to the Giza Pyramids. We pulled up to the humongous pyramids, and our tour guide began to lecture us about these pyramids. He started his lecture by stating that the Pyramids are one of the seven wonders of the ancient world and that they were built by Pharaohs which was a title for king, and that was the extent of his lecture. I cant really explain the frustration we all had about our tour guide in Cairo (later we had a wonderful tour guide in Luxor). We all had the impression that our tour guide must have thought we had no idea where we were.
We finally got out of the bus and the pyramids were so incredible, seeing them was absolutely amazing. We stopped off at the first one just to take pictures and admire the incredible beauty. The second pyramid we went and crawled inside. Last week I had tried to crawl in some tunnels that my class went in but I felt too claustrophobic and after numerous attempts could not go in. At the entrance of the tunnel at the pyramid I almost had kind of a panic attack but I decided that I was only going to have this opportunity once so I had better do it. While I was inside the pyramid I realized that although the the Egyptians were very innovative they never really got the whole air circulation/conditioning idea. It was so stuffy and very warm inside the tunnel. Everyone was sweating so much, while inside the Pyramid was incredible to realize that I was actually inside this incredible wonder. Once we crawled of the tunnel we were so grateful to be in cool (but actually hot) Egypt. Cameras were not allowed inside any of the tunnels, but many of the other pictures that will be shown about the temples and such that we went to had similar carvings and pictures.
We then went to the Sphinx and all stopped in amazement. It was incredible to see it in real life. We walked around exploring the land and soaking it all in.
Then we went to the Saqqara- which were other pyramids, we went into temple there as well as other pyramids. The other pyramids were not as tight and a lot less congested because there were a lot fewer people who visit these ruins. Inside one of the pyramids they had etched stars representing the sky, it was painted blue with white stars. Cameras were not allowed again in this area so no pictures will be uploaded about the inside of the pyramids.
We also went to Memphis after eating lunch. Everything we saw was so incredible, these people were innovative, creative and resourceful. The most powerful thing to me about the things that we saw was the color that was added to some of the carvings in the temples and pyramids that we went into.
At the end of the day when we were extremely exhausted, dehydrated and hungry they took us to the Papyrus Factory. We walked in the store in awe and amazement (and without a clue about prices and still trying to convert from Dollars to Shekels to Egyptian pounds) and were explained about how papyrus were made. The Weiss family definitely made their claim and invested in the Egyptian economy (but not like some in our group), however Deb and Jenn were able to barter pretty well in the store and came away with two free papyrus.
We had some time to wait before the flight to Luxor, so we went to a carpet factory. We saw how these beautiful carpets were made by hand. The carpets are very expensive and absolutely beautiful. We all decided to pretend to be like Aladdin and go on a magic carpet ride. It was fun!
We then went to the airport to fly to Luxor. They separated the groups by last name one group would leave at 8 and then other at 8:10. I was in the first half of the alphabet and Deb and Jenn were in the last half so we were on different flights My plane left at 8:10.To say the security at the airport in Cairo was a joke would be an understatement. We were given tickets that did not have our names on them (My ticket was for Aubrey Larsen) and walked through security with our two liter bottles of water in hand despite all the airports warnings about not carrying 3 ounces of liquid. The short flight to Luxor was great and we checked into our hotel rooms and slept soundly preparing for a full day in Luxor.
Sorry for not posting one of all of us earlier. Here we all are at the pyramids and with tons of people!

We're baaack! Egypt Days 1-2

Hello again from Jerusalem! We know you missed us and we missed blogging! But we hardly had time to think we have been so busy for the last week! We have decided to split up the last week among the three of us so you get every day outlined. However there might also be some overlap as we all had our personal experiences in Egypt that we want to make sure and share. And one more thing, as much as you like hearing from us, we like to hear back from you too! Otherwise this becomes a very long one-way conversation and WE NEED CONTACT with the outside world. SO, please comment on our blog!!!
So we got up and left early Sunday morning (5/11), following the way of the Patriarchs as we drove all the way to the Israel/Egypt border with four stops on the way. The buses were small and we tried to sleep as much as we could but we were tired at the end of the day!
Stop One was the Beer Sheba ruins. This is the traditional site of where Abraham dug a well and swore an oath with the local chieftan. Sheba or Sheva means oath and hence the name of the place. We were at the southern most border of ancient Israel land as it was often referred to as "from Dan to Beersheba." It was also here that Abraham received the commandment to sacrifice Isaac (Gen. 22:1-3) and begin the journey up to the land of Moriah to fulfill that command. There was a huge cistern we went into here. One of many we continue to encounter here in the holy land! It was also here they first uncovered a horned alter in Israel. It still just blows my mind sometimes to think that I am where the Patriarchs have walked!
Stop Two was the Ben-Gurion Memorial and an overlook of the Wilderness of Zin and Kadesh Barnea one of the seven deserts in which the children of Israel wondered for 40 years. It was also here that after three days travel, Lehi and his family stopped to offer thanks. It was from here he sent his sons back to Jerusalem to first obtain the plates and then invite the family of Ishmael to join them. It was a long hard, hot, journey and I begin to understand just how Laman and Lemuel might have felt!
Stop Three was the ruins of Avdat and by far the coolest ruins we have seen yet. It was founded by the desert people (Nabataeans) who were also based in Petra. They knew the secrets of the desert and were able to cross where no one else lasted a day in the hot sun. They had hidden cisterns, directions, and secrets to the desert that were guarded fiercely by their people. But once they set up the city of Avdat they settled down and begin drinking wine where before any drinking was strictly forbidden. Well as soon as they started drinking, their secrets got out and they were conquered. There's a lesson to learn from that! The ruins included two temples and an early baptistery. It was pretty amazing to be there with Brother Ostler and Brother Draper who can tell us so much about these places. The picture below is of these two great men at the veil of the temple.
Stop Four was a Jewish Kibbutz. We got a tour of the place and had an amazing dinner there including real ice cream! We were all happy for that! They had a horse farm as well and I was so happy to see and play with some of the horses. I could still get one to give me kisses--Elana will appreciate that. I am determined to find a barn to ride at this summer!
We finished the day at yet another Kibbutz (Eilot) where we slept incredibly well. Before we slept Brother Draper and Ostler took some time to talk about the things we were going to see in Egypt and the story surrounding the book of Abraham and the Facsimiles. It is so amazing to understand these things a little better now. The Egyptians had a lot of truth but it was corrupted over the ages and they still seemed to be seeking for a missing key or a missing person. It is interesting that in so many of their stories they have the echoes of a Christ figure. I am once again so grateful for the truths I know and hold dear.
Day two we got up early to be the first buses at the border only five minutes away. It was a pretty uneventful crossing into Egypt but we were there in Africa! Pretty cool! We spent the whole day crossing the Sinai Wilderness and getting into Cairo where we checked into the Oasis Hotel and had dinner. After dinner we went to a Cartouche shop where there was a lot of jewelry and we all got ripped off royally for the Cartouches we bought. It was a great welcome to Egypt and their economic bartering system! After being in Egypt for a few days we all begin to realize just how bad a deal it was. But we had to order them and get them made and in the end I got a silver chain and Cartouche for $30. Oh well, one of those lessons we learn. On Friday when we got them back, both Mitchell and Deborah were really disappointed with the end product and had new ones made that night. So in the end we were all happy. So, that is our entrance into Egypt! Stay tuned for an eventful week and make sure and read the blogs in order!

Leaving A Deep Impression - Day 5

Hello all our faithful blog readers. Its been a long time! we were going through blogging withdrawl. (Bloggers Anonymous has its headquarters in Egypt, didn'tcha know?) We all chose a few days of our Egyptian Adventure and we have no idea who's going to post first, so you might have to read a little out of order. 

We began the day heading to the Valley of the Kings. Its the place where the Pharaohs of the 18th Dynasty (or family) began their tombs. They would start building their tombs during their reign  and employ the locals to help in the construction. It was common for the tombs to be robbed  soon after the King was buried there, because those that helped in the

 construction would go back once it was finished and steal the Kings treasures. In the Valley of the Kings there are more than 60 different tombs.

 This really cool model shows how many tombs there were into the mountain. 

The longer the tomb shaft, the greater the pharaoh or longer your reign was. They chose that particular valley because there is a mountain peak that is in the shape of the Pyramids that reminded them of the great pyramids from the 4th dynasty up in Cairo. Its a sacred symbol. It was by far the HOTTEST day of the whole trip. We got to go to 4 tombs. It was really incredible to go down the shafts and see the paintings and hieroglyphs that are STILL there after thousands of years. 

T

hey used ground stones for the color of their paint and under ground in the dry environment of Egypt its been pres

erved. In the tombs they have writing that tells the kings what they need to do as they progress to the other world. There are symbols all over of their religion and echos of our own beliefs and ordinances. It was incredible. We couldn't take pictures, but I bought a book that had some good color pictures of what's inside the tombs. It is so fascinating! We also went into King Tut's Tomb. King Tut only reigned from when he was 9 years old to 17. He didn't do much, and he really is only famous because his tomb was the only tomb that wasn't robbed. As the grave robbers were getting into another kings tomb that was just above King Tut's shaft, they piled dirt on top of his and so no one got into it until 1922 with Howard Carver. Just in king Tut's little shaft there was SO much piled in there that it took 10 years for Carver to get everything out as he methodically recorded all that was in his tomb. The next day we went to the Egyptian Museum in Cairo and saw all his treasure. Holy cow! for such a little king, a no body, they still had huge, intricate, and amazing items put into his tomb. 

This is me outside the tomb, and the other picture is a diagram of king Tuts tomb. His rose granite coffin was still in the tomb, and so was his Mum

my. Pretty short guy! I guess he shrunk.  The coolest thing to see inside the tombs are the pictures of how the Pharaoh, their King and god, would progress from this life, to his judgment, to his washing, to his anointing or crowning, and then finally into the presence of Osiris and Isis their Gods. Its all so amazing. 

After the Valley of the Kings we went to the Funerary Temple of Ramses III. It was very large.

 It also had a lot of the same things from inside the tombs as far as how to guide the King to eternal life. One of the coolest things was this cartouche (car-toosh) (the

 symbol that contains the name and the new name of the king)

 that Ramses had etched into the wall. It was typical that a pharaoh would carve his name (cartouche) into the wall and onto everything they made to identify it as theirs, but then a new pharaoh would come around and carve his cartouche into the wall. Ramses didn't want this to happen, so he carved his cartouche WAY deep into the wall. He left a pretty deep impression. :D Shouldn't we all?

This next picture has the pyramid shape wood structure over a pit that we fondly call Pit 33. It is the place where they found the Books of Abraham and Moses. Its pretty astonishing how many areas of excavation they have going on all over Egypt. 

We went to an alabaster shop to see how they make the alabaster pots that they sell. It was pretty fun. Our tour guides get a ton of comission if we buy things at the places they take us. We also went to a carpet school aka a factory where they make silk, wool, cotton rugs. Its amazing the time they put into silk rugs. 

We headed to the train station and got to sleep on the train all they way to Cairo! it was fantasticly bumpy! My roommate was Emile Savio. Her sister served in Quito Ecuador too! We had so much fun. Sleeping wasn't the best, especially for Mitchell because he was tall. He started to get a little under the weather. We all did, but we're all better now! 

Happy Mother's day eve....and we are off to Egypt

Happy Mother's day eve, we had church today and had a Mother's day themed sacrament meeting. A week ago I dropped my name tag down a drain that is in front of my room. The following day the branch president came up to me and told me he had found my name tag and that there was a price if I wanted it back. The price was to speak in sacrament meeting. I decided that was a worthy payment so I said that I would speak. I referred to the talk that Sister Beck gave in the October General Conference and related stories from the Old Testament of mothers to shared the attributes that Sister beck talked about. The stories that I shared had an even greater meaning because I have been to many of the places that they took place. I talked about the faith of Sarah and the birth of Isaac, the nurturing of Hannah the mother of Samuel, the leadership of Deborah, and the teachings of the mothers of the men of the army of Helaman (that is not from the Bible, I know, but I just had to share it.). I also shared how grateful I am for my mother who knows the Lord. It was a wonderful experience and then I called my family and packed and got ready for the next week. We most likely not be blogging and probably will not have access to the internet for the next week as we will be in Egypt! But next Sunday be prepared for a couple of great blogs! I am planning on "walking like and Egyptian" while I am there, if you were wondering. We will be going to Cairo and Luxor and seeing many sights from the Old Testament and the times of the Pharaohs. I am so excited! As I am traveling my thoughts will also be with my older brother Spencer who is graduating from the Willamette Law School tomorrow. I wish I could be there for his graduation, as a tribute to him I will be wearing my Willamette t-shirt tomorrow. Congrats Spencer, way to go!
Below is a picture of me at the Tower of David Museum over looking the old city, this was taken a yesterday.

Welcoming in Shabbat

This blog is so good for us three here in Jerusalem. We stay on top of our Journal this way and we feel pressure to post because the others have posted and its our turn again. At least that is how I feel. Both Deb and Mitchell have posted since me and so I guess I'd better get on it again!
I just had the most amazing experience so far here in Jerusalem. But first let me catch you up on the last two days. Wednesday we did an all day field trip that Mitchell blogged about. We started in Beth Shemesh in the Sorek Valley. It was here in the land inherited by the tribe of Dan that Samson grew as a Nazerine and slew the Philistines. We saw city of Zorah, where he was born. It is so amazing to see these places! We also went to Azekah, the mountain fortress that was almost never conquered because of its defenses. Azekah also overlooks the Valley of Elah, where David and Goliath took place. Next was Maresha in the Valley of Guvrin. We also went to some amazing caves in this region where it is rumored the last Israelites hid out when they were conquered by the Romans. Finally we visited the ruined city of Lachish in the Lachish valley. This was also a mountain city that was considered a gem if conquered. Here there were some small Temple ruins. I guess Pres. Hinckley wasn't the first to think of the idea after all! All of these valleys made of the Shephelah or low country that divided Israel from the Philistines in the coastal plains and are the location of many a battle. Anyway, it was a full day and we came back dusty and tired.
Thursday we had class in the AM and then we hit the town! We visited the Tower of David and I learned so much! I discovered I am my mother's daughter. I remember going to museums with mom and dying in impatience as she had to read every sign and see every exhibit. Yesterday the tables were turned as I was so frustrated to be hurried through by other students who were too tired to appreciate the amazing historical collection that is the Tower of David. I could easily go back there for another hour or more. I guess that means I'm just going to have to come back! Maybe I can go back another day.
Okay, now to today. We had class all morning and a OT (Old Testament) midterm in the afternoon. I think I did great! I am really grateful we have stayed on top of the reading because that made the test pretty straightforward.
Tonight we went down to the Western Wall of the Temple Mount. Today is Friday and at sundown the Jews welcome in the Shabbat. It was the most amazing experience yet. Jews have a choice to welcome in Shabbat at local Synagogues or to come to the Western Wall where the whole community joins in celebration together. We went onto the womens side of the wall and watched the men for a while before Deb and I went up to the wall. If this is the closest thing I can get to a temple here in the Holy Land then I wanted to be there with family. There were so many people there tonight we had to wait for quite a while before we could get within reach but it was worth the wait. I wrote out a prayer for our family before the Sabbath and found a niche in the wall. It was a touching experience to be there and I felt the Spirit surrounded by so many others praying. The only thing I can relate the feeling to is being in the temple. I prayed there touching the wall and thought of all the prayers throughout the centuries that have ascended to heaven from that wall. Such faith and devotion. It is truly moving. After Deb and I backed away from the wall we gave each other a hug. It was so appropriate and I was so grateful for temples and the ordinances that have been restored through a living prophet. Christ has come! Elijah has come! The sealing power is on the earth and temples dot the earth! We have such reason to rejoice! And rejoice we did! The Jews know how to sing and dance and rejoice at the coming of the Sabbath. We joined some younger groups singing and dancing together as we together welcomed in Shabbat! As we walked back up to the Mt. of Olives I felt renewed and refreshed just as I do each time I leave the restored Temples of God. It was the best way to prepare for the Sabbath. I want to go back again while I am here since that is the closest thing I am going to get to a temple here. It has only been just over a week since we arrived here! What amazing things we have seen already. I still have to pinch myself sometimes to think I am living in Jerusalem. And on Sunday we go to Egypt! I am so blessed!

Photo Blog

This will just be a blog with lots of cool pictures. Ready? Okay! 

This is me on top of the gate at Fort Lachich. The one

 city that the assyrians couldn't get into and that Babylon finally got into. This was a strong fort. 

This is aladdin. He is so funny. Jenn handed him her check today to get some cash and had forgotten to put the date on it. He looked at it a second and then said to her, "You cannot date while you are student here in Israel, but can you date your checks?" It was so funny. 

This was down a tomb in this really cool area. THey had re-done it and painted it like it might have been painted back in those days. Here are some of the girls being all cool and awesome!

This is craig! he's such a great teacher! we love having him in our class! oh wait... I mean we love having him be our teacher.



We went climbing through a really small tunnel. It was so fun! I loved it. Thanks for the headlamp mom, it was so nice NOT to have to use my hands. 

This was after the little tunnel we went down. It led to a Dove Cove where doves/pigeons live. there are like 1000 caves in this area and the Romans had to smoke out the israelites that were hiding there during the time of the Bar Kochba Revolt 132ad. 

We went out shopping and I started dancing. But only a little. I had this nice one leg hip action going on. It was sweet!