Holding Hands...

Kelli and I often speak of how holding hands is such a friendly practice. This one is for you, Kelli. This picture was taken by Craig Lindsey on a boat on the Sea of Galilee. Lance and I started holding hands like this (in a friendly manner) and this is the epic shot that documents it. Overall, holding hands should be done more often amongst friends. That is all.

It's been awhile...

I'm quite sorry for all my blog readers. It seems as though I've fallen off of the face of the earth looking at my blogging. Since my computer is out of order for the time being, it presents issues when trying to blog, but that's no excuse...

Recently, we went to Jordan. Actually, we got back yesterday! It was tons of fun! Some of the highlights were:

1. Turkish Bath- First, you strip down to nothing and tie a thin sheet towel around you and enter into a sauna. After sitting there for awhile, someone takes you into a sketchy room and lays you on a sheet that isn't changed very often. Usually, for men they have men and women they have women to bathe/massage you. This was not the case for us. A young Jordanian man was actually the man who bathed me that night. You lay on the table while he pours water all over you and scrubs all the dead skin off of you. He definitely scrubs most of your body, which kind of makes you feel violated, but it was an experience I'm glad I had. Twenty dollars well-spent.

2. Petra- This was awesome! They carved buildings into a red mountain! Wow! They were absolutely epic! I loved walking around and climbing up these mountains. It is hard to comprehend that they actually carved buildings and tombs out of the side of a mountain!!! One of the highlights was buying a shirt with a bunch of camels on it that says Jordan Petra on it. The best part about this shirt is that it's essentially a turtle neck. We like to call it my "turtle tee". It's definitely attractive...

3. Amman at night- The first night in Amman was sweet because we walked down to the strip mall and bought movies for 1 Jordanian Dinar (1 JD=$1.5). I purchased Eclipse, which is kind of embarrassing, but that's okay. On the way back, I was so excited to watch the movie that I was nearly killed multiple times. I kept almost getting hit by cars and a gate nearly closed on me. Luckily, I had some good people around me to watch out and make sure I didn't die. I came away without a scratch! The next night, we found an Arab circus! We wanted to go, but since it was far too expensive for us, we just told everyone that we went... Nobody really believed us.

4. Jerash- These are the best-preserved Roman ruins outside of Italy! This place was awesome! I loved admiring the Roman architecture and taking sweet pictures! At the end, we saw the Roman show, which reenacted the gladiator fights and chariot races that would have taken place during that time. One of the boys from our program was able to be one of the actors in the gladiator scene, which made it all the better! He looked the part!

5. Visiting the Branch House- We went to the Amman Branch house one day and heard about the History of the church in that area. It was so amazing to hear all about the trials they've faced and overcome. I love seeing how the Gospel is the same everywhere! Afterwards, we had homemade cookies and sat on the beautiful grass in the back. It made it feel like home! I loved it. This is a picture of us relaxing in the grass at the branch house. These are my good friends Becky and Christian! I love them!

6. Bethabara- This was Jesus' baptismal site on the Jordan River. We got to dip our feet, which was nice since it was broiling outside. We read a few scriptures and sang a Baptism primary song!

Some lowlights of the trip:
1. Receiving no wake up call one morning and nearly missing Petra!
2. Almost being hit by many cars walking back to our hotel in Amman.
3. Having a creepy waiter follow me to my room and try to come in at the Hotel in Amman.

Overall, the trip was awesome and I loved it! I'm so sad to be going back in a few weeks, but excited to see all of the people that I've been missing.

David: 1; Goliath: 0

So, it's been awhile since I updated my blog and for all of my readers I sincerely apologize. Last week was quite intense with midterms, regular readings and synagogue visits. Not too much "bloggable" has happened except for last week's field trip. The field trip was the place of Shephelah and the Philistines.

We began at Beth Shemesh, which is a Tel of the city that was heavily fortified against the Philistines and overlooked the Sorek Valley. Here, we were able to see many ruins and walk down into a sweet cistern.

After that, we headed out to Tel Azeka, which overlooks an intense valley where David defeated Goliath. We were then able to go into the valley and practice our slinging skills. We each had a sling and were encouraged to lob rocks out into the fields, but our accuracy was questionable. At first, I was pretty good at getting the stones straight forward, but some went awry later in the activity. No deaths or injuries, but a few close calls. Whoops!

Our next stop was at the most beautiful Bell Caves. These were carved out of limestone from a small hole into gigantic caves. We sang some beautiful hymns here and took some awesome ninja pictures (unfortunately, none of which are on my camera and therefore will not appear in this blog). These caves

were absolutely miraculous and we enjoyed every second we had in them.

Next, we visited the Tels of Maresha and Lachish, which are cities both mentioned in the bible. We explored old tabernacles, huge basements and viewed large olive presses. The archaeology was explained by our wise teachers and these sites were simply awesome!

Lastly, we went to these ridiculously cool caves. We had to crawl into them on hands and knees and down a ladder. The cave was pretty large and there was this tiny hole that people started crawling into. At first, I was unwilling to go for fear of the tight space that I must climb through, but a wise young gentleman convinced me to face my fear and explore with him. We crawled through some tiny tunnels and small holes to find another exit out. It was quite the adventure!

Walk Like an Egyptian

So, to begin I’d like to state that Egypt was amazing! It was so overwhelming and everyday was a new adventure. It started with a long bus ride down to southern Israel last Thursday. On this trip, we stopped at several places along the path to learn and experience more. Our first stop was at Tel Beer Sheva. This is where several Bible stories occur. It was interesting to see the way old cities were built for protection. We also walked through a cistern, which was way cool. The bible stories really come to life when you can picture the place where things happened. Next, we proceeded to take a hike through the Sin Wilderness. This was absolutely gorgeous. The hike was way fun and overlooked a beautiful massive amount of land.

Next, we went to Avdat, which was an old city. This was also very cool and the ruins had really sweet architecture. Our last stop on the way to our destination was this amazing crater in the land. It had been formed over thousands of years and is gigantic. We stood overlooking it on one of the rims of the crater. It made me feel so small comparatively.

Our stop that night was in Southern Israel at a Kibbutz. We took a tour of the Kibbutz, which was eye opening. It’s so interesting to see the different ways people live. The man that gave us the tour took us to this crazy sand dunes in the middle of the desert. The sand was super soft and we had an opportunity to sit alone for about a half hour and think about things in our lives. We were supposed to think about why so many of the major monotheistic religions originated in the desert lands. It was nice to be able to sit calmly and alone for a little bit and think about God and how he communicates with us now. As I sat in that peaceful reverie, I could see why His love and power was so apparent in this land. It was also nice to have a moment alone to think since we're always together (which is usually a good thing, but doesn't allow for much alone time).

In the morning, we proceeded to cross the border into Egypt! After being hit on numerous times by old men, we made it safely across into the Sinai Peninsula. That day, we drove for most of the day until we arrived in Cairo and attended a sacrament meeting at the branch house there. It is so amazing to go to church in different countries and realize that the gospel is thesame and true wherever you go. I love it so much.

The next morning, we headed to Giza to see the Great Pyramids! We went inside the second largest one! It was awesome! It was a little claustrophobic inside, but definitely worth it. It was absolutely amazing to see that so many years ago people were capable of building such an intensely intricate structure that would stand the test of time. It was such an awesome experience to learn about all of it's history while standing on site. We went to an overlook to take some pictures, which was way sweet too.

We then spent some time visiting the Sphinx. The Sphinx has the head of a man and the body of a lion. The nose is missing, but it was so amazing to see. This structure was carved out of limestone thousands of years ago to guard the Great Pyramids! So sweet!

Later that day, we visited Memphis, which is essentially an area dedicated to Ramses II. There were tons of statues here and one that was absolutely gigantic. As always, it was fun to see the old artifacts.

Lastly, we went to Saqqara, the great step pyramid. We walked through the Sahara to get there! In front of this pyramid is a temple to the Gods. From one overlook you can see three sets of pyramids at one time. It was really awesome! That evening, we hopped on a plane down to Luxor.

The next morning, we visited the Valley of the Kings. This is

where they have found several tombs of the kings of Egypt. They believe they chose to bury these national heroes here because the mountain is a natural pyramid and the mountain is mad of limestone, which is easier to carve. Kings that rule longer have larger tombs than those that rule for less time. In this valley is where King Tut's tomb is located and yes, I went inside! He only ruled for nine years so his tomb is pretty small, but really sweet. In the tomb, you can see his mummy, which is really well preserved, and the original sarcophagus. The thing that is so special about King Tut's tomb is that it was still fully intact when they found it. In other words, it had never been found and therefore never been robbed.

Next, we went to Queen Hatshepsut's burial place. Queen Hatshepsut is so famous because she didn't want her son to rule after her so she fabricated a story telling how she became a Goddess and how she was endowed by higher power to rule over Egypt. She ruled for quite some time and was one of the most powerful women in Egyptian history.

That night, we went on a Falucca ride down the Nile to go for a camel ride. The evening on the Nile was absolutely gorgeous and the camel ride was fantastic! We rode the camels through an Egyptian town, which was really humbling. Many of the little boys that were guiding our camels were without both shoes and little children were attempting to sell flowers to us on the side of the road. We were able to look inside some of their homes

and view the poverty that overwhelms this third-world country. On our way back, we had an awesome dance party. The captain of our boat was Egyptian and turned on some native music and showed us how he could bust a move. It was so fun! This was one of the most euphoric moments of my life.

The next morning was so interesting! We walked around the Karnak temple for a few hours and were able to learn about thousands of years of history that surrounded us. This temple was built to the Sun Goddess and each successive pharaoh would build on to show his respect for the Goddess. There is a room of pillars that are completely mind-blowing. They are intricately decorated and humongous. It is amazing how advanced and detail-oriented these people were.

We visited the Luxor temple that morning as well. It was pretty similar to the Karnak temple, but had several statues of Ramses II and the engravings on the walls were different. On the way back to the hotel, we rode in a horse carriage! That was an experience... they go right along with the traffic and merge with the cars even though they are much slower and the people are very impatient drivers here. It was definitely interesting. That night was spent on a train back to Cairo. This was interesting and something I would never plan on doing again. The compartment was pretty tiny and the food served was suspicious. It was also a little difficult to sleep on a train that stopped periodically.

We went out soon after we arrived in Cairo to explore the city more. On this particular day, we went to a cultic Christian church and an old Jewish synagogue. Both of these buildings were beautiful and have drawn from the Muslim influence of the country in their decoration. These explorations were followed by a delicious lunch at the Hard Rock Cafe. Here, we sang the YMCA and danced with all the waiters. It was super fun and I took a picture with the Britney Spears poster, which is always a plus! This was followed by some shopping in a bazaar in the middle of the city. As per usual, the men were a little too nice and pushy to sell their products.

The next morning was filled with the Muhammad Ali Mosque in the Citadel built by Saladin to protect the city. Saladin also built the wall around the Old City of Jerusalem. The mosque was

gorgeous & so intricate. It stands on a hill and is humongous, which makes it stand out. It was really amazing to see Muslims worshipping and see the importance of the mosque in their lives. There was also an overlook that could see all of the slums of Cairo-- and there are a lot of slums. It was a really outstanding experience. For the rest of the day, we sat on the bus and played a plethora of really fun games with each other. In Egypt, bus time equals bonding time!

The next morning we had a wake up call at 2 AM so we could begin hiking Mount Sinai. The hike was so beautiful. Before the sun rose you could see the outlines of the mountains against the millions of stars that scattered the sky. As we arrived atop the mountain, the sun began to rise. As a group, we sang hymns to bring in the new day. There were many other groups that were also climbing with us and we were united once again by the scriptures. We then hiked a little bit down the mountain and stopped with our respective religion classes to have a testimony meeting. It was inspiring to have my new good friends share their convictions of Christ and the scriptures upon this sacred site. Thousands of years ago, Moses climbed the same mountain I climbed and spoke with the Lord. Every time I think of that, I am astounded by the blessing it is to be here and to have experiences such as these.

Jericho

Yesterday, we took an excellent field trip to the city of Jericho. First, we visited the site of New Testament Jericho where King Herod's winter palace would have been. This is the site where Christ healed a blind man before walking up to Jerusalem. There were only remnants of the archaeology digs that had taken place here, but it was very cool to be looking at yet another place Jesus had walked and performed a miracle. Jericho was one of the first ancient cities because it has an excellent water supply and is warm all year long. Thus, they were able to settle and have agriculture instead of being nomads and wandering for food and such. Next, we made a quick stop at a large sycamore tree in the city. This symbolizes the man that climbs the tree in the New Testament to see Christ. We stopped for a quick picture, but then proceeded forward.

The next stop was Tel Jericho, which is a little mountain made by civilizations being built on top of one another. This is the site of Old Testament Jericho. On this site is what is known as the oldest building in the world, which is a sweet tower. Apparently it dates back to 8000 BC!!! This is also the site where Joshua fought and the Lord knocked down the walls! It's amazing to bring the bible to life by seeing how these are real places.

After that, we moved on to climb a huge mountain to visit an awesome monastery that is built into the mountain. This was simply an amazing architectural feat. This is where Jesus was tempted to turn a rock into bread and they have a rock that they believe is the exact rock that he was tempted with. The monastery is literally built into the side of a mountain and there are caves where monks often live a life of solitude. Even though I was sweating more than I have ever sweat in my entire life, this was one of the most amazing things I have ever seen.

Lastly, on the way back, we stopped at the Judean wilderness to talk a bit and read a few scriptures. We also had the opportunity to sing "Dear to the Heart of the Shepherd", which was awesome. We all decided that the person that wrote that song had never been to the Judean wilderness though. He writes about being hungry and helpless and COLD-- it's definitely not cold there. Anyways, it was an amazing field trip and I'm still amazed that I get to see places from the bible that really exist and are not some far off land. I'm living where they lived and following their paths.

On Thursday we leave for Egypt and will not be back until the following Thursday so don't expect anything from me since I'm leaving my computer in Jerusalem.

Sabbath

So, the Sabbath was quite eventful this week. As most of you know, we celebrate the Sabbath on Saturday here in the Holy Land. This week, to bring in the Sabbath we celebrated with the Jews at the Western (aka Wailing) Wall. Jews begin Sabbath at sunset on Friday night and continue to observe until Saturday at sunset (when they can see three stars in the sky). They observe closely to the laws of the Bible and will not light a fire on the Sabbath. This includes turning on lights, using cameras, and starting their cars! Anyways, every Friday night, tons of Jews gather in Jerusalem near the Western Wall to celebrate. The men and women are separated and the men side has a ton of dancing and singing. Everyone near the wall, avidly prays and people gather at the wall to touch it and leave pieces of paper with their prayers on them in the cracks of the wall. To the Jews, this is their most sacred site and treat it with great respect. If you were to ask an Orthodox Jew, theywould tell you that this is the Western Wall of King Solomon's temple, but we learned that it's actually simply just a retaining wall to the Temple Mount. One thing that really impressed me was that the Jews celebrate the Sabbath and are excited to set aside a day to worship, while I often don't feel this way about Sabbath days. I really enjoyed their example of gratitude and appreciation for this time of worship.

Church was awesome on Saturday as well. Elder Pieper of the Seventy and his wife came and spoke in Sacrament meeting. They also joined us in our Sabbath adventures and provided us with a fireside that evening. It's always amazing to hear men of God speak and share testimony of our Savior. He pointed out a major difference between Latter-day Saints and other Christian sects. He realized that we continue to seek knowledge and truth, while others are satisfied with the truths they have received. I thought it was very interesting and I am so grateful for this unique perspective.

After church on Saturday, we all took a tour of the Garden Tomb. This is one of the suspected sites of the crucifixion and burial of Jesus Christ. Although I have been there once before, this experience was very special. This time, we were able to walk inside the tomb and have a tour guide explain why this site follows that of scripture. After the tour, we sat and sang 6-7 hymns. It was amazing! As we sang "I Know That My Redeemer Lives", the spirit was overwhelming. Truths were reconfirmed and the unity of our group was prominent. It was a truly amazing and once-in-a-lifetime experience. Tons of people filled the space and we were all unified by our common belief in Christ.

On a different note, we headed to the beach in Tel Aviv today. It was awesome! We swam in the Mediterranean Sea, which is my first ocean experience outside of the Pacific. It was a beau

tiful bright day and we spent most of the day sitting on the beach. One of the highlights happened while playing an awesome game. So, one person would spin (with eyes closed) in the middle while others would stand in a circle. Then, the person in the middle points to the one person and asks them to make an animal noise and tries to guess who it is from this noise. On one occasion, the person in the middle pointed and an old man was standing behind the appointed person and made a crazy animal sound. It was completely unexpected and utterly hilarious. It was definitely a highlight of the day. I'm definitely sunburned, but it was completely worth it.

Also, today is Mother's Day and I'd like to thank my mothers for their efforts in raising me. To my mother, I'm grateful for her memory and for her presence in the important moments in my life. Then, to Beth. Thank you for your compassion, love and example throughout my life. I love you both!

Dome of the Rock

Today was another great day in J-town. For starters, our morning classes were cancelled, which meant we were able to explore some of the city again. We decided to visit the Muslim Dome of the Rock. This is a shrine located on the temple mount on the South Eastern side of the Old City. It's an amazing building that has a huge gold dome on the top of it. You can see this from almost everywhere in the city and I can actually glance to the Old City through a window on my right and the most prominent thing I see is the Dome of the Rock. So, I was under the impression that this was a mosque, but I was mistaken when I saw a mosque right next to it on the temple mount. Anyways, I found out that Dome of the Rock is shrine because apparently this is the place where Muhammad ascended to heaven for a few hours to speak with God. It was completed circa 691 AD, which makes it the oldest existingIslamic building in the world. This is a highly disputed piece of land amongst religious groups because somewhere on the temple mount was the Holy of Holies of the temple. Jews are discouraged to visit for fear of defiling the place where the Holy of Holies was located. Overall, it was amazing to see the beauty of this building. Although I do not share the faith of those that built this building you could feel the spirit's presence on this sacred site. We also read scriptures from 1 Kings 8, which speak directly of this mount.

Next, we ventured across the street to the tomb of Mary, Jesus's mother, located at the base of the Mount of Olives. I have been there before, but it was neat to see again. In the building, you are actually allowed to walk through her tomb. It's interesting in the building because all of the paintings are purely of Mary and there is one purely of Christ hidden in a corner. I know it's her tomb, but it's really very interesting to see how others worship her and can almost place Christ aside in some ways.

Up the hill a little bit is the Russian Orthodox Church of Mary Magdalene. We visited there today as well. Walking up to the church is so beautiful. There is a stairway with beautiful greenery lining the path. It's absolutely gorgeous and the outside is awesome. The church has four Golden spires. I guess you would call them spires, but they are more balloon-shaped than that... Anyways, the church is way cool, but I enjoyed the outside more than the inside. Inside was cool and some of the paintings were absolutely beautiful, but nothing compared to the outside. It was definitely something I wanted to see and I'm glad I had the opportunity to see their work of art.

One thing that struck me in particular today was seeing how all religions worship differently. It really hit me on the Dome of the Rock when there was a group there reciting prayer. It seems as though religion is so impersonal in many cases. I've noticed from limited observation that in several religions spirituality and revelation is not left to the individual. This is led and received by someone over a group. I believe in hierarchy, but I'm really grateful to have a personal relationship with my Heavenly Father and Savior.

On that note, Shabbat Shalom.

(I wear the same thing every day... I swear these are all taken on different days. Haha)