Photos

In Luxor there are two great temples, the Temple of Karnag and the Luxor Temple, this was taken at the Luxor temple.

That's the Judean Wilderness, I'm sure glad I don't live there.

I took this picture by accident, but it's my favorite picture I've taken yet. It was on a Faluuca in Luxor.

We climbed Mt. Siani early in the morning on Thursday, the sunrise was incredible.

Well, not much explanation needed, it's the Sphinx!

This is called a Faluuca, they're the sail boats that the Egyptians use on the Nile. This was in the evening taken from another Faluuca in Luxor

Nothing to do with Jeru...

As the title says, this has nothing to do with this study abraod. I've been thinking alot lately about what I should do when I get back to the States. I'm all graduated in Communications, but I don't know what I want to do. I keep going back to film, but that would start me all over in college, and not at one of the CES schools. I would love to study it at BYU but it's not possible. I thought about getting a MBA, but to be honest, I despise business, that would be pure torture. One reason I want to do film is to film documenteries. For over two years now I've wanted to do a piece on the History of the Church in Argentina. My great grandpa was one of the first members in Argentina and it's a piece of history that would be fun to do. I also would love to work for the Church. Well, I'm babbaling, sorry. I'm just needed to get some steam out of my head. Thanks

p.s. to be very honest I want to live in the country, have a farm, and work the land.

Egypt

Hello fromt the JC! Well, we had a succesful trip to Egypt, it was fun, interesting, and only a few people got sick (I think we made a new record for fewest sick!). We started down two thursdays ago (the 21st), that day we stopped at beer-Sheeba, or Isaacs well, and the barial place of David Ben Gurian. That evening we had dinner at a Kabutz that specializes in dairy, I don't know why, but I'm really glad I don't live on a Kabutz. That night we stayed in a Kabutz on the boarder of Israel and Egypt, in a city called Avdat, it was neat. The next morning we weren't actually sure we were going to make it to Cairo, there had been heavy rains a few days earlier and the roads were washed out in Egypt, but our Egyptian bus drivers were amazing and were able to get to the boarder and pick us up. We were stuck there for over an hour because they had our Egyptian visas. That night we made it to Cairo and we saw a light and sound show at the pyramids, they really exist! The next morning we actually spent time at the pyramids. The neatest part about the pyramids was going inside. The whole group went inside one and we sang "High on a Mountain Top" in the burial chamber, that was amazing, I love the hymns of Zion! We also saw the Step Pyramid that day, it's the oldest one of the bunch. That night we flew to Luxor. Luxor was great, if you go to Egypt spend the majoraty of your time there. At Luxor we saw the Vally of the Kings, it's where many of the Pharos were buried and where they found the tomb of King Tut. We also saw the Temple of Hatcheapsuit, the Temple of Karnag, and the Temple of Luxor. These structures were amazing, it's hard to believe that they were built without modern-day equiptment. I found it interesting that the Egyptians believe that there was no slave labor involved in building everything, I don't believe it. The best part about Luxor was the Nile. I know that the Nile is in Cairo too, but Luxor has 200,000 people and Cairo has something like 20 million, therefore the Nile was a little nicer, and it's upstream from Cairo. We spent some nice time on the Nile, on boats and our hotel was on it. Sunsets in Luxor are amazing, and the Nile just made it better. We were in Luxor for two nights and three days. On the third night we took an overnight train back to Cairo, that was an experiance. I think that travaling by train should become popular again, I really enjoyed it. But if it does become popular again the rule has to be "NO SMOKING." The man in charge of our car smoked a ton, as do most people in Egypt, but it's hard to fall asleep, breath, and wakeup to smoke, I can say I hated that. But we made it to Cairo in one piece and pretty tiered. That day we did that Cairo Musiem. and the bazaar, the market. That mrket is considered to be one of the biggest in the world. I find that I get into securaty mode when I'm in places like that, no one looks at or touches my girls (the girls I'm with), in fact, I found that if you put on a hard face most people stay far away from you. Now that is against my nature, but the men in Egypt are very vocal about American girls and I don't appreciat that. The next morning we did the Citagl and Muhammad Ali Masque, those were neat. We then headed for the Siani. The Siani is a barran wilderness, that's all I have to say. At 2:30 the next morning we got up and hiked Mt. Siani. Siani was neat, cold, but the sunrise was amazing. I had no special feelings on Siani, I wasn't expecting too, but many were. I loved seeing our Heavenly Fathers creations though, the sun and the mountains were great! After Siani we showered (it was cold and Tiggers don't like cold water) and headed for Isreal again. That day was a long one but it was worth every minute because we got home to the JC!!! It's amazing that this feels like home, ya'all told me it would, and it does. Egypt was a great experience, I really loved it. The people were great and I didn't get sick, so what more can I ask for. Have a wonderful weekend!

Jerico

Yesterday was Jerico day, and it was great! One of the things that made it awesome was the rain. I doesn't rain very often in Jerico, it's in the Judean Wilderness, but yesterday was the exception. The air smelt wonderful, all of you Arizona people understand the desert rain smell, and the best part was the tempeture, it was cool. We went to the Mt. of Temptations Monastery or the Quruntul Monastery first. The monastery is literally built on the side of a cliff. It was built in the late 1800's and looks like it belongs on the mountain. It's built to comemorate the temptation of Christ. They (Greek Orthodox) believe that Chirst went to that mountain to fast 40 days and nights and that it was there that satan came to tempt him. They actually have a rock that they believe is the actual rock that satan wanted Christ to change into bread. Anyway, there was a great view from on top of the monastary, we could see the Dead Sea and the entire valley of Jerico. From there we headed to Tel-Jerico. Tel-Jerico is the ruin of Jerico. A tel is a city built on top of a city, built on top of a city, until it creates a huge mound. Jerico is supposed to be the oldest city on earth. The city it's self was much smaller then I expected, they suspect that only about 2,000 lived inside of the city walls when the Isrealites conquered it. We ate lunch there and a man at a fruit stand gave me something called a "pamelo," I think, it's a mix between a grapefruit and an orange, but more than double the size, it was great! We headed to get a look at Harods Summer Palacem there's a small foundation left and then up the road to a great overlook of the Judean Wilderness. The Wilderness is barren, I wouldn't have wanted to walk through there back in the day. The day was good and really interesting. Life is good, we're headed to Egypt in just a couple of days! Hasta luego!

Walking and Spanish

It was a wonderful day, it was a free day. This morning I got some homework done, we're headed to Jericho tomorrow and I needed to get ready academically. At 10am a few of us headed to the Jerusalem YMCA, you've never seen a YMCA like this one. The building is right across the street from the King David Hotel, that's where presidents stay, and is huge. It is all stone with a huge bell tower. We went to there to play the bells actually. The organist for the center goes every Sunday and plays. I was able to play "Lead Kindly Light," "For the Beauty of the Earth," and "Teach me to Walk in the Light," it was an incredible experience. Ofter the tower we headed over to a few museums, it was great. Matt, I bought my first Falafal, GREAT! This evening was the real highlight of the day. A Holocaust survivor came to speak to us. His name is Elias, he's from Poland. Elias only speaks Hebrew and Spanish (he lived in Guatemala for 22 years after the war), so I had the opportunity to translate some for him. He was an amazing person, he radiated love for everybody, including the Nazi Germans. He said he lives by two motto's; Believe in God and Work to Live! Elias is a practicing Jew and was really amazing to hear, I recorded the whole thing. Well, I need to head to bed. Thanks again for all who made this possible, it has been amazing! God Bless.

p.s. I ran into a woman and her granddaughter from Buenos Aires, it made me trunky!

Welcoming in the Sabbath

The last few days have been wonderful. Last night we went to the Western Wall to welcom in the Sabbath with the Jews, it was an incredible spiritual experience. We got there about an hour before sunset. I had bought a kippa the day before and put it on once we got to the plaza. At first I felt awkward, almost sacreligious, wearing their thier religious garb. But by the end of the night I felt to be a major part of thier seramony. The Ultra Orthodox jews were on the far north side of the wall praying. I loved watching thier devotion, they let nothing distract them. On the far south side of the plaza a huge group of young jews, more my age, were gathering, they were singing and dancing. The dancing and the singing was lound and very physical. I was confused at first, but I asked our district president and he said that the sabbath is a time of joy and that they believe that they must worship with all their heart, might, mind, and strength and that thru dance they are able to express that. Once the sun went down I went down by the wall where all of the jews were praying and worshipping. It is important to remember that the Western Wall is one of the most sacred places for the jews, so it was neat to be there with them. A few of us were standing near a group of dancers and got sucked in. For over an hour we sang and danced with this people. It may sound weird, but it was an incredible spriritual experience. The devotion and the faith of these people were strong and I could feel it. I feel blessed to have been there.
This afternoon after church the whole group went to the Garden Tomb for the first time. The tomb is kept up by a Brittish charity and is very beautiful. Our guide was a man from London and was excited about his belief in Christ, yet again, good to see people devoted to their beliefs. The Garden Tomb was a spiritual place for me. There are two suspected places for Christ barrial, the Church of the Holy Seplecure and the Garden Tomb. I have been to both places. The Church of the Holy Seplecure was neat, and it was neat to see people travel from all over the world to be there. Many religions believe that the Church is the place, but I wasn't feeling it. At the Garden Tomb I felt something special today, that's all I'm going to say.
So to say the least, it has been a wonderful past few days. I've learned alot about others devotion and how they worship. God bless!

It's a new day (for you, it's night time for me)

So, life is good. Today I didn't leave the Center once, I stayed in a studied. Classes are going well, very heavy work load. Folks told me that the work load was heavy, I think that they could have enphasised that a little more. I had my first Arabic class today, it was way fun. I have really enjoyed learning Arabic on the street, it's been really fun. Well, all is well. Mi salame!

No title

We had our first field trip of the trip, it went well. This trip was the geography field trip, we went to a nuumber of lookouts to see the city from different vistas. My favorite was south east of the city, it was on top of a hill overlooking Bethlehem and Jerusalem. This country is amazing. I had an interesting thought today. My professor was talking about the current struggle between the Isrealies and the Palastiniens (the Jews and the Muslems), he mentioned that they are fighting for sacred places and that's why the sepration wall is so contriversial. I had the thought; "I'm so glad we have the preisthood, if we want a sacred place, we just dedicate a new one. If you want to move your wall further into my territory, great! I'll just dedicate a new place). I'm so grateful for the gospel. Well, that's about it for today!

My first free day

Wow, what a day! Today was our first free day in Jerusalem. We started out with changing our money over. We walked to Lions gate, which was really nice in the morning, it was cool outside and the gate wasn't busy at all. We headed to the West Wall and the Dome of the Rock, they were incredible. Dad, I didn't see what you told me to look for, I'll have to look again. We headed to the Church of the Holy Seplecer after that, but we took too long shopping (I was with a bunch of girls), so we didn't even go into the church. For the next few hours we did the rampart walk, it was incredible! With that walk you see most of the Old City from up above, it was incredible. Last of all we walked into west Jerusalem and got gilatto, I didn't, I found homeade alfahores next door, so I got one of those. So to sum it up, it was an incredible day. Thanks to all of you who made this possible. Mi Salame!

Sabbath

My first sabbath in Jerusalem. We have church in the most incredible hall, there are nothing but windows behind the speakers and a view of the Old City. One suprize at church was sunday school in spanish. There are three latinas in the branch, so they have a spanish class, it was great! This afternoon I headed down to the Orson Hyde park and the Garden of Gethsemane. Both gardens were peaceful and beautiful, I really enjoyed it. All is well, I'm happy and very blessed! Mi Salame.

I'm alive

It's been a good day. We started with classes this morning, they're going to keep me very busy. Later this afternoon we were let loose in the city. Me and 7 others went to the Old City for an hour and a half (it's friday and you only have about 2 hours to be int he East Jeruselem and the Old City). The city is going to take some getting use to. I feel really uncomfortable not knowing the language, it makes me feel tiny and useless, but that feeling will pass. It's fun to watch the other members of the group get excited and talk to the shop keepers, I love people watching. I'm excited to really get into classes so that I can undrstand what I'm seeing and what everything means. I'm well and happy!

Update

I'm exausted, but happy. Today has been good thus far (it's about 4pm here). This morning we had some meeteings, and a few this afternoon. But the good part about today was the walk through the city. We split up into small groups and the faculty took us all over east Jeruselem, the Old City, and West Jeruselem. The city is different then I imagined, but I really enjoyed it. I was at the back of my group acting as shepard, just making sure that no one got left behind. At the back with me were a couple of the J.C. security guards. I started to learn Arib form them, it was great, and quite hard. Well, all is well. Mi salame!

The Holy Land

I'm here, in the Jeruselem Center. The flight was really long, and every one of them was delayed. But, it's great to be here. We arrived late, but got right into dinner (very tasty!). After dinner we had a few small orientations and a tour of the Center. The Center is one of the most beautiful buildings I have ever seen, it's incredible. There really isn't anything to report, I'm happy to be here and to be here safe. Chau!