Wells Wails and Tels

Another week in the city of Jerusalem. What an incredible life I have! Goodness I am so incredibly blessed! Well, sorry for the monster of a post last week, I know that when I look at blogs, and see a post that extensive, I am not as inclined to read it because of the daunting task it is. BUT, I guess the ones who really care and want to know what's going on, will have to be a little more devoted. What an incredible week this week! I'll start from the beginning and try to include as much as I can possibly remember.

Well, my week started off, as always, with Sabbath. Although, because the Jewish people here hold their Sabbath service on SATURDAY, so do we. Saturday is one of my very favorite days of the week because we get to go to church and feel the spirit. It's not hard to keep the Sabbath day holy when you're thinking of activities to do, and the Garden Tomb, Garden of Gethsemane, or just walking around in the land where Jesus once lived are on your list of options. Anywho, last week was the start of my brand new calling. I've been called to be one of the teachers in the Sunbeam/CTR 4,5 class. It is so much fun! I teach with another girl who is here as a student and there are 4 children in our class. However, I have only met three of them because the fourth has not been here either of the weeks that I've been teaching. In our class we have a boy named Kaelin who is really sweet but really hard to keep track of. Kaelin has ADHD so it is super hard to get him to focus on one thing for more than just a few minutes. He is constantly running out the room and down the hall, and won't stop to even sing a song, unless it's his own that he made up about basketballs. Then he will go around the room just singing really sweet and quietly and dancing really slowly as well. It's pretty cute. He will definitely present a challenge for me, but he is so sweet and I'm sure he will be a ton of fun. Annika is such a cute little girl and so bright. The first time I met her she introduced herself to me by saying "My name's Annika and I'm smart." She almost always has the right answers to all the questions we ask and is always very involved in the lessons. I haven't been able to get to know Margaret yet. She is much more shy and doesn't really want a whole lot to do with me. It's okay though, I'm sure she'll warm up eventually.

SUNDAY is always a great day because it's free day! This Sunday we just went to the Dome of the Rock in the morning then Roamed the city afterward. It was so much fun! It made the fact that I live in Jerusalem now, a little bit more real to me. I met a lot of cool people throughout the day. As we were walking around the city we first went to a shop of a man named Emad. He was very nice and friendly. He told me how I am welcome at his shop whenever and kept telling me that he liked me. He told me that he could tell that I was a good person by the light in my face. It is so fun to get to know the people here. Emad told me to come back whenever to even just talk, not buy things and that he will teach me Arabic. After Emad's we went to Abraham's. There was a student with us who was also named Abraham and Abraham the shopkeeper told him that he needed to find a wife named Sarah. There were two of us named Sarah in the little group that we were with and he gave us both free rings because of our name. After Abraham's we went to Naceers. He is another shopkeeper in the city who was very friendly, a little bit too friendly. He was very nice, but I was a wee bit frightened when he asked me if I was married then offered 50 camels for me to be his wife. It's fine though because I got a free scarf from it all. Moral of the story, blondes do have more fun (and get free stuff).

MONDAY we went on a field trip to Jericho. We saw Zachaeus's tree (an ancient sycamore tree that is similar to the kind of tree Zachaeus would've climbed into in the story in the bible, and is in a location that is close to where he would've been. However, the tree is not old enough to be the actual tree.), King Herod's Winter Palace, the Quruntul Monastery, the Judean Wilderness (where the temptation of Christ happened, and Tel Es-Sultan. It was really fun! While we were in the Judean wilderness we were given some time to pause and ponder which felt so nice. On field trips here we are often rushed because we have appointments set up and limited time to go to multiple places so a lot of the time it can be hard to pause and take it all in. It was nice to be able to take some time to just stop and think about where I am right now and why this place is so special.

TUESDAY and WEDNESDAY were both really regular and somewhat boring (yes, it is possibly to have a boring day in Jerusalem). But were still great because of the sheer fact that I am in Jerusalem. I just ate, went to class, ate, studied, ate, studied/chilled/got ready for bed, and went to sleep. I have been going to bed pretty early lately which has actually been SO NICE. I love it. I've gained the nickname "Grandma" from some people because of my new habits but you know what, I do not mind because I've discovered, It is SO worth it going to sleep instead of staying up to watch a movie or play a game. I usually try to be in bed by 10 every night and up by 6. I've not made my goal every day, but I have been doing pretty well so far.

THURSDAY we went on a field Trip to Negev. It was really cool! We went Laqiya, a large Bedouin town, where we saw a weaving demonstration done by the women there, a place called Arad, then Advat, then Ben Gurion's tomb/the wilderness of Zin (which is the wilderness in which the children of Israel wandered in for 40 years), then finally tried to go to a well in Beer-sheva that had to do with a story in the bible about Abraham, Isaac and a well, but it was under construction so we were unable to see it.

FRIDAY was another day filled with class but after lunch we had a humanitarian field trip that was AWESOME! It seriously was so much fun. We just had music playing and we were all jamming out and having a good time. We made over 800 school kits for kids in the local area. After we got all the kits done a dance party just erupted out of nowhere and lasted for at least a half an hour or more. I think everyone had a great time. The activity was definitely a success. That night we went to the Wailing wall for the start of Sabbath. IT WAS SO AWESOME!!! I LOOOOOVED every second of it! It was so cool to see how celebratory these people were and so welcoming. Many of them invited us to join in on their singing and dancing with them which was so much fun! It was an incredible experience during which I came to the realization that it even though these people don't believe in the same things I do, they are so devoted to and excited about their religion. Their energy and spirit was incredibly contagious. Being there honestly made me feel a wee bit inadequate because even though I do have a testimony of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, and I believe in everything they teach, I don't think that I am even half as much devoted to my religion as these people are to theirs. I envied their devoutness.

SATURDAY was Sabbath again which is always great. Kaelin was not in Sunbeams. We missed him, but it did make it a lot easier to teach. After church we went to the Garden Tomb which was great! The man who worked there and welcomed us to the Garden said something that really stuck with me. He was talking about how we are not sure whether or not that is the actual place where Christ's tomb was and he said that it really does not matter because it is not the WHERE we worship but the WHO. Such a great reminder. After we walked around the garden and looked in the Tomb, we sat as a group and sang hymns together. It was incredible. I was in my own world of a chorus of heavenly voices. It was cool to get up and look around to see that there were a few people who had ceased their observance of the garden to sit and listen to our voices. Music really can bring the spirit and pull people together.

Today, (SUNDAY) was an interesting great but again awesome because of the fact that I got to spend it in Jerusalem. We first went on the Ramparts walk, which is where you can walk on top of the wall of the old city for a part of the wall. It was really cool, beautiful and SO much fun! I'll have to try and post a few pictures later. Afterward we headed to the YMCA here in Jerusalem where our Branch President plays the Carillon bells (pretty much just the bells in a bell tower) every Sunday from 11 'til 12. It sounded beautiful and was a ton of fun. Some of the students even got to play a song on their own! Maybe by the end of the semester I will be able to do that. It was really cool to hear different Hymns ring out over the entire city of Jerusalem. We also got to go to the top of the bell tower and look over the city. Once we got up the mass of stairs and were enjoying the view we found a great surprise... SNOW... IN JERUSALEM!!! Can you believe it? It didn't stick at all, and it felt just like rain, but if you looked closely and carefully you could see flakes. That weather made for a cold rest of the day. After the bells we went to Shabon's in the old city where I got a great sweatshirt, a beautiful scripture case, and a dress I am unsure about. We then proceeded to Omar's then Jimmy's shops who both sell the most BEAUTIFUL olive wood figurines. It is going to be difficult to chose which ones to buy. Me and the people who I was with were SOAKed to the bone by the time we got back to the center but after a nice workout and a hot shower I felt great!

Well everyone, I'm starting a new adventure tomorrow named JORDAN! We leave at 6:45 am by bus to visit a brand new country and PETRA!!! You have no idea how stoaked I am. This will probably be the best vacation I've been on yet. Because I've got to get up so early, I'd better get to bed early as well which means it's time for me to leave you all now. I apologize for the, yet again, massive post, but I just can't help myself! I hope you all have the best week ever and always remember, that YOU ARE LOVED!