What a Wonderful Week

Well it's been another great week in Jerusalem. Not too much has happened this week. For the most part it's been filled with surprise midterms, thinking about how I should be studying instead of whatever I was doing at the moment, a few outings into the city, getting to know some people here in the center and in the city better as well as a few back home.

I will get to most of that but I firstly want to make a public declaration of my appreciation and love for my mother. It is said that you never know what you have until it is all gone and that is true, but it's been incredible to see how much my love and appreciation for and relationship with my mother has grown since my moving over 7,000 miles away. I've gotten the opportunity to talk to my mother on the telephone quite a bit the past couple days and I have loved every second of each conversation. I had some decisions to make this week that, for me, were very difficult, but when I called and talked to my mom about them she helped me to decide and feel so much more at peace with what she helped me to decide. My mother is such a wise and spiritual woman. I love and admire her so incredibly much. I cannot imagine what in the world life would be like without her. I am so glad that Heavenly Father knows so well what he is doing and knows us well enough to place us in the most perfect families to help us reach our spiritual potential. Your family may not be perfect, but they are perfect for you. And our family is not necessarily always the parents we are born to and the siblings we inherit. A family can be found in so many different things, places and people. I feel I have a family wherever I go. My biological family is always my family and is always there, but I seem to find family whenever I am away from them, wherever I go.

So one of my less favorite things that happened this week was that on Tuesday during class, our Israel teacher informed us that we would be having a midterm the next time we were scheduled to meet. Some of the students glanced at their calendars to find that our next scheduled class was indeed the next day. A brave student brought this concern up to the teacher to which he replied “Oh, well I guess our midterm is tomorrow then.” Ophir hath no mercy. (Ophir Yarden is the name of our teacher. Well, needless to say that night and the next day was filled with a lot of panic and worry but never fear, the midterm ended up being okay and the best news is that I never have to take a midterm in that class again. I don’t want to start thinking about the dreaded final yet though.

Another big thing that happened this week is that I finally purchased my big souvenirs for the semester. I bought a beautiful nativity from a man named Omar. He is famous here among the Mormons in the holy land for his beautiful craftsmanship and quality of his olivewood carvings. Both times we went it was only three or four of us so we were able to get some personal attention and consultation from Omar. It was really nice. The second time we went back to his shop this week he actually even came to the center to pick us up, bought us fruit cocktails while we were at his shop, and dropped us back off when we were done.

Anywho, this week has been a pretty great week! I hope that you all doing great and if you ever need to contact me feel free to email! Have a great week everyone!