Week of Studies

Well, I feel like this past week has been kinda boring compared to my last post. All I did was study! We've been having midterms and it's been crazy. Not in a rock-my-world-hard kinda way, but crazy in that everyone here is all preparing and taking these tests all at the same time and we all just amplify our stress and anxiety, and basically everyone ends up freaking out over a 20 question quiz! That's pretty much what it comes down to. Being that person who doesn't get involved in group study too often anyways, I felt a little out of place. But don't worry parents! I did fine. We did go on a field trip to the Shephelah- which is the lower hills that parallel the coast line through most of Israel. We went to the valley which is known to be where David slew Goliath. This valley is almost surely the place of this biblical story because of such good documentation on the location. So naturally we went and flung some rocks! I literally almost killed the kid next to me. On my first swing, my rock went directly sideways and flew past his head. He was pretty nervous after that to say the least. Oopsies! But I got betta!

See? Like David.

This is a bell cave. Look them up on google- cause they're cool!

This is Madison, Lindsay, Me, and Sophie overlooking the valley where David and Goliath went the rounds. (or round. whatever.)

We also went to these amazing caves called bell caves which we explored for a bit and sang in. [see above] Ah the acoustics were a lot of fun! I really can't remember the significance of them... but it was sweet! After the whole group sang hymns and everything, as we were just messin around, Paul, Jed, Jordan, and I started singing amazing grace just to play around and it was really really cool! This group is so stinkin talented here guys! I can't even tell you. But I really loved it!
But Tues, Wed, and Thurs. were basically filled with school and studying. 2 midterms and a paper. But really not as bad as everyone was making it to be. We had our informal talent show on Thursday night and I think I can honestly say that it was the best talent show I have ever been to. Honestly! It was so stinkin awesome. I did represent. I may be ruining a suprise- but I bought Dad a sweet crappy slide flute from the bell caves and I may or may not have played Lord of the Rings song until I couldn't continue due to laughing. Ya- good call on not having me learn the flute or something when I was little Mom. I woulda sucked. Spontaneously cracking up doesn't work so well with wind instruments... Now violin on the other hand- totally fine!
Thursday after classes and everything was over (Oh man Mom and Dad- I was so tempted to skip Hebrew and go in to the city to see the Jews celebrating Sukkot, but I DIDN'T! You would've been so proud.) I went with a group down to West Jerusalem to see all of the Jews celebrating. They were full on having a parade through the streets of all the Jews who traveled to Jerusalem for Sukkot. It was really fun! Fun environment. Also- got my first loaf of Challah bread!! Yummo!

My cute roommate, Liz, and I in West Jerusalem. Those little plywood huts are what they ate in for the entire week. During Sukkot- you can't eat a meal inside. (maybe I needed to use the bathroom- cause I look goofy in this picture.)

 Friday we had class and just played in the center. There was a bit of guff goin on at the Temple Mount- so they didn't let us go out. So we did some slacklining!

Tada! Da da dadadada da CIRCUS! Afro circus afro circus, polka dot, polka dot, polka dot AFRO!!

Sabbath we didn't have our normal meetings because of general conference, so we went out to the Garden of Gethsemane pretty early. We actually got in to the private grove with the better trees that you can go up to and they only allow special permission groups in. It was a really interesting experience. Similar to Mom's experience in the sacred grove I think. I just wasn't feeling anything in such an important and serene place, but I learned a wonderful lesson from it. I wrote in my thoughts journal (shout out to Kamille- thank you for enabling me to record my thoughts in your cute journal! I love it!) trying to figure out why I wasn't able to feel the spirit at all in this sacred place, and I had the thought that this may be what Christ was feeling when he was performing the Atonement in this exact place. God removed his spirit from him so Christ was completely alone. I don't know if Christ had ever felt that alone before in his life, because he had lived a perfect life worthy of the companionship of the spirit at all times. But because of his Atonement- he had to feel what we feel. He had to know what it feels like to sin and to suffer without the support of the Spirit. It was an interesting thought to me. Later on in the day though, while watching General Conference I had such an amazing experience where the spirit just filled me to the brim, and I recognized that there has to be those times that i'm alone in order to appreciate the times when I feel the spirit. General Conference here was a wonderful experience for sure. When Pres. Monson announced the change of age for missionaries- so many girls just burst in to tears. The whole room was just an emotional/spiritual wreck. Hahhaa. Seriously- girls sniffing and crying throughout the ENTIRE first session. But it really was a sweet session. In between sessions we did a bit of slacklining on the grass in front of the center. It's a fun little get away from things in the center for sure! Then went back in to watch the second session and went straight to bed!
Sunday felt like one of the longest days of my life! We got up at sunrise to get to the Western Wall to see the Jews celebrating the end of Sukkot (Festival of Tabernacles) They take palm, Willow, and other plants along with a lemon thing and shake them in all directions (N, S, E, W, up, and down) where God is and pray for a good rain season to bring good crops. Then on the last day- Sunday, they forcefully whack the leaves on the ground. My Judaism teacher explained this as one of the weirder traditions of the Jews and an interesting thing to see. He was right! We aren't able to go out of the center before 6 so we got there a bit after the whole big thing went down- but it was still going on when we got there about 6:15. It was the most crowded I have ever seen! Pretty crazy! TONS of guys and not too many girls though. I asked one woman and she said it's kind of a guys thing. I can see that... haha. "Hey! Lets go whack each other with weeds!" Sounds familiar. But then we met up with our class at the City of David at 8 and toured there. We also went through Hezakiah's tunnel again. It is always fun to me! Course- I have always found entertainment in trudging through tunnels in my clothes. After all that- we came back to the center and had a chill nap day until general conference again. Ah man this general conference has been awesome! Hopefully we get the conference Ensign here so I can study it. Probably not gonna happen though. Bummer.
Anywho- that brings us to today! Since we had our fieldtrip yesterday we had free day today. So a group of us went to the rockafeller Museum. It is a fun little museum with crazy cool things! Not to mention it's awesome courtyard in the middle. The weather today was stinkin beautiful. Down a couple degrees and it will be amazing! I'm getting fall fever. I really wish we had pretty fall leaves here. I hear it's beautiful back there- i'm jealous. Do some good biking in Park City for me. Also, I was able to go to dinner with one of the shop owners family today- which was awesome! Jed knows a girl he knows and he invited Jed and Jordan and Sophie and he told them to bring a fourth. It was fun to get to sit down and visit with a family here! He (Jimmy) lives about three miles from the Old City, so he came and picked us up and took us to his house and all that. Cool stuff. But that's about it for me! I heard Boston was a raging success. I can just imagine- four perfect little angels all playing peacefully painting replica's of Monet. A beautiful image. Bahahah. Hope all is going well! Love you all family! Thanks for the prayers. I am having the most incredible experience of my life and I know your prayers help me daily. Love you thiiiiis much!
Lizzie