Sunday, April 12, 2009

"He Has Risen" Easter Sunday!

HAPPY EASTER!!!!!!!!! The Garden Tomb was my favorite service I have been to all semester! People were singing Gospel music and I was loving it! I caught on pretty fast with the tune of the song and started belting the music! It was different, but I really loved it! It was fun to realize that we were all there for one purpose and that was to celebrate that Christ lives! It was so awesome! It was totally worth getting up at 4:00am!!!


We walked into the room and we had to pick a song and we only got to practice once and then had to play on the real thing. We picked the song "Lightly Row" it was pretty easy, but we did so good! Steve and I were nervous at first, but we got the hang of it! We played the bless for over 100,000 thousand people today. Who can say that they played bells for all Jerusalem on Easter Sunday......Not everyone!!


This is the view from the top of the YMCA!



After going to some services I went to the YMCA building to play the bells. We went all the way to the top of the tower and we were able to look out over all Jerusalem.




These were all the people outside of the Holy Sepulchre on Easter Sunday!





These are some people watching from above, looking down towards the wall!






We went to the Jewish quarters for breakfast and found out that the Chief Rabbi was coming to the western wall to speak. There were so many people down by the wall! It was crazy! So much was going on in the City today!
















This was the live band that played all of the songs! You can see that everyone was really happy to be there!









This guy was sitting right next to us and he was totally into it! I loved how everyone was there for the same reason and that was to celebrate christ and his life! It was beautiful!










My view of the Garden tomb on Easter Sunday! It was beautiful!











We got front row seats to the service! It was perfect! I was totally into the singing, I was loving it!












This is us waiting to go into the Garden Tomb! You can tell that we all just woke up!













Easter Sunday we got up at 4:00am so that we could stand in line for the 6:30am service. We were the 2nd people in line.















Good Friday!

We got frozen yogurt and its a pretty popular thing here! Heidi and I shared one and it was pretty much amazing!
Yes its pretty crazy!

After going to the Sepulchre we decided to go to the Suk. The Suk is the Jewish Market and its always fun to go, but Fridays are the best time to go because its right before Shabbat. People are shoving by and yelling everywhere. Its an awesome experience! My favorite thing to buy at the market is dried pineapples!! :)






This is what happens on Good Friday, some people get really into it. They reeanct Christ and the day he walked along the roads of the Old City.




This is me and Father Angelo, he loves the BYU students and we saw him when we went to the Sepulchre. We talked to him for awhile and then he let us into a secret chapel! It was really cool!





If you look closer you can see the cross at the front. They were walking along the via del rosa.














These were some of the people outside of the Sepulchre, it was packed!








Today was Good Friday, the day Christ died on the cross. The people here are really into this day so I wasn't going to miss the chance to see what they do. I spent most of my time at the Holy Sepulchre because thats were all the action was. I'm standing by the crosses that were then later carried along the Via Del Rosa.










Saturday, April 11, 2009

Palm Sunday!


They were all watching from their houses probably wondering what the heck was going on with these wierd christains. ha ha ha




Kelsey and I at the beginning of the Palm walk to Lions gate. This is the beginning of Christ triumphant entry to Jerusalem. It was one of the coolest experience I have ever participated in! It was so much fun to see everyone come together as one and worship our savior.



We were stuck in the middle of the crowd. People were all around us pushing and shoving. We thought it was pretty funny!


















Palm Sunday


I got up early so that I could go to a service at the Holy Sepulchre. It was very different, but interesting. People were pushing and shoving so that they could see what was going on. I got a good spot and was able to see everything. The walked around the rotunda with their palms and sang. It was so cool and I enjoyed every minute of it!






Tuesday, April 7, 2009

Snorkeling in Eliat!!!!


4 hour bus ride there and back!! It was so worth it!!!








Saturday, April 4, 2009

GALILEE!!!!

Galilee!!!!!!
I thought this was funny, I had to do it!! :)

Me on the top of Mt. Carmel!


Whitney, Me, and Ryan on the top of Mt. Carmel!



This was one of my favorite stops. This is one of two grave stones of two missionaries who served and died here. It was cool to hear their stories and what they did for the Lord. We sang some missionary hymns and it was really powerful! I'm so thankful for missionaries!




This was really cool! They called this the Mona Lisa of the Galilee. It was a beautiful mosaic!




































So it was April first which means April fools day, so we had to do something to the teachers. We thought it would be funny to switch up the buses. We switched them up and they did notice and ended up not caring so we got away with it! It was pretty funny!




We had a couple bone fires on the beach and it was so much fun. I was really happy to eat some smores!!








Kelsey and I thought it would be appropriate to take sword fighting pictures at the Castle. We thought it was pretty funny!


This is the Nimrod fortress and it was so much fun to run around and see all the different places.





We get pretty creative on these bus rides, we hooked up all our head phones to one ipod. It was awesome!




We went to some waterfalls and after I took this picture I couldn't believed how beautiful it really was. This picture is so REAL!!!





Tel-Dan, I thought I was back in Colorado for the day! It was awesome! I loved it!












This picture is Caesarea Philippi. It was so beautiful!



We got to go swimming here for a couple of hours! It was so much fun!



My religion teacher thought this would be a funny picture to take! I thought it was a good one!







This is the Church of Nain. The city of Nain where Jesus came and brought the Widows son back to life. The City of Nain would have been out of the way for Jesus to just stop by real quick. It shows that Jesus really knew that he needed to go to Nain to help the woman. I love this story! The Lord always knows!




Mt. Tabor seen from a distance!







I'm on top of Mt. Tabor (mt. of transfiguration) I thought this would be a funny picture!









Jordan River where people will get baptized



















We had church in Tiberias, we are on the balcony of the Tiberias church building.



Hiking to Gamla, it was a lot of fun!








This is Gamla also known as the masada of the north!







This picture is taken in the fields in Gamla. I thought it was really cool so I had to put it!



Finishing product and we also made a pyramid out of sand! We were really good at it!




So we had a free day and Brian found this tire so we thought it would be fun to cover it with sand. We were kinda bored!! ha ha





This is the beach our hotel was on.





We went and got ice cream in Tiberias and this man was so adorable I had to get a picture with him!









We went to a famous fish restaurant in Tiberias. It was so good!











This is the Synagogue that Christ taught His discource on the berad of life. This story always stays in my mind. As we were all sitting in the synagogue my teacher told us that he could see us as the people who stayed with christ when everyone else left. I'd liked to hope that I would have been of those people! Its just cool to think about!



Capernaum was all made of basalt in the time of Jesus. Basalt is a black stone. When christ came to Capernaum he was literally the light in the town of darkness. I thought that was a cool way to look at it both physically and figuratively.




Whitney and I on the shore next to the St. Peters Primacy!


This is St. Peter's Primacy where Christ appeared to his apostles. This is where he shared a meal with them and mandated Peter to "feed my sheep." I really loved this place!




I'm standing in the church and the Sea of Galilee is behind me. It was so beautiful! I just imagined christ at the bottom of the hill teaching the people of the beatitutes. It was a great expereince to ponder and thing about everything that had happened their.


This is an Italian domed octagon church on the Mt. of Beatitudes. We were able to have our own area and had a program. We talked about each of the beatitudes. It was a beautiful place!




I'm on a boat in the middle of the Sea of Galilee. It was a beautiful day so we were able to talk about the miracles that happened with the sea. We also sang hymns which made the moment even better!











Synagogue with pointed vault ceiling. The remains of an older synagogue, perhaps the one in which Jesus declared his Messiahship and then was rejected by the congregation, may lie below the floor of this 6th century synagogue. So cool!







This is the Nazareth/Church of the Annuciation. It had beautiful mosaics of different countries all over. Nazareth was an adorable town. It was fun to see where Jesus grew up.



This picture is taken on top of Meggido.





This is Herod's aqueduct which brought water from Mt. Carmel.




This is Caesarea Maritima where Philip preached and Church leaders sent Paul to. Its a beautiful Roman port.
These past 10 days I have been in Galilee (Ein Gev). It felt more of a vacation rather then a full week of field trip and classes. While in Ein Gev we still had New Testament and some days we were able to relax on the beach. We stayed right on the beach of the Sea of Galilee. It was so amazing to be able to wake up everyday and look out over the Sea of Galilee. The highlight of my week was being able to learn about a story in the New Testament and then visit that exact place the next day. I am very luck to have been able to experience these past 10 days. I have grown closer to my Savior, my scriptures, and the people I have learned to love and be around for the past 3 months. These past 10 days were days of growth and strength. I will never forget the memories that came with them.