Life is Great!!

The wall in front of the center in which we live. They have pretty tight security here which makes us all feel pretty safe. Sometimes even safer than we felt in the united states.
A couple of girls and I at the Jerusalem time machine. It kind of reminded me of the star tours ride at disneyland because it was a motion ride and it took us back in time and talked about the history of jerusalem.

A little sneak peak of what the shopping is like in Jerusalem. There are just a ton of shops like this right up next to each other and most of the shops have pretty similar things. We found one shop that has 5 sheckel earings which equals around $1.50! sweet deal huh
On top of the old city walls. It was really cool to be able to see the city from above.

Garden of gethsemane! Wow what an amazing experience it was to go there. There are several trees and one they have dated back to around 2000 years old which they say could possibly be the tree in which christ knelt by to pray. As we were here we all just say down and read our scriptures and wrote in our journals. I know for a fact that I will be going back there since it is just across the street! AMAZING!

A little example of what the guy girl ratio is like here. ha! pretty sure in this picture there are 9 girls and 1 guy! Sometimes I feel kind of bad for the guys because they have to have a lot of patience being with so many girls that are wanting to go into every store to shop. Matt was great though! he def made us feel safe!

Brother Skinner teaching us about the area around us. We went on a little geography tour of the area and he was our little tour guide. He is our near eastern studies teacher and he is a genious. He knows so much. Last night he talked to us about the dead sea scrolls in which he was involved with the work that has gone on with them.
As we were on our tour a herd of sheep started coming up way close to us. It was the craziest thing ever we all immedietly pulled out our camera's and started taking pictures and the little boy that was with the sheep was not liking that we were taking pictures of his sheep so he started yelling at us and telling us to put our camera's away or to give him 2 sheckels!

On top of some dome thing that was on top of a church that we went to while on our tour. The wind was crazy the whole time and I honestly thought I was going to fall off. haha

This is the view from outside of my room! Is that not the most beautiful thing ever? The gold dome is the dome of the rock. We havent gotten a chance to go there yet, but Im excited to be able to get a closer view of it. Everyone says that it is a pretty incredible building.

Me eating a falafel. A falafel is a fried ball made of chickpeas and is usually served in a pita or a tortilla with vegetables and humus. It is a very popular food item here and is served all over. It is a little bit different but I thought is was pretty good.

My friend Lindsey and I in front of the church of the holy Sepulchre. It was a very cool experience to be able to see this. This is where some people believe that Jesus was crucified and the place where he was buried.

I have officially been here for a week now and it seems like I have been here for forever. We were finally given permission on sunday to go out into the city and when they told us that we all got super excited went out into the town. (since sunday isnt the sabath here) That day I went with a group and we took a tour of the church of the holy seplechure (sp) it was really neat, i took some pictures and I going to try and post some soon but right now I am on a computer in the center so the pictures arent with me. We also went shopping, the shopping here is pretty cool. They have tons of scarves, jewlery, beautiful olive wood nativities and much more and most of the prices are pretty good so i am for sure going to take advantage of that! :) Yesterday which was wednesday was our first field trip and they took us on a geography tour around the city it was really cool. I feel like there is a lot that I dont know about this area so it will be cool to be able to learn more. I know these posts would be a lot more exciting with picture so as soon as possible I will do that! love you all

Holy Lands

The above picture is indeed my house for the next 4 months. how crazy is that? haha it is so beautiful. we eat, sleep, go to classes, attend church.. basically do most things in that center! I have been here for about 4 days now and i have been loving it. It is for sure different than I am use to and it might take a little bit of time to adjust (especially to the crazy time difference, attending church on saturdays, and the many prayer calls every morning) but i know that these next 4 months are going to be an experience of a lifetime and I cannot wait!