If I forget thee

This week has been amazing. I made it on Fox News:

http://video.foxnews.com/v/4649244/unrest-in-mideast-does-not-deter-holy-week-tourists/?playlist_id=86857

Last Friday we went to the Western Wall and saw Patrick Stewart aka Xavier from X-men. It was his first time in Israel and he was being escorted by the English Ambassador.

We had a special guest this weekend as well. Elder Holland stayed with us for a few days while about church business. What a way to start off the final week here in Israel. He gave us a simple challenge to write down one word entries that describe what the Savior suffered for us. Every new word entry allows me to think of new ways to see how much the Lord has done for me.



Hey There Jerusalem

Music: Plain White T’s (Hey there Delilah)

Lyrics: Sarah Griggs



Hey there Jerusalem, what’s it like in Judah’s hills

I’ll be a 1000 miles away soon but tonight you look so pretty

Yes you do, Provo can’t shine as bright as you.

You know it’s true.



Hey there Jerusalem, the falafel I can taste

Damascus date, the Western wall and wandering through the streets and shops

It is so nice, Mormons get a special price.

A special price.



Chorus:

Oh its your churches and your walls,

Your sunsets and your prayer calls,

The view that I can see

From my JC balcony,

You are a part of me.



Hey there Jerusalem, I’ve learned a lot about the scriptures,

Judd and Muhlestein taught us well but man I want to chuck

my headset off a tel, weren’t all those bus rides rather swell?

Rather swell?



Hey there Jerusalem, Chadwick always has so much so say,

Every song he sings of shephelah simply takes my breath away,

But it’s all good, we all know the manger wasn’t wood.

It wasn’t wood.



Chorus



The United States seems pretty far

But they’ve got planes and trains and cars-

I’d walk to you if I had no other way.

Our friends will all make fun of us

And we’ll just laugh along because

We know that none of them have felt this way.



Jerusalem, I can promise you

That by the time that we get through

Our world will never, ever be the same

And you’re to blame.



Hey there Jerusalem, you be good and don’t you miss me

A few more years and I’ll come if I can

When I become a religious man

And I’ll come back with kids again

Oh how I love this land

Hey there Jerusalem, here’s to you

This one’s for you



Oh it’s your churches and your walls,

Your sunsets and your prayer calls,

The view that I can see

From my JC balcony,

You are a part of me.



Ohohohohohohohohohoh

You are a part of me

You are a part of me

Forever part of me.



The fellowship of the unashamed

I am a part of the fellowship of the unashamed; the dye has been cast out. I have stepped over the line, the decision has been made. I am a disciple of Jesus Christ! I won’t look back, let up, slow down, or be still.

My past is redeemed; my presence makes sense, my future is secure. I am finished and done with low living, small planning, colorless dreams, tamed, visions, worldly talking, cheap giving, and dwarfed goals.

I no longer need preeminence, position, or popularity. I don’t have to be right, recognized, praised, or rewarded. I now live by faith, lean on his presence, walk with patience, uplifted by prayer. My face is set, my gate is fast, my goal is heaven.

My road is narrow; my way is rough. My companions are few; my guide is reliable; my mission is clear. I cannot be bought, compromised, detoured, lured away, divided, or delayed. I will not flinch in the face of sacrifice, hesitate in the presence of the adversary, negotiate at the table of the enemy, ponder at the pool of popularity, or meander in the maze of mediocrity. I won’t give up, shut up, or let up until I have stayed up, stored up, and paid up for the cause of Christ.

I must go till he comes, give till I drop, preach till all know, and work till he stops me. And when he returns, he will have no problem recognizing me; my banner will be clear.

My hat pretending to be Indiana Jones' hat

At the location where the last scene of "The Last Crusade" was filmed. My hat can sense the Holy Grail is near.

Ok change of character, and trying to pull off being Tim McGraw's hat.

Inside a random cave.

Outside of that same random cave with my future roommate Neal.

Notice how high up I am, the only problem was that I had to jump off, after Lawrence had boosted me up onto that ledge.

Warning: when wearing an awesome hat, random epic posing may occur.

This is a cool place, in fact it is the high place where the ancient Nabateans performed sacrifices

And the ancient altar itself, the high point of the mountain that is farthest in the distance is the site of Aaron's (Moses' brother) tomb.

It is true, the hat is cool.  Thank you lil sis Sarah for an awesome Christmas present!

I have my last three finals this Friday, so it is an exciting thing.  Yesterday we went to the Dead Sea, now I can't think of many things that are funner than wallowing in the mud and running into a warm sea in which you are completely buoyant.  The only thing is you better keep your head above water, because it tastes bad and in your eyes it feels like something that my old roommate used to say that rhymes with "well myre, and slim phone."

Petra I'll Never Forgetcha

Kotel Tunnel aka excavations on the western side of the Temple Mount

I had one of the most incredible days in Jordan this past Tuesday.  We got up and went to Petra, where we hiked in and saw the treasury that is in Indiana Jones: The Last Crusade.  I made sure to wear my Indiana Jones hat that my sister Sarah gave me for Christmas.  We then hiked up to the monastery which is almost just as cool if not cooler than the treasury.  We had lunch, and then as I was finishing Neal and Lawrence came up to me and asked me if I wanted to see as much as we could in two and half hours.  Of course I was down, so we booked it.  We literally ran up and down Petra trying to see the coolest places which included a high place with a sweet sacrificial altar with Aaron's tomb in the background, a temple that was really a palace, and another few caves that we climbed up into.  I will load on some more pictures from that adventure once I can get my hands on an ipod cord.

Ok this is probably something that only my mom will really care about.  But I finally found a good fig tree to sit under.  In John 1 it recounts that Jesus found Nathanael sitting underneath a fig tree.  Nathanael believes Jesus simply because Jesus recognizes him, and in turn Christ promises Nathanael that he will see angels ascending and descending out of heaven.  I like that story.  Jordan was full of fig trees.

On the way out we got to ride a horse.  At first I wasn't super excited to have a guy walk me along for five minutes out of Petra.  In this picture my guide is the one holding the rope.  I started talking to him and asked him if I could possibly take the rope and more or less ride the horse on my own.  The guide said that he could not do that, but that he could hop on the horse with me and gallop out if I were willing.  I was super excited.  So he hopped on and we went full speed, I don't think my guide thought that I would be willing to go that fast, but by the end of it he was a hoop'n and holler'n.

We got to go storm a castle after Petra.  After we headed to Amman where Uriah the Hittite died in battle: one of the saddest stories in the Bible.  We got to stay there, and there was a pleasant surprise waiting for me at the hotel we were staying at.  At first I was a little bummed, Spencer and I were assigned to room 1103 and most of the group were on different floors.  What's more is that it was on the top floor.  But as I got out of the elevator I was greeted with a very nice lobby that read: "Royal Apartments."   I was staying in the penthouse!!! In fact my room was right under the neon sign that read Belle Vue Hotel.  We had a huge balcony that overlooked Amman, a huge visiting area with leather couches, a kitchen, clothes washer, two bathrooms, and towels tied in the shape of a heart.  My breath was knocked out of me and I could only say "I have never stayed in a place this nice in my life."  Apparently this was just part of the deal of having eighty or so students staying here, because these rooms normally went for nine hundred dollars a night. 
Believe it or not, this was all in one day.

Snorkeling in the Red Sea

Sometimes life is just too sweet.  On Sunday we got to take a four hour bus ride down to Eilat on the coast of the Red Sea.  I hadn't snorkeled since I went to Hawaii with my brother and parents.  Since snorkeling was practically all I did in Hawaii I had gotten pretty good at it.  Apparently I lost all of my ability to snorkel though, because it took me about an hour to get the hang of it again, and I had to swallow a few gallons of seawater in the process (gross).  Once I got used to it again though I had a blast.  I saw hundreds of fish including a lot of Nemos, and Dorys.  A few of the students even saw lion fish.  Probably my favorite fish to see though was the parrot fish, there was one that stopped and turned completely vertical in the water in order to look right at me.  It stared at me for what felt like a couple of seconds . . . which was pretty accurate.  I felt like we bonded, it was a special moment.  On the drive home we stopped at a Kibbutz that has a special dairy production, aka best place to get Chocolate Milk in Israel.  What a way to top off an amazing Sunday. 
Yesterday we went on a field trip around the temple mount, and we celebrated Sarah Griggs' birthday by going to a pizza place.  It was a hole in the wall.  An old guy with a cigarette in his mouth made the "pizzas."  He took out his on-fire-lolly-pop and asked "meat or no meat?" then he went to work putting together a concoction of bread, meat, eggs, and cheese.  Probably the most interesting thing that I have eaten here.
 

To Walk Where He Walked

I was not expecting this before I went to Galilee.  I have been in some beautiful places in my life but none quite as beautiful as Galilee in March.  This first picture was on top of Mount Arbel. The cliffs that I was sitting on were like the cliffs of insanity, I didn't trust anyone to get close to them, except for myself.  The cities below me are Magdala, where Mary Magdalene was from, Then farther up you can see Capernaum and the planes of Bethseda.  There were trillions of wild flowers all over the countryside.  We stayed at a Kibbutz called Ein Gev that is on the southeastern part of the lake (lake because it is freshwater, sea because we call it that).  We got to do a lot of chilling on the beach.

Our first field trip in Galilee, I am on the front part of the ship that we were on.  We went from Ein Gev to the western shore.  While on the boat we got to talk about what Jesus did on the Sea of Galilee. It was a really calm day and we talked about the calming of the sea. 

 Also during that first trip we got to stop at Capernaum.  The Savior did so much here.  Three of my favorite miracles were performed in this town: the healing of the man with Palsy, the healing of the woman with the issue of blood, and the raising of Jairus' daughter. 

The mountain that is in the background on the left is Mount Arbel.

Church was amazing.  We went to the branch that is in Tiberias.  The meeting room had a big open window and these two pictures give an idea of what the view was like behind us.  Lawrence, a giant of a man, gave this thought, "It would be a terrible mistake to come to the Savior and not ask Him for anything.  We should ask Him for the greatest desire of our hearts, in fact we should ask Him for a new heart."

Here I am with BJ, at the river Jordan which we visited on our way back from church.

Now here is an interesting point of study for everybody.  It seems that Joseph and Jesus were not necessarily carpenters, sorry Uncle Doug.  The word that is translated into carpenter is "tecatone." It means builder or architect.  Not specifically with wood though.  All the buildings from Jesus' time period are made out of stone.  Mostly white lime stone, but also black basalt from the Galilee area.  Neither of these evidences matter too much until you take a look at how much the Savior makes reference to stone, and compare it with his references to wood.  So very likely the Savior was a stone mason, not a carpenter.  Thank you Chadwick.

We are on top of the Syrian overlook here.

Here we are on top of Mount Carmel.  My professors are big fans of reading stories of things that happened where we are.  I like this.  So we read from 1 Kings 18.  My favorite verses are 20-21, and 31-38.  Elijah asks the question "How long halt ye between two opinions?" Which is basically asking "How long are you going to vacillate between God and Baal?"  My professor told us to ask ourselves how we do this as well, not if we are or not.

Neil A. Armstrong said: "It means more to me to walk where my Savior walked, than to walk on the moon."