Just chillin in Jerusalem!

Things have been so crazy for the last few weeks, hence the reason I have not had a second to write on my blog! I have literally had every second of my day planned even down to eating, sleeping and bathroom breaks! A couple weeks ago I was still in Jerusalem and was able to classes and had two free days to go out in the city. I have been learning so much it is incredible to me more know than ever that the mind can hold so much information. We have such amazing bodies! Anyways, I have such wonderful professors here at the Jerusalem center, I am truly blessed. They take us all over to different sites and teach us so much about each place we visit. We also read directly from the scriptures while we are there too and in some places we sing. For example, one of my favorite places that we went were in these amazing caves. They are called the Bell caves and they are honestly the most beautiful caves I have ever been in. They are incredibly tall and wherever you are in the caves it echoes. We had a few people from our group sing some beautiful solos and we also sang as a group. It made the whole caves sing as well. It was so beautiful.

We also when spelunking in some different caves. While the Bell Caves were the most beautiful caves I have ever been inside, these were definitely the coolest. We had to crawl on our hands and feet and in some places had to do the army crawl to get into the bigger cave. Once we all got out of the little tunnel and made it to the middle where the big cave was our teacher had us turn off all of our lights and sit in the darkness. He talked about the importance of light in our lives and the importance that the gospel is and that it gives each of us our own light. He said some amazingly profound things and then we all sang some hymns that had to do with light. I will never forget the feelings that I had.

Some places that I went while I was in Jerusalem the last couple weeks were to The Garden Tomb, which was absolutely amazing. I actually went as a field trip with the other students. So, there was not a whole lot of time to sit and contemplate, however I could definitely feel the spirit there. All of our group sang some hymns and it sounded absolutely incredible. I am already looking forward to the time when I can return again. That is the wonderful thing about living in Jerusalem. I can return to any of these places that I have visited anytime I want to!

(this is a sign that when President Hinckley came to visit here someone read it allowed to him and President Hinckley said, "I do every day." What an amazing man!)

Some other places I have gone have been some museums (probably none that you may know a lot about if know about at all, I sure did not until I went there) and have gone to the Western Wall. That was truly amazing to go there. To see so many different people come from all over the world to worship and praise here at the western wall was amazing. When we went there they separated us into two different sides; one side for the girls and one for the boys. On the girls side it was very quiet and everyone was very reverent. There were many people that were literally weeping as they were touching the wall. There were also many people that were standing and reading the Koran. On the boys side it was a completely different feeling to me. While I was not allowed on the guys side I was able to stand on a chair and look over a wall to see what they were doing. They It was such a cool experience. I stayed there for quite a while watching and pondering on my own. I was able to write my own prayer scroll and put it into the wall. Even though my religion does not consider this to be a holy place per say, I still felt the spirit there and respect so much the people that come from all over only to touch the wall and to say their prayers to God.