Marissa is Awesome!!

My cute primary girl put the title up as you can see! 

Real title: Tel Aviv! 

        First off... Im going to back track just a little. A group of ten of us went to Tel Aviv last Thursday (13th) It was so much fun and really nice and relaxing. We went at about 9 am and didnt get back till 10 pm so it was a long day out but it was perfect. We walked around Jaffa and then went and played some beach volleyball, football and swam in the Mediterranean Sea, how awesome is that?
             

Shout out to the BEST MOM EVER!!!!
  Cute mom sent me a Halloween package which had to be the best thing ever!  Thank you so much mom! You have no idea how nice it is to have American treats and to have mail.  It is so nice to get a little taste of home!

 Me opening my package and SO excited!

 Liz and I blowing up the cute decorations preparing to decorate

The final product...cutest door Ever!

City Of David

Sorry I am kind of slacking on the blog these last two weeks but it is getting harder to find time here. 

Quick update on the pictures... We went to the City of David yesterday and went through Hezekiah's tunnel. It had to be one of my favorite field trips! The tunnel is 1760 ft. long about a 45 min walk in the tunnel and about ankle to mid caff  deep of water. It was awesome!We were able to use our headlamps for real finally it was great.  After the tunnel we went to these really cool tombs and explore them a little bit. So over all it was a great day! 

Conference

  Today we had a quick sacrament meeting and then watched the Saturday afternoon session of Conference. I absolutely love conference! I have to admit it made me A LOT homesick thinking that usually on conference we are at the cabin with the family playing games, and just enjoying being with each other. But if I had to pick an alternative place to be Jerusalem's not a bad choice!
  I think one of my favorite talks this session was Carl B Cooks, he talked about how its better to look up.  A lot of things happen in this life (like Curt says life isn't the reward, its the trial...) and there are two ways we can look up or down. And I choose up. He talks about how much joy can come from looking up and giving our burdens to our Savior.  It was such a beautiful message and something that I can definitely work on in life.



Yom Kippur

   Today is the Jewish holiday Yom Kippur. Yom Kippur is the day of atonement and is the holiest days of the year for them.  So after conference a group of us decided to go observe this holiday day....and what better way then going to the Western Wall and then to a Jewish synagogue. I love how the Jewish people worship there is absolutely no shame and are usually very humble and open about it.  There were many people humbly praying and it was so peaceful.  The men in our group were able to go right into the synagogue and worship with them while the girls when to an observation balcony. It was a once in a life time experience that I am very grateful I was able to see!

Last week!

The big things this week were: sleeping through dinner on fast Sabbath, Conference, field trip, midterms, and an organ concert! 

Sleeping through Dinner

  You know that feeling of being woken up in a complete panic, realizing that you slept through dinner on fast Sabbath.. Well that was the feeling I had!.. Let me just tell you its probably one of the worst feelings ever. Liz and I decided to take a nap on Saturday, because when you can’t eat I guess you sleep... Neither of us thought to set our alarms thinking we would never sleep 3 hours. But we did! Liz woke up in a complete panic yelling its 4:50 we missed dinner and instantly my heart dropped we changed into Sabbath close and ran up to find that dinner was all eaten, gone, put away. I literally almost started to cry I was so hungry! Luckily they found some fruit for us so we had a couple pieces of bread and some apples... Later that night, after we watched the first session of Conference, it seemed to be a huge story told here in the JC so one of the girls asked me about it and I told her the story.  My cute professor was behind me and heard that I hadn’t eaten and was starving so him and his wife kidnapped me and invited me over for dinner.  It was so yummy!! I had been craving a good home cooked meal for a long time.  I told them I was totally fine with coming and visiting anytime they wanted!

The field trip was to the Negev Desert-

  The Negev Desert is basically everything you think it will be really hot, dusty, and there's not a whole lot to look at.. While there went to a Bedouin town and visit a non profit organization run but this cute old lady that has really change the lives for the Bedouin women there.  She opened up this place where women can come and get an education and told us that she was the first lady there to get a driver's license! 

   

Midterms

  Quick sentence on midterms…. They were ridiculously hard but they are over now thank goodness!

Organ Concert

   A group of us got special permission to go out into the Old city after dark.. For those of you who don’t know we have strict rules here about when we can and can’t be out.  So it was a pretty big deal that they let us go.  It was at St. Savior’s Church, which is such a beautiful church. The man was a local from Jerusalem he played 5 really beautiful pieces.