SUCCOT

Succot is pretty much the coolest holiday celbrated here. The Jews remember that the exodus into the wilderness and how their fathers had to stay in tabranacels that were mobile – they had no real home but that God protected them and provided for them. So – right now there are zillions of succots lining the street in Jerusalem. SO….. what do awesome 20 year olds in a cramped space do??? BUILD A SUCCOT! We made it out of mattresses and sheets. And then we watched Pride and Predjudice in it while we ate popcicles and bon-bons!!! It was AMAZING! (PS- please ignore that tiffany still has her mustache on J)

Mustaches!!

This is our revolt against the boys!!! They all decided to grow mustaches to be manly and we think they are disgusting so this is what we did to show them how ridiculous they really look! J

Monet for Mom!

MOM!!! Can you tell what puzzle we found at the center! It is the one of the Monet picture in our front room!!

Waiting outside of Yad Vashem with Stephen whose hat was keeping me out of the rain. J Yad Vashem is actually the Holocaust Museum in Jerusalem. It was a very hard experience but one that I really needed to go through and to learn from. The museum is made in the shape of a prism – with two triangle outlets on both sides of a long corridor. You can see the end from the beginning but you may not pass strait though. There are wires placed so that you must wind through the whole museum faze by faze and not miss anything. I learned a lot as we were guided through the museum. Some of the stories were about people that escaped- others of people who did not. One of a boy who was in a camp of 300,000. He was one of three that escaped and he was 13. At the very end of the museum was a room that was circular. On the top of the walls were pictures of those people affected by the Holocaust and beneath that were 3 or 4 rows of shelves. On these rows were black binders - each one filled with the name and information of all of the people the museum was about. There were empty spaces for the people that had no information on yet. I felt that history and their families were important to them.

Olive Press

Next we load the crushed olives into hemp bags (a very messy job) and those go in stacks of 5 under and olive press – we have two kinds at the Jerusalem Center: This one which presses like a cork screw and another that presses in a teater-totter action. Many times the first run of olive that comes out of the press runs red.

olive crushing technique

Like this! We just keep going around about 50 times and then the skins are broken. Normally this is done by a work animal

Olive Crushing

This is when we crushed olives and pressed them. Another very inspiring day. There are many very important steps. First we picked the olives and then you must clean them and crush them. The crushing is important because it breaks the skin to allow the oil to come out when we press them. This here is the olive crusher.

The olives go in the basin and then 5 students line up along the beam and rotate the large rock around to crush the olive skins.

Sheep hearding!

This is me hearding sheep! (actually I was first in charge of the goats but I hearded sheep next:) It was the neatest experience and I will not forget all of the things I learned while I did it. Our object was to split up the sheep and the goats and so once we did that we were to get both groups to the watering hole- have them go around that – and then into their pen. Holy moly! It was really fun and really hard. The sheep only really know how to follow. When they have no goat to lead them (especially the alpha goat) they don’t know where to turn and get distracted easily. So we lead the goats where they needed to go and then I cam eback to help the sheep hearders with their silly sheep. The best way to heard a sheep is not to lead from the front (like most people think) the best place to be is in the back and to the side. This way you are more pushing the sheep forward and making sure they stay close together while they follow the alpha goat. So... here are some parallels we talked about after we finished this experience. First off there are two parallels to the shepard. The shepard could be Christ - many times in the scriptures He is called the Good Shepard. The sheep would be us and the alpha goat would be the prophet with the other goats being the apostles and our church leaders. Something we talked about was that the shepard never works alone - most times he will have other shepards or his goats and dogs to help. Hence the prophet and his apostles. I also thought about how Christ really has shown us the way and he is our leader. So maybe the shepard can be Heavenly Father and He trusts Christ to be the leader who leads us to water and to our final destination. One thing I loved talking about is that the shepard noramally does lead from the back BUT he goes wherever he is needed. If there is a predator or some wandering sheep he will move there. I learned so much from this experience and I now read the scriptures about shepards and sheep with a lot more insight.

Kendra and Goliath!

Slinging rocks in Elah valley! AKA where David slew Goliath! We chose 5 small rocks out of the same stream bed that David did and tried to hit a tree on the other side of the stream..... well I know that David had lots of practice but this should not be that hard. It was though! The first three rocks did not even make it into the ditch; the next one ploped very unforcefully in the steam bed and the last one barely made it across the brook. HA HA! But it was awesome! And considering my goal was just not to injure anyone on either side of me - I guess you could say I met me goal/ I slew my goliath :) (wonderful side note!: As I was walking back to the bus 2 or 3 people were taking their last swings and one of them hit me even though I was standing behind her! It rocked (litterally:))

Dome of the Rock!!!

This is the DOME OF THE ROCK!!! I look out on it every morning from my balacany and so we decided to go visit it. The dome sits on the temple mount which is where the 1st and 2nd temple of the Jews was built and subsequently destroyed. Now this beautiful mosque for the Muslims sits onto of it. Hence some not so happy debates but it is great to learn about and it was a neat place to visit. :)

Me on a camel!!

More Egypt Entries! Per request!!!!

Well, I have been chastized by a certain mother of mine to update my blog and make it a bit more extensive :) so I thought I might update the egypt portion and then go from there!!! Oh boy.... I should have brought my journal up to add some enteries but I will just have to go on memeories. Well... Egypt was AMAZING!!! I loved it so much and it went by in such a flurry and feels like I have been back for forever. Lets just do some highlights!I saw the pyramids - walking into those was like walking into a 3000 year old sauna. It was extreemly musty and gross and cramped but the absolute coolest story to tell ever! We got to see the sphinx too and then we went to the valley of the kings! Yay! I saw king tut's tomb and his body!!!! He is really little because he died when he was 19 and he is really shrivled up! We also learned how to make papyrus! I rode a camel and I shopped like a mad women! Most the rest of the stuff is in my emails so I am going to close the Egypt chapter for now! K!

Mt. Siani

This was my very favorite part of the Egypt trip. We hiked up Mount Siani at 2 am and reached the top as the sun began to come over the mountains. A yellow glow was cast over the whole mountain scape. We all were able to sing hymns and then have a testimony meeting.

Giza

Shout out to the Family! :)

Khafre

This is Khefre's pyrmid - we decided to build a pyramid... in front of the pyramids! Are we cool or are we cool!?

Sarah

Kendra Amy

Gage Tiff Chris

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The wilderness of Zin

This is the wilderness of zin! Where the Israelites wandered for 40 years. Ben Gurion's grave was also here. This is R to L - Amy, Julie, me!, and Tiffani!

Micah's cave!

Wiggling through the "birth canal" in Micah's cave!

Back in Jeruslam!!! It feels great to be back and we have done tons of stuff since being back! This week we had a lot of homework because we are in midterm time (which is actually fun over here because we have been to the places that the questions are about!:) In between all of that we explored the Sephelah low lands wich include: Jericho, Elah Valley (where david slew goliath!!!), Azekah, and Lachish! It was so cool because a lot of the places we visited I didn't even realize that they were in the scriptures and then - BAM! - I was reading and I thought... no way! I have been there! Way cool! This week we have been busy picking olives (on the Mount of Olives;) and next week we get to press them to make consecrated olive oil.

Last Shabot we watched the Saturday morning session of conference and this week we get to watch the rest of it! Yay! Baisically everything is moving along happily and I love every minute here!