BeTHeSDa and AwESomENess!!

Me and My awesome "I am sweating and hot, fly away" hair....oh at the pools

 The supposed Pools (area)

 Inside the Church

 The door to the Church

--> Ok just deal with the sideways picture, I am too lazy right now to fix it

September 11, 2012

Wow today was awesome. Classes were good, I learned new things, went over old things and gain more understanding about how the Lord works. Never thought I would say this but the Old Testament is really fascinating and I am really enjoying the class. Having an awesome teacher never hurts either. But as cool as classes were I want to get to the really cool part. A couple of girls and I went into the city to do some shopping. Haha me actually wanting to go shopping...this city really changes people (ok not really in that regard) Anyway we went to Omar's woodwork place and looked at the amazing woodcarvings he has there. Boy are they incredible!! I wish I took a picture. I guess I can always go back. Well to make a long story short I fell in love with a Nativity and ended buying it. Call me impulsive but hey when I find something I love, I really love it and since it doesn't happen very often I throw all caution to the wind and just go for it. But it is beautiful and I can't wait to put it out for Christmas. Again I wish I took a picture but I didn't and he shipped it for me so I will have to post one when I get home. Once we were done and picked our mouths back up off of the floor, we headed out again. Around this time we met up with others from the JC and we decided to go so the Pools of Bethesda. Wow, can I say it again....WOW!!! what an amazing place. Not only are the ruins cool (we got some pretty awesome pictures) but the church close by is absolutely breathtaking. Plus it has world renown acoustics so of course we sang a bunch of hymns. The echo is so intense and it sounded like there were like a hundred of us in there. Not to brag or anything but we were pretty amazing :) We even got the priest or Father, or whatever he was, to come out and listen to us. We sang a ton of songs, so I can't remember them all, but my favorites were How Great Thou Art and Nearer My God to Thee. There is just something about those two songs that is hard to explain and they just fill you up with an incredible spirit and feeling. It was beautiful. I will definitely be going back multiple times during the semester.

September 12, 2012

Well today was definitely a school day. Our schedule is not completely concrete so our class times are all over the place. So I had OT class at 8:00 in the morning, Palestine history at 10, a Turkey orientation at 3, Arabic at 5 and a Turkey slide show, to get us excited to go, at 7:30. So it was pretty much a go go go day but for studying. I did, however, work in a nap, singing and obviously writing emails and this so it wasn't all that bad. It just isn't a very fun day to write about and so I will leave it at that.

So Mom wrote an email to me a few days ago and in it she said "it is the most amazing thought to ponder when you think of the worlds without end that have been created by the Lord and the numberless inhabitants that have looked forward to that pivotal point in time...and to think that of all the worlds you could have been born upon, you, Aliseea Harbertson, stand on THE WORLD, in THE PLACE and can actually walk were He walked and experience many of the things He experienced....and that you, Alissea Harbertson have been blessed to be born under the covenant and have been taught His Gospel and know and understand "Where you came from...Why you are here...and Where you are going."  AND also that you have the great privilege to have the Holy Ghost as a constant companion to bare witness to you every time you open your heart to feel His influence!  Oh it is so totally AMAZING!" And I have been thinking a lot about that, especially today at church. It kind of blows my mind that I do get to experience this. I wish I could put into words the things that I have felt since being here. There are just so much emotions that have been going through my mind and body. Even the most random of scripture will cause this burning in my heart, that just makes it race and I can't even describe exactly how it makes me feel, or why I am feeling it or what it means. All I know it is a wonderful feeling and one I hope I can continue to feel here and the rest of my life. The Church is true, the Atonement is real, the Holy Ghost guides and the Father and the Son loves.

BeACh, NeGEv, and DeAD!

September 9, 2012

TEL AVIV BABY!!! yeah, that is what I did today. We went to the beach and swam in Mediterranean!! How awesome is that!? The day was perfect; warm water, soft smooth beach, mostly clear skies, nice breeze, great company, very minimal shopping (though I did buy some things which are awesome). We took a van and got there between 9:00-9:30 (wasn't really paying attention) and then just spent the day playing in the water and the humungous waves (holy cow I don't think I have ever had that much water up my nose), playing pass on the beach, making pyramids and sand castles, taking pictures and then we just wandered through the city (both Tel Aviv and Joppa) and the markets that they had there. We were going to rent bikes and just ride up the coast but we couldn't figure out one electronic bike rental place because there wasn't anyone there to help us and then we couldn't find any other place so we couldn't do that. Maybe in turkey we will be able to (fingers crossed). It got pretty hot around 1:00ish so we bought a passion fruit drink, which was delicious and refreshing and awesome and yummy. It probably would have tasted just like any other passion fruit drink any other time, but the fact that we were all thirsty, hot and tired by this point, it made it soooo good. We left around 4:00ish and got back to the center around 5:00. I took a shower and then had dinner, went and studied for as long as I could keep my eyes open and ended up falling asleep at 9:30. Yeah I was pretty tired

September 10, 2012

Field Trip!! To the Negev which is about an hour south of Jerusalem. I think New Mexico has found its rival in ugliness. There is absolutely nothing out there. It is just hot, dry and sandy, with a few shrubs/trees here and there. The field trip was cool though. We first went to a bedouin village where they hand-make things from goat, camel and sheep hair/wool. I wish I had brought more money because they had these awesome rugs and bags. But I didn't bring enough and their credit card read thing wasn't working so I couldn't buy them. Bummer. Next, we went to these ruins of the old cities of Arad and Beersheva. Some dated back to like 700-500 BC, but others dated back to pre-Abraham period like 3000-2500 BC. The one in Beersheva had this huge cistern that we got to walk through and it was pretty amazing. It was really dark inside so I couldn't take any really good pictures in it. The other place had a huge well and all I could think about, while looking and while having the teacher explain things, was the new batman and the prison he had to escape. Yeah I know where I priorities are. As we were walking through and listening to the history, it was interesting to learn of the temples in the cities of Arad. The “newer” city in Arad had a temple that was made to mimic the one in Jerusalem. It had an altar, holy place and a Holy of Holies. But we learned in the scriptures that they weren't doing things properly and that it wasn't sanctioned by the Lord. In the older city (the one dating to pre-Abraham time) it had twin temples right next to each other. One had a hole to hold water (it is assumed), and an altar. The other had a good size stone at one end that (again assumed) was to symbolize a deity, with benches surrounding the walls. They are not sure what exactly their worship entailed but it was cool to think that we were looking at ancient forms of worship perhaps before the bible began. I love history. It just proves that people have been “people” all throughout history and not these mystery beings with different ways of thinking and actions. Maybe it is just me, but I used to have this weird way of thinking about bible people and not really seeing them as people. Kind of like when you think of a third world country and think they can't possibly know what technology is because they live in the jungle with no contact with the outer world. Of course that is not the case at all and it is just my naivety speaking. Anyway it was pretty cool, plus we got to drive pass the Dead Sea on our way back. It is actually really beautiful. A very rich blue with white crush in areas because of the salt. There were no boats on it at all (which isn't surprising but was kind of weird). The surrounding area was barren, brown and not much to look at. At this point we started talking about Lehi and Nephi and the circumstances surrounding their departure from Jerusalem. I have never really thought about the environment that they had to travel through and now that I have seen it I completely understand why Laman, Lemuel, Sariah, and the family of Ishmael had issues and at times lacked faith. We always say that they were such whimps or whatever but in actuality I think we are more like them than we would like to admit. It would seem (of course not from experience) that going through a place like the Judean Wilderness would bring out the worst in people. Switching gears now it also makes me appreciate Nephi and his willingness to do whatever the Lord asked, all the more. He must have had an extreme amount of faith to be willing to turn back and have to travel that hot, dry land four more times. I hope someday that I will have enough faith in my Heavenly Father and His Son to be able to do whatever is asked of me without complaining or even having a bad thought. Nephi really set the bar high and I have a long way to go before I get to that level. I guess as long as I am going up, that is what counts.

Ok for the pictures I have got some from the Garden Tomb and Tel Aviv. I haven't downloaded the ones from the field trip yet because they were on my other camera. Also hopefully I will be able to get more of me in the pictures since we will be able to share photos once we get back from Turkey.

.

-->

ThE 7tH ANd tHe 8Th

September 7

Today has been a good day. Actually it has been a really good day. I think I did pretty well on a quiz/test (it was like a months worth of material in one week/30 questions). After classes we had a humanitarian project that we did and it was to build school kits for the local “elementary” schools. It was awesome. We had like half of the group show up and we made just over 2000 kits in two hours. We are now the proud owners of the kit making record. But what made it amazing was the devotion the group put into it. We were going like a million miles a minute the whole time. The only thing was I had the flash back to the last fiveish months of my life on the bagline at THB. Dad if you ever need to get a ton of kits made for work just hire a bunch of LDS students and tell them it is a humanitarian project and that the goal is to beat the record as well as serve and the company will flourish :) After that it was just chill time so I went on a walk with a couple other students and just enjoyed the outside, even though it is still like 100 degrees here. Since Muslims have their prayer until 3:00 on Friday and the Jews' sabbath starts at sundown, a lot of the city slows down, at least where we are, in the old city not so much. Anyway, after dinner we got to go to the Western Wall during the prayer time of the Jews. I think it has been one of my favorite things we have done so far. I was surprised to find that there is just an incredible spirit surrounding that place. I got to go up to the wall but since I am rather short I wasn't able to push my way through to actually touch it. Hopefully next time will be able to. It was interesting to observe the rituals that they had going on and to have all these questions come into my head. The men's side had a lot of singing and dancing, while the women's side was more quiet and had a lot of silent prayers going on, with a few songs. The whole time I was thinking that they are so close and I wanted so badly to tell them just how close they were and teach them so that they can have an even fuller, richer life. We met these two girls that was in this Birthright group which I guess allows Jews, under 27, to come to the Holy Land, I think for super, super cheap, since they felt that all Jews should have the chance to come to Jerusalem. They said they weren't super religious but that they had come to learn more. Again I was like “dang you non-proselyting rule.” The whole thing was just incredible. I didn't take any pictures since it was their sacred worshiping and because they told us not to and because no one else was and because I didn't think it was appropriate. Once we left, we went back to the JC and ending the good day with a darn good movie. A little Indiana Jones anyone?

September 8, 2012

Saturday is a special day, It is the day that you turn into Sunday! And it is was a good “sunday” today. The choir got to sing in church again today for District Conference. Always a nice thing to do. As I mentioned before, it was District Conference and it was pretty good. We had speakers from Russia, Jordan, Tel Aviv, the US, and from other places that I don't remember. How cool is that. Pretty darn cool, if you ask me. This one lady told us about how she joined the Church while attending BYU and how for 12 years she had to sneak over the West Bank/Israel border, climbing walls, dodging bullets and taking three hours to get to church. Her talk was about having faith in God and gratitude for the gospel. (She joined the UN and got proper paper work so now she can cross without a problem, if you wanted to know.) Most of the others were on having faith and trusting the Lord and had some cool stories as well- a mother and her children coming over to live so that they can be closer to the dad who is serving in Afghanistan, A man being able to lift a car enough to move it out of harms way and etc. There are some pretty amazing people here, that's for sure. After the conference all the students got to go to the Garden Tomb. Once again it was different than how I expected but the experience that I had wasn't. When we first got there, we had to split up into groups and go on a tour of the Garden, which was interesting and the place is very nicely done. You could tell the guide was trying to get us to feel something but it just wasn't happening. It was nice and all and I really enjoyed the tour, but it wasn't until after I got go into the tomb that I felt something. And actually it was after I came out. As I came out the other half of our group, who finished the tour before my group, were up in a pavilion singing I Believe in Christ. (I must put in a side note, our group is actually really good at singing.) I wasn't expecting it, so it was kind of surprise to hear it but boy did it change the mood. The girls that I was with and I hurried up to where they were so that we could join in. We sang I Believe In Christ, Be Still My Soul, He is Risen, I Need Thee Every Hour, some random, but good one, that I don't know but it was on page162 or something like that, and ended with Nearer My God to Thee. (A girl had brought her Violin as well so we were in tune the whole time). The singing brought such an awesome spirit and you could tell that other people from other groups could feel it too because they started to gather around us taking video, joining in singing or just stood there listening. It was our one special and really the only way to share the Gospel and our testimonies of the truthfulness of it. It was very nice and I hope we can have that feeling wherever we go, even if we have to create it ourselves. Those are the times I think I am going to remember the best.

I will post pictures later.

HoLY STudYiNG BaTMaN!

September 4, 2012

So it was basically a study day. I had classes from 8 to 11, weekly announcements, lunch, study break for two hours and then class again at 3-5, break for an hour and then dinner and back to studying. The classes are very interesting. I we had our first class for both jewish and palestine history and the teachers have such interesting views about the same history. Obviously there are things I don't really agree with but there were issues that they brought up that made me really think about political, religious issues and my view of the world and the ideas that seem to come from all different directions and people. With these new classes, however, comes a ton more hours of reading that I am going to have to do. So basically I spent the rest of the day wondering if I am ever going to get out of the center and into city ever again. By the end of the day I was feeling a little bit overwhelmed with things but I have come to fully trust in the scriptures to find peace and comfort. Let me tell you, they work. I have this list of scriptures that answer the question “why do we have trials?” it has been the greatest blessing for the last couple of years. I really need to thank Sister Maxfield for the incredible gift she gave me, like six years ago, in a lesson.

September 5, 2012

Once again I have been stuck inside studying like there is no tomorrow (I certainly hope there is one) but I feel like I am drowning in paper and books and reading and not retaining anything. I did not pay all that money to come here and study 24/7 with no chance to see the sites and enjoy the city and its craziness and awesomeness. That is not why I came here. I came here to learn things yes but to do it in the actual city not in a classroom and in a study hall all day and all night. ARGH!!! Ok I am all better now. We did go under the build today though. We saw how it is raised off the ground and add my name to hundreds that are under there in this one room, which was pretty cool. I also got to post some pictures, which was nice. Other than that it is studying, or pretending to study or sleeping while pretending to study or playing sudoku while pretending to study. I really need to get out of here. I think I am going to go crazy if I don't. Oh I forgot to mention that Arabic is going to be blast. The teacher is a complete nut. He is hilarious and just crazy. I am really excited for it, even though it is at 5:00 in the afternoons.

September 6

Holy cow I have no life!!! Studying, that is all I did today and it was ridiculous and I am not liking it at all. They should not have a quiz the first week on a months worth of material. Hopefully I can find a rhythm and be able to actually enjoy the city once in a while. There really isn't much more to say. So I shall leave it at that.

JuST AnOTheR TWo DaYS

September 2, 2012

Well today was the first full free day and I am happy to say that I packed a lot in today. My group left for the old city after having done some homework and such and went and got some money from the money exchangers. Once we had our small fortunes, we crossed the street, dodging the crazy drivers, and taking pictures at the same time (brilliant I know) and entered the old city. For the next two, two and a half(ish) hours we just explored. We tried getting to the Dome of the Rock but for some reason the way we went didn't open for a few more hours. We made it to the Western Wall however, and was pretty cool. It is amazing to think that, that wall is like 2000 years old. From there we just walked around looking at the shops, had cool photo moments and smelling good food. I hope that I can get to the point of being comfortable enough to just go to one of the cafes and sit, eat and chill for a while. They are these small little cafes that remind me of Italy and makes me want to go back to Europe for a round two excursion. But first I want to finish this one out because it is just amazing over here. Every evening I get to go out on a back porch and just sit and soak in all that I can from/about this beautiful city. Well it got pretty hot and so we decided to go back to the center. Once back in our room we just kind of crashed. I am still getting used to the time change. I didn't sleep but just sat on my bed listening to music and doing a sudoku (awesome) and downloaded my pictures and played with them for a bit. Next it was dinner and once dinner was over I was going to study but got “persuaded” to go play soccer and volleyball and have been doing that for the last two hours. It was great. I really miss organized sports and really want to start playing again. I am now writing this. A fun filled day.

September 3, 2012

Holy moly, this has been such a jam packed day! It was our first field trip day and boy was it a field trip. We did the Jerusalem overlook and basically saw Jerusalem from every direction possible which was actually kind of cool. We talked about the Bible stories that happened around the places we were and the importance of them. The rest was a just site seeing really. It is definitely a hilly countryside and it still surprises me how close everything is. As cool as the Jerusalem part was, I want to write about the Bethlehem overlook that we went to. We climbed this small hill that gave a vantage point of Jerusalem and Bethlehem. When we got to the top it was about 100 degrees, I swear, and there was no shade. I definitely got burned. Anyway we talked about David and how he came from Bethlehem and how important he was. But then we talked about the birth of Jesus. We talked about how the angels appeared and the wisemen came and the other events surrounding that one. Once we had our discussion we sang 'Far Far Away on Judea's Plain' (wasn't so far at that point) and 'Angels We Have Heard on High'. It wasn't like a huge, make you cry, spiritual experience but it was tender and I will never hear those songs the same way. Especially 'Angels...' It was so peaceful and just gave me this feeling in my heart, confirming once again my testimony of the birth of Christ. It also gave me one of those reality checks, that I have gotten so many times since I have been here, that I was really here. Here and looking at similar sites to those in the Bible. I just can't get enough of it. It is so amazing. After the songs we had a couple of minutes by ourselves which is always nice. I just sat there and thought about what I was looking and trying to grasp the concept. (Side note, there was a dust devil which was cool.) I hope we have more time to just sit and think on the next Field trip but other than that it was exactly how I thought it was going to be. Awesome.

 

So the girl took this one before I was ready and I couldn't see it in the sun. That is why I have such an awesome stance.

 Jerusalem from a really cool vantage point

 The old Roman pillars, the main streets of the time of Jesus

 The Western Wall (I guess it is not called the Wailing Wall and they don't like it when you call it that)

MoRE PiCtuREs

 From my back porch

 The Garden of Gethsemane flowers

 The Jerusalem Center

 Some random street that I liked

And another street that I liked

PiCTuREs!! aNd UpDAte

 -->August 31, 2012

 Well classes started today and I am actually really excited about them. At least to a point because I think the reading is going to kill me, but not much I can do about that. I think the Old Testament class is especially going to be very interesting class. It has the feel of my Book of Mormon, New testament and Pearl of Great Price classes in college, which I loved. It might be a little more difficult than those classes, however, since I don't know the background or stories that well. Always got to start somewhere I guess. After classes we had free time. The majority of the students went back to the city to explore and such but I decided that I really needed some alone time to think about what I really want to get out of this experience. I just walked around the grounds for while, which are beautiful by the way, and just sat and pondered, and wrote in my journal and read in the scriptures. While I am hoping for more, I guess, inspiration, I did come up with some things I want to work on. I really want to know myself better and what I really want out of life. I also want to learn more about the Savior and gain a deeper understanding of His sacrifice for me. The Atonement is such an incredible thing and I haven't even scratched the surface in my understanding of it. I am hoping that through those two things will come the other thing that I want to learn and accomplish while I am over here. I actually studied on a Friday night, Ha, imagine that. Take away the internet, a cell phone and tv and it is amazing what I can accomplish and push myself to do. who'da thunk? Tomorrow is “sunday” which is still very weird to me. I think it might be weird to me the whole time I am here. Well that just about sums up my day.

September 1, 2012

Well today was fast sunday, and boy was it fast sunday :] Actually it wasn't that bad. In fact it was actually a pretty good day. I went to church, sang in a choir, met new people, became better friends with others, enjoyed church and got to go to the Garden of Gethsemane. First off church and choir. I always forget that I really do like singing in a choir. It was a lot of fun. I think the majority of the students decided to be apart of it, which is cool. We learned and practiced a song in about 40 minutes and then sung it as a prelude for church. Then there was church. It is Sooo hard to concentrate when you have this huge window, behind the speaker mind you, that looks directly into the city! It is so beautiful and incredible and amazing and awesome! From what I did hear, the testimonies were very good. There were people from all over the world, with all sorts of crazy background stories. You don't get to experience that everyday. After church there was a big group of us who went to the Garden of Gethsemane. It was different than I imagined it. I thought it was going to be like this little forest of olive trees and farther away from the road than it was. I wish it was a little quieter and a little more personable (there were a lot of tourists walking around and talking) But even with the differences and some disappointments, I am so grateful to have the chance to be around the place where the Savior took on Himself such a great burden for each and every person on this earth. Going through incomprehensible things, so that He would know every single one of us perfectly and be able to be a perfect mediator, leader, friend and brother. What an incredible opportunity, and it will be an experience that I will remember always. I am going to try and go every week, hopefully it works out.

Just a little picture of Gethsemane 

AmAZiNg!

Ok so I came to the realization that if I post only once a week, the post would be about a mile long because there is so much to write about.

So I am going to be posting more often. That way I can go into more detail without having one post take about an hour to get through, which no one but probably my family (and that is stretching it) would read. And if no one reads it at least I will have something to look back on just in case my computer dies and my journal get ruined.

Also hopefully I will be able to post some pictures soon because I know that blogs are honestly way more fun to look at when there is something to actually look at.

Well moving on

I will start with the beginning and go from there, so the first few will be from a few days ago.

August 30 2012

The city is amazing. We went on a tour after breakfast and it was as if we went back in time (at least that is the feeling of East Jerusalem). It is a pity that East Jerusalem has trash everywhere. Anyway, we went into the Old City, which was way cool. It has these narrow roads with just shop after shop of just everything you can think of; bread, clothes, sweets, jewelry etc. It has an interesting feel to it that I just can't explain very well. It is like a street in disneyland or a movie almost, except it is their everyday life. There is so much influence from all sides of Christianity, Islam, and Judaism. It is crazy! After we got the quick run down of the Old City, we came out of Joppa Gate and went onto a sort of high (sp?) street in West Jerusalem. West Jerusalem feels closer to how Europe felt. A little more modern, cleaner and you don't feel quite as out of places as you do East Jerusalem. We went and got ice cream, which was pretty good. Then we learned some more history and took a bus back to the center and this was all before 12:00pm. We then had some free time and some more orientations which took up most of the rest of the day. So the rest of the day is kind of boring to write about. I will say this though, jet lag is of the devil!