JoRDaN waS PeTrAFyINg

(Ok ignore the cheezy title, I just had to) Holy Moly Jordan was amazing!! Gotta be honest I kind of thought that Petra was going to be the only cool thing but really there are some awesome places there. I also didn't connect that there are some awesome biblical things that happened there too. I love it when the scriptures come to life and you can start to connect things. Anyway I will save that for another post. Now for the pictures. Ok most are from Petra, the other are from other sites in Jordan except the last three. They are sunsets in Jerusalem.

SimPLy AmAZiNg

I will like to take this brief moment and say even with all its flaws and such, technology is simply amazing. I just spent a good hour talking to my family, face to face, while being literally half a world apart. Got to be honest, kind of blows my mind. Then again it doesn't take much to blow it...tell me that we are having ice cream for dessert here and it will blow my mind.

Anyway moving on....Things to look for in the near future
1. An update on how things are going here
2. Pictures of the trip to Jordan-Amazing by the way...blew my mind
3. that is about it

FoLLoW thE ReD, ARab, IsRAeLI, RoAD

Below are pictures of the 

Red Sea, 

Arab night, 

The Israel Museum (look for the stunner in the blue shirt, she is a beauty)

And the actual Jericho Road

aND ThEN You BLinK

It is funny how life pans out. Happy one second, sad the next. Poor one year and rich the following.
Chances, success, failures, trials, people, places, learning; these are the things that make up life, that give life sustenance, gives it personality. But every single thing, every aspect can change in the blink of an eye. There is no telling when those changes will come, whether they be for good or bad, whether they bring blessings or consequences, all we can do is do our best. Doing our best to remain strong, to remain humble, faithful, happy and trusting.
Life is fickle and we cannot control it but what we can control is how we react to it. A wise man has told me countless times that life is 10% of what happens to us and 90% of how we react. We control whether or not we get offended, we control whether or not we keep and strengthen our friendships and we control whether or not we have regrets.
Why go through life with a heavy heart thinking there is no hope. Why go through life punishing ourselves for what we did or didn't do. Why let opportunities past by because you think your are not good enough, smart enough, pretty enough, funny enough or liked enough.
Why not choose to be happy, why not choose to succeed, why not choose to do the right thing, why not choose to enjoy the simple moments, why not choose to live life to its fullest.
You may be wondering why I am writing all of this and so here is the reason. Today one of the students in my program had one of their family members take their own life. Something no one is ever ready for and something that can change so many things. We cannot judge that person for we do not know his circumstances, we cannot know what the loved ones are going through because we are not them. However, what we can do is learn from it. Learn to enjoy the time that we have to be with loved ones, learn to trust in the plan of salvation given, so graciously, to us by our Heavenly Father. And learn to trust Him and believe that everything will work out in the end.
Don't miss out on the important things in life; faith, the Atonement, love, friendship, memories and time, they are what bring true happiness and joy. Remember life may be going one way or another and then you blink.

HaHA WoW

Haha after the announcement of the age change for missionaries you won't believe the erruption in the forum of all the 19 year old girls here in Jerusalem. I don't think I have ever seen so many people cry during conference and then jump up and down afterward. It is like their whole life has changed and some just don't know how to react. It is hilarious. I still can't say if the mission is right for me but it was fun to see others receive answers/promptings that they may or may not have wanted.
Also how awesome was conference!! It is my favorite and always a sweet reminder that the Lord really does care about his children. There is nothing better then to receive answers to prayers, reminders of the important things and feel the love that the Lord has for me.

UpDAtE!

Ok kind of an update. I decided I am not going to do day by day because we are now getting into midterms so it would be rather boring to write about and even more so to read about. So I will just give tidbits on the cool stuff that happens.

First off...Turkey
Holy Moly what a cool place. I highly suggest everyone to make Istanbul a priority on your "places to go" list. It is so pretty and beautiful and awesome and taken 2 was filmed there...anyway yeah, do it for sure. Well while we were in Turkey we did a lot of site seeing. Basically we went to the seven churches mentioned in the Book of Revelation and to places Paul visited during his missions to Asia Minor. There are some cool ruins. I will have post pictures later because I don't have all the ones that I want to share yet. Anyway Turkey is pretty much awesome, though its food is ummm...a bit interesting...lets just say the Turkey Trots were very popular during the week. Not to mention that Turkish toilets are very very different than American toilets...hole in the ground anyone :) Honestly that picture of the cat and the holes in the cement is not that far off. So that was turkey in a nut shell and I will hopefully have some more pictures to share later.

Next Jericho
Ok this was probably one of my favorite field trips we have done so far. We literally went to where the road would have been and still is and had this great devotional on the Good Samaritan. My professor brought up the point that we all will have Jericho Roads in our lives and it is up to us to decide which side of the road we will be on. The devotional was obviously longer and it definitely made me think and was actually really spiritual so I am bringing a rock home from it.

Third Seder dinner
It was pretty fun to see the rituals of the Jews even though it wasn't anywhere close to the Passover and the food was awesome. It was interesting though that I had a thought about how the Jews and even the Muslims are a little bit "stuck in the past" so to speak. They don't believe in modern revelation or living prophets and it made me so happy to know that we have both and we will get to hear it this coming weekend. I cannot tell you how excited I am for conference, even though we only get to watch the two morning sessions.

Fourth David and Goliath valley
Haha so we basically went to the valley where the battle took place and did sling shots for like an hour. It was awesome and by the end I got pretty good at it.

And that just about sums it up for today.

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.