Hello Family!

This week has been interesting. So many amazing things have happened and we’ve gotten to see SO much. Last week, we went on our “South Kingdom/Judah” field trip, which was really amazing. It was actually a pretty short field trip compared to our field trip the week before that lasted the entire day.

We learned about the City of David and saw a wonderful view of Mount Moriah (the site of Solomon’s Temple) and the Kidron valley, and the Hinnom and the Tyropoeon Valley. It was nice to see everything from a distance to get some perspective.

Most of the time, it’s kind of hard to keep track of all the ruins we visit and the names and everything but it’s really awesome.

Ruins of Solomon.

Area G was what they called most of the ruins of Solomon’s temple, or at least the part that we saw.

Greg and me in our awesome 3-D Glasses!

We then saw a pretty hokey film of the history of Solomon’s temple and about what went on in the area.

Excited to enter Hezekiah's Tunnel!

Traveling through Hezekiah's Tunnel.

We tried to see how many people we could fit on a LITTLE stone. I was scared for my life.

After that, we explored Warren’s shaft and Hezekiah’s tunnel, which was SO awesome. We were literally waist deep in water through the entire thing. What an adventure! Took some pictures, and it was really cool to see the type of water system that they had back then (the Gihon water system). It was incredible to learn about the ways they obtained water and how efficient it was for the types of tools they had.

Pool of Siloam.

Right after that, we stepped foot where Jesus performed the miracle of healing the blind man, at the Pool of Siloam. I couldn’t believe it. How amazing that was!

I don’t know if I’ve told you guys yet, but I’ve been taking a temple prep class here. The whole class is full of girls which is kind of funny, but I think it’s because they don’t want all the return missionaries in there giving too many things away or something. It makes sense to me. Anyway, our branch president, President Okiishi is the teacher. He’s awesome. He seems to bring the Spirit so well every single week and it’s really amazing to learn new things about the temple each time. I’m really enjoying it so far.

Also, I forgot to tell you guys that on Valentines Day here at the JC, we all had a Valentine party. It was really fun. Each one of the guys walked into the room with a rose in hand for each of the JC girls. They all said they had to leave all of a sudden and in they walked, each of them with a rose in hand for EACH of the girls here. It was the sweetest thing ever. I love the guys here. For this party we had, there were a bunch of poetry readings (mostly people dedicating them to their valentines that we were assigned earlier that week), and they were all absolutely hilarious. There were a bunch of people that wrote songs and performed skits and stuff. Everything was really funny.

Valentine's Day. All the girls with the roses the guys gave us.

Anyway, that scary man at orientation in Provo the day we left for Jerusalem (that freaked us all out by telling us that we were all going to get robbed and raped and stuff, and that if we didn’t follow the rules we were going to get severely punished and that the classes here were going to kick our butts) actually came and visited the center for about a week. What a scary man! He didn’t really talk to anyone and he didn’t seem too friendly. But, he DID address us at our weekly announcements, and he seemed a little more friendly. Went up a few points in my eyes, but still really intimidated me while he was here visiting. Kind of funny to see him around here at the center.

Victoria Lund and I with some very attractive Israeli soldiers. No biggie.

We paid a visit to "Hell."

Western Wall. Many bar mitzvahs were going on this day. This is when the boy finally gets to read the Torah Scroll.

Separate entrance for men and women to enter the Western Wall area.

About a week ago, there was a group of about 15 of us students that had another one of the students basically take us on a tour around parts of the city. He is SO incredibly intelligent, and he knows a LOT about the Old Testament and about the scriptures in general. He took us to the Wailing Wall and gave us about an hour and a half lecture about the wall and its history. I couldn’t believe how much he knew! I felt really stupid. Haha.

Jonathan Arnell and Sam Carpenter pretending to be exhausted from our walk through the city.

He also took us to the Valley of Hinnon and Tyropoean and showed us a place called Hell. It was interesting. We saw the Mount of Offense, too. That was pretty interesting to learn about also.

Michelle Dietrich, Jill Baker, Marcus Griffith and Kate Thompson being amazing.

This last week, we also had our JC formal talent show. It was amazing how much talent everyone has here, in such a small group of 82 students. Such beautiful singing voices and people who played the violin and the piano and did ballroom dancing and it was just amazing! I loved it. I took videos of a few of them that I will probably post on facebook. Look for that.

For FHE tonight, we all went to the houses of the permanent branch members that had little kids running around. It was a lot of fun. Half of our group went over to the Sowders. What an awesome family. They had two little kids, Joni and Jackson. They were a lot of fun to play with, and they were just a great family. It was nice to spend a couple of hours with them.

The spot at which Christ may have struggled and touched the wall while He was carrying the Cross.

Church of the Holy Sepulchre mosaic.

Yesterday, there was a huge group of us that walked over to the Via Dolorosa and took a walk through the city down the route where Jesus carried the cross. I couldn’t believe that I was walking where Jesus walked. I couldn’t help but imagine what it would have been like to be an onlooker and see someone suffering so much like that and be scoffing at Him. Definitely an interesting experience. It really opened my eyes to how I would think about that point in His life.

Entrance to Garden of Gethsemane.

Garden of Gethsemane.

Today after church, a group of about five of us took about a fifteen minute walk over to the Garden of Gethsemane. The men that were guarding the Garden let us in just because we were Mormons. They LOVE the Mormons. It’s interesting. I couldn’t believe that I visited the spot where the greatest act of mankind was performed. What an amazing thing to be able to go there and feel of that experience and to know that He did that for me. I will never forget that.

This next week, we have midterms and FINALS. In the same week. It’s going to be insane. I am SO not looking forward to studying. I’ve got so much to do, and I’m nervous about trying to prepare for all these crazy hard tests. Hopefully I’ll be okay.

Anyway, hope you all are doing well. I love hearing back from you, no matter how short of a reply it is. It’s great to hear it. Love you all!

Jill