From Beginning to End

O Jerusalem, if I forget thee

These past 4 months have been a complete whirlwind.  And I guess this is my last post from this Holy Land.  It has given me so many fun times, amazing memories, and the greatest friends I could have ever asked for.  As I prepare to leave for home today, my heart is sooooo full of love for this amazing place, but it isn't just the place that made this experience so special.  If it weren't for all of the people living within the city, especially at the Jerusalem Center with me, I don't think that I would have grown nearly as much as i did both mentally and spiritually.  Each of these brilliant and radiant beings have blessed and touched my life so much, and there is no way that I will forget this life-changing experience.

And that's the thing isn't it.  This experience has changed my life, and with these changes, I hope to sustain them so that I might grow even further and never look back.  Jerusalem has changed me for good.

Where it all began: one of my first weeks at the JC (aka Mormon University)

our weekly humanitarian projects in the garage!

fond memories like being at the Jordan River with Raquel and AJ

being silly with my partner in crime Raquel...we were pretty much the best refs ever!

yes...those are lamb heads...plus my head :(

tender moments with Martin in the Christian Quarter of the Old City

outside the beautiful building we got to call home for the last 4 months with Skyler

o the glorious headsets! yes...we wanted to chuck them off tels...."ALL POW!"

Palm Sunday walk with Abby Chaimb!

One of the greatest things that we were blessed with this past week..well this whole trip, was when Elder Jeffrey R. Holland came to stay with us here at the center.  We were fortunate enough to have a fireside with him and talk to him one on one.  He truly is an apostle called of God, inspired by the Holy Ghost.  Everything that he spoke to us about was an answer to my prayers and all my questions.  Basically, BEST week ever!

outside the lovely Oaysis, where we eat our yummy JC meals...this week with Elder Holland!

And where better to end than at one of my favorite places here: the Dome of the Rock, the same location where the temple of Herod once stood, the temple where Christ our Lord and Savior once stood and taught.

Jerusalem, if I forget you...

Some Jordan, Jerusalem, and Tel Aviv Loving

These past few weeks have been some of the most incredible days of my life.  To sum it up, here are some pics:

yes, not only did we go to Jordan, but we got to visit Petra!!!! (most famous for its use in Indianna Jones...and I think Transformers 2!)

Me and Whit at the Treasury, aka the tomb of Aretas IV

a bunch of us after a long climb at the monastery in Petra

me and Tessa on our way down from the monastery in Petra

sweet jumping pic of the boys at the Shobak Castle in Jordan...note all of their funny faces

at Jerash in Jordan

Jerash

me and Whit at the Haboob Grocery Store in Amman, Jordan

at the Amman theater, which is the oldest, largest, and most well-preserved theater in the Holy Land

Me and Whit at the Jordan River.  The river acts as the border line between Israel and Jordan, so this is us on the Jordan side of the river :)

 

one of my favorite places in Jerusalem: the Garden Tomb where Christ was buried and rose up again

Chelsea, Michelle, Skyler, Synthia, me, and Rachel at the Garden Tomb

Skyler, me, and Whit at the top of the lift at Masada

 So all in all, Jordan was downright spectacular.  We saw so many things and did more than you can even imagine.  O and I totally forgot to mention that when we stayed in Amman, because the hotel didn't have enough normal rooms for all of us students to stay in, many of us got bumped up to these large grand suites!!!!! Yes, our JC crew was living the penthouse life for a couple days, and LOVING it!

Now on to a different day, and probably one of the funnest days I've had here.

Yesterday, me and some girls ventured out to Tel Aviv.  We packed up our lunches and our bathing suits, and hopped on a bus, not knowing exactly what we were doing in Tel Aviv.  The day seriously worked itself out so beautifully.  We met lots of friendly people eager to help us out and give us directions as to where we should go and what we should see.  We happened upon an awesome shuk market and did a little shopping, and then we got ice cream!!

Sadly I forgot the names of these men, but they were sooooo nice to us and made sure to give us nice big scoops even after they let us taste just about every flavor they had

Then after walking around a bit, we made our way down to the beach, the Mediterranean Ocean to be exact, to relax a bit and to meet new friends like Shula!

Whit and Shula...

So let me recount the story of Shula with you all.  Shula was walking around offering massages on the beach.  Whitney being the joker she is responded to Shula saying..."for free?!"  and Shula responds saying, "if you give me a massage for 5 minutes, I'll give you one!"

So Whitney agrees!!!!! However, this was not your normal every day massage.  Shula expressed that she would like Whit to rub her "tukhas"...also known as her bum!!  So Whitney proceeded to rub this 53 year old lady's bum...needless to say, Whitney was returned the favor! haha definitely a memorable moment on the beach of Tel Aviv.

And another story...while walking around looking for directions, I decided to go up to the Sheraton Hotel to ask.  Little did I know, when we got there, hundreds of little girls would be screaming and shouting.  I thought it was some crazy girl scout convention or something, but when I listened just a bit harder, this is what I heard..."JUSTIN BIEBER!"

YES we had stumbled across Justin Bieber's hotel, because he's here as part of his world tour!!! It was super funny realizing what we had found because I had known that he was going to be in Israel this week when joking with some girls at the beginning of the program about getting tickets to his concert here, but I had totally forgot!  Seriously made my day.  Even though we didn't get to see Justin come out from his hotel, me, Whit, and Emily had a blast chanting his name and singing with all of these little Israeli girls.

BEST WEEK OF MY LIFE!!!!!