To Jerusalem and Back Again!

Alright everybody I am finally updating my blog after a week and a half of being super busy because I have been traveling to Jerusalem! I was able to have a goodbye party last Saturday and it was so great to see many of my Provo friends before I left the  country for four months! Also, on Monday I was able to have a goodbye party with my family and I loved seeing all of them, so thankyou for all of the wellwishes and the goodbyes! Getting ready to leave a country for four months and only being able to pack in two suitcases is not ideal in the least (I finally know how missionaries feel!) I was able to do it miraculously and then spent  the next day and a half traveling halfway across the world to Jerusalem. I will skip the airplane rides because they were just super long and boring! I did meet two very interesting women on the airplane who actually both live in Israel, so it was nice to hear how much  they loved living here and what I should expect.

We got picked up in buses from the airport and drove 40 minutes up into the hills (because Jerusalem is pretty high up in the hills) to get to the Jerusalem Center. The whole group was very jetlagged and tired, but we had a super warm welcoming from the service couples living at the Center, the teachers and their families living here, and the other staff that work at the Jerusalem Center. I have never looked upon a place before and felt so much peace and happiness. The second I stepped within the grounds I could not stop smiling because the spirit here is so peaceful and the building is truly beautiful. The Jerusalem Center is made of huge white stones with many windows looking out over the city. The view from the Center is so beautiful! You can see for miles and miles all over the valley and the Old City lies right in the center of the Valley. One of my favorite things here is the view.

I have only lived in the Jerusalem Center for four days, but already I feel like I have been here for a month because my teachers fill up the time with all sorts of activities, it is honestly a miracle that I even got away to write this blog post! I won't tell you everything I have been doing because that would take a whole day, but I can share with you some of the highlights of this week. Classes started this last Friday and they are going to be super hard! I am going to have to work my tail off to keep up with the reading and homework for all of my classes, but I am very excited for my classes because they all interconnect with each other and help me to understand broader concepts. I was able to go into the Old City this last week and get a tour of it. It was definitely not what I was expecting! The Old City is a complete maze with tons of random stairways and passages leading all over the city. Tons of shopkeepers have little shops along the street and you see the craziest things, like a little boy running and carrying a dead chicken. The culture here is definitely very different from the United States, but I am so excited to get to know these people and to truly understand them for who they are. I want to understand the land and the history that has occurred here for so many years.

I was able to teach nursery today in church and it  was super fun, but wow kids are so tiring sometimes! I forgot how much energy they can take out of you! I am also a co-chair person on the Humanitarian Aid committee and I am so excited for this! I get to spend a lot of my time planning service projects and volunteer opportunities for the students here at the center. We get to teach English to little kids in elementary schools, volunteer at the hospitals, paint a mural at a school, sing for some groups around the city, and we are in charge of a large number of hygiene kits that we need to make every week.

I will add pictures later,  unfortunately I can't add them through the Center's WiFi, so I have to go up to Hebrew University to add pictures, but I have a lot of pictures and will be adding them very soon! The Sabbath here in Jerusalem is on Saturday, so the Church has special permission to meet on Saturdays which is kind of strange to get used to because Sunday is then used like a Saturday!

Enjoy :)