Jordan

Roman Theater at Amman/Philadelphia














River Jordan near Bethany. Traditional site of Christ's baptism

Jerash: Super cool roman ruins in Jordan

Jerash Theater

Jerash: Temple of Artemus











Me and Kathryn at Petra!


Mount Nebo

Olive Harvest

Olive harvest comes every year after the first rainfall. Yesterday we spent a few hours picking the olives from the olive trees around the Jerusalem Center. There were so many olives. Thousands on each tree. Brother Skinner gave us a little introductory forum on the olive tree before we picked. I thought the some of the insights he shared on the symbolism of the olive tree were really interesting:

1. The Olive tree is one of seven remaining species that are native to Israel. The tribe of Judah (also native/inheritors of the land of Isreal) is sometimes symbolized as an olive tree in the scriptures.

2. Olive tree is called the Tree of Life. Jesus Christ is also called the Tree of Life. Thus, theoOlive tree is used as a symbol of Jesus Christ

3. Olive tree is sometimes called the tree of light (because of the way the leaves reflect the sun).

4. Olive tree is a symbol of peace. Doctrine and Covenants 88 is called the Olive Leaf because it is the Lord’s message of peace. Jesus Christ is the Prince of Peace.

5. The Garden of Gethsemane is both literally and figuratively an oil press.

6. Goodness and Perfection were pressed out in Gethsemane just as the good part of the olive is pressed out under an olive press.

- under the weight of an olive press the skin of the olive is first bruised and then broken

- contrite originally meant “that which was crushed”

7. Olives are incredibly bitter when you eat them right off the tree. The bitterness of the olive is pressed out in the olive press just as the bitterness of life is pressed out through the atonement

8. Olive oil was used as a healing agent

9. Of all the oils, olive oil is the purest and the brightest burning

10. Olive oil is the oil used for anointing

Eilat: snorkeling in the Red Sea

Two beach days in the same week!? Oh yeah! Eilat was a lot of fun (that was for you again Dad : ] I’m getting pretty good aren’t I). As my roommate Shannon put it, we went snorkeling off of the coast of Africa on Sunday! How cool does that sound? It was almost as cool it sounds. Eilat is one of the finger-shaped bays that juts up from the Red Sea. From where we were snorkeling we could see Jordan across the relatively narrow sea and Egypt (i.e. Africa)was just 20 miles in the opposite direction. So cool! The water was a gorgeous aqua blue. The coral reef we snorkeled around was cool but not very colorful. The best part was the fish! There were so many different kinds and colors. I saw lots of Dori’s and other fish that I’m sure showed up on Finding Nemo at some point. My favorite was these huge schools of tiny little fish that shimmered whenever they moved. If I were a fish I’m pretty sure I’d want to be that kind. It would be pretty great to just hang out with a huge group of friends all day and look like transparent sparkling curtains whenever you moved.

At Tel Aviv on Thursday I didn’t get sunburned at all. I figured I was pretty much resilient to the sun, so at Eilat in my hurry to get to the water I decided sunscreen wasn’t terribly important. I was wrong. I turned a nice berry red all over my back except for the few random white splotches that I managed to dab some sunscreen on. Whoops.

Tel Aviv

My beach expectations just got bumped to a whole new level. The beach in Tel Aviv was pristine: huge rolling waves, warm water, silky sand, and the perfect amount of buoyancy. Bobbing up and down in those waves for a few hours, a nap in the sand, schwerma from a restaurant across the street, and a golden sunset over the Mediterranean—can life get any better? I submit that it cannot.

Seder Meal (Passover)

Even though Passover isn’t for another six months, and last Saturday happened to be Yom Kippor, another Jewish holiday, we reenacted the traditional Passover dinner last Monday with our Judaism professor (for him it would be like having Christmas the day before the 4th of July). Passover dinner is so long! We started the meal at 4:30, but didn’t finish until almost 8:00. Before eating, we read several passages from the Torah and Talmud including the story of the Passover. It kind of reminded me of acting out the nativity scene on Christmas Eve. There were designated spots in the narrative where we sang Jewish songs that we had prepared the week before. “Let my people go” is one of the songs we sang all together.

Some parts of the Seder meal were really solemn, but there was also a touch of humor worked into the narrative and traditions. I thought it was really cool to see how the Jews so actively remembered and commemorated their history. Remembering seems to be an important theme in Jewish culture. This week all of the Jews are celebrating their Sukkot holiday where they build huts out of leaves and branches and eat all of their meals in them to help them remember what it was like for the Israelites during the exodus.

Yom Kippor

Yom Kippor is the Jewish holiday called the day of the atonement. It dates back to the time of Moses. Pretty much all jews, no matter how religious, recognize this holiday. They spend the day fasting and praying in a synagogue, trying to repent of all of their sins for the year. Last Friday on the eve of Yom Kippor I went to the western Wall. We thought that would be a pretty popular place at the time given that it’s an open synagogue and considered the most holy place in the world to the jews. Normally there are always a lot of people at the western Wall, but when we got there at about 4pm last Friday afternoon it was really quiet and almost empty. We talked to a few of the people there and found out that everyone was at home eating. At sunset Yom Kippor would officially begin and they would have to fast until sunset on Saturday so everyone was eating away. On Saturday I went back to the city to visit some of the synagogues. The streets were empty and quiet, but outside of there were children all over dressed in their Sunday clothes and eating bags of chips and candy. Inside, the synagogues were packed! The women and men looked so solemn as they stood praying in their separate areas. It was a sea of people rocking back and forth and muttering prayers. Apparently they spend just about the entire day in the synagogue doing exactly that. It was cool to get a glimpse of their devotion to what they believe in.

Jews aren't allowed to take any pictures on Shabbat or on Yom Kippor, so since Yom Kippor was on Shabbat this year it was a double no. While we were in the Jewish Quarter of the city one of the girls I was was with took a picture of the really cute kids playing in the street. It looked like they weren't paying any attention to us, but all of the sudden one of the boys looked right at her and yelled "no!" The parents here teach their children well.

Garden Tomb

There are so many sites to see in Jerusalem. They all have so much history behind them and so many of them are centuries or millennia old. Before I went to the Garden Tomb I had been to the Western Wall, the Dome of the Rock, the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, the Pools of Bethesda, and the Garden of Gethsemane, to name just a few of the major sites. Like the Garden Tomb, the Church of the Holy Sepulcher claims to the burial site of the Savior It is a large byzantine church that is supposedly built on top of Golgatha and on top of Christ’s tomb. It’s a very popular tourist spot for Christians. When you’re walking through the old city you know you’re getting close to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher when you start smelling incense, see tourist groups, and all of the shops display crosses and incense candles. The Garden Tomb, in contrast, is outside of the old city on a quiet side street away from all of the stores. It’s was noticeably more reverent there which makes it a lot easier to feel the spirit. Maybe that’s only because it is a break from the busy, dirty streets city streets, but I think it’s more than that. This spot helped me ponder and understand the amazing sacrifice or Jesus Christ better than any other place that I have been to in Jerusalem. I learned from this experience that the visiting the sites of the Savior’s life really doesn’t matter as much as remembering the purpose of the Savior’s life. Visiting the sites can sometimes help with that, but sometimes it detracts from that. In other words, the miracle is not in the place, but in what took place there. Not all, but some of the places I’ve been in Jerusalem seem to put more emphasis on the place than on what took place there. Visiting the Garden Tomb was a powerful experience for me because the spirit I felt while there helped deepened my understanding of the atonement and resurrection.

The highlight of my experience at the Garden Tomb was singing hymns with our entire group (all 83 of us). We sang for at least 20 if not 30 minutes. Some of the hymns we sang were “I Stand All Amazed,” “He is Risen,” and “Christ the Lord is Risen Today.” The spirit was really strong as we sang. Some of the people passing by us would stop and stare and even take pictures. There was definitely a special spirit there.

Some things I learned while at the Garden Tomb: Calvary was not necessarily a hill. That fact is nowhere in the scriptures, but somehow it worked itself into Christian tradition. Just like the Garden of Gethsemane the “Garden Tomb” we visited is in ancient olive garden that dates back two thousand years. I always imagined it as a flower garden or something.

Turkey

Turkey is my new favorite vacation spot! We drove about 1500 miles while we were there, but based on the variety in landscapes that we saw I felt like I had driven across the United States. Gorgeous views! We stopped at 5 of the 7 churches talked about in the book of Revelations. We went to Ephesus, Miletus and the ruins of few other cities that Paul taught at. In Ephesus theater we acted out Acts 19 (yep, the same theater that that little scuffle takes place in). The ruins of Assos was probably my favorite site. It's a small acropolis on the top of small mountain overlooking the Aegean sea. To get to the ruins you have to hike through a rural village. Incredibly picturesque!

Istanbul was another highlight! The architecture and overall feel of the city felt like an east europe version of Paris. There are mosques and minarets all over. The mosques were pretty amazing!

The Blue Mosque. The interior is covered with intricate mosiacs.

Almost to Assos. We took a five minute bus-break here to take pictures. Such a gorgeous landscape. The Aegean sea is just beyond the mountains

Assos

We took a tram up to Pergamum and got hit by a pelting thunderstorm just as we got to the top. It was an awesome thunderstorm, but we had to cut our tour short.

Turkish Delight. Simply delightful. They had pretty much every flavor you could think of--chocolate, carmel, pistachio (they're really big on pistachios in Turkey and in Israel), macadamia, sour apple, strawberry, coconut, lemon, lime . . . and the list goes on. Needless to say, I tried lots.

Hagia Sophia: Originally built by Justinian as a Byzantine church, but later taken over by the muslims and turned into a Mosque.

Inside Hagia Sophia looking up at the main dome.







Istanbul. From our boatride down the straits of Dardenelles

Our boatride took us to dinner at a nice restaurant overlooking the sea. Naturally, the main course was fish: whole. Eyeballs and all.

Troy with Alyse Wheeler : )