Mission Call!

I started my Mission papers soon after I got home, hoping to get them in by January 2nd, the first day that I could, it didn't work out quite that fast. There was always one more thing that needed to happen.

However, I have finally received my mission call to the MISSISSIPPI JACKSON MISSION!  I am excited, it wasn't where I was hoping to go, and I was not expecting stateside at all, but this is where the Lord needs me, and where I am supposed to be.

I watched this clip from Peter in the Bible Videos section this morning, Peter was a great missionary, and testified of Jesus Christ, he never backed down, and was a powerful missionary. I hope that I can follow his example as I go to preach in Jackson Mississippi.

I know that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is the only true church on the earth. I know that Thomas S. Monson is our prophet and receives revelation to guide the church from God. I know that the Book of Mormon is true, that it was written for our day, and that if we abide by the principles that are taught in that book, as well as in the Bible, that we can grow closer to God every day. I know that Joseph Smith say God the Father, and Jesus Christ after praying for guidance, and after that experience, that he restored the Church that Jesus had set up while He was on earth, as Joseph followed the instructions and revelations he received, he was able to restore that church to its fullest. I know that my Heavenly Father Loves and cares for me, and that because He cares, He listens and answers my prayers, and He sent His Son, Jesus Christ to prepare the way for me to return to live with Him someday. I know that because of the Atonement, I can be forgiven, and washed clean of my sins, but not only that, but because Jesus Christ suffered the Atonement, He knows all of my pains and sorrows, happiness and Joys. I know that I can pray to my Heavenly Father, and He will listen and answer my prayers. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

Catch-up in America

We made it back to the states. I am sorry that I have not updated this for a few months. That is not what I had intended. I found that I did really well at recording what happened while I was in Jerusalem really well, but I have been a major slacker since then, so here is a quick overview of what has happened.

In December I got home December 14th, and spent the rest of the month getting ready for Christmas. I was so good to see my Family again, but I miss Jerusalem. I think I had kind of forgotten how busy home life was. I had all these goals that I wanted to continue habits that I had started in Jerusalem, but I found that they always got pushed for something else, which was not supposed to happen. I am working on renewing those habits, starting with writing in this blog now.

My siblings had all grown up while I was gone, it was kind of sad. But at the same time, they are doing good things, and it is fun to watch them learn and grow. Little boy S is almost a year now, and has the biggest blue eyes I have seen. Little girl S, or as we like to call her, "Twinkle Toes" is talking now, which is crazy! She is a little dancer, but is also stuffed with personality. Little J is as much of a boy as ever. He and big boy S got puppies for Christmas, and that is where he spends all of his free time. The girls were doing tennis when I left, but now it is just B that is in tennis while the other one went back to Gymnastics. C is turning into a even bigger biker, which I didn't know was possible. He now rides almost every day, and is training both in Mountain for "True Grit," a 50 mile dirt race, as well as for the 1/2 Ironman. On top of that, Mom is back into scouting, and is busy as ever with that and her other callings.

I have stayed busy since I got home, despite not going to school, I have found ways to fill my time, wither it be spending time at the Horses - riding and working - playing with my siblings, helping Mom with her projects, working on my Dad's website, and other graphic design stuff, I haven't had much downtime. I have been working on starting a business called "Capture It Cute Photos," which will be a Photo Booth Rental for Southern Utah. I am expecting to receive the booth and the other equipment this week, and hope to be open for Valentines day Parties. For more information, check out our website at captureitcute.com. I would be happy to help and any party in Southern Utah. I have also joined a choir that will sing in the Tabernacle as part of the Temple Square concert series in Salt Lake. The only thing about it is that the practices are in Salt Lake on Sunday nights, so I have been driving up to Provo Every Saturday, and spending time with my Jerusalem friends. It has been fun, and I still have a month left, so that is keeping me very busy as well.

Anyway, I have other exciting news, but that needs it's own blogpost, so I will post that shortly:)

Dead Sea and Last Full Week in Jerusalem

So I guess I have a lot to catch up on, more than I realized... We came back from Galilee to Red Poinsettia's and Christmas Trees all over the 8th floor, and a makeshift Thanksgiving Dinner, the Turkey and Cranberry Sauce was amazing, the rest was good, but still cafeteria food. At the beginning of the semester, I was great with the food here, but I am so ready for some homemade cooking, and to be able to make it myself!

We had a great few days. On Saturday, we had church, and then I went with a group to the private side of the Garden of Gethsemane, which was a lot cooler than across the street which is always open to public, you have to have reservations to get into the private side, and you are aloud to sit around the trees instead of outside the iron fence on cold stone benches.

We also had a beautiful pre-sunset-sunset. We aren't aloud outside of the center after sunset, so all of our pictures are pretty much from the same angle, where this one is a little different and has the dome in the background which is a cool change.

Sunday, I forgot my camera, but we traversed Jerusalem on foot all day. It was col we started going to play the Carillon at the YMCA, but ended up starting at the wrong YMCA, and had to run across town, it was a good thing that we split the group because there were some people there to play, and then we were let in 15 minutes late. It was really cool to play Christmas songs over the bell tower. After the Carillon, we just explored the old city again, going everywhere and anywhere that we thought of.

Monday, we had our Dead Sea Field Trip. We started at Masada, which was cool. However, we were given a sheet of things that we had to see, and were told that we had time to fill it out and explore, but we didn't we cut it close trying to complete the sheet, so we spent the whole time there reading the signs, which was great, but we didn't pay as much attention to some other things that I would have liked to.

you can't see it very well, but there are square camps, with rounded corners on the ground in this picture, those were Roman camps when the laid siege to Masada, and the people inside decided that it was better to die than to be slaves, so they killed their families, and then themselves once the Romans had broke through the wall. When the Romans came the next morning, everyone was dead...

This is the view from Herod's North Palace that is literally built into the side of the cliff. Really cool.

Don't remember exactly where I was standing, but the long straight rows are old storehouses, and basically what you would see on top of Masada.

Finally, this is the view to the West of Masada from the top. Desert everywhere!

After we met at top, we found out that we really had another half hour, and that we could run down. Masada is the mesa in the background there, and if you click on the picture to make it bigger, you can see the trail that winds its way down the mountain. I made it somewhere between 11-13 Minutes from the top to where I am standing. It was really fun, but I was sore for a few days after that :) It felt good to use muscles that I haven't used is way to long.

After Masada, we went to swim in the Dead Sea. It was fun, I never believed people when they said that you literally float without trying to, but it is true, although it is REALLY Salty.

I have not been to a body of water where they had to put signs like this one:) Swimming was not quite the same, and you did not want to swallow any of it, you thought that the Ocean was bad!

None of these people are standing, or treading water! It was crazy!

After the Dead Sea, we were taken to Ein Geddi, Which is kind of like Red Cliffs Mountain Reserve, as there are different waterfalls as you make your way up. This was the top one, well worth the climb, even if I was already sore, had a blister, and had cut my feet on the rocks at the Dead Sea. It was a Beautiful place.

We ended at Qumran, where the Dead Sea Scrolls were found. It was kind of a utopian village/city. everything was communal, and they spent all their time studying the Law, however, there was also no families, or women and children. They were wiped out by the Romans, and hid the Dead Sea Scrolls in caves around here.

As good as Galilee and the Field Trip was, all god things have to come to an end. WE came back to finals week, and none of us were ready, luckily we had a few days to tudy and write our paper, but that was all we did that week. I did go out once to get a few things shopping wise, and came back to this sunset:)

Which turned into this:)

We finished our Finals on Friday, then played lots of Volleyball, and had a Christmas concert that night. It was good, but not as good as we usually were, we just weren't into the music. We were also dead tired. People have told us that it was the best concert at least in the last 2 years, although if they had gone back 3, it would have been another one of Squire's concerts....

Saturday was our last Sabbath here in Jerusalem. It was good day, but also kind of hard. I did get to go to the Garden Tomb, we had a RS Christmas Program about Mary, and we ended with reading and talking about the Upper Room and the Institute of the Sacrament. Apparently  this was the way that it would have been set up.

The Rest of Galilee

So I posted pictures up to Capernaum in a earlier post, but here are pics from the rest of the Trip. Starting with Thanksgiving:) We had class that day, but then after the Judd class got back from their field trip, we got to go river rafting on the Jordan river. I have to get those pics from Rachel, I don't have them yet.

That night we had a lightning storm, which was cool to watch over the Sea of Galilee. It came on really fast, and really hard. I didn't get great pictures, but here is one.

The next day we went to Gamala, it was pouring on us, and it was a little bit of a hike to get to it. 

This is a first century synagogue in Gamala, the view was amazing, but because I didn't want my camera to get wet, I didn't want to take many pictures.

After Gamala we went ti Kursi and Hippos, but my jacket, and pockets were soaked, so I left my camera on the bus in an attempt to keep it dry. No pictures, sorry.

After our field trip, I went on a optional hike, I was seriously debating wither or not to go, but I was so glad that I did. I am just going to post pictures, but It was beautiful!

Needless to say, It was Very Pretty. 

After the hike, and our ANES class, My Roomates for Galilee (Abi, Ellen, and Jaque) made a Pie from the Convienate store. It was expensive, but really good:)

The next day was the Sabbath, we drove around the Sea of Galilee to the branch in Tiberias. The building is so small (really it was the main level of a house) that only the Judd class got to meet with the members, but we did get to go there to do our Sacrament meeting. The view from the Balcony was really pretty.

It was really pretty.

Sunday we had class, and just hung out. Our last day that we could swim on the beach...

Monday we went to Mt. Tabor, Nain, Megiddo, and Gan Ha-Shelosha (A swim hole)

at Mount Tabor, we got special treatment because the priest there speaks broken English, but mostly Polish, and Brother Schade speaks Polish. So we got into some places that most people don't get into.

Cute Arch in the Special access part.

View of the Church also from the Special Access

Lighting inside the churches are hard, and mostly yellow, so I like to turn them Black and white

One thing that you see often is prayers written down, and stuck in places close. They are all over the Western Wall, and other places. as part of our special tour, we got to underneath the building, and see some cool things. lighting was horrible, but this is a pile of the Prayers that are stuck down a grate above.

Should have gotten a pic with a boy... but this is inside the "Engagement Tower" with Alyssa. It was mostly a cute picture there.

View from the top of Mount Tabor.

This is the Church at Nain, where Christ rose a widows son from the dead in the middle of the funeral. It was under Construction, so the outside looks a lot better than inside.

Next we went to Megiddo, this is just a few pics.

What a 1st century Manger really looks like...

Just a small portion of the tel

View in one direction of the top of Megiddo

The Horse Stables....

Our last stop that night was a swimming hole. I didn't bring my camera off the bus at this stop, but it was really fun. There were fish, that if you hold still enough, they will come and eat the dead skin off your feet. 

The next day we started at Hazor, another big sight.

After Hazor, we went to Tel Dan, which was about the farthest thing from a tel that I have seen compared to the other hot and dry tels that we have been to. It was really pretty, and very green.

This is an Israelite Gate

Not much happens in this land as it is neutral land between Israel and Syria, but apparently there are Jeep Tours...

Winnie the Pooh Tree:)

River that runs through the middle of the Tel, making everything green.

Canaanite gate, which Abraham would have come through on his way to go and help rescue Lot.

Next we went to Caesaria Phillipi, which was cool. This is where Peter bears testimony of Christ as being the Son of the Living God, and is told that He will be a leader in the Church, as well as receive the Keys of the Priesthood from Elijah and Moses, just before the Mount of Trasfiguration.

Interesting that there are 3 other temples here, but not a Israelite one.

Next we went to a really cool castle, we only got 20 minutes, there but it was fun to run around it.

It was really beautiful:)

Our last stop was a Syria Overlook. My Camera was just about dead, but here is one good picture that I got.

There was a bunker on top, and I have pictures on other people's camera which I have not gotten yet.

The next day, Wednesday, we went to Chorizin, Sepphoris, and

Akko. I had forgotten my Camera on the bus the night before, and it was completly dead. But these were great places. Chorizin had a Synogogue, Sepphoris had lots of churches with very pretty mosaics, and Akko was another Crusader castle, with lots of tunnels.

Our last day was Thursday, we started at Mount Carmel where Elijah had his show down with the Priests of Baal.

Some Friends on top:) Jacob C., Sara and Liz D. and Eliesha G.

Me and Abi

After Mount Carmel, we went to Haifa, we stopped at a overlook, and then went to a Cemetery which I will explain under that pic.

Me, Kaylen, and Sarah T.

Overlook to Haifa

Missionary Gravestone. There was a time in the 1800's that there was missionaries were here. There was 2 that are buried in this Cemetery  both gave up all they had to be here. What great sacrifice  and great examples.

Our last stop was Caesaria. There was lots there, but I am only going to post a few pics. I only have a few more minutes, so I won't give to much explenation.

Well, that was a great trip, Hope you enjoyed:)