Shephela And Following

What a week, there has been so much going on this week, I don’t know where to start. I think that my last post ended with last Sunday, so I will start on Monday.

Monday was our Shephela Field trip. It covered the low hills – between the coastal plains (by the Mediterranean, and the Judean Hills (Where Jerusalem is). We went to lots of sights, and they were all really cool. Our first stop was Beth Shema, were we talked about Sampson since it happened in that area (Story of his life takes place in that valley). There we talked about Sampson, and then there was a pottery dump there as well. It was really cool, this huge pile of pottery that was just sitting there.

The next stop was Azekah, which overlooks the valley where David and Goliath fought. That  was pretty cool. We just looked out there, but I will tell more about the valley in a sec

Next we went to anther place, I don’t remember what it was called, but there were a lot of cool places in it. First we went to the Bell caves – when they harvested the Lime stone, they shaped them into caves. The Limestone here was really soft, so it would collapse from times to time. The acoustics were really cool, we sang a few hymns, and then took lots of pictures. Unfortunately, I didn’t really like many of my pictures. I will get them from other people later.

Our next stop within that part was the Dove Coutes where they raised doves and pigeons for sacrifice and eating. I wasn’t really expecting it to be cool, but when we went in (Underground) it was really neat. There were more than 2,000 niches for the doves to stay, and it was all open as shown in the picture above. It was really cool.

After a little hike, we came to the olive press. It was also really cool. Also underground, it had the crusher, and then the beam press as shown above. The crusher was a big round stone that was in a bigger dish-like thing, and would roll in a circle. They would have a donkey or mule hooked up to a stick that would turn the stone, and would have the donkey/mule walk in circles around it. Then they would take it to the beam press, which rocks connected to the beams that would put the pressure on it to squeeze the juice out of the crushed up olives, every once in a while, they would have to tighten the rocks to so that they could get every drop out of their olives. It was cool to see and learn about.

Next we went through the cisterns. Every house had a cistern underneath it to get water from, then there were also tunnels to get around town underground. It was cool to see, I think we walked around for 45 min – 1 hour coming out just a little ways away. However, this cisterns were really cool. Because it was dark, I didn’t get very many pictures, and most of the ones that I did take were fuzzy :(

Our last thing at this sight was the tombs. There were two of them, one was simple, and white-washed, the other was painted in the main corridor.  It was really cool, but packed with people, and my one good picture, with people from our group also turned out blurry…

Lachish was pretty cool as well. After a while, all the Tells start to look the same, but when you find something different it is cool. This was the first tell that I looked for pottery as we were walking, and when I started, I noticed it EVERYWHERE. It was crazy, there were pieces like every other rock. Lachish also has a siege ramp, which was cool to see, I hadn’t seen one of them before.

Our last stop on the way back to the center was the Valley of Elah. This is where David killed Goliath with a stone, way cool. We saw the brook that he would have picked his stones from, (and picked up some stones.) and the teachers brought a box full of Slingshots so that we could sling a stone in the Valley of Elah. Way cool.

Tuesday, we had classes for like 6 hours straight, and then prepared for the midterm in Israel. Between class and homework I went out to the city. That was fun, we went to Domitian Abby, (I have been there a few times now), the room of the Last Supper, King David’s tomb (although his real tomb is in the City of David, outside the Old City walls), and then came back to the center. That night I tried out for the in-center volleyball teams, It should be fun

Wednesday, again we had 6 hours of class, and then I went out to the city again, just for a little while. We went to Omar’s, an amazing olivewood carving shop, and then walked to Jaffa gate to see the Parade that we missed. However, we did come back through the Old City, and it was so fun to wind our way through the crowds.

Thursday was just class. I think I went out again, but I don’t really remember where I went… I know that is bad, but they all seem to blend together. That night I studied for our Palestine test the next morning. It is amazing how much stress can flow around the center when one person starts it, then everyone freaks out and starts stressing. Not fun.

Friday we had our test; it was not one that we should have worried about. I got 20/20, and the one question that I did miss (Perfect score would have been 21/20) was something stupid that I knew, but was second-guessing myself on. Oh well. We were locked in the center Friday due to the happenings on Dome of the Rock, but I because I was signed up to go to Synagogue, and we could still go to west Jerusalem, we would just have to get a cab, and we were already being taken by van to the Synagogue, I got to go. It was cool, basically just a prayer session to start the Sabbath, but good atmosphere. They pray together, and it was all in Hebrew, so I could be getting stuff wrong. But most of the prayers are sung. Shows how music brings the Spirit when you are praising God.

Saturday was General Conference. That was the main thing that happened. I did go to the Orson Hyde gardens, and then to the Tomb of the Prophets (Hagai, Zachari, and Malachi) which was way cool. Because it was underground and dark, we got candles to light our way, and we got to sing the second and third verse of “We Thank Thee Oh God for a Prophet.” General conference was big, but I will write that in the next post.

Sunday we went to the city of David. Basically it was Jerusalem in the time of Abraham, through the Roman’s I believe, so we saw a lot of sights within that, I will just post pictures from it. The coolest part was Hezekiah’s Tunnel which brought the water from the East side to the West side of the city where it was expanding.

Monday, we went to Israel Museum. That was cool, we walked there, and it ended up taking almost 2 hours by the time we actually found it. People kept giving us wrong directions and laughing at us for walking along the way. But it was cool. There were a lot of artifacts, and it took a long time to make it through, but it was good to see.

Overall, it was a great week, and I am still floating on air from President Monson’s announcement about Missionary work. So excited.

Here are some extra Pics from the week:)

This picture is the Jewish graves, They are on the Mount of Olives, and we passed them on our way to the Tomb of the Prophets.

Another great sunset in Jerusalem:) Gorgous, it had about 3 different phases, this was one of the first phase that I saw it in, After this, it went gradually pink. It was way pretty:)

Jericho, Yom Kipper, and Seder Meal

Jericho, Yom Kipper, and the Seder Meal.

So we got back from Turkey on Sunday, and I uploaded a ton of pictures. We had one recuperation day, (That would have normally been Sunday, a free day anyway, but we had it as the Sabbath because we weren’t here on Saturday).

On Monday we went to Jericho for a field trip. It was pretty cool, we were back by 1, so it wasn’t to long. We started at the tel. At the bottom, there is a fountain for Elisha’s Spring. It is a really pretty fountain, and the Spring is the life-line of the city. Because Jericho is on the edge of the inhabitable part of the Judean Wilderness (because of the lack of water) the spring is what keeps the city alive, and has been flowing 1000 gal/hour for thousands of years.

Inside the Tel, there is a few famous things that are still there. Jericho is the oldest known city in the world, and the oldest structure is the tower that dated back to 8 or 9 thousand BC. It is a watchtower, and because of the sun, we didn’t really get any good pictures, but we did get some shadow pics J I don’t have the big one where we spelled out “JERICHO,” but I will later.

Kathleen Kenyon was an Archeologist in 1952 that dug at this site. She dug a big trench out of the side, and although she found a lot of other stuff, she is famous for Stratigraphy. She found 23 Strata, or occupation layers. I took some pictures, but I can’t even see it, so I won’t put them on here. The other thing that she found was the remains of a melted mud-brick wall that dates to the Middle Bronze Age (about 2200 BC, close to Abraham’s time), and that Jericho was barley inhabited at the time of Joshua’s conquest. However, there seems to be an ongoing discussion of the timing.

There was a group of Italians that dug there in the last 15 years, and uncovered part of a old city wall from the Early Bronze Age. Because they dug there more recently, it is easier to see outlines of structures and what not.

We went to the springhouse next, where the underground spring comes to the surface, it was pretty cool, and there was waterfalls and fountains that made the place even more pretty. We talked about it for a while, as it was one of Elisha’s first miracles after becoming the next prophet.

After The Spring house we stopped for just a moment at Zacceasus' tree for pictures. This man was a wealthy promiant man, but he had a good heart, and the Lord knew it. 

Next we stopped at Herod’s winter palace, which was the place he died. We talked about the legacy of Cruelty and death that he left, and what our legacy was going to be. The quote “What you are to be, you are now becoming” comes to mind. What is your legacy going to be?

Our last stop was the Wadi Qlit. This is the road from Jericho to Jerusalem, and the setting for the Parable of the Good Samaritan. We got to sit, and talk about the story, and the fact to remember is that everyone is our neighbor, and we should look out for them all. Then we walked along the top for a little while, back to the bus. It was cool to be able to walk that road and think about “What can I do to be the god Samaritan today?”

The rest of Monday, I just did homework, getting ready for Tuesday’s classes. We had a response paper and double reading for Old Testament, and Israel, and Palestine. It was good though.

Tuesday was Yom Kipper Eve, so we talked a lot about it in Israel, and in Palestine, we also talked about it a little, but more about the Muslim version, where that night was the night that the Skies opened to take all our sins. It was a really cool day, although I didn’t really recognize it until that night when I watched the sunset over the city while I read my scriptures and thought about/prayed to God. I know that My Redeemer Lives, and that He loves me. Because He loves me, He suffered in the Garden of Gethsemane for my sins. Then He died, so that I could be resurrected, and return to my Father in Heaven someday. It was amazing that even though the Jews and Muslims don’t believe that Jesus was the Christ, they see Him as a great prophet, or a great example, but they do believe in an Atonement, the don’t let the goat go out of the city with the people’s sins on it anymore, but the do still celebrate that day, as a day of repentance and repenting of their sins.

So Wednesday was the actual day of Yom Kipper. We had Old Testament and ANES, and then I went out to the city with a few people. All the Muslim and Jewish shops, and sights were closed. We had started out seeing if we could go to the Dome of the Rock/Temple Mount, but it was closed, so we wondered around the Christian quarter of the Old City because it was open. It was fun. We ended up at Domitian Abby, the traditional place of Mary’s death/burial. I am always amazed that every traditional place, or church, it may not be the right place all the time, but not matter what, the Spirit is there as the people reverence a sacred event that happened.

Thursday, our only class was a midterm for Old Testament. After that, I got to help make Charoset and set up for the Seder Meal that night. Passover is really in the Spring, but because we are here in the Holy Land, they do a Seder Meal every semester. It was so cool, our Israel teacher, who is a Jew came and lead the Passover, and did some of the Hebrew passages, as well as explaining everything along the way. He also helped a few groups learn the songs that are sung before hand so that they could perform it to us during the dinner. The program itself wasn’t that much different than the ones that I have done with my family, except for they don’t really set an extra seat for Elijah, but instead pour him one glass of grape juice/wine towards the end of the program. It was a special night.

Friday I got up and went on a run – the first way to long. It is very hilly here, as we headed out, I kept thinking that since it was uphill on the way out, it had to be downhill on the way back. Not so, there was a stretch of relative flat as we ran down part of the Kidron Valley, and one short downhill, but other than that it was mostly up. It was good to get out though.  After that we had 6 hours of class, and then a group of us went out to find the grocery store. It was kind of funny, as we were trying to get directions from security, they didn’t really know what we were talking about, Mr. Hayett could see that we were confused (after we were just trying to decided where to go, and that is when he saw us), and gave us a ride there. He made sure to tell us that it wasn’t going to happen again though:) After we got back, there was a group playing Basketball, so I went and played that until dinner, then we watched part of Sampson and Deliah because we are going to be talking about them on our field trip on Monday, then we went and rented Finding Nemo from the library and had a roommate party. Sadly, I didn’t make it to far into the movie…

All in all, it has been a great week, and I can’t wait to see what next week will bring!

(Bonus pic of the Camel at the Gas station!)

Turkey!

It has been a great week. We went to Turkey for a week, and toured around there. It was really pretty, lots of ruins, mainly from the Roman time period. We basically started in the Europe side of Istanbul, then after touring a little on that side, we crossed over to the Asian side of Turkey, we toured down the coast of the Bosporus and Dardanelles Straits, which included the Marmara Sea, and the Aegean Sea.

We stopped and traveled along a lot of places that Paul visited on his missions to Asia. There were a lot of places that Paul was meaning to go somewhere else, and the Spirit told him that he couldn't and that he needed to go here. I hope that I can be in tune enough to the Spirit, so that I can follow his ways.

Monday, September 17th


So we started in Istanbul, we went to the Blue Mosque, The Hippodrome, the Basilica Cistern (An underground water Cistern that looks like a palace), and the Topkapi Palace. They were all Beautiful.

The Hippodrome only has 3 columns/monuments left. It used to be a big track that had seating for 100,000 people, and was used for chariot and horse races, as well as social and civil events. It was built by Constantine, and has since been turned into a park.

The Column in the front of this pic is taken from a temple in Egypt, the next one that you cant really see is 3 serpents that have been twined together, and then the last one they don't know where it came from, or the significance of it, but they do think that it was covered in bronze plates that were taken when one of the conquers (I think it was the Romans, but I could be wrong) used it to make money.

Next we went to the Blue Mosque. It is really but, but not the biggest in istanbul even. It was completed within 8 years, and has over 20,000 blue tiles decorating the inside.  It has one main dome, and then 20 smaller partial domes that cascade down from the center.

The goal of the Sultan that built this (Ahmet I) in 1603, at the Age of 14, was to build something to remember him by, that surpassed the grandeur of the Hagia Sophia, that is located just across the street. One thing that is significant of this Mosque is that it has 6 minarets, which was the same amount of the Grand Mosque in Mecca, where Islam began. The Authorities didn't like this, and told him to take one down. Instead of changing his however, he sent money and builders to Mecca to add a 7th Minaret to the Grand Mosque. The tiles in the Interior (Over 20,000) were made in Iznik, (Ancient Nicaea), and because he wanted it done so fast, they exhausted the material there, and so it is the last of the tiles to come from that location.

Next we went to Topkapi Palace. This was built in 1459 by the Sultan Mehmet II and was the primary residence for Sultans for the next 400 years. It was huge, and included 4 courtyards. The set up was such that there was an outer courtyard that was open to the public, it has lots of buildings, including the Hagia Irene where one of he 7 Ecumenical Councils took place. The 2nd courtyard had the Royal Kitchens, the Tower of Justice, a Throne Room, and the connection to the Harem, where the women and children of the palace lived.

Below the Tower of Justice was the Imperial Council room, where the Council would meet to make decisions to pass to the Sultan. Sometimes the Sultan would come and listen behind a window that the council couldn't see through, so they would never know if he was there, thus they would always have to be careful of what they said, and make sure that they were always working.

Other rooms included the Treasury - home of an 86 carrot diamond. The holy Relics room has many relics, some that I am almost sure are not correct, but it was a good thought - including private things of Muhammad (a hair from his beard, his cloak, and footprint among other things), and some Christian collections.

The fourth courtyard was the gardens and included a view of the Bosporus strait. This picture includes Europe (closest) and Asia (farthest).  It was a great view, although a little bit hazy.

Next we went to the Basilica Cistern before lunch. We didn't spend tons of time here, but we did walk through it. There is about 336 Columns in this room, that are decorated like a palace, even though it was usually full of water. It was found by some explorers in the 1400's I believe, after it had been closed up in the 5th century.

In the back, underneath 2 of the columns are bug Medusa Heads. They are tipped (one upside down, and the other on its side), there are lots of theories, including the fact the the columns are recycled from other places, and so they needed it to make them fit. However, others believe that it was because it was built during the Byzantine Period, where the country was turning Christian, so they were trying to show that God would turn the people's gods (and goddesses) on their heads in a way to show how much power He had.

After lunch we went to the Grand Bazaar. This picture (Of my friend Jaquel) doesn't show how busy it really was at times. There were some places, especially the places with every day stuff were packed to the max! Istanbul has a population of about 13 million registered people, with about a estimated total of 16 million. That is a lot of people, a lot of the places that we went to that were very packed. I didn't buy anything, but it was fun to go look:)

Next we went on a boat ride up the Bosporus Straight. Again, this has Europe on the right, and Asia on the left. It was really fun, and noce to realax for the 2 hours.

Tuesday, Sept 18th

We had a long bus drive this day, our first stop was Gallipoli.

This is the place where the ANZAC (Australia New Zealand Army Corp) landed during WWI on April 25th, 1915 at 4:30 am. This started a very bloody war where about 250,000 troops died on both sides before the ANZAC withdrew. It was a very sobering place, but also very peaceful. Remember the troops that have died, and continue to give their lives to keep our country free.

This is just a picture of the cemetery. beautiful overlooking the coast.

Next we stopped at Troy. It was fun. We don't really know if the Trojan war was real, but we do know that this was a city called Troy. There were VII levels of Trojan cities, and if the Trojan war did happen it would have been between the VI and VII levels. We do know that Alexander the Great, from Greece came here and sacrificed before his major battles.

After Troy, we stayed at a resort on the Aegean Sea, which was beautiful. After swimming for a little while, we watched the sunset on the dock, it was gorgeous!
While we were here Skylor found a Sea Slug, and then Brad found a Sea Snail. It was an interesting experience when we put then together! pretty nasty. Brother Jackson wanted a picture of Skylor eating the snail (While it was drooling all over), while Rachel, who was holding the slug got inked on, with purple all over! I don't have the pictures currently, but I will get them.

Wednesday, Sept 19th

This was probably my favorite day. We started really early, and drove to Assos. I loved this spot, we got there at like 8:30 am, and we were the only ones there. Walking up to the city, we walked through a little village that reminded me a little bit about walking through the Peru or Indian Reservation villages, only all the sites were in stone instead of mud-brick.

The ancient city of Assos is on the top of a hill, and used to be a harbor city. We had a view of the Sea, land, a beautiful sky, and we were the only ones there. We also had a view (Across the sea, you could just see the outlines) of Greece. It was Gorgeous! This was our view from where we were sitting having our devotional. It was overcast, and the sun was just peaking through.

This is the main thing that we looked at, although there were other ruins on site. This is the Temple of Artimos.  There are lots of them, and this is the one in Assos.

Switching from Assos to the Pergamon acropolis, which is were we went next. This was another favorite of the greeks, and had a Trajan temple, pictured above. It was cool, but my favorite was the Theater.

The Greeks built this one, and they build them like Tuachan, where they want to see the scenery as well as the show. Later the Romans added a removable stage since they wanted to focus more on what was happening on the stage. But this picture shows the view from the top.

Thursday, Sept 20

Wednesday night we drove to Ephesus, so on Thursday we went around Ephesus and Miletus. We started at St. John's Basilica, and it was really pretty. This was a big church where some people believe that John lived, they are just not sure which John it was, although many believe that it was John the Theologist.

The picture above is a picture of what was another Temple of Artemus. This one was the biggest, and was one of the 7 ancient wonders of the world. The people rioted, and in the process of the next years, it was almost all destroyed. Many of the pieces were recycled and used in 3 other buildings. This was all that is left.

After those quick stops, we went around the corner to the Third city of Ephesus. You find that there are lots of cities that either built on top of each other, or located really close to each other. We spent a long time at this stop, but it was also one of the busiest stops as well. This was the Library, but there is a whole city worth of buildings that have been restored by Archeologists from America. This city was pretty cool, mostly for its ruins. There were lots of bath houses, a theater, library, temple, small theater, government buildings, and more.

This picture is cool, it is godess Nike. I don't remember much about her, I think she was over Victory. The athletic store Nike was named after her, and you can't see it very well, but this is how she appears in all of the statues of her, and she is in kind of the swoosh position.

Our next stop was Miletus, and as you can tell, its main thing was a theater. These benches were really cool, I like the lion's leg at the end. Miletus was also a Harbor city, but there is one river that has filled in most of these harbor cities with silt, pushing the sea 5K plus away, so it isn't very big anymore. This was the last place that Paul visited before heading back to Jerusalem after his last mission.

Friday, Sept 21st

Our first stop this day was Sardis. The main structure here was a Gym, that had a really cool Jewish Synagogue attached to it. The gym was huge, and had a bath area in the back that had a big pool. It was pretty cool as well. 

Next was Thyatira, we only spent a little time here, and it was raining, so I didn't take any pictures, and we really didn't look around any. We did talk about Lydia, who was one of the first to accept the Gospel in Macedonia, and was a shopkeeper, selling purple stuff from the dye of a specific sea Snail. She had church in her house for a while, and was from Thyatira.

Our last stop this night was Bursa, and the grand mosque there. We got there right as they were going to pray, so  we did wonder around the shops for a little bit, and ate some Chewy Ice Cream:) It was a weird texture. Anyway, I really liked this Mosque, it was simpilar, but it was peaceful. I liked it. I tried to talk to Sara on her birthday, but we didn't connect, mostly my fault.

Saturday, Sept 22

This was our last day in Turkey, we started in Nicaea, It was cool, we didn't spend a ton of time here, but it was cool, it was on a beautiful Freshwater lake, and the pier that you can see poking out is the wall to Constantine's palace where they tried to define the nature of Christ, and emerged with the Nicaea Creed.

Our last stop was Hagia Sophia, back in Istanbul. It was the biggest church for almost 1000 years, I think now it is like number 3 or 4, but it is really big. It was beautiful inside, but also really crowded. I really liked it. It was peaceful, and a great way to finish off our day.

After going to the Hagia Sophia, we ate dinner (Our only fish... that was whole) and then went to the Airport. Our plane didn't leave until 12:55, and got in about 3 am. Then we had a 45 minute drive back to Jerusalem. I was so tired, I slept most of the bus ride, and all of the plane ride.

Over all it was a great week, but I am grateful to be back to where I know that I won't get sick off the food (There were a lot of people that got sick, I'm grateful it wasn't me), to know that there will be toilet paper in the bathrooms, and that it doesn't cost to get in to use them, and to stop living out of my suitcase:)