LDS

I have caught the JC LDS. Last Days Syndrome. So sentimental!!!

We love JERU

Ramadan makes it so our favorite Old City food places close. But they do make tasty Ramadan pancakes. 

long long day of shopping. Notice: The amount of shopping bags Dev has

just a few souvenirs. 

Dead Sea mud exfoliation

My family night group is the best ever. Probably because they had such great parents (aka me and david)

real life family love

7th floor lawn. This is where we watch the sunset, play games, star gaze, etc. 

jc lockdown

We got locked in the center yesterday and had to entertain ourselves somehow....

http://andstilllookingup.blogspot.co.il/2012/08/the-one.html

Enjoy :)

ode to finals

I wish I could be playing in this beautiful city right now. Instead, I have to study for a field trip final. I want to be spending my last week playing and taking it all in...instead i'm getting ready for tests! The only thing getting me through is the final 5 days of FREEDOM I will have after school is all done. High five for the first person who can spot the Jerusalem center in this picture!

Galilee Pics!

I'm too busy to write a good post, so here are some pictures of my last week in Galilee.

Becca, Laura, Steph, Em, Rachel, and Meg after dinner one night

Me and Becca at Gamla.

me and laney on top of a mountain in Gamla

me and Meg at church in Tiberias

Just the cenotaph of Maimonedes

Hey thats Lebanon behind me!

Galilee was great. But I am so glad to be back at home in Jerusalem. We enjoyed swimming, dancing, and just being together. I love this place and the people I was able to share it with! Driving up to Jerusalem and seeing the Dome of the Rock and the familiar arches of the JC was such a great feeling. I think besides my home in Bountiful, no other place in the world has ever felt so much like home to me. There will always be a million great memories associated with this beautiful building on top of Mt. Scopus and I can't believe I will be leaving it so soon.

Here is to finals, shopping, playing, eating, and a fabulous last two weeks in my new favorite place in the whole world.

pre-galilee AND loving Galilee!

jumpin in the jc. This girl here, best friend forever and ever. 

finally we got into the secret garden! There is a little locked gate on the other side of Gethsemane. The priest has been really strict about letting anyone in. We had to call people, fill out paper work, and a lot of other things just to get in, but we finally did it!!

friends in the secret garden

Hiking at Ein Gedi in the 110 degree weather=sweating from places I didn't know I could sweat from, playing in refreshing waterfalls, and a LOT of fun!

me, Devery and Joe in Nazareth, where Jesus grew up! Also, where Joseph and Mary found out they would be the parents of Jesus Christ! I'm seeing the COOLEST things. 

Sunset Club in Galilee. This pic doesn't do that sunset justice. 

Rachelle, Susan, Me, Lane, and Melissa in front of a boat that was found from the time of Christ. Very nicely excavated and preserved.......... 

Listening to Rachelle and Meg play "Consider the Lillies" on the Mt. of Beatitudes. All the tourists were taking  pics of them.

Summer 2012 = best summer of my entire life.

FOR MY FAMILY. Looks like the love of my life will be named Jorge. Found this little beauty carved on a tree on the Mount of Beatitudes.  

Capernaum where Christ performed the most miracles recorded in  New Testament and gave the Bread of Life discourse! 

Don't even remind me that Galilee won't last forever. Also, don't remind me that I have to come home soon. I'm taking the advice given by President Uchtdorf in the 1st Presidency Message and living in the middle (read that message if you haven't!) Jerusalem has been fabulous, but I am definitely looking forward to seeing my family and friends. My experiences and memories here will stay with me for the rest of my life and that thought definitely makes it easier to come home.  I'm so grateful for the things I have learned here and the friendships I have made. Elder Holland was here last week with his family and told us students to let our time in Jerusalem change us. If we come home the same person, we will have made a big mistake. I know Jerusalem has changed me for the better and I am so grateful for my testimony that has been strengthened exponentially, and for the people I met that will be apart of my life forever.

My Old Testament professor taught me a few months ago: God is Good, Always. I'm not sure I believed him back then. Since taking New Testament and talking about our Savior, every single day, I know without a doubt that his statement is true.

God is Good, Always.

alone

http://stephseestheworld.blogspot.co.il/2012/07/informally-talented.html

Check out this post for a fabulous video made by the lovely ladies of Apt. 311.

only got 4 minutes to save the world

Actually it's four weeks, to save the world. I have four weeks left in Jerusalem and it hurts my heart.

We went to some ruins of Herod's temple yesterday!  

these rocks Steph is standing on are remnants of the temple that went tumbling down!

me and steph standing on the steps that went up to the temple. Christ would have walked these steps many times. I walked where Jesus walked! So cool. The steps that aren't all chippy are the original ones! 

me and David at the dome!

devery, me, and maddie at the dome. 

 I love the dome of the rock. There's something about its shiny gold dome that can be seen from all over the city that just makes me happy. Temple Mount is so clean, huge, and beautiful. I could just stay there all day.

met these cuties in the city this week. They didn't speak any English, and obviously I don't understand Arabic.... but we loved each other.

you may not know but these shadows do spell out JERU. dev, me, analise, and dwight

me and analise watching the sunset. we love sunset club. We dont love sunday night concerts that don't allow us to watch at our normal 7th floor lawn.

love this girl. 

pics of Jordan taken by miss Stephanie Merrill

4th of July in Jerusalem!

The fourth of July was a weird holiday to be away for. At first, I was a little homesick about missing the Eaglewood fireworks and traditions with family and wonderful neighbors. All the students dressed up in the most patriotic things we could find and decided to make a good day out of it! Unfortunately, we had CLASS in the morning. Who does that? They don’t give us Israeli or American holidays off? I’m gonna take my concerns to the boss. After we survived class we went to Hezekiah’s tunnel! We went there for a field trip recently, but this time we decided to do it with no lights! It was super scary at first, but really fun! We sang God Bless America, The Star Spangled Banner, America the Beautiful, and I’m Proud to be an AMERICAN while we walked through the pitch black tunnel. I couldn't even see Analise in front of me, but we talked and sang and it was nice to know she was there! (I could probably use that in a church talk). It was such a blast. 

For dinner, we had an American BBQ! It was so good. Hamburgers, corn on the cob, ice cream, apple pie…so good. We listened to an American playlist while we ate outside. After dinner, we had a center activity where we played games in our family night groups while we listened to more American music. Sister Ludlow made a delicious cake and we sang the Star Spangled Banner and lit sparklers for candles. I’ve honestly never been more proud to be an American. Being away from that lovely country reminds me why I love it so much. I even got a little emotional and nostalgic thinking about how much I really love America. As sad as it will be to leave Jerusalem, I’ll probably recite the pledge and sing some American songs once I land in NYC (in just about one month L). Naturally, every party at the JC turns into a dance party. So we danced the night away and then went outside to catch some fireworks! (fireworks happen in the city just about every night, but we were grateful to see them on the 4^th!).

It was sad missing traditions and just being in America on the fourth. But… I think we found a pretty memorable way to celebrate here in Jerusalem.   

זמן בבלוג אמיתי.

Every semester the students go to the Princess Basma school just up the street from the center to paint a mural. It was really cool walking around the building to see what the other semesters have done, and then we got started on our own! A smaller group of us went with Sister Harper to restore an old painting while the rest of the group started sketching our mural.  

we should have taken a before/after picture. compared to how it looked before, this painting  looks dang good. 

I’m starting to get really sentimental about this place because I only have about five weeks left.  Two of those weeks will be spent up north in Galilee so my time in the Old City and West Jerusalem is SO LIMITED! I’m really trying to take advantage of any spare moment I have to just be in the city. I should be there right now. Now that we are only taking two classes, we are free pretty much every afternoon to do whatever we want! On Sunday we decided to spend all day in the old city shopping. We've all put it off until the end so that the sneaky shopkeepers didn’t try to rip us off, but now we have a lot to do! 

eating tasty hummus at Shabban's! dwight, rachel, tacy, shelly, karen, shabban,  meg, susan, dev, and analise

this is me and achmed. he's great. he thinks i'm from canada because i wore a canada sticker on july 1. (we have some canada loving canadians in the center).

just a note from rachel bennett :)

my city.

היילי אליזבת' גרדנר

i like it so much.

all of the students at the shepherds field in Bethlehem!

jordan in pictures

what could be better than going to jordan with 78 friends? nothing. except maybe going to turkey with 78 friends.....

maddie, me, and melinda on Mt. Nebo where Moses saw the promised land!

me and lane at Machaerus where John the baptist was beheaded....so naturally i'm beheading lane. 

first look at the monastery! steph took better pics for me. 

dirty feet!

why did we go to an automobile museum? 

ice cream on top on the hotel roof in amman! shhh

jordan river!