Laundry in the JC

About a week and a half ago I was doing laundry. When I went to get my clothes out of the dryer, I could not find my mesh laundry bag ANYWHERE in there and it made me a little upset. Who would possibly steal my laundry bag for crying out loud??? I improvised and used my blanket to carry my clean laundry back to my room...that was annoying.

Since then, my dirty clothes have just been piled into a heap in my little closet. It has made it difficult to find things sometimes.

This morning I was doing laundry again (I know I'm supposed to do it when I run out of clean underwear...). I put my whites and colors in to two machines. I put the soap in on top of them. Neither of the machines worked. All of the other machines were full.

I took my clothes out and tried to shake as much of the soap off as I could, making a mess. I apologize to the guy mopping the floors in there when this was happening. I brought my clothes back to my room (in my soapy blanket...because remember I don't have a laundry bag anymore) and went to do some homework. I went down a little bit later and had some luck because there were 2 machines open. Whoo hoo! And both of them work, now that is a miracle by itself.

After the washers were going I started walking out. On my way out I noticed two mesh laundry bags on the table above the lost and found. One was white and one was green. Lo and behold, the white one is mine. After I have searched that laundry room several times the past couple weeks, there it was.

Laundry bag thief...I did not like you for about a week and a half. But thank you for returning it.

Laundry machines in the JC....I cannot wait until I do not have to use you anymore. I'm hoping this is my last time doing laundry over here.

Now I can do my laundry in peace. That will make one part of Jerusalem a little more peaceful!

December

December has hit.

It's the month of Christmas!!!!!!!!!! I don't think I've ever been consciously so excited for Christmas to come.

It's also the month that I leave Jerusalem and go back home to California for a couple weeks, and then on to Provo for another semester. In the cold :(

Here's some good things about going home and next semester:

1. Seeing my family. I'm so excited to see ALL of them, so we can be together for Christmas. Janine will be in Fresno for a couple weeks. We will all go to Amy's for Christmas. I get to meet my nieces. We will all be together.

2. I get to sleeeeeeeeeeeeep.

3. I get to sleep IN. Sleeping in here this semester has been waking up at 8. And that is only on Sabbath. Most days it's time to get up at 7:00 or earlier. I guess I better get used to that since next semester I have class at 8am everyday...

4. American food.

5. Not smelling like the Middle East. Though I suppose I'll miss that.

6. Moving back to Provo, and moving in with some of my old roommates, into a new ward where I can make new friends and still keep old ones.

7. Moving on with life, getting back to real life, and starting some exciting things in life.

8. Driving a car. But just over Christmas break.

9. Seeing my friends from this summer. Though the group dynamics of that group will be completely different because everybody who was dating broke up. Hopefully that won't be weird.

10. Just being home, with the familiarity of my surroundings.

Despite those exciting things, Jerusalem will be physically gone from me and I don't know how I'm going to react to that. I love this place SO much. I don't think I expected myself to fall in love my experiences and this city and these people. But it happened. And I'm going to miss it. And my Jerusalem family. They sure are special. :)

Life is so wonderful.

I love TinyBuddha.com. Here is an example of why, because it makes me think about things like the following. Life is a gift. -->

“The most precious gift we can offer anyone is our attention.”

Let’s thing for a second about emptiness. Why is a cup of tea useful? For its decorations? No–it’s  useful for its emptiness, for the space where we can pour tea.

When we let go of all the things that are cluttering our minds, we become like that tea cup, and we are able to use that space to focus on what matters: giving attention to people, here and now.

Society considers money, praise, and rewards important. However, attention speaks clearer than everything else. Why does attention matter? Because it is personal, and highly valuable, both in terms of quality and quantity.

Quality, is about making a deep connection with the person to whom we give attention. Quantity, is about time. And time is the ultimate currency.

Imagine this for a second: There is a $86,400 lottery drawing. Each one of us is automatically entered into it with no action required from our side. The odds to win this lottery are extremely slim, but someone has to win it and we did it!

On a daily basis, each of us receives a very generous prize: $86,400, wired to our private accounts for personal use, each morning.

This award comes with some restrictions:

• The lottery takes back any money not spent at the end of the day; we cannot carry it forward. Each day at 1 AM, we receive another $86,400 for that day.
• We cannot transfer money, we may only spend it.
• The prize can be discontinued at any time, with or without warning–even in the middle of the day.
• There is no way to run for another prize.

What would you do? Use all the money, to benefit yourself and the people you love?

If so, let’s start doing it, here and now, because we already won this lottery–it’s the time in a day!

Every day, we each have 86,400 seconds as a gift of life, and when the day finishes, any unused time is gone.

What we haven’t lived up that day is forever lost. Yesterday is forever gone! And there is no guarantee about tomorrow.

Each day the number of seconds available is refilled, but this can stop at any time, with or without warning. So, what are we going to do with these 86,400 seconds? Aren’t they worth so much more than the same amount in dollars, euros, pounds, or material possessions?

Think about that.

Let’s enjoy every second of our life, because time goes by much faster than we think. Let’s actively enjoy our time, instead of trying to fill our time with passive activities.

Let’s make the only investment which really counts–the investment in meaning.

Yes, almost everything is possible in life and the sky is the limit. However we can’t do everything at the same time, because our main resources–time and energy–are limited.

So let’s set our priorities based on our values. Let’s budget our time and talents. Let’s take control of those 86,400 seconds, starting here and now! Let’s give time, and meaningful attention, to the people who count for us!

This is from a week ago, from www.tinybuddha.com subscription. I think this is an incredible thing to think about. Don't waste time. Because you never know what is going to happen next or whether there will even BE a "next" of something.

So that is what I am going to try to live up to. Don't waste any of my remaining time in Jerusalem. Live every day to the fullest, and get every experience that I can. Don't leave regrets behind.

:)

Please pray for rain

Israel needs rain desperately. We found out in class today that Mt. Carmel is on fire, and that the city of Haifa is threatened to be burned down. 40 people have already died. We were on Mt. Carmel a week and a half ago. Israel is calling for foreign aid to help them with this, which is VERY rare, because they do not have the capacity to fight fires like this. I hope help comes. I do not want Haifa to be destroyed. I do not want the church I was at on the mountain, celebrating Elijah's battle with the priests of Baal (to call down fire from heaven to burn a sacrifice...now that's kind of ironic) last week to be burned down so no other future students can see it. Please, let help come.

Israel needs rain. Please pray for it.

Statue of Elijah, representing the miracle he performed of calling down fire for his sacrifice, IN THE NAME OF GOD AND NOT PAGAN GODS. I love Elijah!

View from the top of Mt. Carmel.

Thanks

Jordan is the home of...

...cool things. Here's some:

1. They have a monarchy. King Abdullah II. His pictures are everywhere I love it! Too bad we didn't get to see where he lives...

2. It is the home of Petra.

Treasury.

Monastery

3. There are lots of camels, donkeys, mules, dogs, cats, flies and other animals EVERYWHERE. Not always cool and never sanitary, but usually brings some entertainment.

4. My castle is there.

:)

5. HobNobs. I guess you can find them in the States, but I've never HEARD of them before Jordan.

6. My Dad could live there, because they have this yummy cereal:

7. They have stores called this in their mall:

If they have this store in America, I'm not shopping there ever.

8. Number 8...enough said.

9. The other possible site of Jesus' baptism is there, on the Jordan River, north of the Dead Sea.

10. You can take cool pictures like this...even though it is not a happy story, it helps us to remember what happened there.

11. When you have to wait at border crossings, you can find random people in the area and narrate their lives for them while bored on the bus.

Oh, and sometimes the pictures of them come out sideways...

12. I bought a kefiyah. Like what these bagpipe players are wearing on there heads.

Bagpipes.

13. It is called the HASHEMITE KINGDOM OF JORDAN. Full title.

Done.

Downside of The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan:

They did not stamp our passports. What kind of country does not stamp your passport?

Ok, so there is a reason why, but I don't feel like sharing and I'm still peeved that there is no Jordanian stamp in my passport. Oh well. 

I guess Jordan is still a pretty awesome place :)

And I'm not sick anymore :) :) :) :) :) Best news all week!

Wonderful time in GALILEE

Ok, I do have pictures of Galilee, I just felt like hiding them for awhile. Obviously. Those past ten days were beyond what I could have imagined...I guess that is the simplest way to put it. Galilee is a place I will always remember and wish that i could go back. We'll see how the cards play out for the future on that one.

First off...HAPPY LATE THANKSGIVING!!!! I am grateful for many things. I'm grateful for my family. I'm grateful that I am here in Jerusalem. I'm grateful for LIFE and good health. And many many other things.


And secondly...HAPPY LATE BIRTHDAY JANINE!!!!  I love my sister! I recently found out that she will be in Fresno for Christmas time so I get to hang out with her! Yay!

:) Good times. We went on a family cruise in 2007 and it was sooooo fun.

So here is a quick rundown of my 10 days in Galilee (at least, quick in comparison to the 1,067 pictures I took on the trip!!!)

Day 1

Ruins at Caesarea, on the Mediterranean coast.

On the Cliffs of Insanity! Aka: Mt. Arbel, overlooking the Sea of Galilee!

Our bus broke after this stop hahaha, luckily it was our last stop of the day. So we all played missionary tag in the dark while we waited for the replacement bus. So we didn't get to Ein Gev until after dark.

 Ein Gev is the kibbutz we stayed at and it was a blast!

Day 2

This is what we build on the beach. Our sandcastle. We are such nerds. For those who do not understand, we have spent hours and hours studying history relating to the First and Second Temple periods. Our sandcastle that we built was of the Second Temple, or Herod's Temple, because we have received many lectures and have read many articles relating to the topic. Yup.

SEA OF GALILEE!!! I LOVE IT! 

Day 3

Church on Mt. of Beatitudes. Loved it there. We got to read and talk about Sermon on the Mount. 

Capernaum! One of my favorite places in the entire Holy Land that I have visited!

Day 4

Hiking down from top of the Golan Heights! Seriously. 

Happy.

Day 5

Gamla. "A city that is set on a hill cannot be hid..."

Synagogue in Gamla. Jesus almost for sure was in this exact synagogue, with the same stones and everything. It was special to be there.

So domestic! Ancient Talmudic village we visited. I got lost a couple times, with 3 different groups. Bro. Muhlestein says that is how reading the Talmud is haha so I guess it was an educational experience.

Look Mom! I ate fish! GROSS

We decapitated the dead fish...

Day 6

Gorgeous view from the Tiberias branch building.

Standing in the Jordan River, near a spot where Jesus might have been baptized.

Day 7

Church on top of Mt. Tabor, one of the 2 most likely sites of the Transfiguration. 

BUDDHA

Just standing next to some ancient Roman pillars. This is at Bet-Shean, a Decapolis city back in the day.

Day 8

That's Lebanon behind me!

And that's Syria!

Nimrod's Castle! Pretty view.

Oh hey

Which way? At this stop we were in the Golan Heights (Israeli occupied Syria), and we were right next to the border of non-Israeli occupied Syria. Cool beans.

What does that look like?

Day 9

We saw a lot of mosaics and old stuff...

But this was pretty cool. This is a manger, or a water trough for animals. This is what Jesus would have been put in after he was born.

Love them :)

Love the Med.

Day 10

Last time in the Sea of Galilee :(

Manger at Megiddo.

Beautiful harbor at Haifa. Very modern-looking city.

And that is about how my adventures in Galilee went! I had the best time and learned a lot and saw a lot and enjoyed almost every minute of it! I got sick the last day, and so that day driving home on the bus and still making lots of stops was not so good...A LOT of us got sick with about the same thing all around the same time...it was really weird. 

I LOVE GALILEE :) :) :)

I stink...

...at blogging. Lately at least. But that's because we have been gone from the internet for 2 weeks out of the last 3, so it's not my fault.

...literally. And that is because of the city. When I get home I will have a very distinct smell because I will probably sweat Old City smell. I finally figured out what some of that smell is...frankincense. And my clothes will all smell weird. But I will like it because it will remind me of home. Home in Israel.