Chelsie In the HOLY LAND!: 2009

Mt of Beattitudes!!!

Me and Ally on the Sea of Galilee...

Shelbs, Bri and Me @Capharnaum!

We took a midnight dip in the Sea!!

Caeserea...

Life is amazing here in Galilee. Walking where the Savior healed and blessed the sick and downtrodden has been the most amazing experience of my life. I have come to the conclusion that Galilee is my most favorite site. And of course, being a Cali girl, the sea is a plus, especially the bungalow part literally right on the beach. Today was the best day of course, yes being my birthday J…we had a wonderful class on the shores of the sea, and then free time the rest of the day consisting of socializing, tanning and sleeping. What more can a girl ask for on her birthday?!
Yesterday was my favorite day so far of this 10 day journey we have. Leaving the Ein Gev Kibbutz, we went to Beth Shean- really neat Roman ruins, Beth Alpha Synoguage, Nain-where Chirst raised the widows son mentioned in Luke, and Mount Tabor AKA Mount of Transgiuration. My fav was the Mount of transfiguration. The spirit was so strong up there on the Mount. We went swimming in a small pool/pond, it looked life Hawaii for a minute. It was gorgeous. I was a little fishy swimming around in there J I think that was the best part of the day!

Me and Hayley

Tiberias, overlook from the church house on the Sabbath :)

Jordan River Baptismal Site

Med Sea!

2-20-09

Attending Yad Vashem (Holocaust Museum) was an incredible experience. The building in itself was unexplainable. It was in the shape of a triangle crediting to the top half of the Jewish symbol, The Star of David. The building was reconstructed about 3 years ago and in addition, a children’s memorial was added to the one and a half million children who perished during this tragic time.

This great tour was led by a sweet lady with a cute British accent. The detail inside was incredible. Filled with letters and possessions of some of the people that had died or from the survivors, was heart felt journal entries and letters addressed to loved ones. At the end of our detailed two hour tour was the children’s memorial. Tears streamed down my face at this point. We walked into a black room with bright lit candles floating in the air and twinkling lights. As we walked through on the floating sidewalk, we heard the cries and mourning of the children as they were on their way to their deathbed. This memorial did such a great job in commemorating individual people who died during the Holocaust. After we went to Mt. Herzel and Ophir taught us up there.

Jewish Synagogue 2-20-09
I got the opportunity to attend a modern-orthodox synagogue, invited by our Judaism teacher, Ophir Yarden. We went with a group of 20 students, and drove over to the other side of the old city, and attended with our teacher, who is a member of this synagogue. Unlike LDS churches, Jews aren’t necessarily members of specific synagogues, but attend the one closest to them. He actually goes to one further away, but due to a busy Shabbat evening, we attended the closest one. Shabbat starts Friday at sundown to Saturday at sundown. They don’t drive or buy anything on Shabbat-mainly why they go the closest one. There are tons of synagogues here, and I mean tons! We had the service in a fairly small sized building-they use it for a seminary-type thing for youth also, like a LDS regular church building. Since it isn’t Ultra-Orthodox, there isn’t a huge synagogue building with pillars, stone and gold everywhere. Usually after it is used as a synagogue or a good number of years, it is hard to be used as a normal building due to the worship practices that goes on. As members came tricking in, they started with singing songs and the Rabbi’s back faced us the whole time, the congregation was facing the east the whole time. The men and women are divided on sides and children can go on either side. After about 10 mins of songs in Hebrew out of Exodus, the Rabbi spoke to the congregation about the book of Exodus. Sitting next to be was a 25 yr old girl who grew up in Arizona as a Jew and was here to get her Master’s in teaching Judaism. Luckily I got a personal translator the whole time, or I would be totally lost. She explained a lot how it all works. So the Rabbi was giving them reading for the week and testifying of the Bible. They sing Psalms for about 1 hr, about the creation and God. A fairly short service, but very fun. In the Jewish culture, Shabbat is a celebration, something they look forward to for the whole week and prep

are for. At one point I was engulfed in a circle of people dancing while “la la-ing” to the songs! What a Friday night I had!

Ringin in 12:00
Yesterday I got to ring the bells at the top of the YMCA tower. This tower is incredible and overlooks West Jerusalem. Bro. Squires (the director of music) drove a small group of kids over there with sheet music. He goes every Sunday. We got to ring in 12:00 and preluded with “Ode to Joy”(the one Christine and I played), a hymn from the children’s hymn book and one played by Bro. Squires! It was so fun and the best part is I didn’t mess up!

A group of us girls left and prowled around West looking for an adventure. We found a windmill that was amazing. We grabbed a delicious light lunch at a caf

é in Bena Yuda Street and shopped til dark. We went to the “suek,” which is the Jewish

market in West. It is basically like the old city ally ways but all FOOD! Every different station has different food. One will have nuts and dired fruit(the colors are amazing and tempting), one will have fish, one will have bloddy meats hanging from the ceiling(the worst part is when you see the blood dripping), spices and wines, and one will have all candy-soooo much candy. A little rainy yesterday, ending the day with hot chocolate was the best part. I can’t believe how similar the weather is to our weather in So. Cal! I love it-especially hearing from a little bird that it is -15 degrees in Rexburg.

Soilders in training @ Mt. Herzel...