"You have a beautiful head"

The last 26 hours have been pretty crazy and awesome.  I will start from the very beginning.  We started out by going to the Western Wall also known as the Wailing Wall.  We had security with us and everything so we were very safe (usually we aren't allowed in the old city after sunset because it can be dangerous).  We went to see and participate in the welcoming in of the sabbath.  For those that don't know, as I didn't, the Western Wall is part of the wall that enclosed the temple during the time of Jesus.  Not a wall of the temple, but a wall that surrounded the temple.  I hope that makes sense.

It was a pretty amazing experience.  I wasn't allowed to take any pictures because you don't use electricity type of things on the sabbath (as part of Jewish culture).  As I went up to touch the wall, a wall that Jesus would have seen, I was impressed.  The walls were huge and seeing the devotion of many Orthodox Jews was very spiritual.  I actually added my written prayer to the wall.  One of the teachers explained that the wall can be viewed as the prayer roll in the temple.  That made it seem even neater to me.  I plan to go back again.

As I watched the dancing and the joyful welcoming of the sabbath I was a little bit sad.  It was amazing to watch their devotion, but it didn't feel sacred to me even though we were in the most sacred place for Jews.  (It is the closest by law that they can come to the Holy of Holies.)  It really made me appreciate the reverence that we have during our spiritual times.  It helps to bring the spirit to me.  I also realized that I am grateful that we don't invite everyone to view us when we are in the temple.  It has a different spirit to it when a sacred act becomes a tourist attraction.  It was also a little bit hard for me to see the separation of worship.  Men on one side and women on the other.  Perhaps because I am sort of a feminist I felt bad for the women, it seemed like we weren't getting as amazing of an experience as we stood on the wall and watched the men dance around.  True, there was some dancing on the women's side but it wasn't as fun or as legit.

Then I came back to the center.  Funnily enough, yesterday Adam commented to me that I shouldn't have been watching Pride and Prejudice but that I should watch the 10 Commandments.  Guess what the official movie of the night was?  Yep, the 10 Commandments.  We watched the first half.  It was pretty good.  There are some very funny parts!

Breakfast wasn't until 8 this morning so I got to sleep in.  It was the first time I got 8 hours of sleep in a night since I have been here.  It was FABULOUS!

Then I went to ward choir and sacrament meeting.  It was district conference so there were a lot of people there.  Brother and Sister Porter (from Bountiful) are the area authority here and were the speakers.  Mom and Dad do you know them?  They looked semi-familiar but I didn't know.

Then we had a break and some girls in the center wanted me to take roommate pictures of them.  It was fun.  Then I went back to my apartment and talked with my roommates.  It was very bonding and so much fun just talking to them.

After that I was able to be one of the helpers in primary.  It was so much fun helping the kids with coloring and talking to them.  They are all so adorable.

My roommates and I then went and picked a few pomegranates off of the tree and took them around to some apartments during visiting hours.  They weren't quite ripe but still tasted good.

Dinner was pretty usual but then we went to the Garden of Gethsemane.  I ended up only being able to be there for about 10 minutes.  But we sang a few hymns and it was amazing.  I look forward to spending more time there and being able to read my scriptures.  It is such a neat place.

I love these girls.  I am with Melissa, Leslie, and Lindsay.  They are fabulous!

On our way home we stopped by Mary's tomb again. We talked to the priest for a little bit and it was great.

Then as we were walking home we went through a Palestinian neighborhood. There were some cute little girls that we saw that talked to us and asked us our names. And then a few cute little boys squirted me with a squirt gun. Super cute. Then we passed these boys that looked like 10 year old punks. They said hi and we kept walking. But, then they threw a rock at us. We turned around and they were running away. So we kept walking, but they threw a few more things at us so we decided to run. That may not have been the best idea because then they started chasing us. They never got close because you know how fast of a runner I am. But, that is the scariest thing that has happened to me since being here.

You can sort of see a few of the boys and a dog chasing us.  We were pretty far away at this point which is why it isn't the best picture.

But...PLEASE don't worry about me. I am very safe because I can run fast!

So then we came back and saw some other young boys standing outside of the lower gate of the Jerusalem Center. They seemed pretty cool so we started talking to them. We decided to play soccer with them. We started out with Leslie, Melissa, Lindsay, and I against four of the boys. It was pretty entertaining and I was doing a really good job. I scored quite a bit--one even was a header into the goal. The little boys were WAY impressed with my skills. I was basically the only one on my team that ever scored and the boys would yell "GOAL!" so that I knew I had scored. Super fun. They kept saying "You very good at futball" and one even said "You have a beautiful head!" I know he was saying it because I headed the ball, but lets just think that he thought I was suuuuper beautiful :).  I will be honest, that was probably the highlight of my day. It was seriously so much fun playing with them and trying to communicate with them.  But, to ruin our fun and games the security guards came out. Apparently we aren't supposed to play down there because the kids can sometimes be trouble makers. However, while it lasted it was super fun. While I went in the gate and walked away the boys yelled at me how good I was at futball. I think I made some awesome friends.

Seriously, it has been such a great day. I love being here. It is such a wonderful city with wonderful people in it.