1. On Friday, I was able to attend a Reformist Jewish synagogue. It was soo much fun! Pretty much the entire time I thought of our sacrament meeting. I especially loved the family in front of me. There was this girl who held the book "Diary of a Wimpy Kid" and asked her dad if she could read it. His blunt no and her plea to read it reminded me of when I wanted to read during sacrament meeting. I also loved how this same dad was talking to another dad during one of the songs (we sang for about 45 minutes straight) about some sort of game that recently happened. There were also the singers who...well...let's just say everyone knows who's singing. The elderly people who glare at the youngins who don't behave. It just amazed me how similiar people are around the world and even in churches. Another tidbit about Jewish people is that the typical observant Jew doesn't turn on electricity or ride in a motor vehicle once Shabbot begins (Friday at sundown) until an hour after sundown on Saturday. It may sound weird or difficult, but it's actually really nice. All day they cannot work...on anything. The focus is God and their family. I love it because that's how the Sabbath should be. Sometimes we get caught up in church and the activities but miss out on why we have the Sabbath. The Jews have their priorities straight when it comes to God and families in my opinion.
2. October 16-22
SUNDAY: Eilat!!! Snorkeled in the Red Sea. LOVED IT!!!!!!
MONDAY: Field Trip to City of David (overlook and a movie showing Jerusalem's transitions), Hezekiah's tunnel (if you want to see me, you most likely will see a video of me on my professor's blog huntsmansintheholyland.blogspot.com), and olive pressing
TUESDAY: Classes
WEDNESDAY: Went to the Separation Wall and had Danny Seideman explain to us the conflict here more in depth along with THE visuals
THURSDAY: Studied for my last mid term (Ancient Near East) for 10 hours straight with only 1/2 hour dinner break and hour forum break!!! It was a very long day...
FRIDAY: ANE mid term and visited the Reformist synagogue
SATURDAY: Garden of Gethsemane (I LOVE it that I can keep coming back to the place where I opened up my mission call. That place will always have a special meaning in my heart now)
3. I love having our professors living in the same building as us. They are able to close up see how...well...stressed we are. For instance, Brother Huntsman noticed how we were all stressing for our midterm exam on Friday and he had scheduled for a quiz (which takes about as much time to study for as an exam) on the same day. He could sense our stress and said that the quiz was due on Friday, but he won't be in his office until Sunday (aka if we turned our quiz in tonight, we would still get full points). Love you Poppa Huntsman!!!
4. I am a very clumsy person. Anyone can testify to that and prove it by the look of my kneecaps (or review the very beginning of this blog). Well I was walking down the steps in the forum, and I don't know what happened. I just completely biffed it. I looked like I was trying to slide face first into the steps. The best part about it was I fell right in front of my professors, their wives, and the doctor. At least if I got hurt, I would have been treated right there and then. :)
5. Since we are on a time difference and busy schedule, last night we finally finished conference and not picking favorites or anything, but I LOVED Elder Yamashita's talk "Missionaries are a Treasure of the Church". This talk just got me even more stoked to go on a mission. AHHH!!!! It's still hard to imagine that in a year from now, I will be speaking and even thinking in a different language. I will be over half way finished. My life will be changed forever, and I don't even know how it will!!! BAH!! I'm just so blessed to be serving for my Lord. Love you all!!! (Oh and btw, my mission's name has changed not the boundaries just the name. I will be serving in the Adriatic Mission. Woot!)
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