on a journey...where?

and yet another tremendous week in the Holy Land.... 

each day is not only an adventure, but it's a learning experience. i feel like i am growing each day...learning more things about myself and about what i want from life. i see so much of who i want to become versus who i am at this very moment...and what path lies in between. one step at a time, and i'll make it there someday! plus... i know that my time here will come to an end too quickly, as i'm closing in on three weeks already! but this week has been fabulous! i leave for turkey in two days, and i'll be gone for a week!

oh. so guess what....

VOLLEYBALL CHAMPIONS!!!!!!!

you better believe it :) this crew=unstoppable!

matisyahu forever!

Lag BaOmer

festival in west jerusalem...bonfires lit all around the city to commemorate the life of Rabbi Simon bar Yachai

we women weren't allowed to dance, and you can see the crowd of women up against the wall of the building...the men were dancing below. but we decided to hike up to the overlooking patio for a sweet view of the fire and dancing!

outside the abdin mosque, the roomies and some worshipping muslims

pool of bethesda, where jesus healed the lame man on the sabbath...probably one of my favorite sites so far. absolutely beautiful...and the crusader chapel nearby--wonderful. we ever got to sing together inside, and were followed up by a group of romanians who sang so strongly but beautifully :) it was a wonderful way to worship and remember.

Carl Bloch's depiction of the healing at Bethesda

It was said that if the waters of the pool started to bubble, the first man in would be healed. 

"A certain man was there, which had an infirmity thirty and eight years. When Jesus saw him lie, and knew that he had been now a long time in that case, he saith unto him, Wilt thou be made whole?

The impotent man answered him, Sir, I have no man, when the water is troubled, to put me into the pool: but while I am coming, another steppeth down before me. 

Jesus saith unto him, Rise, take up thy bed, and walk.

And immediately the man was made whole, and took up his bed, and walked: and on the same day was the sabbath."

John 5:5-9

ruins around the roman baths at Bethesda

me and d-wight. just a-climbin some ruins...

joseph ludlow, you are just too cute. why do you have to be 13?? ;)

dormition abbey....second favorite stop of that day. an absolutely beautiful place...where the virgin Mary was buried. absolutely beautiful!

"So what can I be? What can I be? We can be what heavenly parents designed us and intend us and help us to be. How does one fill the measure of his or her creation? We do so by thrusting in a sickle and reaping with all our strength—and by rejoicing in our uniqueness and our difference. To be all that you can be, your only assignment is (1) to cherish your course and savor your own distinctiveness, (2) to shut out conflicting voices and listen to the voice within, which is God telling you who you are and what you will be, and (3) to free yourself from the love of profession, position, or the approval of men by remembering that what God really wants us to be is someone's sister, someone's brother, and someone's friend.

I bear my testimony that each of you has a purpose. It is different, it is distinct, it is divine. God lives. God loves you. And I do, too. I say this in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen."
(Patricia T. Holland, wife of Elder Jeffrey R. Holland, in a BYU Devotional titled "Filling the Measure of Your Creation.")