Shalom!

Holy smokes people. 

The last few days have been BUSY! I'll give you a brief rundown:

Tuesday morning we flew from SLC to NYC. The TSA in SLC decided I had a can of hairspray, which I didn't, but searched my entire carryon. And didn't find anything. Then unpacked my entire carryon. Then dropped one of my earrings, and didn't tell me. Any who, they didn't find hairspray, made me repack my carryon, then in the bathroom I heard a girl say " I can't believe they let me take my entire can of hairspray through security!" Aka they mixed up our bags. So thats really neat. My seat was somehow upgraded to Economy Comfort, so I sat next to the cutest older ladies, who happened to be previous Mission President's Wives. They were so beyond cute, and going to see the World Cup or something with tennis. They asked me for my email and number and are going to set me up with their grandsons. They offered to buy me lunch and give me money, which was so nice but I politely declined and nawed on my nasty granola bar for lunch.

My flight from NYC to Tel Aviv, I again wasn't sitting by students but I got the emergency exit row! I could have literally laid down in front of myself. It was amazing. I slept through almost the entire flight. I sat in-between this cute Israeli couple, who's daughter didn't want to travel with them and upgraded herself to Economy Comfort! Ha!

When we got here late Wednesday night they fed us in the cafeteria and made us go to a bunch of orientations. It was kind of brutal for how tired we were, but we had to do it sometime I guess.

Thursday they took us on an "Orientation walk" in the morning around the Old City. It was really neat to see all the cool little shops and vendors. We walked passed the Garden Tomb, but didn't go inside, yet. We also walked inside the church of the holy sepulcher, which was interesting. I'm excited to be able to go back when we have some free time tomorrow.

Classes started and the class load is fullllll. Old Testament is confusing, but I'm just not a history or geography person so my Ancient Near East class is going to be a nightmare. Luckily for me Brother Ludlow, who I had my sophomore year for Book of Mormon is here, and is teaching that course! So hopefully he will show mercy. We have two locals teaching us also, Bashir Bashir teaches us Israel culture basically and then I'm studying Hebrew (only 20 students got into the Hebrew class the other 62 are in Arabic.)

Last night we went to the Western Wall, which was so amazing. Because men and women worship separately at the wall, a lot of women students were confused because all of our teachers are men. I just went and found our teachers wives and made them educate me :) Which ended in me carrying one of my teachers 5 year old daughters the entire night, because she fell asleep at the wall. I found it so touching how our most sacred places, the temples, we don't allow non-members to worship with us or watch us worship. To Jews, the Western Wall is the most sacred place in their religion. And they freely allow others to worship with them, and watch them pray. I was so moved at their willingness to share.

Today (Sabbath/Saturday) I was called to serve as the Young Women's 1st counselor in the Jerusalem Branch. As students, we aren't in a student branch, we are in the local branch. So I'm serving under a sister who has been living in Jerusalem for over a year, and leaving in October. And in October they asked me to be the acting Young Women's President until they can call someone else, which might be until the end of the semester! So I have to teach these 4 girls (luckily the branch is small) and organize and attend mutual every Tuesday night. So pray that while the other students are studying and I'm taking care of these girls I'll still be able to pass my classes :) I'm so excited to serve these girls though, they are so great! Two of the girls are Brother Ludlow's daughters, and he jokingly came up to me today and said "Hey, I heard you're in the Young Women's Presidency. Please don't corrupt my daughters!" haha.

After our church services, a group of students and I walked to the Garden of Gethsemane. It was so surreal to be in a place that I knew so much about. Something I noticed, however, was that the Spirit didn't feel different for me there by being in that location. I have felt the Spirit just as strong testify of the Atonement, as I did being in the location where part of it occurred. It's nice to know you don't have to travel to these places to gain a testimony of the reality of our Saviors sacrifice for us.

Lastly, this week I was asked to serve as a "Bus Doctor" this semester. We have a doctor that lives in the Center with us, but due to some restrictions placed on him, when we go on field trips he can't come. So we have two buses, and on each bus they assign "doctors." We are given packs full of medication (even antibiotics!), materials for wounds, all that stuff, so that if someone gets hurt we are to take care of them. They looked at our prior experience and called us! The other girl is an EMT haha. I was like "well, I have like clipped a bunch of toenails, and like watched toes get amputated." I guess that makes me qualified?

The food is great here. The people are so fun. I am getting along with everyone pretty well. To the Melvilles that went on the trip to Israel and Egypt: I am convinced that one of my classmates is a descendant of the Ross family. Because I'm getting so annoyed with him that I'm about to start praying he can't come on activities with us. Special.

I love you all! I can text, but only through iMessage, which is limited to when I have wifi. And wifi is only on the first 3/8 floors. So I love love love getting texts, but it probably won't be responded to for a while, because the time difference is nine hours and wifi is weird.

Ill write you within the next week.

KT

Some photo references: Guess who found a diet coke. And it was 5 Shekels. And so so worth it.

I had this dreamy photo taken and then couldn't get off the wall, so this guy had to help me off and I thought i was just really funny. So here is the photo sequence of that. 

Also enjoy how cute my outfits are these days........ mmmhmmm.. Shout out to Grandma Renee for letting me borrow her pants for my time here in the Holy Land. All my pants are from her.