Shabot Shalom

I probably spelled that wrong. It means happy sabbath in Hebrew. Today I woke up late, barely ate breakfast, went to choir and then went to church. We sang the prelude hymn. I am singing in the choir because they perform a Christmas concert at the end of the semester for the public. I am super excited for that. It is also good to sing right next to Thomas because I really have no idea what I am doing.

Then, I was sustained as a Primary teacher in sacrament meeting. I am super excited! I am teaching the 9 year old boys. It was cool to talk to them about their baptism. There are two of them, but usually we have three. It was so nice to not have to go to Sunday School or Elder's Quorum. They had the chastity lesson. We ate candy and cookies and sang, "Jesus Wants me for a Sunbeam." One of the boys is a little genius. He played the piano by ear for an opening hymn. The other kid, Ivan, has a lot to say. He has very interesting nightmares and enjoys telling stories. We have heard that the boy that didn't come this week is a handful. We heard it from the Primary President, and the other boys. Luckily, we have two teachers and two kids to work with. I figure one of us can pin him down while the other teaches. Just kidding. But seriously. But just kidding.

After church, we went to the Orson Hyde Memorial Garden and the Garden of Gethsemane. The Orson Hyde Memorial is a rock with some writing on it in a garden. It took Orson Hyde a year and a half to get to Israel and he almost starved to death. He got here and dedicated the land for the return of the Jews. Now, they are there. Some people aren't so happy about it, but I don't think they are going anywhere until Christ comes.

The Garden of Gethsemane is probably my most spiritual place in the holy land. It is quiet and peaceful. You can walk through the trees and read the account of Christ's suffering there. There are two gardens. One you can walk through and a lot of Mormon prophets have felt the spirit there. The other one is the traditional site. There is a tree in the traditional site that dates back more than 2,000 years. Christ suffered somewhere at the base of the mount of olives and that tree was just beginning to grow when it happened. It is cool to think about.

We changed money after going to Gethsemane. Aladin, the money changer, asked us if we were Jack Mormons. I felt a bit guilty after that. We are leaving for Turkey tomorrow. We should have done it earlier, but it closed earlier than we thought it would on Friday (for the sabbath).

I ate four ice cream bowls at dinner tonight. They don't serve lunch on the sabbath. I love the ice cream here. They have pistachio flavor with pistachios in the ice cream. I am a huge fan. The meals here are incredibly well prepared. We have a bunch of options every day. Today, I had fish and chicken over some kind of grain with potatoes.

I love everything about this place. I didn't imagine anything like this experience. Everyone should go.