14 June 2011

I wish I could tell you that this was a day of excitement, of wonder, of thrill. However, saying so would make me a liar, and my mother told me to never tell a lie.

The morning began with a Yoplait peach yogurt and a piece of chocolate bread. Can you imagine a breakfast better than that? It may not be the breakfast of champions or magically delicious but it was a wonderful way to start the day. Old Testament focused on the first twelve chapters of Isaiah and the encompassing message that Isaiah teaches throughout his ministry. His message applies to Adam and Eve, the children of Israel, Lehi and his family, the Nephites and Lamanites, Joseph Smith and early members of the church, my family and I: to everyone. We are constantly in a cycle of humbling ourselves before God and rebuilding Zion. As we live our lives, we find ourselves being pushed farther from Christ through sin and pride. God, however, always finds a way to bring us back because He has made a covenant with us. It is necessary that we learn to be humble before the Lord and rely on Him and Him alone. The teachings of Isaiah, while often difficult to understand, carry important messages that do apply to us in our day. All we have to do is read with an open heart and recognize that we are a part of his narrative; his story is not only a story about his day, but one about ours as well.

The morning came and went without incident. Justin Heninger and Andrew Null practically killed each other on the way to linen exchange, fighting to be the first ones there. Justin beat Andrew by a few seconds. Andrew claims it was only because Erika blocked his path, but he would have lost either way. He just didn’t want to admit his pitiful defeat. Mostly, it was just an entertaining show to watch while walking down the stairs to collect my own linens. The cooking staff surprised us with homemade pizza for lunch. The shouts of elation could be heard all around Jerusalem. It wasn’t Little Caesar’s or Domino’s by any means, but it satiated many pizza cravings held by many students within the center.

Between cleaning my bathroom and doing laundry, I attended a session of Hebrew. Hebrew has easily become the class that I look forward to each week. Unfortunately it is coming to a quick end. The final is in two weeks from Friday! I cannot believe how quickly time has passed. Didn’t I just get here? Didn’t I just have my first Hebrew class? I will be on that flight home before I know it. I fear I am going to blink and miss everything.

Our Islam class was from 4:00-5:50 in the afternoon today. Whoever came up with that time is insane! It was so hard to pay attention. It’s not like I listen to everything Bashir Bashir is saying, but I couldn’t listen to anything he was saying. I was antsy; I was restless. I knew there was a reason why I don’t take night classes. It was a relief when it ended and we were excused to eat dinner. Most of the students headed into the Oasis to eat the standard rice, potatoes, meat, and salad. A few of us, however, left the center and went to West Jerusalem to get something to eat to celebrate Erica’s 20^th Birthday. It was such a blast. Twenty-one of us met up at a place called Thailandi, where Thai food is obviously served. This may come as a shock to most of you (especially my mother), but I got chicken pad thai. There has never been a time that I have gone to a Thai restaurant and gotten anything other than chicken pad thai, unless it was sushi. I’m not one to be unadventurous. I love trying new foods, but I have it ingrained in my mind that nothing could be better than chicken pad thai. And in this situation, I was right. A few people chose to get the stir-fry, but they were eating my noodles instead! After dinner, we wandered around for a bit and ended up stopping by a bakery. Shelby Petersen and I happily shared a chocolate filled pastry; it was delicious. There is nothing better than chocolate. No matter where you are in the world, chocolate will always be there, making your mouth water and your taste-buds cheer.

It was nice to get out of the center for dinner. Plus, we jammed all twenty-one of us into a van on the way back to the J.C. How could that not be fun? The food was good; the company was great. It was another successful evening, another successful day in Jerusalem.