Dream Come True

Well my dream of a few years has finally come true- I went to the Dome of the Rock! Here is a picture. As you can see it is very photogenic. And it helped that it was a gorgeous day on Sunday.

So I started my free day by going to the dome of the rock, since the hours are weird and you can only go in the morning on Sundays basically. And it was SO beautiful!! Pictures do not do it justice. Seriously. Unfortunately people are no longer allowed inside.... but I did peak through the cracks of the door and it looked very beautiful on the inside as well! You can google pictures if you are curious as to what it looks like indoors.

After the dome, we went over to the YMCA where our branch president plays the carolon (I have no idea how to spell that....) bells for an hour every Sunday morning at 11. And he lets you play if you know how to. I didn't in case you are wondering. There were far too many people, but it was still a good experience to hear the bells. Apparently they are loud enough to reach 1 million people all across Jerusalem. Pretty sweet, right?

We then just wondered around west and east Jerusalem and did some shopping. I didn't buy anything (aside from a falafel of course haha). But it is always fun to look around and meet new shop owners.

We also had our field trip yesterday (Monday) to the Shephelah- which is the low hills in between the Judean Wilderness and the mediterranean sea. It was a really fun time, but it was raining! Apparently this is the wettest winter Jerusalem has seen in like 10 years or something. Pretty crazy. But thanks to the rain everything was SO green. The rolling hills actually ended up looking like we were in Scotland or something. It was pretty crazy. A lot of bible stories happened in the different places, such as Samson and Delilah and David and Goliath. Pretty cool!!

We then went to this national park called Merashah with all of these caves which were super cool! They raised doves in these caves for sacrifice and other things so there are holes in the walls for all of the doves. And we sang hymns in the caves, which sounded SO cool. I definitely enjoyed it. And we sang my favorite hymn- "Be Still My Soul."

So yeah- I haven't had a TON of excitement since Jordan, but that's what is going on. Sorry this is a little on the short side, but I will blog more later!! Love you all