Succoth

A starnge little hut sits on a large stretch of green grass in between the Joseph Smith Building and the Spence W. Kimball Tower at BYU. It is draped in white sheets and has branches for the roof covering. If I had walked past this just over a year ago, I would have asked "What is this? And what is it for?" But now I know. I know because I saw several, at least a hundred, similiar huts to this one, not here in the U.S., but in Jerusalem! What are these little huts? They are called Succoths in Israel, but a more familiar term here may be a tabernalce. The Feast of Tabernacles has started. In Jerusalem right now, every Jewish family would have a succoth at their home. Every restaurant in West Jerusalem would have one outside of the restaurant, and even the Governmental buildigs have them! They are everywhere! I stood in one at a gelato shop and at my ice cream inside it once. I am grateful that BYU shows our link to Jerusalem, and honors the Feast of Tabernacles!

Happy Succoth everyone!

Vernal

Guess where Mitch and I are going this weekend? Yup--Vernal!!! We are going out for conference! I am really excited because we haven't seen his parents since the wedding. And guess what else is awesome? Vernal now has a Cafe Rio! Yahoo!!! Too bad it will be the most busy place in town during the Men's Preisthood session. We will have to there for lunch or something. So, as you can tell by the picture, I am not real good with a shot gun. . . .YET! I will be good! I did pretty good for my first time, but the gun is so stinking heavy I could hardly lift it (hence my bad posture) haha. Too bad I don't think we will be doing any shooting this time out there because the weather will be so cold.

Friends . . .

Some pictures are worth 1000 words. I think this one is worth a 1000 laughs. Perhaps this picture wouldn't be as funny to someone who didn't know my dear friend Ali. But to me, it is worth a 1000 laughs. Maybe it is so funny to me because it was taken on my wedding day--the one day I truly was the happiest girl ever. Maybe it is so funny to me because I know that Ali had been up since 5 a.m. helping me get ready for my wedding, and still at 9 p.m. she was able to party like it was her own wedding!

Friends are so important. They bring you joy, laughter, support, care, memories, love, and all sorts of happy things. When I was assigned to start blogging again, I began looking at my friends blogs for ideas. Now I am hooked on reading their blogs! I can't believe the talent my friends have for writing, creativity, and style! I wish I had all that talent, but then again, why do I need it when I already have them!?

Tradition

Two highlights from another week of school, work, and married life:

1) Mitch and I watched Fiddler on the Roof (which explains the title of this entry). It is a great musical--especially now that I have truly lived and experienced a lot of Jewish culture (the picture with the two hats are from two orthodox Jews). Naturally I cried a lot during the movie . . . I attribute that ability to both of my parents. The only problem abuot watching Fiddler on the Roof is that everyday I have at least one of the songs from that musical stuck in my head. Right now I picture Tevyeh (spelling?) pushing his milk cart as he yells "Tradition!" and then the song starts playing in my head. When will it ever stop? Who knows....

2) I found the busiest time of day on campus! If you stand in front of the JFSB at 10:53 a.m. you have a good chance of getting plowed into. It happened to me on Wednesday. I was trying to make my way to class at this exact time. I could not believe how crowded it was (I much prefer spring and summer terms--no crowds, just lovely weather)! So as I am making my way to class, this girl plows right into me. She looked up and apologized and quickly scurried past me. I couldn't believe it. Somehow she figured she could still stare at the ground as she walked through the masses and dodge people. Well, sure enough, about 6 seconds after she rammed me she plowed into someone else. I can't blame her though. cause no one could get through the crowds without hitting at least 7 people. It was pretty exciting. I thought it would be appropriate to post the snap of my feet in honor of all the walking I do around campus now. Yay for feet!

Sept. 11th

Walking to campus at 7:45 a.m. is great--great because you can actually find a parking spot.  The weather at 7:45 a.m. however is still a bit chilly, and consequently I wore a jacket to school today.  However, at approximately 12:53 p.m, campus is a little too hot for walking around.  I walked past the Smoot building at this time, and as I was taking off my jacket to prevent any noticeable signs of sweat,  I realized that the Air Force ROTC had it way worse than I did.  In honor of Sept. 11th, the men were doing some formal show.  Two of the men had to stand in front of the Flag, sun blaring down on their navy suits, for an HOUR! I felt so bad for them in that heat that I kept my jacket on.  Boy, that did not look fun at all for them.  But they did it.  And it got me thinking.  I was in 7th grade when Sept. 11th occurred.  I don't have any heroic connections of family member's dying in it.  I don't know anyone that died that day, but I do know that a lot of people are thinking of loved ones who did die that day. 

 My tribute to them is to honor my little sister.  She is a loved one of mine that passed away, not on Sept. 11th, but I hope that now is an appropriate time to talk about her.  Anne Nicole died as a 3 week old baby from trisomy 18.  (I am still not exactly sure what that is, I just know that she was born with a lot of complications.)  I was three at the time, so I only have a few memories of her alive.  She would be 17 if she were here today.  My younger sister Karren, who is only 15, has grown so tall and beautiful, that I can't imagine the babe that Anne would be right now.  I do know that I got married on her birthday this year--Aug. 22nd.  We certainly had a big celebration on her day, but I never got the chance to tell her happy birthday this year because I was too busy enjoying being married for the first time! So, even though I hate being late for events, I still believe in the quote "better late than never." Sorry it is late Anne, but Happy Birthday!! I love you!

A New Chapter

The last few weeks spent in Jerusalem were so valuable that I never took the time to blog during it. As an economist I would say, the opportunity cost of blogging during those last few weeks was just too high—I needed to be out in the city. So naturally, when I got home my mom told me she wanted to make a book of my Jerusalem blog so that I could have a hard copy of it. I told her that was a great idea but to wait because I wanted to make one final entry about Jerusalem to close up the blog.





Time passed and I still hadn’t finished the blog. When I get home from Jerusalem I started dating a boy that I liked at the center. My parents knew about him already and I did a lot of things with him in Jerusalem. I refrained from mentioning him in the blog however because I wanted to make sure that I, as well as everyone else, knew that I was in Jerusalem for a personal experience. I was not there to meet anybody and fall in love, but just to grow personally. I did grow personally. But I also fell in love--an unexpected positive externality of going to Jerusalem. As time passed and I hadn’t written in the blog yet, I came up with a new idea to excuse my procrastination. I would wait till Mitch (they boy I fell in love with) and I were engaged so that I could end the blog with a “happily ever after.”
To no great surprise, once we were engaged I was too preoccupied with my soon-to-be-husband and a wedding to plan that I had no time for blogging! So again, the blog went unnoticed, nearly forgotten.
Tomorrow marks the year anniversary of the day I left for Jerusalem. Little did I know that day that I would have the greatest personal development of my life during that school semester. Little did I know that I would come to know the Savior more closely than I had in 19 years. Little did I know that the scriptures would finally open up to me in real life. Nothing did I know that I would meet the one person that would accompany me to exaltation—my husband. So here I am, a year later, not in Jerusalem, but happily married. What was it that finally got me to write on the blog? Anyone who knows Heather would not doubt it—an assignment from my writing professor, Bro. Shayne Clarke. Yes--for all those Anne of Green Gables fans--Clarke with an "e".

The Galilee Experience

I don’t know where to being to describe my experience in the Galilee. All I know is that it will probably be one of the greatest highlights for the rest of my life. It truly was one of the greatest tender mercies the Lord has given to me. I have grown so much mentally and spiritually during this semester, and my greatest growth spiritually probably came during those 10 days spent on the shores of the Sea of Galilee. During those 10 days I visited all of these sites:
Caesarea Maritime, Megiddo, Nazareth, Boat across Sea of Galilee, Nof Ginosar Ancient Boat, Mt. of Beatitudes, Tabgha, St. Peter’s Primacy, Capernaum, Gamla, Qazrin Village, Tiberias, Mt. Tabor, Nain, Bet Alpha Synagogue, Gan Ha-Shelosha, Beth Shean, Hazor, Dan, Banias, Nimrod’s Castle, Bahai Gardens, Akko, Beth Shearim, Sepphoris(Zippori), Muhraqa, Haifa,
The first day we spent driving up to the Galilee we stopped at Caesarea Maritime, Megiddo, and Nazareth. Caesarea Maritime was absolutely beautiful. It is on the shore of the Mediterranean Sea—which is of now my favorite Sea! (Sea of Galilee is actually a lake so that doesn’t count.) Megiddo is where they get the term “Armageddon” from—supposedly where the last battle before the second coming will be, but it will actually be at Jerusalem. Nazareth was a definite highlight of the Galilee trip. The Church of Annunciation was so big and beautiful, and surprisingly, I could feel the spirit a lot more in there than at the Church of the Holy Sepulcher or the Church of the Nativity. I believe it is in part due to the smaller crowd and more room to sit alone and think.
We had three sessions of three hour class marathons of the New Testament. Normally it would sound a little rough, but studying the Ministry of Christ in the Galilee while actually on site was one of the most exciting things I have done. I learned so much within those three hour sessions of class about who Christ was as an actual man serving on Earth. Bro. Wilson does such an excellent job bringing the spirit into the classroom setting.
A couple days after Nazareth, we took a boat ride across the Sea of Galilee from Ein Gev where we were staying to the other side of the lake where Tiberius, Mt. of Beatitudes, Capernaum, St. Peter’s Primacy, and Tabgha are. One the ride over the wind was blowing hard, it was cold, and all though the waves were not roaring, I felt so close to how the apostles may have felt out on the lake as they feared of perishing, and asked the Lord, “carest not that we perish?” It was a great testimony building experience for me as I could relate to the actually living experience of the Savior. Later on in the week I had the wonderful opportunity of Speaking in Sacrament meeting with a view of the Sea behind me. Part of my talk emphasized the point that the Lord really does care about us, and he is aware of even the small and simple things happening in our lives. Visiting the Mt. of Beatitudes and Capernaum after the boat ride was a truly humbling experience as well. I won’t go in too deep about the spiritual experiences I had because that would take a very long time, and it is personal. But let me just say how much I love the New Testament and also how grateful I am for my teacher Bro. Wilson. My Galilee experience was one of the greatest things that has ever happened to me. I love the Galilee!!
Mt. Tabor, Tel Dan, Nimrod’s Castle, and Muhraqa were probably my other favorite highlights of the trip. Mt. Tabor and Muhraqa were tender mercy experiences for me. I realized that most of my favorite places here in the Holy Land have been either mountains or temple-related places. I realized it is because I can feel the spirit so much at those places similarly to how I feel the spirit in the temple at home.
Anyway, I apologize that this blog entry has turned into a little spiritual journal entry, but that is how the Galilee experience was for me. I truly loved everything about that trip. But I will end this entry on a less serious note. Two of my other favorite things about being at the Galilee were running by myself on the beach (obviously) and the fact that when they prepared a thanksgiving dinner for us, they brought out the turkeys with sparklers in them!!! It was soo cool! I want to start that tradition at home, although I am not sure how well it would work out with smoke detectors at home. Would it work? I don’t know, but it was awesome, and it definitely helped to make me feel less homesick on my first big holiday away from home. We also went to a fish resturant one night on the lake, and no I didn't order the fish, I don't like eating things that are looking at me, but I did kiss Kyle's fish (the picture) and tried some of it. It was pretty good, Dad you would be proud of me, I have eaten a lot of fish here, even just at the center.