Egypt: There and Back Again

The day before we headed to Egypt, one of our professors presented a short, four-slide powerpoint to help us to prepare for (and survive) the adventure. I'll share the highlights with you.

1. Don't drink the water.
2. Don't eat the food.
3. Don't breathe the air.
4. Don't touch anything.

His powerpoint may have been a bit of an exaggeration, but it proves the point. Egypt is a third-world developing country. Much of what I saw there just made me feel....sad. Lots of ghetto and lots of poverty. However, the sites were amazing, so I will focus on that happy note via way too many pictures.


This is five-year old Will and I in our "Batman" poses. He is one of my professor's children. We are on the road.

One of the stops along the way took us to the ancient city of Jerico. The picture shows a monastery above my head that we hiked to on the Mount of Temptations (supposedly). I touched the very rock with which Satan tempted Christ, which they keep in the monastery, if you can imagine that.

We went to the city of Adna, essentially the stomping ground of the first three patriarchs. The city had a gigantic cistern beneath it that we went in.

My first view of the pyramids. They are incredible! I can understand now why people believe that aliens created them, because they are truly indescribable. You just have to see them for yourself. This was taken in Cairo looking into Giza.



Some of these blocks weigh 15 tons.



This is the temple of Queen Hat-Shep-Sut (pronounced "hot-cheap-suit") and is over the mountains from the Valley of the Kings. They wouldn't allow us to take pictures in the Valley, but it was spectacular. Sixty-seven tombs have been found in the valley, some of which are massive. We were able to go into King Tut's tomb as well, which was very small comparatively.

This is looking into essentially what is the Holy of Holies for the Temple of Queen Hat-Shep-Sut.


Pit 33 has the tripod in front of it. This is where scholars believe the papyrus scrolls of Abraham were found with the mummies that Joseph Smith purchased. The Bedouins wouldn't allow us to go near it, but it was still neat to see.

Ok so after a few days in Cairo, we flew south to Luxor (Thebes). The temperature there got up to 50 degrees centigrade one day (like 122 Fahrenheit)! My farmer's tan has reached perfection. Anyways, not trusting the local ice-cream, we ended up at McDonald's. Sad, I know...

My favorite site of the Egypt trip was the Temple of Karnak in Luxor. The temple spans across 32 acres! I found the obelisks amazing----the engineering behind the placement of these 135-ton solid rocks is just mind blowing.


Scenes like these are depicted all throughout the temples. Egyptians believed in eternal life brought about through rituals (ordinances) and correct living, which would lead to deification. I am excited to share more about this.

This is Ramses II and I with his favorite wife, Nefartari, just above my head.

During our time in Egypt, we made use of various means of travel, including plane, train, horse-drawn carriage, taxi, camel, motor boat, and sailboat. This is the horse-drawn carriage.

Overlooking the Nile. Several became pretty sick while on the trip. I did for a bit, but I survived (Gary, tienes churro?). ;-)

This is one of the bazars---truly an experience in itself. But those stories will have to wait for another time.

Muhammad Ali Mosque, the largest in Cairo.

This is the quibla of the mosque, which points to Mecca.

My camel ride, but the girl forgot to get my camel in the picture. I almost got bucked off, but it was fun.

We hiked up Mount Sinai early in the am in order to be there for the sunrise. The hike was no Timpanogos, but the view was just as beautiful.

These last two are from the Sea of Galilee. After returning from Egypt, a member of the district presidency asked me to travel with him to Galilee on the Sabbath to translate the meetings into Spanish. I was especially excited to go because I had just finished reading about all the miracles Christ performed in this area in Jesus the Christ. Surprisingly, several members from both Argentina and Uruguay live there. This top pic is the view from outside the church. The sea is larger than I had expected and a very pretty area. It was a fun experience to translate and went well. Latinos, wherever they are, are funny people. This bottom pic is of Carmen and I, a funny woman from Argentina. I guess you could say we hit it off pretty well. She wanted to take a picture of us with her camera, so I thought I would take one as well. We had a linger longer after the meetings, which was neat. The branch has four postings on the wall for the Hymns: one for English, one for Spanish, one for Hebrew, and one for Russian.


I will finally wrap up this photo gallery with a story. The branch president asked if I would translate an interview between he and a sister. This sister and her family were having severe family problems. The interview was anything but peaceful---it was actually downright contentious (I admit that I did not translate everything quite as bluntly as it was said).

Right after the interview, I walked outside and looked out over the Sea of Galilee and began to think of the many miracles performed there by Christ. It was interesting for me to think of this family, in an area where Christ had healed so many, lacking the faith necessary for Christ to heal them. The atmosphere there was such a contrast for me compared to the one I had just left. It was a peaceful moment.

After all is said and done, aren't we all in need of a good healing in our lives?

Have a great one and God bless.

From Kippas to Quasimodo (and everything inbetween)

Mom,















I hope it was a great one for you. We might hide if from you pretty well, but we all like you. ;-) BTW: flying halfway around the world to take a photo looking over Old Jerusalem just for you should solidify my position as your favorite child for at least the next decade, don't you think?

Where to start? The last few weeks have been filled with countless cultural and spiritual experiences. Rather than filling you in on all of them, I will choose a few highlights to share (the rest will have to wait until the seven-hour slide show presentation I have planned for August----make sure to RSVP for the event).

The most exciting event of this week had to be the invitation I received to go into a Palestinian home. I was walking home on Thursday afternoon from the city with two others when we began to talk with an Arab named Abdulah. Between his limited English and our non-existent Arabic, we didn't get very far. But he did know the words, "Welcome! Coffee!" We quickly understood he was inviting us over to his home, which we accepted.

Abdulah took us to his humble home where we met his family. Once again, the language barrier was thick, but we were able to communicate a bit. He showed us his chickens and his rabbit, and his kids shared their candy with us. Much to our surprise, his wife, Grita, then brought us dinner and a berry-drink called "Tut." The dinner was some kind of macaroni-something. Honestly, it wasn't that great, but I could tell they were proud of it. We had to decline both tea and coffee while we were there, which proved to be a bit difficult with the language barrier, but we managed.

His son, Hassan, is on my left, and the other kids are friends. The pic on the right is Abdulah and me. I don't understand because he was totally smiling and joking around right before the picture, but apparently Arabs don't smile in pics. Good man. This bottom picture is of him and his son Emil (check out Emil's mullet---pretty sweet).



The family invited us to return the next day. We returned armed with our Arabic workbooks and an Arabic dictionary, so things went much better. They fed us again, something wrapped in grape leaves called "shoka." We met another family as well (actually, the families had a little argument to determine whose home we could go to----we settled the issue by going to both). The new family pulled out the family photo albums and invited us to a family party next month, so we are obviously on the "in."

Meeting with both families was an amazing experience, and I am looking forward to returning.

On Friday we traveled to the Western Wall (the holiest site in Judaism---supposedly the closest place to where the Holiest of Holies of the temple was placed) to welcome in Shabbat (the sabbath) with the Jews. I bought my first kippa to prepare for the event.

What a party it was! The courtyard was filled with different rabbinic tribes welcoming in the Sabbath in their own ways. Men and women separated; on the men's side, we engaged in singing Hebrew songs, linking arms, and dancing in circles (which was a little crazy considering the fact that we did so with soldiers who had AK-47's around their necks). From the experience, I could easily see how much the Sabbath means to these people---they actually celebrate to begin the day. It was quite an experience.

Another exciting event occurred today when I was able to play the bells in the YMCA tower. The building was built in the 1930's by the same architect who designed the Empire State Building and is absolutely massive. Elder Whipple, a senior missionary here and talented musician, plays the bells weekly. I have become good friends with him and his wife, so he allowed me to join him (his wife actually flirts with me all the time!---whenever I see her, she either gives me hugs or hits me and says, "Love tap!"---she is a cutie). I always knew that all those painful hours spent with Lona Mae would pay off somehow and lead to something big! I played the first verse of a hymn, and then Brother Whipple played the pedals on the second verse and added his own base cleft arrangement. It was awesome! The bells ring out across all of Old Jerusalem, which was neat to think about. Since Elder Whipple and I are both from Idaho, he played his own rendition of "And Here We have Idaho" (Idaho's state song), to which both of us sang. I hope to be able to play them again soon.


To wrap up, Elder Pieper of the 70 came this weekend. He spoke in sacrament meeting and in a fireside. He grew up near Blackfoot, but went to Snake River High (he apologized to me for that----sorry Steph). Anyways, he spoke about the fact that so many sites in the Holy Land claim to be the "exact" spot where significant events of the Bible occurred (for example, I have been to one of three sites where Mary is buried, I have touched the two tombs where Christ was buried, and I have heard about three locations that have the ark of the covenant---four if you include the Nazis from Indiana Jones). And each of these places have plenty of trinkets to buy in order to "commemorate" pilgrimages there. However, Elder Pieper pointed out that our path is not to stand where Jesus stood, but rather to become as Jesus is. Good food for thought.

Until next time, alla ysalmak.