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.