Turkey Trip

I've been thinking a lot about Basketball and how it relates to the gospel.
The Savior is our coach and we are the athlete.
At first we don't even know the rules of the game. We are kind-of like new members of the Church or non-members. The Lord lets us know not to double-dribble and not to walk out of bounds.
Once we learn the rules, the counsel changes. Then we learn how to improve our game. We learn how to dribble, pass, shoot, and score. The Lord keeps adding elements to help us grow. "Try to dribble with your left hand." or "Try to do a no-look pass." Some days the Lord will have us practice alone. Other days with the team. But always pushing us to help our game grow more dynamic and creative. Until we win . . .
What is the difference between our good selfs and the best we can be, is how well we implement the second aspect of counsel. We might feel clumsy at first trying to dribble with our left hand, or shoot with our left-hand, but we will improve. And win . . .

We had a great time in Turkey . . .

Sunday: We flew into Turkey out of Tel Aviv and traveled with our Tour Guide named Buelent to the Cartoon Hotel. It really was called that and had lots of Mickeys and Goofys and other cartoon characters around. Robert Hickman was my room-mate. He is such a kind-hearted and humble individual.

Monday: Buelent is from Istanbul and had a good accent, but not too thick, and he was very funny. We went to the Blue Palace and the Blue Mosque. We also went to the Grand Bazaar, which happens to be the largest shopping center in the world.

Tuesday: We visited Troy today. I went back to conquer my kingdom. And I prevailed. What that means is that I got a picture in front of the wooden horse. We stayed in a city called Cannakale. It was really neat, mostly because it had a large wooden horse right by a basketball court. We played with some of the local kids out on the court late in the evening (and right when we got there). It was such a neat game.

Wednesday: We visited Assos and Pergamum and Asclepion today. Those are old cities that Paul and others went to visit on their jouneys around as they did missionary work. Lots of Roman theming and lots of columns and pillars and temples and amphitheatres.

Thursday: Visited Ephesus and Miletus. More of the same. We went swimming at our hotel this evening. We had a small earthquake and it was neato. Cool as can be. a 5.9 right in our area. My bed shook. I thought it was me shaking, but it was actually the hotel room.

Friday: We visited some Hot Springs and drove to Bursa.

Saturday: We drove a lot and finally got to Istanbul in the Evening. Our plane ride was great and late and I slept through most of it. We got to the J.C. on Sunday morning at about 3:00.

Musings of my mind . . .

Church was fun today. Bro Ohman is such a power house. I want to be just like he is and soon as possible.

Something I was thinking about is how the Lord is able to take away our burdens and make them light, no matter the size. Still am not quite sure why I give myself more to do and set myself goals that are beyond the ability of anyone to accomplish . . . maybe I enjoy growing and stretching myself.

Another thought bouncing around inside of me is what David Walley said on my mission. He defined Patience: the Christlike Attribute in a marvelous way. He said Patience is finding peace in the present. Finding peace in the here and now. Why should we wait for the Millennium for that, when its possible to achieve it now? The Spanish word for 'Patience' is _______ (insert it cuz I don't know it) something that means Peace Science (or the Science of Peace). The Savior's defining and all-encompassing qualities are love and peace, an indescribable emotion that transcends the mortal and exalts the individual to a higher plane of understanding. One may wonder just how the Savior could possibly love us so much? I've wondered that, but even more I've wondered how I can love others in that same way (at least to the best of my feeble abilities)?
My other thought on the subject is that in order to find peace, we need to rid ourselves of contention. Contention is of the Devil, so is worry, so is doubt. Since I stopped worrying about how well I do on school assignments, my grades have generally gone up, and when they haven't I've had a clear view of what I need to do to improve.

The other thought I had was to try and see everyone else as my example and to see them how Christ sees them, and I'll progress much faster, but I guess that's partly selfish (so fake it til you make it). Seeking to glorify others is much more rewarding than anything that is self-glorifying or gratifying.

And Humility I'm learning is not self-debasing in anyway, nor is it the absence of a self-exalting attitude, but rather it is an eternal dependence on our Savior and a proper and whole view of who we are. We must have a correct view of ourselves if we want to run the race of life to the best of our ability and to help others reach their full potential. Someday as Latter-Day Saints we will simply be able to let our light shine in full . . . to allow our very countenances to shine forth the gospel we live and love, and by so living, purify every soul we come in contact with. I had a small taste of that on my mission.
The ability to enlarge our hearts is a two-fold battle, physical and spiritual. Our diligence is affected by the physical, but our charity is affected by the spiritual. Once we learn to enlarge our hearts enough to encompass and balance both, we will permanently be on the road to exaltation.

Fear is the most disturbing emotion there is. It clouds judgment, stops us from even trying to reach our full potential, and keeps us focused inward. Doubt and fear are not attributes of Christ.
They are lies of Satan. So is despair, so is disobedience.


And now onto the day as it was today. Breakfast . . . Church . . . jammin' on the Ukuleles with Kori and Krystalee and others . . . and Dinner. Is it possible to be addicted to food? Yes!!!
I wish basketball was an approved Sabbath Activity.

And we watched the Ten Commandments yesterday!!! Fun Fun Fun!!!!

Wednesday

Yesterday, we had an exciting chance to go to David's Citadel. We just did it after class. It wasn't an organized field trip, but we had a great time and learned a lot on their audio tour. It was really fun. I enjoyed it. And stuff.
Other than that . . . we have just been having class. Normal as can be.
Bro Judd is our Old Testament teacher and he is full of great stories and awesome advice. I feel like I really relate to him well.
Jeff has got to be one of the awesomest and funniest religion teachers ever born. He is just a testimony of fire and full of that same rambuncious joy and humor that Dad has.
We had a Brother Pieper of the Seventy come and visit us at dinner yesterday.
He was really spiritual.

That's about all the news and we are going to have some great forum thing tonight by some important person from Palestinian government, so that should be interesting.

Yesterday was Monday

We had the chance to go on a series of field trips yesterday. Well, only two I guess. We went on a Jericho field trip in the morning. It was great. We got to see Elisha's Spring, Wadi Quelt (a giant overlook with a synagogue in the bottom), as well as Jericho and Herod's fortress and Roman bathhouse. It was spiffy and wonderful.

In the evening we went on a walk to the West side of the city. It was the Israeli independence Day Celebration, so they had a lot of concerts going on and stuff. It was neat. Then they had a giant firework display. It was awesome. Life is going well. Keep praying hard for me.

Love you guys.

Troy

Today is Sunday, Yesterday was the Sabbath

We had the opportunity to go to church yesterday, which was a really enjoyable experience. Jeff Chadwick gave the Sunday School lesson and did an amazing job. It was incredible. He is so smart and humble and a great example.
Today was a free-day so we went on a big field trip into the city and had the opportunity to visit the Dome of the Rock!!!! It was so neat to see. It is definitely one of my favorite places in Jerusalem. It is the giant golden dome of profound size. We also went to the YMCA bell tower. It was wonderful. It was big and catholic and such. We tried to visit a government building in West Jerusalem, but it was closed.
We saw David's tomb and also the Upper Room where they had the last supper. It was a super day. We have to visit a whole bunch of places in Jerusalem and write reports on 7 of the places we visit. That makes our field trips exciting.

Wish me luck.

And I hope Grandma Terry is feeling better. Send her my love.

Wailing Wall

I hope that you guys can read this and get a sense for amazingness by looking up pictures on your own. We went to the Wailing Wall tonight. It was so enjoyable to see all the Jewish people welcoming in their sabbath, saying prayers, being jovial and simply loving one another's company. We joined in some of their dances. It wasn't that hard. Everyone linked arms and went in a circle, while singing (kinda more like chanting.) The Jewish people and their faith in amazing.

The Wailing Wall is also known as the Western Wall. It was their Shabbat. We put little prayers in the wall. kinda reminded me of the temple prayer roll.

It is neat because the Lord has really been increasing my capacity to learn since I've been here. I love my classes to death. They

Fun, Fun, Fun

Yesterday was really busy. Lots of classes. Lots of Homework.
We did go on a tour of Hebrew University Campus.
It is pretty cool.

My Modern Near Eastern Judaism class is interesting. But it has a lot of reading. We had a Jew from Boston named Ophir Yarden who teaches it. He's does well at explaining all the history and stuff.

Judy Goldman, another Jew, teaches our Hebrew class. We are starting to learn the alphabet and different phrases.

Jeff Chadwick's class is basically awesomeness at its height.

I've really been curious if we really are much closer what we see our potential as than we realize. Maybe with the Lord's help we can even surpass that perceived potential. I really enjoyed Pres. Uchtdorf's talk in Priesthood Session. I'm going to read it again.

Have fun in America.

Field Trip Day

Today we had the opportunity to go on a Field Trip around the city. We went in buses to various places.
St. Augustine Victoria Chapel was a old church that Kaiser Wilhelm built around the time before World War I.
We went to one of the potential burial spot location things of Samuel the Prophet.
It was a mosque located on top of a synagogue. Talk about weird. It was neat though. We got to wear Jewish Kiepas. Those of the little small hats the men wear.
It was a fun field trip.

I got to know Mitchell's MTC comp Jarrett Lever. He's a cool kid. He's a linguistics and Portugese Major.

We had FHE tonight. That's about it. Lots of Homework.

Sunday, but not the Sabbath

We had our first day of classes today.

Old Testament with Brother Judd for 2 hours and then Ancient Near Eastern Studies from Bro Chadwick for 2 hours.

It has been a long morning. Unfortunately we aren't allowed to play basketball super early in the morning. I've been getting up early all the same. Life is good.

We had a busy morning.

This afternoon is ours to do studying and other stuff.

Making lots of friends.

Have fun at Church everyone.