My Mission Call!

On Saturday, October 6^th, 2012 I was sitting in the Forum in the Jerusalem Center watching General Conference.  I made my list of questions and conference began.  President Monson announced that the age that missionaries can leave at is now lower, it meant I didn’t have to wait any longer to go on a mission!  Within five minutes of conference starting half of my questions were answered and I sat there bawling, just experiencing every emotion possible.  I don’t remember what else was said for the rest of the day because I couldn’t focus on anything besides going on a mission!  Within a week I had started my papers (meaning my incredible parents started my papers) and I met with my home bishop and stake president shortly thereafter.  It was quite the process getting everything taken care of from Jerusalem, but somehow my parents did it and before October ended my papers were in!  I have attended mission prep every Shabbat (Saturday/Sabbath) night for the past two months now—Will and Bethany are the greatest teachers ever!  Two girls here turned their papers in just a few days before me (Erin and Mikele), and another one  turned hers in a couple weeks after I did (Laurann).   I decided that when my call came that I wanted to open it at the Garden Tomb, simply because that has been such a significant site for me here and it means so much to me.

Anyways, I asked my parents to not tell me when my call got to my house, and then have them fast-track it to Israel, hoping to be surprised with my call a few weeks later!  Wanting to be surprised might have tested my patience at sometimes, but it worked out better than I could have imagined.  My call got to my house and my parents kept it, hoping to surprise Sara and me by bringing it to Jerusalem with them and Reid.  That is a story in and of itself, but they were unable to come out here and ended up fast-tracking it (keep in mind they haven’t told me any of this until after I opened my call).  It was supposed to take 3-5 days for my call to get out here, but ended up taking a couple of weeks instead.   Erin and Mikele received their calls in Galilee and Laurann got hers Thursday morning, so I was the only one still waiting.  Sara followed the t racking online, and it was in San Francisco for quite a while.  Thursday morning the mail came but my call did not.  A few hours later Sara found that it had reached Jerusalem.

I realized about a week ago that there had to be some reason my call hadn’t come—not just that it might be stuck in the mail, but that I needed to learn something.  I had a couple of things that I wanted to accomplish and study before my call came, but I had pushed them back a little bit knowing that if my call came I could do it at the Garden Tomb…”knowing…” right.  Wednesday I finished that list and that night I had a dream that I got my call.  I remember covering the postage so that it wouldn’t give it away whether I was going foreign or not (I know that’s not supposed to be different, but Erin got called to New York and Mikele got called to Chile and Mikele’s postage was definitely more than Erin’s).  Just like most dreams concerning my mission call, I woke up before I found out where I was going.

We had a final Thursday morning and two Friday, but Thursday afternoon we decided that we needed a break from studying since we hadn’t gone out that past two days.  When we leave the center we have to be in groups of three and we had seven of us going out to the city.  Jake wanted to take pictures in the Old City and at the Garden Tomb, and Bethany needed to stop at Aladdin’s (the money changers), so we decided to split—half of us went to Aladdin’s and half went to the Old City (including myself).  Then we met up at the Garden Tomb; little did I know that they did not go to Aladdin’s, but they stopped by the post office!

We took some pictures and then Sara turned to me and said, “Umm Liz… Bethany has something to give you.”  I can only imagine how big my eyes must have been as I watched Bethany reach into her purse and pull out my call!  I was more than shocked at that point and then Jake handed me his phone with my family on the other end. I was able to open my call just 20 feet away from the tomb—St. Petersburg Russia leaving January 30^th, 2013.  I never could have dreamed that I would get called to Russia, but I can’t wait!  There are a lot of Russian Orthodox churches here, so I’m excited to revisit all of them this next week!  There are three other students here that speak Russian (two served in Ukraine and one in Russia), so I’ve already learned a handful of phrases!  I cannot wait to share the greatest message I know with Heavenly Father’s children in Russia!  Jerusalem has prepared me so much more than I ever could have imagined!

Living life at the JC

Alrighty. It's time for a random post! There are all sorts of adventures/random moments we've had here at the Jerusalem Center that we haven't had a chance to share yet, so I'm taking the liberty of doing that now. It will be a crazy mess of everything, but that's okay! Here goes...

Best sandals/shoes in the world??? Oh yes! Cutest footwear I've ever worn? Definitely! ...Or so I tell myself. I'm still  trying to convince myself that it's true

We found a Yogurt shop in Jerusalem! 

Happy Halloween!!!!

This is the Student Lounge at Hebrew U. Apparently it's for sleeping--NOT talking or doing homework or anything else. Definitely not conducive for our group!

Liz was hard at work during our field trip...

After lunch at Mt. Herzl!

Herzl's tomb--they put rocks on the graves here to commemorate people. It's a different tradition, but super I find it fascinating!

Once upon a time we ordered pizza and had it delivered to the center. That was to celebrate the survival of another midterm!

Please take a close look at that board. We had a massive study session (shown below) in preparation for our Old Testament final. We split up half of the Old Testament and each had to take our portions to teach for our review. There were two of us on this part. And about 10-12 other white boards that looked the same. Going over all of those names, dates, stories and concepts in less than 24 hours nearly caused an explosion in my brain. And this was the shortened, important-points-to-remember-for-each-section summary. 

This was the study group I mentioned earlier! This wasn't even everyone involved. We had over half our class in on these. We scheduled each one out for one FULL day and packed in as many review sessions as possible in order to cover the material. It was rather intense!

Kid History meets Galilee

This is just another little "I know it's green, but what ELSE is about it?" picture for Mommy! This was at Nimrod's Castle in Galilee. SUPER cool castle, but the water didn't look too appetizing!

"I know it's green, but what else is about it?!"

  I know this picture is super random, but it’s so great that I just had to put it up right now!  This picture is taken in Turkey at the Ephesus Princess hotel.  But what you really need to know about it is that we are drinking kiwi juice… it’s green.  Yes Mom, this picture is specifically for you!  “I know it’s green, but what else is about it?!”  And yes, it was delicious!

Excavating Noah's Ark

Sometimes I look like a lion.  And sometimes I look like a prairie dog.  And sometimes I look like Timone (a meerkat).  And sometimes I look like a naked mole rat (yes, they exist).  And sometimes I stand like a flamingo, cause I really like flamingos.  But I'm just a Liz.  However, I went to the Biblical Zoo and I got to see ALL of these beautiful animals!  And lots and lots of other animals, like penguins!  My roommate Lizzie sure adored those!  And at Lemur Land the Lemurs could walk on top of you and we sang "Madagascar" music there!  But there were really more "Lion King" animals there than "Madagascar" animals--like Rafiki!  I saw an actual Rafiki!  It was the most magical zoo of my life!  Then we went to Noah's Ark!  And the animals are all descendants of the animals that Noah put on the ark, how cool is that?!  So it probably really doesn't sound that great, but I promise it was, so let me just show you instead...

Sara and Eleisha being prairie dogs, they're just jealous of me.

There are real flamingos in the back,
they are just hard to see.  Look closely!

PENGUINS!!!

Eleisha and Sara with the elephant!

At Noah's Ark going in by twos of course!

Jake, Sara, Liz, and Lizzie with the grizzly bears!
(They had real ones too).

Roommate pic!  Lizzie, Sara, Liz, and Jenessa!


And sometimes we take pictures at the zoo not
 with animals, just cause we can! :)

Lizzie, Sara, and Liz with palm trees!

Eleisha, Liz, Jake, and Sara (mixed up order of JESL) at the zoo.

Also, I found out tonight that there are legit lyrics to "Circle of Life" and it may or may not have made me really giddy, so I thought I'd share!

"Circle Of Life" Lyrics

Nants ingonyama bagithi Baba  [Here comes a lion, Father]
Sithi uhm ingonyama           [Oh yes, it's a lion]

Nants ingonyama bagithi baba
Sithi uhhmm ingonyama
Ingonyama

Siyo Nqoba                    [We're going to conquer]
Ingonyama
Ingonyama nengw' enamabala    [A lion and a leopard come to this open place]

[Chant repeats]

From the day we arrive on the planet
And blinking, step into the sun
There's more to see than can ever be seen
More to do than can ever be done
There's far too much to take in here
More to find than can ever be found
But the sun rolling high
Through the sapphire sky
Keeps great and small on the endless round

It's the Circle of Life
And it moves us all
Through despair and hope
Through faith and love
Till we find our place
On the path unwinding
In the Circle
The Circle of Life

It's the Circle of Life
And it moves us all
Through despair and hope
Through faith and love
Till we find our place
On the path unwinding
In the Circle
The Circle of Life

(Taken from LionKing.org)

Liz's Success as a Page-Turner

Imagine a beautiful Steinway piano.

Imagine a night-time view of Jerusalem.

Now imagine the beautiful Steinway piano in a room with that view of Jerusalem. 

Now imagine somebody playing that beautiful Steinway piano in a room with that view of Jerusalem.

Now imagine that you are that somebody playing that piano in a room with that view of Jerusalem.

And by you I mean me.

This week we had our Jerusalem Center Formal Talent Show, and somehow  Sara and I both got persuaded into participating in it.  How?  I don’t know.  I haven’t ever played in a talent show in my entire life, and I haven’t even performed at all for years.  We have some INCREDIBLY talented people here, so to say that I was highly intimidated is a gross understatement.  I like to think of it more as being an opening act for someone famous!  The more legit the performer, the more legit their opening act, right?  Too bad I more than slaughtered my song (Grandpa’s arrangement of “Joseph Smith’s First Prayer”), but Sara rocked her piece (“Toccata”).  Ya, so I go up and play a fairly basic song (it sounded primary in comparison to everything else) that everybody knows well enough to know when I mess up, and then Sara just shredded the piano apart, it was incredible.  But I did a great job as Sara's page turner!  It was a step up from last time when I got distracted during Sara's 30 minute song and forgot to turn the page! Whoops!  Aunt Ruth, you should be proud!

Now for Sara’s point of view:

So yes, we played in the talent show! And we volunteered to do it (sort of). Surprising, huh?! I definitely was not even thinking about doing it. We have some amazingly talented people here that could rock me in piano any day. I was playing the other day though and one of the girls on the talent show committee came in. She took it upon herself to make sure I signed up. I still hadn't signed up after the sheet was taken down, but she convinced me into it (mostly just so I could play the legit piano... That may or may not have been the motivating factor), so the guy in charge let us sign up anyway (Yes, US. If I had to do it, Liz clearly did as well!). Like Liz said, neither of us have really performed for people for a long time. But it was kind of amazing to be on stage in the JC auditorium with all of Jerusalem in the background with an amazing piano! And Liz sounded incredible. And I didn't even rush my notes. And it was SO much fun! I just had a party playing my song and didn't even freak out or start shaking until I sat down. But then it didn't matter :) Basically both of us thought it was going to turn into a disaster, but then it was super fun and awesome

It’s Donakey family tradition (as well as tradition for several other families) to go out for ice cream after concerts and recitals, but here we don’t really have that option.  So we improvised—and we went to the Shekel Shack!  Although they were out of magnum bars, we were able to get some yummy desserts.  It was magical! 

The two of us with that beautiful Steinway piano that we played  in the room
with that night time view of Jerusalem.  It was GORGEOUS!

Our after-concert treats at the Shekel Shack!

Viva la "Viva la Vida!"

I hear Jerusalem bells are ringing

Roman Calvary choirs are singing

Be my mirror, my sword and shield

My missionaries in a foreign field

Name that song! Guess what? The first line that says "I hear Jerusalem bells are ringing?" We WERE those Jerusalem bells!!! How amazing is that?! This is a pretty legit story, so be excited. We had the opportunity on our free day to join with one of the senior couples here and go to the Carillon and play the bells for ALL of Jerusalem. Three hundred thousand people had no choice but to listen as we sat up there for an hour and played around on the bells! Don't worry, we sounded lovely. We had all differing levels of musical ability, so you didn't necessarily have to be good to try. We each grabbed a partner, sat in a spot to practice and then played for EVERYONE to hear. Intimidating? Not at all :) We had a group of 10 or so that each got to play a few times and my last two songs were primary songs! Liz and I played "Little Purple Pansies" together and the last song was "I am a Child of God." Yes Jerusalem, we lived that song!

The two of us playing!

Jake, Sara, Mackenzie P., Brandon, Kayla, Liz, and
Hailey in front of the bells that we just played!

Sometimes it's good to be original. Other times being told "this has never happened before" isn't quite what you wanted to hear.

Cue Sara.

We just returned from a lovely trip to Jordan with all of the students. It was fabulous and everything went quite smoothly! Our director was unable to come, so it was just the professors and we were trying our hardest to make their lives as easy as possible as they took on all of the extra responsibility. After making it through four days on an amazing trip (more details to come) and without traumatizing them too much, we were on our way home. Security checkpoints had all gone over quite well thus far and we were having a great time! There was one last checkpoint to enter Israel and then it was a straight shot home to the Jerusalem Center. After all sorts of security out of Israel and into Jordan earlier this week, then out of Jordan and into Israel today, we were excited to be getting home. Liz and I were towards the front of our group and we managed to get through things quickly while the majority of our group was stuck in line and not allowed to pass through for an hour or so. We just sat and waited for the luggage like you do at an airport. It took a while, but finally the luggage started coming.

Or most of it.

The bags started piling up, but mine still wasn't there.

Then all the students came through. And it still wasn't there.

Then the buses arrived. And it still wasn't there.

Then they started loading the buses. And it still wasn't there.

Then everyone else except for one girl had her luggage. And it still wasn't there.

Then her bag came. And mine still wasn't there.

Then everyone except three of us were on the buses. And my bag still wasn't there.

Then we sat and waited for a long time. And it still wasn't there.

Then we waited some more. And it still wasn't there.

Then we started searching with security.

It was there.

Security had pulled it off to search, so I had to go through a lovely little adventure to find out what was going on and to see what the issue was. Just in case you ever wanted to try taking a converter with you ANYWHERE, I would NOT recommend it! They thought it was going to blow up. Finally, after detailed questioning and searching, I made it out of there and onto the bus. Everyone was super fabulous, but the whole ordeal took about three hours from the time we started until we escaped to freedom. I won't be trying that one again any time soon! Pretty sure it's not coming back to the States after what I just went through. When we got back to the Center though, I was told that we've never had that much of a problem getting through security. Way to be original, Sara!

Swimming, Snorkeling, Storytelling and at the Red Sea

So we got really good at posting pictures lately, but haven't written too much about our adventures. Clearly we need to balance this out a little more! On our free day this week we went down to Eilat. I'm including a map so you can have a little bit of an idea for all of this. We drove from Jerusalem (upper right-ish on the map) down to Eilat and the Red Sea (like the one from the Bible that Moses parted? Yup. Same one!). Then we went snorkeling! I went on a little run with a couple of girls while we were down there too. We were told not to go too far south because we were rather close to Egypt. I didn't realize until we left how close we really were! We were only about a mile and a half from the border. I just about reached my goal to go to Egypt! Unfortunately we didn't quite make it. Someday :) Anyway, it was my first time snorkeling and I absolutely loved it. Just like living in an aquarium! The water was gorgeous and pretty warm and we just sat at the beach all day. Ken mentioned it was getting a little chilly up there...sorry we can't sympathize with you right now! It was a nice boost for the week since we spent the rest of the week inside, studying for midterms and finals.

The Jerusalem Schedule

It has come to my attention that we haven't really told you too much about our day-to-day lives here in Jerusalem. Now is the time to fix that mistake! Here's our typical week:

Monday: Field trip day! Depending on the field trip schedule for the day, we're generally gone all or most of the day on field trips all across Jerusalem and Israel. It's amazing! We come home for dinner and then have FHE with our little Family Home Evening groups.

Tuesday: We have classes all morning until about 2 or 3 PM generally with an hour break in the morning for announcements and linen exchange (clean sheets! Yay!). As soon as we're out of class, we grab all of our stuff and run out to the city! Sunset is around 5 PM, so we have to be back by then. We hurry up the hill to the center and then sit on the grass just inside the gate at the bottom, looking over all of Jerusalem. It faces the west, so we watch the sun go down and night become alive over the city. This is my absolute favorite time of the day! That usually takes us up until dinner (at 6).

Wednesday: Class until 3-ish generally, then run to the city and watch the sunset again. After dinner we have a forum with various professional speakers.

Thursday: Cleaning checks! We usually remember, but we've discovered the senior couple that checks our rooms have gotten much more lax since we got here. On the off-chance that we forgot to clean, this comes in handy! We have class until 3-ish again, then run to the city and come back in time for sunset! (Are you catching a pattern here?)

Friday: I love Fridays! They really aren't super different than weekdays, but they're just fabulous. We usually have sandwiches for lunch which is beautiful. We have class until 3 (and even if we don't, we can't leave the center until 3 on Fridays because the city is chaotic for Friday prayers). Sometimes we'll have a humanitarian project as we did this afternoon. As soon as 3:00 hits, we run out to the city! All of the Jewish things close early for Shabbat, so it's much more difficult to find places to go. We're out until 5 again though, when we come back for sunset! After dinner we have a movie night. Sometimes they're good movies...sometimes they're not quite as exciting though and we find something else to do :)

Shabbat: Saturday is our Sabbath, so we start out the day with breakfast and choir before church starts at 10. We meet with the Jerusalem Center branch. It includes the students, our professors and their families, some caregivers that work here, international employees and their families, and all the random visitors that come to Jerusalem. It's so great! We have a Primary, Young Men and Young Women, just like normal! It's fun because it's not just a single's ward, but we are mixed up with a regular branch. After church ends, we head to either the Garden of Gethsemane, the Garden Tomb, or the Church of St. Anne's (next to the Pools of Bethesda) to sing, ponder, read and study. Dinner is at 4, then we do Sabbath stuff the rest of the night. P.S. I could definitely get used to having Sabbath first in the weekend! It's nice to have more time after the Sabbath to get stuff done before the week starts again. Oh, and we watch the sunset.

Sunday: Free day! We get a sack lunch and are free for the day! Last week we went to the Red Sea. We've gone to the Biblical zoo, the beach at Tel Aviv, the Israel Museum, Dome of the Rock, Western Wall and a million other places. Occasionally we do some homework too...occasionally :) And we DEFINITELY watch the sunset as well!

Images from Istanbul!

When we go on field trips we have to be super prepared with everything: sunglasses, headsets and receivers, scarves, backpacks, water, notebooks, good walking shoes, smiles, watches, t-shirts, cargo pants and everything else imaginable...basically sometimes we just look like extreme tourists. And we love every second of it! This was at the Basilica Cistern in Turkey. Super cool!

Hello Turkey!!!

First time trying Turkish Delight!!!

This was when we ate lunch on the ocean. LITERALLY on the ocean!

Welcome to the Blue Mosque. Imagine this in REAL life. 

We all got to be super close friends after spending an endless amount of time on bus rides in Turkey! Here we told secrets, learned Turkish dance moves, slept, had our fortunes told and SO much more!

Just the view from my balcony at the hotel in Turkey. I wasn't kidding when I said it was legit!

Liz just leading the troops at Pergamon. 

No worries. I now know my future!

At Ephesus! Just in case you didn't know, Paul lived here for a while and wrote some of the books in the Bible here. Super great!

Ephesus again! Just modeling with the statue. Don't worry, we haven't changed :)

The amphitheater at Pergamon. It is absolutely enormous!

Looking up from the amphitheater. The top is FAR away. 

Another hotel view of the Aegan Sea. It just got better and better each night!

Do you SEE those watermelons??? This has a special dedication to Briggs, but really I just think those are the coolest ever. That's why it's up even though it's blurry and creepy :)

On the shore at Nicaea. The Nicene Creed was written here. Our discussion reminded me of how grateful I am for the Restoration of the gospel!

Sara's just adorable. Need I say more?

Hagia Sophia and it's amazingness! You can look up more pictures online. It's insane. 

This is how pictures work with our group.
Sara (to Liz): "Oh, we should both take a picture with our tour guide before we leave!"
Liz: "Great idea! Ugur, can we take a picture with you?"
Everyone else: "ME TOO!!!!"
I have never seen a group gather faster in my life than when someone wants to take a picture. It's remarkable! We didn't even say anything to anyone else, but within about 30 seconds it exploded from 3 to 42. We even attracted someone NOT in our group!

Turkey has this crazy chewy ice cream, so we clearly had to try some! Definitely worth it. 

Quite possibly THE best shopping trip of my life. I can't even explain how successful we were or how fulfilled we felt afterwards! 

Just Liz being a cute little model outside of our restaurant in Turkey  right before we left!

Fish Filipino-Style. Needless to say, I was overjoyed! Some others weren't quite so thrilled...

This is Ugur, our Turkish Tour Guide. He gave us a restraining order from each other. He taught us Turkish dance moves. He took us all over Turkey. And he loves Sara's laugh. 

Getting ready for our first day of adventures in Turkey!

Istanbul has one European side and one Asian side. We are on the European side and across the water is Asia! Definitely made it to both continents... Bucket list? Check!

PS, did we tell you we went to Troy? Yep. Legit Trojan horse right there. Straight up artifact. 

What does it say?! (Hint: Liz and Kayla on the ends aren't part of the word!)

Those pillars were ENORMOUS!