Turkey Day in Turkey

Turkey actually tastes just as good in Cyprus as in the US, or at least when you have the right connections and can get one from America through the US embassy! We had Thanksgiving dinner with the Checketts, the Johnsons, the Larsens, and about 16 missionaries serving in the Greece mission. The mashed potatoes were made by a missionary from Sweden and they were so yummy. I'm not sure what the Swedes know that we don't. No, they were good, but I personally just love mashed potatoes whether they're made by Mom or Grandma Lindsay (or Grandpa when he was the official masher) or my old roommate Christy Warnick. Remember, Jacq??? Mmm. And for the first time in my life, I actually ate sweet potatoes and liked them. I'm experiencing so many new things in Cyprus.

It's actually 3:15 a.m., but we're leaving in the morning for Jerusalem so I thought I'd let you know what's happening. We've been up planning where we're going to go and talking to my kind and crazy friend Catherine who studied for 4 months in Jerusalem at the beginning of this year. Her advice: Go to the Shuk, the open air market. Go through Hezekiah's Tunnel without a flashlight. You get wet and it's creepy. (The tunnel ends at the pool of Siloam, which is where Jesus restored sight to a blind man by telling him to go wash in the pool. We're also going to the pool of Bethesda where Jesus told a man to go wash to be healed. The man had been sick for 38 years, but when Jesus told him "Arise, take up your bed, and walk," he did.) Get the best falafals at the Damascus Gate. Tell everyone we're Mormon because they'll give us a cheaper price. They LOVE the BYU students, which is great for us. Try the cow chocolate with poprocks in it. It's called popchoc! Isn't that so cool?

Friday (tomorrow) we land in the Telaviv Airport around 2 p.m., so we're going to go to our hostel first to drop off our stuff and then go straight to the Western Wall. And then to Dome of the Rock and St. Peter in Gallicantu. Saturday morning we're going to the Garden of Gethsemane, then to church at the Jerusalem Center(Saturday is the Sabbath here), then the Garden Tomb, the pool of Bethseda, Herods Gate, Demascus Gate, Golgotha, and some other places. At night we'll go to Hezekiah's Tunnel. Sunday we'll go to the Shuk and Omar's, and do whatever other shopping we want, and then we'll head to Bethlehem. Then we'll catch a bus to the Sea of Galilee for the rest of the week! This is all so unbelievable. We're going to the City of David! We're going to the place where Christ was crucified and where He rose again. It was real before, but now it will be even more personal to me.