Fact!

7,574 miles from Jerusalem, Israel to Claremont, CA. Here I come family!

Glimpses

Unrealted to this post but related to other posts there are links on Youtube to our concert. SO COOL! Here it is. Enjoy! http://www.youtube.com/ramitelaviv#p/u/9/ROEOzERY-8E

This was the poem I wrote in Galilee and shared in my talk a few weeks ago. It is not totally finished but this is what I had so far.

Glimpses
by Sarah Ingalls

In Galilee my soul did awake
As small glimpse I did take
Of the love of my elder brother
Who loved me as no other

I saw glimpses of the future and past
And knew that I’d made memories to last
I felt of His holy grace
After in Galilee having seen His face

I felt of His cleansing power
The one I need each and every hour
In each daily sunset I could see
His deep devotion to me

I now know why He chose this beautiful land
It was but to help me understand
About my true potential as His child
His grace, mercy and character mild

He taught me of His divinity
Deep in the territory of Galilee
Redeemer, Savior, God of earth
Helped me experience my own new birth

And there I promised Him that I would be
The person I see in Galilee

Some pictures! Enjoy!

On the shores of Galilee at Sunset with Lynds and Ash!

This was at Meggido and it was so beautiful and green and in the middle of being there this cloud of fog came and encircled us and then after it cleared we saw this beautiful green pasture and mountians and stuff and it was so awesome. Sometimes we can't see the beautiful end but it is always there when we rely on the Savior!

This is Becca and I in Acko. I love this girl so much!

I am dreaming of a White Christmas

So here are the updates of the past few days. Life is great. We went to the Dead Sea again today. AWESOME! And there was lots of mud to be had. But I really wanted to blog about a Christmas Concert experience. We had our last concert on Sunday night and one of the ladies that works here at the center, named Naomi, came up to our concert director with tears in her eyes and said Brothere Whipple I feel fire in my heart, what should I do? He had to look back at her with tears streaming down his checks and cover his mouth with his hands so as not to say anything. What a heart breaking and yet wonderful expereince? Sunday night was more of a Jewish crowd but it was so fun because as they were walking out most of them wished us a Merry Christmas because the music that we were singing made them feel so good. It was such a joy to feel like I have been able to share my testimony here in Israel through the music that we could share with our friends. The concerts were definitly on my top 5 favorite things I have done here so far.
I am continuing to love and adore the people here. Don't get me wrong fam, I am sooo excited to be hoem for Christmas. In fact, we sang part of White Christmas and I teared up thinking that I do get to go home for Christmas. I am so blessed! I know that the Lord loves me!

Can I brag for a minute? The people here are incredible! We are having a Christmas concert tonight and WOW! We just had a dress rehersal and there is a trio singing Breathe of Heaven and there are 5 vioinists who play A mix of the First Noel and Pachbel Canon which brings tears because it is so beautiful. Seriously, I am going to go through talent withdrawls becasue I am with so many amazing people. Just wanted to brag. Thats all.

Next item of business. Last night we had our Nativity in sheppards field overlooking Bethlehem adn that was also unforgettable. I organized it and sang O come, O come, Emmaunel with a group of girls and it was so much fun. We had Mary and Joseph and Angels and a star, it was just wonderful. Then Brother Brown said something I will never forget. He talked about how over one hill(pointing to Bethlehem) Christ was born and over the other(pointing to Jerusalem) Chirst was crucifed and the only witness of Christ from birth to death was his mother. She was there from the craddle to the grave. What an incredible woman! How grateful I am for a loving Savior who is willing to be patient with me and teach me along the way. We got to spend a few minutes of silence in the field just thinking about what we had just seen. We are so blessed to understand the life of Christ through the restored gospel. We understand the Atonement more fully becasue of the restoration and I am so grateful!

Talent show 2009

I just have to vent my feelings about the talent show we just had. I sang and it was fun but not sure how great it went. I just want to talk about all my friends. I love them soooo much. I have met the most amazing group of funny but incredibly talented people. Words can't begin to express my love for the people that I have met here. My face hurts from laughing and my eye hurt from crying because it was so inspirational. I love Jerusalem most because of the people that have inspired me to be a little better each day. I love Jerusalem!

Galilee, sweet Galilee

This is one of my favorite pictures and I took it with my friend Lynsday's camera but we were sitting inside a cave looking out over the Galilee with this tree in front of us. It was beautiful. This was on the Mt of Beattitudes. The church on the Mt of Beattitudes

On the boat ride over to the other side of the Sea of Galilee.

Here is me in Caesarea.

This is at the famous Jordan river baptismal site. Thats Ashley on my left and Lyndsay on my right. LOVE THEM! This is Ann and I of the Tiberias branch. I was under strict orders of mom to go meet her and she really has an amazing story of what she has done to keep the church going in the Galilee area.

This was the view from the Tiberias branch house balcony. Incredible. This is a branch that more than any other is overseen by the Lord.

On the Sea of Galilee.

Some fun Egypt pictures...

Galilee

We leave for Galilee in just 2 days and I am so excited. I have a goal to read all of Jesus the Christ while we are there. I want to really study Christ and his life while we are there. I am so grateful for this incredible experience that I have been able to have here. And I think that Galilee will be life changing for me. Brother Brown said this about it, he said, "it will be an experience that will linger in your hearts and minds for decades to come." And this it will.

Best Monday ever!

We met the coolest priest today named Theodosio who showed us all over this cool Greek Orthodox church and he is also a cook at a local place where all the priests live and so he said we can come eat some really good Greek food. Really he taught me about love because he loved us and I loved him in like the coolest way. After we left we were even standing outside the church and he came out to teach us something else too. He was so nice and I realized how much I love people. More than anything else I have learned to love people here in Jerusalem. I will try to get a picture up of him later. But that made my day. Just a little tender mercy I thought I would share.

Happy Birthday Mom!

I love you tons Mom! I hope you can feel my love all the way from Jerusalem because I am sending it. Here is a video to prove it.
http://animoto.com/play/j0s1Zbch1P5E3209icZ84w?utm_campaign=share_email&utm_content=escape_link&utm_medium=email&utm_source=share_email
Love you lots.
Love,
ME

Romans, Rocks and Castles, OH MY!

okay well theres not much to explain above except that I almost got killed by a Roman guy Below we are standing in the Jordan River. Brother Brown was kinda funny about us standing in the Jordan. He said if you want to stand and get all kinda of diseases in that river than by all means go ahead. The river now a days is a little polluted and murky is all. I am glad I did it though. At first I just touched it with my finger but then I got brave and took my shoes off and stood in it.


This is Ashley and I and the valley behind us is where Jacob would've wrestled with the angel and then where he would have met Esau and sent him all these flock and heards to try to make peace with him so that he didnt kill him over the whole brithright thing. It was beautiful and I loved Jordan. It was a lot cleaner than Egpyt and they have green apple Fanta! Best soda ever! Below was our feast of a lunch which was much deserved after our not so 5 star hotel meals. I am sitting with Brooke and Lynsay, in case you were wondering.

Above are the Allens, they are one of the service couples here and he is the doctor that takes care of all of us. They are so amazing and I love them dearly. We got to their house when we want a late night snack or to make cookies with them sometimes.
Above was our first view of the treasury from the canyon. It is absolutly breathtaking. Below is the typical jumping pictures. Yeah... we got mad hops!
This is Becca and I below at the castle. We got to the castle just before sunset and we had to RUN up this huge hill to get up to it but it was so worth it. My friend Jeremy took some other fun silhouette pictures of me at the castle at sunset but I didn't get them from him yet so that will have to be yet another post.

Petra rocks my world!

Above is me at the monistary at Petra. This place is huge and so neat because it was carved out of the rock. Below was the next day at a place called Jorash. This is the best preserved city of Roman ruins in the world.

Above is me cracking the whip Indiana Jones style in front of the treasury at Petra. It was pretty fun.
Below I am at a church in Jordan where there is a cool mosaic map on the floor of what the ancients knew of the middle east. It is pretty accurate and way cool. This was called the Church of St. George at Madaba. You should google the map on the floor. It is cool.


Here are some fun pictures from our trip to Jordan.

More Pictures

This was on top of the waterfall on our little hike by the dead sea. We do look good, don't we?

This was in the pool in Egpyt. These are my girls Becca and Steph.

This is me on the threshing floor. Needless to say I got the chaff the blew away all over Sister Brown but luckily she was nice enough to forgive me. :)

Dead Sea... need I say more?

This is a cool window in a place called Dormition Abby where they say Mary died... I just really liked the window.

This was at the western wall the morning of the beating of the willows. So at the end of the feast of tabernacles the Jews go to the Western Wall and as my Judaism teacher put it, they throw a temper tantrum to God for rain. So we got up to watch them this morning. Hence the no make-up and the black and white git-up. This is Kaylie, Kellie and I.

Okay I know that this is soooo lame but I dont understand the spacing in the blog after I post pictures... the words never go where I want them to so I will explain them now.
1. An ancient tomb probably from Asia Minor with flowers in front
2. Flowers in front of the Rockafellar musem
3. Holding the Dome of the Rock
4. Olive grove with Bethlehem in the distance (we will go there later)
5. Panorama of Jerusalem with ME!
6. I named this picture 2 worlds. It is right in front of the western wall.
7. Dome of the Rock. We haven't actually been up to the temple mount yet because the Molsems are a little protective of it but we will go one of these mornings.
8. The epic battle... clearly I won this one.
9. Dormition Abby behind me.
10. A fun picture I took while walking up on the wall around the city... yes Dad it is legal. We even paid 8 shekels to do it.

I am loving it here and I am beginning to fell like the people are my family. I love walking in Christs footsteps and the people here are incredible. I am realizing that people around the globe are so special. Everywhere we have so much to learn from one another if we will just listen. I love you all!

More pictures

O jerusalem, how I love thee...

Australia Pictures

Brisbane Temple

























The birds would come land on us. It was cool and scary at times.