Where in the World is JAMES?!?!

Well, you probably are wondering if I am still alive in well in Jerusalem, and I will assure you... I am. Things have just been sooo crazy lately.  I just finished and had finals for all but 2 of my classes.  So, on one hand it is really nice to have 3 of my hardest classes done, but on the other hand, life has been SOOOO crazy busy, and insane. We have written paper upon paper, and taken midterm upon midterm, but today, we had our last 2 big ones, and they are OVER!! Such a nice feeling, finally I will be able to easily enjoy Jerusalem without the stress of school.  We have had some really fun fieldtrips, to various areas including the birthplace of our Savior Jesus Christ in Bethlehem, at the Church of the nativity.

We got to see where the Savior was born, and the manger he was supposedly laid in.  We waited for about 3 hours, it was a SUPER busy day, mostly because the Palestinian President is funding restructuring to the church, and had just visited that morning, but we finally were able to see it, and it was such a great experience.  I was listening to Christmas music the entire time we walked through Bethlehem and were at the church, it was awesome.  It really was one of my favorite days of the entire trip here.

We also got to go to the burial site of King Herod, the Herodium, and see his winter palace, and fortress.

At the foreground you can see the swimming pool remains for King Herod's palace, and in the background is the Herodium, which is a fortress built at Herod's Palace, and his tomb is on the left, hand side of the mountain.

After we visited the Herodium, we were able to go to a shepherd's field, and sing hymns, have a musiical program, and a testimony meeting.  My favorite part was, after the sun had set, we each had about 15 minutes or so to just sit and ponder.  I brought my ipod, and listened to Christmas music, and looked up at the stars, and it was just awesome.  Sitting and just listening to Christmas music and looking at the stars, it was so cool to think about the shepherds tending their flocks, and the angels that visited them.  It was just amazing, I couldn't believe I was actually there, where this heavenly message was delivered by ANGELS!!!

It was so cool, and I really loved.  Other things that have happened lately...

My talent show committee is amazing, and we put on one AWESOME Variety Show.  I did a version of the 'Chess Chearleaders' skit from SNL, and it turned out great.  We had a lot of great acts, original music, skits, dances, whistlers, and so much more!! It was so much fun!! We are looking forward to putting on our Talent Show next week!

We have preparing for our Primary Program, and learning all of our songs!  I got some great help from Jen Hansen back home for some good ideas to teach the kids the songs, and they have been learning them so well!1 I am really proud of them.  We have a really small primary, so it is really important that each kid knows every song.

We are getting ready to put on Christ the Musical up in Galilee.  We have some really good singers here, and it has been really fun this time to step out of the 'piano player' position, and just organize it.  I love listening and having people share their talents.  I am very excited to be able to put this on in the Galilee where the Savior served and blessed so many people, along with teachings thousands.

Other than that things are going great here.  We try to get out in the city when we can, and have a fun time.  Things are great, email me if you can!!