stress, joy, sadness, peace

The past few days have been a rollercoaster of emotions. Thursday I literally studied all day long. I took a break for lunch and a nap, but other than that I was up in the library or at my desk in my room studying for an Old Testament quiz. Do I even live in Jerusalem? I wouldn’t know because I was locked up all day. But it all paid off because I rocked the quiz. Oh and my “friend” put red-head jokes all over our class’s google doc that everyone was studying from. On the top of the google doc she wrote, “If you kick a ginger you get an A” –Papa Hunts. I got kicked all day long.



Friday was a really good day. I finished my quiz so I felt stress-free. After classes we had a humanitarian project where we put together hygiene kits to be sent to people all over the Middle East. It was super neat. And super fun! We had a dance party in the parking lot after putting together over 2500 kits. New record baby! A bunch of girls got together after the dance party and we all painted our nails. This semester has been quite a bit of girl bonding time. I love it! Then that night we watched Raiders of the Lost Ark and realized that we didn’t appreciate Harrison Ford as little kids…





Today was the real emotional day. It was the Sabbath but we were probably the only people in the world that had church this weekend because it was General Conference. I had a little bit of a bad attitude going to church this morning because I had been up late the night before and it was General Conference so I didn’t think we should be having church, but I’m so glad we did. Every meeting today was so good. Two 9-year-old boys got up and bore their testimonies in our testimony meeting and they were both so sweet. I wish I could have the faith that those boys do. After church my roommates and I put our mattresses together and watched a movie/took a nap. It was so nice.


After dinner a group of us decided to walk to the Church of the Ascension. Well on our way I saw the worst thing I’ve ever seen in my life. A woman was walking across the street and a car came speeding by and hit her right in front of my eyes. I was in such shock that I started shaking and crying. Maybe I shouldn’t be blogging about this since it was such an awful and personal experience, but I just feel like I need to write about it a little to help me get through this. I just kept replaying the moment in my head thinking about how that woman is a child of God and how much He loves her and her family. I kept thinking about who she was taking those groceries home to. I’ve never been that close to death before and it was scary. But after a few minutes as I started thinking about the Savior and His atonement that occurred just down the hill, I felt a peace come over me and my emotions became numb. I was so grateful for the opportunity I had to watch conference after that experience. The general feeling I had from conference was that of hope. It was such an answer to my prayers. I know that the atonement of Jesus Christ is real and that we will all conquer death because of Him. I know that that woman will live again. I believe Elder Uchtdorf’s address that we are precious in the sight of the Lord and that He knows each of us personally. I am so grateful for the knowledge I have of the plan of salvation. I love the gospel of Jesus Christ with all my heart! There is so much peace found in its teachings.