The Hunt for Happiness

It's been said that to understand someone, you have to walk a mile in their shoes. And most of us know that this phrase doesn't mean to steal their shoes and walk in them, but that we need to not judge others until we understand what they're going through. But before you can put on another person's shoes, you have to take off your own. I may have taken that phrase a little too literally today. But the concept remains true. Too many times we try to understand the people around us by putting ourselves in their situation, but when we put ourselves in their situation, we react differently to it then they would. In other words, we try to walk in their shoes while we are still wearing our own. Before we can try to understand our friends, family, mortal enemies, ect. we have to take away our own judgements and our own ways of seeing the world, or else we run the risk of saying "Oh, I've faced worse trials than that!" or somethin

Who says that you have to be in the USA to have a great Independence Day? While I was not in the parade like last year in Provo, I was able to have a great time here in Israel. The beginning of the celebration started when I walked into my dad's New Testament class, with my stars and stripes scarf, and the class singing 'America the Beautiful' The real party didn't start until dinner time though.  In the student cafeteria, we had a barbeque with genuine hamburgers, and real ice cream (both food items taken for granted in the USA that are hard to find here). Following Dinner were several 'Minute to Win it' games.  These games included: pouring water from one water carrier to another, while said carriers were on two people's backs; balancing a marble in a paper towel roll to get it from one destination to another; using a spoon to fill a cup with cereal, while only being able to hold the spoon in your mouth, and many other games. These we

Once a semester, the BYU students get to go into the West Bank to go to Bethlehem for a field trip.  This time I went with them.  Along with Manger Square and Shepherd's Field we went to the Herodian, and a few other churches. The Herodian (or 'The Herod Place) The Herodian was one of Herod's palaces which also included his tomb, this palace lays right outside of Bethlehem, and it is a possible site of where Herod told the Wise men where the Messiah was born. From Right to left: Camila, Juan, Me, Ann-Marie, Jerica Boys and Girls separated in an old synagogue The entrance to the Basilica of the Nativity In the caves underneath St. Catherine's Church Being able to sing in the Caves underneath St. Catherine's Church was a wonderful experiences, these caves were separated from the traditional spot of the birth of Jesus only by a wall that was build only a few centuries ago, but the cave we were singing in was just as likely the spot o

A Sunday Expedition: July 1 So my dad and I checked off two items off of our Jerusalem bucket list on Sunday: visiting the Citadel museum in the Old City, and going on the 'Ramparts Walk' which is walking around the outside of the Old City walls. Standing outside the Citadel Museum, or the 'Tower of David Museum' In front of the ruins of the citadel A replica of what the City of David would have looked like Ruins of the Citadel A model of what the original church of the Holy Sepulchre looked like A model of the inside of the Dome of the Rock Me in front of (from left to right) The church of the Holy Sepulchre, the tower of Saint Saviors, and the gold Dome of the Rock The Church of the Holy Sepulchre The Dome of the Rock My Home!!!  The JC (Jerusalem Center) On the Ramparts Wallk After we got off of the Ramparts Walk, my dad and I walked to our car through the Old City, and all of its markets and shops.

' Shakespeare in the Park ' These are the words that titled what basically could be called our school play, but we didn't perform a play really, we performed a series of scenes from different Shakespeare plays, and the one that I was able to perform was part of Act II Scene I of 'The Taming of the Shrew', where I played, guess who? Katerina. My partner was Johannes Exeler who played Petruchio One thing that I love about acting is getting to be a different person, I don't normally get to be so sarcastic in real life as I was when I was playing Katerina. And yes, I did love my dress. Another fun opportunity that was gained from this experience was that I was able to sing all of the songs that had lyrics that we used as interludes between the different scenes, and I even was able to sing during one scene. I sang 'Come Away Death' which the lyrics are found in Shakespeare's '12th Night' As a musical