Free Day

Dear Mom,


You'd be so proud. Not only am I showering every day but my normal bedtime is about 9:30-the call to prayer is still waking me up early, early, early. I can totally respect the prayer and everything but are speakers really necessary on all mosques???? Anyway, since our Sabbath is now on Saturday we had all of Sunday to go and play. Most of us went into the Old City to explore. It's contained within these massive walls built by this guy named Suleiman the Magnificent during the reign of the Ottomans. We took a walk around the top of the walls to orient ourselves. The view is great as you can see (and yes this is definitely not the land of milk and honey but rather of rock and dirt) but the real adventure is down in the markets. You'd never believe this but the students not only are well known but really welcomed. The Jerusalem Center is known as the Mormon University and the Church has obviously done some serious PR work to help establish a good reputation. Everywhere I went people would see our bags or name tags and say, "Welcome Mormons!" There's even this Arab wood carver who has pictures of himself and the past few prophets/some apostles hanging in his shop. His business card says: This is the Place. It's crazy because there are people in the US that haven't even heard of BYU and here in the most unlikely of places people are selling the school's paraphernalia.

Anyway, enjoy the pics!

Love,


me, Diana the Magnificent:)


Our place is in the upper right hand corner. It's the building with the arches.