Nightmares and dreams are coming to pass...

Mom,


1. I'm turning into Ben. Broke my camera and lost my Book of Mormon in the Orson Hyde Garden. I'd like to think the latter mishap was more of divine intervention than anything else. I mean in a country where we aren't allowed to share any aspect of our religion, I just lost the keystone of it. Coincidence? I think not. Maybe Diana the Great is supposed to usher in a new dispensation of time.

2. After all my making fun of your sideburns I now have my own. Sad.


If I never return because of my new calling here I want a pinata at my commemoration.


All my love,


me

ps-this one is for cal-cal. love ya bud!

This is my I love foreign countries...

Mom,

So I went with a group to the post office one day. No one there spoke English to help us except for an older man, Ibrihim, who could obviously tell we were foreigners so he came to our aid. We started talking to him and it turns out he is part of an organization that seeks to spread the message of peace as seen from the pic below.


As the conversation continued he gave us his card and told us to come visit him. Gold! I love talking to locals. Before he left we asked him where we could find a bridal store because we wanted to try on Israeli dresses for fun. Turns out his organization collects lots of clothes and over the years he has accumulated lots of wedding dresses and told us he would give them to us when we came over. Turns out he wasn't lying. A group of us went to his house a few days later to be welcomed by all these wedding dresses on the ledge of his patio. As creative students that we are some of us decided to wear them to dinner. Pictures say more than words so enjoy!

Love,
me


This is a view from his uber-nice home. Sad thing is you can see the wall just beyond the valley.


There were even enough for the guys.


At the Jerusalem Center...


Couldn't keep a straight face as usual.

The Rest of Egypt

Hey Mom Hey!

And now, the reeeeeest of the story, said of course with Paul Harvey voice. I suppose you never thought I would pick up all the NPR listening in the car growing up. Anyway, really this is the rest of my Egypt trip. The following are my favs.

First, the KARNAK TEMPLE. Incredible. It's massive and pretty and super cool. Oh and apparently the hieroglyphics are very similar to temple stuff. Coincidence? I think not.







Second, the CAIRO CITADEL. Equally incredible. I actually decided this mosque is where I want my wedding reception. I'm thinking if I hold out long enough you and dad will get desperate and fund any type of wedding as long as I get hitched. Now working with the Egyptian Muslims is going to be another thing.



Third, climbing MT. SINAI. We got up at 2:30 that morning and climbed to see the sunrise. Soooo cold but sooo worth it! Probably a once in a lifetime opportunity.





from love from,

me

Who Says I Can't Flirt?

Mom

Remember that day when I was in high school and you said, "Diana, do I need to give you flirting lessons?" Yeah, totally embarrassing. Still, despite the fact that for the most part I don't care I must say that whatever I'm doing currently seems to be working. My first lesson with Israeli solders? Pretend to be interested in their weapons and play the American card. They love it.

Love,

me + possible Israeli son-in-law:)


ps-kyle, aren't you glad i finally got my hands on a machine gun?

Egypt 1

Minha Mae,

Egypt was muito bom. Had a blast. I think pics speak better than words though so here you go.

Love,

me


My first camel ride. Way fun. Also ironic because lots of people here call me Dirty Di after the song and my camel's name turned out to be Michael Jackson.

The group.

My little leader dude picked up this piece of plant, handed it to me and said, "Marijuana." I don't know about your drug intelligence but it doesn't look like marijuana and it smelled like basil so no worries.


THE NILE. Pretty pretty.

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K so this is our view from our hotel in Luxor. Thinking back all the nicest hotels I stayed in have been out of the country. I think that says two things. First, I must be staying in poor countries. Two, perhaps we didn't stay at nice hotels growing up? Possibility? I think so.


THE SPHINX. Don't judge. I'm very much a tourist so I had to do this.



THE PYRAMIDS!!! One of the things on the bucket list. Uber cool but I have to say they didn't end up being my favorite part of the trip. More to come later.

Above are my roommates. Below are friends. John is the one on the right and my roommates and I call him "John BFF" because we hang out a lot. Nothing is going happen as I'm sure everyone is wondering;)

Jericho and Judea

Momma Mia,

I'm wasn't captured by Hamas. I'm just in Egypt right now and don't have a lot of access to the internet. Also, you're Amber Alert thing said I was 22. False! I'm 23 and actually everyone here thinks I'm 24 so start rounding up would ya?

As you can see from the pics I was at the lowest point on Earth today. Oh and I cut my hair the night before I left. Not only is it shorter than it's ever been but I'm back to my natural hair color. I'm thinking that would work best in the kibbutz that I'm destined to live in for a few years:) To be honest, the tel (it's the archaeological remains of a cilivization) is not that big. My friend said, "No wonder the Israelites went around so many times-there was nothing to do around."

The Judean Wilderness has been my favorite part of the trip so far. No surprise that it has something to do with nature and not a historical site. It's insane and I wish I could take a long camping trip in it but I'm pretty sure the center frowns on that. We shall see.

love,

me

Jericho,-it's definitely a desert oasis compared to the rest of this land.


The Wilderness

A bunch of Bedouins

Western Wall

Mom,

Last week the highlight was the Western/Wailing Wall which is the holiest place on Earth for the Jews. Long story short, it's the last standing part of the temple mount built by Herod before it was destroyed by the Romans. We went on Friday night to ring in the Sabbath. As the sun sets the men and women gather in circles and chant/sing in Hebrew. The wall is separated by gender and you can go and put a prayer in the cracks of it. Quite a cool experience if I do say so myself. After I did that I got in this group of dancing females. It was pretty sweet. You aren't permitted to take pics but somehow I snuck some:) Enjoy.

Love,

me






Apparently no video is allowed along with the pictures. Oops:)

Rainy Day

Mom,

It was a rainy day so we stayed inside. I figure I would post a pic of the view outside my deck. That's right I now have a deck. Oh and The Dome of the Rock is a mile away on the left. So posh I know:)

Love,

me

Hearken to LaCinda

Mom,

OMG I love the OT. I love it despite all the he laid with she, daughters marrying fathers, deceiving, killings, lyings, and such. I've already learned loads about the history of the Bible which has completely helped in understanding the modern conflicts here. Anyway, as I was reading Exodus 18 this week I couldn't help but think of you. Don't take this in a bad way but you are Jethro. I'm sure you're going to be quoting me in the next weekly email to the Elders but hear me out. Read the chapter and try to deny the fact that you wouldn't go to your inefficnet son-in-law and reorganize his way of doing things.

verse 14 "Why sittest thou thyself alone, and all the people stand by thee from morning unto even?"
verse 17 "The thing that thou does is not good."
verse 19 "Hearken now unto my voice, I will give thee counsel."

Anyway, it's just something to think about.

Went to the Wailing Wall this week for Shabbat. Pictures to come.

Love,

me

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.