Thankful.

I am thankful for the Gospel Of Jesus Christ. Mostly thankful for what I have learned since before I could walk or talk. I'm thankful that I was taught the importance of honestly and hard work. I'm thankful that I have the spirit to teach me and direct me, to help me understand what I can do to help others around me. It amazes me still that I have everything I need! I attribute all my blessings to my Father in Heaven! He continues to pour down the blessings of Heaven upon me. Even when I don't feel like I deserve it! I am thankful to share the gospel everyday! I love sharing my testimony with people that I work with and seeing them come to an understanding of a topic that was once foreign to them! I am thankful for the Plan of Happiness! To know where I came from, why I am on this earth and where I am going when I die. Although death may be sad, it is temporary! It is a passage way made possible by the atonement and resurrection of my Savior, Jesus Christ! I am thankful the spirit has taught me these things! And that I listened!

& a Happy New Year.

Christmas 2011.

Istanbul

Istanbul was amazing.  We were there for three and a half days.  We spent most of the time running around the city exploring with our tour guide Atik.  He has been giving tours for just about 20 years and has been to every museum and mosque more than 6,000 times.  He is so smart and had so much to tell us about ever place we stopped.   Since we spend every waking minute of two weeks with him we got to know him very well.  He told us about his wife and son, about life as a local in Istanbul, his job, his experience in uni, and lots of other things.  Needless to say, I can still sometime hear him in my head.  

 The first day we were in Istanbul we went for a guided bus tour.  There were tons and tons of luxury cars.  Lots of people, old buildings and houses with no space. 

 Did you know that most of Turkey is actually located in Asia?  Well we went from Europe to Asia in  a matter of minutes.  If I remember correctly the above picture was taken in the Asian Bank of Istanbul.

 I love the flag waving. 

I'm not sure if this is a church or a school.  Or both.  But it was beautiful.  As were most or all of the old buildings that we saw.

 They have feral dogs and cats everywhere.  In the thousands.  A lot of the people in our group loved these animals.  I however thought they were disgusting. 

Our second day in Istanbul was spent running from mosque to mosque.  We saw six different ones that day.  They were all beautiful and empty.  There was a very worldly feeling in all of them.  With all the gold as decoration. 

There were painting all over the city on the side of buildings.  I loved this one.  We found them on our day out.  The day we had to explore the entire city.  If we really wanted to explore a city like Istanbul we would have needed at least two weeks.

 This is the view from our hotel lobby.  The Q-Inn.  It was a nice hotel on a very busy street.  I woke up in the middle of the night to Sean Paul playing. I was extremely confused.

 This is Hagia Sofia.  Sofia means Wisdom. 

 Me, Stephanie, Courtney

Inside the above building.  Beautiful.  Very Muslim.  Very Interesting.

Greece.

Um.  Im not exactly sure what city that I am currently in.  But this is from last Saturday when we went to Patmos.  Lets just say that most of Greece does not look like this.  It is beautiful, but not what I imagined!  Tomorrow we will leave for Athens and we will be there til we fly out Tuesday morning.  This trip has been amazing, fun, educational, and exhausting!  But well worth it!  I will update more when I get back next week! 

my week in pictures.

I'm leaving tomorrow. 

We are going down to Salt Lake.  We are leaving for Istanbul on Monday morning.  We have to be at the airport by 6:30am.

We have been in class all week from 8am -5pm. 
We are doing in one week what is normally done in three.
The benches we are sitting in may permanently have our butt prints. 
I have classroom fever.
  I memorized every ones name. 
I tried to pay attention.  Sometimes it was easier than other times.

I got this text during class, from Kim. 
She was sitting right behind me.
It's now the background of my phone.
It's really fun having friends going with me. 

We made dinner with some friends on Wednesday night.
Fajitas. 
The only thing I know how to make in large numbers.
It was good.
I like my new roommates. 
They love to take pictures.  Lots of pictures. 

This is my own work of art.  I have been slowly working on it all week.  It looks a lot different now.

Happy Birthday Al!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!

Happy Birthday Al!  I hope these kids were really good to you today!