Last Shabbat

Poor Shannon, a friend of mine from the JC scratched her cornea and she has an infection in her eye now. It is so sad because she has been in the hospital for the last four day. It is miserable to be in the hospital, worse to be in an Israeli hospital, and unbelievable to be in the hallway of an Israeli hospital. That is definitely the case for Shannon. We went to visit her Friday night and Carlee and I felt really bad for her. Everyone speaks Hebrew so she doesn't understand a word. She is left by herself and she can't really sleep because they wake her up every hour to put in drops. So we came up with a fantastic plan.

Carlee and I decided to spend Shabbat with her. We got special permission to take a ton of food from the cafeteria (this normally isn't allowed). We would miss both lunch and dinner and we were taking food for Shannon too because the hospital food is nasty. Then we packed the entire world with us. We took uno, my laptop and some church movies, scriptures, the ensign, food, and more food. It was great. It was nice because we kept her company and just really enjoyed ourselves. It was also nice because I came to realize that there couldn't be a better thing for me to do on my last shabbat in the Holy Land. I went out and did what the Savior would have done.

It was also really cool because we went and had sacrament meeting in the hallway. It was really a spiritual experience. Pres. Hayes presided and Karey conducted. It was really funny because he welcomed us all to this remote meeting of the Jerusalem Branch. It was really neat to see the men act using their priesthood to bless the sacrament for Shannon to partake. Then we all shared our testimonies, one of the girls sang a hymn and it was a really cool experience. I felt so privileged to be there.

It was really fun to hang out with Shannon all evening. A group of students came around 7 and visited for an hour and then we all had to go home. I am so grateful for the experiences I have had out here. I am grateful for my testimony and I am excited to come home where I can share it with others.