We arrived home on June 12th at 1:30 in the morning.....

....we thoroughly enjoyed our 24 months in Switzerland.

Our farewell dinner next door....

....we will really miss our neighbors......especially Marco.  (Don't tell him I said that.)  :)

This is our Branch President's family....

....they are a great family.  He served his mission in Boston, and she in SLC.

One of JoAnn's best friends....

.....it was hard to say goodbye.  Our adopted daughter Brooke Rigaud.

Another one of JoAnn's best friends....

....at the going away party.

We had to say many goodbyes this week...

.....Antonia was a special friend of ours.

We also said our goodbyes to our good friends....

.....Sis. Kuenzli and her daughter Julia....plus Elds Faatoma & Leau.  (Both from Pacific Islands)  Eld. Kaiser is our new Branch Mission Leader.

We had a great going away party....

.....good food, good company makes for a good time.

Even Anita came to our going away party.....

 .....she could speak to everyone as she is fluent in German, French and English.

We bought the meringues from the place where they make them.....

....and the double crème from the farmer down the street.  We brought these to our going away party.  Maybe we should start selling this in the US?  It would be a hit for sure.

This is how you prepare maringue w/double creme....

 

....I almost want to lick this picture.....it is soooooo good. 



We still have Swiss cows coming up.....

 ....to the mountains for the summer.  What a noise they make with the large Swiss bells.

We arrived in Tel Aviv after a 3 1/2 hour flight from Geneva....

....our first introduction to Israel while here waiting for our shuttle driver was to hear an air raid siren....that we were told was a drill.  We heard another one during our 5 day visit.

We were offered camel rides...

....this one looked nice and calm.  Our hotel is the 2 arches you can see in the upper left.

We could have taken a Segway tour of Jerusalem...

.....these people looked like they were having fun.

We did a lot of walking....

 

....and noticed many walls had cut glass buried in the cement on top.

We were trying to find the BYU Jerusalem Center....

.....but all the locals know this facility as:  Mormon University.  It is very close to the Hebrew University which we also visited.

We were very impressed with the....

....BYU Jerusalem Center for Near Eastern Studies.  Tours are open to the general public of the building and it's beautiful garden and view.  Also free organ concerts are given several times a week.

Here is where Orson Hyde visited Jerusalem...

....One hundred seventy two years ago, on October 24, (1841) a Sunday, Elder Orson Hyde of the Quorum of the Twelve climbed the Mount of Olives. There, with pen and paper, he recorded a prayer of dedication previously given him by revelation. In the prayer, he asked the Lord to inspire “kings and the powers of the earth” to help “restore the kingdom unto Israel.”    He also prayed that the Lord would remember his promises to all the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

Orson Hyde garden.....

.....was very close to our hotel and we didn't even know it was there until the people at the BYU Jerusalem center told us where it was.  It was very quiet and peaceful.

We visited "The Shrine of the Book"...

....this is where the Dead Sea Scrolls are housed.  These scrolls were found in 11 caves near Qumran between 1947 - 1956.  This picture is of the most complete scroll.

Crossing into Palestine was a little scary...

....but while we were there things were quite calm.  This picture is near one of the border crossings.

Road signs after crossing the border...

....the City of Jericho is 846 feet below sea level.  My ears were popping.

We visited Jericho (the city of palms).....

....said to be the oldest city in the world.  Dates back over 10,000 years and 20 civilizations have been discovered.  Here the tax collector Zacchaeus was touched by the spirit of Jesus and gave half of his belongings to the poor.  Also here Barthemaus was cured of blindness by Jesus.  This is also thought to be the place where Satan tempted the Savior after his 40 day fast.  History!!!!

We saw thousands of date trees....

....this one was in Jericho.

We saw many Bedouin tribes out in the desert....

....they have a really tough life, but no taxes, cell phones or stores.

Bethlehem was a short drive from Jerusalem....

.....this is where Jesus was born and is visited by millions of people.

Inside of the Church of the Nativity....

....is the exact spot where the Savior was born.  Bethlehem is also in Palestine territory.

We took a drive out to the River Jordan...

.....this is where John the Baptist, baptized Jesus.  As you can see the water isn't very clean.  On the other side of the river is the country of Jordan.

Many people were being baptized that day....

 

....wouldn't it be cool to be baptized here, so you could say, I was baptized where Jesus was baptized.  (Under the same authority that John the Baptist had, of course.)

We are standing in front of the sycamore-fig tree...

....that Zaccahaeus climbed in order to see Jesus as he walked by.  (See Luke 19:3-5)

We are dressed in our Bedouin head gear.



This is in the Church of Pater Noster....

.....where the Savior gave the Lord's Prayer.  It is written on these plaques in 163 different languages.

This is the Garden of Gethsemane....

....where our Savior suffered for our sins and where he was betrayed by Judas.  This is also on the Mount of Olives and very near our hotel.  Gethsemane actually means "olive press".

This is the Wailing Wall or Western Wall....

....I had to wear a little white hat....it fit perfectly over my bald spot.

Thousands upon thousands of notes....

....are stuck in this wall.  People spend hours at this wall praying and studying scriptures.

This is the pool of Bethsda....

.....where Jesus cured the paralytic man.  This is considered a 'healing' pool by the people.  This pool is several layers of civilization below the current level of Jerusalem.  

This was the opening to Lazarus's tomb....

.....it is in Palestine controlled territory.

I am in Lazarus's tomb....

....it was very small and I had to get down on my hands and knees to crawl in.

This is the "Upper Room"....

....where the "last supper" took place.  There were many tourists visiting all of the sites, even though we were there during the off season.

This is the path the Savior took....

....on the way through Old Jerusalem to the Cross.  We walked these steps in modern day "Old Jerusalem.  There are many markers that show his path and plight.

This is the prison of Jesus where he was held...

.....before being condemned to the cross.

 

There are 2 places where Jesus is thought to be burried.....

....the one here in the garden tomb and the other in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.  To me, this one has a much better feeling about it.  It is in the middle of a garden that is very close to Golgotha.  The other one has had a huge church built over it and could be the correct one. 

The sign on the tomb door.....

 

....tell the whole story.  This is the basis of our faith in his miraculous birth, life and atonement.

This is the Dome of the Assension....

...on the Mount of Olives where it is believed Christ ascended to heaven.  It was a 2 minute walk from our hotel.  Inside they had stone that is said to have Jesus's footprint on it.

Much excavation work is still being done in Jerusalem.....

....can you imagine what might be behind these partial buildings.  So ends our trip the Holy Land, May 27  -  May 31, 2013.  Very, very interesting and enjoyable.

We got a dusting of snow last night.....

......it is May 25th....and we are still getting SNOW!!!

This is how it looked on our lawn....

......the temperature is around 32 degrees (F).

On my walk yesterday....

.....couldn't help but snap these pictures.