Written by Charlotte: What an amazing year this has been. Brittany had the incredible experience of studying at the BYU Jerusalem center. We had two wonderful newsletters from her before time demands became too much to continue. If Rick can figure out how to load them here, I will talk him into it. For those of you who have a facebook account, become our friend and you can see all her photos from her semester there. I am so happy she had the opportunity to experience the world from a completely different perspective, as well as see how tremendously blessed we are to have such abundance and freedom in America. Meeting up with her was a great way to finally pay off her reward trip to Europe for graduating high school with a 4.0. I have wanted to go to Europe as long as I can remember, so I stretched the trip to three weeks, wanting to see as much a possible. To say I had high expectations of an incredible trip is putting it mildly. I wanted to have a wonderful and amazing experience. See my top priorities at each location. Have a great time with Brittany while building our relationship. Get to know the character of the young man she met in Jerusalem, who would accompany us for a week. As well as have our faith straightened, our minds expanded, and to cap it all off for me to be able to relax and enjoy myself. Which in and of itself is no small task as when I travel, as I usually stress over the logistics, time and money. I had prayed extensively before the trip in all aspects of planning. We prayed daily for the help we needed to accomplish these goals. In addition too the thrill of experiencing the beauty, food, ambiance and culture, it was an incredibily faith straightening time. Every day we had our prayers answered as trains or planes were delayed so we were able to catch them. Finding a place for storing luggage for three weeks that was affordable. Finding rooms when none had been available, etc. Each and every day of our trip we experienced marvelous answers to our prayers large and small. One that still sends chills through me is an experience we had in Rome. As I had mentioned I had prayed continually to be guided in planning and preparing the itinerary. There were many things I desired to see and tried to fit them all in. Two of the things I thought would be the most spiritually uplifting for me, did not fit into the itinerary and had to be left out which was disappointing. On our last day in Rome we didn't have a set plan, so we asked for recommendations. Based on the things we said we were interested in, we were directed one way. We were hungry and headed on the road we thought would give us the best culinary options, while leading us back in the right direction. We noticed a nondescript church and decided to take a look. It was not like the many grandiose ornate churches we had visited. We were enjoying the feel of this worn unobtrusive church wandering through it. When I came upon an exact replica of the shroud of Turin, one of the two spiritual experiences I was so disappointed I would not be able to experience. As I stood there thanking Heavenly Father for this blessing I was completely overwhelmed as I heard the priests chanting the psalms. The other item I had left off was hearing "Gregorian" chants. I stood there with tears streaming down my face as the spirit witnessed to me that I am known and loved by my Father. It was a fantastic trip of a lifetime. I am tring to convince Rick that he(we) need to take a trip of a lifetime.