Ryan Gunn For my religious field trip project, I decided to attend the Jewish synagogue, Kol Ami.

Judaism has always fascinated me, due to its ties that Mormonism shares with the Judaism, and some of their prophets. With this in mind, I went into this project with an open and familiar mindset. So on November 9th 2013, my friend Galilea and I drove to the Kol Ami Jewish synagogue in Sugarhouse, Utah. When we arrived, I thought I knew a bit of what to expect, but as it would turn out I really had no idea. I had found the times and service dates on the synagogues website, and had read that the Saturday Shabbat service started at eleven o clock, so naturally that when we arrived. The Synagogue was quite bigger then I had initially expected. It was complete with its own kitchen, eating area, classrooms, and of course chapel. So after walking around the building a full one time, a kind lady asked us if we were visiting then kindly pointed us in the right direction. When we finally got ourselves to the chapel, a man dressed in a suit with a shawl and cap greeted us with a Shalom and handed us a set of books. He told us to pick a seat anywhere in the chapel and that the meeting would start in a couple minutes, so Galilea and I took a seat in the middle near the back. Inside the chapel, there were hardly any occupants at all. Including us, there was a grand total of ten people to begin with. We werent sure what to think, whether we had arrived on the wrong day or it was just that small of a congregation, but nevertheless we sat and waited patiently. We examined the books we were handed and saw one to be a Hebrew-English translation of the Torah, and a book of psalms and prayers. After about five minutes of waiting quietly, a man stepped up to the pulpit in the center of the room. He welcomed us to the Shabbat, and told us the page we would be following along in in the prayer book. The man as well as most other of the congregation was dressed in a suit with a shawl and cap. The man took the first turn of reading from the prayer book in Hebrew, but was replaced at intervals throughout the first hour and a half of the Shabbat. All of these prayers were said in Hebrew, so it made it VERY hard to stay focused and awake throughout the meeting. Finally, the last reader closed the book and stepped down from the pulpit. Four or five men then opened a cabinet from behind the pulpit and pulled out a guiled scroll from the casement. Being a copy of the Torah, they then took turns reading from it in Hebrew. The story they read from the Torah was that of Jacobs wives Rachael and Leah, and the sacrifice Jacob went through to have both women. After this Torah reading session the rabbi stood up and related the story to our veterans and servicemen because being so close to veterans it happened to be the Veterans Day Shabbat. After the Torah reading the rabbi thanked all the veterans and visitors and that was the end of the service. The entire project was a great experience in all. It wasnt like anything I would of expected, but was totally worth the trip. I learned all about a new culture and got a firsthand experience in the religion. The people were very friendly, and I always felt welcome, even if the service got really slow at parts. Shalom