Garden Tomb

Today we went to the garden tomb, which is one of the prettiest places I've ever been. The Christians take such good care of the grounds. They're not sure if it's the exact place where Christ was buried, but like the tour guide said, the focus is on the person not the place. Christians are torn; some believe He was buried in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, and others believe he was buried here at the Garden Tomb. I loved the tomb because it was outside and really felt like He could have been there. It was a really neat experience which we ended by singing He is Risen, Christ the Lord is Risen, I Know That My Redeemer Lives, and How Great Thou Art just 20 feet away from the tomb. We're trying to work out a schedule where we alternate between the garden tomb and Gethsemane every sabbath. Here's some pics from the day.

Annie me & Jen listening to the lecture. The tour guide was a retired baptist minister from the US- Texas I think? NC? Anyway, he was entertaining. Ironic for being a garden tomb tour guide.

Chelsea & I


Me inside the tomb right where He would have been placed.















Evidently when President Hinckley was here a few years ago taking a tour, he stopped right at this sign and said "I am, I am."


PS. In 24 hours you can find me at the pyramids!!! We'll be in Egypt for a week from Sunday- Sunday. Next week we're hiking to the top of Mt. Sinai for sunrise. This whole experience is surreal.

free day

One of the biggest benefits of coming during the winter semester as opposed to spring/summer is we get more free days! Yesterday at breakfast we picked up our sack lunches and were free to do whatever we wanted the rest of the day. I learn the most from these days as opposed to the classroom stuff. Although the classes are helpful as well. We started out by walking on the wall that is around the entire old city- we only got 1/2 way around and it still took us an hour and 45 minutes- the thing is giant. It's really uneven so you have to watch every step. West Jerusalem from the wall- this is the nicer part of town. East Jerusalem is where all the shops are along the streets. These shops are right next to each other, selling the same stuff; scarves, jewelry, trinkets, snacks, candy, etc. Whenever we are restricted, this is the part we aren't allowed to go in- it's more dangerous. The western part is where the new buildings and the more modern stores are- there's even a few malls. There is a YMCA tower where you can go ring the bells to signify the time- we'll be doing that in a few weeks.

The views are incredible.

From one side of the wall you see the garden tomb where many Christians believe Christ was place after the crucifixion.... and from the other you see the Dome of the Rock.

After the wall we wandered through the old city and East Jerusalem, went back to the Western Wall, went to the Jewish markets and ate some gelato. I was the wise one and just sampled everyone else's- but I'll be getting my own next time it was soo good! Well worth the 7 bucks.

Steve buying dried pineapple in the city. I had a bit of a communication problem w/ one of the vendors and ended up getting 3 cucumbers for 1 shekel (30 cents!) He just shook his head, laughed and shooed me away- awesome.


This is an old map of when they thought Jerusalem was the center of the earth. Little America is off to the side, which is what I am kissing.
The picture to the right is me with the wailing wall in the background. I have pictures of it up close but this is the best shot of the whole thing to get an idea of it. The third pole to the right of my head is on the dividing wall for men and women worshipers. The black dots are people right up against the wall worshiping. On Fridays the place is packed. The ice cream group below followed by Mike's favorite purchase of the day!

the wailing wall

One thing I learned rather quickly here is that "wailing wall" is an offensive term- they'd rather you say the "western wall." So I got my first glimpse of this wall on Friday and it was very interesting to say the least. Every Friday all Jews congregate at the wall to worship at 5:00 pm to welcome in Shabbat (the Sabbath..)



It was so different from any church service/worship I have ever seen, but I loved it. First of all, the guys and girls are separated because the girls distract the guys from their worship, and they're supposed to give all their might mind and strength to God. So everyone faces the wall, only men are on one side of a dividing wall and women are on the other- but you're able to look out and see the whole crowd from up above.



When they get down to the wall, they sway back and forth and side to side as they read out of the hebrew bible. They cry and mutter prayers to themselves and let their whole selves get involved in the worship. They knock their heads against the wall and reach out and touch it for minutes at a time. Then they celebrate! The girls on their side and the guys on their side, but the girls must be quieter than the guys or else it distracts them. They get in circles, put their arms around each other and sing and dance- its so fun so of course we joined! I wish I got pictures of this whole night, because there are so many random things that would have been great to capture; ie, a bunch of white girls trying to fit in with these jewish women.



Not only that, but we were all wrong on the dress code. Us girls were told that we should wear scarves on our heads if we wanted to fit in. So we all put on the only scarves we had, brightly colored festive things, and headed to the wall. Only every other person there was wearing white black or grey. Not only that, but when a jewish lady asked a girl from our group how long she'd been married, we realized that a scarf on the head signales you are a married woman!! And we were covered from head-toe..so everyone thought we were a big group of married Muslim women. Hahah we laughed about it the whole way home.



There was a group of jews visiting from the U.S., and I talked to one girl for a few minutes about their religion. This is what I learned:

~Women do not have to wear kipahs (the hats that men wear) because women are more holy than the men. We do not need a reminder of God because we always know He is there.



~Many jews haven't practiced in years, but they're very proud to claim they are jewish simply because of their family line. If there is Judaism somewhere in their family line, they claim it.



~When Jewish men worship, they have to get in groups of at least 10 men, while women are allowed to worship on their own. Something about women being esteemed as higher, once again.



For some reason I always thought the jewish culture/religion was sexist towards women, but come to find out, the reason behind it all is they revere women more than men-who knew!



I'll be back to the wall, pics to come...

field trip numero uno

Today ruled. We went on our first field trip of the semester which included 5 different sites around the city. We pretty much just learned a survey of the land from a distance. Here are the 5 sites we went to:

1. Nabi Samwil (Prophet Samuel): This is believed to be Samuels tomb, yet it is empty. The thing that is cool is that there is both a Mosque and a Synagogue under the same roof, one of only five in the world. We saw the Muslims bowing to pray upstairs, then went downstairs to see the Jews pray. They're so enthusiastic in their prayers- they were banging their hands and heads on the wall and almost crying. We were told that as we walk around in the Old City, it's easy to pick out the Muslims bc they have an easily-recognizable mark on their foreheads from putting their foreheads on the ground 5 times a day their whole lives.

The picture below is of Lauren, Chelsea and I on top of Nabi Samwil

2. Seven Arches Hotel Overlook: This is near the possible location of where Christ weaped over Jerusalem. As it overlooks the city today, the gates are closed up along the wall because its believed it will be where the Savior will come again. This spot also overlooks a cemetary where plots cost more than $50 thousand. Also, it overlooks the Kidron valley where Christ crossed on the night of his crucifixion. The Golden Gate were the Savior went through on a donkey in the triumphal entry. Dome of the Rock was built in 690 AD and rebuilt in the 60's under the Hussein family who added gold to the top. It is believed that the Dome is where Mohammed was taken up into heaven and Gabriel held the rock down. Also, it is believed by some that the Dome is where the Second Coming will take place.

Here is our professor lecturing. We all have headsets and he speaks into a microphone so we can stand all around within a .5 mile radius and hear what he is saying. I hear this helps when we go to Egypt in 3 weeks since there are so many people and its impossible to hear. I mainly just use my earphones as earmuffs- its so cold and windy!

3. Austria Victoria Tower: Consisted of beautiful mosaics and contained one of the oldest organs in the Holy Land. One of the three towers you can see on the Mt. of Olives

4. Haas Promenade Overlook: We sat for lunch here along the ridge Abraham walked to sacrifice Isaac. U.N. headquarters sits on "the Hill of Ill Council" haha. At the time the Savior was born there were 2,000 animal sacrifices a day and it would wash down into the Kidron Valley, providing nutrients for farming (gross), Gethsemane is on the other side of the hill so the Saviors blood would have drained into the Kidron valley--> Christ's blood flowed the same way animal sacrifices once represented him. Jews believe Dome of the Rock is the center of the earth and it is also the location God stood to create the earth. Christians believe the Holy Sepulcher is the center of the earth. Underneath the Dome of the Rock it is believed Mohammad saw all of the prophets and then got on a "bird" and went back to Mecca. 1 prayer in the Dome = 1,000 prayers for the world. Psalms 125:1-4. Mt. Olives and Zion are in a horseshoe shape around Jerusalem, the Lord comforts you as a horseshoe surrounds. Jerusalem is not the tallest place in the area.Jayne, Me, Nycole and Lauren eating lunch. Feeding Cats.

5. Deir Mar Elyas/ Elias Monastery: Here we got our first glimpse of Bethlehem, which is in hills not planes as the song says. This spot is the place Elijah the prophet rested after he bested the priests of Baal on Mt Carmel and escaped the wrath of Queen Jezebel. (Ok this info I didn't pick up, I was too busy taking pictures with the sheep. I copied and pasted this one from my friend's blog).

Now to the best part of the day! After we had been at this location a while, a shepherd and her two children came up with their flock of sheep. Our group immediately began snapping photos and the kids ran up to us saying "no pictures. You give us shekel!" So I paid them each a shekel and got my fav picture of the trip thus far!
















Just to prove there are indeed guys on the trip (although not many.....60 girls and 17 guys,) here's my friend Ryan and I looking over Bethany.

Shalom!

It might seem like I'm posting a ton, but there's
so much going on that I don't want to miss
anything! On Sunday (it's a normal day....) we
were finally allowed into the city! Except instead
of being in groups of at least 3, we had to be in
groups of 5 since it's still a little iffy in the city.

We first went to "our" money changer Aladdin (he loves the Mormons and gives us the best rate, so the JC has been taking students here for the past 20 years.)

Then we went to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, which is also known as the Church of the Resurrection. It is the holiest Christian place in the world.

Many Christians think this is the exact place where Jesus was crucified and buried. I asked what Mormons believe, and some believe this was the exact place and others think it was about a mile away. Either way, everything happened somewhere in this city, and it's not very big.

The leader of the program has ingrained in our heads that whether or not these are the exact locations of the events, people think and treat them as holy and God will recognize and accept that.

Here I am at the Church of the Holy Sepulcher





One of our professors came to the Church with us and explained everything. Good thing because you're just on your own to figure it out.








This is one of the two big doors of the Church. The same
Christian family has been in charge of opening the doors
every morning and closing them every night for thousands
of years. They trust no one. Look how giant it is! Theres a
ladder inside of it that they use to climb up and unlock it.














These are some of my fav girls on the trip. The crosses behind our heads are from when the crusaders would come and carve crosses in the wall to show they were there. We just took a picture.










This is Peter; aka Mohammed. He wouldn't tell me his real name but I knew he had to have an Arabic one too- so I finally got it out of him. He's 15 and randomly ended up walking with our group. He lives by the JC and is familiar with students. Since he lives here, we assumed he knew his way around- wrong. Doesn't have a clue! It's okay though because he bought me some candy.


Ok I'm off to Hebrew class- ta ta!

Demonstrations & Shabbat

So it's been an interesting last couple of days here at the Jerusalem Center (JC). Friday is the holy day for Muslims, and they all get together in the city to pray at the mosques. Because of this, we aren't allowed in the city until after 3 because there are sometimes riots/ demonstrations/ confrontations when they all get together- strength in numbers I guess. Yesterday there was a demonstration! It was kinda cool- we couldn't see too much from the JC, but we did see tear gas and gates preventing people from going in the city.

I have begun to understand a little more why the people here are even fighting. Yesterday, the confrontation was between the muslims and police because way more muslims (about 450) have died in the recent fighting than jews (about 10). It's really confusing, but I always ask the security guards whenever I can because they're locals and it's second nature to them.

We celebrate the sabbath on saturdays because that is when the Jews celebrate Shabbat. It was probably the coolest group of meetings I've ever been to. I didn't even fall asleep. The lady who taught RS is a palestinian from Bethleham, and she hasn't been allowed through the gates for the past year or so because they don't let palestinians in. So she hasn't been able to come to Church, but all the other ladies said she still fulfilled her calling more than anyone else. Also, her whole family hates that she's a member of the Church- her mom doesn't even believe in God and tells her to quit praying to Joseph Smith. She's cool. Oh, she just got her PhD in Turkey, and had to learn Turkish. So she knows Aarbic as a first language, as well as English and Turkish-incredible. I don't have a calling yet, but one of the ladies in the ward has a brand new baby so I hope I'm called to the nursery.

Ps. The picture below is exactly what some of the markets look like in the Old City. Although it looks like a bunch of junk, there's some treasures to be found. Can't wait till we're off lockdown and I can actually venture into the city to pick up some loot!

I'm here!

Crazy as it sounds, I'm chillin in Jerusalem right now! I seriously can't believe I'm here, but it's already quite the experience. After a 3.5 plane ride to Chicago, 1.5 plane ride to Dulles, 9.5 hour plane ride to Vienna, 3.5 hour plane ride to Tel-Aviv, and hour bus ride to the Jerusalem Center, we are h.e.r.e. In Vienna I bought a $6 water bottle only to throw the whole thing away 10 minutes later when we went through security. Sorry Dad.

We have had a few orientations since we got here. This morning they interrupted the orientation to inform us 3 missiles had been launched into northern Israel from Jordan, but that it wasn't an imminent threat and we would carry on with our itinerary. Today's been awesome- we took a 4 hour tour of the city and I am so excited to be here. There are so many little things to remember, such as stay in groups of less than 10, don't wear name tags in the city, can't go through certain gates of the wall into the Muslim corridors (they hate Americans evidently), etc. The city is super hilly and we walk everywhere- I love it. Today when we were walking (we had a tour guide pointing out everything, every square inch has such interesting history), this guy yelled obscenities at us. They warned us about the men around here. Ok I'm off to eat lunch & to check out the rest of the city!

Ps. School's really intense here. Classes are going to be so demanding, but after the brief tour of the city and seeing how much there is to see, I would be crazy to spend too much time cooped up inside studying. =)

One week from today

This....



(The BYU Jerusalem Center)

is what I will call home. Can't wait.