Gethsemene, The Garden Tomb, The Western Wall

I went so many cool places today . . . like really it was unbelievable.  I will tell you about them now.

But first, I got a calling . . . and it is the calling I have been telling people I would love for the past 4 years, not thinking that it actually existed  . . . I am the Sacrament Meeting greeter.  Basically I just greet people as they walk into church.  It is awesome.  I will never be late and I will get to know everyone here really well.  I am so exited.

Ok, now for the real stuff.

Gethsemane----I went there right after church (Sabbath is actually on Saturday here . . . still getting used to that one).  It was definitely different than I expected it to be.  Like there was not five seconds of it that a car horn didn't blair.  And it was super crowded.  Definitely beautiful, but just different.  So I was sitting there and I realized that some of the trees around here had been here for 2000 years, meaning these trees had been there in Christ's time.  This gained so much for meaning for me when I saw a Christian woman reach through the grate (maybe to protect against graffiti?) surrounding the tree.  (There was a fence around the inner garden and then a grate covering some of the taller trees that is part of the fence).  This woman reached her fingers through and touched the tree.  And then she prayed (silently), touching the only thing in this garden that really truly had been connected to Christ during his atonement.  It was beautiful.  It filled me with hope and love, that even in this loud and crowded world, we just need to reach through the grate to touch heavenly things, reminders of Christ.  And that is the miracle of the atonement.  That even though we live in this crazy world, there is peace through connecting to Christ through prayer.   There is a rock formation that forms the word "Peace" in the front of the garden.  I think that is a perfect word to describe the Garden of Gethsemane.  Because that is where you find it---through the atonement of Christ.

The 2000 year old tree

"Peace" in the Garden

The Garden Tomb------It was gorgeous.  It was also closed, but we went in the back door.  Then when the other ten people of our group came in, they realized that we were walking in the back door and kicked us out.  But me and another boy name Josh went to go grab Jason and tell him that we needed to leave.  But then,  Jason stalled . . . and we didn't get kicked out.  The garden was not letting anyone in because it was closing in like five minutes, but there were still people in it, so we were in there with a lot of people.  The garden tomb, I want to go back there, because it was so peaceful and less crowded and had a lot of space for benches so that you could sit and ponder.  We were asked to make our way out after like 15 minutes (basically right when we sat down after taking pictures and going into the tomb), so we didn't get much ponder time.  The cool experience I had here was that when we went in the tomb (you go in a couple people in at a time) we were with a couple people that had a blind man with them.  So they actually opened the gate that sectioned off the main part of the tomb and let him go in and touch it.  It was amazing to watch this blind man smile as he touched this cold rock floor and celling that to him, meant that we would live again, that he would see again.  It was amazing.  I am realizing that many of my spiritual experiences come from seeing other people worship.  It is so beautiful to see others experiencing the miracle of Christ or their religion.  Seeing the hope that their religion gives them.   It makes me so exited to get to create this vision in others, go on a mission.  And as of two days ago, my mission papers are in.  I get the amazing opportunity to see this change in others.  It is amazing.

Western Wall------I only saw this for a minute.  But it was cool to see all of the Jewish people worshiping.  I just love seeing people worshiping.  It is so amazing to watch.  Like on our tour of the city when we ran into the people having a bar mitzfah, and when we ran into a Christian?  (we couldn't really tell) wedding.  Their religion makes them so happy.  Just like mine makes me so happy.  It's amazing!
(You are not allowed to take pictures here)


Ok, here are some other pics from the city that I took.

Ok, so it's like the red cross, but muslins don't believe in Christ, but they love crescents for some reason (they love scythes ? ? ? . . . jk, that's communists), so its the red crescent.

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