Western Wall, District Conference, and Garden Tomb

This weekend we had two added field trips and I loved both of them.

On Friday night I went to the Western Wall to watch the Jews celebrate the bringing in of the Shabbat (Sabbath).   It was probably the most culturally enriching experience I have had so far.  Being with all of the Jews as they celebrate the ending of the creation and the beginning of the day or rest was amazing.  We weren't allowed to take pictures (using electronics is considered work to the Jews) so I will try to explain it to you.

Basically you walk down into the wall, and the weather is just perfect.  Cool breeze, sun about to set, and people laughing and singing everywhere.  Then you walk towards the wall, getting into denser and denser crowds as you go.  Someone hands you a hymn book with prayers in hebrew next to their English translations.  Then you wait in a crowd, gradually scooting closer and closer to the wall.  People put their little pieces of paper in and then pray, rocking as they go.  Back and forth, back and forth, singing softly in hebrew.  Many of their heads touch the wall as they pray.  Then turn around, but not all the way around because it is irreverent to turn your back to the wall.  When you finally get to the wall there is such a calm spirit there.  The noise seems to die down and you can feel Then as you back away from the wall, you get pulled in to a group of girls singing in Hebrew.  Everyone is smiling and dancing and singing.  Over on the boys side, things are packed.  They are all jumping around with their kipas on, laughing and playing around.   I loved it because it was such a perfect combination of the joy of being part of a community and also a spiritual time for these people.


On Saturday (our Sabbath) we went to the Garden Tomb, one of the places where many Christians believed that Jesus could have been buried.  I already told you about it in a previous post, but today I decided that this is where I am going to open my mission call.  It is peaceful and beautiful.  Speaking of missions, I can't believe that in less than two weeks I could have my call.  I am really really exited.

The other cool thing that happened today was that today was District Conference.  There were people from all over Israel with us today, and the branch president was telling stories about some of the members.  There were people there that spoke Arabic, Russian, Spanish, and Tagalog.  There was stories of people that had joined the church in their homeland, and then coming to Jerusalem, went and joined the branch, knowing nobody, and had come every Sabbath since that day.  There were many stories of people that were the only members of their families, members that had families that are very unsupportive of the gospel, etc.   I was deeply impressed by the faith of these people and the number of people there that were first generation members.  I hope that I get to work with some faithful first generation members on my mission.


Ok, lastly, I have an amazing connection that I made during the forum this week.  This week, for our forum, the director of the center discussed the many demonstrations and complications that arose during the building of the JC (Jerusalem Center).  He showed pictures as he went through and sure enough, he talked about the day that the students were moved in (actually kind of secretly) and there was a picture of 8 students, two of which being Paul (my dad) and his brother Lee.  Shocked I said "That's my dad!!"  It was such a funny moment, as the rest of the group turned and looked at me.  They all thought it was so cool that I am a second generation Jerusalem student.  But really, hearing about the miracle that the building of this center was makes me so grateful for the chance I have to attend school in it for a semester.

The Armenian Patriarchate of Jerusalem

So yesterday I went to the Armenian church.  It was gorgeous.  Definitely one of the most beautiful churches I have been to.  Lots of very baroque paintings, and multicolored hanging lights.  They only open it up for visitors for 2 hours a day, for their little worship services.  It was interesting hearing them chant and sing in Armenian.  It seems so different for me, and the language sounded like nothing I had ever heard before, so at first I kind of just observed an an outsider watching some sort of cultural ritual, which in fact I was.  Then I tried to go deeper, to understand the way they worship God, and how doing these what sounded like Gregorian chants made them want to be better people.  And yet I still struggled to until I remembered the verse that says that Christ is always by our side and I had the thought "If Jesus were here standing beside me, how would I feel about these people, and their worship of Him?"  This is when I realized that Christ would love them, and I think that he would accept their sacrifice of their incense and chanting and singing.  He would love them for trying to spread the light He has given them with the rest of the world, even if the light is not the whole truth.  I think this realization will make my experience here much more rewarding.  I love watching people worship, and grow closer to the Lord because really, that is what everyone is looking for---the peace and comfort that comes from doing things that bring our hearts closer to Christ.  So really, even if I worship very very differently from them, and we don't speak the same language, have very different cultures, and are from countries across the world from each other, we really are the same.  We are both searching for the light and truth that brings us happiness and truth in this life and the life to come.


Anyway, pictures from the Armenia church . . .

There was no flash photography so the pictures are kind of dark but this place was huge and super elaborate.  It reminded me of the gilded age mansions in Newport, RI I went to a couple years ago.

So this church's patron state is James, and apparently James was beheaded.  Thus the statue.  The woman is holding a bodiless head if you can't see.  Some of the statues and paintings here are pretty crazy.

More chapel pictures.  There are so many bright colors!

Via Dolorosa----The Way of the Cross

So yesterday I had some free time so me and some friends decided to go into the Christian quarter of the Old City and do the stations of the cross.  Basically this is the path from the place where Jesus was condemned to die and all the way to Golgotha and then to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher (where many Christians believe He was buried).  It was one of my favorite things I have done here.

I took a lot of pictures, one at every station.  Most of them we have our fingers up but some of them we didn't want to be disrespectful.  So I will go through all of the stations and tell you what happened at each one.

Note: This is where many Christians claim that these things happened to Christ.  I am going to say them as if they are true, but know that I do not whole heartedly believe that these are the exact stones Jesus walked on to Golgotha, and somehow they have survived through thousands of years and the Roman destruction and Muslim rule, and the many different rulers. However, it is a spiritual journey to take the walk in the areas where he would have walked and fallen, and thus to give you a small piece of this journey, I will put what the pamphlet says each location represents.

1. This is where Jesus was condemned to death.  There is a courtyard behind us and it is in this general location (the Praetorium) where Pilate condemned Christ.

2. This is where Christ took up the cross.  There are two churches in this area, the church of flagellation (where he was whipped) and the chapel of condemnation.  

This is one of the roof paintings in the church of flagellation---I love it because it is a crown of thorns with lilies, signaling the inevitability of the resurrection.  It is such a beautiful image to think of.  Maybe because I have grown up worshipping the resurrected Lord, I connect to this more than other common Christian images.

3. Jesus falls for the first time.  If you look at the back you can see a interesting painting/sculpture with the saints or martyrs that came after Christ carrying the cross with him.  To me this painting makes me think of the heavy sadness that we (as angels) all felt as we watched from heaven as our brother carried the cross through the streets of Jerusalem.  I imagine it was devastating to not help as he fell down for the first time, knowing that he had to do it alone.   

4. Jesus meets his mother ------ I am sure that this will mean even more when I am a mother, but I have always thought it is very sweet to see Christ and his mother.  He must have such a love for her, and she certainly must feel like many mothers feel when they realize that their child is really God's child and that they have a mission from God that requires their child to leave them.  Maybe a little bit like giving up a child for a mission, but much worse obviously.

5. Simon of Cyrene helps Jesus to carry the cross----this is where Christ put his hand on the stone wall and made an impression on the rock.  Many people come and touch this rock and pray.  Although I doubt that this was the actual rock that Jesus himself touched, I am learning here that spiritual experiences are not limited to those who are in the exact spots, but rather those whose hearts are turned to Christ, so I have no problem with people feeling the spirit when they touch this rock, or for that matter do inscence burning rituals with all sorts of trinkets.  These things remind them of Christ, and that is how they grow closer to the Savior, so I think that they can feel the Holy Ghost just as strong as I do when I worship in the "correct" way when they worship God in an "incorrect" way.

6. Veronica wipes the face of Jesus---So according to the story, Veronica gave Jesus her veil to wipe his face on, and when he gave it back there was an impression of his face on the veil.  This makes me think of how even people had never even seen him before saw Him and wanted to help Him.  It makes me think of people who typify the pure love of Christ in my life, and how whenever I see them, I want to help them if they ever needed anything because I know they would do the same and more for me.

7. Jesus falls for the second time.

8. Jesus Consoles the Crying Women of Jerusalem---  I love this because this is so exactly what Jesus would do in this situation.  I had not heard of this story before, but it would only be right that Jesus, after being beaten and tied to a cross, walking to his death, feeling the sorrows and pains of the world, would see the sorrow of the world, and would comfort the few.  It also is amazing to think that at this point, the atonement is completed, so he probably knew each of these women by name, and exactly what their lives were like because he had felt them all already.

9. Jesus falls for the third time.  Notice there are crosses here (obviously miniature versions).  People sometimes take the stations of the cross tour with a cross to really understand how long of a walk it is.  

10. Jesus is stripped of his garments.  The rest of the stations were all in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher (where many Christians believe Jesus was buried.)

11. Jesus is nailed to the cross.  You can't see it in the picture, but there is a mural of Jesus being nailed to the cross in the background. Also, sooo many people come to this church.  I have passed by like three times and every single time it is super busy.

12. Crucifixion and Death

13. Jesus is taken down from the cross.  The hanging lamps behind us are over a rock called the anointing rock, where Jesus was anointed for burial.  This is another one of the big places that people come to kiss and cry over and worship Jesus.  Also, we are making 13 fingers, not being irreverent, FYI.  It kind of looks a little odd.

14. Jesus is laid in the tomb.  Not the best picture, but this is in the middle of the church and it is huge!  I haven't been inside it yet but when we as a group go on a tour in a week or two hopefully I will get to go inside of it.  This is the last stop.

15.  RESURRECTION!!!!!!  Ok. so there isn't really a stop 15, but this is the top of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, and the miracle of the stations of the cross is that they didn't lead to death, they lead to resurrection.  So this is the unofficial last stop of the tour.

FIRST FREE DAY!!!

Sorry, I have been so busy and still am kind of getting over jet lag, so the blogging has been a little slow, but now I will try to catch up because I have done A LOT  in the past couple of days.

First of all classes.
Yesterday we have four.  It was rough as all of them but OT are 2 hours long, so I went to 7 hours of school.  It was rough.

For Old Testement I have Dr. Belnap.  He is the youngest faculty member here and he has four kids that we sometimes see running around the center.  His youngest is four, and I am really secretly jealous that they get to spend two years of their childhood in Jerusalem.  Like really, how amazing that would be.  The interesting thing is that they really have fairly normal lives here.  Like their two daughters go to dance in West Jerusalem, they go to this Jewish school I think.  But anyway, I absolutely love Dr. Belnap's classes.  So far we have talked about the creation and the Fall.  The students have nicknamed his class temple prep because it he blows all of our minds about what our divine nature is and how the Fall worked and how it fits into our progression.  It was phenomenal and makes me want to go to the temple so bad.  I am so exited to start the whole process and get my mission call.  My papers are in and I am beyond ecstatic!!  My mission call could possibly be assigned today! I can't wait.

For Ancient Near Eastern Studies I have Dr. Seely.  He is the funniest man, very adorable professorish.  Like he refers to himself in third person all the time.   And he LOVES this land and all the geography, archeology, history, etc.   The other day he said that us sleeping on the bus on the way to all the places we go on field trips is  "For Dr. Seely, this is like going to your wedding and then sleeping through the honeymoon".  It was so funny.

For my Palestine class the teachers name is Bashir Bashir, and he is super funny.  Like we were asking him questions about himself and he had the best comebacks.  Someone asked him if he was married and he said "No, but I have heard about the beautiful mormon women so if you have any proposals . . ."  The whole class busted up.  He is a non practicing Muslim, and mostly just teachers at Hebrew University here, along with teaching us.  It really is so amazing that I get to have this experience to get to learn from such amazing teachers from such different backgrounds as me.  I didn't know how I would feel about this class, but so far I absolutely love it.

For my Israel class I have Ophir Yarden.  This class was good, but frankly by this point I was just exhausted so I fell asleep a little bit.  But I loved the parts I got out of it.  We talked about how Judaism has many definitions: a people, a family group, a religion, etc.






Ok, now to Sunday.  On Sunday I went all over the Jewish Quarter.  This is the nicest area of the city and it is so cool to walk around.  I didn't realize this, but apparently there aren't usually a million Israeli flags flying everywhere but it is Israeli Independence day on May 6th, so they have them all out for that.  I am glad I got a bunch of pictures before they took them all down.

Sites in the Jewish Quarter I went to . .  .

Ok, I went to the Temple Institute which was amazing.  The temple institute is a group of Jews that have started making the proper clothing and instruments so that when they are able to (basically the temple mount become available for building---the temple mount being where the Dome of the Rock and the Al-Aqsa mosque now stand)---they will be ready to build the next temple.  It was amazing to learn all about the First Temple (Solomon's temple) and the second temple (Herod's Temple---this was the one that Jesus would have been in) and all of the ordinances preformed there.  It makes me want to have my mission call so bad!!! And to be able to go through the temple.  Like really, I probably think about my mission call every ten minutes.  It is so distracting.  I just want to have it.   But anyway, the lady there I am sure gets hammered with hard questions, but she really was an amazing tour guide and had a good answer for all of the questions asked.  I am starting to really fall in love with the people here, both the Israelis and the Palestinians.  I love watching them worship because there is something about watching them try their best to come unto God that really brings the spirit.  If there is one thing that I will leave here with no doubt of it will be that God loves ALL of his children and he loves when they come close to him if whatever way they know.

The other amazing place I went was the Hurva synagogue. "Hurva" in Hebrew means destruction so it is literally called the synagogue of destruction. It is very new, and the most fancy synagogue in Jerusalem.  I think it opened in 2010 or something.  But it was exquisite, and the history of it is amazing.  The thing has been knocked down three times in history.  It certainly shows the struggle over the holy land that has been going on for hundreds of years.  But at the top of it is this gorgeous overlook of the city.

We also went to a little museum of Jewish culture that showed little parts of what a Jewish house would look like in the 1800's.  We went into a room they call the "birth room" and there was this little bed in it. On the plaque it said that back then, the Jews were very very poor and there were only six beds between the whole community, so you could rent a bed for 40 days while your wife had a baby and recuperated if you were rich enough.  Also in that room were a bunch of amulets and a suitcase with an eye on it.  Apparently 4 of 5 kids died before the age of 5 there, and they thought the babies were cursed, so they had a lot of superstitious things they did.

Lastly, we went to this place called four synagogues.  It was a large synagogue that was comprised of four synagogues that had gotten combined.  At the time they were built there was a law that the synagogues could not be as tall as the (Muslim) minarets built, so they would build the synagogues bottom three feet underground so they wouldn't be as tall as the minarets but would still be the required size.  It was cool because there were four big rooms and each one had a different style that is was built in. There was also a little cave thing called Elijah’s cave off the side of one of the rooms.  Aperantly in the days where there were very little Jews in the city, they were trying to do a ritual on one of their holidays, and they needed one more man to be able to do it.  They were distraught, and unable to worship correctly until a man showed up and helped them complete their group of four so that they could follow their religion and complete the ritual. At the end of the ritual, the man walked off and disappeared and they realized that this was a miracle, and that Elijah had come down to help them complete their ritual.  So they have a special little spot for him, if he ever came back.  

Some random door we found

Elijah's Chair

Inside of the 4 Synagogues

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.

Home Sweet Home

Stories from the Oasis

For a little comedic entertainment I will tell you some funny stories now.

So this happened on day 2 . . . aka . . . the kids on the program are still deciding what they think about eachother and forming impressions of these people they will live with for the next four months.  And when we had a full table and one person wanted to join we didn't want to be exclusive so we jammed another table into it and create a ginormous party table.  This is important because the following incident occurred with like 10 people watching me.  Anyway, so they were talking about which teachers everyone had for Old Testemant, either Wood or Belnap.  Unfortunately, right before they asked me, I had eaten a huge piece of roast, or something that takes like 100 chews before you swallow.  So I, thinking this was a good idea, put three fingers up in the shape of a "W" and shook my head, signifiying that I did not have Wood, I had Belnap.  But this just looked rediculous to them, so they all started laughing confused.  I had Wood?  What?  So I shook my head more vigerously with my three fingers up, which just made them laugh harder.  Now, one thing to know about me, I laugh, like all the time, I laugh the hardest and the longest, and it really is uncontrollable.  Also, when other people are laughing I always laugh to.  So by this point in the conversation I am laughing really hard.  Like breathing hard laughing, aka not chewing my food.  So then they are silent for like 3 seconds after they are done laughing and see that I am still laughing, which just makes them laugh harder.   And then they would just look at me, waiting for an answer taunting "Wait, so are you in Wood or Belnap?" And with my, uhh, tendency to throw up whenever I eat too big bites of things, I knew that it I tried to swallow and then start laughing, a disaster would occur.  And lets just say I didn't want any of their first impression to be that I was the girl that laughed so hard she threw up on everyone.  Not exactly a part of Carnegie's How to Win Friends and Influence People, ya know.  So I sat there as they died laughing and then I died laughing and then I would chew like 5 more times before they would look at me again and I would start laughing again.  This lasted for literally 90 seconds before I swallow and choked out Belnap.  I have Belnap, at which point they all started clapping and cheering and laughing again.  None the less, the boys sitting at that table will still tease me "Wait, I can't remember.  Whose OT class are you in Liza?".

Other stories from the oasis (or meal room) . . . we have a center cat.  Like someone fed it one day and now it always appears every single mealtime.  And on like the second day me and some people I was eating breakfast with decided to name it.  And I suggested we name it after a disease, therefore reminding everyone not to touch it.  My idea was Sypillus and call it Sybil, but that was nixed because you would have to do a lot more than just touch the cat to get that (although you can't get Giardia from petting cats either so whatever)  Anyway, the cats name is now Gia (Giardia is its full name, but Gia is a nickname).  The funny thing is now it is starting to respond to its name because everyone calls it Gia.  Haha, I hope that that is part of the legend we will leave in the center.

The View From My Window--The First 24 Hours of Jerusalem

Arrive at SLC airport, say goodbye to my mom.  Plane ride to JFK.  Five hour layover.  Nine hour flight to Tel Aviv.  One hour on a bus and we have finally arrived.   Brief welcome, then dinner, then orientation, then bed.  Morning. Lots of orientations, lots of jet lag, lots of meeting people, lots of laughter, lots of new friends being made.  This is my 24 hours of Jerusalem.

But the amazing things I have seen so far make me even more exited for the next couple months that lay ahead for me.

Today we went on a walking tour through the Old City to get oriented with this new city we get to call home for the next 3 months.  We passed a Bar Mitzvah and our teacher/tour leader got invited in and he sang and danced with them.  You could tell Dr. Woods was having the time of his life, and so were we.  I love seeing all the beautiful culture of this new place.  This little boy had finally turned 13 and his family laughed and sang through the Jewish Quarter of the Old City, celebrating his emergence into adulthood.  In a way, I think I connected to this boy because this is the first time I have lived in a different country as my parents, and also because today is also the day that I submit my mission papers.  I am making this transition into adulthood as well, and seeing this little boy at his Bar Mitzvah reminded me how exiting this time of life really is.

My other favorite moment so far was this morning, when I woke up and heard my roommate on the balcony.  So I followed and walked out.  And the I saw the view from my window and it was breathtaking.  The picture doesn't even start to do it justice.  Is is so gorgeous.

So people have been making pilgrimages to Jerusalem for something like 1600 years.  My ANE (Ancient Near Eastern Studies) professor talked to us about how we are not tourists, we are pilgrims.  We have come to this land to learn and grow, both mentally and spiritually.  And I like the idea of that.  Liza, the pilgrim.  I can see it.