the passion of Christ

Everything I came to Jerusalem for culminated in the past two days. Yesterday and today we literally followed in Jesus’ footsteps as we visited the sites dedicated to the last week of His life.
Yesterday we started the day going to Bethany where Mary, Martha and Lazarus were from. We visited the supposed tomb of Lazarus and let me tell you, it still stinketh! Ha.


From Bethany we then went to Bethphage, where Jesus sent two disciples to get him a donkey for his triumphal entry into Jerusalem. This was really neat for me to learn about how the symbolism involved with Jesus riding a donkey into Jerusalem. It is a symbol of a king from King David’s time, but it is also a symbol of ultimate humility.


Next we went to Pater Noster. This church was associated with Jesus instructing His apostles during the last week, his ascension, and where he said the Lord’s Prayer. They had the Lord’s prayer in tons of different languages all around the church’s complex and it was really cool to read it in all the different languages people from our class knew.


From there we went to the Dominus Flevit church. This church is shaped like a teardrop to symbolize the incident when “the Lord wept” over Jerusalem. This site was on the Mount of Olives right above the Garden of Gethsemane. It had a great view of the temple mount, which gave a really good visual of the Savior overlooking Jerusalem as He wept.
After that we went to the Orson Hype Park where we read the Olivet Discourse. I’ve learned so much about that discourse and how to read it this semester. It’s been really cool.
Next we went to the Upper Room where the Last Supper is believed by many to have occurred. There we read the Lord’s Intercessory prayer which was really really neat. There’s just something about my Savior praying on my behalf that is really special. I love it.


Today we started by going to the Garden of Gethsemane. I can’t think of a better way to start any day. We read some great scriptures and had some time to just reflect. It was such a spiritual and amazing time.


Our next stop was St. Peter in Galicantu. This was actually my very first site on my very first field trip. We’ve gone full circle now. It was really weird to think back to that day when I didn’t know anything about the city or the people I was with. Anyways, this site represents Jesus’ trial by the high priest Caiaphas and when Peter denied Christ three times.


After that we went to the Church of Condemnation and the Church of Flagellation. These churches may occupy part of the site of the Antonia Fortress where Christ was perhaps tried by Pilate. At that trial He was condemned and scourged, took up His cross and began the “Way of the Cross.”
Then we went to the Pools of Bethesda, not because it was part of Christ’s last week, but because it was right by the other churches and we hadn’t been there yet. Haha. It was really cool though. This was where Jesus healed the man on the Sabbath. There was a beautiful church there that we were able to sing hymns in and I loved it!


We ended our semester of field trips at perhaps my favorite site in all of the Holy Land: The Garden Tomb. I know I’ve talked about this site before, but I don’t feel like I can really explain how much I love it. I know it may not be the actual tomb and Golgotha, but it’s the best place where I can feel the spirit of those events and ponder on their meaning to me. During our time in the Garden Tomb, Brother Harper told us that his favorite Christmas song is The Little Drummer Boy. I thought it was kind of funny at first, but then he told us why he loves it so much and then I understood. He said, “I am the little drummer boy. I have no gift to give that is fit enough for the king.” That really hit me hard. We really have nothing that we can give Christ to make up for what he gave to us, but we can do what we know to the best of our ability.


Tonight officially ended the spiritual aspect of our semester. We had our end of the semester class program. Brother and Sister Harper did a little fireside for us titled “Seek This Jesus” from Ether 12:41 and then we watched Elder Bruce R. McConkie’s final conference address. If you haven’t ever heard it, you should definitely look it up. It was powerful! As a final gift to Brother Harper for all that he has done for us this semester we decided to sing The Little Drummer Boy for him. After the first line I lost it. I seriously couldn’t believe the spirit that was in the room. Everyone was sobbing, including Brother and Sister Harper. We sang the most beautiful arrangement of the song I’ve ever heard. It has definitely become my new favorite Christmas song and I think I could say the same for everyone else in the room. I have never been a part of anything that tender and heartfelt in my life. I know that Brother Harper felt the love we were trying to convey to him. This was the love that we had for him as our guru and teacher, as well as the love we gained for our Savior Jesus Christ as we studied his life from him. I hope I will never forget that moment in my life.

All of the sites we visited these past two days helped prep me for my coming future. I know that I have a lot of tough decisions and unknown trials in my future, but because of the events that transpired here in the Holy Land, I know that there is hope. So now let me go forth as a happy, grateful, and repentant person for the rest of my life!

bittersweet

Well, it's official. Finals are over and I'm a free girl. Usually this is the happiest time of the year for me, but this semester has been a lot more bittersweet. I have loved my classes here and am a little sad for them to be over. It is really nice to not have homework to worry about though. This week is going to be so nice to just soak everything up for the last time before I go home without the stress of school work.
Other than studying my head off all week, I also did some fun things. On Monday I went to a local preschool and sang songs with the little kids. They were so cute! They were all Palestinian and couldn't speak English, except to count and sing the alphabet. I loved it! It made me miss my Pre-3 classroom back at the YMCA.



Thursday I went to the International school where the kids from the center go to school for their school play. It was Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat and Marissa Ludlow was Joseph. It was so adorable!! There wasn't enough space for everyone though so I had to share a chair with Sister Harper. It was a good thing the play was only an hour....



Last night was our Jerusalem Center Christmas concert. I was in the choir that sang at the end. We've been practicing since we got here in September, so hopefully we sounded all right. It was really fun. Now I'm all ready for Christmas!
Today I went to the Garden Tomb after church. It was wonderful as usual. A whole bunch of students from the center were there since it was our last sabbath. At the end of our visit we all got together and sang some Christmas hymns. Then we ended with singing I Know That My Redeemer Lives. I felt so much joy being there with so many people that I have grown to love, singing our testimony of the Savior. It was so powerful singing about the resurrection of Jesus Christ in the place where it may have happened. I'm really going to miss that.

salt

Well I’m exhausted. Today was a very fun, but very busy day. The day started with our bus showing up half an hour late to pick us up from the center. Our driver thought he had to make up for it by showing off his Nascar skills. He was crazy! But we made it safe to our destination: Masada. This was the third palace of King Herod that we’ve been to this semester and was by far the most impressive. It was at the top of a hill in the Judean wilderness overlooking the Dead Sea. The hill was so steep that we had to ride a cable car to get up to it. This week I have to write an essay for my final exam in my New Testament class that compares the life of the Herod’s to Jesus Christ. This site helped give some more insight into that prompt. As impressive as the structure was, it’s just a pile of rocks. This is nothing compared to the life Jesus Christ lived for mankind which reaches through all eternity.



After that we did something I’ve been looking forward to all semester. We swam in the Dead Sea! I’m not going to lie and say I can’t wait to do it again, but it was really fun to do once in my life. It is just so dang salty! My body didn’t hurt too bad, but it tasted like fertilizer and if any water splashed in your eyes you were done for. Floating in the water was such a weird sensation. You wouldn’t be able to sink if you tried. And of course I had to cover my body with the legendary Dead Sea mud. It smelled terrible. And when my hair dried it was sooo salty. It was a really cool experience though that everyone needs to try.







After that we went on a really pretty hike in Ein Gedi. Then we went to Qumran, which is where the caves are that the Dead Sea Scrolls were found in. You could tell why they went unnoticed for so long. It was just in the middle of the Judean wilderness. Brother Ludlow was our guide there which was really cool because he’s a renowned expert on the Dead Sea Scrolls. We really get a quality experience here. I still can’t believe all the things I’ve seen here. I just wish everyone could see and experience the things I have. It’s been life changing.

sprinting

I don’t know if I’ve ever mentioned him before, but one of my most favorite people here is our Doctor Brother Chapman. Well he gave us some good advice the other day. He told us that when you run a race you don’t jog the last stretch, you sprint. So now that we have less than two weeks here we really are on our last stretch and we need to start sprinting. I’ve taken that to heart and I’ve been living it up this past week.



Wednesday we had our Christian Quarter field trip. This was a field trip in the Old City where we went to different early Christian churches. It was good to finally move on to something more familiar to us. We first went to the Franciscan monastery called Terra Sancta. It was beautiful! Then we went to the Lutheran Church of the Redeemer where we sang Lutheran hymns and loved it. We went to the Church of St. Mark next which is a Syrian Orthodox church commemorating the Last Supper. The lady who spoke to us there was a little intimidating… She got very mad at some of us for crossing our legs and taking pictures. She did sing the Lord’s Prayer in Aramaic though which was really cool since that’s the language Christ is believed to have spoken. The church is believed by the Syrian Orthodox to be the home of Mark’s mother Mary, the site of the Last Supper, and the place where the apostles were filled with the Holy Ghost at Pentecost. That’s some cool stuff! Next we went to a Russian church with beautiful paintings. They discovered a gate there which they believe to be the gate to the Old City which Christ would have walked through bearing His cross. Next to the gate was a smaller hole which some people think may have been what Jesus was referring to when He said that it is harder for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God than go through the eye of a needle. I still think he meant a literal eye of a needle, but it was still interesting to see. Our last stop for the day was the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. This was probably my fourth time going there but it really doesn’t get old. There is so much history and sacredness in that building. I love it. And it was nice going with the class so that Brother Ludlow could explain what everything was in there. It’s an amazing building commemorating two of the greatest events in the history of the eternities. Not a bad place to visit I’d say.







Since then I’ve been hitting up the city as often as possible. I don’t care to see all the sites as much anymore, but just to experience the city that I’ve come to love so much. Thursday afternoon I went to the Tower of David Museum. This was part of a fortress built by King Herod which now has exhibits that tells of the history of Jerusalem. It was really cool to go through all the exhibits and realize how much I have learned this semester.



Last night I went with my Judaism professor Ophir Yarden to a Friday evening service at an Orthdox synagogue. It was a really great experience to see those wonderful Jewish people worshipping and praising God while they ushered in the Sabbath. One thought I had while I was there was that I don’t think I praise God enough. I thank Him for things and I ask Him for things, but I don’t simply praise Him enough. I’ve actually been thinking about that a lot lately in the semester, but it really cultivated last night at the Jewish synagogue. I love my Heavenly Father and my Savior Jesus Christ with all my heart! They are all-powerful, all-knowing and yet they know and love even me. I know that is true. I have felt of both their power and their love in my life.

new testament jerusalem field trips

Life is busy here as usual. We’ve had a couple short field trips and I’ve spent every other spare moment in the city.

Sunday we had a field trip to the Burnt house, the Wohl Museum and Davidson Archaeological Park. The Burnt house and the Wohl Museum showed houses that were around during the time of Jesus West of the Temple Mount. They were very nice houses that belonged to priests. Seeing how nice they were and learning more about the lives of the priestly families helped me understand more why Jesus was always condemning the priests. They even had their own ramp that would take them to the Temple Mount so that they wouldn’t come in contact with anyone that could make them ritually impure. It was very interesting.

Davidson Archaeological Park consists of much of the areas South and Southwest of the Temple Mount. This is where the main public access to the Temple Mount complex was. This makes it a likely candidate for the setting of Jesus’ entrances and exits from the Temple. It was really really cool to walk on the steps where Jesus likely also walked. (These steps are in Photo 10 in the newest LDS Bibles)

Yesterday I enjoyed my free day in the Old City. We went to the Dome of the Rock, shopping in the city, lunch at the Austrian Hospice, and strolling through the Jewish Quarter. Oh how I’m going to miss this city…

Today we had a field trip through the Kotel Tunnel. This field trip took us almost the entire length of the Western Wall through tunnels that have recently been excavated. It was really cool and our guide was fabulous. She consolidated so much of what we’ve learned about the Temple into a short one-hour tour. We told Brother Ludlow he’d better watch his back or she’d take over his job J

sabbath in jerusalem

Sabbath in Jerusalem is the best! Today was the primary program and it was so sweet. It’s been a while since I’ve seen a primary program. Kids are so incredible in their faith. We have a lot we can learn from them.
After church I went to the Garden Tomb. That is one of the best places I can go to feel the spirit. The grounds are just so beautiful and the people are so nice that it’s really easy to feel close to the Savior. One cool thing I learned today while at the Garden Tomb was that the stone was not rolled away to let the Savior out, it was to let us know that He had risen. That was something I had never thought about before. You learn cool things like that when you eavesdrop on other group’s tours ☺


On our way to the Garden Tomb we were walking on a busy street and my purse was kind of behind me. It’s an ugly purse that I bought for Jerusalem because it has lots of clasps and zippers so I thought it would be a less likely target for pick-pocketers. Well I felt someone touching my purse and I thought it was my friend that was behind me, but when I looked back there was a man that had un-clasped my purse. I called him out and saw that he was holding a phone in his hand so I grabbed it and realized it wasn’t mine so I checked my purse to make sure he hadn’t taken anything and gave him his phone back. I was really proud of myself for how I reacted. You don’t mess with this girl!
I had another funny experience at the Garden Tomb today. I was sitting listening to music and writing in my journal when a man came up to me and started video taping me. It wasn’t super weird because people always video tape and take pictures of us since we’re American, but this was a little strange because he was standing there for an awkwardly long amount of time. He was right up close to my face so I asked him where he was from. He said he was from France and then finally walked away. But he just kept staring and smiling at me. He was down at the tomb for probably 15 minutes and kept taking so many pictures of me. He was way more obsessed with the American girl than the site he was at. It was just very strange. (Don’t worry Dad, I was with boys and they were keeping an eye on him for me.) Oh the things you experience when you’re a young American girl in Israel…
Elder Larry Kacher, the area authority for the Middle East and Northern Africa, gave a fireside for us tonight and it was sooo good! Him and his wife spoke and they were both so sweet. I didn’t want it to end! I love how strong the Spirit is here in Jerusalem, and even more so here in the Jerusalem Center. It’s an incredible place and I am so grateful to be here.

turkey day in the middle east

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! We got back home from Galilee today and were greeted by Christmas decorations and a beautiful Thanksgiving feast. I was a little sad that I was not home for Thanksgiving this year, but when I got back to the JC I realized that I was home. I can’t believe that I only have 3 more weeks here! Time needs to SLOW DOWN!



Galilee was so busy and wonderful! It was full of girl talk and bonfires and football games and long classes and of course, amazing field trips!
Here’s the rundown on our last few field trips:

Jezreel Valley field trip (11/21): First we went to the church in Nain where Jesus raised a boy from the dead. There we had a fabulous lesson about the compassionate Christ by Brother Harper.

Our next stop was Megiddo or as most people know it, Armageddon. We had the final battle there so we’re ready for Jesus now!

Then we went to Mount Tabor which is one of the sites thought to be where Jesus was transfigured. It was sooooo beautiful! I loved it!

We ended the day right by going to a swimming lake/pool in Gan Ha-Shelosha. It was so good!

Upper Galilee field trip (11/22): We started the day by going to Hazor… I honestly don’t know what was significant about it, but there were some ruins… ha. Our next stop was the city of Dan. Can you say beautiful?!? I had been missing fall so much, but Galilee cured that for me. We hiked around Dan for about two hours and I loved every minute of it! Then we went to Caesarea Philippi, which is where Peter gave his testimony of Christ and Christ then pronounced, “thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church.” Right next to that site was the Banias waterfall. This is where I really got homesick for Oregon. It was absolutely gorgeous! After that we went to Nimrod’s castle. This was a sweet Muslim fortress t the foot of Mount Hermon. I was thinking about buying the lot except for the rodent infestation… Our last stop of the day was at a lookout point that used to be an Israeli army bunker. We were able to see Syria from the lookout and earlier in the day we were able to see Lebanon!

Western Galilee field trip (11/23): First we went to Chorazin. This was a Jewish community on the west of the Sea of Galilee that Christ compared to Tyre and Sidon in Luke 10. The next place we went was Sepphoris. This city was the Roman capital of Galilee before it was moved to Tiberias. There was a beautiful mosaic there that they call the Mona Lisa of the Galilee. A group of middle school Palestinian students were there too and they thought we were some sort of American celebrities and couldn’t take enough pictures of us. It was really funny. Our last stop was Akko. This was an adorable port city on the Mediterranean Sea. I loved it!



Mediterranean field trip (11/24): On our way back from Galilee today we made several stops. The first was in Haifa. We stopped in the Templer cemetery where we learned about a few LDS missionaries that went to Palestine in the late 19th century. We learned some really neat things about those early missionaries and what they did there. Next we stopped at Mount Carmel where the prophet Elijh had the show-down with the priests of Ba’al. We did an awesome re-enactment of the story and I was of course cast as the fire. My only claim to fame is my hair… Next we stopped at Caesarea. This city was built by Herod right on the Mediterranean Sea. We even got our own Christian concert when we went to the amphitheater!



I miss Galilee already, but it’s good to be home. I don’t think I’ve ever been this grateful for so many things on Thanksgiving before. I am so blessed!