September 7
Today has been a good day. Actually it
has been a really good day. I think I did pretty well on a quiz/test
(it was like a months worth of material in one week/30 questions).
After classes we had a humanitarian project that we did and it was to build
school kits for the local “elementary” schools. It was awesome.
We had like half of the group show up and we made just over 2000 kits
in two hours. We are now the proud owners of the kit making record.
But what made it amazing was the devotion the group put into it. We
were going like a million miles a minute the whole time. The only
thing was I had the flash back to the last fiveish months of my life
on the bagline at THB. Dad if you ever need to get a ton of kits made
for work just hire a bunch of LDS students and tell them it is a
humanitarian project and that the goal is to beat the record as well
as serve and the company will flourish :) After that it was just
chill time so I went on a walk with a couple other students and just
enjoyed the outside, even though it is still like 100 degrees here.
Since Muslims have their prayer until 3:00 on Friday and the Jews' sabbath
starts at sundown, a lot of the city slows down, at least where we
are, in the old city not so much. Anyway, after dinner we got to go
to the Western Wall during the prayer time of the Jews. I think it
has been one of my favorite things we have done so far. I was
surprised to find that there is just an incredible spirit surrounding
that place. I got to go up to the wall but since I am rather short I
wasn't able to push my way through to actually touch it. Hopefully
next time will be able to. It was interesting to observe the rituals
that they had going on and to have all these questions come into my
head. The men's side had a lot of singing and dancing, while the
women's side was more quiet and had a lot of silent prayers going on,
with a few songs. The whole time I was thinking that they are so
close and I wanted so badly to tell them just how close they were and teach
them so that they can have an even fuller, richer life. We met these
two girls that was in this Birthright group which I guess allows
Jews, under 27, to come to the Holy Land, I think for super, super
cheap, since they felt that all Jews should have the chance to come to
Jerusalem. They said they weren't super religious but that they had
come to learn more. Again I was like “dang you non-proselyting
rule.” The whole thing was just incredible. I didn't take any
pictures since it was their sacred worshiping and because they told
us not to and because no one else was and because I didn't think it
was appropriate. Once we left, we went back to the JC and ending the
good day with a darn good movie. A little Indiana Jones anyone?
September 8, 2012
Saturday is a special day, It is the
day that you turn into Sunday! And it is was a good “sunday” today. The choir got to sing in church again today for District Conference. Always
a nice thing to do. As I mentioned before, it was District Conference
and it was pretty good. We had speakers from Russia, Jordan, Tel
Aviv, the US, and from other places that I don't remember. How cool
is that. Pretty darn cool, if you ask me. This one lady told us about
how she joined the Church while attending BYU and how for 12 years
she had to sneak over the West Bank/Israel border, climbing walls,
dodging bullets and taking three hours to get to church. Her talk was
about having faith in God and gratitude for the gospel. (She joined
the UN and got proper paper work so now she can cross without a
problem, if you wanted to know.) Most of the others were on having
faith and trusting the Lord and had some cool stories as well- a
mother and her children coming over to live so that they can be
closer to the dad who is serving in Afghanistan, A man being able to
lift a car enough to move it out of harms way and etc. There are some
pretty amazing people here, that's for sure. After the conference all
the students got to go to the Garden Tomb. Once again it was
different than how I expected but the experience that I had wasn't.
When we first got there, we had to split up into groups and go on a
tour of the Garden, which was interesting and the place is very
nicely done. You could tell the guide was trying to get us to feel
something but it just wasn't happening. It was nice and all and I
really enjoyed the tour, but it wasn't until after I got go into the
tomb that I felt something. And actually it was after I came out. As
I came out the other half of our group, who finished the tour before my group, were up
in a pavilion singing I Believe in Christ. (I must put in a side
note, our group is actually really good at singing.) I wasn't
expecting it, so it was kind of surprise to hear it but boy did it
change the mood. The girls that I was with and I hurried up to where
they were so that we could join in. We sang I Believe In Christ, Be
Still My Soul, He is Risen, I Need Thee Every Hour, some random, but
good one, that I don't know but it was on page162 or something like
that, and ended with Nearer My God to Thee. (A girl had brought her
Violin as well so we were in tune the whole time). The singing brought
such an awesome spirit and you could tell that other people from
other groups could feel it too because they started to gather around
us taking video, joining in singing or just stood there listening. It
was our one special and really the only way to share the Gospel and
our testimonies of the truthfulness of it. It was
very nice and I hope we can have that feeling wherever we go, even if
we have to create it ourselves. Those are the times I think I am
going to remember the best.
I will post pictures later.
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