Jarom in Jerusalem: Happy Father's Day!

Actually this post has nothing to do with Father's Day, except tomorrow is Father's Day. Anyway, we had quite a day Sunday and we followed up with just as cool of a day after that! It was our “City of David” fieldtrip. One time in the Bible it refers to Bethlehem as the City of David, but all the rest of the times it is actually talking about Jerusalem when it mentions the City of David, since he made it his capital to unite the two kingdoms. The ancient city of Jerusalem of David and Salem of Melchizedek is the same city, Jeru- SALEM. It’s located just south of the temple mount, and fairly small compared to the rest of the city. Anyway, it was pretty cool. We started out watching this way pro-Israel movie, then we went and looked over the city. David’s palace was built geographically above everything else on the city, and so it is easy to imagine how he easily saw into other people’s homes from his rooftop, as he did with Bathsheba. They have found the remains of an administrative center there, and it could have originally been David’s palace since Solomon built his own palace above it next to the temple mount later. They had walls from the time when Jerusalem was destroyed, including a toilet from that time. (The time of Jeremiah and Lehi!) Also there are walls that would have been standing in Melchizedeks time!

Then we went down to a tunnel that Hezekiah built to bring water from one side of Jerusalem to the other. It was really cool, and there is still water running through it from the Gihon spring. Also David made his way up into the city through the water entrance near the beginning (P.S. NOT Warren’s shaft.) It was lots of fun to go through an underground tunnel in complete darkness (if you turn out your flashlights) and also fun to get wet. At the end is the pool of Siloam where Jesus healed the blind man in John 9. Jesus used spit and dirt; things that people would know wouldn’t heal, but healed the man anyway. We also visited some more ancient walls after that.

Israel is trying to establish a national park in this area, and in some places are excavating underneath Palestinian’s homes. For that the area near that spot that many of the riots break out. Palestinians won’t sell to Israeli’s, but sometimes a middle man can buy them out. Yikes!

Afterward me and a couple friends got a slice of pizza, and also went and visited a place called the citadel of David. David didn’t live there, it’s just a name. It’s mostly Ottoman, but they’ve turned it into a museum.

There were some other cool things that happened this week. I wrote papers and studied for one. Our teacher mentioned Friday that this is the time where all the students are on information overload and are questioning if they should have come. I’m defiantly on information overload. I’m not questioning if I should have come because I knew they were going to do information and work overload all the time. At least I have the Sabbath to rest!

Wednesday we also had a field trip to the separation wall. All the stuff written on it was in English, in an attempt to attract Western Media’s attention. Wednesday night there was a lunar eclipse in this part of the world. The moon was covered up and turned red!

Thursday night we had a recreation of the Seder or Passover meal. The real Passover was a couple months ago. It was a good experience and, although today’s Seder meal was solidified in the centuries after Christ, I got to see a lot of what Christ probably experienced during the last supper. (If that was a Passover meal.) We at Matzah, grape juice, etc.

Also Friday afternoon some of us visited the “Ecce Homo” or “Behold the Man” church which is built on/ around where the Antonia fortress was and where Pilot would have tried Christ. We went down and saw a big cistern made after Christ’s time, also some Herodian period pillars, and some foundation stones from the time of Christ. Also that area is the way traditionally where Christ carried his cross. Friday night we had a man also come in and teach us to dance!

Tonight the Jerusalem branch choir got together and we recorded several songs we’ve sung the last couple weeks. We practice every Saturday morning and sing every morning for the branch and any visitors. Last week I also taught Elder’s quorum, I was set apart as the Elder’s quorum instructor in the Jerusalem Branch in the District of Israel. Pretty cool!

Anything else? Not that comes to mind now. Its super sweet to be here and we’re going into Jordan in two days! I’m super excited to visit and have a break from school before finals the week after. I’m super grateful to be here and to be learning the archeology, geography and religion of the land where the Savior walked and taught. I’m also excited for our week and a half visit to the Galilee at the end of our study travel here. What an amazing experience! I always have a constant reminder of Christ and his atonement and sacrifice here, and it’s wonderful. I know he lives and that he is the only way to repentance, to be cleansed from sin, and return with our Heavenly Father! J