Wow! What an awesome couple days. There are so many things to mention. We celebrate the Sabbath on Saturday in the Jerusalem center like much of Jerusalem. I was asked to prepare and bless the sacrament our first Sunday here. It was neat to think that it was in this city where that ordinance was first introduced, and it was a great experience to participate in that ordinance. In the chapel (which doubles as an auditorium for performances, lectures) you can look over the old city and see the spot where they think that upper room was where the Savior introduced the sacrament. After church, we went down to the Church of all Nations built on the spot where the Garden of Gethsemane was. There is a garden inside the grounds of the church where there are some Olive trees that are 2,000 years old and were probably there when Christ went to pray before his crucifixion. There was a nice old monk there who let us in. Also, I saw my first mass being performed there inside the church. They were doing it in Spanish for some reason but the man was speaking really fast and in a chanting voice, so it wasn’t very clear and I couldn’t understand most of it. But I think it was my first time being in a catholic church. Returning to the Jerusalem Center that day I really realized the need for women to travel together, and men to be with women after dark. Palestinian men have a very different culture and even though our women are extremely modest by western standards (even by BYU standards) the men still cat call and make very licentious faces. It’s a culture of young men who don’t have a lot of interaction with women and whose view of western women is that they’re very “loose.” I felt intimidated and was glad to be offering women some added protection. (Note: Women here shouldn’t travel alone, especially close to night. There have been incidents of assault here against BYU-Jerusalem students in the past. Just something we have to deal with.)
But don’t let that get you down. The next day we had our first Old Testament class, as well as an ancient middle eastern course. Even though this study abroad is a semester long, we have class nearly every day of the week and sometimes two hours a day for one class to make up for field trips and more classes toward the end. Afterwards, we got to go out and explore the city for ourselves. We went to Alladin the money changer to change dollars into shekels, then we just explored around. We didn’t have anywhere specific in mind, but we did go to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher briefly, where 7 religions believe Christ was crucified and buried. We also met Shaban, a merchant who is tight with the students here and even has scripture cases in the back. He offers things for a lot cheaper than a lot of vendors.
Monday we had a great fieldtrip where we visited the Church of the Redeemer, and Evangelical Lutheran church built near BYU Jerusalem. We climbed to the top of the tower there. All the churches here are beautiful in their own right, most of pretty different. We also went to Nabi Samwil, a traditional site of the burial of Samuel. (Although he was probably buried in a different spot.) There is a Muslim mosque on top of a Jewish Synagogue. Technically we were in the West Bank, which is the only time we’ll be there this semester from what I understand. From that lookout, we could see Gibeon , the city found in Joshua 9:3. You can still see the hill where the city was built. We read about several battles that took place there including one where God sends hailstones to defeat the Amorites, and the Sun stands still. Also we visited the modern ruins of a palace for the King of Jordan. From there we could Gibeah found in 1 Samuel 13:2. We also learned about lots of battles and where they took place. Ummm, we also went to a couple other look out points. A funny note is the U.N. building here is built upon the Mount of Evil Counsel, a name given to a hill for some random reason by the Romans or someone a long time ago. A really neat part was we went to a lookout point over Bethlehem. Since it’s in the West Bank we won’t be going there, but it was certainly a positive experience to stand on a hill overlooking it (it’s pretty small, but a modern city still) and sing “Oh little town of Bethlehem” and other Christmas Hymns while looking where Christ was buried.
Today, we had our first Hebrew language class as well as a class entitled “Judaism, Zionism and the State of Israel.” They are both taught by Jews, very devout from what I can tell, and they should prove interesting. This afternoon we went to a church that believes the Virgin Mary was born there, as well as Hurva Synagogue, a Synagogue that has been destroyed and rebuilt three times (Hurva means ruins, I think). It was pretty modern looking inside, and pretty new. Its dome is easily recognized as a white dome in Jerusalem. The tour guild was very opinionated- very pro Israeli, but was also entertaining. He told a story how his cousin snuck into a Mosque and replaced the tape for the call to prayer with the Beatles song “All you need is love.” This mosque was located in the Jewish quarter of the city, so after that the Muslims moved out and stopped worshipping there. Kind of sad but a funny story. It’s been a really great experience so far. It’s going to be challenging balancing the difficult class work with exploring Jerusalem as well as with social, physical and other demands. But I’m looking forward to growing and learning a lot. However, just because I’m in Jerusalem doesn’t mean I’m suddenly somehow more spiritual. Kneeling to prayer at night I realize I have the same access to God here as I did back in Provo, or Washington. Nothing’s changed. We’ll be going to Turkey in like 2 weeks, which will be super awesome. Also we’ve got tons of great experiences ahead. Take care ya’all!
