Living in Jerusalem!

I have almost been here for a month! I have absolutely loved it! There is so much to say so forgive me for just spewing out anything that comes to mind. Also, tons of my friends are posting pictures on facebook so you should check there as well. The BYU center is a gorgeous building that is on the Mount of Olives that overlooks the city of Jerusalem. The building is 8 floors and is built into the hillside. There are “service music couple missionaries” here who coordinate weekly concerts in which we have already seen several soloists from the Philharmonic here in Israel. This is one way we get to open up to the community and let the locals come tour our beautiful center. Mostly Jews come, but sometimes we have some Palestinians that come as well. They love our Christmas concert that we’re preparing for because they don’t celebrate Christmas like we do.

I LOVE discovering a new culture, learning a new language and seeing how things work in another country. This place reminds me of France in many ways. I have run into several French speakers since I’ve been here and basically MELTED inside because I love their native accent and it’s just so fun to talk to them.

LAYOUT

The first four floors are where we all sleep at night. They are dormitories. Our teachers and some of their families live here with us. They also have a very strong security system run by Israeli and Palestinian locals. They are very kind people. Our classrooms are on the sixth floor along with the auditorium, and the library and concert hall/sacrament meeting room is on the eighth floor. The latter is by FAR my favorite room! There is a giant organ and the seats are built into the hill so it slants down to the podium. THE BEST PART: There is no back wall as you are watching the speakers each Sunday—it’s just a window that faces east and allows you to look out over the beautiful city of Jerusalem. You look right out onto Dome of the Rock and can see the city walls. Getting distracted during Sacrament Meeting is easy to do. . . J

FREE TIME:

Sometimes we have free time to walk about 20 minutes in the humid sunshine to the Old City of Jerusalem. There are many things to explore there. We’ve seen the route that is believed to be where Christ carried His cross to Golgotha and markings which explain what happened at each place, the Gate of Damascus, and many shops where we barter with merchants to purchase leather, scarves, spices, authentic shawarma or falafel, and many other things.

MATERIAL:

We have classes Monday through Friday, with Monday being our field trip day. We are taking religion classes, Near Eastern Studies, and a Palestinian and Israeli class. They are so interesting!! I have loved learning about other religions and their devotion to God. It’s cool to see how their history makes them who they are today. In the Old Testament Class we are able to literally visualize the places that it takes about in the Bible. The City of David, the temple of Solomon, Bethlehem, Garden of Gethsemane, Mount of Olives, Garden Tomb, Beer-Sheba, Shechem, Bethel, Nabi Samwil, Arad, Russian Orthodox Church of Ascension and many more are places we’ve studied about, discussed, and contextualized. It makes me appreciate everything our early prophets did for us. The phrase the “God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob” and the “God of Israel” have so much more meaning to me now! Or to understand the use of Tabernacles and Temples in their day and how it applies to us today has really impacted me. I understand more about my purpose in the House of Ephraim. We have a lot of work to do to preach His gospel! Or when I pull out my book of Mormon and read about Nephi going back to Jerusalem with his brothers, I can picture exactly what it would look like for Laban or Lemuel to wait outside the “walls of Jerusalem” for Nephi, or what the allies or streets that Nephi walked up as he “was led by the Spirit, not knowing beforehand” what he should do. IT’S JUST SO INCREDIBLE! J

Well, that’s enough for today! I’ll try to get better at writing in this! Love you all!