So to start off with yesterday... I went to the western wall with all my fellow students to see how the Jewish practitioners begin their Sabbath day. It was a pretty cool experience to see so many different denominations gathering together to worship. Some friends and I had to push our way to the front to get close to the wall and put the prayers we had written into the crevices in the wall. It was a pretty cool experience. I always admire people who are so devout in their faith. They split the men and the women up before they go into the area where the wailing wall is. The men were dancing and singing which sounded cool but I couldn't see because of the wall between the two sections. If anyone doesn't know what the wailing wall is... it is usually wrongly called the wailing wall and believed to be a wall of the second temple of the Jews built by Herod the Great. It is actually the western outer wall of the temple grounds built by Herod the Great so it is old. On the other side is where the Dome of the Rock was built a while after the temple was destroyed. So cool. so many cultures in one place. I'm in heaven.
This morning we had district conference for our church meeting. There were people from the three different branches in Israel; Bethlehem, Jerusalem, and Galilee. I met a women names Spencer (that's her last name but she said that is what people have been calling her since she was 19) who was from Galilee. It took her about 3 hours to get here. She said that her church building looks over the Sea of Galilee and it is the best view ever. It must be pretty great because I thought the Jerusalem Center had the best view: it perfectly frames the city. There is one window that you see as you walk down the stairs that frames the city. It seriously takes my breath away every time. I don't think Ill ever get used to it. Anyways one women that talked in church was from Russia. The meeting was all in English but she couldn't speak English so one of the students here had to translate (he served his mission in a Russian speaking mission) and we had guys in back translating what was being said into Spanish through receivers. I have never experienced that before. Pretty Sweet! Shout out to all the return missionaries that spend so long learning and continue to serve!
Today was probably one of my favorite days so far! After church we went to the Garden Tomb. A lot of the religious sites here cannot be proved to be where the stories actually occurred but nonetheless its what the tomb would've looked liked or similar to. It was a really small tomb. Think of my closet and that's about how big it is maybe smaller, and the ceiling is really low. there were so many people there singing. People from all over the world and it was awesome to hear and so pretty. We sang hymns while of the girls we are here with accompanied it with her violin. It was pretty sweet. Not something that I ever dreamed I would do. I never dreamed of being at the tomb singing hymns like "He is Risen" and "Nearer My God to Thee" (the latter being my favorite). People sat in chairs in front of us and just listened and people just stopped walking and some sang quietly along. We had a lot of people coming up to us afterwards to thank us and tell us how beautiful it was. It was such an awesome experience and such an amazing, eye opening, heart churning experience to be there. I hope during the semester to keep visiting this site as often as possible. It was worth all the money, heartache, time, everything just to be there today.
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