June 29,2008

“Who did this to you? Who did this to you?” These are the words a shop keeper called after me as I passed by his shop in Jerusalem’s main market today. “Did what?” I hollered back over my shoulder. His answer was short and concise, but uttered in amazement bordering confusion, “Moustache” he called out. After that I was too far away to hear anymore and luckily because I could not control my laughter. What was better was the girl next to me; she thought that was about more than she could take. Nevertheless, I suppose it is good to conclude that the moustache is causing a splash here in the Holy Land as in states. I am just excited to see what the baby looks like by the time Dani’s wedding rolls around. Another sweet experience happened today while we were shopping. You see, all of the shop keepers and a vast majority of Jerusalem knows the BYU students very well. Some of them like us, some of them don’t. I like to believe that more like us than not. Anyways, so we have a rule here in the center that anywhere you must be in groups of three. Well, we were in a large group, but me and another girl both wanted to go to a shop that had something we knew everyone would want. Therefore, we hatched a plan to sneak down to it about five stores down and make a purchase secretly before anyone else noticed it and then come back and the group would never know we left. (I know what you are thinking…and that is why the story is so funny) On the way down there as we passed a shop a man sitting outside hailed us in his ridiculously thick Palestinian accent, “Come BYU Come inside my shop!” Then he noticed there were only two of us, and immediately goes, “Wait, I will only allow three in my shop at a time. Not two, only three. These are the rules!” Imagine how we felt at this point! Um…. We tried to like walk past, but just felt so ridiculously guilty! We turned our eyes to the floor and walked back to the group. “That is right he said, what are your names?” We smiled and said, “Oh no, you are not getting us in trouble!” We all shared a good laugh at this point. We came back about 15 minutes later with a third person and he smiled and said, “Now you are three!” It was a really cool experience. We are always being told how everyone’s eyes are always on us and you know what, they are! This random guy knew our rules and was not satisfied that we were not keeping them. Let that be a lesson to all of you the next time you try and bend the envelope: There is always a random shop keeper watching.

As per adventure today, we had an amazing class on Islam. Our teacher is actually a Palestinian Christian from Bethlehem. Islam is his specialty though, and man is he cool. He makes the drive from Bethlehem every time he comes to teach us, he is the Department Chair of Humanities at Bethlehem University. I really like him. I am excited for the class. Islam fascinates me. I spent the rest of the day drawing dotted lines paralleling Islam beginnings and our faith. Very interesting. But you know what? They do not believe Christ is the Savior, and therefore I can gain no peace from their doctrine. Christ is peace. The rejection of Him is misery. It actually IS that cut and dry.

After the delightful two hour Islam lecture a group of us all went over and did the rampart walk along the Eastern wall of Jerusalem. That was amazing. We walked around half the perimeter of the city atop the wall. It was amazing. I wish they were the same walls that Nephi and his Brothers hid outside of and lowered themselves over, but they are not. The current walls surrounding the old city actually were built by I believe by Suleiman the Magnificent in the 16th Century. (How cool would that be to be subtitled The Magnificent). Still, I imagined Nephi and his brothers fleeing from Laban’s guards as I walked along the walls of the city and saw the streets below. I imagined the Savior walking the streets we had a bird’s eye view of, walking, healing, blessing, and teaching as he went. However, I also imagined wars and battles, crusades and riots all on those same streets. Thousands of years of war and bloodshed. I looked out the small little holes built in the side of the wall for archers to shoot through. I saw the lookout towers and the graves that adorn the hills outside the city walls. It is amazing that here, in this place of great conflict, the great supreme act of lasting peace was performed. Nevertheless, I testify that it did happen. The walls whispered that to me today. No, they didn’t see it, but they knew it. They had seen far too much in this city to not believe that. It is their only hope just as it is mine. “Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: they shall prosper that love thee” (Pslam 122:6).