July 24, 2008
Well despite the lock down we were able to do our Bethlehem Trip and see the birth place of my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. They believe that Christ was born in this like cave which is now in the middle of the city, but then would have been on the outside. Helena, the mother of Constantine, led an archaeological expedition in the 325 AD time period on a quest to find important sites of Christ’s life. She actually ended up “finding” everything she was looking for, and this was one of those things. Despite my cynicism, it actually very well could be, seeing as she has had like 1700 less years of dust and destruction to dig for looking for it, the people could have still remembered the tradition. Well, anywho, as a result of Helena’s findings the Catholic Church now has a huge Cathedral built directly over the caves. When you walk in the door is really small so that everyone must hunch and show their humility before the Lord. Then, you walk through the still functioning Catholic Cathedral and down the steps to this cave where supposedly Christ was born. I was a little bit unhappy with what I found. You see, what attribute do you think of when you think of the Savior’s birth? The first one that comes to my mind: humility. Well, the area is so decorated with statues and shrines and gold and shiny things and just like so much shrinery clutter that it was like what are we even looking at? What really threw me over the top was when they tried to tell me that this place right here was where the crib was. This exact place. I am as romantic as the next guy, but puhlease do not look me honestly in the face and tell me where the crib of Christ was located. How in the world could you make that statement? For you smart alec’s…don’t answer that question. It was just really disappointing, and then we were like being rushed by the people to get out, and well, it just was not the best situation. However, on the other side of the church there is another entrance to the other side of the caves, that is a quiet memorial portion of the cave for the bones of children they found. On that part of the same cave, we were alone as the two classes. We took out our Hymn Books and we sang. I kinda loved that. Silent Night…in the cave where the Savior was possibly born…yeah that is quite the experience. Follow the Star eat your heart out. Okay that was rash…I have had similar feelings in that cave as I have had in the past sitting in the Altisima Building Parking Lot watching Mom smile that angelic smile and wave her arms…well angelically. I mean that sincerely Momma. I just love the Spirit of Christmas, such a feeling of Hope. That was the feeling I got in that cave. Hope and Gratitude. Christmas in July continued as we left that Church and we headed over to what is called Shepherds Field. It is a hill between Bethlehem and Jerusalem overlooking the town of Bethlehem where shepherds watched over their flocks in the spring. The place where the boy David was supposed to be watching his flocks, instead of off slaying giants. It was more than likely the place where on a very very very special night a group of shepherds were greeted by an angel declaring, “Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tiding s of great joy, which shall be to all the people.” That was a place I was really glad to see. A place that finally kept its original feeling of simple holiness. No ornaments, no decorations. Not even a sign. Just a feeling. And for those lucky enough, a knowledge that here something spectacular happened, something that changed the world forever. Here, the birth of the Messiah, the Savior of the UNIVERSE, was announced by a heavenly host praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth, peace, good will toward men.” Oh you could feel it. We met as a class and had our own Christmas program on that hill as the sun went slowly down. Fitting of course that it was on Pioneer day, and wouldn’t you know it, a few fireworks exploded over the city for about a minute. Again, I have no idea why, but I loved it. My favorite part was when Liz played Away in a Manger on the violin. The first verse was amazing. Each note resonated through me as I stared down at the city of Bethlehem and thought of how close I was to it all. Away, yes, but not very far. I love when the Spirit whispers to me at these special sites. I just love it. At the end of his small lecture, Brother Draper asked us a very poignant question. Look around, think what happened here, and ask yourselves, is this the first time you have been here? I hope not I thought to myself. I hope not. We all had the opportunity of splitting up and spending some time alone in the dark, staring down at the city of Bethlehem and thinking about it. I am amazed at how close Bethlehem is to Jerusalem. Now, with all the expansion they are within two miles from each other, and back then probably about 4 miles or so. Isn’t it interesting that the Beginning and End of the Savior’s life happened so close to each other? Really making this land…well… holy. I guess not that interesting, but I was intrigued. As I stood there and thought about everything that I have seen and will see as we travel to Galilee next week. I thought again, about why I came. You know that feeling you get when you have been waiting to see something, or waiting to see someone and it is almost like you are not quite sure that person or place is real. In your mind, whatever it is has always just been a hope and never a reality. And then finally when you see that person or get to that place you experience this weird feeling of like…well I am finally here…okay…well…now what do I do kind of thing? You are happy to be there, but it no longer becomes a hopeful feeling. It is real. The person you met or the places you have finally arrived at do not necessarily lose their splendor or grandeur, but they just go from being a hope in your mind to suddenly being a reality. I kind of like that. I kind of feel that way about everywhere I have been thus far. It is hard to explain, but the places that mean a lot to you, they kind of just become a part of your reality. They are no longer created from a combination of pictures you have seen and stories you have heard pieced together in your imagination. They are just real places that you know. The part that I love, is how when the places are real and you make them a part of you, all that is left is to discover if the events are real and then make those a part of you as well. That is obviously no feat that can be accomplished in a moment, but is to be pursued over a lifetime. However, when you are there, and you are sitting in these places, and you feel that feeling. The events become just as real as the place. They become a part of your reality. The only difference is you don’t quite completely transfer from that feeling of hope. That feeling you maintain. And that is the fun part. It makes me excited for the next life.

July 23, 2008
Another early wake up call, as we departed Jordan, another really bad hotel breakfast, another struggle to collect everyone’s room keys as chair of the travel committee, another crummy sack lunch to pick up for the road, another smelly bus to begin another wonderful day. Why? I am in the Holy Land. Every day is amazing. Today in particular, on account of the fact that we made a little stop at the River Jordan. Let’s review what we know about the River Jordan…no it is too much…let me sum up. Among others, the Savior of the Universe was baptized there. Baptized. We hoped off the bus right near the Jordanian border and visited the supposed baptismal site of Jesus the Christ. Now, due to some differences in the Gospels, there is some debate over where exactly it happened. Some believe that it was in a run-off pool beyond the Jordan River. In fact, that is the place where some brave organization boldly planted a sign stating: “The Baptismal Site of Jesus Christ.” However, due to a drought and quite simply a general lack of appeal, I choose not to agree with that site. It just does not fit with my romantic mind. Therefore, I will hold fast to my lifelong understanding that the Savior fulfilled all righteousness in the actual River Jordan. That just agrees with me. Anyways, despite its romantic harmony, the river, well it just is not the purdiest place I ever saw. You see, it is just so green…and not pretty. Nevertheless and notwithstanding, it is ridiculously sweet! Man I love seeing these places. There were armed guards with huge automatic weapons following us around the whole time. Since it is right on the border I guess there are a lot of security concerns, and therefore: we read from the scriptures with an armed Jordanian Soldier hovering. Neat huh? It did not hinder the Spirit however, and it was a great experience. We talked about how important the mission of John the Baptist was and how that mission continued into the Restoration. I wish we would have discussed a little bit more about the importance of Christ’s baptism. After being there, seeing that water and thinking about it, I stand all amazed at the humility of our Savior. He made the several day journey from his home, not necessarily to be baptized in Jordan, but to baptized of John. Seeing Jordan, I found myself responding like Namaan of Syria. Are there not bodies of water to be found in Galilee and Nazareth much more appealing to be baptized in, than this very green portion of the Jordan? And if the Jordan is so important, than why couldn’t Christ have entered in the Jordan at Galilee near his home from which the Jordan flows out of. Answer: It was not the water. It was the authority. It was the authority of God, the Priesthood of Aaron, that as a Levite, John held. Christ honored that authority and in an act of pure humility, though he had no need, was baptized to fulfill all righteousness and show the gate that leads to Eternal Life. Repent and be baptized, here I will even show you how to do it- that’s the compassion of our Savior. I was so grateful for 2 Nephi 31 today. It was kind of difficult to enjoy the river as much without being able to just jump right in it. We did however, get to put our feet in and that was enough for me I suppose. It was a really great day. I was at the River Jordan.
When we got back to the center we learned of a Terrorist attack on Jerusalem again. Another nut got hold of a bulldozer and began to barrel down the road taking out everything in his path. Luckily no one was killed this time, but some were injured and now, we are on lock down for a few days. Major bummer? Yes. Optimist Tyler? At least I will finally be forced to take time to study for my mid-term tomorrow. Pray for the Peace of Jerusalem.

July 21, 2008
Dunt dunt dunt duh, dunt dunt dunt duh, dun dun dun duh! (Indiana Jones Theme Song)
Petra. The most amazing place ever. Remember, Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade? Remember that ridiculously sweet sand stone temple that Harrison Ford finds the Holy Grail in? Well…been there done that. The only disappointing thing about the day is that there was no sweet booby traps to make it through, and that there was actually no Holy Grail. In fact inside of that building is just a big empty room. However, that was the only disappointing thing that I saw today! It was amazing! Petra is basically just a canyon full of the coolest rock cut out tombs and temples. We spent the whole day there and I could have spent like 3 more exploring the caves and climbing the rocks! I was seriously so stoked the whole day. Here is a quick list of the amazing:
The beautiful narrow canyon leading up to it
The first sight of it, you first see it almost like a crack because the canyon turns and just gives you a sliver of the Treasury (Place where Indy found the Holy Grail”). It was so cool! The thing is huge.
Taking pictures in front of it was sweet, especially when I saw a humongous cliff overlooking the Treasury that was really really high. I bypassed the sign at the bottom (No Climbing) and snuck up the side of the canyon and climbed that hill and got a sweet picture of the Treasury. Best part: no damage, no punishment.
From there we walked through the amazing canyon and saw all of the sites from a distant before they let us go free to explore. We got to the bottom where we were to eat lunch and then they cut us loose.
First matter of business: Donkey Ride up the sweet canyon. Have you ever saddled a donkey? (yes I will avoid all the lame donkey jokes that were brutally murdered today) It is the funniest thing in the world. You are like too big for it, which makes it hilarious! Then, negotiations were absolute chaos. We thought we had a group rate with five of us, but in the commotion we all lost each other and in consequence our deal that would have saved us each a dollar. I actually paid more at the end just because the ride was so funny. A couple hi ho silver yells and pop pop noises in an effort to push my donkey to the front of the small pack of people we were with. The thing would hardly move, Whitney’s saddle started to fall off and she almost died, the trail got really narrow, impending death awaited me on both sides, Liz’s little boy disappeared and she was riding the crazy trail alone, Tricia’s was speedy and she passed everyone and got first place, and I was a little p dot o dot that my donkey came in last. Nevertheless, the view was incredible. We ran all over the rocks everywhere and I was just in heaven. Ridiculous climbs, ridiculous heights, and absolutely amazing views. Of course we did our best at finding the highest and coolest places to climb and most of the time that included a whole bunch of places that no one else went. We spent the whole afternoon running around the ancient ruins and rocks and mountains and just wow. For once I think that I might not describe it, pictures will just have to suffice. Ahh! Life is good…Life is so Good!

July 20, 2008
Today Began the Jordan Field Trip. 6:00 Breakfast…7:00 departure. Rough, but we have had it worse. So, we loaded on the bus and began the trek. It took maybe an hour to get to the border, and as usual we were the first tourist bus in line. At Jordan that apparently means nothing, we were told to pull over to the side and watch a whole bunch of other buses pass in front of us. We did pull over right next to a sign that said, “Possibility of Mines No Passage on Dirt Roads.” How cool is that? Yeah, needless to say we just sat on the bus and waited it out. It took forever, but eventually we got through and I got another stamp on my passport. We met our Jordan guide and headed to Mt. Nebo. That was a pretty cool spot. The final “resting place of Moses” and the mount he climbed to view the Promised Land. It was cool to imagine what went through his head. Forty years! Forty years of wandering in the Sinai wilderness and as I have already mentioned before, I spent 8 hours on an A/C bus in the Sinai and I barely made it out alive. However, in all honesty, despite being like two hundred million times better than the dreaded Sinai, it is not exactly what I would describe as a land of Milk and Honey. I would give it the comparison of arriving in Blythe after trekking through the desert between Blythe and Indio. That is according to me though, and when I think about it, although it might not be the lush hills of Trabuco Canyon, it was so much better than what they had known before: Egypt and Wilderness. I suppose Moses got to the top there and said to himself, “Well, finally something we can work with.” Obviously I don’t know what Moses was thinking, but it was cool to be there on the mountain where he was and just think about it. What do you think he would have thought? So yeah, I stood where Moses stood, not a big deal. Peter and I wanted to get a picture looking like Moses with his staff overlooking the Promised Land, but all we found was like a three foot 2X4 and that just made a ridiculous picture. We spent the rest of the day on a bus traveling and taking pictures of people sleeping. We landed in the hotel, had dinner and THEN were banned from using the swimming pool…Do you not realize that we have been sweating since Easters? However, a sandal somehow drifted into the middle of the pool and I somehow ended up swimming after it in my clothes. Starting a chain reaction of people swimming in their clothes. Luckily, I got out just in time to avoid getting caught by the man and therefore will live to swim another day.

July 19, 2008
Post the Old Testament final exam (Kelly I got minus 6…what did you get…oh and I posted that pic of Draper in the tunnel for you…classic or what?) we had the privilege of attending a Jewish Synagogue to welcome in the Sabbath. In all honesty, it does not come close to the Western Wall, but it was rad. The Rabbi is from New Jersey and moved to Jerusalem by himself in the seventies right after High School. Now, he is a Rabbi. This city means a lot to a lot of people. The service was cool. It was all in Hebrew, which was cool for 10 minutes, but then I wish I would understood. They sang just about the whole time. All the songs were really cool, they were Shabat welcoming songs. That were really cool. A Jewish girl I sat next to was really helpful and translated a lot for me, but not enough to really understand what everyone was saying. The Rabbi was really impressive. Could have given Bishop Carter a run for his money when he was in his glory days as Foothill Ranch Bishop, but as I stood there and watched, I realized that as far as leadership goes Carter is just a gem. Oh what that synagogue could have done if they had Carter running the show and leading the Shabbat hymns! The line would have been out the door to get in. I am glad he is on our team. Anyways, so yeah the synagogue was really cool. Like the Western Wall, it was a great experience to worship with other people and see their devotion to Jehovah. My favorite part was how excited they were for the Sabbath. It has changed my perspective. The Sabbath should be celebrated as a great opportunity to worship the Savior and feel the Spirit.
July 20, 2008
Shalom Shabbat. Happy Sabbath friends. I love Shabbat here in Jerusalem. The church meetings are always so great! It is kind of hard for a meeting to be bad when you have the entire city of Jerusalem displayed behind you through enormous windows. Oh it is so cool! Funny thing actually, after helping bless the Sacrament (I cannot tell you what a privilege that is) I went and sat down on the second row. Big mistake, the people on the stand block your view of the city and especially the Dome, my obsession. So, as soon as the first speaker finished I got up and AWKWARDLY moved to the top of the seating where the whole city was in view. I kind of felt like everyone was looking at me and it was weird. I sat down and the girl in front of me looks back with like a, what is your deal face, so I leaned forward and whispered, “I couldn’t see the Dome down there.” She’s like oh should have guessed that one. I seriously arrange my seating to ensure that the Dome is always in vision. The church meetings were really good, I felt the Spirit really strong the entire time and there is honestly not a better feeling. After church meetings, Rusty, me, Lindsey and Tricia flew these Spiderman Kites that Rusty and I bought in the old city. Now, that was awesome! We enjoyed a wonderful Shabbat afternoon flying kites over the Eternal City of Jerusalem. Check out that picture. Yeah, me, flying a kite, with the Dome of the Rock and entire city behind me. Dad, I must admit, after all that practice with your kite out at the river, I was humbly the best kite commodore out there. That thing was flying. A huge spider man kite flying over the Jerusalem Center until it crashed into the roof. That was okay though, I got it back.
After we wore ourselves out flying kites we decided, hey why don’t we jst cruise on down to the Garden Tomb before dinner? Quaint isn’t it? Just an afternoon Shabbat stroll to the Garden Tomb. The best part was just the three of us, Me, Tricia and Rusty, all went together and when we got there, there was like no one around the tomb. The Garden property is pretty big, so there were a lot of people inside, but we got the Tomb all to ourselves! All three of us were like, It’s a Miracle! Seriously, last time I could not have even taken a picture without another tourist in it and this time, I could not have found a tourist to be in it if I wanted to. We took all the pictures we wanted and then were even able to just stand in it for awhile and just be still. I know what you are thinking, and the answer is yes, the Tomb is still empty. Yes, yes yes! Oh is that not glorious news. Here is where I have to give a huge thank you to the person who put all the Music on my ipod (yes I still have the Dellpod, but I accepted the ipod as a very very generous gift). Heaven knows I am not good with technology, but as I scrolled through the songs that were put on there, I was so grateful to find the Hymn, “I know that my Redeemer Lives”. I sat there quietly and listened to it, while staring at an empty tomb. Choice. Simply choice.
Do you know what the word conquer means? What do you think of when you hear that word? Overcome, surmount, get the better of, annihilate, defeat, beat, overpower. Those are the synonyms that come up when I right click the word on my word processor. Well, all of those words, that is exactly what Christ did to Death. He beat it. He annihilated it. If you think about any fairy tale, or magic story, or adventure, what is typically the quest? Immortality. That has been the quest since the beginning. How do we obtain Immortality. Well guess what adventure fans and dreamers..That is exactly what Christ did. He won. Eternal Life and Immortality, are not found in Magic Rings or Sorcerers Stones. They are found only through Christ.. I am so grateful for the precious gift of the Resurrection. I am so grateful for the opportunity that the Savior has given me to qualify myself for Eternal Life. I have a lot of work ahead of me, but my Faith in the Savior leads me to believe that if He can conquer death, I will follow Him anywhere and do anything He asks of me. He did it. I know He did. He really did. He broke the bands of death. O death where is thy sting? O grave where is thy victory? Those are the words I whispered aloud today as the three of us stood there alone in that tomb. Three of us. Just me, Rusty and Tricia. The Tomb was empty, except the three of us.

July 17, 2008
Today was rough! Yesterday all we did was stay inside and study. Horrible. Today was another full day of studying, but we went to the Dead Sea Scrolls at the Israel Museum. They had the real Isaiah scroll on display. How cool is that? They just displayed it at the beginning of this year for the first time in 40 years. It was really really cool. It was just an old scroll, but I loved it. Man, I was glad we went and saw that.
July 18, 2008
Finals. We had finals in our Jewish and Islam classes and they were tough. In all honesty I was a little disappointed with those classes. I was so excited for them, and they were good, but I was a little disappointed. I am still not an expert on either Judasim nor Islam, but I honestly do not think that will affect my salvation. Still, there is insight and light that was interesting to learn. To celebrate the end of finals we went into the old city and had dinner on the roof top of the restaurant. Again, it was one of those times. There I was surrounded by good friends, a lot of whom I have recently met, and surrounded by one of the most historic and beautiful cities in the world? Does life get better than that? Of course it does. I could have used my family, I could have done without the knowledge of an impending Old Testament test the next day, but nevertheless, I really enjoyed it. We also walked home from the Old City as the sun was setting. We saw a whole part of the city we never usually do. The shop keepers were cleaning up, the families were coming out, the kids were playing tag in the street. There is still so much life in Jerusalem, the Eternal City. There I was walking through the streets of Jerusalem with the sun setting. Like how many before me? The list is a long one. There I was. Wow, yeah, another moment to remember. I am so grateful for the experiences God gives me. He loves me.

This is David's look out spot.

July 15, 2008
Today was ridiculously sweet! Today we went into the tunnels of all tunnels. Today we went into Hezekiah’s tunnel. This tunnel was built by Hezekiah when invaders were approaching to conquer Jerusalem. The tunnel was built from the Gihon Spring outside of Jerusalem to the Pool of Siloam. The same pool that Jesus healed a blind man. The tunnel is so sweet. It goes for like 1/3 of a mile. The water in the tunnel is so cold and refreshing and reaches almost to your waist at times, but mostly just hangs out around your knees. Considering my new obsession with tunnels, this was like the king of tunnels. The water just made it that much cooler. It would have been way more Indiana Jones if we would have found the tunnel ourselves but I loved marching through it with the class just the same. Also on that field trip we visited David’s city which is basically a portion of the original city that David inhabited. Also we saw Area G, which is this really phenomenal archaeology site. The cool thing about that site is that this lady originally came there who was a notoriously “unbiased” atheist archaeologist that came and declared that there was no evidence of David ever living. Well, despite that fact that her being atheist actually makes her just as biased as a Christian, she made an error. She stopped too soon. Had she have searched just a little farther to the right she would have found what she was indeed not looking for, circumstantial evidence of David’s existence, proving that he indeed did exist. What is the lesson there? Keep looking. There is always proof of God, in one way or another. Keep looking. The other cool part about the field trip was going up and seeing a sight that would have been equivalent to the size of David’s palace and about the exact location. This is where things got cool. You see, from that place, it is actually really really easy to see into other people’s houses and rooftops. Had there been a young lady bathing on her rooftop, you know what? It would have been really easy to see more that I wanted to. David did not have to necessarily been looking for trouble. He could have just stumbled upon it. That was not however, the error. The error was when David acted upon his temptation, kept looking, eventually called for Bath-Sheba, and etc etc from there landing himself in the Telestial. In the same way, we all come upon sin and temptation, like David we may just even stumble upon it on the rooftop. From there, it is up to us. It does not matter what righteous acts you have done in the past, consistency is the point. It is consistently fleeing temptation. Constancy. David gave in to temptation on that rooftop. Flee temptation.
After that we broke into groups and went to the Church of Holy Sepulcher. The Church of the Holy Sepulcher is the other traditional site of the Crucifixion and tomb of Christ. Well, I like the Garden tomb better personally, but there is a lot of cool artwork and mosaics. Then we climbed a tower and saw the whole city from it. That was also awesome. Another successful day in Jerusalem.

July 13, 2008
July 13, 2008
I have been to Gethsemane and back again. I hope that perhaps the retelling of my journey there can be a parable for everyone in search of it. You see, it was not the easiest place to find. We talked with some center kids and got directions on how to get there, but were not exactly sure about every turn, I guess you could say we kind of just walked in the general direction and hoped to figure out the way as we went. We live on Mount Scopus which is actually just adjacent to the Mount of Olives where Gethsemane is located, so it is basically we were right by it the whole time. The Church was asked by the City of Jerusalem a few years ago if they would be interested in helping form a park on the Mount of Olives, they did and it is now called Orson Hyde Park in memory of Orson Hyde who first dedicated the Holy Land in this last dispensation. So, there is now an entrance to the Garden through Orson Hyde Memorial Park. So, in order to find Gethsemane, we needed to find the entrance to Orson Hyde Park and then make our way there. Well, I actually loved the fact that this proved to be difficult. As we did not have the exact directions, we kind of got a little side tracked and lost, which was not a huge surprise because we did not really even know what exactly it was we were searching for we just kind of started by putting one foot in front of the other. We came to a big black gate in the road and knocked on it, thinking that it might possibly be the way. A Muslim lady came to the gate and soon after began scolding us in Arabic. We realized it was not what we were looking for. So, we climbed up a dirt hill and took a couple crazy paths, but eventually found our way to the Orson Hyde Memorial Park. We were at the top of the Park that has a beautiful rock switchback path winding down the Mount of Olives to the Garden. It was what we had been searching for, but of course, the sprinklers were going in the Garden full blast. We took turns running down the path and pretending to be James Bond avoiding laser rays (you know at least I was) stopped at safety checkpoints along the way, but we were all just getting soaked. It actually turned out to be really fun, but not what were expecting, we were kind of all in like a spiritual mood. After a ways down the hill of getting totally blasted with water, the Gardener shows up and turns off the sprinklers. His name is Muhammad and he has been the Gardener there for nearly 20 years. He was really interesting to talk with. It was a lot more pleasant of a walk after the sprinklers were turned off, but it was definitely not as exciting. The view of the city was amazing though. Finally we get to the Garden, or a part of it that lets in tourists and it is closed. We walk up to the gate and the man says, come back at 2:00. Just perfect right? Here we are, about eight kids trying to visit a very special special place and it is just hard. Well, we wandered around looking for something to do and ended up at the cemetery on the Mount of Olives that has like seriously one bijillion graves. That was really cool. I am really glad that we went there. It was just neat to see all of those graves, there were so many! Okay so we go back at 2:00 and wander through the Catholic Cathedral that they have and the whole time we are hoping that there is a place to sit and study, but all the gates to the Garden areas are closed. We were really bummed. I asked the Catholic priest if he would let us go into one of the gardens and he told me to ask the guards. At first, the guards were not very helpful and then they found out we were Mormons. Now, because of the reputation the students at BYU Jerusalem Center have had in the past, the people around here really like the Mormon students. Well, he goes and lets us in this like private part of the garden across from the Cathedral. He unlocked the gate, let us in and then locked it behind us and left. It was just 8 of us BYU students alone in our own part of the Garden of Gethsemane. It was amazing. It was just so peaceful. Definitely worth what we went through to get there. And definitely worth what it takes for anyone to get there, both metaphorically and literally as obviously both can be difficult.
I found myself staring at the trees. Those crazy olive trees, and just thinking to myself, those trees are real. They are so very real. I do not know why that struck me, but it did. Those trees were real, the Garden of Gethsemane as a place, was no longer a place that I needed to decide was real or not. Like China, it does exist. There was only one question that I needed to answer in relation to that Garden, did it really happen? Did the most infinite and eternally significant event in the Universe really actually happen somewhere amidst similar olive trees somewhere on this hill? This question came to me really fast as I stood staring at those trees. It seemed to me as though the only question that I really needed to answer. Did it really happen? Did the person I have called Savior, brother, and Friend, really ever enter there? Did he really depart about a stone’s cast from his friends; fall on his face and find himself in agony praying more earnestly unto the Father on my behalf? Did he really suffer somewhere amongst these olive trees, for me? Did that really happen? Is that real? Those trees are. Those trees are definitely real. I went up with my own hands and felt them. Yeah they are real.
What happened next was really cool. As we entered this private part of the Garden, almost immediately we slowly separated. It was amazing to watch this small group of 8 slowly trickle apart like raindrops on a window go their separate paths down the glass. We did not say anything to each other, we all just knew. We all spread out among the trees finding little stools, benches and rocks to sit on. Each of us with our own tree, our own scriptures, and seeking our own special experience. You know the cool thing? I got mine.
I found myself actually alone. In the Holy Land, this is very very rare. It seems as though there are tourists everywhere, jammed in at every site. Here, we had the whole Garden to ourselves. I could not stay put. I kept getting up and wandering around throughout the Garden. I finally decided on one spot under a tree in the corner of the Garden and pulled out my scriptures. I read the accounts in the Gospels of the Saviors time in the Garden of Gethsemane. Luke’s account has always been my favorite; however, it was Matthew’s account that particularly touched me this time around. I read in Matthew 26:37… “And he took with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and began to be sorrowful and very heavy.” That scripture has never ever struck me before. But it just hit me. I saw it. I imagined it in my mind. The Savior, with three of his best friends in the Universe, walking toward through the Garden, looking sorrowful and very heavy. Wow. That was a lot for me. My eyes actually filled up with tears. I really do not know why. I just looked at the ground that I was sitting on and imagined the Son of God walking across it, with heavy and sorrowful steps. Did he kick a couple of stones as he went? Did he look at his feet as he walked, focusing on the trail? Or did he look upwards towards heaven seeking strength? Picturing his footsteps was for some reason easier than picturing his face. I do not know why that struck me so bad, but it did, it really did. I stared at the ground now and I perceived for the first time, the weight thrust upon the Savior that night. I felt it, just like I felt those trees. I knew it was real. Yes, I knew that long before I came to the Holy Land, and definitely long before I entered into the actual Garden, but I will still be forever grateful for my experience in that Garden. It was not like today was the first time I ever answered the question, did it really happen? But, today it did become even a little bit more real. Oh how grateful I am to a loving God who continually grants me experiences that help me feel his love. Oh how grateful I am for a loving God that continually strengthens my testimony and desire to become like Him. Oh how grateful I am for my Savior and Redeemer Jesus Christ, who walked into that Garden of Gethsemane with heavy footsteps. Walked through those real olive trees, and full of sorrow and burdened with weight showed me forever what it means to be courageous. Showed me what it means to really love. Savior may I learn to love thee, as I know though lovest me.
Guys, I got tears in my eyes again, so I gotta go, but I just want to tell you that I am so happy.

July 12, 2008

We had to be on the bus and leaving back across the Sinai at 5 am. Seeing as I am the chair of the travel committee here in the center, I was supposed to be there at 4:45 collecting everyone’s room keys. Well, I woke up at 4:43 sprinted over there and was there by 4:45. Got all the keys, woke some other people up who slept in and were on the road by 5:15. After another treacherous journey across the Sinai, we reached the Egyptian border, where the fun began. You see, I was attempting to bring a weapon across the border. I went through the Egyptian check out and the guy pulls out my sword from my bag and I gave him a big smile and tried to pull the idiot tourist card. Yeah my fellow students all thought I was retarded. Well, he started walking around looking for a superior official and then came back and suddenly just put the sword back in my bag and was like okay. Well, as we got up to the Israel border, Professor Draper comes up and goes, Tyler you might be in trouble up here at the next border, because quite frankly I had to bribe the guy to get you through that last border. I started laughing and was like ha ha okay sure Brother Draper. Then when he walked away another girl was like, no seriously Tyler I saw Brother Draper literally bribe the guy. He reached into his travel pouch and handed the guy 5 bucks! Ha ha My religion professor had to bribe the guy to get me across the border with a weapon! Come on that is hilarious! So when I went through the Israeli border I just had the sword slung over my shoulder and the guy was like do you have any weapons and I was like yup! He laughed and they gave me a hard time about it for awhile, but I just was like come on guys! Eventually the let me pass through, but made me promise to keep it in my bag until the States. Yeah, like that’s happening.

The best part of the journey was the Red Sea. No, it didn’t part, but we swam in it. Snorkeled in it actually. I have always imagined it to be kind of gross, but actually it is beautiful. Like beautiful. They have sweet coral reefs and the brightest blue water. Moses and those guys could have set up a resort if they did not have to pass through it on the way to the Sinai. The snorkeling was not bad. Yes, Park I found a sweet tunnel to swim through under the water in the coral. It was fun, I had a bunch of people follow me through after I did it a couple times. I felt bad because a lot of the girls got cut up on the reef, but they did not listen to my specific instructions, which were to take baby strokes. But, you get a little short on breath and you kind of freak out I guess. That was way fun though, the fact that I did tunnels in the Holy Land both under water and in the hills is just cool to me. I really am obsessed with tunnels now. Tunnels and the Dome of the Rock, and Pyramids. All of these things are very good. I really liked just sitting there at the Red Sea and staring at it. Again, I don’t know what it is, but sacred spots really just have a feel to them. Moses parted that Sea. I know that he did. I really loved just staring at it. That thing parted. Crazy. Crazy. But real.

Anyways, I loved Egypt. It was amazing. I wish I had more time for insight instead of just travel log, but I did not have my computer with me the whole last week, so this was all just done in like two hours and I am tired. The End of Egypt…Back to Jerusalem.

July 11, 2008

That morning was a rough one. All day swimming in your sweat, several dance parties and then a night train followed by another day of sightseeing. We went to Citadel & Mohammad Ali Mosque, Cairo Museum, lunch at Hard Rock Café, and then a Bazaar. Of course, I bought a sword. I got a pretty good deal. I walked in and told they guy I really liked statues. I looked at his statues for awhile then I casually hinted toward a sword on the wall with a camel bone handle. I challenged him to a sword fight and winner gets the sword. He considered it for a moment but realizing that a dead customer was no good to him began to negotiate a price. We negotiated awhile I finally said my last price called him my brother and gave him a hug. He accepted and gave me a kiss on the cheek. It was amazing. Oh yeah I also bought a “real” Rolex that is ridiculous and takes up my whole wrist. I will definitely not be late to the bus anymore with that clock on my wrist and it’s a Rolex so you know it’s good.

That night we had a sacrament meeting in the hotel and my elder’s quorum responsibilities basically consist of organizing the Sacrament each week. It was cool. I brought water cups, but stole 8 plates from the dinner line, cut four pieces of bread, and asked some people to help. We passed the bread and water using the plates. I helped passed. These kinds of meetings are always special. Here you have a small group of a little more than 80 who desire to take the sacrament so bad, that while in Egypt they rent the hotel banquet hall, steal plates and bread from the hotel restaurant, tediously fill up water cups with bottled water and hold an hour long meeting. Why? Because they desire to keep their covenants. Because they love the Savior. Because they desire the companionship of the Holy Ghost. Oh it is all about the Holy Ghost. I just love that feeling. It really was a neat sacrament meeting. And best of all, I did not spill the water that I was balancing on a plate. You can bet my tongue was out and I was in full concentration the whole time as I passed it to the presiding authority. It sure was neat.

July 9, 2008

Woke up early again, but this time instead of hoping on a smelly old bus, we boarded one horse carriages to ride to the Karnak temple. Well, you see, lots of people like to sit in the back of the carriage and take pictures out the side and just enjoy the sound of the hoofs on the road and bells on the harnesses. So, obviously I jumped up on the front seat next to the driver and eventually talked him in to handing over the reins. So, yes, I piloted a one horse carriage down the streets of Luxor, Egypt screaming at the top of my lungs “Hi Ho Silver!” Yes Shellie, I thought of you the whole time, if I could have had anyone next to me instead of that Egyptian man it would have been you. The guy later turned on Notorious B.I.G. and we bumped down the streets of Luxor, blaring rap music in a one horse carriage. It was amazing! (side note: I am sitting in the hall of the Jerusalem Center and the security guard just walked by and said what’s up Mr. Moustache! Ha ha ha His Arabic accent on Moustache was awesome) So, we did the Karnak temple, and the Funerary Temple of Ramses III and then back to the hotel for some categories and Marco Polo in the hotel pool before we organized the dance party of all dance parties. So, we rented a motor boat this time with a top, kind of like a ferry. There were 20 of us and we had it for an hour. Naturally, we got on the roof of the boat and rolling down the Nile River showed the viewing tourists and Egyptians how big wheels really keep on turning. It was ridiculous. Seriously, we had a walk off up there, Rusty and I did Michael Jackson moves, it was so fun! The last 20 minutes consisted of Tricia and I talking each other out of jumping into the nasty green waters of the Nile. You see, the Nile is gross. One girl jumped in last year and had to wear depends on the bus ride back across the Sinai. It took a lot of convincing but we both eventually talked each other out of jumping in, even though it was going to be sweet.

The night ended at the train station. We flew from Cairo to Luxor but we took a night train back to Cairo. The train was a step up from India trains on the niceness level, but that was only cause we all road first class. And of course we added to the experience by throwing a dance party in the train lounge. Like 30 of us all piled in the lounge car, Rusty grabbed his Ipod and there was a legitimate dance party in the train car. It got really awkward at the next stop because everyone from the whole station came to check out the car full of dancing white people. The dancing lasted for about 15 minutes before the guy at the counter finally realized that we weren’t going to buy any drinks and killed the music. It was sweet until then though.

July 9, 2008

Wake up call at 5:15. A failed attempt to beat the heat at some of the sites we were seeing that day. We went to the Valley of the Kings that Morning and it was HOT. However, it was totally worth it because we got to see a whole bunch or ridiculously sweet tombs including the famed TUTENKHAMAN…aka King Tut. That guy was a little tiny guy. His mummy was actually on display there, and was real little. It was the first of several thousand year old dead people that I had the privilege of seeing in Egypt. Anyways I asked our guide about the height of Egyptians back then and he got all ticked and was like, what we need to understand is that he was only 18 when he died and not yet fully grown. Yeah, our Egyptian guide was ridiculous. We were all ready to kill him by the end. He kept calling us his Habibi’s and we were seriously ready to stage a mutiny. Anyways, we did not. The guide still lies to torture another BYU group next fall. So, after the Valley of the Kings, we headed to Ramses II tomb and after an annoyingly long lecture by our fearless tour guide Habibi, we got to wander around. It was really cool. For those of you endowed, I have some really really interesting hieroglyphics pictures to go through with you. They actually helped normalize the temple ceremony for me, it really was strange the aide in understanding that the Egyptians helped me with regarding the temple. I would prefer to defer that insight to a more personal setting. The funniest part about the trip though, was my friend Paige, who was actually in my ward last year, were twins. We both wore Wal-Mart $5 T-Shirts, white paints, straw hats, and fanny packs. It was ridiculous, and I loved it.

We had free time in the afternoon and then went on a camel ride. Well actually the camels were on the other side of the Nile, so yes, we took a faluka ride across the Nile River. It was not just any faluka ride it was a dancing faluka ride and our captain was a dancing machine. So we had a dancing faluka captain and then our 65 year old professor hops up (yes Kelly, the Draper man himself) and starts cutting some serious rug. What could be better? Oh yeah, for the first time in supposedly five days there was strong enough wind to let out the sails and really fly down the Nile. Oh yeah and on the flag they had a huge Bob Marley banner and the ship was called Amsterdam. I hope that explains our dancing faluka captain. It was amazing. Simply amazing. The camel ride was actually pretty amazing as well. Despite the hairiness, the smell, and the fact that it just plain hurts certain parts of your body to sit on them, the camel was actually enjoyable. My guides name was Ali and he was 10 years old. He was a really fun little kid and I loved him. I felt bad because he had to walk while I rode but his boss would not let him ride up with me no matter how much I tried to persuade. We wandered around as the sun was coming down, which made really cool camel pictures had they have been taken by someone not on a camel. Seeing as I took the pictures they were real blurry, but I had my ten year old guide take one for me and even though my head was cut off I feel like he really captured the moment. My favorite part was wandering through houses. It was just like India again. Like almost exactly. I really did not feel out of place. Well, despite being on a camel, having white skin, not speaking Arabic, and being led by a ten year old boy on a ten foot rope, I felt totally like I belonged. Okay, not really what I meant. What I meant was that for a lot of the huge caravan of 48 camels we had, many people were kind of shaken up by the poverty. Suppose it takes a lot to compete with India, but Egypt did come close. I am grateful to have India to compare everything with for the rest of my life. By the time the ride was over though, I was ready because I was in serious pain. Not so much in my legs, or back, but somewhere in between.

July 8, 2008

Bright and early we head off to the pyramids which in itself would have been a ridiculously sweet activity, but there was more. The Pyramids were incredible. Serioulsy they are way bigger than you would have ever imagined. Like, you picture them to be pretty big, but they are bigger. They are so sweet, but one of those things that you only need to see once. I mean they are cool and you take pictures, but then well they are still just there. Don’t take that the wrong way they really are magnificent! We got to go inside of the middle one. Which was actually the most disgusting thing ever. No air and the body odor of 100 different countries mixed in to one, but nevertheless, it was way sweet to be inside there. Tricia and I (if I haven’t yet mentioned Tricia shares a similar passion to mine of pushing the limits, therefore we have made an alliance and seek to get a little bit more from ever stop we go to) decided that pictures was not enough, so we decided to climb those suckers. You see this is actually strictly forbidden, by the Egyptians and therefore the program. Thus, we could not climb to the top, but we went around to the backside, where no one really was and climbed up quite a few layers before reason got the best of us and we decided to start climbing back down. It would have been easy to climb to the top, but I really did not feel like either an Egyptian prison or another time out on the bus. I felt satisfied with our attempt.

Next, we went to some other tombs and statues and stuff, but to tell you the truth after seeing the pyramids everything else, despite how cool it is, really just does not compare. Now, that is not entirely true, but it was really hot and really hot andf really hot so it got a little bit difficult to stand in the sun and stare at a bunch of statues that began to look very similar. But in the end, it was worth it, there really were some amazing things that day. That evening we flew out of Cairo to Luxor. We checked into a pretty nice place in Luxor, but it had brown water coming out of the showers, and that was gross. We snuck into the pool that night, because it was closed by the time we got there and woke up the staff with chicken fights. It might not actually have been closed, because we never got kicked out, but I think it was.

July 6, 2008

Egypt

EGPYT!!!!!! We embarked upon our 7 day Egyptian tour bright and early on Sunday and July 6, 2008. We honor the Sabbath on Saturday here, so Sunday is a normal day perfect for a super long bus ride with a ton of stops along the way. We stopped at a lot more places than any of us quite expected, but they were sweet and it made for some sweet adventures. The first place we went to was Beersheba where we all had to wear hard hats around the site. This was probably the best joke that anyone has ever played on tourists before. There was these buckets of hard hats that were of course nasty from a ton of tourists head sweat from the ridiculously hot temperatures, and they made everyone who came to the site put one on. Well, it was probably 15-20 minutes later that we began to look at each other in these ridiculous red, pink, yellow, and blue hard hats and wonder, wait why are we wearing these things? The place was a ruined fortress that did not have a standing wall as tall as me, let alone anything that you needed a hard hat to protect you from. Is that a funny joke or what? At the end you did have like a 5 foot long bridge you went under, but man it was funny that we wore hats for that! Beersheba is supposedly cool because everyone says that is where Abraham dug his well, but Brother Draper wasted no time in explaining to us how that was actually false. Which led us to wonder why we are here actually? Apparently because it is just a really old place.

We went to another place, that was just awesome. It was a huge ruined fotress/city that was on top of a huge hill that had caves cut into it all over the place. Tricia and I, as we have made it a habit, decided to wander off and find some sweet tunnels and caves to search for treasure in. Well, we went into all of these houses built into the side of the hill that were awesome, but then everyone caught up with us and played in there too. Then, while we were walking down the path back to the bus, we jumped over a wall and scurried up to where it looked like there were some caves, and there totally were! The first ones we went into were pretty cool, but there was still like footsteps and stuff in there, so there had been people in it quite recently. But, it was still way rad. The second one was even better because there were not foot prints and deep in the back corner of it there was a little tiny hole in the middle of the wall. We both climbed through it and it looked like we were the first two to climb into that room in a long long time. It was super dark and all we had as light was the focus light and flash of my camera. We made our way around and I climbed up to where I could see more of a pass, but it would be a difficult climb with no flashlight, but then we remembered that we were not archeologists, explorers or treasure hunters, but students and that we just might be late for the bus. We left the cave, I climbed back through that hole face first and fell on to my shoulders! Then, we proceeded to sprint down the hill to where the buses were waiting. Sure enough, there was Dr. Draper standing outside of the bus staring up at the hill with his clipboard in hand. I got to him first because I went around the steps and just plowed down the mountain, unlike Tricia who was still just flying down the steps as fast as possible. I get to him and ask the obvious, “Are we late?” “Oh yeah” he replys. Then when Tricia arrives he asks us both to wait on the bus at the next stop. Well the whole way to the next stop we are playing the guilt game and laughing and nervously handling the anxiety from the impending punishment: like a child waiting to be punished by his mother for something he knows he has done wrong. Well, Dr. Draper heads into the next site without us, and Tricia and I are left on the bus like two 8 year olds being punished for stealing candy from the candy jar. Time out was real rough on me. I seriously went into six year old mode and even made the statement, “this is the worst punishment I have ever received.” Yeah, my counterpart thought that was pretty ridiculous. The funny thing is, I still hold true to that statement. Eventually Brother Drapes came out and got us and we got to go in and eat ice cream with everyone, but man it was pretty lame! Totally worth it though, no question.

We ended the day at the Kibbutz, this Jewish kind of communal living plantation place. Basically a bunch of Jews who all live together and try to live the law of consecration. It was interesting. The best part was dinner. They fed us a great meal and then we all learned and sang Jewish songs together. It was especially helpful after going to the Western Wall, we felt cool because we were up on their dance moves. We danced, clapped, song, laughed and just had a great time with those people, basically our tour guide and her brother playing the piano. They were really fun though. We danced our hearts away and then split classes to go to separate Kibbutz to sleep. Our class got hooked up. There was a swimming pool at our place and I organized a huge prisoner game using a soccer ball and a wire that hung over the pool holding up a sign. It was awesome. The prisoner game lasted forever, but it was really really fun. Tricia and I also tried running around on the bottom of the pool with a huge stone and that got difficult because the stone was pretty big, but it was fun. Then we slept and had Kibbutz food in the morning.

Bright and early the next morning we woke up and headed across the Sinai Peninsula. A barren barren wasteland. As I sat in that AC bus and looked out over the miles and miles of desert waste in front of us for the entire 6 hour trip, I really felt for the Israelites. When they were saying that it is better to have been slaves in Egypt than to suffer here in the wilderness, they were serious. That place was absolute punishment. It would have been unbearable. That is why you learn the lesson, listen to the Lord! Do not try deviate, do not temp, do not ignore, listen to the Lord because the consequences of sin can end up being worse than 40 years in the most ridiculously hot and desolate place ever. I do not know how much worse, but real bad. We did not even stop for sightseeing and we stop everywhere, it was just a hot and miserable desert. However, when the trip was over, we ended up that evening in Egypt at the Pyramids for a light show! Woot woot!

So, once in Egypt we throw our stuff down in the hotel and cruise over to the pyramids as the sun is setting to enjoy a light show. It was absolutely amazing! Well, actually the light show was ridiculously corny. Like really bad. But, seeing the Pyramids at Sunset and then lit up at night was a real treat. We actually built a human pyramid in front of it with a bunch of guys. It was such a success that we did it like every time we were in front of the Pyramids.

July 4, 2008
I suppose the appropriate greeting would be Shalom. Today was Friday, which was not only the first day of midterms (which were an absolute killer), but also Friday evening is the day the Jewish people welcome in the Sabbath at sundown. In Jerusalem they have the privilege of the Western Wall, or sometimes referred to as the “Wailing Wall.” There is a lot of history behind this sacred place for Jewish people, some of which I understand and a lot of it which I do not. In context, the wall is a place where people come from all over the world to pray because of some spiritual significance the wall has. Also a common thing to do is to write a prayer or the name of people on a piece of paper and shove it into the cracks of the wall. Well, I have passed by the wall previously and really did not think it was all it was cracked up to be with a few people praying here and there. Today, I found out what it was all cracked up to be. Today, as the evening was drawing in, our whole class walked from the center all the way over to the wall to behold and participate in one of the coolest things I have yet seen. We get there and the place was just absolutely packed with people (it is a good thing I served in India or I would not do so well with all the crammed space and bodily odor, post-India: nothing compares). So, there are thousands of Jews all over the place headed to go pray and sing and dance and celebrate the coming of the Sabbath at the Western Wall. It was amazing! Our teacher asked us the very poignant question, “When were you this happy about the Sabbath coming?” The people really were celebrating their opportunity to observe the Sabbath day. You know what was even better? They let us celebrate with them. The boys and girls are separated, the boys to one side and the girls to another side, but both accessing the wall. We went down and were given kippas (spelling?) to cover the top of our head, which made us blend in with everyone. Except for me of course, the orange shirt and blonde hair kind of contrasted with their brown hair and church dress, but nevertheless, let’s just say I blended in. Oh who am I kidding I stuck out like a Celtics fan at the Staples Center; you could have seen me and some other BYUers from across the stadium! Still, I just kind of followed the basic procedure. First, I gradually worked my way up through the crowd to the wall, I got up to it and I touched it and it was weird, there were people praying all around me and then a couple of us BYU students just up there kind of in the midst of it all, I just did not get the real effect and needless to say felt very out of place. After that, however, I wandered around through all of the different song groups and prayer calls and people worshipping. Here, I must explain, the Jews are always moving when they pray or sing, I guess it is just to show their excitement, but there could be more to it. They sway back and forth or up and down, side to side, as the read from scripture, pray or recite scriptures or sing. With that many people, all of them moving around so conspicuously and often times pretty dramatically, it just… well it is just an experience to be inside the crowd. I wanted to gain more from the experience, so I kind of ditched the group. I went off by myself and for the first time in a while I was alone. Funny that I say alone, I was surrounded by like thousands of people on all sides, but I was alone. I just watched and observed from the middle of the crowd. I loved what I saw. I saw young boys, with their hats and ringlets, scriptures in hand, praying and reading. I saw teenage boys, with their hats and ringlets, scriptures in hand, praying and reading. I saw grown men, with their hats and ringlets, scriptures in hand, praying and reading. I saw old men, with their hats and ringlets, scriptures in hand, praying and reading. You know what I really saw? Devotion. I saw a people who were devoted to the God they knew and had passed that devotion and love down though their generations. I saw a people who were so very sincere about their worship. I loved it. A dad passed by me with his son on his shoulders, trying to get him up to the wall. Another dad passed by me holding his two daughters, mom probably couldn’t watch them tonight and that was not keeping Dad from coming to worship. These thousands of people were here, in unity, the young the old, the Jew and, in my case and several others, the Jew and the non-Jew, to worship God. How much does the world need good people? Good God fearing people. People with morals. People with faith. Oh, I just loved the experience. It taught me so much. The world and God need devotion, in whatever form they can get it. Nephi teaches us that we are judged according to the law which we have been given. I am so glad that there are still so many people who are living to their full extent the law that they have been given. It made me think about myself, what have I been given, and what am I doing with it? Am I devoted to my belief and to my faith? What an opportunity for me to step outside of my life, my culture, my beliefs and just realize some very important things. Still, by myself at this point, I again made my way up to the wall. I waited behind a man who had his faced pressed against the wall praying with tears streaming down his face. Earlier I thought this was strange, “how strange that someone would do that in public and at a wall that has been touched by literally millions of people.” Now, however, I was so very grateful for that man. His religion was not a show, or a passive thing, he was there praying and pouring out his soul to the God that he loved, trusted, and judging by the earnestness in his voice and tears on his face, that he desperately needed. In that, there was holiness. A holiness that I could feel. When my turn came up again, now my second time at the wall, I put both my hands on it and said a very sincere prayer to the Father. It was personal, but more sincere than a lot of my prayers have been in sometime. It mostly focuses on my gratitude for being able to be here with these people as well as an earnest desire for Him to bless them and their families.
After this, the fun began. You see, after people are done with their prayers and their contact with the wall. They continue their worship through song and dance. It was AMAZING! A feeling of brotherhood that Elders Quorums would die for. There were several groups doing it slightly different, but basically what would happen a group would gather and all sing a song in Hebrew, very reverently but gradually work their way up to more enthused and more enthused. At the end, everyone would link arms and begin to go around in a circle, like a clock. As they started to move the song basically turned into a simple chant that everyone could say and did say as the linked arms. The circle turned into a full on dancing circle with everyone’s arms on each other’s shoulders running around in the circle, clapping, dancing and singing. Oh it was just amazing to watch. They were all just celebrating! Singing, dancing , clapping and just being with their brothers, with huge smiles on their faces, they welcomed in the Sabbath. As I watched all of this, I just could not help but want to join in. I just wanted to be a part of it and began looking for some way to join. Then it appeared. I looked over to a group dancing a little ways away from me and guess who was right their singing and dancing right along with everybody else in the midst of it all? Yes, you guessed it, Russell Edward Greiner. His hands on some total strangers shoulders, a huge smile on his face, dancing like anything and singing the words to a song he had no clue the meaning of. Lickity split I was over there in two seconds jumped into the group with Rusty and we just had an absolute blast. The people were so accepting, they just kept grabbing people and throwing them in and the circle just kept getting bigger and bigger, if you were on the outside, it was like the tide it just swept you away into the ocean of people and whether you liked it or not you were dancing along with them. Would you guess that I liked it? Yes, I absolutely loved it. It just was too much for words. I am actually kind of embarrassed that I even attempted to try and describe it to you. We were not allowed to take pictures, but if we were, they as you hopefully could have guessed would also, not do it justice.
How is that for the Fourth of July celebration huh? To top off the day even more, when we came back, we stood on the balcony overlooking the city and guess what we saw? Fireworks! In all honesty I have seen fireworks like every other day since I have been here, and we know that those fireworks going off over the Palestinian portion of the city were not celebrating American Independence. Still, it was cool. To be on the other side of the world and see fireworks on the Fourth is pretty cool.

for your viewing pleasure...

July 2, 2008
I have never understood the phrase “doggy heaven.” My mom has repeatedly used it over and over again, but I just simply have not understood it. Therefore, I have decided to create my own definition. I will use it to describe today, a state of absolute bliss. Now, with bliss comes suffering (hot buses, hot sun, hiking, tired, lack of water, lack of sleep) but the joy completely outweighs the suffering. Today we went on a field trip and I kind of loved it. For official field trips we split into two groups of forty according to our religion classes, go on two separate buses and just take the Holy Land by storm. I’ll break the trip down, but do not rely on my spelling of certain locations; I just do not want to take the time to check them all. We first visited Samson’s stomping grounds in the Sorek Valley. All that really entailed was a big valley, but it was cool to review the Samson story right there and kind of guess the exact location he slaughtered all of those folk with the jaw bone of an ass. Really exciting stuff. Then we moved over to the valley of Elah and did the unthinkable. Okay, not that unthinkable. The valley of Elah is where David slew Goliath. Yes, you guessed it, we all got slings, went to the same brook where David found his 5 smooth stones, gathered our own not so smooth stones (despite my dedicated searching for smooth ones, the brook is dried up in the summer you see) and flung stones across the valley. It was awesome! There we are at the exact scene where David slew the giant Philistine, and we are throwing stones back and forth at each other. Okay a couple of times I hit myself with the stone, but those string slingy things are way harder to handle than they look. Eventually I worked my stone into like a big arch through the air, and then finally into a straight shot. Still, smashing a guy in the head, however large the head, would prove exceptionally difficult. Therefore, what did I learn? A greater respect for David’s skill with the sling, and a trust that the Lord was definitely with him. As you can imagine, I just loved that experience, I just absolutely loved it. Slinging stones in the valley of Elah, come on! That is what I am talking about! Later we visited a place called Lachish, at one time an Israel stronghold; the Assyrians totally sacked it and just butchered the survivors. At that site, are the remains of an ancient Hebrew Temple. It was cool, we went and stood in the Holy of Holies, which is today just a pile of really old looking rocks, surrounded by outer piles of old looking rocks, that once made up exterior walls. However, this is where your imagination and love for history comes in. This site was particularly sweet to play the imagination game. I stood on top of the ruined walls and imagined that I lived there. I could see the Assyrian armies pressing forward, the thundering of their feet, the dust being turned up from their fierce march and I could hear their drums pounding. A million thoughts went through my head. When a bloodthirsty, feroicious, take no prisoners army is marching on your city and begins to build a ramp on which they plan to just run up and over the walls of your city, what thoughts go through your head? Hopefully, you begin to immediately analyze your relationship with God, and your preparedness to meet Him. Well, I started to get scared at this point in my imagination game, so I stopped imagining and reminded myself that in a few minutes I would jump on a bus and leave the area unharmed and with all my limbs. It got a little too real for me there, but it sure was neat to be transformed in time for a second. That was way sweet and the rest of the day just did not disappoint me, because we spent the rest of the day visiting caves. Oh wow. It was so fun! Luckily, I found a suitable substitute for Parker as an exploration buddy and she and I just went nuts! Where people would think they kind of came to the end, we would totally pushed the limits and found little passageways and crawl space that lead up to big open rooms. There was one cave that was all like worm holes between large rooms. I kind of freaked out in that one, but a couple of girls talked me through it. I escaped breathing into the paper bag and then I was right back at the caves again. We climbed through the ceiling on one of them and just kept climbing and climbing until my shoulders couldn’t fit anymore and she went a little further and reached a layer of actual earth. We shimmied back out of that one. Our goal was to find treasure that would lead to fame, wealth and honor and… um… we are still looking. Most of the tunnels were carved out by men in like the late B.C.’s! How cool is that? I explored all of these tunnels that were made by men thousands of years ago? I loved it! At a place called the Bell Caves, we all pulled out our Hymn Books and sang together. It was particularly cool because we actually met the other group of forty there, and so all 80 of us belted out, “I heard the Bells on Christmas Day” (kind of random, I know) inside the cave and it just sounded awesome. However, the video I took of it only picked up my voice and thus… not so awesome…oops. It was a really cool moment though. We also sang Come, Come Ye Saints in that cave. Another random one, but I sure am glad that we did. Do you remember the words to that song? They are inspiring. The message of that song is the message I learned today. Stick with God, do the right thing, persevere through difficulty and God will not abandon you. He will help you do the impossible. Brothers and sisters, David killed Goliath, he really did. I saw the gigantic skeleton with a rock sunk in his forehead. Okay, I didn’t really, but I just know that David did win, that event actually happened. Remember that the next time you face a giant problem. The one on Jehovah’s side walks away victorious.