Long time no post

Sunday, February 20

Free day so I went with Kristen, Katie, Jared, Mallory, and Ashling to a couple of museums. My favorite exhibit was a huge city model in the Ariel Center that shows how Jerusalem grew up until 586 BC when the Babylonians destroyed the city. The weather was windy and wet so it was an ideal museum day. In the evening Brother Muhlestein gave an optional lecture on the history behind the Book of Abraham. I finally met someone who struggles to sit with their feet held still more than I do. BJ Muhlestein was sitting next to me, apparently attending his dad’s lecture not by choice. I thought the lecture was fascinating but I guess he didn’t. Either way, I got a laugh watching him bolt out the door as soon as the lecture was over.

Monday, February 21

City of David field trip. First a clarification. Not Bethlehem. Think Old Testament City of David, aka Jerusalem, where David established his capitol city. This deserves a ton of detail so will just have to be a story when I get back.

Highlights:
-David’s palace-think of the history of this place!
-Solomon’s millo-stonework that held up the hill under David’s palace
-three houses on the millo-from Hezekiah’s time when people were desperate for housing in the city because of the Assyrians
-Melchizedek’s wall- stones on bedrock stood through history with repairs-can you imagine how much theses stones have seen?!
-Hezekiah’s tunnel-water mid-calf most of the way, super narrow. I think I sang my “song-I-sing-when-I-am-terrified” song about five times before I was comfortable enough to branch out to alternative melodies. (I don’t really like confined/dark spaces/water) Still I was so glad I did it!
-Siloam pool-my favorite spot of the day, helped me be okay with the upcoming transition from Old to New Testament.

Tuesday, February 22

Mrs. Goldman, my Hebrew teacher, talked about her family’s Holocaust history to help prepare us for the Holocaust museum next week. I was grateful for her willingness to share because I gained perspective from what she said. Thinking about the Holocaust in terms of 6 million people is too hard to wrap my head around. One family’s story makes it much more personal.
On a happier note, here’s an amusing moment from my day. So I have awesome, amazing roommates and we try to have apartment scripture study each night. Jessica was already in bed by the time we remembered tonight so she rolled out of bed so we could read a verse. I couldn’t help but joke about how important reading our scriptures is and how we don’t do enough of it here. We both ended up laughing almost to the point of tears because between personal study, study for class, class time, and discussions we typically spend between 2 ½ to 4 hours each school day in the scriptures. Can’t get enough! There is so much to learn and I feel like the Old Testament has come alive for me in the past two months. I love it so much.

February 24

Thoughts from OT class: We talked a lot about Jeremiah 2:16 which says “My people…have forsaken me the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water.” I love this scripture because it provides a vivid picture of the futility of anything we rely on besides Christ and the Atonement. Cisterns are dug into the ground and hold stale rain water. If they are broken they don’t even do that. Nothing but Christ and the Atonement can give us living water-true healing and forgiveness that will ultimately lead to eternal life. One of the themes from the OT that we’ve touched on a lot is idol worship. While we may not be worshiping graven image-type idols today, anything in our lives that we place above our personal relationship with our Savior is our idol equivalent. I think lots of times we don’t even realize we are worshiping idols. Idols are as effective as a broken cistern but still somehow we think they will hold water.
We had a Seder dinner. Dr. Yardin, our Judaism professor, led the meal. It was a three-hour (shortened version) process and unlike what I was expecting. Although themed on the Exodus story, the focus was more on what Rabbis have said since then about the Exodus and how Passover should be observed. When I do this with my future kids someday we will be focusing on what the Exodus teaches us but it was very cool to learn one Jewish family’s version of Seder. I heard there are Seder meals at BYU each spring so that will be fun to go to next year and compare.

February 25

Breakfast was amazing! The piano used last night was left in the Oasis so Cory played fantastic music while we ate. It was a great start to a great day! Two hours of OT and two hours of Ancient Near East is my favorite class schedule.
Suggestion: although reading textbooks can make you fall asleep, don’t read about Sennacherib then give in to the urge to take a power nap. Crazy dreams about having to defend the JC from the Assyrians could possibly result.
Israeli folk dancing party. History lesson and dance instruction combined as we danced through the progression of Israeli dance in the past 100 years. My favorite dance instruction yet-I had a blast! (Probably hard for all of you to imagine but just remember I now eat vegetables.)

February 26

Today can’t really be described by words. It’s not so much what I did as the people I am around and the lessons I am learning and how I am growing in so many ways. I am so grateful to be here and have the incredible blessing of this experience.

February 27

After breakfast Jessica, Faith, Sarah, Ashling, Mallory and I went out. Our first stop was the Ecce Homo Arch/Convent. This was an awesome complex. First Sarah, who had been there before, pretended to be our tour guide, quoting us names and dates and all sorts of fun facts we’ve learned in the past two months that had nothing to do with Ecce Homo. Then we went into a cistern built by Herod for his fortress that had dripping water and great acoustics. We sang a couple of songs-A Child’s Prayer was the best-then wandered up through more levels of ancient masonry until we found ourselves in a room traditionally and possibly the place where Christ was scourged. After going outside, we were able to look through glass into a chapel whose front is the traditional arch under which Pilot questioned Christ and washed his hands. So much of what we have been focusing on so far deals with the Old Testament and really ancient history. Although I’ve loved every second of it and don’t want to leave OT, I am very, very excited to focus on Christ and His life during these last two months!
Next stop the Temple Institute. The Temple Institute is composed of a group of Jews who are preparing for the Third Temple. They have done intensive research and built artifacts to go inside. If original artifacts are discovered, they will be used instead, but if not, this group of Jews has things ready to go that have been made totally in accordance with the law. I was pretty sick to not be allowed to take pictures here. They had everything from a model wearing priestly garments including the breastplate with twelve gems, models of the temple, instruments like the lyre and harp, laver of gold, copper, and silver, and many detailed paintings of how it has/will look.
We studied for a while by the Western Wall and tried to do more things that were closed.

February 28

Field Trip to Yad Vashem Holocaust museum. Compared to the one in Washington D.C. this one was less graphic and emphasized Zionists themes of resistance and heroism. Still a very sobering experience. The pictures of the kids get me the most. Afterward we hiked on Mt. Herzl which is a key political/religious place in Israel’s history.
For FHE we cooked cookies at the Bentleys. Brother and Sister Bentley are here in a non-proselyting humanitarian capacity. I didn’t know either of them very well before but I connected well with Brother Bentley. Then I learned that he was born in Safford! Small world eh?

March 1

You never know what you will learn in the weekly announcement session. This week boasts an engagement (girl here, boy in Provo) and more info about how blessed we were in Egypt. Basically we were within four hours of a mess-of-a-situation which, while not dangerous, would have been a logistical nightmare. The more I learn and think about our experience there, the more grateful I am for the knowledge that God was truly looking out for us.
Eight hours of classes spread between 8 am and 9 pm makes for a long day.


March 2

Last day of OT. I will miss Brother Muhlestein so much. He made the OT come alive, not just alive but directly applicable in my life. I have come to love this book. I seriously feel like the OT has become a part of me. I have learned about my ancestors and learned from their stories. The promises made to them are extended to me and I hope to live worthy of the blessings promised.
Last day of Hebrew. I’ve enjoyed learning the alphabet and basic words. I’m not sure how long the words will stick but I’d love to teach the alphabet to anyone interested in learning a usable “secret code.” The best part of the final was reading “Book of Mormon” as one of the sound-out words!
After dinner I got recruited to play basketball. Great alternative to studying for the OT final.

March 3

Explanation of classes is probably a good idea so you will know why I am taking finals right now. Of the 15 credits involved in this program, 8 are first block, 3 second block, and 4 full semester. The blocks aren’t exactly equal and we travel more in the second block but you can imagine the load has been pretty intense thus far. Hebrew ended yesterday, OT final today, NT starts tomorrow, the two Modern Near East class finals are on Tuesday.
The best part of the day was a volleyball tournament in the evening. Seven teams of four players, double elimination, each game six points. My team didn’t win but it was fun.

March 4

Interesting day. I have a tendency to overstress school. However, it is hard to be around people in the same situation who aren’t concerned at all and stay worked up for too long. In other words I ended up in the city instead of studying. We explored and found a way onto the rooftops where we had a great view of the city, the temple mount, and the Mount of Olives. Lots of Jewish groups were gathered up there preparing for the Sabbath. Someone found a higher outlook and as we stood up there enjoying the scenery I felt the peace of the city drive out my academic stress. Plus, on our way home we ran into the president of Chile. He was standing in the middle of an open-street intersection, surrounded by suits, big cameras, and BYU students with wide eyes. We were pushing curfew so we didn’t stick around too long but those who knew Spanish got to talk with the outside suits a bit.
After dinner we watched the movie The Nativity Story. I had never seen it before but I loved it. 1) great perspective of what is truly important 2) Bethlehem is our next field trip!

March 5, 2011

Garden Tomb today. We sang hymns pretty much the whole time. We only can sing Christian hymns – not anything that has to do with the Restoration – but it was way cool because we were in a rather secluded spot and quite a few tourists came to listen to us singing. How amazing that tourists who are only here for a short time and have way more things to see than they could possibly get to would take ten minutes and listen to a bunch of college kids singing hymns. Some even joined in – a man from Germany and two from Slovakia who recognized some tunes. While we are here we are under obligation not to preach or discuss the gospel but the Spirit communicated through the music helped these people feel something at least.