Wow the first Sabbath in the Holy Land - we had choir practice this morning at 9 and it was probably the biggest choir i have ever been in around 70 kids on the center came (its kinda the cool thing to do apparently) but we sang in sacrament meeting. we got to have the sacrament and the speakers with 3 huge windows facing the city it was beautiful!
After church we walked to the Garden of Gethsemane which is about a 20 minutes walk- and wow there was such a special spirit there. I brought my scriptures and journal and was able to read in Matthew 16 about Christ going into the garden and it brought to life the story being in a place that was similar if not the actual garden where Christ suffered. The Olive trees are gnarled and twisted and seem to witness of the agony of Christ that he went through, but also there are beautiful flowers and birds that reminded me that because he suffered we can live again with Him and enjoy repenting and feeling the peace of using the atonement in our life. The Garden is surrounded by a church that is Catholic and has the original stone that Christ fell down on the rock to pray on (supposedly) but we were able to talk to a young monk there who has been training there for 2 years from Italy. His name was Camillo and allowed us to sing I Stand All Amazed with a group of about 30 kids echoing inside the church is was a really neat experience.
We walked on the way home through the Orson Hyde memorial garden that is a rock like garden with paths through it and trees and flowers. Today was a little hotter than the other days we have been here but right now it isn't too bad and is actually kinda chilly in the morning and evenings- alright I better go do my Old Testament reading now but I am living in Jerusalem... yep its amazing to read about things in the scriptures and then look outside and realized I am living in the place where these things happened!
Great post!
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