Field Trip over looking the City/ Augusta Victoria Church

Today we went on our first field trip mostly to beautiful outlooks of the city and the areas around Jerusalem. I was impressed with all of the places that are frequently talked about in the scriptures that are all so centrally located around the city of Jerusalem. It was neat to picture Mary and Joseph making their way over the hills towards Bethlehem- the geography here is super hilly! We went running yesterday at 6 with a group from the center and our last 3/4 mile was almost straight up Mt. Scopus to return to the center (we all decided by the time we get back we are going to have calves of steel). Anyway picturing Mary who was so expecting gave me much more sympathy and respect for her traveling in the heat of the day on a donkey!

Other neat spots we hit included:

• Church of Augusta Victoria- A christian church with a huge 200-300 foot tower that makes up one of the 3 you can see if you look east from the Old City (the other two being Hebrew University and the tower on the Roman Orthodox Church of Ascension). The church itself was built in the 1900s to commemorate Christs Ascension into heaven, named after the rulers wife Augusta Victoria. Beautiful golden mosaics are seen in the apse of the church which depicts Christ surrounded by a mandorla and is awe inspiring! We were able to climb the tower and look out over the city as well as sing Be Still My Soul in the chapel which brought the Spirit very strongly. I am learning more and more that holy places that are created to worship our Heavenly Father and his son Jesus Christ by many different faiths have a spirit of reverence that can be felt. I know that they don't have the whole truth but it makes me understand more fully that they do have parts of the truth and are very good people who also love our Savior very much.
• We next went to the historical (Brother Harper likes to use this word when its "probable" that something may have been at a site) place that Samuel the Old Testament prophet was buried. It is an interesting building that started out as a Mosque but then was converted into a Jewish synagogue. We were separated boys and girls and went down separate staircases into the basement where there was a sarcophagus where many Jewish women were reading prayer books. It was kind of a tiny site compared to others we have been to. It amazes me how many sacred sites there are in the Holy Land for so many people of different faiths- almost every corner is adorned with some church commemorating something.

Alright had to add this random pic in here because its the first shwarma I ever had only 15 shekels in the Old City from a super nice guy named Eddie- he told us "all the mormons love me and I love all the mormon students":) IT IS DELICIOUS! ah sooooooo good no wonder people have trouble staying in shape here....

• We finally visited the Jewish cemetery that is located below the Mount of Olives and Mount Scopus that contains thousands of graves of Jews who believe that if they are close enough they will be the first to be resurrected when Christ comes again. Facing this cemetery right below the old City is another graveyard of Muslim graves that were placed there "supposedly" in front of the Golden Gate that led to the temple mount back then to prevent the Messiah from entering. Both graveyards are massive and amazing to look at.

This is my bed where I sleep... its pretty comfy and cool, ha ha just kidding this is a cool underground dungeon thing left from Roman times that I think a hobo probably lives in:)

Shalom from Jeru!