Hezekiah's tunnel and Miracles in the Holy Land

Hey Family and Friends!

This week has been one of blessings and learning!

 On Sabbath the area 70 Brother Catcher came for Branch Conference from Abu Dabi. He brought such a special spirit with him as he invited some random people from the audience to share their testimony as well as asked for an impromptu Choir number Nearer My God to Thee. I was able to sing in it and what a neat spirit as there in the chapel as he got up to speak. He spoke of his own conversion in his early twenties when he came to the Y as a nonmember. After he was baptized he said he would invite his friends to come over to his home and bear their testimonies to him almost weekly so he could build his own. What a neat idea huh? He then spoke of the miracles of the countries around the middle east and how the church although small in many places is growing and miracles are happening.

 The Branch presidency here was reorganized because President Player and his family are moving to China for his job. A man who lives in Bethlehem and is Palestinian was called to be in the presidency and knows Arabic which is kinda a big deal- he was baptized last year after he had a friend who was Mormon and said he could see the light in his eyes and asked him about it but wasn't able to find out about the church until he went to the States on a trip a little while after. He then looked it up and talked to the missionaries and gained a testimony of the Book of Mormon. He then came back to Jerusalem and was baptized in the Red Sea with his close family. He spoke of how hard it is for him as a publicity manager as his occupation to keep quiet about he church and how much it has blessed his life, but how it is a commandment here and important. Brother Ludlow (our ANE teacher) said the next day in class that we are living in a very important historical time here in the Middle East. This is the first time the church was had a member who knows Arabic well in church leadership and who's family and friends will be able to realized the example of his family even if he cant directly share what he knows- the work is moving forth here!

After church we went out and watched the sunset on the grass after going to the church of Dominica Levet- where Christ was traditionally thought to have wept over Jerusalem. We met a cool priest while there at the church named Father Sebatsian who wanted us to come help him with the garden so we got his number and called him back so a group of us are going to go over tomorrow morning and see if we can help out somehow- his english isn't very good so we will see how it goes:)

Ok we went on an amazing field trip to the City of David on Monday- we went over outside the Old City to an excavation site where they are digging out what they think is David's Palace. Also under there is the tunnel of Hezekiah that was built when the Assyrian's were trying to conquer Jerusalem in 722 BC and laid a siege around the city. However Isaiah prophesied that they wouldn't even shoot an arrow through the walls that Hezekiah had built which proved to be prophetic. The Israelites needed water but didn't want to have to go outside the city to get it so they tunneled underground and made a path for the Gihon Spring to end up in the Pool of Salome. The Pool of Salome is where Jesus told the Blind man in John ch9 to wash the mud off his eyes and healed him so he could see. We sat at the pool and read in John Chapter 9 about this story and how even after the miracle the Pharisee's tried to fault Jesus for healing on the Sabbath. They really missed the mark, something we need to be careful not to do. Also next to the pool are the steps leading up to the temple where Christ would have walked for sure, it was neat to sit there as Brother Harper testified out the importance to keep trying each day to become more like Christ and to never give up because he will never give up on us.

 We were able to walk through the tunnel which was pitch black and filled with refreshingly chilly water that was about thigh deep. It was soooo cool, we had flashlights and head lamps- mine is actually out of batteries to it was cool to have to just rely off the light of others and made it kinda exciting! It kinda reminded me of going through the crack because if one person stopped in front of you, you were kinda stuck. It went about a mile long so we walked through it in about 45 minutes- we decided (Dwight, Kenzi, Devry and I) that we want to come back and go through completely in the dark for an adventure! (it was kinda funny at the beginning Kenzi and I were towards the front of our 40 students in our class and we stopped to take a picture and then went to follow and thought that it was a dead end- there was a gate you went through- so we turned around and had everyone go back and tried 2 different ways hat really were dead ends so everyone was starting to get a little worried when we went back and realized the gate opened. we told everyone that we were just trying to make it more exciting!)

Sunday we went to the Biblical Zoo and got waffles for Kenzi's 20th birthday- it was fun to see signs of animals with Scriptures next to them (like next to the snake something about Satan being the serpent) and then a huge Ark that was something like the size of Noah.

Kol Tuv!

Melinda