District Conference

   
 

     Being a ward greeter at District Conference was the best! People came from all over Israel to have conference at the Center. Israel has such a diverse LDS population. I was able to meet people from all over the world. Elder Rasband came to call and set apart our new District Presidency.
    The day after, we were on the Temple Mount and ran into him! My group took advantage of it and got a picture with him in front of the Dome of the Rock. Now that he's an apostle it makes this picture even more special!

Dead Sea

Before we went to the Dead Sea we stopped at another of Herod's fortresses called Masada. The fortress was taken during the first Roman Siege.

When we went, they were doing some restorations on part of the site. It was so cool to see them recovering the amazing paintings on the dining hall walls.

The real event of the day was the Dead Sea! Coolest thing I've ever done in my whole life!!!! So amazing! I can't even describe what it felt like. The Dead Sea is 1400 feet below sea level; making it the lowest place on earth. The water was a beautiful bright blue/green color. Don't let it deceive you though. If you even got a drop in your eye it was like the world was ending for a solid 15 minutes. It also tasted awful. I'm making it sound bad though. It was so Awesome!!!!! You would walk out and then all of a sudden your feet weren't touching the bottom and you were just floating. It was the weirdest feeling. I think everyone needs to swim there at least once in their life. 

Until my next adventure,

Lindy

Holy Fire

     Every year, the day before Easter, Orthodox Christians gather in Jerusalem to participate in the ceremony of the Holy Fire. The Orthodox Patriarch enters the tomb of Christ in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and repeats prayers that have been handed down for centuries. A light then appears in the tomb and continues to grow until if forms a column of fire. The Patriarch lights his candles, exits the tomb, and lights the candles of others around. From here, the fire spreads like, well, like wildfire! Everyone lights each other's candles and it gets passed all around the church and then down the packed streets. If I thought the streets were crowded for Good Friday, it was nothing compared to during the Holy Fire. I have never been more smashed against complete strangers in my life (and hope to never go through that again.) As the fire neared us and everyone was reaching and shoving to light their candles or touch the flames of others, we all just looked at each other and thought "This is insane. This is seriously the worst idea I have ever heard of." The real miracle of the day is that no one caught on fire. 

Taylor was nice enough to be our third so we could out to the procession. It ended up being a really good thing he was there. He got us a great spot at the front of the crowd and helped us navigate through the masses.

The procession was awesome! There were bagpipes and drums and this guy twirling a stick like crazy. I don't know how to express how little room there was but once again, I feared for my life.

There were the cutest boy scouts! This one is my favorite.

This is actually once the crowds started thinning out. 

Right before we headed home it started raining. Hard. Once again, it's a good thing we brought Taylor! He stole us some plastic bags so we could cover our stuff, made us ponchos, and then we waited it out until it slowed down a little. 

    It's days like these where I feel like this whole experience is just surreal. People save their whole lives just to come to Jerusalem for this one ceremony and here I am. I hope I never take for granted the experiences I have had and all I've been able to see while here.

Until my next adventure,

Lindy

Informal Talent Show

     I got to spend 4 months with some of the most talented people I have ever met. Everyone on the program had something amazing to offer and was so willing to share it with others. Earlier in the semester we held a formal talent show in the Upper Auditorium. There were amazing piano pieces and violin solos and singing. But now it was time for a little fun. The show was full of non-stop laughter. You can't imagine the amount of inside jokes that are created when you're with the same few people 24/7 for four months. I somehow got convinced to dance in the talent show as well. As much as I didn't want to do it, I am grateful for my friends who pushed me to go outside my comfort zone and do it anyways. It felt great to perform again!

The Anderson's performed a beautiful piece on the recorder.

There was Nickelback impersonations.

And impersonating each other

A new band was created...and a Jordan fan group

Photo cred: Lana Strathearne

Until my next adventure,

Lindy

Christian Quarter Field Trip

   

The streets of Christian Quarter

When we got to the Terra Sancta, they were performing the Washing of the Feet Ceremony. The Egyptian Coptic Church had come to Israel just to be able to hold their services in this church. Up to this point, I was convinced I had actually learned a different language in High School. I could never understand anything the Palestinians said to me and they just made fun of my "fancy" Arabic when I spoke to them. As soon as I heard the Egyptians speak it was like music to my hears! I could actually understand part of it!

The Lutheran Church of the Redeemer. The inside of Lutheran churches are much more simple and plain than Catholic churches.

The view from the tower of the Lutheran Church of the Redeemer

There was a hidden courtyard in the Church of the Redeemer. It was so picturesque. I just wish I could have captured it.

We ended the day at Alexander Nevsky--a Russian church. This opening in the wall is known as the Eye of the Needle. Passing through it is a ritual that people will travel thousands of miles to perform. It is a way to symbolically show God that you are willing to humble yourself and submit to His will. "it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God" (Matthew 19: 24)

Until my next adventure,
Lindy

Jewish Quarter Field Trip

      We were able to spend a few days in the city with our teachers making sure we hadn't missed any significant sights. This particular day they took us around the Jewish Quarter. It was fun to see some of the things we had learned so much about in class. To some the picture below may just seem like another pile of rocks but to me it is full of history! That is Hezekiah's wall. He built this when he was trying to fortify Jerusalem against the Assyrian attack. It was built right through the middle of houses and you can see the ruins of houses along the side. It also shows where the ground level was in 700 BCE. 

We got to have lunch under these beautiful flowers. They covered the entire wall and the blossoms were huge!

    Our next stop was to the Ophel just outside of the Temple Mount. We were able to sit on the original steps leading up to the temple. Of all the places in Jerusalem we visited, it is most certain that Jesus would have at one point stood on these exact steps. It was so neat to sit there and read about him teaching at the temple.

These are the Gates of Huldah--the ancient entrance onto the Temple Mount.

The original steps leading to the Temple Mount

The Jews have left this large pile of ruins as a reminder of the utter destruction of their temple. It also reminds us of the Lord's prophecy that "there shall not be left one stone upon another" (Matthew 24: 2)

The Place of Trumpeting stone was at the corner of the Temple Mount. This is where the priests would stand to blow the trumpet. It also was very likely where Jesus was taken when he was tempted to cast himself from the temple to announce his Messiahship.





Until my next adventure,
Lindy

Priestly Blessing

    This weekend also happened to be the weekend of the Priestly Blessing for the Jews. Friday was the beginning of Passover. This holiday is very family oriented and so since none of us were Jewish or had family in Jerusalem, it didn't really affect us. The only thing that we really noticed is that we were not allowed to eat leaven within the Jewish Quarter or West Jerusalem. Other than that, Easter celebrations dominated the city.
    During certain holidays throughout the year, thousands of Jews come to the western wall to receive this priestly blessing. One such is Passover. This is meant to be a reminder of Passover during the temple periods when Jews would come from all over the country to perform sacrifices at the temple. The Jews gather and recite prayer individually. Then, a priest, one who is descended from Aaron, reads part of the blessing. All those in the crowd who also are descendants of Aaron then repeat the blessing. This continues until the entire blessing has been recited. Oftentimes, fathers will cover their young sons with prayer shawls if they are not of age yet. The blessing is meant for all--even those who are not able to attend. 

By the end, this entire plaza was filled with people. I went down into the crowd so I wasn't able to get a good picture.

Until my next adventure,

Lindy

Easter Sunday

    I don't even have words to describe Easter. It was certainly not your traditional Easter Sunday. There was no Easter Bunny, no candy, and no egg hunts!  Instead it was completely focused on Christ and His resurrection. The day began at 4:45 when we walked as a group to the Garden Tomb to wait in line for the Sunrise Service. I was sitting in front of the Garden Tomb, at sunrise, on Easter. It still seems surreal to me.

We waited in line for about an hour. It was very cold but well worth it.

The service was held by a Protestant group from the UK. It was a good ol' Christian service complete with preaching, singing along with the band, and a lot of Hallelujahs.

This was my view from my seat. Yes I was that close. Yes it was amazing.










There was one song, He is Risen (not the hymn) that just stuck with all of us. I woke up singing it for a week, we sang it in class when learning about the resurrection, and it found it's way into many conversations. I love the joy for the resurrection expressed through this song.

Later in the day a group of us went to watch the procession at the Holy Sepulchre. It was pretty small compared to Good Friday but still a great experience.  

Later that day, while wandering around the city, we came across Schindler's grave. In Israel, everyone puts rocks on graves instead of flowers and he, by far, had the most rocks I had ever seen. The area surrounding his grave was covered as well. 

   We returned home that night, ate dinner, and then prepared to listen to our modern day prophets in General Conference. What an amazing way to end an amazing day. Not surprisingly, this was by far my favorite Easter. I loved the focus on Christ. I loved that we not only focused on the resurrection but that there was a whole day to also remember His suffering. I hope to be able to take things I learned from this experience and use them to teach my future family the real reason we have Easter egg hunts and candy and presents.


Until my next adventure,
Lindy

Good Friday

    The day after we got back from Galilee began the Easter festivities. The Latin calendar is a week ahead of the Orthodox calendar this year and so we got two weeks of Easter celebrations! It was great!!
      The first celebration was Good Friday. Our teachers rearranged classes so that we could attend the procession down the Via Dolorosa (Way of Sorrow). Here they stop at different stations throughout the Old City that commemorate events in Christ's last days. It is tradition to carry a cross along the path. Many people had their own cross but there was one giant cross that led the procession. The streets were packed with Christians from all over the world who came just for this event. I have never seen so many people in one place in my life. What normally was a 10-15 minute walk took us nearly 2 hours. We began at the Temple Mount (or close by) and ended at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. I feel so blessed to have been part of this celebration and commemoration of Christ's suffering on the cross.




The view from Station I. Hadn't seen this side of the Temple Mount before but I wish I would have discovered it earlier.

The main cross was carried by many people. Life is easier when we bear one another's burdens.

The street was packed for as far as you could see. There were also people carrying palm fronds in honor of Palm Sunday earlier that week.

The stations are denoted by these signs on the wall. Some are more obvious than others.

"Arise and gird up your loins, take up your cross, follow me, and feed my sheep"
-D&C 112: 14

We met Boaz on our walk to the Holy Sepulchre. We noticed that there were people singing so we decided that we would sing a few hymns as we made our way through the city. For the most part we sang sacrament hymns about the atonement because that's what we were celebrating after all. However, at one point, someone really wanted to sing Sweet Hour of Prayer. After we were done singing, Boaz turned around and asked if we were Mormon. This took us by surprise. He told us that he listened to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir every Sunday and he recognized our song from that. He then bore a powerful testimony (though he probably didn't know that was what he was doing) about the power of music and the influence it had on his life. I know that we can't proselyte in Israel and I know that the Church keeps that promise but they have put programs in place to allow the gospel to enter in other ways. The Brethren are truly inspired. 

The entrance to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre

This is the mosaic that is right inside the doors of the Holy Sepulchre. It shows Christ after being taken down from the cross and being prepared for burial. 

     I am so grateful for all that Christ went through for me. I know that He suffered in Gethsemane, He suffered at the hands of the Roman soldiers, and He suffered on the cross so that I can return to live with Him and my Father in Heaven again one day.

Until my next adventure,

Lindy

Rest of Galilee

I got to check "swim under a waterfall" off my bucket list!

The cookies the Sis. Anderson passed around almost every bus ride. 

Merrick enjoying his St. Peter's fish