The (C)Old City

Happy new year all! Okay, so we spent most of today in what is called the "Old City" the part of Jerusalem that is within the Turkish 3rd wall I wish I had a way to shop you, but I can't think of anything... Anyway we went to 3 of the 4 quarters of the city (not the Armenian one) And saw - among other things - loopholes, the Dome of the Rock, brains, a creepy catholic church (no offense intended just my impression of it), 2000 year old housing, the western wall, riot shields, a bar mitzpah, and a movie about old Jewish temple sacrifices. We also discussed Jesus at the temple in his last mortal days (Matt 21), as well as sure nails (Isiah 22:[21-]23) - so the story here is that Jews used to pound these sure nails into the temple wall (symbolizing their sins), and also about Jesus's second temptation on top of the temple (Matt 4). Then we drove south to the hills near Bethlehem (we couldn't actually go to the city because of all the political West Bank problems) and talked about the birth of Christ.

Rainy Day

Well as you may have guessed it rained today. And for any of you who know Israel's climate it is really really dry for most of the year but then it rains and rains and rains once it is the well named rainy season. We first went to a museum of old Jerusalem and the dead sea scrolls, really cool actually. Apparently the dead sea version of Isiah is as close a match to the Book of Mormon's as it is to the current Hebrew versions. Then after Lunch we went to the area that Samson and King David came from, and read their respective stories. When we got back to the hotel we had dinner and then celebrated the new year's coming (very very quietly).

Less-North Israel

Today was a historic day - as in we saw historic places. ;) So we kicked the day off by going to Nazareth. We went up on a hill (overlooking the valley of Armageddon actually) and read Luke 4 - the second part I believe. Either way from that lofty place we could see a church called the church of jumping on top of another hill. Now the name seems a little cynical at first but actually that impression isn't far from the truth (it has to do with throwing people off of cliffs before stoning them). But that tangent aside that church is probably the place where the Jews tried to stone (or cast him down headlong as it says) Jesus - in his own home town. Then we went to Caeserea and talked about Paul. Finally we went to Joppa (aka Tel Aviv) where we read about Jonah and Peter, both of whom were in Joppa (Jonah 1, Acts 10) and were told to preach the gospel to the gentiles. Then we bussed back to Jerusalem. And after dinner we went to a Christian olive wood carvings store. That was day 4 in the Holy Lands.

North Israel

Today was another great day! We begun our travels by going to a wildlife reserve. It was really quite beautiful, apparently though it was nearly burned to the ground in a terrorist forest fire about 10 months ago. Then we traveled up to the Golan Heights to get to Capernaum which was really cool. next we continued on to the Sea of Galilee where we read about Peter walking on Water and the huge storm. Then we had lunch at what was apparently the best fish restaurant in Israel. We ended our travels by going to the mount of Beatitudes and spending some time there. It's really interesting actually the whole environment of the tour seems like a10 hour a day seminary class! :) It's really fun actually.

The Holy Lands

some Today our touring of Israel began. We rose at 6:00 am, ate breakfast, and were on our way. The first place we saw was Qumran which is for those of you who - like me - don't know the names of every place of historical/religious significance in the world is where the dead sea scrolls were found. It was an intriguing place. So it sounded like Qumran was a area settled by Jews who felt that the mainstream Jewish culture had been corrupted and felt that they had the truth. So they moved in to lives of ascetic seclusion from the rest of the world. Then after nearly two millennia Bedouin boys found some pots with leather scrolls that have the oldest most complete version of what we now call the Old Testament. Our next stop, Masada, was quite a sight. It was originally the sight of one of king Herod's many "pleasure palaces". Then in around the seventh decade AD it was taken over by the Zealots (a group of militant Jews who decided to do all they could to free themselves from the grip of Rome) and, after the fall of Jerusalem (70 AD), was besieged by the Romans until 73 AD. I'll not go into a long history - just look it up on Wikipediaor something if you want to know more, but it was interesting to see one of Asia's most impregnable first century fortresses restored to much of its former look for lack of a better word. Then we swung by the dead sea for a short dip and the drove north to where we are now (north of Tiberius, just snuggled between Lebanon and Syria).

PS the time difference here is 9 hours if anyone was wondering (again based off of MST)

Shabbat

Shabbat - Sabbath Jewish style, more or less. The weirdest thing about it is that here in Israel it is on a Saturday. Just imagine, having Sunday on Saturdays. It really is very strange. Our flight arrived at the Tel Aviv airport at about 5:30 am. we got through customs in surprisingly good time and soon were on our way on a bus to Jerusalem. We were dropped off at a hotel, got our rooms, and soon were off to church at the (BYU) Jerusalem Center (For Near Eastern Studies), affectionately called 'The Mormon University" by the Locals. Apparently it isn't legal to proselyte here so all of the members were foreigners, in fact it didn't seem too different from wards back in the states (other than the fact that one can see the Dome of the Rock through the window behind the pulpit). Then we came back to the hotel and rested/napped for the rest of the day - no joke. Then we had a free hotel dinner and went (back for some) to bed.

Boxing Day

Sorry this is waaay overdue I was having problems figuring out how to use Blogspot (and to some extent the Internet in Hebrew). Boxing day is the day after Christmas, celebrated mostly only in England it is nearly as much of a holiday as Christmas itself. That behind us it will now be no surprise to you that almost everything was closed for our final day in Great Brittan. We started off our day with a trip to King's cross station - both to get where we were going and to see a fabled platform 9 3/4 :). Sadly the train portion of the station had been closed down and wasn't scheduled to be opened until Saturday at 10. So one thing quickly off of our "to see" list we continued on our way. Then we went to the London Eye - one of the world's largest fariswheels. It's huge! it is on the banks of the Thames and goes up about 200 ft. into the air. The next thing we did was go to Hyde park and that neighborhood. "That neighborhood" includes the LDS church there and many museums. Sadly the museums too were closed, as was the church building, but at least we got some pictures there. the park was really cool, both figuratively and literally. It is a park of titanic proportions and was a pretty pretty place. Deb had been wanting to see a statue of Peter Pan they had there, so we went and looked at that and then ate lunch and left. After that all we did was go to the Airport. We has been told that people were supposed to check in three hours early for international flights, so we did - then we waited for two and a half hours.