July 9, 2010
Field trip day again today! I could totally get used to this schedule! Every other day we get to go out and tour the Holy Land!! Today we went to a few... noticeably lesser places. We went to Gamla--where the Roman battled some Jews led by Josephus, old bunkers in the Golan heights, and the traditional place where the casting out of the legion of devils into the pigs took place (Kursi). After we got back, we had lunch and then a half hour until we had another hike—this time, though, there was swimming involved. It was fun, except our guide did not know English very well and we took so long so we didn't get to go to the biggest waterfall... When we got back, the other group went to the fish restaurant, which means I missed out on ever experiencing Tiberias at night... but at least the Kibuttz here had the best desserts ever. I had 6. Tonight people played kissing tag, but I just talked to other people who weren't participating. Am I really not wanting to participate because I think it is inappropriate, or am I just lame?


In addition to the pics below, here is a youtube video of my teacher talking on site.  More for my benefit of remembering than anything, but feel free to enjoy it!

Here are most (a good selection, but alas! Not nearly all!) of the places/things I've done in the last few weeks.  This will probably be my last post for the next two weeks as I will be in the Galilee!!  However, in addition to the photos and video below, I have uploaded a whole collection of videos from myself and others at the center here http://www.youtube.com/byuj2010#p/u Enjoy!!

One of the amaaaazing things about Jerusalem is that you literally can just walk down the streets and pass a dozen historical sites—and not just recent history. So yesterday, we went out to look for a few sites, but on the way there, we passed a place that claimed to be the birthplace of the virgin Mary! It was a Greek church, with lots of beautiful paintings on the main floor. The lower floors were these cool, natural caves. And then today, I was walking to the Garden of Gethsemane and we walked next door to another church dedicated to the Virgin Mary! Both times we really weren't looking for them, but there we were! Add to that the fact that we watched a special documentary series tonight that hasn't been released yet, Messiah: Behold the Lamb of God, (Produced by Bro. Kent Brown himself!), and the section he let us see was on the birth of Christ... I decided to read some things about the Mother of God, and I'm really glad I did!

As I re-read Luke chapter 1, I remembered a life-changing insight that my mission president gave our zone in a zone conference about faith. First, the angel Gabriel appeared to Zacharias and explains to him what God is going to do in his life and he responds, “Whereby shall I know this? for I am an old man, and my wife well stricken in years” (Luke 1:18). And is heartily rebuked for his question. Gabriel responds, “behold, thou shalt be dumb, and not able to speak, until the day that these things shall be performed, because thou believest not my words, which shall be fulfilled in their season” (Luke 1:20). When the same angel appears to Mary and gives her almost the same news... she is still fearful and even “troubled at his saying” (Luke 1:29). She, too, asks a question of the angelic messenger which, at first glance, I thought was identical to the question Zacharias posed to the angel: “How shall this be, seeing I know not a man?” (Luke 1:34). In essence, it is the same question, but there is a huge difference in their attitudes, their fath. Zacharias' question was outright incredulity. Mary's question is completely different. She does not ask for proof of the angel's claims—which would be proof of doubt—but rather, her question is “how shall this be”: she takes it as a given that it will happen... she is merely confused as to the method of its coming to pass. In contrast to the stubborness of Zacharias, Mary submits completely to God with a humble, submissive attitude: “Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word” (Luke 1:38). Humility and submissive to the will of God... I am hard-pressed to think of more rare virtues that would make her so “blessed among women” (Luke 1:28). I give full credit to God for the type of women He chose to raise His Only Begotten.

I think these two virtues hold the key as to how to be highly favored of the Lord. It caused me to think about all the times that I doubt or am at least impatient with the promises of God. I do it a lot. I know what promises the gospel offers, yet I want things to happen in the way I expect in the timetable I desire...or I get FRUSTRATED. I honestly don't think it is unrighteous of me to want to see God's promises fulfilled, but perhaps it is precisely my zeal and overly-eager expectation to see and know with proof of their fulfillment that are the keeping me from the knowledge that the completely submissive Mary was privileged with... 

Today we had more classes, I organized my photos and studied for finals coming up... not a lot worth writing about, but for the weekly forum, we had an excellent forum speaker who talked to us about the role of media in this conflict... and how it falls short of what it could be in a lot of ways.  It was very insightful.  He was a very good storyteller.  My favorite story can be downloaded here.  Enjoy!



PS
I uploaded tons of new pictures and new youtube videos!

Today I got my first and (hopefully) only package from home!  I say hopefully because not only does it take a long time to get packages, but Israeli mail has an extremely frustrating tax law on all incoming packages: they have set up a list of all the things that they deem should be taxed in order to "protect the economy."  The list is basically... everything that isn't homemade food items (even clothes carry a 100% tax on their value!).  Electronics are especially expensive to send because the government scans everything and is known for opening any packages that beep (add to that, the fact that if it has a tax imposed on it, even if it is small, you can't have it delivered--you have to pick it up yourself!).  Luckily, I only had to pay a small tax (I had my parents send me a phone accessory so I can plug my headphones in).  It was really great to get a real backpack and some Sweedish fish!!  When I was there, though, they asked if I wanted to pick up the center's other two packages for my fellow students, and they cost 200 shekels (~$54) just to pick up!!  When we got back, I picked up the two cameras that I broke from the security desk.  Boy, am I glad to have that headache over with!

Later in the day, I went to an Ethiopian Church with my friends Danielle, Katie, and Lindsey. It was a Christian church, but the style was with more... colorful with rugs and paintings and candles and incenses. It was probably the most colorful church I've ever seen. There was nobody else inside but a sleeping guard, so we actually hung out there for a while because it was really cool inside, temperature wise, and a peaceful place to talk--we had a great gospel conversation about the Kingdoms of Glory. It also had this really amazing painted dome ceiling, with saints and angels all around it. 

Then, we went down the street from the church there is this street called Me'a She'arim. It is a Hasidic Ultra-Orthodox Jewish neighborhood. They had up all these signs that tell you that you have to be super modest and that they don't like groups to come through and disrupt their neighborhood. A few people who have gone there told us that they got some dirty looks if the girls were wearing pants or if there were a lot of them, but my friends were all in skirts, so we were fine (except I felt a little self-conscious for not having my kippa with me...) and since there were only 4 of us people were pretty nice. We stopped at a bookstore to look for a journal for Katie, and it was cool to see all the books they had- 100% of them were in Hebrew. There were also a lot of little stores and fruit stands, and we even saw a shoe-maker's store, where this guy was sitting at this intense sewing-machine stitching a black leather shoe. All of the little kids' sidelocks were longer, thicker, and curlier than any I have seen anywhere else in the city.

At night, I watched a concert put on by Palestinian children in a special music initiative.  It was pretty good!

Today I went to the Zoo!   There was a giant ark there, which was pretty much empty inside but it had a great view of the zoo and the surrounding area. We got to ride on a little train too to get around. One of the best parts of the day was that there was this group of preschoolers who all had down syndrome, and it was so sweet to see how excited they got at all of the different animals... even the boring ones. They were really... uplifting... to watch.
It was called a biblical zoo, but that included most of the animals that were on the ark, so maybe that's what they meant. There were zebras and hippos and rhinos and giraffes and a lion and a red panda and snakes and monkeys and flamingos... As well as, well, you can enjoy the pics: