Today is the Sabbath day in Jerusalem and we are lucky to be attending our first fast Sabbath! We are also fortunate to have our church meetings hosted at our home away from home (BYU Jerusalem Center). I had no idea what to expect as far as attendance since it is the only sacrament meeting in this area. We also have an agreement with the Holy Land's government stating we will not proselyte, no LDS members not just us students, or we will lose the Jerusalem Center, so we can't do missionary work or bear our testimony with locals. We are however known throughout the city as the "Mormons" and the BYU Jerusalem Center is actually referred to as "Mormon University" on street signs as well as with locals. Anyways as we walked into Sacrament meeting the view was breath taking! Our chapel isn't like any other place around, as its open windows display all of the Old City of Jerusalem right behind the pulpit throughout the whole meeting. It was also great to think that if Christ were to come today and attend a Sacrament meeting it would have to be in our Branch, in our building, in our home. What a great feeling and honor it felt to sit and look over the place where Christ had roamed teaching, healing, and blessing those in the City. The congregation was made up of many students (there are 80 of us), faculty, tourists, and a few local members. One thing I thought really stood out to me was this gentlemen who bore his testimony of finding the truth of the gospel, even though he was Jewish. I don't know this young man's story but it was exciting to see the gospel reaching those who are being sheltered. I was also neat to see a couple that were visiting Jerusalem who were once students just like me, they both had gone together and a couple kids later were here to relive this great experience. How fun would it be to bring my family here!
After dinner a group of us decided to travel into the City, hoping to make it to the Garden Tomb. Unfortunately it closed at 5 so instead we tried to find our way to the Pools of Bethesda. On our way there after entering Harod's Gate, which was once closed to students because of the residential area of the Old City it opens up into, we met others who weren't very welcoming. All of a sudden a couple teenage boys started to yell at us and throw rocks at us as we were walking down the stone path. It was crazy to see them targeting us for no reason, yelling in a language we didn't even know and couldn't understand. Luckily there were 2 older men walking a ways behind us that ordered the boys to stop and then met up with us to make sure the young man that was hit was okay. As you can guess we didn't make it to the Pools of Bethesda but we did make it back safely. With reflection on this scary event I became thankful for the experience it gave me and the insight on how Christ must have felt. He was stoned, yelled at, hated by many yet he suffered, bled, and died for us because of His love. Although it may have gotten my heart pumping, my feelings confused, and made me a little panicky in the city it also made me understand the atonement so much better.
* I have attached some pictures of the beautiful center we live in, sorry I couldn't get the view from the chapel but we were asked not to on the Sabbath.
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