Friday October 31st - Fifth day out - Temple Mount, B.Y.U. Jerusalem Center & Bethlehem

We left for the Temple Mount early in the morning and spent some quiet time at the West Wall or Wailing Wall. It is very reverent there not quiet but reverent. The first picture is of the men's side, as the Wall is divided into two parts and the women are on the other side. Notice the many different apparels on the men.


They put little pieces of paper in the cracks between the rocks. On the papers they write names of people needing a special blessing or a little prayer.







This is the Women's side. They were praying, (sometimes rocking as they prayed) studying their scriptures or appeared to be meditating. As I stood there with them I was really impressed with the reverence of the women. They ask that you back away from the wall rather than turning your back to it.

We took the Rabbinical tunnel under the West Wall and explored the foundations of the temple mount built by Solomon and just above it the foundations of the second temple built by Herod.




This is the entrance to the B.Y.U. Jerusalem Center. It is situated up on the Mount of Olives and you can look across the Kidron Valley and see Jerusalem from it's front yard. The building is spectacularly beautiful. They have a lovely organ and one of the missionaries (non-proselyting because they are not allowed to proselyte in Israel) played several numbers for us on it.



Next we were off to Bethlehem and the Church of the Nativity. They believe that this is the place that our Saviour was born. Unfortunately in my book, three different churches are sharing responsebility for the upkeep of this building and as a result it is not well kept up. It's a case of everyone waiting for the others to do what needs to be done. It is very decorated and ornamented which destroys the usual picture of that night. You need to be able to shut out all the extra things that have been added and just focus on the cave.


Going down into the basement where the cave is located.

Pres. Lee said about his visit there "There seemed to be in this place a kind of spiritual assurance that this was indeed a hallowed spot. Down in the basement is the cave hewn out of the rock, which seemed to us to mark a sacred place."


This is a gold star that is suppose to mark the place where He was born. After visiting this site we went up to the garden area of the church and retold the Christmas story and sang Christmas hymns. Left with a really good feeling.

October 30th
Our third day out Mt. Carmel, Caesaria on the Mediterranean Sea, & Orson Hyde Square

The Mediterranean Sea



Caesaria - the sea port city on the Mediterranean built more than 2000 years ago. Much to my surprise I found that Herod the Great (the one who killed the babies in Bethlehem) is considered a very gifted architect and prolific builder. He built Caesaria to win points with Caesar in Rome. Much of Caesaria is still there. Pictured below is a fantastic aqueduct they built. This is where the Roman Centurion Cornelius became the first gentile to convert to Christianity. It is from this spot that Paul relates his conversion story to King Agrippa. He leaves on his mission from this point also.





Orson Hyde Square - a memorial garden at Netanya University which commemorates his blessing Palestine for the gathering of the Jews. Along the garden wall there is a plaque for each person from our Church who has blessed Israel. I don't remember all their names but there was about seven or eight. All of the presidents of the Church are also honored in this garden with a plaque and a tree.




President Ezra Taft Benson's tree and plaque

Today we also saw the site where Elijah's battle with the priests of Baal occured on top of Mt Carmel.

Third day out Wednesday 29th

We visited a number of Old Testament sites today. One of the most impressive was some Cananite fortifications that Joshua would have had to face as he fought to conquer the land. I can't imagine how they moved those rocks and stacked them but they did and that was quite a long time ago, no big equipment.



We also went up to Golan Heights that has been fought over forever. Starting in Old Testament times until today. From there we could see Syria, Lebanon, and of course Israel. Here we saw many young Israelite soldier and much evidence of the war in that area. The soldiers were very friendly and a lot of fun. All Israelites are required to give two years in the armed services.

Tuesday October 28th

I can't list all of the places we went today but let me tell you about some of my favorites. At the top of the list was Nazareth. They have constructed a life size model that represents what Nazareth would have looked like when Jesus lived there. They had shepherds in the field and carpenters working with authentic tools, women working with wool all in period costumes etc. All of the buildings were constructed with tools that they used 2000 years ago. They had constructed a synagogue that was beautiful in it's simplicity. It was very easy to imagine life back then. There was a wonderful spirit there. The feeling was definitely not like a theme park There was to much love and devotion there.

We visited the Mount of Beatitudes. Brother John Lund spoke on the importance of relying on the Lord"s promised blessings in the Beatitudes. He reminded us to take discouragement to the Lord and love those around us. Remember to add the key phrase "...who come unto me." to each Beatitude. (3 Nephi 12)

We went to Capernaum. Here Jesus healed the Centurion, here the woman touched Christ's robe and was healed. All that remains of Capernaum is the ruins of the synagogue. Matt 11:21-24

We also went to Yardenit which is the site on the Jordan River where John baptized Jesus. People were putting on a white robe and baptizing themselves. They did it with such reverence.

That night they took our group on a boat ride on the Sea of Galilee. Marvin went with them but I had a cold and was not feeling well and exhaustion took the upper hand and I stayed at the hotel and slept.

From Salt Lake City to Jerusalem - one day at a time

We are back and our trip to Israel, Jordan and Egypt was fantastic, educational, exhausting, and spiritual. It was a life changing experience. I'm going to try and share it with you a little piece at a time. We left Salt Lake City at 11:00a.m. Saturday Oct 26th and arrived in Amman Jordan about 4:00p.m. Sunday Oct. 27th. A lot of hours on a plane; especially if you have long legs.

We stayed at the Jordan Valley Marriott Resort and Spa. It is located right on the Dead Sea. So our first experience was swimming and wading in the Dead Sea. The resort was extra beautiful, super clean and comfortable. The food was good, though we were warned that in Jordan and Egypt we should not eat anything that hadn't been cooked which made the beautiful fresh fruit and vegetable salad tables off limits. :(

On Monday we crossed the border into Israel. The only evidence we noticed about heightened tension between these countries was the difficulty crossing their borders. It took us four hours to go a very short distance. Most of that time we were just sitting on the bus at the border. Also a long time for people with long legs. :)

We were on our way to Masada where Herod built an amazing rock fortress on top of a high plateau. A group of Jewish zealots Sicariis made their last stand against the Romans on this site. They valued their freedom and the right to worship their God. They held out against the Romans for three years and ended up taking their own lives rather than live as slaves under Roman rule. If you haven't read about this story or seen the movie "Masada" starring Peter O'Toole I'd highly recommend that you do just that. It is an amazing piece of history and visiting this site made it very real. (I'll add pictures soon)

From Masada we then went to Tiberius but that's enough for today.