Christian Quarter Field Trip

Today was a good day, not much happened. I had a New Testament test this morning, and lets just say, I'm really glad it's over. I then had two hours of Ancient Near East in which I somehow I got really sick/allergic during. It was a miserable class period to say the least. But after class got out I had lunch and linen exchange and then I was out of the center! Me and a few girls tried to go to a dress shop (or more like a mall with a ton of dress shops) but to our great disappointment everything in West Jerusalem was closed due to Passover. Who would've thought?

I had a different experience being out today. Today was the first time I went into the city without having a guy with me (or with my group). We were getting a lot of cat calls and harassment from the boys and teenagers on the street. I mentioned this and how I thought it was more than usual and one of the girls told me it was cause we didn't have a guy with us. And then it made sense to me! But seriously, it was kind of out of control. At one point a car with two boys pulled over and asked us if we wanted a ride. Um, no thanks.

Anyway, let me tell you about my field trip yesterday. We went to some of the churches in the Christian Quarter of the New Testament. It was strange how churches that you pass by every day kind of pop up out of nowhere when your attention is actually directed to them. The Old City is just PACKED with churches, you seriously don't even notice them.

The sites were all kind of the same to me. One thing I did learn was that the Holy Sepluchre really is the most accurate site of Christ's Death, burial, and resurrection. This kind of rocked my world. I always believed the Garden Tomb was the most accurate, but The Holy Sepluchre has archaeological evidence to back it up. When I heard this I didn't want to believe it (and I still don't want to). The Holy Sepluchre is so dark and gloomy and not conducive to the spirit at all, in my opinion. Apparently that's why the church suggests the Garden Tomb, because it's a place where the spirit can be felt and you can have peace. So what's what I will stick to for now. While we were there there were priests reading from the Bible for Passover. That was something cool and unusual to see that doesn't happen every time you're there.



One of the places we went to was a Franciscan Convent. Here I met Father Angelo, who is an amazing person. He has an incredible story, he was a rich international banker with houses all over the world and he left them all to serve God. He is the only Franciscan Monk who will give tours to Mormons.



This convent also has a hostile connected to it for the pilgrims who come to the Holy Land. When Orson Hyde came to Jerusalem he stayed at this place. They have a door in the church with carvings in it where Elder Hyde carved his name. Cool!


We went to a Russian Church in which girls were not permitted to go inside without skirts, so they supplied skirts for us. Stylish! This church was cool, but the most amazing part were the paintings. They were so beautiful and portrayed the Savior in a light that I see him in. They were not dark or stained with incense. They were just beautiful.



At this church there was also what's called the eye of a needle. So whenever you read in the scriptures about how it's harder for a rich man to enter into heaven than for a camel to fit through the eye of a needle. Kind of changes things, doesn't it?


It was a good half day and I came home with enough time to do homework and rest for the remainder of the day.