Jerusalem

Gregg was asked to come to regional meetings hosted in Jerusalem, Israel.  This was too good to miss, so we bought a ticket for me to come along.  We stayed at the BYU Jerusalem Center for Near Eastern Studies (or as it is called there, the Mormon University).  It sits prominently between Mount Scopus and the Mount of Olives with a gorgeous view of the old city of Jerusalem and the Temple Mount.  

To me, any day is a good day to be in Jerusalem, even in January when it is cold and rainy.  This is not the tourist high season which enabled us quick access to all of the special places we hoped to visit.  In between and after meetings on the few days we were there we visited the Western Wall and the Temple Mount.  We went to the Garden of Gethsemane, Orson Hyde Park, the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, the Pool of Bethesda (Saint Anne's Church), ruins of Antonia's Fortress (underneath some current buildings in the old city), Yad Vashem (the Holocaust Museum), Zedekiah's Cave (or King Solomon's Quarries), the Wohl Museum and the Burnt House (ruins of elite Jewish homes at the time of Christ).  We walked the Via Dolorosa (the "way of pain") from the old city to Golgatha.  

We particularly enjoyed our visit to the Garden Tomb where Bishop McMullin addressed us.  The door to the tomb reads "He is not here for He is Risen."  On Saturday, their Sabbath, we drove to the Sea of Galilee and worshipped with the LDS Branch of Tiberius.  We traveled to Peter's Primacy where we read some scriptures, visited the ruins at Capernaum where Gregg gave a short discourse of Christ's teachings at that location, and then held a testimony meeting on the Mount of Beatitudes. 

The trip was over all too quickly.  Even though we have been to Jerusalem before, we deeply appreciated the opportunity to reconnect with the places where Jesus lived and taught.  It makes it easier for us to remain committed to our efforts here in West Africa when we remember what happened in the Holy Land over 2000 years ago.