The Separation Wall

When I was younger, sometimes I would find myself alone and bored in my house. This boredom often led me to my father's room to play with the things in his closet. There were antique swords and a bayonet, an Arab headdress, and other things. One day as I was looking through the closet I found a piece of concrete. This kind of confused me because I couldn't understand why my father would keep a piece of concrete in a secret place of the house. Later on, he showed it to me and told me about his visit to Germany where he got a piece of the Berlin Wall. As I have studied that wall over the years, I have been amazed by how naive a notion it is to think that by merely putting up a wall, all problems can be solved. That wall, of course, came down in 1989 and will never rise again.
It's kind of ironic, but apparently nobody learned any lessons from the Berlin Wall, because the same sort of wall has been being built in Israel for the past 9 years. Today we had a special guest called Danny Seidman, an influential lawyer here in Jerusalem who is an expert on the Israel-Palestinian partition of Jerusalem. He took us on a short tour to the separation wall that has been built in East Jerusalem. This is the same wall that has been shown on the news and now stretches across nearly the whole border of Israel and the West Bank. He is a real authority on this issue and has been approached by the Bush and Obama Administrations, as well as the Israeli and Palestinian governments, to help negotiate the separation of land in Jerusalem. Even as we spoke, he was receiving telephone calls from US embassy officials that wanted to talk with him, even on a Sunday. He also has recently made a trip to Washington D.C. to help with talks going on there. Dr. Seidman is definitely against the building of the wall and gave many reasons why. He is a Jew but can see the terrible effects the wall has on the Palestinians. The wall, in my view, is just an Israeli "land grab". They have built it not according to the borders in place, but along predetermined borders that include huge corridors into the West Bank to reach Israeli settlements. Not once has the wall been built on Israeli land, but always to the detriment of the Palestinians.
Dr. Seidman told us of how Palestinian children made it a game to climb over the 25 foot wall to go to the other side to play. If a child can climb the wall, certainly a terrorist can. During the second intifada, most terrorists struck Israel from the West Bank, not from the Palestinian neighborhoods of East Jerusalem. Yet since the wall has gone up, East Jerusalem terrorist activities like running over soldiers with tractors have increased. He pointed out a hospital that is located directly behind the BYU Jerusalem Center, built by the Lutheran church for the Palestinians. It once serviced all the Arabs that live in close areas of the West Bank. But the wall was put up right next to it and now, Palestinians that were within walking distance of the hospital have to travel an hour to Ramallah, the next nearest hospital. Deaths have come from this. Families have been split, with relatives on one side and the rest on the other. Water resources have been blocked from villages and many other problems.
The wall will eventually come down, because the Palestinians will only put up with it for so long before putting their foot down. If people are treated poorly, it can only stay that way for so before they rise up. That is what has been happening in Gaza for the past 50 years and that is what is happening in East Jerusalem now. Terrorism is wrong, but so is treating another human being, a fellow son or daughter of God, like they are inferior. The wall will have to come down.

Journey to Jordan

These past four days I have spent in Jordan. It was a really fun trip! We started off by crossing the Israeli-Jordanian Border at the King Hussein Bridge over the River Jordan. Our first stop after picking up our Jordanian tour guide and security guard was Mount Nebo. It is the place where Moses raised a serpent on a pole and looked out over the Holy Land before being translated. He also gave his last sermon in Deuteronomy on that mountain. It had a great view that showed me how small the Holy Land really is. To the north, the towers of the city of Amman were clearly visible and below us we could see the River Jordan, Jericho and even as far as the Mount of Olives.
From there we traveled south to a huge crusader castle called Shobak. It was sweet! The Crusaders originally built it upon a steep hill overlooking a wadi and it was taken over by Salahedin before the 3rd Crusade. It was a well preserved building with a tunnel that went straight down into the ground 35 stories to a well that supplied the castle with water in old days. To finish the day, we went to our hotel in Petra, an ancient city in Southern Jordan, famous for being used in Indiana Jones the Last Crusade.
Petra is one of the new 7 wonders of the world with the Great Wall of China, the Tajmahal, and Machu Pichu. Petra was amazing! It looked exactly like Southern Utah with red sandstone rock and slot canyons. Everywhere in this rock face were carved huge burial halls, houses, monasteries, and the famous Treasury. I loved Petra and found it just as impressive as the Pyramids of Egypt. We spent most of our second day walking around in the old canyons where the ancient city was located. The things they were able to carve out of solid rock just blew me away, like a huge amphitheater. The city was unknown to outsiders because the Bedouins kept it secret. They believed that the caves of the city held great treasures. Indiana Jones was the thing that made the city internationally famous and ever since then it has been the number 1 tourist spot in Jordan. To finish the day, we left for Amman, the capital city in the north of the country.
On the third day, we traveled to the ancient Roman city of Jerash which is north of Amman. It was one of the cities in the old Roman Decopolis in Jordan and Syria including Philadelphia (modern day Amman) and Damascus. Jerash is the best preserved Roman city in Jordan. The architecture of the ancient Romans is just astounding. The city included well preserved amphitheater, marketplace, and a huge temple for the Goddess Diana. Most of the city was ruined in a huge earthquake, but the Jordanian government, with some international funding, have been able to piece it all back together. To finish the day, we made a visit to the Branch building of the Amman Branch and had a fireside with the Branch President and then spent the night in Amman.
The Fireside was really interesting. President Hoffman works with the Defense Department in the Middle East and spoke with us about how the Lord uses us to be instruments in His hands. He started his career with the desire to learn Russian and work for the government in Cold War-age Europe. But when he took the tests for the defense department and got high scores, they decided that he was smart enough to learn Arabic and so he was assigned to the Middle East. He has done a lot of consulting with both the wars in Iraq, interviewing local Beduin tribes to see if they supported Saddam Hussein or not. He told a funny story of when he went to visit a Beduin Sheik in his tent in the middle of the desert. The Sheik gave him some water (after offering him coffee and tea) and asked him how he knew how to speak Arabic if he wasn't Muslim or Arab. It just blew his mind. Then the Sheik sneakily had him repeat the Shahada (I profess that there is no God but Allah and Mohammed is His prophet. It is the first pillar of Islam that if a person repeats, he becomes a Muslim.) and after he said it, the man said, "Great, now you are a Muslim. Would you like to marry my sister?"
He spoke a lot of the importance of church members in spreading the gospel in the Middle East. 20 years ago, there were only a handful of Arabic speakers in the whole church. Today there are branches in Amman, Damascus, Cairo, and another small city in Jordan that have significant Arab membership. There is one in Northern Jordan that has only Arabs, the only Arabic speaking branch in the church. Today there are large numbers of Arabic speaking members that work in the governments of several countries and the numbers are growing. Who knows what the future will bring, especially with the war in Iraq and the new outreach President Obama has made to the Arab world. By the way, his speech in Cairo was very well written and well received by most Arabs. His words made me think of how I could be an instrument in the Lords hands to help the people here. They are such good people, family centered with values not much different from ours. Honest, modest in dress, they don't drink alcohol, and they fear God more than man. Just a little side note, they have a missionary couple called to the Amman Jordan mission and they teach the gospel to those who wish to learn, though the non-proselyting rules make it difficult. However, the church still is growing there.
To finish the day, we went to the Royal car museum. The Kingdom of Jordan is ruled by Abdullah III, a Hashemite. The Hashemites are descendants from the Prophet Muhammad and Abdullah is the 42nd is line, supposedly. They are beloved by the Jordanian people and also very wealthy. His museum included many Mercedes, Porsches, a few Ferraris, and surprisingly enough, some Harleys. He loves to ride his Harleys around the country to visit people. He is known to dress up like a normal person and go to government agencies and try to do things normal people do, like get medical attention at hospitals, receive welfare checks, etc. He then makes changes in his government according to what he experiences. The people love him for this.
On our last day, we went to a huge mosque that King Abdullah built for the people in Amman called the Blue mosque and we also visited the ancient Roman ruins of Philadelphia. On our trip back to Israel, we stopped by Bethany beyond Jordan where Jesus was baptized. It is the border of Jordan and Israel, so it was cool to have Jordanian soldiers watching us while we stepped into the River Jordan and only a few yards away was the Israeli side. Then we took a few hours crossing the border and arrived back in Israel. Our trip to Jordan was really fun, mainly because of the great group of friends I've made here and also because of how much cleaner and friendlier it was than Egypt. I loved the experience.

The Via Dolorosa

I just wanted to write a bit about some little activities that I have been doing. This past Friday, I had the opportunity to go to the Old City of Jerusalem and do the walking tour of the Via Dolorosa , the way that Christendom believes Christ went when he was taken from Pilate's fortress to Golgotha. "Via Dolorosa" means the way of grief or tears. This tour is led by Monks of the Franciscan Catholic order. It begins on Friday in the afternoon, corresponding with the day and time at which Jesus would have walked the same path. They take you to all of the 14 or something "stations" where events happened as Christ walked to Golgotha. For example, the "place" where Christ stumbled and fell or the place where he greets the weeping women of Jerusalem. Of course, these stations aren't the actual path, but it was interesting to follow the whole path with about 100 or so other Christians, mostly Catholics. The presentation of the different stations was made in Latin, Spanish, and English. The streets are already crowded so when this huge group would try to crowd around one of these stations next to the road, we had to spread out on both sides for a long distance to allow others to pass through. The tour ended in front of the tomb of Jesus in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. The whole group stood in front of it with candles burning and sang the "Gloria in Excelsis Deo" part of the Mass. It was cool.
As part of our field trip this week, we went to the Israeli Bible Lands park, a plot of land dedicated to the recreation of Biblical events and landscapes. They have planted trees there that are mentioned in the Bible like Cedars of Lebanon and the Hyssop tree and even had sheep to herd. I learned a lot from herding sheep that I had never thought of before. There is a ton of symbolism between a Shepherd and the Savior. To herd sheep, the Shepherd must lead from behind, not in front, so the sheep can't see him. He guides them by calling softly to them. If the sheep leave the path and don't heed warnings, the Shepherd gives them a firm hit with a stick on one side of the sheep to get them to go the opposite direction (much like trials for us!). The sheep are dumb and don't know where their destination is, but the Shepherd does and can guide them. The sheep get distracted by shade by the trail or grass growing by the wayside, and the Shepherd is forced to push them onward to reach their destination. There was much more, but I found the experience very educational and spiritually enlightening, especially when we took the time to read the 24 Psalm and talk about how the Lord is our Shepherd.

Ein Karem

As part of our free day today, I went with a group of people to the birthplace of John the Baptist, Ein Karem. There are two large Catholic Cathedrals there, the Church of the Visitation (left: commemorating the appearance of Gabriel to Mary) and the Church of John the Baptist (right). Both are impressive buildings and filled with beautiful artwork. It was a fun way to spend half of a day.

Some Thoughts on Yad Vashem

As part of our study of Judaism, we had the opportunity to go to Yad Vashem today. Yad Vashem is the Jewish Holocaust museum, comparable to the one in Washington DC. It is the largest of its kind in the world. As part of the tour of the museum, we were split into groups and given a tour guide. Obviously these guides are given instructions on what to say in order to give the Jewish point of view on the Holocaust or as they say it in Hebrew, the "Shoah". It is a fascinating museum, built in the shape of a long prism, cutting into a mountain. You walk along the museum, weaving back and forth from one wall of the prism to another. Inside the walls are rooms dedicated to different events of the Holocaust (for example, the Warsaw Ghetto or the Final Solution), filled with pictures and movies from the time. The museum was packed with student and soldier groups and even a Holocaust survivors group. We were quickly led through the museum by our tour guide and basically spent the whole 2 hours in the museum listening to her speak. She brought up constantly the persecution of the Jews and how the whole world had turned their backs on them during the Holocaust. It was a very biased presentation of history, demonizing the Allies for not stopping the systematic killings in the concentration camps (ex: the Allies knew of Aushwitz, but didn't bomb it because it wasn't a military target. Our guide complained a lot about that.), the Europeans for colaborating with the Nazis, and other things. I loved the museum and because I really didn't like our tour guide and our brisk pace we took in going through the exhibits, I want to go back later. The most memorable part of all for me was in one of the last halls of the museum. There was a video of a Jewish childrens choir singing "Hatikva" which is now the Jewish National Anthem. It was a video we saw at the beginning of the tour. The childrens choir had about 100 kids in it. We were told by our guide that 95 of them didn't survive the Holocaust. As I read the words of this Jewish song, I had tears in my eyes and a voice in my head that just kept repeating over and over, "This is my people and I love them. This is my people and I love them."

"As long as deep in the heart,
The soul of a Jew yearns,
And forward to the East
To Zion, an eye looks
Our hope will not be lost,
The hope of two thousand years,
To be a free nation in our land,
The land of Zion and Jerusalem."

I was reminded of another exhibit in which I saw German soldiers cutting off a Jewish man's beard and another where a Rabbi, with his prayer shoal put at an awkward angle and his phalacteries cut open, was forced to stand above dozens of Jews laying face down on the ground and recite their prayer of dedication, the prayer they recite at funerals. I pictured those people I had walked among before the Western Wall, who I had felt such a strong connection with as I had listened to their prayers. It was so hard for me to picture them or any good person like that, be humiliated in such a terrible way, to be treated like vermin. In fact, they killed them like vermin in the end, using rat poison to make the gas in the gas chambers where so many Jews were exterminated. No child of our Heavenly Father should ever be treated in such a demeaning way. It just rips my heart in two to think that someone fell to that level to do such a terrible thing to a fellow human being. Yet God loves them all and sent His son to die for them so that all those wrongs could be made right, so all could feel that love.
My last thought I would like to share deals with the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. As our tour guide told us about how the Jews were rounded up and forced to move to small Ghettos, cut off from society and treated like second-class citizens, all I could think about were the Palestinians. The Israelis are being so hypocritial!!!!!!!!! Palestinians are not given Israeli passports, they are cut off from society in small cities surrounded by check points. Families are often not allowed to gather for weddings or funerals because of travel restraints. All the Palestinian houses have 3 to 4 large water tanks on their roof because water is often cut off from their neighborhoods (you don't see that in the Jewish neighborhoods). On top of this all, they are being blocked in by a huge separation wall, to keep them contained. The Jews are doing the very same things to the Palestinians that the Nazi's did to the Jews. I am not advocating only the Palestinian side, because I don't agree with bus bombings or rocket attacks and such terrorist acts. I am just so surprised by this unjust world and I pray for the hastening of the day when Christ will come and all things of this nature will be made right. The Jews nor the Muslims believe in Him. But He nonetheless loves them. I have had that impressed upon my thoughts multiple times since coming here. He loves them even though they turn their back on Him. That one experience of listening to that Jewish childrens choir and the voice I heard in my head, "They are my people and I love them. They are my people and I love them," told me much about the love of our Savior. My prayer is that someday the Jews will come to realize that. In the mean time, He won't punish them, but He will just wait patiently and lovingly for the right time, weeping when they weep, rejoicing when they rejoice. I love my Savior.

Tel Aviv

We took a trip to Tel Aviv and I went to old Joppa (Jaffa) to get a picture with my arch-nemesis: the Whale. Jonah left from Joppa on the ship to escape from the Lord before he was swallowed by the "big fish". The trip was really fun. We visited the Jewish Diaspora Museum (the diaspora refers to the Jews living in communitites outside of Israel) and it was interesting to see how the Jews retained their culture for thousands of years. Then we went to old Joppa and finished the day eating at a beachside cafe, buying some Gellato, and swimming in the Mediterranean Sea at Sunset.

The City of David

Our field trip for this week was in correspondence with the story of David and Solomon in 1 and 2 Samuel and the reign of the Judean Kings. In Jerusalem, there is a big excavation taking place outside the "old city" walls. Interestingly enough, this excavation is the the original city of Jerusalem, the ancient city of David. As part of the trip, we visited what they believed to be the foundations of David's palace, went through Hezekiah's Tunnel, and visited the excavations at the Pools of Shiloam. It was an awesome trip. My favorite parts were the Tunnel and the Pools of Shiloam. The tunnel was built by Hezekiah before the invasion of the Assyrians. It connected the only spring in ancient Jerusalem, the Gihon Spring, to great resevours at the Pools of Shiloam and other places. They cut a tunnel out of solid rock to connect them and rediscovered them today. Water still runs through the tunnel and we were able to go through it. There is no lighting, so we had to bring a flashlight. We walked through this tunnel, stooped the whole way with water running past our feet. It was awesome! The way I was walking reminded me of "Private Eyes" when the Butler tells the two idiots to "walk this way".
Once we came out of the tunnel, we arrived at the Pools of Shiloam, a reltively new excavation. This was basically the first place I have visited where I could stand on the stones and say, "Jesus could have walked on this stone". It brought chills to me and I ended taking as many pictures as possible. I feel so much closer to Him since being here. I was blessed to go to the Garden Tomb two days ago on the Sabbath and read from 3 Nephi 8-11. As I read and came to the part when Jesus spoke a voice in the darkness, I was impressed by His loving invitation to all people to return to Him. Then I read of His appearance to the Nephites and as I read Chapter 11, I substituted personal pronouns for every reference to the Nephites. I realized that their experience then is not going to be so different from mine at the Judgement Day. I felt the spirit so strongly and I was able to bear testimony of the Risen Savior Jesus Christ at the place where He might have been buried, all in my journal. It was a sweet experience to do that and then walk on the very stones where He healed the blind man at the Pools of Shiloam. I am so blessed to be here!

Philistine Field Trip

Every week we do a field trip as a part of our studies. Since we are studying the books of Judges, Ruth, and Samuel right now, this week's trip was to the borderlands between ancient Israel and Philistine. There are 5 valleys that dig into the Judean Highlands and each valley is directly across from one of the 5 Philistine cities (Gath, Gaza, Ekkron, Ashkelon, and Ashdod). Up the valleys from these cities are 5 Israeli fortresses that guarded the passes and even further up from there are the 5 Israeli cities of Beit Shemesh, Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Hebron, and Arad. If you know these 15 cities and their corresponding valleys, then you can understand the geography of about 90% of the Old Testament. We spent the whole day visiting all 5 valleys and their fortresses. As we went, we stood next to the birthplace of Samson and read his story, we went to the site where David slew Goliath and slung stones at our own Goliath, learned a lot about the history of the Old Testament. It was cool to go to the actual sites of these major events and I was surprised by how small an area it all covers. The land of ancient Israel is very small! To finish the day, we visited an awesome set of Israeli ruins that had been made underground, cut into solid rock. We talked a lot about David and Goliath and how it applies to our situations today. We all have our spiritual "Goliaths" and can take courage from the example of David in choosing 5 "stones" to use to combat that Goliath. I thought long and hard about this and decided that my big Goliath right now is my fear of the future. I have spent too much time and effort on worrying about what my occupation will be, what I need to do to prepare for marriage, what I need to study, etc. I have focused so much on it that I got the impression that it was time for me to focus on the present and simply trust in the Lord that all will be well. That is going to be my goal for the rest of my experience here in the Holy Land. Focus on the present and trust the Lord that all will be OK in the end.

Church of the Holy Sepulchre

Most Latter-Day Saints are more familiar with the Garden Tomb as the place where Christ was crucified and buried. But what they do not know is that almost all of the Christian world (Catholic, Orthodox, Coptic, etc) believe that the Church of the Holy Sepulchre is the place where Christ was crucified and buried. The church is a large structure in the middle of the old city of Jerusalem. The Via Dolorosa (the way of grief or tears) or the path which Christendom believes Christ carried His cross to Golgotha, leads right to this church. It is an ancient, fascinating structure. You walk inside and it is all dark and slightly depressing. The church has been destroyed and rebuilt several times. Over the centuries, the various Christian sects have fought over it constantly. Today the church is owned by three main sects: Roman Catholic, Orthodox, and Armenian Orthodox churches. Surprisingly the Greek Orthodox is in control of most of the building. I think the Greeks inherited all of the old Byzantine monasteries, so that is why they control most of it. The Armenians are the oldest Christian church on the earth, so that probably explains their holdings. The Catholics, on the other hand, are apparently lucky to have any part of the building because of persecution from the other sects and from Muslim rulers. The Franciscan Monks were able to preserve a corner of the church for them. It is a fascinating structure.
Since we have our church meeting on Saturdays, Sundays are free days for us. We are allowed to go out and do any activity we want to on those days. I got a small group of people to go with me on Sunday morning to see some worship meetings in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. Because of conflicts with the usage of the building, some of the meetings were really early. So we woke up at 5:30 to attend the Catholic Latin Mass. It was held directly in front of the "Tomb of Jesus" in a huge dome. As the monks and the Catholic priest chanted their mass, the acoustics of the great hall gave me chills. The Catholics had built an organ in their part of the building that was included in their Mass. You could hear the music echo throughout the Church. As the meeting progressed, the morning sun would stream in through different openings in the ceiling and illuminate parts of the tomb. It was so cool to see the different beams of light shining in the dark building. As the Catholic Mass progressed in front of the tomb, the chanting of a Coptic Mass could be heard from the back of the tomb. A few Coptics had gathered there and were holding their service at the same time as the Catholics. As part of both Masses, incense was burned in a small lantern called a "thurible" and one of the priests would walk about the chamber swinging the incense. The Coptic priest carried one that had bells on it that chimed loudly as he walked around. He went right up to where the Catholics were worshiping and walked by them swinging his incense. As he passed, he paused and swung his incense toward the Catholics a few times, as if in an effort to cleanse their part of the building. It was interesting. There was one spot in the Hall where I could watch and hear both services. It was cool and I was amazed that all the different Christian sects could function in such a small space.
After the Catholic and Coptic Masses had finished, the Greek Orthodox arrived with their Patriarch of Jerusalem and began their service in front of the tomb. They own a huge dome and spacious hall that faces the door of the tomb. As their meeting started, I heard some more chanting from behind the tomb and walked back to see the Syrian Orthodox having their service in the place where the Coptics had been. These two meetings were by far my favorite. As part of the Syrian Orthodox service, the priests would get to a certain part of the Mass and put on white robes and hats over their blacks ones. All I could think of as I watched was the temple. Amidst all of this and their durge-like chanting, I could hear the Greek Orthodox monks chanting in the other hall as their Mass progressed.
After seeing these meetings, we went to a different part of the building and watched a small portion of an Ethiopian Orthodox Mass and then finished off the morning by going across the street to the Lutheran Church of the Redeemer to see a Lutheran church service in English. All in all, it was an awesome way to spend my free day and opened my eyes to the broad spectrum of Christianity. They all hold that place (the Church of the Holy Sepulchre) in such reverence and it impressed me. I would see people approach the rock where, it is believed, Christ hung on the Cross and another rock where, it is believed, Christ's body was laid as his body was prepared for burial and upon nearing these places, they would fall to the ground and weep as they touch the stones. That place is to them like our temples are to us. It also gave me a greater understanding of the Great Apostasy and how important it is to understand that doctrine, because it is SO true!
Just as a side note, we finished the day by going to the Western Wall and then through a small gate near there up to the Temple Mount to the Dome of the Rock. So we were able to visit the holiest places on earth for Christianity, Judaism, and Islam all in one day. It was an awesome experience.

Sunrise over Mount Sinai

Now to tell you of my favorite part of my trip to Egypt. We left Luxor by way of a night long train ride. We were put in pairs and given 1st class cabins on a Egyptian train for the trip home. I have always wanted to do that type of thing and I just loved the experience. We have an odd number of students and boys here, so I was the lucky one that got my own cabin on the train. I would not have had it any other way. Night had already fallen when we arrived at the train station. We boarded our train and I was served dinner and had some personal time to read my scriptures and write in my journal before the Train attendant (what do you call a flight attendant for a train?) came and pulled my bed out from the wall. I laid down in it and turned off my light and just stared out my window at the lights passing by. Every now and then I could see the flash of a street lamp and the beautiful blue and green lights from Mosques and Minarets in the dark in front of me. I don't know why, but it was such a memorable experience for me. I had a great nights sleep and woke up see a beautiful sunrise through the mist of Egypt. We arrived in Cairo at about 7 in the morning on the Muslim day of prayer, Friday. Since we were in Egypt, we had our Sabbath meeting on Friday in the dining room of our hotel. The whole time the elevator background music of the hotel was playing through speakers in the ceiling above us. After this we visited the famous Cairo museum. They have a whole section of it dedicated to the riches found in Tutanhkamun's tomb. Things like 4 solid gold sarcophaguses and a solid gold face mask. We didn't have much time in the museum because we got stuck in traffic on the way there and our bus driver pulled a U-turn in the middle of the freeway to avoid it and went against traffic back to the nearest off ramp to get us to an alternate route. I was pretty crazy. Another cool thing about the museum was the mummy rooms. They have the mummified remains of Ramases II, Seti IV, Hapshetsut and many others. That also was a crazy experience. For lunch, we went to the Hard Rock Cafe. They started playing "We will rock you" and so we sang along. Then they put on the YMCA and we had a spontaneous dance party on their dance floor with all 80 of us. It was so much fun!
To finish the day, we went to a huge bazaar in downtown Cairo where the old quarter of the city it located. We went into an awesome Mosque they had there that was built into the old city walls. The man at the entrance made us tip him for watching our shoes at the door after taking them off to enter. It was ridiculous, but the Mosque was amazing. The next day we returned to the old quarter and visited two Coptic Christian churches, one built on the site where traditionally Jesus and his parents stayed when they came to Egypt. After that we visited the old Synagogue. All these buildings had amazing architecture. It was the coolest blend of Christian, Jewish, and Muslim art. I loved it. To finish our time in Cairo, we visited the old city Citadel where the Muhammad Ali Mosque is located. That is also another building with breath taking architecture. It's high domes and minarets just take your breath away and it sits upon a high mount overlooking the rest of Cairo.
We left from there to drive the whole day back across Egypt to a hotel near Mt. Sinai. We got in late and had to wake up early the next morning (2:00!!) to hike Mt. Sinai and see the sunrise. We arrived there in the dark with a beautiful, moonless starlit night sky above us. Our whole group was led by two Bedouins, one in front and the other in back to guide us up the mountain. Other Bedouins had positioned themselves all over the mountain to give camel rides or to sell refreshments to the hikers from small shacks. I had wanted to have a personal experience hiking the mountain, so I went out in front of the main group with some others until I was by myself. I paused often while hiking up the mountain (it was a really hard hike, so the rest stop was welcoming) and would just turn off my flashlight and stare up into the starlit sky. The Milky Way could clearly be seen and if I waited long enough, the light from the stars our shine upon the path in front of me enough that I could walk without my flashlight. I remember thinking of the same hike that Moses made thousands of years ago to speak with Jehovah, the same God who created the very stars I was looking at in the night sky. As I sat there, I was impressed by the faith of Moses, to climb this high mountain to find God, to stand before Pharaoh and demand that his people should be released, to believe that God really would smite Egypt with plagues, and to wade out into the Red Sea and command the waters to part. Other miracles like leading millions of people out into the desert, the splitting of the rock to bring forth water, and similar events also went through my mind. What an amazing prophet he was! After a long and tiring hike, I reached the top of the mountain and watched an amazing sunrise after which we had a testimony meeting and climbed back down the mountain. From there we made the long drive to the Egypt/Israeli border (the Israelis made us wait there for 3 hours just to show us they could. It was ridiculous) and swam in the Red Sea at an Egyptian beach. We arrived home at the Jerusalem Center late at night. It was the coolest vacation I've ever been on and also the most tiring. We were constantly on the run the whole time, but I learned so much and experienced so many things. I also have many cherished memories from it that I will not soon forget.