My First "Free" Day

Every single Sunday is a free day for us. That is going to take a little getting use to. It felt like Monday all day today, but it was actually Sunday. This is the one day a week when we don't have any classes, field trips, or other activities planned. That means we can either stay in the Center or go out into the city. Obviously most students spend the day in the city visiting different sites. I went with a group of students to the Israeli Museum which is across town. It was a good walk, and we got lost a few times along the way. That is a good way to learn a new place. One time when we were unsure about our location (in other words - lost), we found ourselves in front of one of the US Consulates. While the students I was with were checking the map, one of the security guards from the Consulate crossed the street and approached me. The guard asked if I had taken a picture of the Consulate and told me that I wasn’t allowed to do so. I hadn’t even thought about it, but I was just holding my camera in my hand. I told him I hadn’t, but he wanted me to show him my photos just to make sure. I did so and then he let us go. Interesting experience for sure.

Despite the delays we made it to the Israeli Museum. There are many exhibits at this museum, but the main attraction to me was the Dead Sea Scrolls. The Dead Sea Scrolls were an amazing discovery. Some shepherds in the 1940s just stumbled across a few scrolls in a cave that were actually in really good condition because of the containers they were in. These scrolls contained at least one version of the all the books in the Old Testament except for two. In the museum they have a few of these scrolls on display. It was amazing to be just a few inches away from something so ancient and significant.

Every Sunday night the Jerusalem sponsors an art exhibit and concert for the community. The students can only attend on a standby basis. Luckily enough I was able to get in. This concert was special because this semester marks the 25th anniversary of the Jerusalem Center. That implies as well that it is the 25 year mark for the amazing organ that is in the auditorium. To commemorate this mark, Richard Elliott came to perform an organ concert. Richard Elliott is the principal organist for the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. It was pretty amazing. A good organist can make some excellent music on a quality organ. Richard Elliott also played the organ for church yesterday. It felt like we were at General Conference.