"This is really Jerusalem"

I have known that I was coming to the Holy Land for a couple of months now, but even with knowing that it has taken me a while to actually realize that I am in Jerusalem. There were three moments within the first twenty four hours that were really cool moments of realization. The first occurred when we arrived at the Jerusalem Center. They just had us leave our bags in the lobby before heading into the auditorium. They had a couple of people speak and give introductions. The director said to us, "This is really Jerusalem. This is real thing." It sounds really simple, but it made what I was experiencing turn from a dream into reality. Soon afterwards the curtains opened to a magnificent view of the sun setting on Jerusalem. It was stunning. The Jerusalem Center is on Mt Scopus which faces the Old City, and the entire auditorium is essentially a floor to ceiling window. Those two things make for quite the view. We have sacrament meeting in this same room which makes it difficult to look at the speaker. It is just so much more interesting to just listen to the speaker and look at the entire city.

The second "aha" moment came later that day when I was moving my luggage into my room. That is when one of the Muslim prayer calls sounded. Several times a day prayer calls in Arabic are sounded from all of the mosques in Jerusalem. I really like the prayer calls actually. They sound really cool. As soon as I heard that I thought, "This is a different world. I'm definitely not in Provo." Every morning a prayer call is heard at a little before 5am. That woke me up for the first two mornings, but luckily I slept through it today.

The next morning I was reading 1 Nephi 4. Nephi tells his brothers, "Let us go up again unto Jerusalem." I thought for a second and made the simple connection that Jerusalem is no longer "over there" anymore, it is right "here."

I have had many such moments since then, but those my first three and most memorable to me.

I've only been here for a couple of days, but I have already been able to see many sites such as the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, the Orson Hyde Memorial Park, the Garden of Gethsemane, and the Garden Tomb. I haven’t spent very much time at any of them, but we will be going back as a group later so I’ll write more about those sites.

By the way, Merry Orthodox Christmas. Apparently today is the day that the orthodox Christians celebrate Christmas. Sort of interesting to know.