Holy Week - Palm Sunday

Holy Week is the last week of Jesus' life. Holy Week is a big deal in most Christian faiths, but for some reason it isn't as large among the Mormon faith. Holy Week started today with Palm Sunday. All four gospels contain accounts of Jesus' triumphal entry from Bethany into Jerusalem. Jesus rode on a donkey while people shouted praises and also laid their clothes and branches before him. The Church of Bethphage is the traditional location where Jesus began his triumphal entry. We went there to participate in the Palm Sunday walk. A lot of students and myself included bought palm branches to carry and wave during the walk. The walk went all the way into the Old City making it about two miles long. There were so many pilgrims there. Along the way we sang a bunch of hymns. Other groups of pilgrims were also praising Jesus through song. Most of the time we were walking in front of a group that had drums and guitars along with their voices. We were able to pick up a lot of their tunes because they were really simple. This whole experience was just a wonderful time to joining with other Christians in praising Jesus.

The Bible teaches us that Jesus went to the temple after his triumphal entry to cleanse it. To honor that event I went to the temple mount in the morning. While waiting in line to enter the temple mount I went over to the Western Wall. It was nice to go to the Western Wall in the morning because there weren't very many people there. I wrote a little prayer and stuck it in a crack of the wall as many people do.