Shabbat!

I wanted to write a bit about our first Shabbat here in the Holy Land. Church takes place on Saturday which helps the Center coordinate better with their employees and general customs of the area. It’s really hard to get used to though!

Church starts at 10am which means we get to sleep in! Our meeting is in the big auditorium room which has windows all behind the sacrament speaker overlooking Jerusalem. It’s quite a beautiful sight! The speaker has to be pretty good to hold your attention when competing with 2,000 years of ancient history. I was surprised by how amazing our meeting was; honestly it’s been way too long since I have been in a ward and a meeting where I felt that connected and uplifted.

After church, a group of us went over to the Garden Tomb. The site is owned by a group in England that runs it without connection to a specific denomination. They’re evangelical Christians and don’t feel too fondly for the Mormons. Apparently 10 years ago some crazy LDS guy went in there preaching crazy hell fire and damnation stuff with the Book of Mormon. The relationship has never been the same. They ask us to dress in casual clothes so we don’t stand out too much and we’re not allowed to read the Book of Mormon while on the grounds.

The Garden Tomb grounds are located behind a gate just outside of the Old City Wall. When you’re inside, you feel so separated from the craziness of the Old City. They explain the story and show you Golgotha, which is really hard to see but neat nonetheless. Then they show you the tomb where Jesus’ body was laid. I was so surprised by how small the room is! There is barely room for 5 people inside. I always imagined the tomb as being so far removed from the city, and in Jesus’ time it may have been. But now, merchant streets completely surround the area. I guess that’s what happens when a city has been used continually for thousands of years.

After the Garden Tomb, our group walked over to Orson Hyde Park. This is a plot of land on the Mt. of Olives that is controlled by the church. It’s the place where Orson Hyde knelt and dedicated the land for the gathering of the Jews. The Israeli government approached the church a few years ago and offered the 5 acres to us to build a park (I don’t think they wanted to spend the money to do it themselves and knew we’d do a beautiful job). The church built the park and deeded the land back to the city with certain specific conditions. I think it’s crazy that the church owns land on the Mt. of Olives, the location where the Savior will return! Forget fighting over Solomon’s temple mount/Dome of the Rock!

View of the Old City from Orson Hyde Park