Study Abroad at BYU-Jerusalem: Hard Work and Play Time

This week has been the most amazing week ever! I have been to so many holy sites and seen thousands of years worth of history all in one city. I never thought Jerusalem had as much history as it does. So this week has been crazy since it was the first full week of all my classes. I’m taking Arabic, Ancient Near Eastern Studies, Arab and Islamic Civilization (Palestine), Jewish Civilization (Israeli), Old Testament, New Testament, and the Jerusalem Field Trips that we’ll be tested on later. I feel like every minute is spent reading and any spare time is spent in the Old City (Eastern Jerusalem), which isn’t a lot. I love it though. Waking up to the prayer call some mornings and always looking out my window to see the beautiful morning view of the Holy Land. I love it. And seriously, the people here are amazing. The students are all really nice and friendly. Also, the culture in the Holy Land is really cool. The Palestinians we see in Eastern Jerusalem are the friendliest people and will also do anything to get you in their shop (haha).

For our first forum, we had the associate director give the history behind the Jerusalem Building and I had no idea of the amount of work, endless effort and time that went into obtaining the land on Mt. Scopus to be used for the “Mormon University.” Elder Jeffrey R. Holland was the area authority over Jerusalem when they wanted to build the Jerusalem Center (JC) building. It took a year and a half to just sign all the papers to obtain the land. Then once building, they had to deal with all the protests and change a lot of policies, but they eventually built it. Also, there’s chiseled stone on the walls all over the center, which gives the walls a rough texture but cool design. Every single one of the stones on the walls was hand chipped by local workers that took 2 years to complete. There is so much hard work and dedication and history behind this building. I am so lucky to be here. For those who didn’t know, the JC has 8 floors and it contains a gym, 2-3 floors of housing, cafeteria, seminar rooms, forum room, auditorium, and much more I have yet to explore.

Saturday was our Sabbath day and so we had church in the morning and then we got to go see the Garden Tomb. It was so peaceful there, but it was a lot smaller inside then what I imagined. Historians aren’t certain that it was Christ’s tomb in that exact spot but there is a lot of evidence that the tomb was from the days of Christ. Also, we didn’t have an LDS tour guide but he knew so much (he was actually a Canadian pastor) but he brought up a good point. It’s not the stones that Jesus walked on or laid upon that we should be worshipping but it’s a reminder of what He did. He sacrificed himself for the atonement. Before leaving, all 82 of the Jerusalem students sang the hymn “Nearer My God to Thee” outside with many cultural and religious people listening. It was such an amazing, spiritual experience. The spirit was so strong in that place; it was unbelievable. I’ll tell you more about it later as I go more times (since it’s only about a 20 minute walk from the Jerusalem Center).

Monday was my first field trip here and we went around Jerusalem to many churches and look out points of the city. It was gorgeous to see many ruins and see how different religions worship. I have said this before, but I love seeing the love and dedication these people have for God.

There are about four or five different quarters in the old city. So one area will be the Christian quarter while another is a Muslim quarter. There is so much to look at in the old city and some shops will have pieces of artwork or objects that are thousands of years old. Each shop has a different feel to it and has it’s own hidden treasures. Anyone could explore the old city for weeks and still find new and hidden places full of the shops, smells, and spices.