More adventures in Israel.
First of all, this first picture is for my Dad. I thought he would like that we found this sticker on a window in the middle of the old city. There are a few shops that cater specifically to the LDS tourist and some that cater to the BYU students. There is one stop in particular that all of the students do there shopping at. He has BYU Jerusalem T-shirts, sweatshirts, scripture cases and I am sure he claims...anything we want. He also pours us a drink of lemonade or something else any time we stop by. I am pretty sure that he makes almost all his money off of the students that come here each semester. So after that, it wasn't to surprising to find something like this in another part of the city...This week we really got started into our classes. Because we go on field trips we have to use the time that we are in the Center for classes so some of the days can be pretty long. I am learning so much here and I love the chance we have to learn about something and then actually see it. Last Monday we went out to a few different outlook points to get a better feel for the layout of the area. As you can see in the picture below, it was a little difficult to see everything that we were looking for due to the heavy haze. I think this was the only day that it was that hazy. Just our luck! Understanding the geography is important to understanding the history. These are my roommates...(left to right) Savannah, Mandy, and Brigitta. This is on our way to the Western Wall. Behind us is the Mount of Olives and you can see part of the Garden of Gethsemane just above our heads.

Friday night we were able to go as a group to the Western Wall as the Jews welcomed the Sabbath as sundown. It was a great experience and we had a good time talking to a few Orthodox Jewish girls, and watching some of the dances, and hearing them sing. One interesting thing I learned was that not to long ago there were houses and buildings that filled this area and there was only about 4 meter thick strip of space that people were able to go down along the wall. After the 1967 war they came in and just cleared out the area so that it is accessible. The cracks of the wall are just filled with little pieces of paper with prayers written on them.

Today we had a wonderful Sabbath service. I am still getting used to having church on Saturday. There has been question as to why we worship on Saturday here. The branch president said, "the Prophet has given approval to do so." That was a good enough answer for me. Due to the area, Saturday is the best day to do it. Today I was also reading about Sabbath in the Bible Dictionary and found something interesting. It said, "The change from observing the last day of the week to the first day of the week is not so important as is the concept and principle of the Sabbath." The day is not so important as the principle of our worship.

After our meetings we went to the Garden Tomb. After a long walk through the crowded streets, the Garden Tomb was a sanctuary from the chaos of the town. This is the most peaceful place I have been thus far. It was beautiful and it was wonderful to sit and feel the spirit here.