A trip to the Garden

A little while ago I went with a group of students to the Garden of Gethsemane. It was my first time there and when I first got there I found myself chatting with a friend for a time. After our chat and just taking in my surroundings I pulled out my phone and read aloud to a group of students nearby the account of the Savior atoning in the Garden found in Matt 26:36-42. The Spirit was so strong and powerfully testified to me of the Savior’s atonement and touched me profoundly as I read aloud that very moving account. It was such a peaceful and quiet moment and left me ever more cognizant of the incredible sacrifice that the Savior made for each of us and how much He loves us. My heart was touched and I came to appreciate the atonement and love the Savior much more deeply. It made a huge impression on me that that eternal act took place in the setting very similar to the one I was in and possibly even in or near the very place that I was sitting. It was such a powerful moment, words may never do it justice. I am so grateful for the opportunity that I have had to be here. My experience has really helped me to see the scriptures in a new light and is making an eternal impact on me and who I am becoming. Furthermore, it has already helped me draw nearer to the Savior and make my relationship with Him much more personal.

Lookin' good in Jerash. Such a cooooooooool place!

Me touching the waters of the Jordan River at the spot where tradition holds that Christ was baptized. An amazing experience!

Porsche GT in real life! From the Royal Automobile Museum in Jordan.

Ever since the beginning of my mission I have always been on the lookout for the universal answer to the why behind trials. Ultimately I have come to decide that there is no answer, but that they are generally for our well-being. Frequently we may ask ourselves something like, “Why, if God loves me, has He allowed such a hard/difficult/unpleasant thing to happen to me?” I believe it was a seminary teacher who countered this thought with a response that was something like “God loves us too much to leave us as we are, and that is why He gives us trials.” Our Heavenly Father knows us better than even we know ourselves. Beyond that, I would say that He knows our capabilities, our gifts, talents and strengths better than we do. He knows what we are capable of doing and just how much we can take.

The idea for this post took root in a discussion we had in our Old Testament class a few weeks ago. We were talking about Abraham having received the Abrahamic covenant, among other things innumerable posterity, specifically through Isaac and then being commanded to sacrifice him. What a terrible edict to be commanded to kill your own son! As if that wasn’t enough, it must have been made worse having to do something that is normally against the commandments, to go against his faith and to have to exercise hope that the Lord will somehow raise his slain child or otherwise provide a way for the Abrahamic covenant to come to pass. He seemingly was asked to betray both his son and in some contradictory way, keep and break his faith simultaneously.

About Abraham’s plight Joseph Smith once said, “If God had known any other way whereby he could have touched Abraham’s feelings more acutely and more keenly he would have done so.” Abraham was given, by our loving Heavenly Father, the trial that would be hardest for him to overcome.  Truman G. Madsen said “I put the question once to President Hugh B. Brown, when we were in Israel: Why was Abraham commanded to go up on that mountain and offer as a sacrifice his only hope for the promised posterity? President Brown wisely replied, ‘Abraham needed to learn something about Abraham.’ By being tested, all of us will one day know how much our hearts are really set on the kingdom of God.”

Surely Abraham would have never willingly chosen such a trial for himself, not knowing the outcome beforehand. However, the Lord gave him such a trial, specifically catered to him, knowing that he was capable of overcoming. So does He bless us with trials that He knows we are capable of overcoming, it is up to us however, to decide whether or not we will remain faithful as Abraham did. Countless blessings await us if we do.

If you find yourself struggling through a trial, now, or in the future, know that your Heavenly Father believes in you, and knows that you, through the enabling power of the atonement of your Savior, can remain faithful through to the end. Remember also that it is not a curse, but a blessing which you have yet to recognize. Remember, in such situations, that your Heavenly Father knows, as a previous counselor in my stake presidency once said, that “In the growth zone there is no comfort and in the comfort zone there is no growth.” While hard to recognize them as such, trials are so frequently a manifestation of your Father in Heaven’s love for you. Stay faithful always, and it is my testimony that you will come to thank Him one day for loving you enough to not leave you as you are.

This is me in front of the Dome of the Rock!

Here I am walking down one of the residential kind of side streets in the Old City! Enjoy!

This is my journal entry from 1/20/13 - Enjoy!

We went out to the Dome of the Rock today and it is a really cool, quite pretty building. It looks quite different from close up. It has a bunch of really cool colored tiles on the outside and is really pretty. By far my favorite part about it is the incredible peace that exists on the grounds outside. It is clean and quiet and much like temple grounds should be. It is hard to find a quiet, peaceful place here, so that was a really nice break. After that we went to the Jewish quarter of the Old City and bought some delicious pastries and then ate them in the plaza type area of Hurva square within the Jewish quarter. Afterwards we joined a large group from the JC for the Ramparts walk tour (walking around the top of the outer wall of the city). Most of the way through the tour we found a way to get off the wall and did so to do some exploring. We ended up at the soccer court where we played with the local kids before and did so again. Afterwards, Taylor, Lindsay Kelley, KC and I went to Zedekiah’s cave, which is a manmade cave which was formed because of quarrying the limestone for the building of some of the ancient buildings in the Old City. We then went to a gelato shop by Aladdin’s and ate some really yummy ice cream there, then headed home and on the way stopped and got some pizza from a little shop in the bottom of the Kidron valley just down the hill from the Center. We meet two guys from Switzerland there who are just here touring for a little bit. We had a nice conversation with them and by the time we left they had shared some of their pizza with us. They were nice.

My first adventure in the Old City

The following is a journal entry (modified to make a little more sense for those who aren't here with me) that I wrote a week ago today. Enjoy!

Today my group of 12 and I went on a guided tour of the city with Brother Schade (one of the religion professors here, also the EQ President). We left around 8:30 AM and the tour ended right around noon. We were then cut loose to either go back to the center or explore the city as we desired. I went with Taylor (one of my roommates) and some other friends to explore the city and we had sooo much fun! We cruised around looking at the alleyways and streets of the old city and walked all around inside. We ended up going to the church of flagellation (supposedly where Christ was whipped shortly before being crucified) and the church of condemnation(where Pilate decided finally to crucify Christ). It is incredible to me as we visit places where tradition holds (because they don't know for sure on most of these things) that certain events may have occurred how neat it is to reflect on the Savior’s life, and while the exact location of the events may not be completely accurate, it is a great reminder of what really happened and really brings home the reality of what we are doing here and how incredible it is to be here. It just drives home that I am literally in the area where the Savior spent a good portion of His ministry and it is such an incredible blessing. We also went to the pools of Bethesda, which are legitimate (as far as I know) ruins that literally were around from the time of Christ’s life, are mentioned in the Bible and where significant events took place. They are depicted in the really famous Carl Bloch painting where Christ is lifting a tent flap (of sorts) to find someone who needed healed. In our effort to find the pools, we ended up in a residential area of the old city with 3 story(ish) tall buildings on either side as we walked down the stone paved roads of Jerusalem. It was such a cool area! We ended up asking two local kids (Ashtov and Schaeb, whom I took pictures with and will upload later, I forgot my SD card) to help us find the pools. They took us way back to the center of the Old City (the pools are on the edge near Lion’s gate) before we found someone who could help us. One of the girls with us, who is minoring in Arabic, spoke with them a little bit  and between their help and the help of a Palestinian adult they chatted with, we found the oools. It was really neat. On our way out of the city we found a small soccer court/field (concrete) where some local 7 or so year olds invited us to play soccer with them. There were 5 of them when we started, so we played 5 on 5 and it was a blast! We had soooo much fun. We had a small gathering watching us from the side of the court and more people from the surrounding rooftops. We played until one of the local boys whom we were playing with had his mom show up and ask us to stop so that he would go home. It was an amazing day and definitely wore me out. I am really enjoying my time here and love being out in the city having adventures and seeing the amazing sites. I am also really enjoying the time I spend with my fellow classmates, it is great! Life is great here!

This is me standing on the patio off my bedroom! It is pretty rare for the Holy Land to get this much snow! Such a treat to get to see it first hand.

Also taken from my patio. The Dome of the Rock covered in snow! Sorry the pictures are soooooo small, the internet is suuuuuper wimpy in the center here so I had to shrink them down to get them on here.

Orbits

This thought in large part comes from a portion of my talk that I gave in church about a month ago. It has been prevalent in my mind of late and is especially so now with all the new people I am meeting and having parted ways with so many great people for some period of time. It comes from a quote my friend shared with me from Elder Maxwell.


“At Christmastime, ...we celebrate a special star that announced Jesus' birth at Bethlehem.  … [The] so-called "little star of Bethlehem" was actually very large in its declaration of divine design! It had to have been placed in its precise orbit long, long before it shone so precisely! Persuasive divine design is underscored in what the Lord has said: "All things must come to pass in their time" (D&C 64:32).  His overseeing precision pertains not only to astrophysical orbits but to human orbits as well.  This is such a stunning thing for us to contemplate as to our obligations to , "shine as lights" within our own orbits and personal responsibilities! (See Philippians 2:15.)

Elder Maxwell continued this thought in a separate address in which he said:
“The Prophet Joseph Smith declared that God, “before [the earth] rolled into existence, … contemplated the whole of the events connected with the earth. … [God] knew … the depth of iniquity that would be connected with the human family, their weakness and strength, … the situation of all nations and … their destiny, … and [He] has made ample provision [for mankind’s] redemption” (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, sel. Joseph Fielding Smith [1976], 220).Part of God’s “ample provision” consists of imperfect people like you and me, committed to shining and serving in our appointed orbits, knowing all the while that we are encircled “in the arms of [His] love” (D&C 6:20).”
So many people have blessed my life in innumerable ways. You never know what kind of influence you might have on someone else. Seek always to do your best and to "let your light so shine" as we have been commanded to do. As we do so we will always be blessed, and will someday be given the wonderful affirmation of people we have helped in both small and large ways, just as we have been blessed in similar ways by others.