Saturday September 8, 2007

Kerri Regehr
Victor Ludlow
Religion 303
Today started like most days have here at the Jerusalem Center, being woken up by my Muslim prayer call alarm clock. Other than that, today was a special day, a day of rest! We had to come dressed in our church clothes to breakfast today because it’s Shabbat, and the meal was delicious as always. After breakfast we had ward choir practice in the auditorium and almost everyone showed up to sing. We learned a song that we sang an hour later in Sacrament meeting, and I really enjoyed the acoustics in that room.
I thought it would be weird to have church on Saturday, but I actually think I like it better. There are a couple of families in our branch, and also some students from the Hebrew University. I’ve never lived in a branch before, especially not one with mostly single students and just a few families, so this is a new and pretty cool experience for me. All through the meeting I couldn’t take my eyes of the big window facing Jerusalem. I am still so amazed that I am here! As I partook of the Sacrament, I thought about Christ’s suffering for me in the Garden of Gethsemane, not too far from where I was sitting. It’s hard not to have a different feeling here in Sacrament meeting, but that doesn’t make the gospel any truer. Perhaps it makes it a little easier to relate to though, more real.
After the block of meetings, several people wanted to go to the Garden of Gethsemane and some wanted to go to the Garden Tomb. I went with the Gethsemane group and had a wonderful time. Gethsemane was different than I expected, it’s a pretty small walled garden with extremely old olive trees surrounded by rocks and gravel paths. Next to the garden is the beautiful Church of all Nations which we spent some time in. There is a street running right along the garden wall, so it was pretty noisy the whole time.
When we finally made the long, hot trek back to the Jerusalem Center, or Home as I’ve come to call it, dinner was waiting for us. After we ate, most people headed off to various places in the building to tackle their homework. I ended up in the lounge with a whole slew of people not conducive to studying at all. It was fun though, and I’m glad I had at least that one night to grow closer to my new friends. All in all, it was a wonderful Shabbat, and I have a feeling it will fast become my favorite day of the week!