Friday December 14, 2007

Gregory W. Marsh
Friday, December 14, 2007
Brother Victor L. Ludlow
Journal Entry
“When the time for performance is come, the time for preparation is past.” So says President Monson frequently, and so we learned today when we had our final exam for Brother Huntington’s Ancient Near Eastern Studies class. Everybody was relieved to finish the final, and everybody’s attention turned (eventually) to preparing for Sunday’s New Testament final exam.
Of all of the sites that we’ve visited during our study of the New Testament, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre has been one of the most instructive for me. I have to say that I have not enjoyed my visits to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre as much as I enjoy the Garden Tomb; I don’t know which site (if either) is the actual site, of course, but the Garden Tomb has much more of the feeling that the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. Every time that I have visited the Church, I have come away with a much deeper appreciation for the restoration of the gospel through Joseph Smith. As that church is possibly the holiest site in all of Christianity, it attracts thousands of Christians daily. Christians from all over the world come to worship and pay homage to the Savior, and in so doing, display practices and ceremonies from all brands of Christian denominations. Seeing the variety and the wide gaps between the different practices, it becomes very clear that apostasy has, indeed, gripped the whole of the Christian world. Every time I leave, I become more grateful that we don’t have to stumble in the dark, wondering how to worship and trying to find the true way. We have the true way, thanks to the restoration.
Also today, we visited Shannon White in the hospital. She went to the hospital last night with a severe eye infection. Her hospital bed is in the hall (it’s the biggest hospital room I’ve ever seen!), and she’s spending lots of long hours alone with no one to talk to, so when President and Sister Heyes offered to take us to see her, six of us jumped at the chance to go. Get well soon, Shannon!