Monday December 17, 2007

April Palmer

December 17, 2007

Bro. Ludlow

New Testament Journal December 17, 2007

Like fifty percent of the people living in the Jerusalem Center, I woke up Monday morning exhausted from coughing all night. There is a serious cold/flu epidemic tearing its way through the students and staff; I don’t know who started it, but the end doesn’t seem to be anywhere in sight,

Sickness aside, we set out on our field trip with high expectations. It was to be our first day following the footsteps of the Savior’s last week in this land. We visited Bethpage, Bethany (home of Mary, Martha, and Lazarus), Lazarus’ tomb, a church on the Mount of Olives commemorating the Lord’s Prayer, and Dominus Flevit, a church commemorating when the Lord wept over Jerusalem. We also ate lunch in the Orson Hyde Gardens and learned about how the church came to develop the Orson Hyde Park and build BYU Jerusalem Center. Throughout the day we drank in the sights, sounds, and smells because we knew that this was good-bye.

After returning from the field trip and eating a hearty dinner, the students congregated in the student lounge for our last official party—The Shalom Shack Snowfall Spectacular. All of the treats in the Shack were sold for one shekel off the original price (liquidation sale), and the room was filled with Christmas spirit and everyone danced and sang. The highlight of the party was, of course, the visit from none other than Santa Claus himself. Santa sat in his red genie pants taking Christmas wishes and posing for pictures until everyone had a chance to sit on his knee. It was another stupendous Shalom Shack success.

New Testament Highlight:

My New Testament experience here culminated the night of our class program. As I listened to each individual in our class bear their personal testimony of the Savior, I received many more sure witnesses that Jesus is the Christ and that the things we have learned about Him this semester are true. He is indeed the Jehovah of the Old Testament and the Messiah of the New Testament. At the end of the program I was able to bear my testimony of Him through word and song. Though my lack of voice hindered the musical part of the song, I felt so grateful that the Lord blessed me to be able to sing well enough that the words to “Maybe I Will Be There” could be hear and understood by my classmates. I truly do know that Christ will come again, and what a joyful day that will be.