Happy Sabbath Saturday!

Merry Christmas! … What do you mean? Of course it is Christmas! Well, Orthodox Christmas, anyway. I must say, 19 years and I never knew there were two Christmases.

Also, happy Sabbath from the Holy Land. This is my first Saturday Sabbath, and it is a strange sensation to know that I can go out and about tomorrow and play when it feels like Sunday tonight. People over here are very sensitive about calling it the Sabbath, especially the little kids. I have been catching myself saying Sunday all day today. It was a wonderful bit of perspective to realize that I have spent most of my life celebrating Sunday instead of celebrating the Sabbath, something I will get a chance to work on.

Church today was wonderful. I had such a wonderful experience singing hymns while looking out over the city. It was so much more real here. We sang “O Savior thou who wearest a crown of piercing thorn, the pain thou meekly bearest, weigh'ed down by grief and scorn. The soldiers mock and flail thee; for drink they give thee gall; Upon the cross they nail thee to die, O King of all.” As we did, I thought about the fact that I was looking at the place He was crucified. It was amazing. And not far from where I sat, He rose from a tomb and fulfilled the greatest act of love the world has ever known. The thing that was even more amazing was that I knew all this before I came to Jerusalem. I didn't need to see the place to know it was true. Of course, being here helped, but it didn't develop my testimony; it strengthed it.

I got to conduct music for the Primary kids today. Oh goodness- they are so adorable. My favorite moment was when the teacher wrote the word “agency” on the board after giving clues about it and one little girl said aloud “I don't even know what that is!” I actually really loved listening to the lesson, the women teaching was wonderful. We sang songs about choosing the right after a really well done lesson about agency. It was obvious which songs they knew and which they didn't. By the end I was figuring out how to help remember the words, but the beginning was a challenge.

I must say- going to church with my professors is a very interesting experience. Brother Huntsman, my old testament teacher, is a very vocal Sunday School participant. My other professors were silent though. It hasn't happened yet, but I thought as my Ancient Near Eastern Studies professor announced the program for sacrament, “I wonder how I will feel when I have a big paper due, or if looking at them later in the semester is going to remind me of all the work I have to do.”

I walked around the Mount of Olives this afternoon. The weather is really warm during the day, and it was beautiful and sunny. The city has bought a plot of land surrounding the JC and turned it into walking paths and a playground in an attempt to stop development on the hill. The result is that the Center stands out beautifully in the only substantial patch of green in the valley.