Let's start with the light-stuff. We had midterms this week so free day was mostly studying. We decided to go to the Jewish Bakery for breakfast though before studying. The Jewish Bakery. The Myth. The Legend.
We got a little lost trying to find it. Yay for technology.
It was worth the search though. Our search was generously rewarded with chocolate filled pastries. For breakfast. I even got juice. I can see Dr. Bikman cringing. I may have cringed a little as well. But mostly smiled. Also at one point a huge gob or chocolate exploded on my face. So that was a highlight.
We also spent some of our free day doing some reading, but on the ancient city wall. So it was like homework but awesome homework. I was studying about how Jerusalem was invaded and that was cool to imagine from that wall. Cool to imagine how intimidating those armies must have looked coming over the hill and how terrified and regretful those people must have felt.
Selfies are not my forte. But look at my cool friends study on the wall.
You get the idea.
We also read some of our homework at the pool of Bethesda, which has become one of my most favorite places in Jerusalem. I think I wrote about the special experience I had there already. While I was there we heard a choir singing Amazing Grace again. It was cool because the song was an answer to a prayer again but a different line of the song stuck out to me this time. The line was "The Lord has promised good to me, His word my hope secures". Why am I prone to doubt blessings promised me in my patriarchal blessings? Why did the Israelites doubt that God would deliver them?
I have no reason for such doubts considering how God has always come through for me. He has seriously been blessing me so much while I have been here in ways I did not expect. In my mind I thought I was giving up interning at the refugee center with teaching nutrition. But this week I got an email inviting me to participate in an identical program in Provo in the fall. Heavenly Father is just so good and aware of our desires and wants to make them happen! He is the best.
Our field trip this week was the Holocaust Museum here in Jerusalem. Our Jewish professor led us on the trip. It was a very sombering day. It hurt to see those memories brought to life and it hurt to watch Jewish people go through that museum and weep at what had happened to their people.
More than one million children were killed during the Holocaust. One of the most poignant parts of the museum for me was visiting a memorial dedicated to those children. It was a room that was pitch-black inside. The walls were made of glass and behind the glass there were little lights. So imagine a dark room with reflected little lights all around you. Each little pinprick of light was designed to represent a child. While I was in there I thought of how those children were received into Heaven. I felt Heavenly Father's love for them and how He must have welcomed them into His loving arms and held them after the hell they had been through.
Later that week a man named Elias came to talk to us. He is 98 and 3/4 years old. He is a Holocaust survivor. He survived 9 concentration camps but is the most delightful old man. A picture taken by my friend captures his personality well.
He lost his mother, father, and all his siblings. He said he kept blinders on like a horse, staying focused on faith and food. After the war ended he moved to Guatemala because he had an uncle who had moved there before the war. Another cool thing about Elias is that he delivered his message in Spanish! He had translators but it was fun to hear his story from him first with his fun personality.
Basically, it was a reminder that things that seem to tear us down actually build us up. While I was at the pool of Bethesda I read this about how because of Jerusalem's wickedness generation after generation the point came for God to humble them. The passage said that "Zion for your sake be plowed as a field, and Jerusalem shall become heaps”. We talked about this image in class and the image that popped into my head was dad rototilling the garden at home.It reminded me of when we were trying to get rid of the rhubarb plant. We ripped it from the ground, chopped it up, threw it away, and raked the soil. Physically. Literally. Now imagine "plowing" a people or a person.
There are times when we all feel like our insides are being all torn up. But the thing about plowing a garden is that is prepares the land to be fruitful. Because gardens go through so much upheaval they are beautiful and a great blessing later. I think it's the same with people. So much suffering can make them beautiful if they choose to look forward with faith to the harvest. Such is the case with Elias. He has an incredible soul. I want to be like Elias.
I've been thinking a lot this week. I've been thinking about the Holocaust. I've been thinking about the terrorist attack that occurred in Tel Aviv this week. I've been thinking about current Palestinian-Israeli interactions. I've been thinking about the Stanford rape case. In the end, they are sad things to think about. But when I think about them for long enough, after I get past the anger and the sadness, I remember the Atonement. These things, as horrible as they are always cause me to remember how truly incomprehensible and all-ecompassing the Atonement is- that it could cover all the suffering of those victimized and that it could cover the travesties caused by sinners, even if they choose not to repent. It truly is incredible.
Well. That's probably it for today. I hope you all are having a wonderful week! Love you!
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