First Impressions

So on Thursday we went into the old city and walked through the main streets of ancient Jerusalem. It felt a lot like my first few days in Irkutsk. Everyone was speaking strange languages, there was unfamiliar writing everywhere, there were people wearing strange things, there were sounds of poorly running buses, there were a million different smells - and it was hot. We walked through the main streets just to get accuainted with the city. All the merchants were out and it felt like the bazaars in Russia.

The next day we took a tour around Jerusalem looking from vantage points around the city. We learned the geography and talked about all the events from the scriptures that happened at different places. It was amazing to look at how close everything is. I had always read about Christ staying at Bethany, but bethany is just up the mount of olives a little ways, and the Mount of Olives, is right outside the city. The Garden of Gethsemene is maybe 300 meters from the city wall. The traditional spot of the crusifixion is now within the walls of the old city. The major places in the new testement, you could walk to in 5 minutes between each point. Then we went to a different point and looked at the surrounding area around jerusalem - it is estimated that 70% of the Old Testement took place in the area that we could see from Nabi Samwil.

Today we went to the Garden Tomb. There were so many Nationalities, and languages, and denominations there. Unfortunately everything was kinda rushed today, but we'll be back.

Today was also church - because we have it on saturday here. I was called as the secratary of the Elders Quorum of the Jerusalem branch of the Israeli District. Jerusalem Branch in the Israeli District sounds really cool.

Tommorrow we have a lot of free time so hopefully there will be a lot more to write about the old city.