Day 9-Shabbat, BYU Jerusalem Center, Orson Hyde Memorial, The Big Tent, Shepherd's Field, Bethany

Three types of wine presses.

"He tread the wine press alone"

We went to Sacrament Meeting at the BYU Jerusalem Center. What a sacred place in a sacred place. It is a beautiful building on the Mount of Olives in east Jerusalem, the Ocupied Territory.  

My dear friend Jan asked me to give the organist a hug.  I had a great conversation with her.  She played a beautiful arrangement of "Take Time to Be Holy" that I loved.  

We walked to the Orson Hyde Memorial Park.  The views of the Old City were stunning.

Blair teaching us about the Orson Hyde Memorial Park.

The whole area is on called the Mount of Olives. 

We then drove though the check points out of the Ocupied Territories to Bethany.  There is a very tall cement wall separating Israel from Palestine.  It is an ominous sight and bothered me every time we crossed it. 

We ate lunch in a large Bedouin tent replica restaurant.  We had the traditional lunch meal but there were fries.  Mark asked for Ketchup and the waiter said, oh American sauce and brought it.

We went to the Mormon Shepherd's field.  There was a working stone well.  We sang Christmas carols and talked about the Savior's birth.  There are cities all around but there are still hills used for herding sheep.

We then drove into Bethany to Lazarus' tomb.  It was a very small place, but several of us fit in the tomb.  I really liked thinking about Mary and Martha and Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead,  the tacky stores, not so much

Inside the tomb.