Day 93

Custody of the Holy Land Church

Holiday decorations

St. Marks Church

The 'Upper Room'

Church of Alexander Nevsky

Whitney and I in the Church of Alexander

One of the arches of the Herodian Gate

The Holy Sepulcher

Closest you can get to where Jesus head would have laid in the tomb.

Oh just some random tombs in the quarry of the Holy Sepulcher.

Wendy and me. Holy Sepulcher.

The Lutheran Church

Wednesday. The 30th of November.

Today was another field trip day. But unlike usual it was an actual Christian day, not Jewish or Islamic. We rode vans down to New gate and went with both classes to the "Custody of the Holy Land." Bro. Skinner and Huntsman talked to us for a while about it. But I can honestly say I don't have a clue what they said. It was a nice Catholic Church. They had a little nativity set up in one corner and some other decorations for the holiday. My class then went to the Syrian Orthodox Church of St. Mark, it claims to be one of the site's of the Upper Room. We had to wait a little while to get in because it was closed. And for some reason today seemed like one of the coldest days yet! We would all inch towards the sun all day long, because we were just freezing in the shade. After a little while Sister Justina came and let us into the little church, she then talked to us for about forty minutes. Telling us about how she has seen Jesus has appear in there three times. She just kept talking and talking. Her stories were interesting. We weren't allowed to cross our legs there because it make a cross and apparently showing the bottom of your feet is very disrespectful. So she got mad at one girl for doing it, after we had been warned multiple times not to. Our next church was the Church of Alexander Nevsky, it used to be a part of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. There are a few arches inside it that could have been part of the Herodian Gate that Jesus would have passed through. All of the girls had to put wraps/skirts around themselves to be respectful and modest. I am pretty sure I got the longest one, it wrapped around me more than twice. Our next church was the Holy Sepulcher, where most Christians believe Christ was crucified and resurrected.  The church is actually owned by many different churches, so every little area of it is owned by different groups. So a lot of problems arise when one group accidently sweeps another's floor, silly things like that. Our final stop of the day was at the Lutheran Church of the Redeemer, we didn't spend much time here. We sang and then were free to go by one. Katie, Kaitlyn, and I ended up staying in the Christian Quarter for a little while doing some more shopping. Which I actually enjoy. It's fun talking with the store keepers. We then took the light rail up to West J, it was the last day to ride it for free so we had to take advantage of it. We went through the suke and got some doughnuts, again. This time I got a strawberry one and I was able to eat it a little more civilized than with my chocolate one. We walked around the city for a little while, then headed back to the center. We stopped at the post office on our way home, where we found one of our JC boys without a group..so he ended up walking back to the center with us. Once we got back it was basically dinner time. It was Scott's birthday and lately they have been giving the boys kisses on their cheeks, for example if you turn 25 you get 25 girls to kiss you on the cheek. But Scott was not into that, so one girl had baked cookies and the 23 of us went and handed them to him. It was a fun. After dinner I helped Leslie get her wedding invites ready to give to everyone here. And then I was forced, excuse me, happily visit taught with Desiree. We then had our last forum with a lady from the embassy. Not that interesting to me. Afterwards there was an award ceremony for the all the boys who have been growing out their yucky stashes all month long, it was pretty funny. All of the boys felt that it was necessary to come up and give a thank you speech. And read my NT forever, then fell right asleep.