A Weekend with President Uchtdorf

I am sitting here in the Jerusalem Center right now feeling extremely blessed for the events that have happened in the past two days. I can't believe my time here is drawing to a close and one thing is for sure- every day here is a little more spectacular than the last.

On Thursday, we were told some crazy news that none of us could believe- that President Uchtdorf would be here at the Jerusalem Center the next morning and staying for awhile! If you don't already know, President Uchtdorf is the coolest, cutest, most inspiring general authority who tells amazing stories in all his talks. I've always been a big fan of him and have loved every single one of his talks. Obviously, I was stoked and it was hard to focus on the finals I had to take the next day. Fast forward to lunch the next day, after my New Testament final and before my last final, when I was at the salad bar with my hands shaking because President Uchtdorf was right next to me getting salad. I was so excited to be in this great man's presence, who I had seen so many times broadcast on TV or the internet for conference and devotionals. Here he was, in his business casual Friday clothes with his adorable wife eating lunch at the Oasis, where I eat all 3 meals every day. We were all super nervous being around him at first, but we loosened up a little over time. After lunch we took our last final and headed to the service project in the garage, where we made hygiene kits for donation. We do this every Friday and blast music and have a dance party at the same time, and surprisingly we get a lot of kits made. It is so much fun! President Uchtdorf even made an appearance, going around to all the tables where we had assembly lines and stopping to help a little at my table. The one thing he said to me the whole time he was here was: "I like your party" hahaha I'll take it! His wife was super friendly too and thanked us for our service. We always end our service parties with everyone dancing to Gangham style which the service couples think is so funny.

After the service activity some friends and I headed out to the Old City and did some shopping and ate at our favorite falafel and schawarma place called David's Tower. We then went to a lookout point I had found with some other friends the other day which has an incredible view of the Old City and Dome of the Rock, and you can see the Jerusalem Center just to the right of the Dome of the Rock!

The Old City just never gets old!

Nothing like some good schawarma!

The Jewish Quarter of the Old City is so beautiful!

Then we met everyone else down at the Western Wall. I met Elder and Sister Porter of the seventy who were there with my professor Brother Judd and they were super friendly and loved talking with me and my friends! We had come to the Western Wall on Friday night one of the first weeks we were here and I loved it then, but it was a lot more meaningful this time because I understood the history behind it and the Jewish people who gather there every Friday night to welcome in Shabbat (Sabbath). This time, I knew a few of the Hebrew songs girls at the wall were singing and dancing to and I joined in! They were really welcoming to me and the other JC girls and we had such a fun time dancing and singing with them. I couldn't help but stare in awe at how absolutely beautiful they all are and how devote they are to their religion. I made my way up to the wall and was able to place my hand on it for the last time, thinking about how rough the Jewish past was and how faithful they still are. I thought about how absolutely incredible this place is and how I want to be able to remember this moment so well that I can relive it over and over again during the rest of my life. I finally peeled myself away from the wall and ended up in group of JC girls who were talking to this beautiful Jewish girl named Shira. We found out that she was 18 years old (although she looked way older) and that she was an orthodox Jew born and raised in Jerusalem. She told us all about her culture and religion eagerly and we loved listening and asking her questions. I would relate it to a Jewish version of the LDS 1st discussion and I loved being on the other end and just learning about and appreciating her beliefs. We all especially loved asking about their marriage customs- in her Orthodox beliefs a girl is not allowed to even touch a boy until he puts a ring on her finger for engagement! I respect that so much and it is such a contrast from American ways. She was so so sweet and even gave us her email and told us if we come to Jerusalem again she would love to have us stay with her and her family. I've come to realize that my favorite way of learning about this great land is by talking with the people here and making friendships. People are always eager to share their beliefs and customs and I love learning about them.

I think this might be my favorite picture I've taken of Jerusalem. We made friends with a really nice Jewish man earlier this week who showed us this viewpoint. It has the Israeli flag, Dome of the Rock, the Jerusalem Center just to the right of the Dome of the Rock, the Western Wall, and the crowd of Jewish people gathered to welcome in Shabbat at the Western Wall.

That night at the JC was one for the books. For one thing, President Uchtdorf was staying there so we were all hoping he would walk past us or come hang out with us haha. Well that didn't happen. But what did happen was that our Ancient Near East professor, Prof. Stratford had a birthday party that we threw for him in the student lounge. We have grown so close to him and love him so much and he loves to hang out with us. In class a few days before he made costume assignments for all of the guys, originating on the idea that he really wanted trained monkeys at his party but decided it would be easier to instead assign a couple of the guys to dress up as trained circus monkeys then assigning all the other guys to dress up as other things that were really fitting to their personalities. We had a dim-witted clown, a sad clown, a trained monkey, a general authority, Malfoy, Justin Bieber, Toucan Sam, Kronk and Cuzco, someone who dressed up as Stratford, a cow,  Romeo, Dwight, and Smoky the Bear just to name a few. We put tables together and made a catwalk and each of them modeled. It was soooo funny, especially because we all know each other really really well and they were all comfortable being completely in character and they dressed up really well. Stratford loved it. The funniest part is that the sad clown (Hunter) ran into President Uchtdorf in the hallway with his sad clown face paint on and President Uchtdorf asked him about it, and he tried to explain that it was for his professor's birthday party, then he was like, "How old is he turning?!?" and Hunter was like, "Uhhh probably 45?" Haha that's one way to make a good first impression on a general authority! We also had everyone's baby pictures playing on the TV at the party and it was really funny guessing everyone because we are all so close here. Man I'm going to miss these people. Also not to be overlooked is the crazy amount of treats we bought at "Arab costco" for the party. It was a good night for sure!

Justin Bieber

John "Romeo"

The birthday boy himself, Prof. Stratford!

Story: we made an effigy on this T-shirt at Galilee and were going to burn it but we wanted to show it to Stratford first and he wasn't at his apartment. So we kept it and gave it to him at his birthday party. He secretly loves it.

Saturday morning (the Sabbath) was district conference for all LDS church members in Israel. We could all fit into the auditorium and I was in the choir. It was really REALLY exciting knowing that President Uchtdorf was speaking to us! When he walked in everyone stood up in reverence and he came and sat in a seat just 5 or 6 feet in front of me facing me! I'm glad I was in the choir because I was in the very front row. The choir sang a prelude song and I just started bawling during it the Spirit was so strong. During the next song we sang as a congregation I smiled and looked up at President Uchtdorf and he made eye contact and smiled back at me! Ah I was just so excited he was there! The talks were absolutely amazing, since it was district conference there were two hours of speakers including Sister Porter, Elder Porter, Sister Uchtdorf, and Elder Uchtdorf along with 3 local leaders. I loved every talk and loved the messages they shared. In President Uchtdorf's talk, he spoke about a lot of things but one thing that stood out to me was that the gospel of Jesus Christ is the one thing that can bring peace to the world. That's why it's so important to spread it. He aimed a lot of his message at just us BYU Jerusalem students and talked about the importance of bringing everything we've experienced here back home and sharing it- the testimony of Christ and the love for all of His children and their different cultures and religions. He told a cute story about a little boy who was shy who said about his classmates, "If they only knew me, they would like me". He told about how true that is for all people, which is why we should get to know all sorts of different people- because in effect it will spread peace with our love for all different people. I know that that is true because I've found a deep love for all the many people I've met in the city of Jerusalem as well as the people I've met here at the JC- I was able to develop a deep love and appreciation for all of them. Anyways, I'll get off my soapbox now. District conference was great.

After conference, I headed out to the Garden Tomb with some friends. I go there almost every Sabbath, besides the ones I go to the Garden of Gethsemane. I've decided that the Garden Tomb is my favorite place in the entire city of Jerusalem because of the peace I feel there every time I go. This time, as we were making the 20 minute trek there, we got caught in a downpour! I love the rain so I didn't mind but we huddled under one of few trees in East Jerusalem and waited it out. At the Garden Tomb, one of my favorite things to do besides singing hymns and reading my scriptures is talking to the other people there because people come from all over the world to see it. We talked to some people from California and the sweet elderly women from the Galilee branch who had come for conference. I just love going to the Garden Tomb and hearing everyone's stories as to how they got there- some people waited their whole life to come and I get to go every week!

The Garden Tomb! My favorite place in Jerusalem

At the Jerusalem Center tonight, we had an "Upper Room" devotional kind of thing in the auditorium where they set up cushions and tables like the last supper would have been set up like. We were shocked to find out that President Uchtdorf was on the program to speak- just for us JC students! I had never felt so privileged in my life! I got to hear him speak in person twice in one day! We heard from two of our professors who talked about the last supper and bore their testimonies and had spectacular musical performances from some of my friends. Then President Uchtdorf talked about the last supper and bore his extremely strong testimony of Christ, His sacrifice, His resurrection, and His love for us. He got choked up and started to cry 3 different times in bearing his testimony of Christ's love for His children. It was absolutely incredible and something I will never ever forget! There is nothing quite like hearing from a prophet of the Lord testify of Christ in the city where Christ did so many important things and ultimately died, but was resurrected. President Uchtdorf is only the third member of the first presidency to be in Jerusalem in the last 35 years, so I know that this was a really rare, memorable, and historical event and I am so thankful that I got to be here for it! I truly feel so so blessed all the time here, and it just keeps getting better!