I wrote this to a friend who is currently at BYU Jerusalem, right before he left:
“Jerusalem won't be amazing or incredible when you first get there, it's beautiful, but it won't mean anything to you yet. Jerusalem became such a time of personal revelation for me. I never felt closer to Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ than I did there. My prayers and scripture study were so meaningful, because each day we were focused on learning and all the learning you do there focuses and testifies that Jesus is the Christ and that the scriptures are real. The church will just get truer to you every day. I developed a relationship with Christ there, and not just a relationship but a friendship, which is so precious to me. My balcony became a holy place for me, one of the holiest places for me in the Holy Land because that is where I studied my scriptures and watched the sun set each night while listening to the call to prayer and contemplating life and received many answers and communed with God. With the hustle and bustle of everyday life, we don't stop much to "look up at the stars" and "Be Still". Jerusalem allowed me to "look at the stars" and "Be Still" each day, take full advantage of that. If you read your scriptures, write in your journal, and pray each day to learn what Heavenly Father would have you learn that day, you will walk away from this experience with no regrets and with a heart so full of gratitude and with a testimony of fire that will guide you for the rest of your life. You'll never study your scriptures the same again. Take full advantage of every opportunity you have to learn. This is a semester for you. You don't have a job, you don't have a cell phone or easy social networking access, you're cut off from the world quite a bit. No one knows who you are, you have to get to know people. With all of those circumstances combined, it really forced me to get to know who I am, who I really am and made me think about what I want in life. You will get to know yourself in ways you didn't think possible. You will come back a changed person whether you like it or not, but you decide how much you will let Jerusalem change you.”
Jerusalem changed me. It was an incredible summer that I will never forget and one that truly changed my life. I will never read my scriptures the same again. My heart really is so full of gratitude for this experience and has left me with a burning testimony. I want to take that and share it with those that I will teach on my mission in North Chicago. I will never have an experience like that again, but I know that I can find Christ each day in the scriptures. I can re-create that holy place, my balcony, where I read my scriptures and found answers, each day when I read the scriptures and pray. We do not need to see to believe or to know. I have seen these places though and it only adds to the belief and knowledge that I gained by study and prayer, something that we can do anywhere, not just in the Holy Land. I've thought about Jerusalem every day since I've been home, and I'm sure I'll think about it every day for the rest of my life. I found myself there, because I found Christ. The knowledge I have of Him and the atonement, and my relationship with Him and Heavenly Father are the treasures I walk away from this trip with and the greatest treasures I have.
Special thanks to the family and friends who helped me get to Jerusalem and who helped make this experience possible! Thank you SO much for your help! This experience has meant so much to me and one that I hope will bless not just my life but others too.
Lazarus's Tomb in Bethany with Brother and Sister Allen- love them!! Church commemorating Mary anointing Jesus's feet. Same church showing the triumphal entry into Jerusalem, with Kristen and Kary. Our "triumphal entry" into Jerusalem. We even saw a lone horse on the way, it wasn't a donkey, but it was neat to think about Christ's entry along the same path we were taking. The Upper Room. Prison where Christ was kept. The picture of the man in red is Christ, showing how He would have been bound, sitting in this prison. Where Peter denied Christ. Garden of Gethsemane. by Trisha Zemp Me and Mandy studying in the Garden of Gethsemane on a Sunday afternoon. Last Sunday at the Garden of Gethsemane. At first this was a brown garden, not pretty in the summer but it was after I studied the atonement and really gained a testimony for myself that Gethsemane became one of my favorite places in the Holy Land. At the devotional we had here, a talk by Elder McConkie, "The purifying Power of Gethsemane" was shared. Here's an excerpt: “The atonement of Christ is the most basic and fundamental doctrine of the gospel and it is the least understood of all our revealed truths. Many of us have a superficial knowledge and rely upon the Lord and his goodness to see us through the trials and perils of life. But if we are to have faith like Enoch and Elijah we must believe what they believed, know what they knew, and live as they lived. And now, as pertaining to this perfect atonement, wrought by the shedding of the blood of God- I testify that it took place in Gethsemane and at Golgotha, and as pertaining to Jesus Christ, I testify that he is the Son of the Living God and was crucified for the sins of the world, He is our Lord, our God, and out King. This I know of myself independent of any other person. I am one of his witnesses and in a coming day I shall feel the nail marks in his hands and in his feet and shall wet his feet with my tears. But I shall not know any better then than I know now that he is God’s Almighty Son, that he is our Savior and Redeemer and that salvation comes in and through his atoning blood and in no other way. God grant that all of us may walk in the light as God our Father is in the light so that according to the promises, the blood of Jesus Christ his Son will cleanse us from all sin. " We all must have a testimony of the atonement "independent of any other person." Golgatha. Notice the skull on the right side, coming out of the mountain.
Garden Tomb, my favorite place in the Holy Land. The spirit is always present here, it feels like walking on temple grounds. Inside the temple grounds. In front of the empty tomb. I wrote in my journal that day “We are here at the garden tomb. My heart has never been so full of gratitude for the knowledge of the atonement that I have. It fills me with hope and hope for those around me. This is the greatest blessing I have from coming here this summer is my testiomony and knowledge of the atonement. He didn’t fail me that day on the cross and He never will. He had all the power to stop what He was going through and give up but He didn’t. Because He did this, I know He is my truest friend. I haven’t seen his body but I have seen the tomb. I’ve seen where He walked. He is real. The reality of the Savior and His impact on the world is something I’ll take away from here. I know He lives! I can feel it! He rose from this tomb! I know that with all my heart. If we don’t share this knowledge, that He rose from this tomb, then His sacrifice would be in vain. My knowledge of the atonement is what I want to take to the people in North Chicago where I will serve a mission, it is the hope that the atonement provides for each of us in our lives that I want to share with them. Elder Holland in his talk “None were with Him” said: "But Jesus held on. He pressed on. The goodness in Him allowed faith to triumph even in a state of complete anguish. The trust He lived by told Him in spite of His feelings that divine compassion is never absent, that God is always faithful, that He never flees nor fails us. When the uttermost farthing had then been paid, when Christ’s determination to be faithful was as obvious as it was utterly invincible, finally and mercifully, it was “finished.”18 Against all odds and with none to help or uphold Him, Jesus of Nazareth, the living Son of the living God, restored physical life where death had held sway and brought joyful, spiritual redemption out of sin, hellish darkness and despair. With faith in the God He knew was there, He could say in triumph, “Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit.”Brothers and sisters, one of the great consolations of this Easter season is that because Jesus walked such a long, lonely path utterly alone, we do not have to do so. His solitary journey brought great company for our little version of that path—the merciful care of our Father in Heaven, the unfailing companionship of this Beloved Son, the consummate gift of the Holy Ghost, angels in heaven, family members on both sides of the veil, prophets and apostles, teachers, leaders, friends. All of these and more have been given as companions for our mortal journey because of the Atonement of Jesus Christ and the Restoration of His gospel. Trumpeted from the summit of Calvary is the truth that we will never be left alone nor unaided, even if sometimes we may feel that we are. Truly the Redeemer of us all said, “I will not leave you comfortless. [My Father and] I will come to you [and abide with you].”
The "Last Week of Christ's Life" field trip was one of my favorites. I was able to come to know Christ better and understand the atonement and His sacrifice for us a little more.
This is the message that everything in the Holy Land testifies of: That Jesus is the Christ, that He suffered the atonement and that the atonement is real. I hope and pray that we will each let Christ into our lives and we will let the atonement work for each of us and not let His suffering be in vain.
I know that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the church of Jesus Christ, the Book of Mormon is true, we are led by a prophet today and I know with a surety that Jesus of Nazareth is indeed the Christ. This is the most important thing I came away from the Holy Land with, my testimony of Jesus Christ, His atonement and my personal relationship with Him and Heavenly Father. It is my greatest treasure.
