BYU - Jerusalem

Today we went to the Garden Tomb and the BYU Center known locally even on road signs as the "Mormon University".  Officially it is the Brigham Young University Jerusalem Center for Near Eastern Studies.   We didn't see any students but there are about 80 there now.  They have been coming since January of 2007.  When I was here before there were only three couples and no students came from 2001 to 2007.  It is very nice, but we could not see the City because of the fog on the window overlooking the Walled City.  

The Center is technically on the spot between Mt. Scopus and the Mount of Olives, but in the time of Christ it was all part of the Mount of Olives.  A road right to the side of the Center is an ancient road.   

The models of the City of Jerusalem are the best part of the center. On the patio they have about 5 cast models to look at and it helps know what was what and when it was what. 

The Garden Tomb, where both President Kimball and President Lee said they felt it was the actual place, the C of E takes care of it.  There are not three layers of churches built up on the site, and it looks like it did 2000 years ago. It was one of the best sites we saw.  It was cold and snowy so we forewent our sacrament meeting scheduled there, (yes, on a Tuesday) and had it back at the hotel afterwards.  

This trip has been very enlightening about the life of the Savior, where he went, how it was at the time and so forth.  We will probably bore you with stories for several family gatherings.  

We leave tomorrow, Wednesday, in the evening here, about the time you are getting up and will arrive on Thursday at SLC about 11 in the morning.  (Or what ever time Mom said, she is asleep or I'd ask her.)

I will try to post a few more pictures to use up my internet time before we leave.  Tomorrow during the day we explore on free time, and then eat a farewell dinner in Abu Gosh, a town between here and Tel Aviv.  We don't know which Arab family's restaurant we will be eating at because there are two rival families, and they take turns burning down each other's restaurant.  We hope the feud doesn't continue tomorrow. (There is a Mc Donalds in Tel Aviv.)  My former client and his brother are coming to eat dinner with us too, Avraham and Yuval Levi., so it ought to be a good time. 

Love you guys.

Dad