Today was a very special day. We were taken to the top of the Mount of Olives in the morning and dropped off.  We walked down the road that is the actual road from Bethany towards the Kidron Valley below where across the valley the temple mount raises up and there is Jerusalem.  As we reached the bottom of the hill where the santuary of the nations is in part of a grove of olive trees instead of turning into that and the mass of tourists there, Asher our guide took us right up to a locked gate that a Palestinian opened with a key and led us into a private grove of olive trees and shut us in and left us alone with our CES teacher Brother Porter.  We were allowed to see a section of the Garden of Gethsame most never see.  We had it to ourselves.  Bro Porter read to us from the scriptures of the Atonement and bore his testimony to us of the Savior.  He told us a place will be sacred to us if we focus on what sacred things happened there.  It was a very sacred moment to be there and think of the Savior and what he did for us.  The gate to the temple mount was directly across the kidron Valley from us. The temple mount loomed above the grove of olive trees. It was not hard to imagine the temple there with the Savior kneeling within its sight.  It was a special moment to be allowed to have. Never to be forgotten.

We also went to the state of Israel's holocaust museum, and then to where Rachel died outside of Bethelem.  Then on to Bethlem where we had to leave our Israel guide Asher and driver David behind as we entered Palestinian territory.  There we had to have Palestinian drivers and guide to the Cathedral of the Nativity and Shepards Field.  For lack of a better way to express it, it was like driving into Mexico from the US.  The site of the cathedral there was interesting because I had seen it in the news for weeks a couple of years ago as the Palestinians held up in there in a fight with Israel. The cathedral itself is one of the oldest in existence today which made it interesting but otherwise it was all very pagan.

It is pouring rain now and the wind is blowing hard.  I am glad to be in our hotel. I hope the weather gets better because we hope to go to the Garden Tomb tomorrow.

This has been an incredible trip.  I have received much Illumination.  

Love you all 

MOM