09 July 2011

What a wonderful Sabbath Day!

I didn't crawl out of bed this morning until about 8:30a. I haven't slept in past seven-thirty in the morning since I left the United States and came to Israel. It felt so amazing to get a little bit more sleep; I have missed waking up on my own time rather than on the time of my alarm clock. I quickly got ready for church and headed up to the eighth floor for Sacrament Meeting.

All of our church meetings were centered around obedience and the Savior, Jesus Christ. Better topics could not have been discussed. A Beehive in the ward, Tashara Muhlestein, spoke on the importance of keeping the commandments and obeying the word of the Lord. Like our earthly parents, our heavenly parents have created rules, or commandments, for us to follow. A lot of these rules are seen by many to take away the 'free agency' promised by the Father's Plan. However, by breaking these commandments, we lose our agency and become slaves to sin. God's commandments help to protect us, to keep us safe; they help to lead us back to the Father, to obtain Eternal Life. Kimberly Stone spoke after Tashara. She spoke on how we can become true disciples of the Savior, Jesus Christ. As we center our lives around Savior and gain a perfect faith in Him, we can become true disciples of Him. We can become closet to Him and obtain a better understanding of Him and of His gospel.

When church was over, I skipped down to my room with a desire to take a short nap. But much to my dismay, I didn't have time to take a nap. I had to write a paper for my Islam class. Now, I had known about this paper for over a week, but it is very difficult to write a paper when the Old City of Jerusalem is on the other side of a valley! I made a fairly large dent in the paper prior to dinner and made an even larger dent before the fireside at 5:30p. I wouldn't recommend writing a final paper all in one day; it is incredibly exhausting and mind-numbing!

The fireside was given by the ward relief society president. She spoke on charity, the true love of Christ. A quote she used by President Uchtdorf really stuck out to me. "Though we are imperfect, He loves us perfectly...He loves us because He is filled with an infinite measure of holy, pure, and indescribable love...think of the purest, most all-consuming love you can imagine. Now multiply that love by an infinite amount--that is the measure of God's love for you." There is nothing greater than the love of our Savior, Jesus Christ or of our Heavenly Father. Their love is unceasing, never-ending. Their love is charity. I really enjoyed the fireside. She spoke a lot about her life as a Palestinian living in the West Bank. She shared a scripture in Matthew 5 that says, "Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbor, and hate thine enemy. But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you." It doesn't matter about who a person is or what a person does because he is still a child of God. She loves the Palestinian soldier as equally as she loves the Israeli soldier because she knows they are both children of God and equal in his eyes. This is such an important principle to remember that all men are children of God, that we should love all men.

I spent the rest of the evening finishing and fine-tuning my final paper, playing the piano, talking with friends, and playing games. I say this every week, but I truly cannot believe that another Sabbath has cone and gone. I only have four more Sabbaths left in the Holy Land - one of which will be in Tiberias, the other three in Jerusalem. I am so thankful for my time I have spent living in Israel and for each of the experiences I have had. It has been, truly, so amazing.