4-17-10 Dear Journal We added a new verse of lyrics to the song “I’m trying to be like Jesus” and as we sang the spirit was almost tangible. I came to learn of Jesus, to walk the same path he walked. To study the words he gave us, in places that they were taught....
Journal entry, Feb 28th 2011: Yad Vashem! This was truly a hard field trip day…for the past two months we have been taking an Israeli class on Judaism up to modern Israel. One of the last field trips for this class was to visit Yad Vashem, or the Holocaust Museum. Outside of the cement museum...
I first heard of the opportunity to study abroad at the BYU Jerusalem Center when I was a Junior in High School. My Aunt and Uncle had lived there while my Uncle worked as an Institute Teacher. I sat spellbound as she described the experience to me and I knew after that first conversation that...
I arrived in Israel with a burning desire to know if the Church was true. I was going to turn 21 shortly and needed a testimony. I spent a lot of time praying and pondering and waiting for that precious answer. The funny thing is that I didn’t get the answer at all of the...
I remember going down to the Garden Tomb with just three other students. I must have been the Sabbath because no one else was there. The rain made everything more tangible and heightened all of my senses. I bent over to go through the little door to enter the borrowed tomb of our Savior. I...
I had several friends who attended the Jerusalem Center and they all described how magnificent the center was, but I had my college courses planned out and there was no time for me to attend. I was working alone one day in the early summer of 2010 and was listening to some quiet spiritual music...
Friday 1 January 1999, New Year’s Day Departure 1:00am, 2 January Dear Israel Journal, I have told the students that it is not enough when people ask “How was it?” to answer with such phrases as “it was awesome” or “great” or “no words to describe it.” Now that we are at the end of...
While I was a student at the BYU Jerusalem Center in the Fall Semester of 2000, I was having a hard time early on, being distracted by a problem at home. My focus was on trying to keep a long-distance relationship working with a girlfriend. As a result, I wasn’t paying attention enough to the extraordinary learning environment. ...
When I was 21, I attended the Fall 2000 semester at Brigham Young University’s Jerusalem Center for Near Eastern Studies. I was a history major and loved exploring a land that held so many stories. We traveled and learned Hebrew and Arabic and studied the New and Old Testaments with wise professors and ate so...
