Bethlehem, YMCA Bell Tower...and Galilee?

Picture 1: my friend Piers and I at the Church of the Nativity touching the Grotto (the place where tradition says Christ was born)
Picture 2: Church of the Nativity
Picture 3: where I played the bells!

Hello family and friends!

I wish I could write an in-depth blog post telling you all about our Bethlehem field trip last Monday, my wonderful free day I had today, and any other random stories I feel like telling you, BUT, I may or may not be GOING TO GALILEE tomorrow morning, and I still have to pack. I know. I guess I figure it's a good thing if I'm so busy I don't have time to blog about everything, right?
So, I'm going to cut and paste a few journal entries and I hope that will suffice!

"Monday was our field trip to BETHLEHEM. It was amaaaazing."


"Our agenda was as follows:
Herod’s summer palace
Bethlehem University
Lunch at The Tent
Church of the Nativity
Testimony meeting at Shepherd’s field

Herod’s temple was huge. It covers about 45 acres. Our class started at the lower section of the temple where Herod’s pool was, then went climbed to the upper part. It’s cool because his pool had an island in the middle that he would have had fun parties on! The palace was really neat, but the cool part is that they aren’t even done excavating it! His palace is so big that excavation teams are still going. Wow."

"Following lunch Professor Adnan (our Palestinian professor) took us on a tour of Bethlehem and led us to Manger Square, where the Church of the Nativity is). It was fun going underneath the church to the grotto where some believe that Christ was born. It is hard to say exactly where Jesus was born, but we know he was born in Bethlehem, and the tradition that the Church of the Nativity is the place where it happened is fairly old, so who’s to say it isn’t the spot?
My favorite part of the Church of the Nativity was when we sat in the chapel and sang Christmas songs out of our little hymn books. We all filed in and sat on the benches and sang Christmas songs while Rachel Jackson conducted. So many other tourists stopped to listen and take pictures and record us. I’ll be honest – we sounded good! I wanted us to keep going because the sound was so rich and the Spirit was very strong."

Following the Manger Square adventure we went to "Shepherd's Field" and had a wonderful testimony meeting. We got to watch the sun set on the beautiful hills where we know shepherds (such as King David) would have led their sheep. It was a very spiritual experience.

Now for a fun story from today. The Jerusalem Center always brings at least one person who can play the organ here - usually for a year and a half. Mike Ohman and his wife serve that (and many other) purposes right now. He is a music professor at BYU and his wife works in the film industry (she has helped do costumes for lots of LDS films such as The Testaments). Well, this particular professor has also played the bells at the bell tower on BYU campus, so when he heard about the YMCA bell tower, he volunteered his services! He plays every Sunday from 11:15-12:00 and today I got to go listen to him. And now for the best part...I PLAYED A SONG. That's right. All of Jerusalem got to hear the musical bell tower talents of Audryn Damron today. It was glorious and completely terrifying! It was the coolest experience though.

Anyway, I really need to go tidy up my room and pack because we have an early start tomorrow. I love you all and I hope you're happy and safe!

-Audryn-