"Rise and Shout, the Cougars are out!"

Today we had the first half of our Last Week of Jesus' Life field trip.  (Don't worry, I'll talk about the Cougars at the end.)

We started in Bethany, where Mary, Martha, and Lazarus lived.  There we visited the tomb of Lazarus.  It had some serious stairs to climb up out of.  I was definitely thinking, Dang, it would be kinda hard climbing all the way up out of here after having been dead four days, and in the whole burial wrappings deal.  But apparently the steps were added later, so I guess he wouldn't have climbed all the way up.  But there were still definitely stairs involved.  We also went into the church commemorating  Christ's visit to Mary and Martha, where Martha was serving and wanted Mary to help her.  There was a service going on, but they still let us come in and take pictures...  And we also went into the home of this Palestinian family, who raised nine children in a house that is smaller than my bedroom.  They sell mustard seeds that grow on their tree, and their house is bigger now, but it was still pretty humbling.

After that we went over to Bethphage to the Church of the Triumphal Entry, and then over to Pater Noster, which commemorates the Lord's Prayer.  They had it in over 100 languages all around the courtyard.  And beneath it was the cave where Jesus taught His disciples during the last week of His life.  Then we went over to Dominus Flevit, which in Latin is literally, "the Lord wept"- so where he said, "O Jerusalem, how oft would I have gathered thee as a hen gathereth her chickens" and all that.  We sang some hymns and then took pictures out overlooking Jerusalem.  And then we went over to Orson Hyde Park to eat lunch and talk a little about Orson Hyde and the dedication of Jerusalem for the gathering of Israel.  Wow, I'm sorry I don't have anything to say today...  I need to get some serious sleep tonight, coz I think I was just way exhausted all day.

Our last stop for the day was the Upper Room, where most people believe the Last Supper took place.  It wouldn't be like, the actual room- it wasn't underground like the other one from our Christian Jerusalem field trip, it's just over the site- but the Upper Room is supposed to be like, a nice place, and this fit the bill pretty nicely.  It had all vaulted ceilings- admittedly Crusader style, but still gave it a nice opulent atmosphere.  We sang a few hymns here, as well, and we even had a request after we finished for "How Great Thou Art" from another tour group.  Coz we are just that cool.

Then, after we finished with the field trip, I went out with a group who is putting together a Cougar fight song video.  We went out and videoed all of our merchant friends in the Old City singing parts of the fight song with us, and they actually just finished putting it together as I'm writing this.  It is so awesome.  It was so fun to go around and film it.  Joseph Smith protested for like, 5 minutes.  He was all, "You need me to do you a favor?  I'll take out whoever you need- I'll punch 'em in the face!" (and he *demonstrated* on Josh...)  And after we finally got him to do it, he said, "Promise me you won't show this to any of my friends!"  And Imad got all excited and was singing and dancing even after we left.  It was awesome.  And the video is so funny.  Our Memories committee is putting together a wicked-crazy DVD for us.  That's going to be on there, plus a whole bunch of other slideshows that people have done- like, a video tour of the Center, and a chronicle of the Arab-Israeli conflict- and we have got some talented people here.  These slideshows are like, professional.  And then the massive slideshow of the whole semester as well.  I can't wait to show anybody who will watch back home!!!  (That's means you guys... :D)