Bethlehem and More General Authorities

Monday the 7th-Sunday the 13th

On Monday we went to Bethlehem. This was an all day field trip in Bethlehem. We began by going to the church where it is thought that Christ was born. Christ was born in a cave (not a stable), and a church has been built on top of this site. This church is the oldest church in the world. Most of it is under construction and renovation, so we only got to see a little bit of it. What we did see was very beautiful though. We wandered through the church and saw the old incredible mosaics on the floors and the walls, and then wandered into the back where there was a staircase leading down into the cave where it is thought that Christ was born. In this cave there is a small nook in the wall with a star on the floor and candles hanging above it. It is not at all what I thought it would look like, even though I had seen pictures from when my mom and dad went, but it was so spiritual. The spirit was so strong and I knew that this was the place with Christ had been born.

We then spent the rest of the day going to different shepherds fields. Different religions believe the shepherds field was in different locations. They were all so beautiful in their own way. Then we got to have an early dinner in a tent restaurant, which was really fun! The food was good and we got to eat on couches. We ended the day by going to the traditional Mormon shepherds field. Here we had a special program with a reading of the account of the night Christ had been born, a testimony meeting, and musical numbers. Brooke and I sang "Breath of Heaven". If you haven't heard it, look it up. It's so beautiful. Right as the sun began setting and right as we started our program one single very bright star began shining right above the location where Christ was born in Bethlehem. It was so special. Brooke and I bought baby blankets in Bethlehem to bless our babies in in the future :) This field trip was so special.

Tuesday we had a field trip at night where we got to go under the Old City and see the original walls of the temple mount that still stand today. It was incredible seeing how far down they go. The Old City today is supported on arches about 50 feet off of the original ground that was used during the Savior's time. While we were down exploring we were able to walk on the roads of this time period and see a few remaining shops and pillars. It is so amazing looking at the temple walls and seeing that some of the stones are the SIZE OF BUSSES. And they built this wall so long ago when they did not have the machinery we have today.

This weekend we had a couple elders from the Quorum of the 70 here with us. They hosted our stake conference and had a four hour lesson on teaching like Christ and being more like Him and having better Sabbath Day observance. It was a really good Sabbath meeting. 

On Sunday Faith, Harper, Brooke and I shot a music video all day throughout the city. Our good friend Bryce filmed it for us. He is a good videographer and is working on editing it. When he is done we will post it for everyone to see. It was so much fun not only going to everything in the old city, but dancing around and having crowds of people surround us taking pictures of us and with us. We had so many cameras on us all day. We sure felt like celebrities. We even had a little girls coming up to us giving us flowers and jewelry. We spent the rest of the day preparing for 11 days in Galilee which we left for the next day.
HERE'S A LINK TO THE VIDEO!!! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Kevj1kXebw&app=desktop