Preparations for our Visit to Israel. We leave April 27, 2014.

Our Visit to Israel:

Our Visit Began with Preparation!

March 7, 2014:  Dead Sea Scrolls!
 After booking our trip, we began to look for opportunities to learn about Israel.   We began to read books about Israel and the Bible, and then a special exhibit came to Salt Lake City.  This was exciting.  We heard guest lecturers,  Kelly Ogden and Jack Welch speak.  They have directed studies in the Holy Land.  It was an edifying evening.  After the lecture, we walked through artifacts of the Middle East and viewed fragments of the scrolls.

We booked our tour through "Cruise Lady."  They offered some lectures.  We attended three:

April 8, 2014:  "Israel:  a Spiritual Journey" by Eric Huntsman.  This was a beautiful slide presentation and lecture of Jerusalem where he lived with his wife and children for a couple of years.

April 10, 2014:  "Behind the Headlines of the Middle East" by Daniel Peterson, who lived for four years in Egypt and several years in Israel.  He has contacts in those countries and keeps in contact with them daily to keep abreast on what is happening there.

April 17, 2014: "Jerusalem:  The City of War & Peace," also by Daniel Peterson.  He took us through the entire political history of Jerusalem.  It was informative and interesting.

April 21, 2014:  We attended the IMAX show of "Jerusalem."  This was well worth it!  Beautiful photography and glimpse in life in The Middle East of Jews, Christians, and Muslims.

In addition, we watched Truman Madsen's DVD series, "The Eternal Christ."  They were probably some of the best preparations we did.  These DVD's and his spirituality conveyed through them totally got us in the right frame of mind.  We also thought it was timely that our trip has coincided with Easter and General Conference and all the wonderful messages that were given during this time of year about Christ.  A highlight for Cyndy was being asked to sing "I Walked Today Where Jesus Walked" in Relief Society on Easter Sunday.  Both of us hope to find a place where we can sing this as a duet together while in the Holy Land.