Hello
You will never guess what I did this morning! In the Hyde Park ward (central Londons family ward) there is a recent convert named Baruch who is a Jew from Jerusalem. So a few years ago he was baptised, disowned, yada yada, now he lives in London and spends all his time helping out missionaries. Any how we meet up with him this morning and he took us to a Jewish Sabbath Day service. It was incredible! I was a bit long for my likeing (3:30 hours) but super intresting. If i could compare it to anything is would be a happy Catholic mass. The only problem was that is was all in Hebrew so I had no idea what was going on. In the Synagoges they view all visitors as angels so we got the seats of honor. (front ro right next to the Holy of Holies) Now supposibly King David was a red head so they esspecially liked Elder Giboin. Because Baruch speaks Hebrew he kept telling us whenever someone would gossip about him. Baruch is a literal decendent of King David so the who time he had to be super secretive about his identity or else he would have had to lead the whole service. I think that the most intresting part of the service was the Torah that they gave us to follow along with their reading. Of course it had the English translation (almost word for word from the Bible), and had commentary and explainations of Hebrew meanings given by various Rabbi. It shed alot of light on different things that I previously didn't understand. I'm sure the temple will make more sense now. I'm going to try to get one for further study.
The local Rabbi gave a short like five mintues talk about a Hebrew word (I dont remember what it was) that meant 'in the midst of'. H read several different references like the children of Isreal going through the 'Reed Sea' (Red Sea is an Arabic translation), when Moses entered the cloud of the glory of the Lord on mt. Sinai and when Abraham went to the people of his city. Then he expounded the meaning of 'in the midst of'. For instance the children of Isreal did not walk through the Sea by walking in the water but the water rose up like walls on either side. So he likened it to us that we are to be in the midst of the world but not in it. Going through it but not getting wet. I thought that that was cool.
So earlier this week I had a terrible headache that was keeping me up throught the night and rendering me nearly mentally incapable of doing anything. I got a blessing and as expected the head ache was gone, however in the blessing my companion told me that it was time to start planning and thinking about what will happen after May finishes. Something I have been procrastinating and putting off and denying. Well since then it seems like whenever my attention is not demanded by the work (ie late at night/early mornings) my mind has been pre-occupied with the subject, and possible oppurtunites keep presenting themselves. It is intresting how the Lord works and what impressions I have been receiveing. Like for instance, I have built myself into a shadow of who the Lord wants me to be but when I go home this will be the time that this character will be fortified. Therefore the Lord wants me to place myself in a position and environment where it can best be fortified. I have felt that I need to set my education and eventual career goals much higher then I previously thought. ( funny side note, I also felt 'don't worry about it right now, marriage will happen in its own time). Ok anyways the point of the matter is that it is crazy that I'm recieving promptings to prepare to go home. I talked with President and he told me that it would be a good idea for me to research study courses!
