Our Fathers

HAPPY 4TH OF JULY EVERY BODY! I consider myself a patriot and even though I am literally across the world, I have to pay some sort of tribute to my nation. At a young age my father especially enstilled in me a respect and love for the United States with a trip to Washington D.C. How grateful I am for those who came before me. One of the things I feel I've gained the most from my experience here in Jerusalem is a deeper sense of identity. As one of my professors here has said when we were first traveling to Egypt was how our fathers such as Abraham, Jacob, and Moses have also lived in and walked these lands. That we were "going home" in a very real sense. I've felt that way in many places here, the Western Wall and Tel Beersheva to name a few. It brings to mind one of my favorite scriptures:

". . . Behold I have given unto you the names of our first parents who came out of the land of Jerusalem; and this I have done that when you remember your names ye may remember them; and when ye remember them ye may remember their works; and when ye remember their works ye may know how it is said, and also written, that they were good. Therefore, my sons, I would that ye should do that which is good, that it may be said of you, and also written, even as it has been said and written of them." (Helaman 5:6-7)

What a great heritage we are privileged to claim! Already starting with my parents and moving back to my grandparents, I have some large shoes to fill.

As another man mentioned in our Sacrament meeting today, "My life has been bought with a price." From the patriarchs, to the founders of our nation, to the pioneers, to my ancestors, my parents, and most importantly my Savior, that statement expresses so much as to how I feel. How indebted I am to so many. My parents, along with my younger sister, came to visit me here in the Holy Land a few weeks ago. How wonderful to share a portion of this with them. Here's to our fathers, and more personally, my fathers. Thank you!

Luxor 2

Here's a pathetic attempt to update, quite haphazardly I might add, all the things that I've done this past semester. Yes, I know that I'm still in Egypt in this blog thingy. I'm leaving in less than 24 hours from Jerusalem, and the internet just barely started working again and so I'm trying to sum everything up in a few hours. As they say, a picture is worth 1,000 words so here's a bunch of pictures of the things I've done. They're more fun anyway than reading my ramblings. When I get home and have more time to process and reflect on all of the things I've seen, I'll add more description to each post. But as for now, some of the other highlights in Luxor: The Valley of the Kings. This is where I saw things such as the tomb of King Tut and Thutmoses III. Souvenirs anyone? A funny store on our way to Luxor next to the Colossus of Memnon:
The Necropolis or cemetery of the Old Kingdom of Memphis in Saqqara. This is where famous Egyptian architect Imhotep designed the precurser to the pyramids, a mastaba. Crazy to thing how old this structure is. . . In the
In the New Kingdom of Thebes, rock-cut tombs dug into sandstone cliffs replaced pyramids as tombs for the pharaohs. These were adorned with fresco paintings on the walls and ceilings. One in particular lies just outside of the Valley of the Kings, the very famous funerary temple of Queen Hatshepsut.
Inside the temple:
Pit tomb 33 is located near Hatshepsut's temple. Some LDS scholars suggest that Pit Tomb 33 could be similar to a tomb where the Book of Abraham papyri were found.

Abraham 1:21-27; Exodus 2:5-10. Scriptural accounts of noted Egyptian women (Egyptus & Pharaoh's daughter).

And another shot of the Nile at sunset. Really miss that hotel in Luxor. . .

Luxor

I have just one more final left and I'm a little tired of studying so I figured I'd finally get something started for family and friends. In fact, by doing this it's actually helping me study for my last final, so everyone is happy! I'm going to try to finish up some more of the main sites of Egypt. A place that I traveled to a more than a month ago . . . But the memory fades fast so a month later is better than a year later right? Bear with me. :)

I'm still amazed at everything we were able to see in Egypt. So much crammed into a week. Well, after Cairo we boarded a plane and headed south to Luxor. Which oddly enough pulls us into "Upper Egypt." Luxor had such a different feeling from Cairo and had a ton to offer. This is not only where we stayed in a hotel right on the Nile and took the falucca and camel safari, but we were also able to visit one of the main reasons why I wanted to come to Egypt: KARNAK!Karnak is the largest temple complex in the world. Ever since I took an art history class in high school, I have been dying to see this place. This was also a beloved site of Hugh Nibley. Being one of the few LDS scholars who could read Egyptian heiroglyphs, Nibley had a lot of commmentary to make about this Egyptian temple and the ordinances or ceremonies performed there. Every pharaoh from the 18th Dynasty onward contributed something - whether a building or a relief - to the complex. The oldest parts of the temple date to the Middle Kingdom (2040-1700 BC). Amun, an Egyptian fertility god was the main focus of worship in its initial stages. We were able to enter into the holy of holies there where the rock or altar supposedly exudes an enourmous amount of rejuvinating energy. We toured the large sacred lake in which priests would purify themselves. There was also an ancient mud-brick retaining wall. This is evidence of the Israelites captivity in Egypt, that this was indeed a building technique that the Egyptians used.

One of the most impressive things there is the great hypostyle hall. It consists of 134 large columns representing the papyrus flower. These are enormous. The hall was built by Seti I and finished by Ramses II. Just around the time of Moses. :) Moses was born in Egypt and was raised as an Egyptian. He was exposed to and may have even participated in some of the goings-on at Karnak. A civilization still dazzling to people even today, Egypt showed Moses much of the power and greatness that man was capable of.

Yet when Moses is called as a prophet, his idea of Egypt's "glory" begins to change. He "saw God face to face, and he talked with him, and the glory of God was upon Moses." After beholding the glory of God, Moses says, "Now, for this cause I know that man is nothing, which thing I had never supposed"(Moses 1:1,10). This was a very humbling thing to ponder as I walked through this enormous structure. The glory and love of God is beyond any mortal comprehension we could ever conjure up or create. Moses was deeply impressed by it and I am the more I live, experience, and open up my eyes to see it.