--- title: Improvement Era description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930. authors: - Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations collections: - periodicals tags: - magazine - improvement-era periodical: Improvement Era volume: 33 number: 11 published: 1930-09 publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations publisher_place: Salt Lake City language: en type: magazine reference: "Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations, “The Mission Home in Haifa: A Glance at Palestine,” *Improvement Era* 33, no. 11 (September 1930): 746–747." source: url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera3311unse transcription: Transcribed from the Internet Archive scan of each issue (the item for each issue is named in the issue's own source); unnumbered advertising leaves are omitted, printed page numbers are kept as page markers. identifier: improvementera3311unse start_page: 746 end_page: 747 rights: status: public-domain basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1930-09) source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera3311unse publication_year: 1930 note: The Internet Archive item metadata carries a blanket "© Copyright by Intellectual Reserve, Inc." notice. The library owner judged it inapplicable because this issue was published in 1930, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright. --- # The Mission Home in Haifa: A Glance at Palestine The Mission Home in Haifa A Glance at Palestine IN the year of 1906 an aged man in the Orient warned me solemnly that the "Mormons" would never have a church in Pal- estine. In President Joseph Wil- ford Booth's Journal of Septem- ber 30th, 1928, an entry made as he sits at his desk in the Mis- sion home at Haifa, Palestine, says that 30 years ago today he landed, a lone stranger, in Constantinople and hoped that he might later be Late President Wilford Booth By MARY R. BOOTH called to labor in Haifa, Palestine, and then adds, "and here I am!"; and in the evening of this very day we held our first meeting in the southwest room of the Latter- day Saints' Mission home at Haifa, at which, in addition to my hus- band and myself, there were six present. A BOUT a year later President "^-r James E. Talmage, then of the European mission, visited the Armenian mission at Aleppo, Sy- ria, and was then accompanied to Palestine by President Booth. They knelt among the pine trees in the grove on Mount Carmel en the morning of October 1 8th, 1927; and after reading from Isa- iah, 35th Chapter, II Nephi, 27th Chapter, and the last part of the Doctrine and Covenants, Section 133, President Talmage, an Apos- tle of the Lord Jesus Christ, of- fered a prayer dedicating the city of Haifa as a place for headquarters for the mission and re-dedicating the land of Palestine and Syria for the preaching of the restored Gos- pel and the gathering of the Jews. President Booth stated that he had never felt a more heavenly influ- ence during all his missionary work. CINCE then a little branch of *^ the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has been organ- ized in the cities of old Damascus and Beirut, Syria. Some members are found in Zahala and Horns, Syria, and in Jerusalem, Palestine. The town of Haifa, from a small village of limestone houses and goat-hair tents, has grown to Mary R. Booth The Improvement Era for September, 1930 747 an almost western city. Before the war the only claim that Haifa had to fame was the fact that it lay at the foot of Mount Carmel, a rocky headland [that stretches out into the sea. Here the Fran- ciscan monks have a monastery, and act as light-house keepers. At Haifa we find the effects of the Balfour declaration, which set aside Palestine as a gathering place of the Jews; and the coming of the many Jewish immigrants has wrought a great change. Haifa became the port of disembarkation for the new settlers and there are now hundreds of modern bunga- lows where twelve years ago there was but a barren shore. There is a bathing resort — a bath galim, (daughters of the waves) . The city is electrically lighted by a huge power station, which also supplies most of lower Galilee with lights. The place has a well kept cemetery, garbage is taken away three times a day and the streets are sprinkled with water from the Mediterrane- an sea. A CLIPPING from the Palestine *** Bulletin states that President Booth said that Beirut may be the shining belt buckle of those lands, but Haifa is the diamond breast pin of all the near east. The Latter-day Saint mission home stands on the corner of Al- lenby and Carmel streets in the pretty, clean-kept German colony. We have seen on this corner as many as six or eight policemen at once, dressed in uniform and regulating the tourist traffic of au- tomobiles swiftly passing toward and from Mt. Carmel, and I do not recall seeing a single accident during my year there. It is an old fashioned house where we lived, this mission home, and only part of it is shown in the picture. An old fashioned pump up stairs and one in the basement bring in the cistern rain-water. It has the modern bath and is elec- trically lighted and affords a beau- tiful view of the bay of Acre. Do you see the passion flower climb- ing along the veranda and the geranium by the basement door? A bush grows in the lot called in Arabic, Shabit Mat Elias; there is one also by the church at Eli- jah's Cave on Mt. Carmel. The large tree in front of the house is called in Arabic, Karnub. It is the tree which produces the husks referred to in Luke 15:16. Mt. Carmel Overlooking the Mediterranean Our Arabian friends, Mrs. Sherry and her daughter, made us some desserts prepared from the so-called husks and milk. T\7E sent to the press olives " which grow there on the lot and from them had several gallons of olive oil made. Lemon and fig trees grow there also, together with a variety of flowers. Bahais, Jews, Arabians, Armenians and Syrians came to see us and were very kind. A family of Samari- tans visited us on different occa- sions. They were not of a class with whom one would have no A CCORDING to an old story of the East, the haughty favorite of an Oriental monarch threw a stone at a poor priest. The dervish did not dare throw it back, for the favorite was very powerful. So he picked up the stone and put it carefully in his pocket, saying to himself: "The time for revenge will come by and by, and then I will repay him." Not long afterward, walking in one of the streets, he saw a great crowd, and found to his astonishment, that his enemy, the favorite, who had fallen into disgrace with the king, was being paraded through the principal streets on a camel, exposed to the jests and insults of the populace. Seeing alt this, he hastily grasped at the stone which he carried in his pocket, saying to himself, "The time for my revenge has come, and 1 will pay him for his insulting conduct." But, after considering a moment, he threw the stone away, saying: "The time for revenge never comes; for if our enemy is powerful, revenge is dangerous as well as foolish, and if he is weak and wretched, then revenge is worse than foolish; it is mean and cruel. And in all cases it is forbidden and wicked." dealings, but rather of attractive, bright-eyed clear countenance; withal, an intelligent family. ONG before the time set we *^ were invited by our Arabian friends to attend the festival to be held on July 19 on Mt. Car- mel, near the cave where Elijah sought shelter from Ahab. The present name of ithei mountain, Mar Elias, indicates its connection with the life of the prophets, where different classes of people go to this day to worship and imagine that they will be healed by touching the statue. At sun set and all through the night, people were going up to Carmel. It was wonderful weath- er and at 3:30 A. M. we ascended Carmel and saw the multitudes of people gathered around the big monastery and chapel. We took our breakfast and ate there; and gave out a few tracts in French and English — spiritual food. The sight of such a crowd made us more appreciative of our home and the intelligent people in Zion. The range of Carmel branches from the northern end of the mountains of Samaria. Some parts of Carmel are sprinkled with fine oaks and other forest trees. Hawthorne and jasmine are found there; and many tiny brooks. Some parts are open glades carpeted with green grass and an abundance of wild flowers of every hue are found. The beauty of Mount Carmel as the moon rises over the Mediterranean, cannot be described. Our glance at Palestine was one of the beautiful memories of a life-time.