The Galilee Novel Continues...

WARNING: These Galilee posts will be long, have an excessive amount of pictures, and will probably be kinda boring. Sorry!

Our first full day in Galilee was a field trip day and it was one of the best so far.

We had so many amazing sites jam-packed into one day.

Every place we went seemed to have so much biblical significance,

and I constantly had to remind myself where I actually was!

We started the morning by taking a boat ride across the Sea of Galilee.

It was a beautiful, peaceful morning and after singing "Master the Tempest is Raging", we had an amazing lesson on Christ calming the storm and Peter walking on the water.

Once we arrived on land we stopped and saw the Ginosaur Boat.

This 2000 year old boat was recently found on the shores of Galilee, and is

a good example of the type of boat Christ and his disciples would have used.

Next we we visited the Mount of Beatitudes, which was one of the things

I was most excited to see in Galilee.

The church and grounds were beautiful, Brother Emmett taught us about the Sermon on the Mount, and they gave us some personal time at the end to walk around, reflect, and study our scriptures. Perfect.

We hiked down the mountain (that's what they called it at least....being a Utahn tends to make one a mountain snob though and I would personally have called in a hill haha)

and went to St. Peter's Primacy which is a 4th century church commemorating where Christ appeared to his apostles after his resurrection.

After a lesson on "Feed My Sheep" from Brother Whipple we ran to the water to cool down for a minute.

In case you were wondering, Galilee is really really hot and really really humid.

This is an unfortunate recipe for sweating a lot.

We constantly felt like we were melting and pretty soon we figured out that wearing any make up was completely pointless.

So as you can imagine, wading in the water during the heat of the day felt amazing :)

Once we were sufficiently cooled off (which sadly did not last for very long), we went to the Tabgha Churches, which are supposedly where Christ prepared the loaves and fishes for the multitude.

The pool in the courtyard of the church is quite fitting for the event that occurred there haha

From Tabgha, we went to Capernum, which was where Christ spent a large portion of his ministry and performed so many of his miracles. Out of all the places I have been to this summer so far, the small town of Capernum is the place where I was most likely walking in the exact footsteps of the Savior. In Capernum you can see the actual house of Peter (which became the first Christian church) and sit in the same exact synagogue the Savior taught in. During our free time a group of us looked up all the specific places in Capernum the New Testament talks about and really were amazed. If you ever have a second you should try it.... so much happened there!

Peter's House

Synagogue in Capernum where Jesus gave him 'Bread of Life' Sermon

Next came Beth Saida, which is a tel where several apostles were from.

Funny thing, it looks exactly like every other tel we have seen!

Haha once we got off the bus and walked up to the site, Brother Whipple

leaned over to me and said

"Oh Hell, another Tel!"

I just about peed my pants from laughing so hard.

Unlike Brother Whipple, Brother Hamblin loves tels and loves telling us all about them

Our last stop of the field trip was the Greek Orthodox Church. This church had some gorgeous paintings inside, was pink outside, and had peacocks wandering around. Awesome.

As you can tell from the last picture we were all a little worn out after such a long day. Once we arrived back at the kibbutz though, we got a second wind and somehow managed to spend the rest of the afternoon at the beach and that night had our first of many bonfires. It's a tough life...i know :)

Caesarea and Nazareth

One thing I have come to learn in my time at the Jerusalem Center

is that the 'travel days' marked on our schedules our never just travel days.

Nope, they are field trip days, with just a little extra time on the bus in between stops!

So, in true JC fashion, we made some awesome stops on our way to Galilee.

Our first stop was Caesarea Maritima, which was great!

Caesarea was built by Herod the Great and after his death became the Roman capital of Judea.

It is a beautiful city, with some awesome ruins, built right on the shores of the Mediterranean.

On a biblical note, Caesarea was also where Peter and Phillip preached

and where Paul gave his defense to Agrippa.

Pretty cool!

Pagan rituals used to occur in this niche-they used to sacrifice a bull on the roof outside and then stand underneath to soak themselves in the blood that came out of the hole in the ceiling I am pointing to. They apparently did this to obtain the bull's powers......no matter what the reason was though I find it highly disturbing and gross.

After Caesarea we went to Nazareth.

I was so excited to visit there and see the place where Christ grew up,

and I absolutely loved the short time we had there.

Nazareth is still a living, modern city but they still have some amazing churches to visit, commemorating the significant events that occurred there.

My favorite one was the Church of the Annunciation.

The whole church, both inside and out, is covered with different paintings of Mary and Jesus from almost every country in the world.

looking at all the different paintings

The grotto where the angel Gabriel appeared to Mary. Nazareth is a small enough town, and the tradition has been around long enough, that this very well could have actually been where Mary lived.

This picture does not give justice to how beautiful the interior of this church is. Brother Brown told us that when he brought President and Sister Hinckley here (I told you he is legit), President Hinckley walked in and said

"Well the Catholics sure do know how to build a church!"

We finally arrived to the kibbutz in Galilee where we would be staying to this.....

Not too bad of a welcome if you ask me.

First things first...Fourth of July!

Before I share all my experiences in Galilee, I figure I should try to keep things in order as best I can and cover the Fourth of July.

I consider myself an extremely patriotic person and have always LOVED the Fourth of July! Other than Christmas, it is definitely my favorite holiday. I decided a few years ago that if I had to pick one day of the year to repeat itself over and over again groundhog day style, I would probably choose July 4th.

The funny thing about living in Jerusalem for the summer though is that they don't exactly celebrate the Fourth of July....shocking right?

I was not about to let that stop me from recognizing Independence Day though!

So a group of us decided to celebrate the best way we knew how, and in true American fashion, went to the beach!

Our day at the beach in Tel Aviv was perfect. Melissa and I walked around singing "I'm proud to be an American" at the top of our lungs (luckily Tel Aviv is inhabited by Israelis so no one was offended and I was not in any danger of being shot for this).

We spent our time at the beach building sandcastles, burying each other in the sand, and playing in the waves-until we realized it is jellyfish season after everyone got stung-except for me :) We had a great time and felt like we were back in America for a minute!

one of the devil jellyfish

Our drive back to the center was also surprisingly American. We were lucky enough to get the taxi driver who is my absolute favorite in Jerusalem. I think I may have mentioned him before, but we have ridden with him a few times before and he knows that Melissa and I love Celine Dion. The second we get in the van he turns on his Celine mix without saying a word. As if putting up with our ridiculous car dance moves and singing very loudly and slightly off key is not enough-he also purposefully picks out our favorite songs and skips the ones we don't know quite as well. Like I said, he is fantastic.

Getting to unashamedly jam out to music in English while driving down the freeway was another perfect way to celebrate being an American!

After getting back to Jerusalem, we all put on our best red, white, and blue and the center had its own 4th of July celebration!

It was complete with

a bbq (unfortunately the hamburgers were still kosher) and patriotic service

face painting

Carnival Fishing

Bobbing for apple competitions

Water-fights

To get revenge for sticking ice down Stacey's back Neal threw a huge barrel of water at me and Melissa while we were getting our picture taken. Luckily I got out of the way in time....Lissa was not so lucky haha

and most importantly-sparklers!

It definitely was not quite the same as being in Provo for the 4th, and I really missed going to the parade, patriotic service, hot air balloon launch, stadium of fire, bbq, etc. with my family. However, I think we did a pretty great job celebrating our country's independence from 8,000 miles away! Besides, it is not everyday you get to sing the national anthem with the Dome of the Rock as a backdrop :)

Galilee

Well I am back from Galilee!

The only word that can describe my 11 day experience there is

amazing.

Being able to see the place where Christ spent so much of his ministry is something that I will

never forget.

It is absolutely beautiful and the feeling of peace present there is simply overwhelming.

Studying Christ's teachings on the very spots he gave them, and seeing the setting where he performed so many miracles made the New Testament truly come to life.

I learned so much, even more than I expected to, during my short time there.

More than anything though,

I came to know my Savior in Galilee in a way that I never have before.

And that is something that I will remember for the rest of my life.

Now I can see why he loved this place so much. 11 days was not long enough. I already want to go back.

We did soooo much in Galilee, so I have tons of catch-up posts to d0!

It might take me a while but they are coming....I promise :)

Galilee Here I Come

Tomorrow morning we are taking off to

Galilee for eleven days.

I could not be more excited!

I have heard nothing but incredible things about it

and the special spirit that can be felt there.

I know it is going to be amazing and I have a feeling it will probably be a highlight

of my time here in Israel.

See you in eleven days!

P.S. Happy 4th of July!

Stace Face's birthday

Today is my dear friend Stacey's birthday!
I seriously don't know what I would do here in J-Ru without this girl.
I love her to death.
She is absolutely hilarious, a total sweetheart, one of the most positive people I know
and my personal yoga "sensei".

A group of us went out to celebrate her birth on Thursday night
(because everything closes early on Friday and today is the Sabbath)
We went to a restaurant in West Jerusalem
and it was seriously amazing.
My sweet potato ravioli was by far the best thing I have eaten since being in Israel.

My life-changing pasta

the whole gang

The highlight of the night was when they brought
out a a piece of chocolate cake to Stacey-complete with a full-blown sparkler.
They Israeli restaurants totally got us beat in that department-a sparkler is so much cooler than a normal candle.

Stacey with her cake-the only downside of the sparkler was that she burnt her finger on it-hence the finger in the glass of water

The cake was obviously not good at all....

We spent the rest of the night walking down Beni Yehuda Street,
dancing with the local bands, eating gelato, and enjoying our freedom from finals.
We came back to the center, had a massive dance party (naturally),
and called it a night.


HAPPY BIRTHDAY STACY JAMES!
I LOVE YOU!

Hyde Door

Monday morning Brother Brown took us out to the Old City to visit the Custodia Terrae Sactae Church, which is a Franciscan monastery.

This monastary is a peaceful oasis in the city, has some gorgeous architecture, and a beautiful chapel.

Streets of the Old City outside Tarrae Sanctum

entrance to the monastery

inside the chapel

This monastery also has something specifically significant to the LDS Church, which is quite a rarity in Jerusalem.

The apostle Orson Hyde stayed here for a time while serving his mission in Israel and actually carved his last name into one of the doors-pretty cool huh?

Brother Brown told us that a number of years ago he was in Jerusalem with Elder Holland and President Faust-ya he is that legit- he brought them to the Hyde door when they bet him he could not show them a church site something they had not seen before.

Brother Brown won.

After seeing the door, our guide Father Angelo-who was the funniest man ever- told us his personal story and how he decided to give up everything and become a monk to dedicate his life to God. In the picture below he was telling us about how the ropes he wears remind him of the vows he has made of celibacy, obedience, and giving away all his possessions. In his words, "He has no money, he has no wife, and there is nothing he can do about it!". Haha I am pretty sure he is the most hilarious monk in existence. Before coming to Jerusalem, I had always imagined all monks as super sober and melancholy, but I was definitely wrong. Just another one of the many amazing things I have learned since being here!