Galilee Part 1!

In my entire life I never imagined myself going around the Holy Land visiting the sites of the life of Jesus yet here I am. Galilee was an amazing experience, I learned so much and saw so many things and my testimony grew of Christ as I lived there for a week and a half. We literally moved over there, had class and field trips, and had time to swim and have fun in the Sea of Galilee. :)

Our first day we stopped at Bet Sha'an, which is one of the 10 major Roman cities of the Decapolis and flourishing in the time of Christ. When pilgrims would travel from Galilee or northern Israel to Jerusalem they would most likely travel through this city so maybe Mary and Joseph passed through this town on a donkey before getting to Bethlehem. It is also a site of Old Testament city where Saul was killed and his skin was on the walls. Ew. But kinda cool I guess. We saw lots of ruins and this place has had so many layers of civilizations so it was cool to see each layer.

Bet Sha'an with the best friends ever!  On top of the mount that the Roman temple stood. 

With the Ludlow boys, they are so great!

It is so beautiful, even in ruins.

Marissa Ludlow, faculty child, eating her favorite kind of magnum bar. This is the first time the faculty family gets to stay the whole Galilee trip because the kids are out of school for summer break. It was so fun to have them with us!

We also visited Nazareth, where we saw the Annunciation Church and St. Joseph's Chapel which are both built old grottoes thought to be the spot where the angel visited Mary and a spot where traditionally is Joseph's workshop. Mary's church had beautiful mosaics all along the outside courtyard and inside of different depictions of Mary in different countries and cultures. They were all so beautiful and had their own interpretation of the virgin Mary. I loved this church a lot and our devotional was good, I can't even imagine how it would be to be Mary and find out to be the mother of the Christ and Lord Redeemer, and out of all the women of the world God trusted her to mother and care for His Only Begotten Son. We talked about how Mary was most definitely the best witness of Christ out of all, even the apostles, because she raised him, she was with him all his life, and she knew him and loved him. Could you imagine watching your son suffer and die on a cross like Mary? I won't fully understand Mary until I have a child of my own. I am so grateful for Mary and I hope as LDS members we can follow Roman Catholics and worship and love Mary as they love and cherish her.

"To a virgin espoused to a  man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David; and the virgin's name was Mary."

"And the angel came in unto her, and said, Hail, thou that art highly favoured, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women."

"And when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying, and cast in her mind what manner of salutation this should be. And the angel said unto her, Fear not, Mary: for thou hast found favour with God. And, behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name JESUS."

"He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest: and the Lord  God shall give unto him the throne of his father David: And he shall reign over the house of Jacob forever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end."
- Luke 1: 27-33

Us with the USA depiction of Mary. Weird but beautiful modern art.

The ceiling/dome of the church was spectacular. A camera cannot show its splendor.

Last of the day was going on Mt. Arbel, a high mountain with an overlook of Galilee. In previous semesters, the teachers told us it was too hazy and foggy to see anything but we had a very clear day which I was grateful for because it was a beautiful view. We took pictures and I was one of the last to leave because I wanted to just keep taking pictures!

Our next field trip started off on a boat ride across the Sea of Galilee. It was so awesome. We sang Evangelical songs like "Our God is an Awesome God" because the boat rider thinks we're Evangelists. We had a devotional about the miracles that happened here and just sitting and looking out on the water I could just imagine seeing Him walking towards his disciples on water. It was so easy to see it and the boat although there was no storm that hit us that day, unfortunately to all of us who wanted some action, shade, and especially some rain from this crazy heat. We have been learning about the Four Gospels separately, because each has its own way of telling the story of Christ, and right now we are doing John, and it has been so cool to learn and differentiate between the Gospels according to their style and what they tell us. It's so cool that now I can hear/see a block of scripture and usually know which it is in and all this other knowledge I've gained through this experience. I have the best teachers ever.

Dwight and Melinda and I on the boat in Galilee!

Jerica my roommate back home at the JC!

The Sea of Galilee really isn't a Sea it's more a lake, it's smaller than most lakes too but it's called a Sea because it acts like one. When there's a storm, there's a storm and it can change things dramatically which makes sense of the miracle of Jesus calming the sea and his disciples when the tempest was raging.

Devery and I, she is so wonderful! :)

Sunglasses: Target, White V-neck: Walmart, Skirt: DI. I'm really branching out on my style here, haha.
I did get the necklace in Petra, and traded it for just 2 mints, which is pretty cool!

After the boat ride we stopped real quick to see the remains found of a 1st century boat, most likely what Peter's boat would have looked like which is cool.

Our next stop was Mount of Beatitudes. This was definitely in my top 3 favorite spots in Galilee. There after our wonderful devotional on the Sermon on the Mount we had quiet time to ourselves to reflect and ponder and I have never felt the Spirit so strongly manifest that Jesus is the Christ. I know it. I no longer believe or hope it but I can say I know Christ lived. I know he ministered in Galilee and taught to the people. I know he died for me and atoned for our sins. I think this is the reason why I needed to come to Jerusalem. I needed and wanted to know and have my own testimony of this Gospel. I wanted to say with every fiber of my being that I know this Gospel is true and I feel so much more closer to Christ and my Heavenly Father than I ever have before. It is a beautiful place and I bet it's even more beautiful in the spring time.

The Mount of Beatitudes Church to commemorate the  Beatitudes Christ gave in the Sermon on the Mount.

Another view of Mount of Beatitudes

We then walked down the hill from the Mount to our next stop instead of driving so we could get a better feel to how it must have been walking around in Jesus' time. During his ministry, Jesus and his disciples spent a lot of time walking so it was cool to do that although it was so hot!

I love this panorama. It would have been so beautiful when Jesus gave his Sermon on the Mount which was probably around spring time.

Melinda and Geoff took a banana from the plantations on our walk, which probably wasn't a good idea because they were disgusting and sticky but you gotta do what you gotta do to get a good picture right!?

On the way down there were mustard plants everywhere. Just to give you a perspective of a mustard seed. They taste like mustard too, very spicy mustard.

"And he said, Whereunto shall we liken the kingdom of God? or with what comparison shall we compare it?
It is like a grain of mustard seed, which, when it is sown in the earth, is less than all the seeds that be in the earth: But when it is sown, it groweth up, and becometh greater than all herbs, and shooteth out great branches; so that the fowls of the air may lodge under the shadow of it." -  Mark 4:30-32

We walked down to St. Peter's Primacy which is the traditional place where Peter swam out to see Jesus on shore and they caught more than a hundred fish. We had our devotional and then we skipped rocks in to the Sea of Galilee.

Melinda and I

I'm not very good at skipping rocks but Melinda showed me the trick to it.

And I got it to skip!

Our last stop of that day was Capernaum, where Jesus did many of his miracles during his life. We saw a synagogue that was possibly the one Jesus read the Torah and proclaimed the fulfillment of the prophecy and healed the withered hand and his own people rejected him.

Brother Huntsman for our devotional at Capernaum. He is an excellent teacher and I  have learned so much from him.

Pictures with remains and a column. Naturally.

I'm in CAPERNAUM!

I've grown a love for Capernaum outside of the scriptures from the book series Kingdom and the Crown. If you don't know what those are look them up. If you haven't read them read them. They are so good and it was what got me interested in going to Jerusalem which has become a life changing experience for me. They are so good and help make the scriptures feel more real.

Dwight and I with a cool tree.

We got to go to Sabbath with the Galilee Branch which was nice and then we visited Yardenit, a place in the Jordan River (River above Sea of Galilee although Jesus was baptized in the Jordan River south of it near Jericho). It was very beautiful and we sang some baptism songs which was neat.

With Annie and Priscilla!

This is the closest thing we could find to the Bible Dictionary picture, which is pretty close! I love these pictures and I am able to visit 24 out of the 32 pictures. 5 out of the 8 it's not even possible for us to see them because their either in Europe, Egypt, or Samaria. I have seen, learned, and done so much here in Galilee and this is only half of my trip!!
Follow me in my shoes as I walk in Christ's shoes in His Holy Land!

Jewish and Christian Quarter

 Last week we had the opportunity to go on three field trips! We went to the Jewish Quarter on Monday, the Kotel Tunnels on Tuesday, and Wednesday was the Christian Quarter.

We first went to the Davidson Museum south of Jerusalem, North of Ancient Jerusalem and where the old Second Temple was in biblical times. We saw the ruins of the Temple and it was so cool to see original real live stones from Jesus' time.

We first stopped at the piles of stones Romans pushed off the edge when they took over and destroyed the temple, thus fulfilling the prophecy:

"And as he went out of the temple, one of his disciples saith unto him, Master, see what manner of stones and what buildings are here!"
"And Jesus answering said unto him, Seest thou these great buildings? There shall not be left one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down." - Mark 13:2-3

They fell from so far up, they broke and dented the street which was visible
(on top of piles of rocks cut out of the picture)

Whitney and I

Remains of stores along the side of the Western Wall of the Temple where you would exchange money to temple money, buy a sacrifice like sheep or dove, and other things for preparing to go into the temple mount.

The remains of Robinson's arch leading to the temple (one entrance for pilgrims from the south to enter)

 We also went to the temple steps which lead to the main southern entrance to the temple mount. This was in the BD with a picture so I was super excited to come here. We had an amazing devotional on temples and it was a very cool experience to sit on original steps that Jesus actually stepped on (it sounds funny saying that but this whole trip we usually say "this is a traditional spot where this or this happened" or "we are 6 feet below where this happened" so actually touching something that is proved original instead of possible or being in the same airspace is pretty cool.

Sitting on the original steps (all around is restored)

My BD picture! Look it up in the back! :)

An alleyway in the Old City.

Joe Ludlow and I shared a huge donut!

There are such beautiful sunsets in Jerusalem!

Kotel Tunnels was a tour along the tunnel made along the Western Wall under Muslim quarter buildings and we learned more about the Temple. While building the Temple, the Israelites brought a 300 tons, 45 feet long bedrock stone all in one piece. Still no one knows today how they got it up here but we saw that and we also saw lots of Herodian stones that they carved each as they built up to the Temple.

The Christian quarter field trip started off with a church where we sat for a while waiting for our tour guide. We then went to a door where old pilgrims would stay and carve their name on the door and Orson Hyde, an LDS missionary in the 1830's came here and possibly carved his name.

Melinda and I at the door

Hyde

I have such wonderful and awesome friends!
(Anna-Marie, Brooke, Annie, Jerica, Analise, Mary Jane, Heather, and AJ)

Old remains of a wall towards the outside gate (just around the corner left of this picture) that Jesus possibly walked through with his cross to the crucifixion spot (either Holy Sepulchre or Golgotha or somewhere else, outside this gate). That was super cool to see!  

Holy Sepulchre

Although we as LDS members tend to not worship here as the place Christ was crucified and buried because we like to commemorate places that we can connect to how it looked at that time but I think it is very beautiful architecture. 

 After the field trip we stayed in the Old City and did more cool stuff before our time is done here in Jerusalem. We got shwarma, went to the top of the Church of Redeemer tower, and got a tour of the Hurva Synagogue.

Best shwarma ever! As you can tell by Devery's face :)

Creeper picture looking down from the top of the dome  of the Hurva Synagogue during our tour. 

View from the Redeemer Church tower. It was so beautiful and cool to see little buildings her and there around the Old city (and outside) that we knew what it was.

I LOVE JERUSALEM!!! :)