I Walked Where Jesus Walked...Literally

After almost two weeks spent in the Galilee, I can honestly say I fell in love with everything about the area and the New Testament. It was completely breathtaking and it's no wonder that Christ chose to live in the most beautiful area in the world. We stayed in a Kibbutz right on the Sea of Galilee and had a ton of free time to study the scriptures and the Savior's life in the place where he lived and performed most of his miracles. We saw most of the traditional sights of where miracles and significant scriptural events took place and overall, it was a perfect two weeks. I grew so close to the Savior and had some of those amazing life-changing kind of experiences that I will never forget. Here are just a few of the highlights:

Boat ride across the Sea of Galilee

We stopped in the middle of the sea for about half an hour and read in the New Testament when Christ calmed the water and walked on water with Peter. Truly amazing to be in the same spot where it all happened.

The Mount of Beatitudes

This was definitely one of my favorite spots we went to. We read the Sermon on the Mount and had about an hour of free time to just read, write, pray and ponder. It's hard to put into words why it was so good, but it was one of my favorite places I've been since coming to Jerusalem.

View of the Galilee from the church building in Tiberias

We went to church with the members of the Tiberias branch on the sabbath. It was so fun to meet them and hear some of their stories. This is the view from the balcony and it was absolutely breathtaking. The building was dedicated in 2007 by Elder Holland and this is his favorite place in all of Israel. I can see why.

View of the Sea of Galilee from the beach we stayed on at sunset

My very favorite part of my two weeks in Galilee was waking up early to watch the sunrise on the beach while I read about the Savior. Watching the sunset was a close second.

The Mount of Transfiguration

We spent one morning here reading the passage of Christ's transfiguration. It was here that God, Jesus Christ, Moses, Elijah, John the Baptist, Peter, James and John were all present. My favorite thing I realized here was that everyone present during the transfiguration was involved with the restoration of the church: Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ in the Sacred Grove; John the Baptist restoring the Aaronic Priesthood; Peter, James and John with the Melchizedek Priesthood; Moses and Elijah in the Kirtland temple. Clearly, the church is true.

We went on the most beautiful hike in the Golan Heights. When we got to the top it started to rain making the whole experience very majestic.

Capernaum

The city where Christ performed miracles, taught many sermons in the synagogue and where Peter lived. We studied the Bread of Life sermon while sitting in the synagogue where Christ taught. So awesome.

Dan

This is where Jeroboam reintroduced idolatry to Israel after the kingdom split. This is the exact place where he set up a temple to worship the golden calf. Get it? Golden calf? We think we're so witty.

One night we went to a restaurant that served fish from the Sea of Galilee. When they brought it out it was a full fish-head, brains, eyeballs, fins-everything. Disgusting to look at, but rather tasty. Our friend Lacey had a particularly hard time looking at it, so all in good fun, Gretchen, Courtney and I decided to leave her a little gift and hang it in her shower. One of my favorite non-spiritual moments of the trip.

Nimrod's Castle

We stopped at an awesome crusader castle where we had way too much fun acting out crusader scenes and filming Anastasia music videos. If it's not obvious, Courtney and I are shooting arrows through the little arrow holes.

Hopefully the pictures give you just a small glimpse of why I loved Galilee so much. I would go back in a heartbeat. It was perfect.

Off to the Galilee

Wow...I can't tell you how nice it is to be done with classes for the most part and be free to play all the time. The city has finally calmed down, at least a little bit and we've spent the past week field tripping in Bethlehem, day trips to Tel Aviv to swim in the Mediterranean, exploring and shopping in the Old City, a field trip to herd sheep and make pitas and spices, and just living up the Jerusalem life. Tomorrow morning we're heading to Galilee for two weeks to study the Savior's life in the place where he performed most of his miracles. I honestly can't wait! From what I've heard, this field trip will be the highlight of my Jerusalem experience and I can't wait to experience it for myself. I'll be sure to give some updates with pictures two weeks from now when I get back. Farewell for now!

Pray for the Peace of Jerusalem

(picture of a sign in the garden tomb)

There have been a few demonstrations going on in Jerusalem the past few days. Don't worry, it's not as bad as Fox News is making it out to be.

Nevertheless, pray for the peace of Jerusalem, both for my selfish (so we don't have to be on lockdown anymore and can go into the Old City) and unselfish (because I've grown to love these people and want nothing more than for the conflict to be resolved) reasons.

I feel somewhat obligated to write a new blog post tonight. Partly because I've been kind of a slacker at blogging lately. Partly because everyone around me is updating their blogs. Here's the thing though, I don't really have much to update on. How could this be you may wonder, after all I am living in Jerusalem. The answer: three midterms last week. Five finals this week. And class all day long. I can honestly say that I haven't left the center for almost an entire week now. But just you wait, by next Friday I'll be done with all my classes (except for two which will not consume my life by any means) and I'll be having one adventure after another for two straight months (as if I haven't already had two months full of adventure) Anyways, until then, here's just a few things I've done in the past week or two:

• Friday Synagogue Service: I've decided if by some terrible reason I am forced to change religions, I'd definitely go with Judaism purely for the Friday services. The entire hour and a half consisted of clapping, dancing, and singing in Hebrew. So fun.
• Mass at the Church of the Holy Seplechure: Catholicism would be a little lower on my list of religions to join. The music wasn't quite as upbeat as the Jews and there was no dancing involved. However, still way awesome, mostly because it was in the church of the Holy Seplechure and four different branches of Catholicism were trying to compete for the loudest service at the same time. Rather entertaining.
• David's Citadel: A structure built by the Crusaders that is now a museum of the history of Jerusalem. The best part about it was our 80 year old tour guide who had eyebrows so long they kept poking him in his eye. Such a sweet old man with a wealth of knowledge.
• Field trip to an underground tunnel showing us the original Western Wall and the Herodian Steps, steps leading to the temple during the time of Herod, which means that Christ would have walked on them (check out photo #10 in your bible).
• Sitting in a study room for hours on end with friends, studying 20% of the time and laughing the other 80%. If I fail my tests at least I had fun, right?
• Israeli Folk Dance lessons: One of the more fun nights in my life up to date. Remember that scene in The Wedding Planner where they are at a Jewish wedding throwing plates against the wall and dancing? Yeah, thats what I learned how to do, minus the whole breaking plates thing. But we did get to yell "Ommpa/Ummpa" (I may have completely massacred the spelling on that) whenever we wanted throughout the night.
• Purim Festival (tomorrow): The Jewish holiday equivalent to Halloween. We're going into the City to buy costumes and we may be going to a Purim dance party. Should be good.
• Field Trip to the Separation Wall (tomorrow): Also, should be good.

Okay, as I wrote it all out I realize that despite being in what feels like lockdown in the center I'm still having adventures. Let's just say, I'll be excited when this week is over, finals are out of the way and classes are over and I can just play in the Old City all day every day.

Scripture Stories Come to Life

Here's the thing about Jerusalem: almost everywhere we walk has a significant event that took place there. But...because it all happened so long ago, some of the sites tend to look very similar to each other. In order to remember what happened at each spot, we've started acting out the scripture story that took place there, all for the sake of a photo.

David and Goliath anyone?

Some Samson and Deliliah action going on here. Weakening him by takin' a razor to his head.

And sometimes we act out Disney movies if nothing from the scriptures happened at the site...

We went to some caves that had the inspiration for Pride Rock in it. It looked so similar we couldn't pass up the opportunity for Mufassa to hold Simba up to the animals below. Don't worry, the reenactment included the singing of many, if not all, of the Lion King tunes.

More reenactments to come...

Walk Like an Egyptian

Here are some photos from my Egypt trip. Sorry there are so many...I couldn't narrow it down very easily. Enjoy!

Mt. Sinai

Me and Jodie on our way to Mt. Sinai- 3 scarfs on my head and socks on my hands and I was still freezing

Muhammad Ali Mosque

Luxor Temple

Horse buggie ride from Karnak Temple to Luxor Temple

Karnak Temple in Luxor...there were 134 of these massive columns

Just after my camel ride along the Nile with my camel driver, Akhmad and my camel, Bob Marley

Felucca Ride on the Nile

Great statue of Horus, god of the underworld...or so we think...we saw a lot of ruins that day, they are getting all jumbled up

Courtney, Victoria and I at Hatsephut's Temple

Me and Kennedy at the Step Pyramid of Zoser

Kissing the Sphinx

The sphinx and Pyramids in Giza

Pyramid at the Pyramids...we couldn't resist

Khufu's Great Pyramid in Giza

Me and Victoria at the Egyptian border

Jodie and I overlooking the wilderness

Jerusalem Through Pictures

The supposed rock that Satan tempted Christ to turn into bread.

Our GQ Israeli soldier. I might just bring one home with me.

Just kidding, dad.

Atop the Mount of Temptations near Jericho, where Christ was tempted by Satan during his 40 day fast.

Overlooking the city Jericho. It is the oldest city in the world and the lowest city in the world. It's the city Jericho that Joshua conquered.

A group of us just in front of the Wailing Wall. Portions of it are the remnants of Solomon's Temple that the Jews pray to. On Friday afternoon they welcome in the Sabbath by singing, dancing and praying, we were able to go and celebrate with them. It was an amazing experience.

The Garden of Gethsemane. You already know how I feel about this one.

Allison and I in Zedekiah's Cave "carving out the stone" for Solomon's Temple.

The crew overlooking the Old City. This view never gets old. Ever.

The Dome of the Rock. Even more spectacular in real life, the picture just doesn't do it justice.

Allison and I in the Orson Hyde Gardens, just above the Garden of Gethsemane, overlooking the Old City.

Home Sweet Home.