Galilee Day 11 - November 26, 2011

This was our last day in Galilee. We all loaded into the bus and went to a few nearby historical sites, including a Tel with a mosaic where there is a Mosaic of a lady that they call The Mona Lisa of the Middle East.

We then went to Mt. Carmel, which is where Elijah killed the priests of Baal.
Gotta love Biblical History!

Then we went to an overlook of Haifa and the gardens of Baha'i, which is a shoot-off religion of the Re-Shiite Muslims.
It was a very, very expansive temple-like garden overlook, and the view of the city was beautiful. But I was mostly anxious for the next stop.

The next stop was to a cemetery in Haifa, where John Alexander Clark, my great, great Uncle was buried. I read his letters home in a book my mom gave me before we left, and really learned about his story. He was called on a mission to Palestine in 1894, where he left his family and went. He paid his own way there, and found his own lodgings. He learned the language on his own, and preached among Muslims there, where he caught the Bubonic Plague and died because of it. They had to bury him immediately because of how contagious the disease was, and his family was not allowed to bring his body home. A year later, his college class raised money to have a gravestone placed on his grave, and the grave of another missionary that died there in 1894, that reads "A missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints." Because of this, when the Church was trying to get authorization to build the BYU Jerusalem Center on Mount Scopus in the 1970's, they were able to prove that they had a presence in the Holy Land prior to the organization of the State of Israel, which made it possible for them to build the Center. Without my great, great Uncle, and the other missionary buried there, the Church would be unable to operate in the Holy Land. Needless to say, it was a very special experience to get to visit his gravesite and have a chance to tell my classmates all about the center.

Here are some pictures:

Me at John Clark's grave. The broken column represents a life that ended early.

This is Kali Clark, my cousin (second cousin?) who was on my study abroad with me, and also related to John Alexander Clark.


This is Adolf Haag, the other missionary who died before John Alexander Clark.

After visiting John Clark's grave, we made the long drive back to Jerusalem to return to the Center for our last few weeks in Israel.

And, finally, two years later, I am finishing my Jerusalem blog. Now....the book!

Thank you for all your love and support while I was in Jerusalem, and for listening to me talk about it... a lot. I love you guys!

Galilee Day 10 - November 25, 2011

Okay, so I didn't finish before the week was over, but I am doing another post. Only one more day after this, and my blog is complete. I love looking through the pictures, such good memories in Israel!

On this day we went to a Crusader city called Akko. I'm disappointed that I had never heard of this, or had a chance to research more about it before we went, because the place was huge! A lot of what we visited was a huge Crusader Castle that had lots of dark stone passageways and cool history... but, compared to everything else in the Holy Land, it gets kind of a "Class B" reputation, you can imagine. The only reason we were able to visit is because we had so much time there (and because we packed it in, especially in Galilee).

This is the entrance to Akko.

Some of the inside stonework was incredible!

I guess Marco Polo was held there for a while in a "Khan," which is a kind of inn or market that are enclosed squares, which could have been the kind of "inn" that Mary and Joseph went.
This is the Khan they showed us first.... love what they make of historical areas, right? If you prefer....
This is probably a better picture to allow you to imagine how it was a market/inn-type area.

It's right on the coast, so we got to go out to the Marina and saw some fishermen and had some free time before we had to get back on the bus.

This is proof that I was there :)

After that we went to Tabneh, or Bet She-erim, to see see some graves. We were supposed to look for four symbols on the tombs and turn them in for homework.


It was pretty cool, cause all the graves were in caves, and we got to go explore to find symbols.

This is significant because of the time period these graves were created, and a menorah is a symbol that developed over the years.

The BEST part of the day was definitely that night, when we got back to the Kibbutz. They held a Thanksgiving dinner for us there, complete with turkeys that had sparklers coming out of them, red, white, and blue streamers, and American flags. It seems they had gotten their American holidays a little mixed up, but we had a very lovely Fourth of July Thanksgiving in Galilee that year.


I guess I forgot to mention the balloons :)

(I told you there were fireworks in the turkey. They were really bright, and really....flammable.)

It was a magical Thanksgiving, in a very, very different way.

Galilee Day Nine 11-24-09

I have not written about Israel in months, maybe even over a year, and with three days left, I absolutely cannot leave this project unfinished.

On this day, in the amazing Galilean hills, I woke up at 5:45 a.m. to "a tempest raging." It was unbelievable. It was incredibly windy, and I got out of bed and headed to the beach to walk along the shore. The Sea of Galilee was not the peaceful bowl of water that it normally was, but it was almost frightening. The wind blew me along as I walked along the beach, and I thought about the Savior, walking on water to His disciples, and calming the raging storm. This morning gave me perpective to see what an awe-inspiring event this would have been to behold. Like any sea or body of water, when a storm hits it can be dangerous. I understand the fear of the disciples, in their small fishing vessel on the Sea of Galilee, wondering if they would be okay. I can see the Savior, walking out to them, and rescuing them from the storm, asking them where their faith was. As a human, I can understand their position. Having faith in the Lord is hard amid some of life's storms, but it is truly the answer to our worries and fears.

That day was my class' day to stay at the kibbutz and go to class, so I studied and made goals for my scripture studying. I spent the evening reading in the book that Mom gave me of John Alexander Clark's letters. We were scheduled to visit his grave in two days, and I wrote in my journal about how excited I was.

Oh to be, near the Sea, the Sea of Galilee. I miss that place with all my heart.

*Please keep in mind that it was 5 o'clock in the morning.... :)

"Master the Tempest is Raging" - A view of Tiberias, Israel, across the sea of Galilee

Galilee Day Eight 11-23-2009

We had a huge field trip this day.

First we went to Nain, which is where Christ healed the widow's son. It was so simple and unexpected. Just a small, little church, with excellent acoustics, which Sarah Ingalls, Emily Andersen and I sang in. I didn't really want to leave, which was surprising.

It was gorgeous!

After that we went to Mt. Tabor, which is the place that is believed to be the site of the Mount of Transfiguration. It was so amazing to sit on top of the mountain and talk about Christ, Peter, James, and John, and think of them receiving the endowment. Surreal, actually.

Mt. Tabor (A Mountain set apart)

There's always a church at the top, on top, nearby. Always.

Another great hair day and cheesy smile picture!

The view from Mt. Tabor

Inside!

After Tabor we went to a place called Bet Alpha, which is an ancient synagogue with a beautiful mosaic floor. It is both ancient and complete, that is. The actual mosaic is pretty un-beautiful as far as mosaics go, but it's beautiful because it's completely intact. It shows paganism reconciled with Christianity.

You can see that the actual artwork is not very sophisticated, but the fact that it's intact tells us so much about that time period and the reconciliation between Christianity and Paganism. Brother Hamblin got all excited about it, anyway.

After Bet Alpha we went to a natural spring pool to swim in. I loved it. It was huge! A small pond, and probably 12-15 feet deep. It also has little fish that suck on your feet and toes, and sharp rocks all along the bottom and edges. Sarah and I went to explore a cave where the spring came from, a fish sucked on her toes so she screamed, which scared me, and I kicked out to go back out of the cave and gashed the top of my foot open on a rock. I nearly didn't make it back to the side of the pool to climb out because it hurt so bad and I couldn't swim. The nursing students took a look and said it was really deep. Brother Emmett had told us a story about a girl diving in a cutting her head open and needing stitches, which meant a 4 hour trip to the hospital for the entire bus....and I didn't want that girl to be me. So, no hospital trip for me, just some band aids. Now I have a friendly little scar on my foot for a souvenir. No problem.

Can you say Paradise?

I love this pool! It is so beautiful! Cut foot and all, I had an amazing time

and would go back in a heartbeat.

After the swim we had one more stop, at a place called Bet-Shean, which is where Saul and Jonathan's bodies were hung on the wall after they were killed. It was a sweet ruin, though. I forgot to grab my camera from my swim bag, so no pictures, and I didn't hike the tel because my foot hurt really badly, but it was awesome to see the columns and all the roman-style marble...ruins. It really was sweet.

After that we went home to the Kibbutz, had dinner, and then a bonfire. It was spiritual and great. Several students were asked to stand a give a short message about Christ. Ally spoke, and was crying because of the spirit she felt, and I heard Brother Emmett's youngest son, Will, who is about 4 years-old, ask his dad, "Why is she crying?" and Brother Emmett responded, "That's the Holy Ghost making her cry, because she is so happy." It was such a sweet moment.

We made s'mores and were a little crazy with our singing and dancing around the fire, and then we settled down and got to spend another wonderful night on the shores of the Galilee.

Fireside :)

Galilee Days Seven 11-22-2009

Day Seven was a classes day, so we had New Testament in the morning, and then we studied and took a test, which went really well. And then we went river rafting!

Okay so we river rafted on the Jordan River. Yes, it was more like floating, and yes, it had the potential to be really lame....but I spiced things up a bit. They only gave us one paddle, with two oars on either end. So I sat on the nose of the raft and paddled. We passed up boat after boat and engaged in boat-on-boat water combat (initiated by yours truly). We wasted every boat and passed them up one after the other until we got to the Emmetts. They had real oars, so they totally schooled us. But then the Emmett children and I teamed up and started a massive water fight at the end, at the stopping point. All in all, a successful river-rafting trip. Unfortunately there are no pictures, because water activities are not camera-friendly.

After that we had dinner, showered, and I talked to my roommate for a long time. On a completely unrelated note: Kali had the shower on for 30 minutes waiting for it to get warm, and it was still ice cold...when she realized that she had the nozzle turned the wrong direction the entire time. She was hanging out in a towel until it got warm. So funny.

Galilee Day Six 11-21-2009

Today was the Sabbath at the Tiberius Branch. We had an awesome day, aside from the fact that everyone started getting sick and I had cramps and thought I was starting to get sick too... (Too much information?)

Anyway. We went to sacrament at the Tiberius branch and got to sit and look over the Sea of Galilee and think about the Savior's life while we had sacrament. They have four different languages spoken in that Branch. I think it's Hebrew, English, Russian, and Spanish. So they have four different hymn number plates on the wall because the hymn numbers are different for all the same hymn, just in different languages. It was sweet.

These first three are the view from the Tiberius Branch balcony. How beautiful!

The Sacrament room. You can see the four hymn-plates on the wall.

It was a beautiful building. Apparently they converted an apartment for the Senior Missionary Couple in the Tiberius branch to be able to have sacrament there when they got approval. It's really great!

Brother Manscill and me, Megan Richards, Lauren Magleby, Jane Nelson, Michele Christensen, Adri Browning, Kelsey Barrett, and Hailey McKee on the balcony just outside the Sacrament room.

After sacrament we went to a Jordan River Baptismal Site, and watched people baptize themselves. They wore these long white gowns...some with nothing underneath. And they were very see-through. Some of us were scarred because we looked at the wrong place, just at the wrong time. But, overall, it was really sweet. They had these big writings from the scriptures on the walls, in tons and tons of different languages.

Behold the Jordan River. This is probably more close to the spot where they took the picture for the Scriptures than the other Jordan River site we visited, where the water was brown.

People in white. Don't worry, this is pre-dunk, so they aren't see-through yet.

Spanish :)

Then we had lunch back at the Kibbutz, and free time. I took a nap. We were getting up at 6 or earlier every morning trying to squeeze everything in, so I was exhausted.

That night we had an amazing fireside that was centered on Christ. I couldn't believe how wonderful it was. Sister Madsen, Truman G. Madsen's wife, spoke for a little while, then testimonies and President Madsen, from the Tiberius Branch spoke. It was super charged with the spirit. Lizzie Jenson also sang an amazing song called "His Hands" or something like that. I've never forgotten how it made me feel.

One person's testimony stuck out to me. He talked about how developing a testimony, for him, wasn't like turning on a bright light, but more like lighting individual candles, one at a time, until his testimony was a bright, shining light. I feel like that with my testimony, and I know that it takes work, not only to keep lighting candles, but to keep the candles from going out. Testimonies don't keep. Shelf life is short, so we have to keep working on them.

After the fireside we went down and sat on the shores of Galilee, in the dark, and looked across the lake at Tiberius, and looked for shooting stars. I love Galilee. I miss it so badly.

Galilee Day Four and Five - 11/19/2009 and 11/20/2009

So I didn't write in my Journal on Day 4, because we stayed at the Kibbutz and had classes and got to spend the day on the lovely shores of Galilee. Starting on this day, every other day we stayed at the Kibbutz and then the other days we went on field trips to the surrounding area. Lyndsay Denton and I read our book aloud for Ancient Near East because she didn't bring hers to Galilee. My voice was hoarse afterward, there was so much reading. But, I can't complain...reading in a beach chair on the shore of Galilee is definitely not anything to complain about!

On Day Five we had a field trip.

Our first stop was to a place called Gamla, which is an ancient civilization that lived on a peak in the middle of a canyon that the Romans captured, but only after a huge, bloody battle which resulted in the villagers throwing themselves off the highest point of the peak rather than being enslaved by the Romans. It's kind of sad.

So this is the peak...easily defensible against an attack, because it has cliffs on all sides. That's why the battle was so long and bloody, despite the Romans having an incredibly powerful army.

Getting ready to hike..

Okay so this hike was much more intense than we thought...and here we're kind of facetiously being excited about the ruins.... They are cool, though. Galilee just happened to be a lot of ruins.

This is Amanda and I at the peak of the mountain. This is where they jumped off. It seemed just like a story, when we were there, because it was so long ago. But a lot of people lost their lives and their homes and families at this place. It's very sad.

After that we went to Qurzin, which is an ancient Talmudic village and Synagogue. It was pretty cool. They had a reconstructed home and synagogue, so we got to see how daily life was back then for them. There was an entire village. Pretty sweet.

Village...

These are the columns in the Synagogue.

The stains on the wall are original, and are from oil wells they lit for light.

Me grinding some grain... Great hair day, yes?

This is Hailey, Kelsey, Brooke, and Victoria standing in some of the ruins.

Then we went to a Syrian Bunker that they used during the Golan Heights war in 1967, which is called the six-day war. We crawled inside it and saw where they would've fired at the approaching enemy. It was also absolutely surrounded by Mine Fields. It's too dangerous for the government to remove all the mines, so they just leave them there, in lush green fields that look gorgeous but are fenced off with barbed-wire and bright yellow signs that say, "DANGER! Mine Field!" It's a different world there. Apparently every now and again a cow or some other kind of animal will get through the fence and explode a mine....and itself. It is such a blessing that we don't have things like that in our country. So many countries have remnants of battle, still. I guess we do from the Civil War, and etc. but it's still just a little different. This war was only 43 years ago. And people still remember the fighting in their hometowns. It's still going on.

A Memorial of the Battle. Those iron spikey things are to ruin tanks. You put them all over the land, and then tanks can't go through because they can't roll on top of them.

Yes, there are mines on the other side of that fence. Kind of freaky.

Down into the bunker..

This is the only picture I have looking out of the firing hole.

Acres and acres of land, covered in mines.

Acres and acres.

After that we went back to the Kibbutz for lunch. We had to eat fast because some of us, me included, signed up to go on a hike. It was so fun. We hiked down this grotto along a wadi and through a spring the whole way. It was great. It was also downhill...so more of a walk than a hike. (My kind of hike). Then the spring went over this huge cliff, and there was this gorgeous waterfall. We hiked down into the little canyon to a pool at the base of it, that was beautiful and deep enough to swim in. One minor problem: it was FREEZING. Really, ice cold. But, a bunch of people got in. At first I thought they were crazy....but then I got the bug and had to get in. I thought the moment had passed and was bummed, but then a few people said they would go with me. So, four of us swam out to the waterfall, climbed up behind it, and sat. It was so cold. I was the last one out of the water of the four of us, and I really thought I was going to not be able to keep swimming. Wow it was cold. But, we made it. It was amazing! I'm glad I did it! I would've regretted not doing it.

Beginning the walk....hike...

Down in the grotto, crossing the stream.

Miss Kathryn Hawker and me! Big shirt, anyone?

Teren Taniuchi. Amazing cold water face.

COLD water.

Survivors.

After that we hiked out of the rim on a different path that was straight up, but much shorter.

We hurried home, cleaned up, and ate a fish dinner. We went to a restaurant where they served us real Galilean fish! It was served with skin, bones, tail, fins, head, and eyes. Completely whole. I had to peal off the skin and get the meat off the bones. Very memorable. Didn't go anywhere near the head, though. Imagine that. It was tasty, though.

After that we rode the bus to Tiberius, all the way around the other side of the lake, and got ice cream. It was a really fun night.