galilee

Disclaimer: This is my final post from Israel that has been sitting in my drafts for almost a year. We spent 10 days in Galilee and every night I would come home and write in my little blog. I think I missed a few days at the end, but I figured it was better to share then keep hidden forever.
Galilee was a beautiful, wonderful experience. It was fun, spiritually-intense (in a GREAT way), and a wonderful escape from the heat and tension of Jerusalem. Definitely one of the highlights of my time abroad.
xo

Hi friends and family!
We are here in Galilee for ten days and it has been WONDERFUL! I know things have kind of heated up between Israel and Gaza but there is no need to worry. Our trip to Galilee came at just the right time and we are totally out of harm's way!
Galilee has been AMAZING thus far. We are staying at Kibbutz here on the Northeastern end of the 'sea' and having so much fun. Every other day we either have class in the morning, then free time (beach time), or have a field trip!

On our way up here, we made a lot of stops at some amazing places. We got on the bus at about 6:00 am. Our first stop was a Roman city called Bet Shean. It was pretty cool... I guess. Haha. I am so used to / spoiled when it comes to Roman cities now nothing really phases me. They all have a typical center street with lots of columns, a theatre, a temple for Zeus or Athena.. and lots of columns. I guess this one had been destroyed by an earthquake and the archaeologists actually left it that way so that was kind of neat. What it's most well known for are some mosaics found in this little room that stood standing. The lighting was terrible so I couldn't get a good picture, but the name of the mosaic is called 'LadyLuck.' I learned about it in my art history class and It's actually been stolen a few times. It was really pretty. I have become a huge fan of mosaic artwork during my time here!
The other highlight of this stop was the tram! Hahahah. Of course I would love the tram, because it reminds me of the one in Disneyland! I was so hoping that it would take us to Disneyland, but it just took us to our beloved tour bus. Oh well.

Our next stop was the sleepy town of Nazareth. I LOVED Nazareth. Nazareth is a mostly Arab town, and because it was Ramadan it was almost completely empty and closed down. Too bad, because it apparently has great shopping, but it was cool to see it that way. Because of the conflict, tourism is down A TON and we have gotten so lucky at the sites we have been to recently. The professors can't stop talking about how blessed and unique we are because we basically get sites all to ourselves.
Our first stop in Nazareth was the Church of the Annunciation, the traditional site where it is believed the Angel appeared to Mary and told her that she was going to bear the Son of God. I know I say this a lot, but I really believe I have found the church I will tell people was my absolute favorite in the Holy Land. It was amazing, and not in a gaudy or astonishing way, it was just freaking cool.

There has been a church on the site since around 300 AD if I remember right, but the one we visited was actually just constructed in the 1950s or 60s. It is huge. It is the biggest Christian sanctuary in the Holy Land. The architecture is super neat. It uses the typical limestone we see everywhere in Israel, but it also used a lot of wood, and I think that's why I liked it so much. The interior looked like a lowly place where Mary really would have resided. They have preserved the house they believed to be hers and built all around it, so it's in a basement kind of thing. It is so cool. The roof is all timber, and it opens up to the second floor and then the sky above in a cool design that resembles a lily, which is symbolic of Mary's purity. It was amazing.
The second floor is also really neat. It was more of a traditional chapel, with lots of wooden chairs facing a big altar and Christ-centered artwork on the front wall. There was also a lot of timber here. Ah I loved it! Right as we got there mass started, as well as the 12:00 bell ringing, it was so neat. I felt like I was in Germany or something. It was super European. And the mass service was beautiful. It was a lot more lyrical/musical than what I have heard before.

Another cool thing I liked about the Church of the Annunciation was all the depictions of the annunciation. When the church was built, the clergyman asked all the parishes that donated around the world to provide a depiction of the anunciation that was traditional to their culture. It was amazing, they’re must have been around forty. They lined the walls that surrounded the church, and the larger ones were found in the church itself, in the nave on the second floor. There was artwork from places like Malta, El Salvador, Korea, Canada, France, multiple from Italy, it was crazy! Each one was totally unique and it was so neat. I loved the Asian ones. My favorite moment was when we were looking at the Chilean one. My professor, Dr. Seely was behind me. He has been to this church probably about twenty times and was pointing out fun things in each of the pieces of art. In the Chilean one I noticed a little flock of penguins in the bottom right corner and pointed it own to him. He FLIPPED. He had never noticed it before and was so stoked. Now everytime he sees me in passing he says something about the penguins. Dr. Seely is a big deal in the biblical studies world, and I am proud I was able to point out something to him! Haha. He said he will never forget that!

After exploring the church for a good amount of time, we started to walk up to the traditional sight of the synagogue where Jesus supposedly taught in Nazareth. On the way there we passed through a really nice little green space dedicated to Joseph, Christ’s father. It was so cool, because you never really hear anything about Joseph. It had a couple bronze sculptures and reliefs depicting their relationship. It was neat to see something highlighting the relationship of earthly father and son as opposed to Heavenly Father and Son. You seriously never see that! I really liked it. Made me miss my Dad!

After this green space was a little church that was dedicated to Joseph. It was cool. In the basement was an excavation that apparently has uncovered Joseph’s carpentry shop. Not sure if I buy it, but either way it was a neat, neat church and I liked the feeling there. We reflected on Christ as a growing boy and his interactions and lessons in Joseph’s carpentry shop. It was a cool place to think about that period of Christ’s life.

Next stop was the Greek Orthodox church for the anunciation. It was small and a cute little Arabic man had to unlock it and draw the curtains for us to get in but it was neat and very unique. There was about 9 beautiful crystal chandeliers, which you don’t see too often over here. The colors were also different, it was very pink and orange. It has been so cool to see how different Christian traditions build and design their places of worship here. I have been lucky to be exposed to so much variety!

That night we checked in here at Kibbutz Ein Gev and have been having fun ever since! We aren’t actually staying AT the kibbutz, which is what the faculty made it sound like, but instead at a resort owned and operated by the kibbutz. In case you were wondering, a kibbutz is

They make their money off of the resort, a banana farm, a dairy farm, a fish restaurant we went to the other night, among other things. It’s impressive! It has been here since the thirties.

The resort is really nice. It reminds me of a place my family stayed in Senegal called Mbour. Each reservation has their own little hut with a kitchen and living room. To accommodate four people per room like we are doing 2 people have to sleep in this funny little room behind the couch in the living room. My roommate is keeping all of her clothes in the kitchen cabinets because we don’t have enough shelving for all of us. We also share a mirror and I have done my makeup in the microwave door a few times. Haha! There are probably about fifty of these little huts. The resort is located right on the sea and we have a beautiful view. Galilee actually reminds me a little of Bear Lake (this will make my mom cringe). But it’s about the same size, and there are tons of boating and random little towns around it. The first time we went out to the ‘beach’ (I use that term VERY loosely) the first thing my eyes went to was the brand new Malibu Wakesetter pulling in with a huge tube behind it. I thought I was going to cry. I wanted to get on that boat so bad. My friend Carley and I considered abandoning all BYU rules and going out for a round of waterskiing and accepting the consequence of being sent home early. That was probably the most tempted I have been this whole trip. Life is rough ;)

We eat every meal in the dining hall and the food here is SO GOOD. The dining hall relies on the community kitchen of the kibbutz. They make a lot of their own stuff, like the granola at breakfast and it’s amazing. It’s a kosher kitchen so that’s also been interesting.. I haven’t had pork/bacon in months, but here they don’t mix dairy and meat. So at breakfast we only have dairy, at lunch there is no dairy or meat, and at dinner they serve a meat, so that means no dairy! For dessert they have this interesting non-dairy ice cream. But their veggies here are amazing, especially their tomatoes, beets, and hummus. I was so happy to eat a good salad. When we have gone to Turkey and Jordan we can’t eat their produce because it makes us sick so that has been so so so nice here.

We met a man, Eric, who took us on a tour of the actual kibbutz. Maybe this is the capitalist American in me but I don’t know why on earth anyone would every choose to live this way. All the people are very happy so I support them but wow! They are basically living in a totally socialist little mini community. Eric is actually from the states and came here in his twenties and has lived on multiple kibbutz but is now raising a family here. He was interesting guy. He told us that his son is in the military (military service is required in Israel) and has actually been sent to Gaza. He and his wife are very worried about him. So that made the whole thing a little more real for all of us.

The funniest thing about the kibbutz was the children’s playground. I’m not sure how it got there but there is a big old Israeli warplane just chillin in the middle of the grass that the kids use for their playground. It kind of freaked me out, but whatever!

Alright, so day two! This was my favorite day EVER. Our first stop was the Mount of Beatitudes where Christ taught the Sermon on the Mount. I’m not sure what I was expecting, but definitely not this. It was BEAUTIFUL. There is this wonderful compound up on top of a hill overlooking the sea. (PS I’m not sure why it’s called a sea. It’s not that big, only about the size of Bear Lake. Anyway…) There are two buildings where the nuns live, supposedly. They look more like 5 star hotels. Then there is the church. It was so beautiful and picturesque and clean. My favorite, favorite part, however, was the GARDENS. I felt like I was in England. The lawns were perfectly manicured and the flora was beautiful. Lots of pretty magenta flowers and palm trees, little fountains and mosaics here and there. It was so beautiful. A oasis of peace in the desert highlands! (That sounded corny, oh well.)

On our way up our New Testament professor invited us to each read different parts of the Sermon on the Mount. When we got there, we found a shady spot and had a mini testimony meeting / reflections on what we read. It was easily the coolest and most spiritual thing we have done on this trip. I wish I had the whole thing filmed, but at the same time I don’t because the spirit was so special. I am so thankful for the knowledge I have gained during my time here in Israel. I think it is hard to get comfortable with the New Testament (and Old) in a place like Utah, where the Book of Mormon takes center stage and we have such easy access to the Doctrine & Covenants and historical sites of the Restoration. I have always been confident in my testimony of Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon but on this trip I wanted to come to know Christ better and that has definitely happened. I have been so lucky! I promised myself I wouldn’t get too preachy and church on this blog but just know that I have had an amazing spiritual experience here in Israel, and especially in Galilee. I have been blessed to grow closer to my Savior.

Our next stop was Capernaum, supposedly Christ’s favorite place. The bus parks, then you walk through a gate into a little black stone town/ruins. I shouldn’t say town, there is only one standing building for the Franciscan monks, but you can tell it was once a cute little fishing town. The centerpiece of the site is a spaceship-looking church that is situated over what they believe to be Peter’s home! (Peter the apostle… you know like “thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church?” Ya that guy) The church is on stilts and literally looks like a UFO landed over this sad little pile of rocks. The bottom of the church is glass and you can see the home (rocks) below it. Looking back, it actually reminds me of the USS Arizona memorial at Pearl Harbor.

There was a cool bronze of Peter looking like a Roman God with this scepter thing and the keys to the Kingdom (what we believe were sealing powers, priesthood authority, etc.) I really liked the waterfront area where we had our lesson. It is SO hot and humid here, so it’s nice to get right up on the water, get a nice breeze, and just chill out. It’s like we are on a little vacation up here, even though we still have class!

Capernaum, like many other sites has an ancient synagogue. At the western wall and other holy sites, Jews will stuff written prayers into little cracks in the stone. Kind of cool to see the little niches they find. 

Next we visited a church called Tabgha, which is known for the mosaics in the floor. It has the famous one of the loaves and fishes, arguably the most famous in the Holy Land. It also had a nice little koi pond. It was good stuff.

Our next stop was another favorite of mine, Peter’s Primacy. This is supposedly the location where Peter was made the chief of the apostles (first prophet!) Here we had a cool lesson about when Christ asks Peter, “Peter, do you love me?” He replies yes three times then is told to “feed my sheep!” by the Lord. President Holland gave a very emotional talk on it I think two years ago and I would invite you all to revisit it! We had this lesson in a little ampitheatre kind of thing in the shade and it was super peaceful. During our free time I actually fell asleep. The sun was just barely coming through the leaves above me and the breeze off the water was so nice. There was also this really cool sculpture I liked of Christ and Peter interacting. It totally reminded me of the sculpture of Joseph Smith and the first vision… Who knows if this is a coincidence, but either way, super cool. 

Next we visited the newly uncovered sight of Magdala- the town where Mary Magdelene is from! Our semester is the first from BYU to visit it which is exciting. It’s obvious it’s still very much under construction. There wasn’t much to see other than the typical rock excavation. One building was distinguishable, and that was the synagogue. All my professors think these things are super exciting but I feel like we are all so spoiled and over it it is sad.

We got to go back to a church they just finished building on the outskirts of the dig and it had the most beautiful mosaics. The chapel was closed but it was neat too, in front of the altar it had a great replica of a boat similar to what would have been around at the time of Jesus. It also had really nice, clean restrooms (which is all we care about these days) so that was a plus.

Ginosaur. Was next. Yes. Ginosaur. Gyno-saur, like dinosaur but with a G. in the eighties these fisherman found a boat from the time of Jesus when the sea got really low. It is now in a museum there. We watched a funny little video on it there then got to see the boat on display. It was neat! But the real highlight was next, our boat ride across the Sea of Galilee! My favorite part was the clearly Hawaiian tiki men on the dock as we walked towards our boat. Haha

The boat ride was awesome! The day was super windy, and as we rode out, we found a capsized sailboat! I was a little worried at first, but as we got closer I realized that it was two very athletic women in full wetsuits in lifejackets that clearly went out on this little sailboat a lot. Our captain asked them in Hebrew if they wanted help and they were almost offended, so we rode away. A couple minutes later we looked back and saw them sailing away, so they were fine. This was kind of cool because it made the imagery of Christ calming the storm on the Sea of Galilee a lot more real to me. A couple of us had brought up that we couldn’t really see how Galilee got so choppy that people would start to really get worried about capsizing or drowning, but after seeing what the waves did to that little boat, it made a lot more sense.

In the middle of the sea we stopped for a few minutes and sang some hymns, including Master the Tempest is Raging. Cool stuff! We had a good time, I will always fondly remember the boat rides I have taken on this little trip. We took a lot of cool ones in Turkey, too. It was a great day, finished off by watching the sunset from the amazing hammocks on the beach.

Day four was class, then CANOEING ON THE JORDAN RIVER! Oh. My. Gosh. Easily the funnest thing we have done this whole trip. This was Pioneer Day too, so it was a fun way to celebrate that holiday!

Some Israelis have set up a little compound on the banks of the Jordan River before it empties into the Galilee and it was so funny. It was a bunch of hippies, just like you would expect at a river rafting company in the states. My favorite part was that it was that the theme was totally Native American. Hahahah. It was straight out of a movie. They had tons of cheesy teepees, dreamcatchers, totem poles, and some old Indian themed carnival games. So random and so, so funny. Sadly I didn’t take my camera because this spot is notorious for tipping canoes and whatnot (because of the BYU students, not the tricky water- it’s completely calm!), so no pictures. Speaking of cameras, we had a crazy miracle while we were there! So  along the river there are a bunch of rope swings, overhanging trees, and irrigation pipes you can jump off of into the river (SO FUN). We had stopped at one and ironically my bishop/professor’s wife (who had just turn us NOT to flip the canoes) flipped one of the girls canoes. Of course, it was the one canoe that had a waterproof camera in it, and down it sank in about 8 feet of water. This girl was FURIOUS. She was totally hysterical. I felt so bad. Typical of BYU students, everyone started praying and diving down, trying to help this girl as she sobbed her eyes out on the riverbank. I felt bad, but I seriously had no faith we were gonna find this camera. As everyone dived over and over again all they could say was how murky the water was and how there was about two feet of silt at the bottom of the river. After about 15 minutes, a girl from the other class came up with something in her hand, the camera!!!! It was insane! I couldn’t believe it! Everyone joined together in shouts of ‘Hurrah for Israel!’ (you think I’m kidding) and started cheering. It was such a funny scene. All the locals on the riverbank thought we were nuts.

We had such a good time and it was a perfect way to celebrate Pioneer Day. I will never forget the half naked Jewish man, beer in hand, Jew curls, and black top hat on the side of the Jordan River. Hahaha.

So after our canoeing adventure we headed over to the fish restaurant owned by En Gev. It was a really pretty location right on the water. Here we had a traditional fish dinner! It was good! Some people were totally freaked and opted for the pizza or pasta instead. Some people were brave enough to try the eyeballs. Ew. Good memories nonetheless!

After this was our final event for the day, we headed to the ‘boardwalk’ on the other side of the lake at Tiberias. I use the term boardwalk very loosely… Basically there is a walkway along the shore with a bunch of gelato shops, a totally random haunted house, some fake Italian restaurants, and some random people selling random junk like yo yos and remote controlled cars. Haha. It was still pretty though and we had fun! There was a huge party boat rolling in with the music blasting as we ate our gelato. A group of my friends were saying it’d be fun to do that one day.. until everyone got off and they were all approximately 9 years old. Hahaha. Wouldn’t have guessed that by the music they were playing! But it seemed like a popular thing to do here I guess. Tiberias is biggest city-like area here on the sea and it’s obvious most of the tourists hang out in that area.

The next day our class had a field trip to a place called Gamla in the morning. Gamla is kind of like a Masada of the Jewish people… It was one of the last cities standing when Rome invaded around 60 BC due to it’s crazy location up on the hill (it’s also a candidate for Christ’s remark “a city that is set on a hill cannot be hid…”). When the Romans finally did come, many of the inhabitants chose to die by throwing themselves off of it’s high cliffs instead of falling victim to Rome’s vicious soldiers.

This hike was also kind of interesting because we were technically in the Golan Heights. Israel has three disputed/occupied territories, and the Golan is one of them. Until 1967 it was part of Syria, and even until recently it is very, very dangerous. Lots of mines and militants would be hiding around and you had to be very careful. Since the Syrian civil war has broken out, however, rebels have pretty much completely pulled out of the area so we were fine. Plus we are a decent distance from the border (our kibbutz friend told us this)… Like 5 miles. Hahah. Not that far, but apparently far enough for Israelis!

Our second stop on the field trip was the ruins of the town Bethsaida, where a few of the apostles are from. Bethsaida means, ‘house of fish,’ and was an old fishing village when the shoreline of the Galilee was much higher. There wasn’t much to see, but I did snap a pic by a barbed wire fence warning us of mines. Cool stuff.

After our field trip we met up with the other class for an optional hike in the Golan, guided by our friend Eric from the kibbutz who also took us on that tour. We took a bus back up into the rolling, deserty hills of the Golan, and were basically dropped off in the middle of some really dry fields. It was super hot and we were confused and disappointed, but carried on anyways. Pretty quickly, we came upon a steep gorge that led down to a straight up oasis. The contrast was insane. In the bottom of this gorge was a river, and the ecosystem was more like Hawaii or a rainforest than anything I’ve seen over here. There were tons of flowers and vines and bamboo. It was crazy, a totally different world. We climbed down into the gorge, which was pretty treacherous, then followed the stream for about an hour. We stopped at two different waterfalls, which were super pretty, and got to swim in one. It was so neat. My favorite moment of the day was when we got to the second waterfall we got to swim in, there were a bunch of locals. There were a lot of us and we were pretty loud so they left (sorry folks). As one guy started deflating his floaty, he casually grabbed this HUGE military looking gun from a rock and slung it around his shoulder, then carried on with his business. UM, HOLY CRAP. That is not normal. Hahahaha. Only in Israel right? I guess that is normal. We really do see soldiers with guns everywhere, it’s crazy what I have gotten used to and don’t even think twice about. The hike was beautiful, swimming was fun, and I’m glad I went!

On the Sabbath (Saturday) my class had the awesome opportunity to go to the local branch in Tiberias. So that we wouldn’t totally overwhelm the small local branch, which reaches attendance in the double digits on a good day, only half our program got to have sacrament with them in the morning, and we were the lucky ones! (The other half had their own sacrament meeting in the afternoon.)

The branch is at a beautiful location. Maybe it’s a requirement or something to have an UNREAL view when a church building is obtained in Israel. The branch meets in what appears to be a home in a decent neighborhood on the hills just above the see. The chapel is on the top floor, and as you enter the whole wall that faces the sea is glass, so you are overlooking the Sea of Galilee. It was beautiful. After sacrament we spent a lot of time out on the patio taking pictures.

The meeting itself was amazing. The hymn numbers were posted in English, Spanish, and Arabic. The opening prayer was given in Spanish, the sacrament was blessed in Hebrew, our students gave [amazing] talks in English, and we had RM translators also working in Russian. Apparently there is usually a Filipino family present as well. The branch presidents family/story is incredible. He is a successful Palestinian businessman who interacted with an American guy once and noticed he was different. He asked why he seemed so different and had this light about him. Because of our agreements with the Israeli government this member could not tell him anything about the church, but he did say he was Mormon. Curious, the man found all the information he could online and became super interested. He conveniently had a business meeting coming up on the eastern seaboard and let his Mormon friend know he was coming for a visit and wanted to meet up. Conveniently again, it happened to be conference weekend. The Palestinian businessman brought his wife and flew out to America to meet his friend and also attended LDS General Conference. In a week he gained a testimony of the church and asked to be baptized. In Israel we cannot baptize, so the man and his family flew to Cyprus, and island off the coast in the Mediterranean, and were baptized. Apparently this all happened in about a month. CRAZINESS. Their family is so cute, they have two little kids probably about 9 years old, a boy and a girl. The mother is beautiful and recently helped translate the hymn book into Arabic- the one we used in sacrament that day! We also heard stories about her in Jordan last month so that was awesome. I really need to blog about Jordan. Anyway. Cool, cool stuff. The church is true  no matter where you go. Even when you can’t quite make out the lyrics of ‘Come, Come Ye Saints’ because it’s being sang in 3 different languages simultaneously, you can still feel the spirit.

After church we headed to a baptism site on the Jordan River to ponder and reflect.  When we were in Jordan we went to the traditional site that is believed to be where Christ was baptized, but a lot of pilgrims come to this spot instead because as you may know the Jordan River is actually the border between Jordan and Israel and is kind of a hot spot. So, Israel set up this nice little place that’s nice and safe inside Israel. They are smart to make all these little pilgrimage sites with cafes and gift stores and little trinkets that you find in every single one. I’m sure they make a ton of money! Hmm what else, all in all it was an awesome Sabbath! Definitely one I wont forget anytime soon.