June 6, 2007

I sat and watched a couple on the beach today. (Shhh... don't tell, but it's two people in my group that have hooked up since we got here. Ha!) They were so cute to watch. He had a stick, she stole it, enter playful banter of him trying to get it back. End in breaking of the stick. Fade out with them sitting peacefully, looking over the Sea of Galilee at sunset. ~sigh. Someday that'll be me...

I never thought I would be sad to go to Jerusalem. But I really don't want to leave Galilee. I really want to just sit on the beach and sing hymns all night. I would have, too, but everyone I was singing with left. So I did, too. Probably a good thing, too. I have to get up early tomorrow. Breakfast is at 6 and I still have to pack. Meh. If it were just a drive home, I would totally go out and just meditate on the beach. I've decided I have a love for living water. I could stay by or on it all the time.

I know why I came. This place has taught me who I want to become and what I need to do now to get there. I need to be a much better person. I hope I can have the strength and courage to live back in the hustle and bustle of life the way I have been learning here.

Today was the Jezreel Valley field trip. We started at Mt. Tabor, which is one of the two most accepted sites for the Mount of Transfiguration. (The other is Mt. Hermon and in the West Bank, so we can't go there.) The bus ride there caused me great nauseous turmoil. I was appalled to reach the bus's destination and find out that we would continue on in taxis up the mountain. With 17 hairpin turns. !!! I wasn't excited, to say the least. Sis. Huntington, my adopted mom, came to my aid and bought me some gum. Sitting in the open air, waiting for the last taxi, and chewing some gum helped. She then made me sit in the seat that had the open window next to it. Needless to say, I made it to the top safely. By the time we left, I felt much better for the rest of the day. Thank goodness. Can I just say that I can't wait to get back home and get in the driver's seat? I've been driving for so long that I had forgotten how easily I get car sick; I thought I had grown out of it. Turns out, I'm still just as susceptible... I'm just safe while driving and not as a passenger. ~sigh. Anyway... back to the site. Yes, it was a church. But I liked it. It was a gorgeous church, that’s for sure. The acoustics were lovely. The walls covered in beautiful mosaics and paintings. We saw Moses with horns of light here, which is an interesting combination to please all those that can’t decide which Moses had. (The Hebrew word can be light or horns, depending on what vowels you put with it. Hence why you sometimes see Moses with horns in paintings. This artist simply combined them.) It also had a good view. This fit into the category of “Church I’d love to visit again, but due to the beauty of the church, I forgot the story behind it.” If I were to go again, I’d like to spend some time outside, sitting on the hill, talking about the Transfiguration.

"I’m glad that other Christian churches can build beautiful churches that we can come and pray to our God.” — Bro. Merrill.

Next was Nain. This was a tiny, Podunk church. Outside there were even cats and chickens running around. How much better do you get? The church was really small, consisting of a grand total of two paintings—one on either end of the chapel. Both of htem depicting Christ healing the widow's dead son. (The story this church is for.) There was a podium, with letters, pictures, and flowers scattered across it. And that was about it. Here we sang some more. Have I mentioned that I love singing?

Ok, back up. Bro. Whitchurch's class is a day ahead of us on all of our Galilee field trips. (Not sure if I've mentioned that.) They go on a field trip while we stay in and have four hours of New Testament. Then the next day, we go on the field trip while they stay in and have class. (We only have one bus while we're here.) But, it works out nicely for our class, because we always get to hear how the field trip went, what to look forward to, and they smooth out all of the bumps. So, it's been long enough now that we're all craving a good cheeseburger. Enough so that everyone has forgotten how much they dislike McDonalds and wants to go there every time we pass one. Oh, the joy and gladness when we heard that Bro. Whitchurch's class stopped at McDonalds for lunch. We had been begging Bro. Merrill for weeks to stop at one, but he always insisted that we couldn't do anything that Bro. Whitchurch's class didn't get to do. We were all dismayed when Bro. Merrill announced that McDonalds was not, nor ever had been, in our plans for the day. Rioting, weeping, wailing, and gnashing of teeth broke out. The equality of classes had been broken, and we were not happy about it. I was at the front of the bus, so I heard it first and had gotten used to the idea long before many even heard it for the first time. I had plenty of time to stop and think about it and remember that I don't actually like McDonalds. I felt bad for Bro. Merrill every time a new group of students learned about the change of plans and rebelled. Over and over and over again. Luckily, Bro. Merrill is wise.

After we finished singing at Nain, he gave us a choice. "We have spent a fortune to get you into Gan ha-Shelosha (Israel's best swimming place that I'll talk about later). Bro. Whitchurch's class spent 45 minutes there. So, we can either eat the sack lunch we've been given and get 3 hours swimming time, or we can stop at McDonalds and cut off at least a full hour from your swimming. Let's vote on it." Bro. Merrill knows our class's two weakness: ice cream and swimming. He knew perfectly well that if it were a choice between swimming and McDonalds, swimming would win. He was absolutely correct. We had two votes for McDonalds—Race and Caleb. Both of which voted for it, simply because they wanted to go against the grain. Caleb so that he could always say, "Well, I wanted to go to McDonalds and we didn't get to go. So I should be able to do _____." haha.

Our last site was Nazareth—hometown of Jesus. (You know, Jesus of Nazareth.) It's also the place of the Annunciation. There were churches to both Mary and Joseph. The annunciation church (Mary's) is not yet 40 years old. Inside is the traditional spot where Gabriel appeared to Mary. The walls are all unfinished concrete. Every country has contributed some representation of the annunciation (typically paintings or mosaics). The US is … interesting. Modern art, of course. [rolls eyes] Japan has real pearls imbedded in the mosaic. I really liked the Annunciation Basilica. I loved it for its beauty. I wish I would have known that we wouldn’t stay outside after Bro. Merrill finished talking about it, because I really wanted more pictures of the different representations of the Annunciation. Oh well. There were more inside and I got pictures of all of them. Though, many turned out more blurry than I expected. I’m starting to learn how hard it is to take pictures inside dark rooms. Without the flash on, there are problems—everything is blurry. With the flash on, it washes everything out. ~sigh. I’m trying to master the skill of holding really still. I can’t wait till Travis comes with his tripod. And photo skills. The grotto was nice. Bro. Merrill had never been down there before; it’s always been locked. It’s very much a Christian place of worship. People standing in line to kiss the traditional spot. I wonder if we as Mormons do quirky things like that that I’ve just never thought about. If anyone can think of any, let me know. I really am curious.

The Church of St. Joseph was much different. It was smaller, more humble, less elaborate. I liked this one, too. It had an older feel to it. While the one for Mary is exquisite, the one for Joseph is humble.

In walking to the churches, Bro. Merrill said something about all the cars being in a traffic snarl. Bro. Merrill comes from a much different vocabulary generation. We love it. He randomly says things like "traffic snarl" that throws us for a loop. The best one was at one of our meals, he said that someone was niggardly. He says our reaction was as if he had swore. No one in our generation knows that niggardly does not come from the root nigger. He told us that we all need to read more. Haha! :D

On a more serious note, Bro. Merrill said something about Christians that I feel is profound and encapsulates what I feel about all the churches we visit. "Their deeds are not the memorials to Christ—it’s their buildings.” Note to self. Be sure that my memorial to Christ is my deeds.

Now it was off to swim. Gan ha-Shelosh is a swimming resort. It's like a swimming pool in that it is man-made. But that's where the similarities end. It is from a spring, and they have made large pool-like areas (that look like large ponds) for swimming. There are waterfalls (small and very man made) and I heard there were caves (though I never found them). Now, I have discovered while here that I am deathly afraid of drowning. I'm not sure I can convey this enough. I haven't recognized this yet, because every time I've been swimming, I'm either in a swimming pool where I can touch or the walls are within close swimming distance or am out on a lake with a life jacket. Either way, I've got a safety net. I got to these pools, with a glimmer of hope. Surely, they'll get progressively deeper, so I'll have plenty of room to swim safely. It'll be like the Sea of Galilee! I learned very quickly that the bottom drops off very quickly and becomes deep enough that it's possible to rock jump (although, it's not allowed). I stuck with Tiffany who sat on some rocks and dangled her feet in the water while I practiced treading water, swimming, and putting my face underwater. I am no good at any of the above. Goal: Practice. Then it was off to buy some ice cream. As soon as I got back, more people wanted to buy ice cream, so I went back up with them to show them where it was. Upon coming back, Tiffany and I laid down on our towels and listened to a talk by Elder Eyering and ended up falling asleep. I woke up to see a group of students doing... yoga, I think. Led by Mike S. That was entertaining—seeing a boy lead yoga. hehehe. Suddenly, it was time to go. Wow, those three hours went by incredibly fast.

A few hours after dinner, we had class programs. We listened to the other class down the beach yell, scream, and laugh around a bonfire, but our class decided to take a different approach. Bro. Merrill is constantly teaching us in class and saying things like, "I have five hours prepared on the Beatitudes, but we don't have time, so I'll have to stop here after just one hour." We love listening to him teach and just crave to hear more. So the committee he asked to be in charge of the class program turned around and asked him to speak to us. A fireside, if you will. It was sooo good! He decided to speak about reverence. Not reverence as we typically think about it—just sitting quietly, but in a deeper respect. Pres. McKay said that reverence is profound respect mingled with love. (I can't help but sing the Primary song right now, "Reverence is more than just quietly sitting, it's thinking of Father above.") Pres. Hinckley said that we need to increase the reverence in churches, homes and temples—there is not enough there. Woah. That's pretty strong language. Hmm... it's too hard to summarize it. I'll just follow tradition and transfer over some of my notes:

- "If Michaelangelo painted all the mass graves of Rawanda or Bosnia, I still wouldn't want it on my wall." You choose what is on the walls of your house.
- Watch your language. Things that are acceptable to your generation are very offensive to an older one.
- If the Savior were to come visit, how many dishes would you have to do, how many dirty clothes would you throw under your bed? What magazines would you hide; what would you take off the wall?
- Be the roommate that lifts, not drags down.
- God never shouts, he only whispers. - E. Oaks
- If you can't control what's going on around you, you have to be quiet inside. - E. Eyering.
- Always have a pad and pen with you to record your thoughts. - E. Scott.
- The first thing Satan does to attack you is to obstruct the communication channels between you and God.
- Read "Bringing up Civil Children in a Rude World" from the Church News
- Never use sarcastic language—it's unbecoming a bearer of the Priesthood.
- Vulgar and indecent language is offensive to the Lord. What kind of language is in your apartment?
- Music is the language of the soul; it indexes where we are in life.
- "The Saints have now begun to live the standards of Babylon by proxy via TV. Do we, as Latter-day Saints, consider proxy absolutely binding?" - Janet (fictitious name) (An anonymous letter sent to Bro. Merrill)
- Have you heard and/or seen anything lately that is less than absolutely edifying?
- "I was smiling out loud"
- Find a time and place to be quiet and alone with your thoughts. Leave your home if necessary. Got sit in the Celestial Room. The Savior did it over and over and over again. Follow His example.
- Meditate on yourself and your relationship with your Father
- Sweet Hour of Prayer. Hour refers to the time you spend with God—not necessarily on your knees.
- If you had two hours with a prophet or apostle, what would you ask?
- BYU is the Lord's school. The Lord's university is the temple.
- Take the Spirit with you to the temple—don't always expect to go there to find him."
- "My boy, you have to walk to the edge of the light and a few steps into the darkness—then you will find the Lord lights the way before you." - Pres. Lee
- Figure out how the Lord speaks to you so that He can do it more often.
- You don't get to choose what the Lord needs you to do—you only get to choose to say yes or no.
- Having Bro. Merrill around all the time, imparting of his wisdom all the time, is this a glimpse into what the apostles felt like? Having Christ minister to them on a daily basis.

As always, I learned a lot about the things I need to be working on. Again, I sincerely hope that when I get home, I can keep it up. I'm really scared of slipping back into where I was. Keep me in your prayers! :D