Here are some highlights from the last couple of weeks…
I recently spent 11 days in a bungalow at Galilee on the beach. If that isn’t cool I don’t know what is. Up to this time in my life, Galilee is the most beautiful place I’ve ever seen. My two favorite parts of the whole trip was the boat ride that we took on the Sea of Galilee. Our first couple of days in Galilee it was really windy so there were plenty of waves. It wasn’t difficult to imagine our Savior walking on these waters, and calming the storm. My other favorite part of the trip was a hike that I went on with about half of the students. We hiked down to a beautiful waterfall, but it was actually the hike out that was my favorite. It was the most beautiful view I’ve ever seen. I was so grateful that I came at this time of year when everything was so green.
Galilee was the most restful part of the entire semester. We went on a lot of field trips, but we also had multiple days that we just had class in the morning, and the rest of the day was open for naps and swimming. Among my favorite field trips were the Mount of Beatitudes, Church in Nain (commemorating the raising from the dead the widow of Nain), swimming at ha-Shelosha (which is like a natural swimming pool), Mount Tabor (one of the places they think might be the Mount of Transfiguration), and simply being on the Golan Heights was really cool, we saw many mine fields. Oh and I almost forgot Caeseara Philippi was beautiful as well. In the back of the Bible picture #26 is a picture of this place, and the coolest thing is my professor actually took this picture! So he showed us where he took the picture, he was actually in the water when he took it. So we each tried to take a similar picture without getting in the water. While you’re looking at the pictures look at all of these pictures too… 1-3, 6-15, 17, 19-28… I’ve been to all of these places too.
One night we went to a restaurant and ate “St. Peter’s Fish.” And guess who ate both of the fish eyes. Yes, that would be me. And just in case you didn’t know, the middle is hard… mmmm.
Even though Galilee was amazing, from day 1 I was counting down the days until we would return to Jerusalem. I found out that my call had officially been sent in right before I left for Galilee. I called home quick on Friday and found out that my call had been issued. The hardest part was I had decided to keep it a secret, so no one even knew my papers were in. I opened my call at 11:00 pm the night that we got back. My parents had scanned my call in without looking at it. I had my whole family on the phone when I opened my call. It was simply amazing opening up my call finding out I would serving the Philippines while looking out on the city of Jerusalem. One of my most favorite moments of my entire life was announcing my call at dinner the next day. Everyone wasn’t sure if I was serious or not at first. Once they figured out it was real, they all erupted into cheers. I’m pretty sure I got at least 70 hugs that night. It was so fun because we all know each other so well that no one could believe that I had kept it a secret from everyone. My mouth was hurting by the end of the night from smiling so much.
The best part was two days later was Palm Sunday, and I got to spend the entire day with Filipinos. Before the procession started I went to talk to them and take pictures with them. They were so excited to talk to me and more than willing to answer any of my questions. Then later during the processions we ran into them again. So we decided to do the procession with them. As soon as they saw me they told me to come up and help them hold their banner. So I spent the whole time surrounded by Filipinos singing and just loving it! When we got to the end of the procession we lost the Filipinos for a while. But no worries we found them later all dancing to the band that was playing. As soon as they saw me they came and grabbed my hand to come dance with them. So for a while it was just me and the Filipinos dancing. Best day ever!! And that’s not it. The night ended with a bunch of us making 125 shekels from performing on the street. We bought a bunch of gelato with the money.
