LAKE of Galilee!

I found out last week that the “SEA” of Galilee is actually a freshwater LAKE!

I can’t say this was actually disappointing to me, I just wanted to make this dramatic.

Anyway, I fell in love quickly with the Galilee area, and was just as sad as the next guy when my 11 days there were up. But more than anything, I’m happy and grateful for the experiences I had up there!

Out professor encouraged us to think ahead of time about what we hoped to get out of our time in Galilee, and I wrote down a couple of ideas. One of them was that I wanted to have a favorite miracle story from the Savior’s earthly life. Why does this matter to me so much? I don’t know. I guess I just wanted to have one I could refer to as my favorite. Know where to turn in the scriptures when I need a boost. Know myself better by knowing what I relate to and am affected by.

As unimportant as it may have seemed, it was accomplished. When we read the story in Mark 9 about a father who wants his son healed, it struck me (like it always has) and I can now say that it is my very favorite. It’s the story that Elder Holland spoke of in a talk a few years ago: “Lord, I Believe.” Because when the Savior says all things are possible for those who believe, the man says “Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief.”

I have always been pretty sure of my testimony. That’s never been much of an issue. But I find this story so real and relatable because it is a reminder that we are all imperfect and sometimes we don’t have perfect faith. But when times are difficult, and we are struggling to overcome challenges, where do we turn? If we turn to Christ, as imperfect as we are, rather than turning somewhere else, it shows we have at least some measure of faith in him. And we are blessed for that, and our faith grows as we see the blessings from our Father in Heaven.

Since I already wrote one paper (for my New Testament class) about this story, I’ll leave it at that. Here are about a milllllion photos. Come on, 11 days, 8 of them involving field trips, all centered around some of the most historically and religiously amazing places in the world?! How could I NOT have a gazillion?! (Actually, I’m going to split this up into 2 posts. I just can’t bring myself to put that many in one post).

What kind of road trip would it be without stopping at an ancient Roman city?

The Church of the Enunciation in Nazareth

Inside the Church. It’s supposed to represent a lotus flower reaching downward, showing that we get our nourishment from above.

These awesome mosaics were donated from a ton of different countries and they are all so cool! We are just a couple of Chilenas so excited to see our country represented!

The Sea of Galilee from above on Mt. Arbel

Wind turns me into a colonial captain or something

Going canoeing! Luckily I had the foresight not to bring my camera in the canoe. We were tipped. Of course.

The next day we hiked to this nice little waterfall grotto

Wow! Cactus tunnel!

We stayed on a kibbutz that has some banana fields and we got to learn about the process! They didn’t give us any bananas though, sheesh that was disappointing.

Capernaum! Where MANY of the miracles you find described in the New Testament are found.

Me n’ Peter

Mount of Beatitudes church

Church of Peter’s primacy

Synagogue of Magdala. They only uncovered it as of a few years ago, and my teacher is certain that Jesus taught here.

A church built at Magdala with a fisherman theme.

Nothin’ like a boat ride in the Sea of Galilee!