Things Learned Whilst Adventuring in the Holy Land Spring/Summer 2010.  In no particular order.  Continually updated.

1.       I know absolutely little about the scriptures.  But I do know something, and to know anything is a great treasure (OT).

2.       I don’t believe in a God that “lies in wait” for a chance to be punitive.  He won’t “get us” by small technicalities.  We’re not instantly on His ‘bad list’ the moment we make a mistake when our lives have been spent wearing ourselves out in His service.  He cares about our long-term character than our short-term failings.  His mercy is more deep than we can fully understand.  Why not try to be more like Him in that way?

3.       Don’t be too quick to assume understanding.  You can always find something more to take from an idea or scripture, especially if you try to understand it from someone else’s perspective (JC).

4.       It is better to have friends, than to have things.  Even things like GPS-enabled digital cameras while in Egypt (Egypt).

5.       Forgive, even when the other side is ‘undeserving’.  There are few things I hate worse than genuine injustice, but in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, each side’s unwillingness to forgive and forget the willful maliciousness of the other has created a far greater tragedy than the sum of those injustices.

6.       Self respect is doing something and genuinly not caring what others think.  In fact, almost everyone I know who does this also tend to have my respect, even—and sometimes especially—when what they’re doing is rather silly (BW/D)

7.       Whenever you say ‘yes’ to something, you are saying ‘no’ to many other things.  Choose what is most important to you. 

8.       The BYU-Jerusalem program helped me attach principles to places.

9.       A testimony is gained—or strengthened—in the bearing of it (Caeseria Philipi)

10.    Your soul is worth… the price Christ is willing to pay for it (JK, Gethsemane).

11.    The Jews didn’t completely reject Jesus, whole crowded populations accepted Him as the Messiah.  It was the aristocracy of the Jews that rejected Him (C).

12.    To wax cold means not moving, hard hearted, no light (of Christ) to make you soft and malleable (Dominus Flevit).

13.    Capitalize on timeliness.

14.    Be humble enough to sometimes just take someone else’s advice (MA/E).

15.    Witholding information is one of the quickest ways to be excluded from a group (R).

16.    Anything can be a once in a lifetime opportunity (JY).

17.    The act of your choosing it makes it the “place you need to be” (JY).

18.    Knowledge is not remembrance.

19.    The wise learn from the mistakes of others, but sometimes you lose more wisdom by spending too much time trying to collect it.  Sometimes you have to go forward the best you are and learn by making mistakes (SJ).

20.    Hold to the good (SJ).

21.    Trust in God, and have confidence in whom you have trusted (Elah).

22.    Impetuous words, spoken with confidence, often has a much greater effect than calculated words spoken unconcernedly (JB, LW, NO).

23.    The way I regard my imperfect leaders, is a great indicator of my spiritual maturity (L).

24.    Being liked doesn’t have so much to do with what you do, as it does with what you do for others (JB).

25.    Lying makes you feel like trash and is never worth it (JB).

26.    It is worth it to toil through the night to make someone else’s day (Nain).

27.    The best gifts are often bought the most easily: by simple thoughtfulness.

28.    For me, the single most attractive characteristic in a spiritually mature, intelligent woman is thoughtfulness.

29.    Don’t be overly concerned about the logicality of everything in life.  Everything in life isn’t meant to be calculated.  Don’t distrust feelings.  Believe in the magic (LW).

30.    Places matter, but they don’t matter.  They matter because they are an excuse to reflect on events or principles to an extent that we otherwise probably wouldn’t, but places really don’t matter because anyone can have the spiritual experiences anywhere they are… if they focus on those events and principles (Jerusalem).

31.    Don’t waste too much energy presenting yourself as something you are not.  That energy is much better spent being the best you can be.
 
32.    Reading is the difference, in man and in nations, between ascendancy and stagnation (Yad)

33.    Labeling others as having nothing but malicious intent is the first step to Nazism (Yad).

34.    Making fun of something you don’t understand, or only understand from your point of view, is the height of intolerance (Yad).

35.    Education is no guarantee of wisdom (Yad).

36.    Don’t ignore genuine tragedies, but don’t let them consume your whole world (Yad).

37.    God makes exceptions, even to the most important rules (Ruth).

38.    Everyone naturally tends to view the world to the exclusion of others’ points of view (B.U.)

39.    Stand up for what you believe, but beware the soapbox.  Ask yourself: am I driving a wedge? Wanting to be known that I believe this way? Trying to build myself up by putting others down?

40.    Living in paralyzing shame of one’s past—even if genuinely dispiteful—can be much worse than whatever happened in that past (Yad).

41.    Status quo is just another way of saying “I’m too stubborn to work things out” (C.H.S.)

42.    I gained a renewed appreciation for centralized spiritual authority and guidance.
44.   [IANBUBEIPT]  45.   [IWAMTBPA] 46.   [GKMH]

Today was... our last out of Jerusalem Field Trip! Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah! It was way boss, though. Seriously, great way to wind it all down. We went to Masada, a huge fortress/village on top of a huuuuuuuuuge mountain. It was the site of the last vestiges of Israeli power after the Romans destroyed the second temple. The story is quite chilling: the Roman commander went to great lengths to build a siege ramp up to the city (using Jewish slave labor, knowing that Jews would not fire on their own comrades!). Then, at the last day when they knew the end would be the next day, the Jews stockpiled all of their food so that it would be easily found, and committed suicide because “My loyal followers, long ago we resolved to serve neither the Romans nor anyone else but only God... hitherto we have never submitted to slavery...we must not choose slavery now... it will be a bitter blow to the Romans, that I know, to find our persons beyond their reach and nothing left for them to loot. One thing only let us spare -- our store of food: it will bear witness when we are dead to the fact that we perished, not through want but because, as we resolved at the beginning, we chose death rather than slavery." (Josephus Flavius, Jewish Wars Book 7, 8:6)” Next was the dead sea! It stung sooooooooo bad! Any open... erm... crevice... felt like it was on fire! I had a small sore on the back of my neck and it felt like I had a 3rd degree sunburn on it the entire time! But it was totally worth it. The water pushes you up and … it just a cool experience! I mean, check out the pictures! Our next stop was Ein Gedi, and then to Qumran, the now-famous desert hotspot where the dead sea scrolls were discovered.

Today what was, for me, the coolest place in the entire Jordan trip, and one of the best in my entire BYU-J experience: Jerash. Besides a few in Italy herself, it is the best preserved Roman city of all time! The sites were... breathtaking! Romans were incredible in their architectural and... combat... err... accomplishments. We even watched an entire gladiator show—complete with horse racing, hand to hand combat, and audience participation: one of our own was chosen to be a gladiator! After what (for one of the few times of the entire program—they really take excellent care of us) seemed like too long, we had lunch. It was totally worth it. It was pretty authentic Jordanian and very satisfying. Our next stop was a fireside of sorts at the branch house in Amman. The story of the church there is very interesting! That evening we had free time, but not a lot to see... so we decided to go bowling. We never ended up finding the place, so we just wandered around the city and talked about stuff. I realized, much to my disappointment, that a lot of people take my introspection into subjects of self-improvement to mean that I lack confidence. And all I could get out of them as far as a solution to that is just to “be” confident. It was a little frustrating. One thing I did like, though, is that we all agreed that being normal is overrated. Yes!! The rest of the night revolved around the ethicality of pirated movies and such. I wouldn't call myself an absolutist on that particular subject, but I do have a strong opinion—and it honestly bothers me when people find nothing wrong with it.  In the end, it is a personal decision and one that I can honestly respect even if others disagree with me... I only wish people would care enough to look at what the Church has said on the subject—and not assume that, because they have “never heard” anything said about it, that that means it is ok.

Today we got up at 5am to go to one of the 7 New Wonders of the World as well as one of the 40 places you must visit before you die, PETRA! I was stoked about this visit, and it was way cool! Though, to be honest, I wouldn't rate it in the top 40 myself, but that is another story. We hiked through some gorgeous rock canyons, saw the famous “treasury” facade (so called because when it was first discovered it was hoped to have gold inside... it did not), hiked up to the monostary tomb, had lunch, went and saw the tombs of the kings, hiked up to an official “high place”--a paagan sacrifical rite area—and all in all just explored around. It wasn't that hot as we had an early start, but it was such a long day and the heat was progressively more intenst that it really was quite draining by the end. Especially because a lot of us ran out of water—I broke down and bought a 1.5 liter bottle for two whole dollars! There was a long bus ride back which I spent watching “The 5 People You Meet in Heaven” with Daniel on my laptop. Great show! We got home to our new Hotel in Amman, had dinner and explored the town. A lot of students bought cheap DVD's of... questionable origin... which inspires me to write a thesis on the subject, but I have not the time to do so now. So I will end, contented with my day and enjoying the amaaaaaaaaaazing pictures I got at a great tourist spot!

July 26, 2010

Today I entered the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan! Our first day was pretty low-key at first: we went to Mount Nebo, the place where Elijah and Moses were translated. It had a nice view and had a monument to Moses' brazen serpent. Next was Madaba, which has one of the most famous mosaics of all time: it was a map of Jerusaelm and the surrounding area. It was pretty accurate, too. The coolest thing, though, by far, was Shobak Castle, a stronghold built by Soladin in 1115 to cut the route off between Egypt and Syria. I hiked up with one group of friends and explored around a bit. I went into what seemed like a small room by myself just to check it out, but there was a stairway—so naturally I went down it. I had no idea how far it went! It just kept going and going and going...after about 10 minutes of going straight down to who knows where, I decided I shouldn't go any further alone and started back up. I didn't go more than a few dozen yards before I saw someone coming down. I was going to tell them that there was no end in sight and that we should probably turn back... but it turned out to be my teacher, Bro. Emmett, and he said that he wanted to see it through to the end if I would accompany him. I was aaaaaaall for it, so down we went. I still thought it was probably a dead end—probably to some crusader storage area or something, but Bro. Emmett said that a student last year found a tunnel that went straight through then entire castle and went out on the other side of the mountain... so we hoped this was that tunnel and kept going. It got to the point that Bro. Emmett was saying we should turn back when off in the distance I saw what I thought was light, so I said we should keep going. We did so and it turned out to lead to that exit on the other side! It was so cool! On our way home driving to our hotel, we visited the traditional site where Moses hit the rock and made water come out. At night, most people went to Turkish baths to get massages and cleaned off... at first, I wasn't interested, but then I decided that it might be a good cultural experience (and that we have our swimsuits on the entire time), so I conceded. We couldn't end up finding a place with open slots available, however, so instead we just walked the town and bought some local baked goods—mmmmm!

July 15, 2010

Today we went to Megiddo in the Jezereel Valley. Also known as the Valley of Armageddon. Yep, the place where the final battle will take place before the second coming of Christ. It was an amazingly quiet place--only a little bit of agriculture and archeology happening. It wasn't a big city at all. Just a small town when before this was the place to be--the crossroads of civilization. The area had been conquered dozens of times by just about every major civilization. King Josiah died there at the hands of the Egyptian Pharaoh Necho. Our next stop was Mount Carmel! This is the site of one of my favorite scripture stories: 1 Kings 18. Hopefully I can dedicate some time to write a full entry about it. Awesome. Our next stops were a Bahai garden and a cemetery in Haifa where two early missionaries for the church were buried. We got back to the center--it was such a good feeling to be "home"--had dinner, set up a study guide for our test on Tuesday, and then played basketball with the best players at the JC. I wasn't even in the same league as the best players, but I had some good plays and gained their respect. All in all, a great day.

July 13, 2010

My day was AWESOME.  It was hard at first, because I was super tired as my roommates were up until 1am playing pranks on a girl's bungalow—which, of course, included the girls trying to infiltrate our apartment to play pranks on my roommates... sigh. Maybe I'm just lame (To be honest, I was feeling a little left out when they were talking about it the next day). Anyway, I can't really tell you much about Hazor except that it had a cistern, it was one of the main cities of the Northern kingdom with a wicked king (Jabin), and... I was really tired. Chorazin was much better. The sleep on the bus got me to a more coherent state. It was really thought-provoking. This was one of the places that Christ cursed for rejecting Him. It spurred a discussion on what it means to have an opportunity to receive the gospel and the level of understanding needed for accountability. Dan was beautiful. We hiked around and saw the source of the Jordan river. We also saw the Winnie the Pooh tree, as well as the place that Jeraboam set up the altar as a political move to tell the people that they did not need to go to Jerusalem to the temple. 

By far, though, my favorite was our next stop: Caesaria Philipi. Bro. Manscill talked about Peter's confession of faith and testimonies in general. He asked for volunteers to share their testimony and I raised my hand (usually I wait to give others the chance, but the last time I did that Bro. Manscill took the brief silence to mean that no one wanted to... and moved on!). Even though I didn't have time to think of anything, I was so glad I raised my hand. I simply told the story of how I felt when President Monson had said “I stand before you and declare this First Presidency is united as one under the direction of the Lord Jesus Christ” (Thomas S. Monson, “To Learn, to Do, to Be,” Ensign, Nov 2008, 60–62, 67–68) and how I felt my testimony being renewed in a very full, conscious way. I felt the spirit and throughout all of the free time I thought about the evolution of my testimony. I reread my patriarchal blessing and realized how far my testimony had come since I had received it—and I was overwhelmed with a sense of gratitude. A testimony really is a gift. I had the idea to record my testimony at that spot. It was a little hard to hear it because of the running waters, but it felt good to just do it so that there would be a record that I had a testimony of the gospel when I visited the place where Peter testified of him.

Our next stop was a mountain with a huge fortress on top of it—Nimrod's castle, as it was called. It had a good view and another bat cave, both awesome. Our last stop was an overlook of the UN embassy of Syria—another sad reminder of the disquieting relations of Israel and its neighbors. At night, we had a bonfire with SCONES (soooooooo yummy!) and then I helped my teacher with a computer problem (their email account was hacked).

July 12, 2010

I thought Hippo was a cool Roman archaeological dig? Beth She'an blew it away today. It had a huge main road, a complete hippodrome that is still used for events (we tested out its projection abilities and we could hear someone sing perfectly all the way from the furthest seats). They had complete bath houses, rows upon rows of columns, and it just... felt like a complete city. It was large enough that I really could imagine people living there and using it. Originally, it was a Philistine city where they hung the head of Saul after killing him and his sons (See the last chapter of 1 Samuel). Our next stop was bet alpha, an honestly lame mosaic of various biblical events—though the best preserved of just about any. Next we swam for two hours at the natural spring of Gan Hashelosha. We then went to a church built at Nain which commemorated Christ's raising of the widow's son there. Our last stop was Mt. Tabor, one of the two claimed spots for the Mount of Transfiguration. Besides the Garden of Gethsemane and the Garden Tomb, this was one of the most important spots in all of Christianity—hopefully I can talk more about that later.

July 11, 2010

Today was another class day. Bro Manscill likes to quiz on pretty minute details... kinda frustrating... and sometimes the details he chooses to go over are a little too tangential for me, but some things are really interesting. We talked about resurrection today. He recommended a talk by Robert J. Matthews on resurrection. I am totally going to look it up. The resurrection is something that I've always thought is a little confusing—who is resurrected when, when does it start, what happens with the Second Coming and the Millennium, etc. If anyone else has a good talk that sets it out in a deep, yet understandable way, I'd love it! At 1, we had the best lunch (they had these fried rice cakes—worlds better than keesh!), and right after (they said 2pm) we were going to go to Hippo. I went back to my apartment to start my homework for our evening class, and I get a knock on my door at 1:40 saying they were leaving right then! Because I knew our teacher was driving us personally, I didn't even grab anything—I just left (in my light, athletic clothing—basically my pajamas!). But I am SO glad they came and got me. It was a waaaaaaaaay cool spot! It is an active archaeological dig with an original Roman road, a temple, a bath house, and other buildings with huge Roman columns in amazing condition. But the best part was definitely the cave we found. It was alongside the Roman road, and it had huge beetles, scorpions, and bats. Dozens of bats! No one brought a light with them, so I went first with my phone's LED light (until the very end, when I started the video). It was so cool! We had bats fly into us (riiiight over our heads) several times. My friend Chris actually got hit once, but he had a hat, so he was ok. We got back to the Kibbutz at about 3:15, so I was able to do my reading in time for dinner and class.

July 10, 2010

We attended the Galilee branch today. It was sooooooo cool! Not only did it have an amazing view (which reminded me of the view at the JC itself—but in a very... Galilee way), but there was just a special feeling there. Scott Paul Johns, a man who I always thought had that quality of inner dignity (here defined as people where I don't really have to know them long or deeply to just feel like they were an exceptionally good person) gave the best talk I have heard in a sacrament meeting in a year, easily. He talked about how the Atonement applies to saints as well as sinners. My favorite story was about his grandmother being killed in a car accident and his mom responding, instead of with resentment or retribution, with love. She went out of her way to help this man: to know that she forgave him, that he should forgive himself, and that she loved him (She even set up a special meeting with her, his family, and his bishop). Awesome. Before church, I had the honor of being one of only 5 students to get invited to a special outing to see a bunker that was used in the '67 war (I found spent gun shells!), as well as the oldest temple in Israel—they think it is over 3000 years old! After church was a fireside where I got to talk to some members from the Galilee branch. Jorge, Patricia, and their 6 year old son Julian.