Day 10 - June 30, 2008

This day was filled with “I can’t believe I’m actually here” experiences. Our morning began with a 6:30 am sacrament meeting on the lawn by the Sea of Galilee. It is a neat place to have one right? This one was slightly longer than our last one, consisting of a talk, a few hymns, and most importantly the sacrament. We next went to Mt. Tabor, one of two possible sites for the Mount of Transfiguration. There we had a small meeting discussing several modern day prophets who had felt strongly that this is where Christ’s transfiguration had occurred. We were taught the significance of the transferring of the priesthood keys between the Old Testament prophets to their New Testament counterparts.

Nazareth is a bustling modern day city, except for a small re-creation of a 1^st century village which we visited. Basically the set up is like the Plymouth Plantation or even Nauvoo. Actors dress in time period costume to reenact the village of Nazareth. There we saw an excavated wine press, the process of how to make olive oil, a cistern, a watchtower, and several demonstrations of ancient people’s lives. There was a man separating the chaff from the wheat, a weaver woman, and the village carpenter or builder. As a parting gift, they gave all of us an oil lamp to remind us Christ is the light of the world.

We crossed the Jezreel valley to Meggido (aka Armagedon). Yes this is the place where the battle to end all battles is prophesied to occur. The location is right at the crossroads of the trade routes, a highly sought after land. It is a Tel, or a mound with many layers of civilizations. There are 25 different cities all on top of each other. We ate our first Falafel (pita bread with fried Garbanzo bean balls and veggies inside) and walked amongst the ruins. There were stables, a granary, and a circular altar. The culmination of our jaunt was trekking down into the shaft and tunnel of the ancient water system that was built to supply the city with water while under siege. The coolness of being underground for a few minutes was a refreshing break from the heat.

Caesarea was beautiful. The highlight here was the tablet with the name of Pontius Pilot, proving to the archeological world that he really lived. There was a Roman Theater and Hippodrome (Chariot race arena) we also checked out. Beautiful area! After a two minute drive we stopped to check out the ancient aqueduct built for the city’s water supply. The water moved through the trough pulled only by gravity. It ran along the beach and was gorgeous.

Next stop, the BEACH! It was the perfect day. The Mediterranean was the temperature of a warm bath. The waves were coming in on a nice roll. The afternoon sun was at the perfect point. We changed in the very dirty bathrooms and jumped into the sea. As Heidi and Monica were standing far out in the water, up ran Lyndee yelling “I’m the Baywatch babe and I’m here to rescue you!” The response was “there are jellyfish in the water.” (Scream) Lyndee went running back to the beach. Indeed there were little stings that at first we thought were only cuts hurting in the salt water. The lifeguard had been yelling at us to warn us but none of us speak Hebrew. We should have figured it out when we saw the beach was full and the water empty. It was still a lot of fun even though short lived.

There are 6 people buried in Israel who are members of the church. We visited the graves of four of them at the German Templar Cemetery in Haifa. Haifa also has beautiful Bahai gardens which we drove by. When done, it was back to the hotel for a yummy dinner!