"The Sounds of Sandaled Feet"

Bro. Wilson (my New Testament teacher) gave us a quote from Pres. Monson yesterday that says, “…As you and I walk the pathway Jesus walked, let us listen for the sounds of sandaled feet…” (Ensign May 1986, if you’re interested). Today I walked those paths. It was quite a day.

This morning we started out on a boat on the Sea of Galilee. This was probably the most meaningful experience for me all day. We stopped out in the middle to have like a class program. It’s not a very big body of water. It’s about the size of Utah Lake. It struck me how close we still were to the shore, and how in the middle of one of the famous Galilee storms, you would be so desperate to just reach the shore that you know you could see in the middle of a clear day, and yet every inch toward the shore is fought for with all your strength. I can see how the disciples would be so frantic as to say, “Carest thou not that we perish?” We also sang, “Master the Tempest Is Raging.” I had really never thought much about this hymn. But we sang an incredible arrangement of it in choir, and every time I consider that song I seem to learn something new from it. Today I was thinking about the second and third verses, which compare the tempest to adversity in our lives, and the chorus, which says, “No waters can swallow the ship where lies the Master of ocean and earth and skies.” And it just kind of came together in my mind how, if our lives are compared to a ship sailing across the water, if we allow Christ to board our vessel—invite Him into our hearts and make room for Him in our lives, no waters of temptation or adversity can swallow us. So it was a really neat experience to be out on the Sea of Galilee this morning.

Our first stop once we got to shore was the Mount of the Beatitudes. We had another class program there, and it was more like the one we had in Bethlehem—Bro. Wilson asked some people to each talk about one of the Beatitudes. It was nice. I have to say, Bro. Wilson knows how to put together a good field trip program. Inside the church they have stained glass windows with all the Beatitudes written on them in Latin. I was walking through, trying to figure out which was which, and Bro. Wilson comes up and was like, “So do you know which one that is?” And I’m like, “Well, actually…” Coz I’d already figured several out by then, lol. He was pretty impressed with me, it was funny. Actually, I think it would be kinda fun for you guys to try and guess J :

1. Beati qvi lvgent qvoniam Ipsi consolabvntvi

2. Beati miseri-cordes qvoniam Ipsi miseri-cordiam conseqventvr

3. Beati mvndo corde qvoniam Ipsi Deum videbvnt

4. Beati qvi persecvtionem patvntvr propter ivstiam qvtam Ipsvm est regnvm coelvm

5. Beati pacifici qvoniam filil Dei voacbvntvr

6. Beati pavperes spiritv qvoniam Ipsorvm est regnvm coelorvm

7. Beati mites qvoniam Ipsi pos-sidebvnt terram

8. Beati qvi esvrivnt et sitivnt ivstiam qvtiam Ipsi satvrabvntvr

Those are my best transcription from my pictures… In no particular order except the order I took the pictures. I did it all without looking at my scriptures, except I missed the last one, so give it your best shot. J Lol. Sorry, I know I’m kinda lame.

Then we went to the Church of the Multiplication of the Loaves and Fishes. They have that cool mosaic on the floor with the two fish on either side of a basket of bread—the one that’s pretty famous. And they have a pond outside with all these fish in it! They were some sweet looking fish. They were all like, red, or orange mostly, and there was a white one and a gold one that were pretty cool. And it was just the neatest little pond.

From there we walked to St. Peter’s Primacy, where Jesus called to the disciples from shore after he was resurrected and then said “Feed my sheep” to Peter three times. They have kind of this neat little beach that you can totally imagine the Savior standing on and looking out at a fishing boat on the lake. And we sang inside the chapel, because there are good acoustics. I think I’ve figured out, by the way, why it always sounds cooler in a smaller group. It’s because when we’re all together there’s such an overwhelming number of female voices, and what makes it sound so cool is to get the men’s parts going underneath and it makes this really cool, rich sound. So ya.

Last of all we went to Capernaum. I have to admit, I fell asleep while Bro. Wilson was talking there…. I was kind of sad about it, too. I’m not sure why, I was just pretty wiped out I guess. But I do know that 25 of the miracles recorded in the New Testament took place there. It’s where Peter lived and it’s pretty much where Jesus hung out most of the time. And it’s really pretty. There’s a white 4^th century synagogue/church (I think they called it a Christian synagogue, whatever that means) built over the ruins of a black basalt 1^st century Christian synagogue. It’s pretty neat to see the contrast of the black and white. And there were these gorgeous purple flowers hanging over the entrance to the complex. It was pretty.

Oh, and on the way back we stopped on the side of the road and talked about the herd of swine that Jesus cast the devils into. There were signs all over the fence saying, “Danger! Mines!” And one of the guys wrote “SW” on a piece of paper and (with spit…) stuck it to the sign over the “M” so that it said, “Danger! Swines!” I got a pretty fabulous picture, lol. It was kind of awesome.

Well, yesterday we had a relax day. We had class in the morning (on this field trip we trade off with the other class having class/free time while they do field trips and vice versa). I have to say, I’m a little put out to still be on the second bus. They ended up not switching the buses like they were going to, so instead of being on Matthew I’m now on the Wilson bus, and we are still behind. Mer. But it was good. It really wasn’t warm enough for the beach, but I did go out and play charades with some people (though I very nearly turned around and went back inside when I saw they were standing in the water…) and then I played Phase Ten with some girls til dinner. After dinner we had a bonfire, and that was pretty fun. Of course, now all our clothes smell like smoke, but I decided I’m over it, lol. Nothing can be done, neway. Galilee is kind of the chill trip, so that’s what I’ve been doing.