Visit to Jericho

May 17, 2007
Today Bob and I went on our first field trip with the students – to Jericho. We left at 7:15 AM on the bus. We saw the place where Joshua made the “walls fall down”, but sadly it has not been kept up well and is almost unrecognizable. We also visited the place they think Christ was tempted 3 times by Satan. It is located high up on a very barren mountain. There is a Monastery built there now, where today 3 Monks live. We hiked about 15 minutes up to the Monastery and inside there were carved-out stone passageways, which on one side have many individual, nice wooden doors leading into small apartments for those who live there. Further inside is the stone they feel was the one Satan asked Christ to turn to bread. The view out the little balcony was a mixture of farm fields, date palms, barren hills, and poor, scanty neighborhoods. Brother Merrill (who knows the Bible extremely well) explained to us that Orson Hyde teaches us that Captain Moroni in the Book of Mormon is the 1) protector and guardian of the Americas 2) gave visions and dreams to Columbus to find America, and 3) helped America win the War of Independence. I’d never heard that before but it makes perfect sense.