Mt. of Beatitudes - Sea of Galilee trip

Tuesday, November 27
Today we got on a wooden boat and rode across the Sea of Galilee to view the remains of an old fisherman’s boat similar to those that people in Jesus’ day would have used. At the bottom of this Post is a picture of the Sea of Galilee from our boat, and a picture of the sunset.

We then drove to the Mount of the Beatitudes. Brother Draper, as he was teaching us about the Sermon on the Mount (Matt. 5:1-12), told a story related to verse 10: “blessed are they which are persecuted for my name’s sake” (those who are true to what they believe). The story follows:

Brother Draper loves teaching at BYU because of the caliber of trust between him and the students. He knows he doesn’t need to stay in the room the whole time while giving a test, like some of his fellow professor friends have to when teaching at other universities. One day a female student came to him and asked him to sign some papers so she could leave BYU – she didn’t want to be there any longer. He was surprised and asked her why. After some prodding, she finally told him that she and her brother had been the only church members at school and it had been really hard to live the gospel standards, but they did. They would drive 80 miles once a month just to be with other youth who had the same beliefs and standards, and socialize together. So when she came to BYU she was relieved.

However, one day her roommates invited her to an R-rated movie. She reminded them it was R-rated, and her roommate said there was only 1 part at the beginning that was bad and then the rest was OK. She reluctantly went. After the first bad part there was another bad part. When she turned to her friend and asked, “I thought you said there was only 1 bad part”, the roommate responded, “Oh, I fudged a little – there are a few. Are you a prude?” The girl was hurt and left the movie to walk home in a blizzard. This is why she wanted to leave – she didn’t want to be a Mormon anymore if that’s what it was all about.

Brother Draper asked her to wait for 2 weeks before he signed here dismissal papers. He then phoned two return sister missionary for help, and arranged for this girl to live with them. They befriended her, showed her love and shared their testimonies, and as a result she stayed on at BYU and was fine.

“The effects of being true to what you believe are huge”.