[Teachldsseminary] Off topic: Book of Mormon experience this past weekend...

[Debra Woods Hamilton]

Dear Cheryl,
Thanks so much for sharing your experience with us!  This past summer I 
spent three weeks in Vancouver, WA doing the scenery for the original 
musical production of "With Mine Own Hand," a theatrical telling of the 
books of 1and 2 Nephi - http://nephi-story.com.  Attending the final 
performance, and sitting just in front of my husband and I, was Tim 
Sedor - one of the founders of "The Nephi Project." 
http://www.nephiproject.com/ -  He was invited to present a fireside to 
the cast and crew the following night.  He told us about his work and 
showed us a video he and his colleagues have made of their research. 

I learned so many things that I had not understood before about some of 
the language Nephi used in his description of their trek from Jerusalem 
to Bountiful.  Things we just wouldn't think because we are not familiar 
with the language and culture and geography - things like borders near 
the Red Sea - in that area - that term, borders, means mountains.  I 
always assumed it meant the shoreline.  And the term wilderness - well, 
I figured Nephi meant that they traveled in the wilderness for three 
days and then made camp - meant that it was a three days journey from 
Jerusalem to their encampment in the Valley of Lemuel.  And their ain't 
no such valley within any reasonable three day journey from Jerusalem.  
But the wilderness doesn't start just outside the borders of Jerusalem - 
there is an area known as wilderness some distance from Jerusalem - and 
voila - from that border to the possible site of the Valley of Lemuel 
was exactly the distance one could travel on decent roads by camel in 
three days, on established trade routes of that time.  Anyway, it was 
all very fascinating and as you say, while it isn't necessary for my 
testimony - the clear and obvious correlations that exist between 
Nephi's account and the physical world, still extant today really brings 
it all to life.

Since we can't all go and see with our eyes - your vivid description was 
a real treat - and if you send us pictures, we will post them at LDV.

Take care,
Debra


Cherilyn Williams wrote:
> Last Thursday evening our family and 6 other LDS families left from the 
> United Arab Emirates and drove approx 14 hours to Salalah, Oman.  Salalah is 
> located on the coast in the Dohar region where the monsoon touches the 
> Arabian Peninsula.  The purpose of the trip was to go the place that 
> possibly was "Bountiful" where Nephi was comanded to build a boat and then 
> sail to the promised land.  Grab an atlas and follow along...
>
> We drove from Dubai to the UAE/Oman border outside Al Ain and headed to 
> Nizwa and then through desert east of the Rub Al Khali (the aptly named 
> Empty Quarter) and eventually the Qara Mountains, arriving in Salalah in the 
> late afternoon on Friday. Not far south of Nizwa, the land truly is barren. 
> We drove along well-paved roads in our air-conditioned cars and marveled at 
> the emptiness of it and how miserable it must have been for Lehi's family 
> and friends to wander in that wilderness after leaving the "more fertile 
> parts" of the borders of the Red Sea.  Between the several families we had a 
> GPS and maps of the region we were traveling.  During the drive when the 
> kids weren't plugged into their various electronic devices we talked about 
> why Lehi's family was so long in the wilderness and how we were benefiting 
> from our map and GPS and how grateful we were that they worked regardless of 
> our righteousness (particularly the righteousness displayed during a 14-hr 
> car trip).
>
> All of a sudden we were in the mountains looking at trees and grass and 
> camels and cows and goats and some donkeys and more cows.  It was shocking 
> to see the green, even the dried-out green of winter, months after the 
> monsoon has left the area. (The region that gets the monsoon rain is only 
> about 60 km long, this little oasis at the bottom of a barren land. Pilots 
> who fly over the area say that it looks like someone put a little dab of 
> green paint in the mass of brown.)  We headed down the mountains to the 
> coast where we drove through cultivated plots and groves of palm, banana, 
> mango and papaya trees.  This may not sound incredible, but it is: on either 
> side of this area is coastline that is empty of plantlife.
>
> That evening we had sacrament/testimony meeting on the beach around a 
> bonfire.  Fifty percent of the seminary kids bore their testimonies; almost 
> all the primary-aged ones bore theirs....
>
> Saturday morning we drove east along to coast to Khor Rhori to see the 
> archeological ruins dating from 400 BC on a hill in above a protected cove. 
> Inland is a ridge where water rushes down from the Qara Mountains and forms 
> several water falls before it travels across the plain and into the cove. 
> Possible site because of the fresh water,  the cove, and trees and ore 
> available in nearby mountains.  The following day we drove west toward 
> Yemen; after 2 police checkpoints (through the rearview mirrors we watched 
> them perfomed the universal sign for "crazy" as we drove off), direction 
> queries, a short detour to Rakhyut (where the hospital staff opened up a 
> bathroom for our use because, amazingly enough, not everyone in our group 
> was willing to urinate off the side of the mountain at an overlook), and 
> getting almost to the border between Oman and Yemen we arrived in the small 
> town of Kharfat, passing through small groves of significantly large trees. 
> In the parking lot of the small medical clinic we met a local man who 
> offered to take us via 1/2 hr boatride to the mouth of Wadi Sadiq.  After 
> much discussion and declining the offer for lunch from the same man to go to 
> his home where his wife and mother would prepare a meal for us, he then in 
> his Toyota Landcruiser (followed by young men in a small van) led us onto a 
> ridge above the mouth of the wadi.  We then parked the cars, split into 3 
> groups due to speed and shoeware and hiked about 1/2 hr to the promitory 
> overlooking the wadi.  Camels strolled along the beach, fresh water from the 
> wadi pooled near the beach; the area was green with grass and palms. About 
> 50 feet off shore was a fishing boat.  This place is "possible" due to the 
> proximity of large trees, and ore in the mountians.  And the bonus, someone 
> said that the the wadi/mountain valley can be followed to the east to Nahom 
> where Ishmael was burried.
> We hiked back to the cars carrying the littlest kids on our backs through 
> forests of trees, brambles, and dried grass and sang Chrismas carols; I 
> don't know why, seeing that it didn't feel particularly Christmasy.  We got 
> lost by following the wrong trail and had to scramble up the ridge to where 
> we had parked. At the end of the trek we lamented not having taken the guy 
> up on his offer of the boatride. We would not have survived 8 years in the 
> wilderness.
>
> After spending  the weekend in the area and listening to my 16-year-old talk 
> about how Lehi's family entered a wilderness again when they got on the boat 
> brought home the question of how much faith it took to push off from that 
> shore and leave that paradise.
>
> In our 4 years in Mexico and now in the Arabian Peninsula we have followed a 
> friend's particularly good advice: Don't look for evidence of the Book of 
> Mormon in the local culture and landscape (i.e. locals telling stories of 
> guys named Nephi or cave paintings/graffiti: "Nephi is a jerk -- Lamen"); 
> look for evidence of the local culture or landscape in the Book of Mormon. 
> The Dohar region is just that.  Thankfully, my testimony is not dependant on 
> knowing where these events took place; rather, it is based on knowing that 
> they did take place.  But man, it sure is fun to go exploring!
> If you want to see a couple pictures, just let me know...
>
> Cherilyn 
>
>
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