The city that steals my heart.

Once upon a time, I got 1,000 page views on my blog!  To celebrate, I decided to give you a bunch of pictures, and a short biography.  I mean, with that many page views...I probably should explain why I live in Jerusalem!  (Side note: I apologize for slacking on the blog.  Finals week was crazy and I just got back from our 4-day trip to Jordan.  I'll give you the Jordan update soon.)  For now, I just want to do a bio and a little catch-up on my adventures, give you a taste of what it's like in my Yerushalaim.  It is my city now...I think it always has been. Have I ever told any of you my story?  Here we go! (: Enjoy. Or skip to the pictures, whatever you want!
To begin with, I am a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  You'll see that in every post I write, so I thought I'd let you know.  It's the most important reason why I'm in Jerusalem.  My number two reason? I have always loved to read.  Since I was three years old and taught myself to read, it has been my passion.  I started to read the Work and the Glory series when I was 10.  I fell in love with church history--I love reading about Joseph Smith and the Restoration of the gospel.  That was my second love.
When I was about 14 I began reading another series, this one about the life and ministry of Jesus Christ.  I could not put the books down.  That was my third and final love--the Four Gospels, Judaism, and the background of the story of my Savior and Redeemer Jesus Christ.  And that was where my need for Jerusalem sprang from.  I first had to have a testimony of my Savior--and when that was firm in my mind, I knew I needed to walk where He walked, and learn everything about His life--to see it through new eyes.  I didn't have to go...but I wanted to know everything about it.  That's my passion.
So for five years I worked minimum wage to pay for this trip to Jerusalem.  From 14 to 19, I worked to earn that $10,000 that would give me what I wanted so much.  The only things I bought were books, and clothes.  (Side note!  Desiderius Roterodamus said "When I have a little money, I buy books; and if I have any left, I buy food and clothes."  That kind of exactly explains me.)

So I earned it, I applied, I was accepted...and here I am!  Living my dream!!  And happier than I've ever been in my entire life.  I'm terrified because it's more than halfway over already, and I am going to be crushed when I have to leave my City.  I can't wait to see my family and friends, and eat grilled cheese, but honestly, it is going to be so hard.  I'm scared.  I hope I can do this...Jerusalem is my home.  Wandering the streets, especially after being gone in Turkey, I just feel so peaceful, like I belong here.  I think I've missed Jerusalem since the day I was born, and now I'm back, and I love it so much!

Anyways.  That's just for all of you who are curious.
Here are pictures for people who don't care about reading! haha.

This is the house of someone who has been to all three holy sites in Islam!  They have been to Mecca, Medina, and of course the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem!  A person who has gone to Mecca is called a hajji.  When they've done all three pilgrimages, they paint over their doors in different colors--especially green, which is the holy color of Islam.  Green is the main color on the Palestinian flag, and it's the color that the mosques light up at night.  Isn't Islam is such an incredible religion?

This is a pottery shard that I found at the solar temple at Lachish!  It has a little design on it, which could be writing...so the professors asked the archeologists on site about it.  They said that it would be too hard to find all the pieces, so they told me I could keep it!  There are pottery shards everywhere, all over Israel, but this was the first one I'd seen with writing.  Pretty cool stuff.  Lachish was awesome because we got to read this poem about Sennacherib and his sieges.  And we were standing where Sennacherib was wayyyy back in 722 BC.  Anyways.  I get sidetracked a lot...

This is the beautiful Red Sea! Isn't it gorgeous?  This is the southernmost part of Israel, in a port city called Eilat.  A group of us got to spend the day snorkeling, and it was fabulous!  The fish were beautiful, the sea was salty, and it went by much too fast. and we ate ice cream.  The Red Sea was absolutely beautiful.  I'm so glad we went!  It was a fun day, but also very strange, as there was nothing super educational/spiritual about Eilat.  I felt a bit out of place...the only thing I could educate Michael about was the fact that Eilat gets 360 days of sun a year on average.  He thought that was funny.  Normally I know a lot about the spiritual side of things, so I had to come up with some trivial fact to make up for it.  Anyways.  It was a lovely day by the sea (:  And those scientists who say that the parting of the Red Sea was a trick of the imagination, and it was caused by a freak gust of wind....hahahaha that makes me laugh.

This is the place setting for our beautiful Passover dinner!  We celebrated Passover during the fall because we won't be in Jerusalem for the spring when it is supposed to happen.  I did a Passover once at BYU before I came here, but this one was so amazing.  First of all, we were in Jerusalem when we got to read the part aloud "Next year in Jerusalem!"  And second, my Hebrew teacher let me borrow her passover book from when she was a little girl.  It's called a haggadah.  It was a beautiful book and I was so lucky to use it.  I also got to perform my favorite song from Passover with a group.  It's called Daiyenu, and it's a song that helps Jewish parents corral their unruly children during the long ceremony.  It was lots of fun (:

Here is a picture of me at one of my favorite places in Jerusalem! (after the Western Wall).  It's called the Church of Mary Magdalene, and it is absolutely exquisite.  I read all about it before I came, but it's only open to the public on Tuesdays and Thursdays, usually right during classtime.  We were so lucky to get in.  It was built by the Russians and maintained by White Russian nuns, who keep the grounds pristine and blossoming.  So pretty.  The church is all about Mary Magdalene, and of course I love Mary Magdalene, so everything was very exciting.  Trivia: Mary is from the town of Magdala, in Galilee.  Interestingly enough, magdalanay is Greek for "plaiter of hair".  We don't know if Mary was a plaiter of hair, or if she's just from Magdala.  Nonetheless, I decided to put braids in my hair before we went to the church.  Yup! I'm crazy!

So we went to a nature preserve last week called Neot Kedumim.  It's a beautiful place, and our tour guide showed us different plants mentioned in scripture and their uses.  Then we got to make our own bread and red lentil soup (the stuff Esau sold his birthright for, the mess of pottage) and some other lovely things.  I made my own pita!  This was the first time I've cooked anything since August...I was wayyyyy excited. I miss cooking. and baking. and cookie dough all that good stuff.  But Jerusalem is SO worth it.  Below is another picture, this time of the finished product.  Cooking in the wilderness is pretty awesome.  Can I just tell you, it was so delicious.  And we dipped it in olive oil and za'atar, which is this amazing combination of spices.  Sorry. I'm getting too descriptive with all these Hebrew words haha.

This is me at the Orson Hyde garden, overlooking my City!  My darling grandma just emailed me and let me know that my great-grandparents (her parents) made donations to the Orson Hyde foundation for the building of this garden.  It is a beautiful place, close to the site where Orson knelt and dedicated the Holy Land for the return of the Jews.  We read the dedicatory prayer aloud at the crest of the hill (we borrowed a book from the library).  It was really marvelous.  I love the Orson Hyde garden.

And this is just a cute little square in the City.  It's in the Jewish quarter, and it's called Hurva Square because it's right next to Hurva Synagogue.  Isn't it quaint and precious?  There are three main landmarks in the City--the Dome of the Rock of course (Islam), the Church of the Holy Sepulcher (Christianity), and the Hurva Synagogue (Judaism).  They are all remarkably lovely buildings.
Okay, well that's all! I hope I made up for the lack of blog-posting for the last couple of weeks!  I'll update you all on Jordan soon.  We went to Petra.  Indiana Jones stuff, and all that.  Can't wait to go through my pictures...I think I took 500 in Petra alone, believe it or not.  Anyways.  I love you all, thanks for reading my blog.  Shoutout to my beautiful Rylee, getting her mission call to Spain! (:  I'm so excited!!
Love you all to the moon and back!
Love always,
Rapunzel.