A year ago, today, I returned home from one of the most sacred journeys of my entire life, an opportunity to live in Jerusalem for four months. Easter will forever mean something different to me because of my time spent there. The Easter Bunny, the baskets, and the wild-eggs hunts are all wonderful and particularly enjoyable for the younger children but it has become of little significance to me now. I remember walking into Sacrament meeting in my home ward last year, tired from jet-lag and 48 hours of traveling, to a simple rendition of “He is Risen” being sung by my ward choir. Immediately my eyes welled up with tears and I was overcome with a powerful yet peaceful spirit. I had just sung that hymn in front of the Garden Tomb three days prior…in the closest location to where Jesus, the Christ, literally did rise.
What a beautiful and sacred series of events we are celebrating.
A year later…it is a typical Saturday night and I am looking forward to spending Easter morning with Chelsea in our quiet duplex. I cannot believe a year has come and gone. Chelsea is teaching gospel doctrine tomorrow and so I decided to stay to support her and learn from her. She was showing me some of her Jerusalem pictures as we discussed what she should share. I could not help but crack open my own “dusty” files containing thousands of pictures from my time well spent in the Holy Land. I am trying to remind myself of what the places, that I will here of so much tomorrow, look like. I am trying to remember the feelings I experienced at each one of those places.
An immediate flood of love, gratitude, and a burning testimony for the Savior fills my heart and my soul every time I look at my pictures. From the smiling faces of my friends to the red flowers accenting the Garden Walls, I know Jesus is the Christ.
He lives. He lives. HE LIVES.
He lives. He lives. HE LIVES.
Two Photos By: Kaitlin O'Connor
I think I watched this movie twice a day for a month straight when I got home.
I did not want to ever forget.
Little did I know, it would forever be in my heart.
O' Jerusalem.
Video By: Ashley Christ
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