He Is Risen!

I keep forgetting it's only Saturday today because today is the Sabbath here in Jerusalem! We had choir practice at 9 and church from 10 to 1. Choir was awesome, pretty sure about 75 of the 82 of us are in the choir and we already got to sing in sacrament today. My friend Chaille and I taught the 8-11 year old girls for sunday school and primary. I told all of them to have their dads' be nice to us because they are our teachers. We taught them about the apostasy and the restoration of the gospel. It was interesting as I saw this topic become even more relevant later today...

The weather is FINALLY warming up! We were all extremely excited because after church we got to take our first steps out of the Jerusalem center and into the city! We took a walk to the garden tomb which was an awesome experience. After listening to the tour guides and taking pictures, we all sat and sang a few hymns. The last being, "He Is Risen." It really is incredible how music can bring the spirit so strongly. As we were walking out of the gates, a woman asked me what church we were from. Due to the Jerusalem center's policy, we aren't allowed to talk about our religion with anyone while here. All I could say to her was, "I can't talk about it but we are a Christian church." It honestly broke my heart. As I walked away my eyes filled with tears. Never before had I been given such a perfect opportunity to share the gospel and not be able to. It took all I had not to turn back around and just bare my testimony to her. It made me so so incredibly grateful for my knowledge of the gospel. As I looked around me, it made me think of the lesson I gave these young girls early today. This place where Christ taught the gospel, where it originated is now in apostasy. It made me so sad that I have this knowledge and yet, I can't share it with any of these people. I feel incredibly blessed to have been born into the covenant and to have grown up in the church and ultimately gain my own testimony of the gospel. I am especially grateful today to be able to say that I know with all my heart that this gospel is true and that Christ lives!