Easter Sunday

    I don't even have words to describe Easter. It was certainly not your traditional Easter Sunday. There was no Easter Bunny, no candy, and no egg hunts!  Instead it was completely focused on Christ and His resurrection. The day began at 4:45 when we walked as a group to the Garden Tomb to wait in line for the Sunrise Service. I was sitting in front of the Garden Tomb, at sunrise, on Easter. It still seems surreal to me.

We waited in line for about an hour. It was very cold but well worth it.

The service was held by a Protestant group from the UK. It was a good ol' Christian service complete with preaching, singing along with the band, and a lot of Hallelujahs.

This was my view from my seat. Yes I was that close. Yes it was amazing.










There was one song, He is Risen (not the hymn) that just stuck with all of us. I woke up singing it for a week, we sang it in class when learning about the resurrection, and it found it's way into many conversations. I love the joy for the resurrection expressed through this song.

Later in the day a group of us went to watch the procession at the Holy Sepulchre. It was pretty small compared to Good Friday but still a great experience.  

Later that day, while wandering around the city, we came across Schindler's grave. In Israel, everyone puts rocks on graves instead of flowers and he, by far, had the most rocks I had ever seen. The area surrounding his grave was covered as well. 

   We returned home that night, ate dinner, and then prepared to listen to our modern day prophets in General Conference. What an amazing way to end an amazing day. Not surprisingly, this was by far my favorite Easter. I loved the focus on Christ. I loved that we not only focused on the resurrection but that there was a whole day to also remember His suffering. I hope to be able to take things I learned from this experience and use them to teach my future family the real reason we have Easter egg hunts and candy and presents.


Until my next adventure,
Lindy