and the wall came tumbling down.

Twenty years ago today, the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) announced that its citizens could travel freely into West Germany and West Berlin. That day, thousands walked around, over, and through a wall that had divided a nation for nearly thirty years. It was the beginning of the end of communism in Europe.

Today I wore my Berlin Wall t-shirt and went to a public rally, wanting to share in the celebration and wanting to acknowledge my awareness of and gratitude for the events that led up to and the events that followed the fall of the Berlin Wall and the subsequent fall of the Iron Curtain. Few contemporary events have had greater impact on my life than this one. That might sound strange, but it is true. Having had the blessing and pleasure of serving a mission for my church in a post-communist state that is still coping with its totalitarian past, I pray, along with billions of others, that human rights and the rule of law may someday be available to all. Prior to the events of 1989, Spencer W. Kimball urged church members worldwide to pray and prepare for the possibility to share the Restored Gospel with those behind the Iron Curtain. Recently, in a world where regimes continue to withhold religious freedom, Thomas S. Monson has recommissioned that call.

May the walls continue to fall.