OUR CAMBODIAN CHRISTMAS

This picture was taken on Christmas Day in downtown Phnom Phen.  What was he feeling?  What was he searching for?  What is his purpose from day to day?  Hope needs to come to every single one of God's children!

 Dec. 21-25, 2025

Our Cambodian Christmas really started on Sunday, Dec. 21st.  The Christmas Sacrament Meeting was a very special highlight. The speakers were Pres. Sam Sophon and his wife Chan Sovan (recently announced as the new temple president and matron) and Pres. Ouk Sophal and his wife from the mission presidency.  We had a high attendance of 65 people!  We were scrambling for chairs! The 2nd hour we watched a recorded Christmas devotional by area representative El. Benjamin M.Z. Tai and his presidency.  I just kept praying that the electricity would stay on and that no loud wedding or monk music would be playing to distract our worshipping! I sang a solo of "Silent Night." It's amazing when you're away from home how courage increases to try new things! I am a choir girl, not a soloist! I felt inspired to do it and was blessed with real calm. The process of preparing was a tender mercy, too, because I felt the words in new and deeper ways than ever before.

    

Afterwards we enjoyed a social with food prepared by Navy and Leakhena.  Incredible efforts were made with their barbequed kabobs (made over 200 of them)!  They also had rice, fruit, and even some ka soup. These two sisters are serving angels!! We played a game with the children, "Simon Says" with a nativity theme. So much laughter! When they crossed the finish line (which they all did!), they got a cute stocking to take around to each missionary for candy and were given a little toy at the end. We all loved going up the rooftop patio with decorated tables and Christmas music.  Great day of unity!

That afternoon we were invited to go to Michael and Poev Heffner's home for a Christmas gathering. They are our friends we met shopping in Lucky's one day. He is from the U.S., and she is from Cambodia (lived in America for a number of years). Wow. What a perfect place! They have created a beautifully planned residence, including a big room for church on Sunday. Pouv, especially, is a devout Christian believer. About 100 people were at this Christmas gathering, including the mayor, village leader, etc. And the children were adorable! They just loved when I waved or smiled at them. They performed a cute program, and then gifts were handed out to them. What an amazing service the Heffners give to the community. We were quite honored at our table - only table with a tablecloth, Jim asked to pray and was honored as "Elder," and people kept coming by and nodding to us.  Michael knows our church through the navy high-up interviews.  What a fascinating and unexpected experience!

                    

 

                

 

Another special event of the season was the Christmas social put on by the Church Service Center.  Oh my, they spared nothing with the decorations, activities, and food!  What a party!! And I realized how many friends I have come to know from this group! They had the senior couples come up and sing "Go Tell It On the Mountain," which actually went okay, considering we were karoake-style with the church recording!  

The highlight was all kneeling together in a large circle holding hands and saying a special prayer for the Cambodian/Thailand war to come to an end and peace to resume.  The prayer was first offered by El. Webb and then a second prayer by Pres. Hoare in Khmer.  They recorded it and were taking it to the government officials to show our church's concern and efforts.  It was sacred to be part of that.

One of the most meaningful service experiences of my life was on Christmas Day with the West Zone as we visited the Rescue Orphanage in Kamboul.  About a hundred young children were there with a special singing and dancing program for us (over two hundred actually live there).  Afterwards, we divided in small groups with storybooks to read to them and then leave as gifts.  The children were soooo precious, filled with so much love.  It was tender to look into their eyes and wonder what each story was and what their future will be be.  But for that one moment in time, they and we were genuinely happy together.  We actually had a hard time getting the missionaries to leave!  

 

Earlier in the day we also were able to enjoy a mission-wide Christmas devotional, with our own El. Phal as one of the speakers.  I just love his thoughtful way of expressing the beauties of the gospel.  That was followed by a very nice lunch with these same 20 missionaries in West Zone at an all-you-can-eat Japanese buffet. We were relieved that it was such a success!....a bit of shouldered responsibility when all of them were depending on us for creating a good experience!  We also brought a few decorations for our private room and had little stockings for them, as well.  They also had a chance to wrap our children's books with ribbons to take to the orphanage. The sisters had picked out the books at a fun little shopping spree we took them on a few days before.

                    

The most special highlight of all was talking with each of our children and grandchildren and feeling the deep connections and love over the many, many miles apart.  They made an adorable video of each person saying "Merry Christmas" in Khmer.  I must have watched it a hundred times!  What a very thoughtful effort!!  It was so sweet to look at each beautiful child and feel my heart expand with such love.

                                    

https://drive.google.com/file/d/15iNjSwaO1haFYMab8ojh-UCqkCUCRjtf/view?usp=sharing

Merry, Merry Christmas!  The Savior is who it is all about.  My love for Him has expanded this year through very unique service opportunities and feeling.  Serving and loving people.....that is what the Savior was constantly doing.  I am so very grateful for a Cambodian Christmas to help me feel that even deeper.  He gives us hope, shows us the way back, and makes ALL things possible.