Feeling The Christmas Spirit

Merry Christmas to all who follow our blog, whether you are family, friends, follow missionaries, families of missionaries or just stumbled across our blog. We have written in this blog every day of our adventure over the last twenty-two plus months and we are grateful that you follow even in a small way.

Yesterday we wrote about the Christmas Party that did not feel like Christmas at all, but today was completely different. We can truly say that we felt the true meaning of Christmas in many ways and we are so grateful for each experience.

What a blessing to have Christmas fall on a Sunday when we turn away from many of our daily tasks and focus on Christ and His gospel. To give more time for families the Church instructed the wards throughout the world to only have Sacrament Meeting. They also gave the option for wards within the same building to combine. That is what the Chaktomuk and Twol Thom Pong Wards did today. The nice part was the attendance felt like a lot more.

President and Sister Christensen asked us to be in charge of the gathering for the Phnom Penh South Zone, similar to Thanksgiving. The difference was that instead of just a desert they asked us to help with a light meal. We decide to crock pot fifteen pounds of chicken breasts, have green salad, bread, rice and, the most requested item, gravy. There was three quarts of gravy and it was all gone along with everything else. What a great way to feel the Christmas spirit than to serve others.

This evening we went to a Christmas devotional at the Stake Center sponsored by the Phnom Penh East District. There were excellent musical numbers, including some of our friends and missionaries. We definitely heard the Christmas songs that we are used to hearing, even if most were in a language that we do not understand, the English words are written in our hearts from past Christmases.