2nd Easter in Cambodia!

I remember Easter last year in Cambodia and the great disappointment I felt at the end of the day because no one in either of the Branches that we attended that day had said one word about the Atonement & Resurrection. I promised myself that I would not let that happen this year. I wanted so much for the Primary children to know about this glorious event! So today I went prepared to share the Easter Story in Primary, complete with pictures and an art activity (the tomb, round rock, and Savior) that could be colored, cut out and then they could place the Savior in the tomb, roll the rock in front of the tomb, remove the Savior from the back of the tomb and then "roll" the rock away and see the empty tomb! I asked a young man who has submitted his mission papers and is waiting for his call, to come to Primary with me and translate as I told the story. (I had hoped that I would be able to be fluent in Khmer by this time, but speaking it only one or two days a week doesn't cut it!) There were 12 children in Primary ranging in age from 4 to 12. One little girl, just 5 or 6 years old gave me a big hug at the end of Primary. They are so precious and I felt so humbled & grateful that I could share the life of the Savior and His great gift of the atonement with them today.

There was an 18 year old young lady in class who had come to assist the teacher today. She asked the young man to ask me to tell them how we celebrate Easter in America. I told about our early morning nature walk on Easter Sunday and how exciting it is to see signs of life when everything looks brown and "dead". Then I told her about coloring hard boiled eggs on Saturday, putting them in the children's Easter baskets, adding lots of candy to each basket (one for each of our 9 children) and then having our Father hide them outside (hanging them on a tree branch for the younger children, and digging a hole in the ground, placing the basket in and covering it with a large rock to make it harder for the older children) for the exciting hunt! Those were great years! It is so fun to see the traditions carrying on with our sweet little grandchildren!