Happy New Year!

What a memorable Christmas season this as been for us here...in nearly every way we have experienced the classic, How the Grinch Stole Christmas first hand..."It came without trimmings, it came without bows....maybe, maybe, Christmas was a little bit more...." And so it was. As Christmas morning dawned, we were preparing for a mission wide zone Conference and in the early hours we joined together in the ageless hymns of Christmas as the Christmas story was read from the scriptures in English and Khmer.
We were blessed with an outpouring of the Christmas spirit which was "[much] [much] more..."

Right after our trip to Phenom Phen, we stopped in KT for the night, repacked some clean clothes and headed up to Siem Reap. The Lord continues to bless us with treasured and sacred opportunities to see his hand in the lives of these people.

One incident we want to share concerns an older couple who truly are the Lord's elect. They are the ones we told you about earlier who desired to give their land to the Church for a building site. This week the missionaries taught them the lesson on the Book of Mormon. The wife, a native Cambodian, does not read, her husband is Laotian, and only speaks broken Khmer. The missionaries were able to find a Book of Mormon in Thi, a language the husband can speak and read. As he held this book in his hand and began to read, the power of the words was conveyed to all of us...He then went on to say that years ago during the Khmer Rouge period, he had a friend who had been given the Book of Mormon by an American. This friend was killed by the soldiers of the Rouge, but testified to the soldiers that this book, The Book of Mormon, was a good book. This fine man, in all the years following the tragedy of that terrible time, has sought for that "good book"... As we listened to him share this story, I felt these words come into my mind, "...take off your shoes, for the ground thou standest on is holy ground..." He went on to say he had many things to tell us, but we would need an interpreter so that he might be able to share them accurately.

It is more humbling that we have ability to express, the opportunity to experience first hand the miracles and tender mercies of the Lord.... Truly the Lord is mindful of all His children and it is marvelous in our eyes.

We do not know why we have been so richly blessed with these and other sacred experiences, but with all our hearts we express to you, God lives, Jesus is the Christ, and this is the stone, cut without hands, that Daniel prophesied would roll forth and fill the earth.

Hugs and all our love, Elder and Sister Dickerson ie: Grandpa and Grandma!!