The Church has now been in Cambodia for 20 years. What a wonderful celebration there was. We have been meeting and planning since December. We had a wonderful committee with members from all districts. President Eng of the North Stake was the committee chairman and we acted as co- chairmen. We met once a month until April and then every week as it got closer. The day of the celebration began at 8 am with rehearsals for all participants and set up of the gallery in the large foyer area. We were responsible for the galley which included historical photos collected from records and also photos sent in by past mission presidents. We were also in charge of the reception for the special guests we had invited. These included the Area presidency, past presidents, local presidents, government officials and others responsible for helping the Church get established here. About 3500 people came from all over Phnom Penh and they also came on buses from the Branches in the provinces. Tickets were issued to hold a seat and they had a tear off stub for food after the program was over. It was so hot as we were setting up! They did not turn on the air conditioning until noon. We would have had to pay an extra $500 to have it on earlier. The theater is enormous and expensive to cool. We were dripping wet as we worked! The buses began arriving around noon as we were still working to prepare. The gallery opened at one, the VIP reception began at 2 and the program at 3. Everyone seemed so happy as they were arriving at milling around and visiting. Pres and Sister Moon had ordered a large 8 layer cake for the entrance and everyone wanted their picture taken by the cake. Many of the members saw an escalator for the first time and it was pretty funny watching them work up the courage to step on it. The VIP reception was really nice and to was really good to have government people meet Church officials and become acquainted. It should help the future of the Church here to have the government people recognize the goodness of what the Church is doing.
The program was very long but really nice. There was a missionary choir, a YSA choir, a special musical number by Thaong Putheary, a family history video, a church history in Cambodia video, a talk by Ith Vichit who was responsible for getting the Church recognized 20 years ago. There were cultural performances by each of the 4 districts along with a short talk by their president. These performances were so great! We did not expect such wonderful performances from the members. There was then a talk by Pres Moon, Elder Wilson and Elder Gong of the Asia Area presidency. After the program everyone went back to the gallery area where there were enormous piles of bags with food for each of 3000 people. What a mob scene that was! Everyone seemed to have a great time and so many people told us how happy they were to be there. It was so good for them to see how many members were there and to see that they are part of something so big and so good. It was a wonderful day. It was an amazing month in Cambodia.
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