Good morning brothers and sisters. It is a great honor for me to address you in this amazing gathering. I pray that my message today will give you more hope and encouragement to feel His love and know that Jesus is our Lord. He is protecting us because we are His covenant people.
My name is Elder Bunhuoch Eng, from Cambodia, a country with a long history. Right before I was born, there was a period of sadness for Cambodia from 1975 to 1979. There was a series of civil wars that took place, and Cambodia fell under a genocidal regime, what we call the Pol Pot regime. During that regime, around two million people were killed by starvation and many other cruel ways. Some of my relatives were among those killed during this sad period.
After this regime ended in January 1979, Cambodia was left empty-handed, and we had to start everything again on our own with a newly formed government. Luckily, I was born one year right after the Pol Pot regime ended. If I came a little earlier, I think I would have been killed.
I have eight brothers and sisters. My father served in the military and my mother stayed home and took care of all the children. In my childhood, I struggled to find food to eat. Most of the time, I was at [a] river close to my home looking for vegetables that grew naturally along the riverbank. I caught fish, snails, crabs, and small shrimp from the river for my mother to cook. We didn’t have meat to eat, like chicken, pork, or beef. Every time I saw someone eating chicken, I stood by and stared at them and thought to myself, I wish I could have just one bite. Because of this life situation, many times, I thought to myself, how is my life going to be?
I am so grateful to have such good parents who always encouraged and supported me to get an education because they knew that it would change my life. When I was in primary school, I didn’t have notebooks to write in. I tore the unused pages from my older brother’s and sister’s notebooks from previous years, I put them together and nailed holes so I could sew them together and make my own notebooks. A plastic bag was my school bag. Luckily, I made it all the way through my high school.
When I was in high school, I heard there was a free English class in a Christian church with native American teachers located behind my high school. I was very excited about it, and I went there even though I didn’t like Christians at all. The Church I went to study English was The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I made many good friends in my English class who were members of the Church. Because those good friends kept on inviting me again and again, I decided to take lessons from the missionaries and to be baptized. The decision I made to be baptized really changed my life.
Because of my financial condition, after I finished high school, I was not able to continue on to university. I decided that I would go and serve as a full-time missionary. While I was waiting for my mission call, I prayed really hard and fast that I would be called to serve somewhere that spoke English because I wanted to learn English and speak it well. Eventually, I was called to serve in the Cambodia Phnom Penh Mission, in my own country. I didn’t know if the Lord really heard my prayers that I wanted to serve somewhere that spoke English so I could learn it. But now, I am standing before you and speaking English to you all. Little by little, God answered my prayers and fasts.
During my mission, I saw families sit together in church, they sang hymns together and they prayed together. I wept many times because I wished and prayed that my family would come to church and sit with me some day. My father passed away 19 years ago, and my mother passed away seven years ago. They didn’t get baptized during their lifetimes. I don’t know if the Lord really heard my prayers that I wanted them to be baptized and come to church with me. I eventually was baptized for my father and a sister from my stake was baptized for my mother in the temple and did all the ordinances for them. There [are] two sacred occasions I would like to share with you.
Many years ago, I had a terrible headache, and I could not go to work. I laid on a couch at home. When I was almost asleep, I heard my father call my name and he placed both his hands upon my head and said to me, “be healed, and don’t worry, I will always be with you son.” I woke up quickly and tried to grab his hands, but he was gone. I woke up and, in that moment, I really felt that his spirit came to me and really healed me, my headache was gone, no more pain in my head.
Another recent sacred occasion was in 2023 when I was called to be an Area Seventy. My wife and I [were] invited to go to Salt Lake City to be sustained for my new calling. The night before my sustaining, I was very nervous, and I couldn’t sleep because I would see the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve Apostles in the morning. I only slept two hours that night. In those two hours, both my father and mother came to me, and they said, “Son you don’t need to be worried, we will be there with you to sustain you.” I felt more confident in the morning as I knew that they would escort me to the meeting. After my sustaining and training, Elder Gerrit W. Gong asked me to go to his office to be set apart. Elder Gong asked me to hold my wife’s hands while we were seated and being set apart. He pronounced my name, my wife’s name and all our five sons’ names and set me apart with many meaningful blessings and promises he gave. During my setting apart, while closing my eyes I saw them both sitting right in front of me and smiling at me, expressing their support in my new calling. Because of that, I knew that they accepted those ordinances in the temple that we did on their behalf.
I know that the Lord has answered my prayers even though my parents didn’t accept and were not baptized while they were still alive but now, they are members of the Church. I didn’t have a chance to sit with them in a chapel, but I can sit with my own family, and I know that my parents always sit with me in our Sunday worship.
Sometimes, each of us will have moments in our lives when we feel like God isn’t answering our prayers and we might wonder whether He is aware of what we’re facing and asking for. This doubt happens in every dispensation of the gospel. As in the Old Testament, in Isaiah 49 God was doubted by Zion in verses 14-16. It says: “But Zion said, The LORD hath forsaken me, and my Lord hath forgotten me. Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee. Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands…”. [1]
It takes time and our own commitment to the Lord to see His plan for each one of us. During my mission, I was privileged to help teach many people who eventually accepted the gospel and were baptized. The Church is only 31 years old in Cambodia, and I can feel that God loved us, and He is blessing us abundantly. Now, in Cambodia, we have two missions, two stakes, four districts with 36 units (wards, branches, and groups), and the missions are now expanding into new areas for missionary work. A temple is being built, hopefully it will be completed very soon and have more of our members make covenants with our God. The country is stable with peace and safety.
During all of the experiences I have had, I feel that God really loves me and loves each one of His children. It might be hard to feel His love when you are facing trouble alone and put Him aside. With all the demands facing us, the father of lies [2] highlights the demands, problems, and difficulties in our lives and tries to make us forget about finding peace and joy in our true identity as sons and daughters of our Heavenly Father. Our beloved Prophet, President Russell M. Nelson, promised all of us: “In the house of the Lord, we focus on Jesus Christ. We learn of Him. We make covenants to follow Him. We come to know Him. As we keep our temple covenants, we gain greater access to the Lord’s strengthening power. In the temple, we receive protection from the buffetings of the world. We experience the pure love of Jesus Christ and our Heavenly Father in great abundance!” [3]
Brothers and sisters, please remember that God cannot deny blessing us when we keep the covenants that we made with Him. As the Lord declared: “I, the Lord, am bound when ye do what I say; but when ye do not what I say, ye have no promise.” [4] Please continue to press forward in faith that He will help us and answer to our prayers.
Many miraculous things happen by simple faith in God. “…the Lord is able to do all things … for the children of men, if… they exercise faith in him…” [5] by letting God prevail [6] in their lives. To exercise our faith means that we will believe and hope in Christ, let God prevail and guide our paths, and trust in His timing. We will put off the natural man through the Atonement of Jesus Christ. Exercising faith does not mean that once you believe in God you are immediately and always blessed. If so, everyone would believe, join the Church, and follow God’s commandments. But the Lord wants to see if we will exercise our faith in Him during our difficult times.
President Russell M. Nelson shared, “Faith in Jesus Christ is the foundation of all belief and the conduit of divine power…. It is our faith that unlocks the power of God in our lives.” [7]
During my mission I learned a true story of a young boy named Tonga who exercised his faith in the Lord during a time of trial, and eventually, the Lord blessed him greatly. With permission from his grandson, Kafea Lavulavu, I would like to share the following:
A couple of missionaries taught the gospel to a family. They enjoyed hearing many things while being taught by the missionaries. At one point, they seemed upset with what the missionaries were teaching and felt that the missionaries were liars. They told the missionaries to leave their home as they didn’t accept the teaching of the missionaries anymore. One of the boys in the family, Tonga, felt strongly that their message was true. He felt it would bring him joy and was something that he needed in his life. Fortunately, the missionaries visited a family next door to Tonga. He joined the missionary lessons with his neighbors. Tonga enjoyed learning what the missionaries taught. Once his dad found out he was joining the missionary lessons with the other family, he was angry and told Tonga not to join again, otherwise he would punish or even kill him. Tonga was very sad because he really wanted to learn more about the gospel.
For the next appointment, he opened the windows close to the neighbor and sat next to the wall as close as possible so he could hear what the missionaries were teaching his neighbors.
One day, the missionaries taught about baptism, and Tonga felt he needed to be baptized in order to be saved in the Kingdom of God. He was very excited and asked the missionaries if he could be baptized. “No,” the missionaries replied, "your dad will kill you if you are baptized". He was instructed that he must wait until he was 18 years old. After turning 18, he met with missionaries again and asked if he could be baptized. He was interviewed by a missionary, and he recounted every story in the Book of Mormon from cover to cover. Finally, he passed the interview and was ready to be baptized. Tonga was baptized by one of the missionaries in the ocean. When he was immersed in the water and was lifted back up, he saw one of his older brothers walking towards him with a big stick on his shoulder. While his older brother walked step by step into the water, the elder told Tonga to run. He stood still in the water in obedience to his older brother’s command. In respect, Tonga stood in the water. The older brother hit Tonga as hard as he could with the big stick. His head was bleeding, his white baptism clothes became red, and blood was everywhere in the water. The older brother walked out of the water, angered, and left his brother submerged. The elder ran back and lifted the boy from the water and shook him, “Wake up! Wake up!” the elder said. Tonga weakly opened his eyes and grabbed the missionary’s arm and said, “Elder, can you confirm me with the Holy Ghost now?” “No, you are going to die,” the missionary responded. “We need to take you to the hospital right now.” The boy grabbed on tightly to the missionary’s arm and said: “Elder, if you confirm me now and I die, I know that I will go to heaven, but if I die without the confirmation, I cannot go to heaven.” Because of the faith of the boy, one missionary held him on the back and the other missionary confirmed him a member of the Church and bestowed upon him the gift of the Holy Ghost. His faith really blessed him. His injury was not serious, and he was healed. However, he could not go home, and he had to find another place to live so he could attend school and work. Every time he got paid from work, he always sent money with a letter of his testimony of the gospel to his family. Some months later, his father felt bad about what he did to his own son, and he started to miss him.
His mother wrote a letter, and his father delivered the letter and asked him to return home even though he knew he had joined the Church. Tonga returned home and lived with his family happily and always bore his firm testimony of the restored gospel. Eventually, his father’s heart was softened, and he allowed missionaries to come back into the home to teach them the gospel. Later, the whole family was baptized and joined the Church, and Tonga served as a Stake Patriarch.
This story was shared verbally with me by Tonga’s grandson, who served a mission with me from 2000 to 2002. The Lord has said, “…for verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you” [8] I can see that because of Tonga’s seed of faith, he really could move the mountain that affected his family for generations, from the darkness of not knowing the gospel to knowing “light and truth”. [9]
My brothers and sisters, we all have problems, both good and bad people. But how we solve our problems is what matters most for all of us. As covenant people, we must “press forward with a steadfastness in Christ” [10] with faith to seek for divine help from Him, “for with God nothing shall be impossible.” [11] We all need to seek to build the foundation of our testimony on the Lord. “When the Savior knows you truly want to reach up to Him—when He can feel that the greatest desire of your heart is to draw His power into your life—you will be led by the Holy Ghost to know exactly what you should do.” [12] I testify to you that, the Lord lives and that He is always there for you “on your right hand and on your left, and [His] Spirit shall be in your hearts, and [His] angels round about you, to bear you up.” [13] He is the God of hope—He is the God of miracles. He lives and He loves each one of us. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
Notes:
[1] Isaiah 49:14-16
[2] John 8:44
[3] Russell M. Nelson, “The Lord Jesus Christ Will Come Again,” Ensign or Liahona, October 2024,121
[4] Doctrine and Covenants 82:10
[5] 1 Nephi 7:12
[6] Russell M. Nelson, “Let God Prevail,” Ensign or Liahona, October 2020, 93
[7] Russell M. Nelson, “Christ Is Risen; Faith in Him Will Move Mountains,” Ensign or Liahona, April 2021,102
[8] Matthew 17:20
[9] Doctrine and Covenant 93:36-37,39-40
[10] 2 Nephi 31:20
[11] Luke 1:37
[12] Russell M. Nelson, “Drawing the Power of Jesus Christ into Our Lives,” Ensign or Liahona, April 2017, 42
[13] Doctrine and Covenants 84:88