We visited these Killing Fields about a month after we got here. It was the dry season so these pictures are really dry looking. But it made me think of the cycles of life, being in this place, basically a cemetery. Dead. And this one is pretty dismal. You rent a headset and go from marker to marker, they are numbered. It is very quiet and everyone has the utmost respect for the grounds. It is quite a personal thing. You go at your own pace. At some stops you will just hear music while you read and contemplate. It is heart wrenching.
I can only think that when their suffering ended, they were then in a place of loveliness with their families, free from pain, hearing the glorious truths of the gospel. Now waiting for their baptisms, marriages, and sealings to take place. A lot of work to do. Family history here is hard because it was all destroyed by the evil of the Khmer Rouge. There is a government center that has whatever records were found stored there. I think they are going to let Dad and I in, and we want to see if they will let the Church officially come and copy the records. So members here have only a record given verbally of at the most their grandparents. Everyone we talk to has a story about a member of his or her family killed or never found during the Khmer Rouge time. We have a church interpreter who is about 40. He witnessed the torturing and death of his parents and sister when he was 7. He told us he just found his brother last year. So many, many families torn apart.
So grateful that we have the knowledge of the gospel, and the temples to seal us together as families.
it's too sad and awful. cute pic of you guys.
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