Just a week before Christmas (Week 12)

Sent: Sunday, December 17, 2017 9:50 PM
Subject: Week 3 in Vietnam
Hi everyone!

Well, I have now made it through my third week in Vietnam! Things are still going great here. It is now starting to get a bit cold, and I now wear a sweater every day. It actually isn't too cold based on the temperature, but with the added effects of humidity and wind, it does feel quite cold. But, with my jacket, I am dealing with it just fine.

 

So I have really seen how much the Lord prepares people to receive the gospel this week. I think I already mentioned the one investigator who is already super active in all of the church activities and is thinking of baptism and going on a mission last week, but once again, I think that is so cool that someone can be that ready after such a short time frame. The other cool example I saw was someone we are teaching who took initiative without our prompting to start reading the Book of Mormon. Last time, we gave her a card to download the Book of Mormon on her phone and asked her to download it. When we met with her yesterday, she had already read through 1 Nephi chapter 7! It was really exciting to see an investigator take the initiative, it shows that they actually want to learn more! Oh, and I guess one other thing that I learned this week on the topic of religion is that people in Vietnam like to read, and apparently one of our contacting methods is to offer them a download of a book for free that they can read called the Book of Mormon, and sometimes the person actually will read it on their own just for reading purposes! Honestly, I don't know if I have ever heard of someone just picking up the Book of Mormon to read for fun in the US, I feel like most people who read it read it with some religious intent. Anyways, I just thought it was a funny way of getting someone to learn more about the church. 

 

Alright, so for some more on what I have been doing. I am still working on the language, and am still not very good. I try to talk with the Vietnamese people when I can, but usually I have no idea what they say when they answer the few questions I know how to ask. And sometimes I don't know what they ask me either. Actually, I have found quite a few people here who just start laughing when they learn I can actually speak some Vietnamese since I am white. Usually though they are pretty nice after that and talk to me a bit. Actually that is something else interesting I have learned here.

 

 

Apparently in Vietnam, it is abnormal to just talk to strangers. If a Vietnamese person starts to talk to another person they don't know on the streets, people think you have an exterior motivation, like you are trying to sell them something. However, if you look like a foreigner they are fine with talking with you and are more friendly. My companion, Elder Danh, actually said I make it slightly easier for him to proselyte since I am a foreigner. Apparently with his last companion, everyone thought they were both Vietnamese (even though they were actually Cambodian) and didn't want to talk to them much. Now since he is with a foreigner (me), they are a little more curious and talk a bit more. I guess there are advantages to sticking out like a sore thumb in a crowd.

 

I also continue to try new foods here. Most foods are either a plate of rice with something else, or are soups, but I really do enjoy most of it. I had the opportunity to try eel the other day! It actually tasted alright, but it didn't sit too well with my stomach and I couldn't finish the bowl, so I could go without eating it again. I also got to try some other foods as well, but none stick out in my mind right now.

I guess the last thing I will bring up is self reliance class. The class is still going well. I hear attendance will go down in the upcoming weeks, as a lot of people go to their home towns this time of year, but we should still have some. This week, we taught about finding a good husband or wife! I thought it was a bit of an odd topic, but it actually went pretty well, and everyone was glad to practice their English. We also talked about the importance of communication, and for a game we did Simon Says, which they were really good at for having just learned how to play! Oh, and next week we will be having more of a Christmas party since it is right before Christmas, and we will be having the class focus on serving others. I will tell you how that goes in two weeks! And yes, I mean two weeks since next week is Christmas, and I probably won't be emailing that week. Instead I will be Skyping with my family! So I will have to send out a big email the week after. Merry Christmas everyone!

Elder Watson/ Nghiêm

Self-reliance and the silk village (Week 11)

Sent: Sunday, December 10, 2017 11:09 PM
Subject: Week Two in Vietnam!
Hello everyone!

I have now officially made it through two weeks in Vietnam. Vietnam really is such an exciting place! There is so much going on! I think I already brought up how crazy the traffic is last week, but I am happy to report that this week, I am a lot more used to it. The main thing to know if you bike here is that you have to be really assertive, you rarely stop and wait for someone else, just try to stay in constant motion.

Besides that, I have also been enjoying the food here, at least mostly... The things I have found that I don't like consist of frogs (too many bones), snail (too hard to chew), and duck stomach and liver (which don't taste bad, but have a really weird texture, especially the duck liver which felt like rubber and stuck to my teeth). The rest of the food here has been good though! And I can now say I have eaten bamboo! It was in some sort of soup I ate. I will include a picture of it in this email.

 

 

Well, let's get to some more spiritual stuff. I am continuing to teach both members and investigators about the church. My companion and I currently have three investigators, and I met one for the first time this week. He is super cool, he has only had the first two lessons and is already talking about wanting to be baptized and go on a mission. Now obviously there are no guarantees, but if it does happen, then it really is evidence of how the Lord prepares people to be ready to receive the word. This investigator has only known about the church for one month, and is already thinking of serving a two year mission! Seriously, I think that is so cool that someone could even consider that in such a short time.

Well, lessons in general are going well. I think the people we teach understand me pretty well, even if I can't understand them. My companion though is really good at the language and is able to respond to their questions well, and occasionally explains to me what they said so I can respond as well. The language is coming along. I have learned that the one of the hardest parts of the language for me is the letter t and d. To me, they sound the exact same! So I really have to work on differentiating the two, especially when I speak. Tones are also tough, but I have been making progress with that.

I guess I should mention a bit about the normal routine here. We have a few hours of study every day, both of the gospel and of the language. This is one of a few missions where you get to nap in the day. We also get up an hour earlier, but the nap really helps break up the day. Obviously we get three meals a day. Usually breakfast is in the apartment, and the other two depend on the day, but we eat out a lot. Then we have appointments with either investigators, or members, or have class. And, with any remaining time, we go contacting. I don't know how many of you are aware of this, but we aren't allowed to go door knocking in this mission, so our main source of contacting is riding the bus and just talking with people on the bus. Speaking of buses, they really pack buses sometimes. This only happened to me once, but I swear I was on a bus with about eighty other human beings! It was really packed! It turned out fine though.

I guess something else to talk about would be self reliance class. I think I mentioned previously how it was cool that it could be more religious based since it wasn't English class. Our last lesson was literally "Learning by the Spirit". Well, we get to teach in English, which I love! And we do cool activities with them. This week Elder Smith (the other American elder in my branch) and I taught the students how to do the human knot. They really enjoyed it. We related it to the lesson by directing the one group and leaving the other to figure it out themselves. Of course the guided group solved it much faster. Then we had them discuss in English the importance of having a guide, and then related that to the Holy Ghost. I actually really enjoy teaching the class.

Well, I think I have packed enough information into this email. Hopefully I will get to do something cool today for P Day! Until next week!
Elder Watson/ Nghiem

P.S. Below are photos of the soup mentioned above, Hanoi's thousand year old tree, me on a random bridge, and a machine used to make silk products that I saw in the silk village I went to last week for P Day.

First Week in Vietnam! (Week 10)

Date: Sun, Dec 3, 2017 at 10:20 PM (His P-day on Monday morning is our Sunday night)

Hello everybody!

Wow, there is a lot to write about this week, so here goes. Well, I finished up the MTC last week. I won't talk too much about that, but I will say that Thanksgiving was awesome! We got to hear from Elder Bednar that morning, and National Tribute Band came that evening for a performance. We also got to do service by packaging breakfasts for children in need. And of course for Thanksgiving, we got a great lunch! Most of the traditional foods, turkey, mashed potatoes, candied yams, etc... And they had eggnog! I normally associate that with Christmas, but it was still really cool to have!

Now moving on to Vietnam. So I landed here on Tuesday morning last week. It was super exciting. It is obviously very different, but it is such a cool experience. After getting out of the airport, the first thing I realized was how different Asian traffic is compared to American traffic. I guess if it works it works, but they really drive all over! There is a lot of weaving and whoever gets there first forces the right of way. It is a little crazy, but I am starting to get used to it. And actually the craziness had one good side to it, I actually made my first contact through looking really bad on a bike. Some Vietnamese person saw how I was biking and ended up talking with my companion and I about why we were there. I am pretty sure she talked with us because I looked really funny biking in Asia. We told her about how we were volunteers and invited her to our self reliance class, which she actually came to that week. I guess the Lord has all kinds of ways to introduce people to the church, even if it is an odd looking American on a bike in Vietnam.

Back to more of what I have experienced here in Vietnam. I have really enjoyed the food here, it is quite different, but I haven't had anything I didn't like. I even enjoyed baloot ( I am not sure how to spell that) which is essentially an unborn chicken. It has an odd texture, but it tasted alright. I also got to try an Asian fruit called a dragon fruit. It tasted pretty good, but fair warning, it literally turns your poop red! I don't know of any fruits in America that do that!

I have also really enjoyed the feeling of the city. They have a wide diversity of buildings, with influence from all over the world. Most buildings are at least a few stories tall. The sky here is even different, as it is always foggy. Very few blue sky days in Vietnam. My apartment is pretty nice. I am on the twenty first floor of a building and have a nice view of the city below.

The language is difficult, but it is coming along. I have learned that apparently they use the English words ok and byebye quite a bit. Other than that, there is a lot in the language that changes depending on who you are talking to. It also depends a lot on age, and apparently no one here believes I am eighteen! They always ask how old I am and when I say eighteen, they usually laugh and say I am not eighteen! Apparently they think Americans look older than they really are though usually.

Well, I need to wrap this up pretty quick. I don't have as much time to write in the field, but I still tried to get a lot of information out in this email. And I apologize to anyone I didn't get to respond to directly this week. I will try to get something out to you next week! Until then!

Elder Watson

The Big Flight (Week 9)

For Week 9 Sam spent his P-day in the air, flying to Vietnam. He was able to give us a call from the airport before leaving the United States. We do have a couple of pictures that we totally didn't expect to receive - the first photo came from an awesome person who let Sam borrow their phone to call us from the airport. The second picture we received from Sam's mission president as confirmation that Elder Watson had arrived safely. At this point, we were still not sure if Sam was in Hanoi, or Ho Chi Minh City. Sam said during our phone call that the mission president had informed them by email that some of them would be flying from Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh City just a few hours after their arrival in Hanoi. Jenny and I both had the feeling that Sam would be one heading to Ho Chi Minh City because we know there is a large Mandarin population there, and Sam speaks Mandarin as well as the Vietnamese he had been learning the last 9 weeks. We found out in Week 10’s email that Sam is in Hanoi and doing well.

 

 

 

Anh Cả Nghiêm (Week 8)

Hello everyone!

I am now down to my last week in the MTC! I will officially be flying out on Sunday, and will make stops in Los Angeles, Hong Kong, and then Hanoi Vietnam. It will be a long day of flying, but I am so excited that I will finally be in the mission field! By the way, I finally got my Vietnamese name! I am Anh Cả Nghiêm, or Elder Respect. I really like my name. And I better, after all it will be what I am called for the next two years. In Vietnam, they have us go by Vietnamese names to make it easier for the Vietnamese people to pronounce, and also in Vietnam, they call each other by first name with a title before it, such as in my name the Anh Cả means Elder, although I probably won't be called that a lot. I have been told I may be called that by members, but most people won't use it, it means something along the lines of older brother if it is directly translated. Most everyone else will refer to me by what they would anyone else. Actually, something really cool about the Vietnamese culture is how familial they refer to each other. People around your age are referred to as siblings. In general out of politeness if you are unsure if they are older or younger than you you refer to them as being older. Age is really important in the culture. So I would call them Anh, or older brother, or Chị, or older sister. If you know they are younger than you but are close to your age, you call them Em for either gender. If someone is significantly younger than you to the point you could be their parent, you call them con or child. There is also one for if you could be their grandparent, but I don't remember that one or most of the others. There are also options for if someone is your parents age, being aunt or uncle. Then there is one for people older than your parents, but not old enough to be your grandparents, and that one is used for both genders. And finally, there is one for people old enough to be your grandparents, being grandma and grandpa, although my teachers have said you don't use that one unless they are REALLY old. Anyways, I think it is pretty cool that all the names they use are based in family, so it isn't weird in Vietnam to call someone Brother or Sister so and so, unlike in the US where some people find that strange.

Well, that is probably enough about names and titles in Vietnam. Coming to the end of my MTC stay, I am really trying to focus and learn as much as possible so I can be more ready for Vietnam. We finished our grammar book this last week, and I think I have that down pretty well. For the most part now, I just need to get a wider vocabulary and more practice listening and speaking. While I don't feel entirely ready in this regard to go to Vietnam, I know that I will learn so much faster when I am literally surrounded by the language. We'll see how it goes!

I am pretty excited since Thanksgiving is coming up. Of course I am sad that I can't spend it with my family, but it will still be really cool. I know for sure that we are getting to hear from a speaker that morning (which I cannot say for certain, but I feel a high likelihood that it will be an apostle) and then we get to do service in the afternoon. And then to top it off at night, they are going to turn on the Christmas lights in the MTC! I think everyone here is really excited for that, and I am glad that I will get to see that before I leave.

As for my scripture study, I am now in 3 Nephi, and am getting closer to the part where Christ comes. Actually, something that I thought was pretty cool was that on Sunday I got to watch "The Testaments" movie about what was going on in the America's right before Christ came, and I was able to recognize a lot of it. In fact, I had not seen the movie in quite a few years, but I feel that I got more out of it watching it now, such as seeing the reference to the Gadianton robbers and their secret oaths. And of course, it was also just a good movie about Christ and having faith in him as well. I am trying to finish the Book of Mormon before I leave the MTC, but at the very least I should be able to finish up the last little bit I may have left on the plane ride to Vietnam.

Alright, now for some funny stories from this week. The first one is better than the second, just to let you know. Anyways, one elder in my district has been receiving billions of cookies every week from his mother. Last week, he was emailing his mother about it, and told her that the cookies were so good that he wasn't sharing a single one of them. In fact, he ate about twelve a day. Well, let's just say his mother wasn't happy. In response to his email, she ended up sending his companion an apology note saying she thought she had taught her son to share, but that apparently she was wrong. She also sent him a giant package full of cookies and said she would send him one the next week as well. I thought it was pretty funny how the elder thought he was complimenting his mom by saying he wasn't sharing the cookies, but how she ended up getting mad at him for it. As for the second story, it isn't so much funny as it was something I didn't mention earlier in this email. Do you remember how last week I mentioned that the name tags still hadn't come in, and that they should be in this week? Well, my teachers still hadn't heard back about the name tags, so one of my teachers finally decided to send an email to them asking how long it could possibly take them to print twenty name tags. He then got a response more or less saying oops, we thought we already emailed you that they have been here for a while. Well, I guess I could have emailed about my name last week, but at least I got to email about it today.

Well, that is probably enough information for one week. I just wanted to get off a lot this week since it is my last week before being in Vietnam, and I will not have as much time to email once I get there. I do, however, believe I can make a blog in Vietnam, so I will try to give information that way. Thank you all again for supporting me in my decision to serve a mission!

Elder Nghiêm Watson (the Vietnamese name is a first name)

P.S. I don't think I have mentioned this yet, but we really do live in a small world! I have met two people in the last two weeks that I knew that I wasn't expecting to run into! One of them is an old friend of mine who used to live in Tucson before he moved a few years ago. His name is Chad Roberts. I haven't really had contact with him since, and I had no idea he would start serving around the time I would since he is a year and a half older than I am. What are the odds he and I would be in the same MTC in the same week? Apparently he is going to South America Spanish speaking. As for the other person I met that I knew, I was in the lunch room on Sunday when one of my MTC teachers came over. He was apparently there to translate for some people there who spoke Vietnamese. Anyways, he brought over someone with him to introduce to us. Her name is Nhi, and I actually know her from back in Tucson! I assume she was also there for translation. Anyways, when he introduced her, she said she thought she recognized me, and asked if I was from Tucson. I told her that I was and that in fact I was in her seminary class a few years ago, and that I knew the family she lived with in Tucson. She then remembered that as well. I think it is so cool when you run into people you know somewhere you don't expect to! Well, now I will sign off with a few photos. The first one is of my district. The second one is my zone currently (although it is missing the Cambodian district since we couldn't find them in the moment). The third one is me with both of my name tags. The fourth one is a picture of my name tag with me in the background. And the fifth one is a photo of me with my new haircut today. I will send additional photos the next P Day I get, which may not be for two weeks since Monday I will be on a plane and will miss P Day. Well, see you all then!

 

We do not doubt our mothers knew it! (Week 7)

Sent on Tue, Nov 14, 2017

Hello everybody!

I am now only two weeks away from going to Vietnam! While I am a little nervous about going, I am also really excited. By the way, I will just say this now so the reader does not try to scroll ahead for this information, but I do not yet have my Vietnamese name. While our teachers did select them several weeks ago, they are not going to tell us them until the name tags have been made, and unfortunately Vietnamese name tags are always printed last. I don't know if that is because of alphabetical order, or because of the accent marks that need to be printed, but I know several other districts got their name tags the last few days, so I am really hopeful that it will come this week. On the bright side though, the Vietnamese name tags are the coolest, because with most languages you get your name directly translated into your mission language, but in Vietnamese you get an entirely new name to use for it! Hopefully I can tell you mine next week.

Something really cool that happened this last week was that we got to hear from President Nelson on Tuesday! He talked to us about being living epistles of the Lord, and about how we should represent the Lord on our missions. Also, on a related note, I don't know why but on that night one of the elders in my district was trying to tell me Watson is a first name (I don't know why he thought that) and tried to give me the example of Dr. Watson from Sherlock Holmes because Sherlock always calls him Watson, to which I replied "Do you mean Dr. John Watson". He still disagreed that Watson was a last name. Then during the devotional, we learned that Sister Nelson's maiden name is Watson. Apparently her name is Wendy Watson Nelson. After the devotional, I asked the elder if he still thought Watson wasn't a last name and he still denied it and said it was a first name. You can't convince everyone I guess.

I am also getting better at the language. We are almost done learning the content in our grammar book. I seem to understand it pretty well, and I think Mandarin helped me with understanding grammar in other languages than English. Recently, we have been learning the passive voice in Vietnamese. It is kind of odd, but can apparently be useful. I am also doing better with the vocabulary and the tones. I still don't feel entirely ready to be immersed in it in Vietnam, but I know it will help me a lot and that I will grow so much faster when I am fully immersed.

I am now in Helaman in my Book of Mormon studies. I finally finished Alma! That book is really quite long, but it has a lot of great stuff in it, especially about missionary work. It is one thing reading it normally, but I really got a lot out of it this time actually being a missionary reading about Alma and the sons of Mosiah on their missions. I especially like reading about the Lamanites who Ammon converts who then become the Anti Nephi Lehis and then the people of Ammon. That is quite a mouthful to say. Anyways, it is a great conversion story of a people who did not know about Christ. And it is also cool to read about their children, the stripling warriors who fight with Helaman as their commander. In particular, I happen to like the well known verses in Alma 56: 47-48 which says, "Now they never had fought, yet they did not fear death; and they did think more upon the liberty of their fathers than they did upon their lives; yea, they had been taught by their mothers, that if they did not doubt, God would deliver them. And they rehearsed unto me the words of their mother, saying: We do not doubt our mothers knew it." Yes, this is a shout out to my mother, who was always there to support me in everything, including getting ready for my mission. And I would also like to mention my dad as well, who also always supported me, just the verse I picked happened to be about mothers. Both of my parents are really great, and I am glad to know they support my decision to serve the Lord on my mission.

Well, I think that is about it for this week. I am continuing to enjoy my mission so far! I really feel I am growing a lot here, and I am glad to be on the errand of the Lord.

I will write again next week!

Elder Watson

P.S. Here are some more photos. The first one is the package I got from my grandparents. I especially liked how my grandmother decided to cut out a picture of Mario from a cardboard box to put in it. The second photo is me looking out at the distance with Moses. The third one is me sleeping in Liberty Jail with Joseph Smith and the others put in there. The fourth photo is of me being one of the guards when Esther approached the king to save her people. I will send more photos of the MTC next week. I only have two more weeks to get photos here, and then the photos will be of Vietnam! Until next week!

 

Snow and Halloween fun (Week 6)

Sent: Tuesday, November 7, 2017

Hi everyone!

I have had another great week at the MTC! It has been so cool, with Halloween, snowing today, and of course all the things we usually do at the MTC. We got new Le Ocean speaking elders on Wednesday, and that was pretty cool. My district also gets to host again on Wednesday for the incoming elders and sister. We have also finally reached a point where new coming English speaking elders don't leave before us! English speaking elders only stay in the MTC for three weeks, most languages stay for six, and Asian languages and Finnish (I don't know why Finnish is in this category) stay for nine weeks. That means before this week, some people coming in every week end up leaving before us. It is actually fine, all things considered, but it is always kind of funny when an English speaking elder or sister at the end of their third week says "finally I am leaving! I have been here forever!" and then those of us who are there for nine weeks say "you don't even know the meaning of forever." Seriously, if they think three weeks in the MTC is slow, try nine while learning a new language!

Anyways, as mentioned before, we just had Halloween! For Halloween, I wasn't expecting to really do anything, since I am in the MTC, but that night some elders in my residency decided to dress up. I might not have joined in, but one elder offered to dress someone up as an angel with an extra sheet he had. I volunteered. Afterwards, a few of us decided to go trick or treating around the building for fun. The residency has four floors, and we are on the top one. We started on the second floor for some reason, and the elders there really appreciated us dressing up, so they gave us a bunch of candy. Then we went to the first floor with similar results. Things were looking pretty good until we got to the third floor with the Japanese elders who were annoyed at us for making noise. They tried to throw stuff at us, so we made a hasty retreat. Then we went back to our floor and enjoyed our loot. I will attach a photo of most of the trick or treaters below (one person is not in it since he changed out of his costume before we took the photo). Also, I was the only person with a real bag for my candy, since I had it left over from a package from my parents. Everyone else used pillow cases. It really turned out to be a lot of fun, and it was really unexpected.

Now getting back to the more normal part of the MTC, I continue to enjoy my stay here. There is still a lot to do, but the MTC is well organized. Of course the teachers and staff are all good as well as the buildings and usually the food. Although speaking of the food, I think I have mentioned how bad the meatloaf here is. Well, while I didn't enjoy it, I did have to give the MTC credit for serving the "scariest meal" they could for Halloween dinner, the meatloaf. It is edible, but no body actually likes it. Actually, yesterday they had a survey about the food, and pretty much my entire district filled it out with decent marks on the bubble side of the survey (rating things by bubbling in your answer), but when it came to the back side, we all wrote bad comments about the meatloaf. We had one group one we did together where we wrote comments ranging from "please get rid of the meatloaf" to "for the sake of all that is good in this world, don't serve the meatloaf ever again!" In fact, one elder in my district actually wrote a poem about how bad the meatloaf was, saying it was made by and of the devil. His was a little too extreme, but I think you get the point on how much we don't like the MTC meatloaf. As for the other food here though, I actually like most of it, and it is all you can eat. On top of that, there is a large variety of drinks from soft drinks to juice, and there is always a freezer with ice cream sandwiches and similar items in it. I think that is enough talk about food for one week.

Now for the real stuff. I am continuing to work on getting down the language. It sure isn't easy, but I now feel like I can understand the majority of what others say to me, and I feel like I know enough Vietnamese to answer questions. By the way, in the MTC they have something called TRC (No, I don't know what that stands for) where you get to teach a member who speaks Vietnamese a lesson. That has been going well enough, but apparently in your seventh week they try to ramp up the difficulty by having you do it over Skype! It is hard enough to understand them in real life, let alone over a bad sound system online. Well, Elder Morris and I actually did a pretty good job with it, so that is good. Also, something I am really excited for is that since it is hard for Vietnamese people to pronounce English names, we get Vietnamese names! Our teachers apparently already prayed about it together and have selected our names, but they won't let us know what we are until our name tags are made. We were informed of it last week, so hopefully they come in this week. I can't wait to find out what my Vietnamese name means!

Gospel studies continue to go well here. No apostles this week, but we have still had good speakers. On Sunday, we got to hear from the MTC choir director. He is a really good story teller, and he told us a bunch of interesting stories about the people who wrote the hymns, ranging from someone who was blinded as a baby, to W.W. Phelps who put Joseph Smith in prison, but later repented and was allowed to return fully to the church after excommunication. By the way, I did try choir for one week here, but I think that I probably won't continue with it, as I prefer using that time to study from the Book of Mormon. Believe it or not, it is actually hard to find excess time to study on most days, and choir practice is on the two days I get extra time, Sunday and Tuesday (P day). Of course we get one hour of personal study every day, but if I am going to finish my current reading of the Book of Mormon before I leave the MTC, I need every extra moment I can get. For those of you who are curios, I believe I am now around Alma chapter 20,or about halfway through. Also, I have now officially watched all of the MTC exclusive videos. This week we watched one from Elder Uchtdorf, and yes, when the talk was recorded he was not in the first presidency yet. I really have enjoyed all of the MTC exclusive talks, and would encourage anyone who goes to the MTC to watch those before they go to one of the movies they can see anytime like "Meet the Mormons". However, since I have now seen all of the talks, I feel like my district will want to see a movie movie next week, which I guess will be fine. The talks though are just so cool to see since they are directed towards the missionaries. 

I have been taking a lot of photos this week, since my mother keeps telling me she wants to see more photos with me in them. She said considering almost all of my photos I have sent so far are in my residence, she would think I was in a prison cell or something. Well, I now have a lot more photos and will be attaching some of them with this email.

 

By the way, for a more spiritual note for those reading this email, my companion and I recently taught a lesson in TRC comparing the people of Limhi in Mosiah chapters 21 and 22 with the people of Alma in Mosiah chapters 23 and 24. It is really interesting to see how different of responses the two people have when they are put in bondage. I relate it to how we act when we have trials. Are we like the people of Limhi who rely on our own strength, and only approach God when we fail and realize we can't overcome our trials ourselves, or are we like the people of Alma, who approach God from the beginning and who bear their trials with patience and a cheerful attitude? I would like to challenge anyone out there to try to make time to read these chapters and think of how differently they approached their situations, and how God helped them accordingly. And yes, this is something I happened to some across in my personal study recently.

Well, I feel like I have exhausted this week pretty well. Of course there is always more I could write about, but I feel like "what I have written sufficeth me" to quote the scriptures. Thank you all so much for continuing to check in on me and my progress on my mission. I know that what I am doing is truly the Lord's work and that he is looking out for me.

Thank again!

Elder Watson

P.S. I think I mentioned this at the top of this email, but it actually snowed today! It was quite exciting considering I didn't get a lot of that in Arizona. The other elder in my district from Arizona, Elder Hansen, was especially excited to see the snow and was running around like crazy in it. I wasn't running around as much, but I found it really cool and certainly was out in it for a while. Too bad it didn't stick though, but I am hopeful it will snow more in the future and it will stick then. Till next time!

P.S.S. The four photos attached show me next to some of the murals in the new building and by a statue of Samuel Smith, the first missionary. With the murals, I am pretending to be a part of them. The first one is me looking down at Jerusalem with Nephi, wondering how we can get the plates. Then I am sitting with the Brother of Jared as the stones are lit. In the third one, I am gesturing for the children of Israel to keep moving as we cross the Red Sea. That one is my favorite. The final one is me by Samuel Smith, who not only shares my calling as a missionary, but also my name (Samuel Smith Watson). I will also send an additional email with this one with more photos, I am just doing them separately since Gmail won't let you send more than 25MB without using Google Drive.

Of course that's how you roast pumpkin seeds! (Week 5)

Halloween Day (Week 5)
Sent: Tuesday, October 31, 2017 3:20 PM
 
Hello everyone, and Happy Halloween!
I have officially been here at the MTC for 5 weeks, halfway to Vietnam! It has certainly been busy, but things continue to go well. This week, we got to hear from Elder Stevenson on Tuesday which was really cool! He talked to us about trying to be Christlike on our missions. I also have a cool story about him as well. Apparently one Elder in my district, Elder Bowler, has a family connection with Elder Stevenson. Apparently Elder Bowler's dad and Elder Stevenson are friends, so Elder Bowler was able to talk to an usher at the event and actually got clearance to go talk to him and shake his hand, which isn't normally aloud for missionaries at the MTC. None of us could believe he actually got to do so, and to prove his dad was friends with Elder Stevenson, Elder Stevenson took a photo on his phone and sent it to Elder Bowler's dad whose number he already had. How cool is that. Now if only I had an inside connection to one of the apostles... Speaking of that, every Tuesday we have a devotional, and Tuesdays oftentimes have a general authority, such as a 70, and occasionally an apostle. Since it is Halloween, I think we should get to see an apostle... but I am sure that whoever speaks will be great!

I am still working hard on the Vietnamese. I am working quite a bit on tones. They are challenging, but I am getting them. One particularly challenging tone is a dot under the vowel which means the word gets cut short. Our teachers explained it like speaking and getting punched in the stomach at the end. It is hard to do, but I am working on it. On a related note, since we are going Vietnamese speaking we get new Vietnamese names to make it easier for the Vietnamese people to pronounce our names. Our teachers won't tell us what names they chose yet, but they said they have been submitted for print and will be available soon. The names will probably be a strength someone has, although some of the elders in the district like to joke around about how it might be a trait we need to work for, like one elder who says he is going to be elder patient since he has no patience. I am excited to see what they picked for me.
I also don't think I have mentioned this before, but I was super excited that we got a new classroom this week! We used to meet in the old classroom building, but they switched us this week to the new building. Now we can actually move our chairs apart from the desk, and you can put weight on the front of the desk without it tipping over! Not to mention the new buildings are just nicer looking and have better equipment. I will be sending some photos next week of some of the murals they have in the building. I particularly like the one they have of Moses and the children of Israel crossing the Red Sea.
I also continue to read the Book of Mormon in my personal study. I am now at the part of Mosiah about Abinadi. I seriously can't believe how much more I am getting out of it reading it as a missionary. I though I got a lot out of it before. I guess I am just more focused reading it now that I am spending all my time either studying Vietnamese, studying the gospel, eating, or exercising.
I am glad to say I am still the elder who receives the most post cards that I know of. My mom has sent me so many, I am not sure how many I have even gotten. It has been nice seeing what my family is up to back at home every now and then.
Well, I think that is about it for this week. As stated, I will try to get more photos of the new buildings before my next email.
Until then,
Elder Watson
P.S. Here are some photos of my new Vietnam mission shirts I got, along with a Vietnamese hymn book which only cost me $0.50! It was a really good deal. I also am attaching a photo of an elder on my floor trying to roast pumpkin seeds for Halloween. He used a clothes iron to heat them up, and a jack o lantern he carved and got the seeds from.

Devotionals are awesome! (Week 4)

At the BYU Creamery a day before I entered the MTC

Sent: Tuesday, October 24, 2017 2:18 PM
Subject: Week 4
Hi everyone!
Wow, I am almost halfway through my MTC stay. This week was pretty exciting. First off, we got new Hmong elders (I have been told apparently it is spelled with an H). That is exciting because first off, our floor is no longer entirely empty, and we were able to give them advice for the first few days. We made sure they got to watch Elder Bednar's "Character of Christ" their first Sunday. Also, my district got to host incoming missionaries. Most people got to help three missionaries, but I only got to help one because of an interesting scenario. The missionary I helped apparently had a case where he first went on his mission for three months before getting a full call to make sure he could handle missionary life. As a result, once he finished the three month "trial", he reported to the MTC afterwards. When he was put in the computer system, they just stuck him with the rest of the usual South Salt Lake missionaries who aren't supposed to show up until the beginning of November. As a result they didn't have any of his stuff ready. I had to run around with him so they could print him his ID card, get him a companion (they broke up a trio in an Idaho mission and put him with them for the MTC) and I had to explain to his teacher why he was there, since he wasn't on the roster. In the end, it really wasn't that big of a deal only getting to help one missionary, and I was glad I helped someone out. I have actually also seen him a few times since then, and he has told me things are all going good with him, and he ended up watching "Character of Christ" which I had advised he watch.

One last "straw shot" at dad the morning I entered the MTC

My mom is just AWESOME!

As for other things in the MTC, I have continued to enjoy all of the devotionals. We heard from Elder Neilson of the 70 and his wife, and one of our teachers later pointed out that he looks just like one of the villains from Wonder Woman! Seriously, look up Elder Neilson, and then look up the German Army Villain from Wonder Woman, they look exactly the same! Anyways, his talk was pretty cool. Then on Sunday, we got to hear from a Holland, even if it wasn't Elder Holland. We got to hear from the President of Utah Valley University, President Holland. His talk was also really good, and was about changing who we are, kind of like the refiner's fire parable. He related it to the turning of the old tabernacle into a temple. It was a really cool story of how it was changed. I particularly liked the story of the stake president of the area, who when running around the burnt building saying "how could this have happened", saw a burned portrait of Christ where the only part that remained was the full image of Christ (it was the one where he is surrounded by a bunch of angels). Then the stake president heard a voice saying "whose house is this" to which he thought "yours" and then he heard "then what business do you have if I decide I want to remodel it?" I thought that was really cool. Anyways, all the devotionals here tend to be pretty good. I hope, however, that we at least get to see another apostle before we leave if not more, and since we are here on Thanksgiving I feel the odds are pretty good.
Oh, I also realized that I get to spend Halloween on P Day! What a coincidence. Now, I don't know if we get to do anything special for it, but it is still cool to say it is on P Day, and I will definitely be eating some of the candy my family sent me in a Halloween package.
As for language study, it is coming along well enough. I still sometimes have difficulty with it, I really want to pronounce it like Mandarin! And apparently it shows. Every Saturday we get to teach some member from the area who volunteer to come to the MTC, and I have been asked twice if I speak Mandarin because my Vietnamese has a Chinese accent! I guess that is pretty cool. I am also a little more worried with the language now, because I got an email from my mission president (actually all of those going to Vietnam got it) stressing the importance of getting the tones and pronunciation down well before coming to Vietnam, and not doing anything there to screw up the church's relationship with Vietnam since the mission is so new. I am now paying extra attention particularly to the tones. Other than that though, I have been getting better with the language, and am doing pretty well in teaching lessons. While I can't understand everything that is said, I tend to understand most of it.
My language study teachers are really cool. I think I have mentioned this, but I currently have four since normally there are two Vietnamese districts in the summer, but right now we just have one, so we get all four teachers. They all have really different teaching styles, but they are all really good. I think I had mentioned this, but one of our teachers hid his identity for a week pretending to be an investigator. His name is Thay An (Thay means teacher in Vietnamese, and An is his Vietnamese name) and he really reminds me of one of my teachers from high school named Mr. Cioni. For those of you who know Mr. Cioni, you can imagine that Thay An is quite funny. Thay An is definitely the teacher who jokes around the most and is the most likely to give slightly off color remarks. Essentially he is a Vietnamese version of Mr. Cioni (who is Italian). He has given a few funny jokes, such as one time, someone asked him how to say freak (As in the alternate version of a bad word, an exclamation used when you are annoyed) and he wrote on the board "a freak- Thay An". He also is the person who taught us how to say dang it in Vietnamese which is chết rồi! It literally translates out to "dead already" or in other words is kind of like saying "screw me" in English. It is not actually a bad word, although it is considered slightly stronger than dang it, but it is less strong than the alternate version of dang it. Anyways, another of our teachers, Thay Phat, freaked out when he taught us that because in Vietnamese, it is similar to some actual curse words since some curse words use the word for death in them. Apparently curse words in Vietnamese usually relate to death, the grave, dogs, and the word for mother. Apparently there aren't any "your mom" jokes in Vietnamese, which is fine since I don't use those anyways. I like all my teachers, but I just thought it would be funny to talk about Thay An, especially for those of you who know Mr. Cioni, and know exactly the kind of teacher I am talking about. Don't get me wrong though, Thay An can actually be really serious when he needs to be, and he is very spiritual. Apparently he is from Vietnam but learned the gospel in Australia and ended up serving Vietnamese speaking in San Antonio Texas, where he was mission companions with another of our teachers, Thay Van, and apparently where his twin brother would also later serve, and would have both Thay An and Thay Van for his trainer at different times. Thay An's twin volunteers for the TRC thing I mentioned earlier.
I have continued to enjoy getting letters and postcards from my family. I get so many postcards from my mom that my district leader, who gets the mail, sometimes freaks out saying "Elder Watson, I think you got more postcards!?" It is really nice getting stuff from them, especially since I might not get a lot of stuff once I am in Vietnam. Also, I enjoy going to the temple every week, since once again that is something I will miss in Vietnam. My district now goes to the temple together every P Day, and we get breakfast from the cafeteria there afterwards, which their cafeteria food is better than the regular stuff we get.
Life at the MTC is really cool when you get used to it. Everything is so focused on the spirit, it feel like everyday is Sunday. Also, while I have been here in the MTC, I decided to read through the Book of Mormon whenever I got a chance, and to try to categorize verses I liked so I could use them with investigators. I just finished 2 Nephi earlier today. Usually, I am not excited to read 2 Nephi because of how hard some of the Isaiah parts are to read, but while I can't say it was any easier to read, I actually was able to find a lot in 2 Nephi for my list. I think I have 65 different scripture passages ranging from one to about five verses each. I feel reading the Book of Mormon in the MTC, that I am getting even more out of it since I am so focused on the gospel. I think it is really cool how much I can see in it at this point in my life that I may have missed before.
Anyways, my MTC experience so far has been really great. I am so glad I made the decision to serve the Lord by going on a mission. There certainly have been rough days, and I am sure there are many more to come, but I know that it will be worth it, and that the Lord will bless me as I strive to do His work.
Thank you all so much for your support, I always look forward to P Day and getting to respond to and send out emails.
I will continue to do my best,
Elder Watson
P.S. While not overly important, I am continuing to enjoy the MTC food. On Monday, we got Subway. It didn't have Chipotle sauce, but it was still good. I also learned from the Cambodians that on days when you choose to get sack breakfast or lunch, since you get four items the idea is to get one to eat, and then to get three sodas to stock pile for later. I thought three was a bit excessive, but for sack lunch today, I got two drinks, one for lunch and one to save for later. It is not overly important, but I thought it was a funny idea to try.

A Care Package from Home! (Week 3)

3rd Week in the MTC

Hi all,
I am now officially a third of the way through the MTC! I have been doing all sorts of things. I got two different packages this week! The first came from my mother with two dozen donuts in it! I shared them with my district. They were really good, especially the chocolate filled ones! I have also learned to eat them quickly, because about four days later, we had four donuts left, and they tasted a little stale, but the rest were great! The other package came from my dad. It had some stuff for my mission like my patriarchal blessing, and some family history information. It also had some photos, candy, a letter from my dad, and a drawing from Paige. (Sorry if I missed anything else in it, I am doing this off of memory) I am really glad that my family cares so much about me, and the candy never hurts... I have shared it with some of the others in my residence area, but now I have my own personal stash!

This week, three districts in our zone left for their countries (Thailand, Cambodia, and something else). That means our zone currently has twenty missionaries only! Currently we have Vietnamese and Thai, but we are getting some Mung Elders tomorrow. (And when I say elders, I mean elders. Apparently in the Mung culture they don't accept women as teachers so they only send elders there. The rest of the districts in my zone can have sisters though. Also I hope I spelled Mung right.)
I have been getting better with Vietnamese. I can now give a decent prayer, and I can testify on some of the more basic concepts of the gospel (e.g. The Book of Mormon, Prophets, Christ being the Son of God, etc.). I can tell I still have a long way to go, but I know with the Lord's help I will be able to do it.
As for gospel related things, we have a devotional every Sunday and Tuesday. Last Tuesday, we got to hear from Elder Christofferson about the Book of Mormon. Additionally, last Friday they officially dedicated two new building in the MTC. We got to hear from Elder Oaks, and President Eyring dedicated the buildings. It was really cool to hear from these general authorities and to be in the same room as them. The other elders and I hope we get to at least hear from a few more, particularly since we are here on Thanksgiving (and Halloween). I have also continued to watch the MTC special talks on Sundays. Last Sunday, most of my district went to see "Meet the Mormons", but a few of us went to see another talk by Elder Bednar. This one was about feeling the spirit, and in it Elder Bednar told how if you do what you are supposed to do, the spirit will guide you to the right place, and that usually you can't tell that you feel the spirit in the moment, so don't worry and waste your time waiting around for some huge manifestation. I think it was a good talk for missionaries, since many missionaries are always worried that they aren't following the spirit if they don't feel some huge impression.
As for something more fun, I learned that last Friday is apparently something called "Treat Yo' Self Day" based on the show "Parks and Recreation", where you are allowed to eat whatever you want to for the day. All the elders in my district went all out. For breakfast, I went through the sack line (the option for meals if you don't want to eat in the mess hall, or don't want to be in missionary attire) where you get to choose any four items to take. I got three donuts and chocolate milk. For lunch, I also got a lot of food, but less junk. For dinner I ate a lot again, and had two ice cream things (an ice cream sandwich and a fudge bar). Then at night, we ate a lot in the residence. We had donuts (compliments of my mom), cookies, and chips and salsa. It was probably horrible for us, but it was a very fun day, even if it was Friday the 13th.
I am also happy to say that I have been trying to work out some more at the MTC. I use most of my gym days running on the elliptical. I have found that I have more stamina than I think, as I have been able to run for almost an hour each time I have tried.
Overall, I am becoming much more comfortable in the MTC. I will admit right now, and all the others in my district agree, that our first three days in the MTC were frankly awful. The days seem so long, and everything is so hard. But if you can get to the fourth day and beyond, you get used to the schedule and it actually becomes quite an enjoyable experience.
Thank you all so much for your support! I have been excited to answer all my email every P-Day.
Best of luck in all of your endeavors!
Elder Watson

Wow that Vietnamese language is tough to learn! (Week 2)

Sam's second week email from the MTC:
October 10, 2017

Hi all!
I am now on my second P day. All has been going well. I will admit it right now that after the first two or three days I was really discouraged, as they were really tough, but now that I am on day fourteen, I feel much more confident, and time really seems to be flying by! Vietnamese has been really tough, and the teachers have high expectations, but I feel I am doing fairly well. We currently have a vocab sheet of over three hundred words and phrases that we are supposed to memorize by next week. I am not sure if I will have all of them down by then, but I am getting fairly good at other parts of the language. I am able to give a decent prayer fully in Vietnamese, it is simple, but it works. I can also give some basic testimonies. I have also noticed that while I have some difficulty with the vocab, the grammar comes to me naturally. We were going over some sentence structures and grammar words yesterday, and they all made perfect sense to me off hand. I really feel the Lord is helping me as I learn the language.
Most days are going fairly well, with my favorites being Sunday and Tuesday. On Sunday, we have church meetings and then some really cool devotionals, and Tuesday of course is P day, and we also have devotionals on Tuesday night! In particular, I really enjoy the videos we get to watch after the Sunday devotional. You get the option of either watching a special MTC talk, or a movie like "Meet the Mormons" and "Legacy". Last Sunday, my group wanted to watch one of the more fun movies, but the rooms were all full so we watched a talk by Elder Bednar which I think I mentioned last week. It was a really awesome and inspirational talk. It was so good, that my district (7C) decided to watch another talk yesterday. We watched one from Elder Holland titled something like "Missions are Forever". Once again, it was a very sobering but motivational talk! We have decided to watch one of the other two talks next week. Some people in my group do want to eventually see one of the more fun movies, but we have all agreed the week before we leave we are watching the Elder Bednar talk again. By the way, I think I also mentioned this last time, but in the talk Elder Bednar impersonates the cookie monster from Sesame Street as being the natural man, and ever since then, my companion Elder Morris has learned to say "I want cookie now" in Vietnamese and says it all the time.
I have also been trying to do well in the other things that have been happening. In class, we still teach investigators on an almost daily basis (i.e. a daily basis, with a break before we get a new "investigator"). Elder Morris and I got better at delivering our lesson to An Thien, but we only gave a total of four lessons. My personal favorite moment was when we challenged him to read The Book of Mormon, and we didn't have a copy for him and on the spot I was inspired to have him look up lds.org on his phone (I didn't know how to tell him to do so in Vietnamese, so I pointed at his phone and then wrote lds.org on the board). We then figured out how to get it to be in Vietnamese, and found The Book of Mormon in Vietnamese! We didn't get him to agree to be baptized by the last lesson, but he agreed to continue to meet the missionaries in San Jose where he was supposedly moving. It turned out the next day that he is actually one of our teachers! His name is actually Thay An, and he is pretty amusing. He is a really good actor, and when he came in as our teacher he acted like he had never heard of An Thien before and said that he sounded like a complete jerk. I have also learned that all four of the Vietnamese teachers are actually converts! I think they are all from the US, except for Thay An who is from Vietnam and who was converted in Australia when he was nine. Elder Pattillo, the one who is going to Australia, thought that was pretty cool. In my district, we have one elder going to Australia (Elder Pattillo), and two elders going to Cambodia (Elders Bowler and Beauchamp) the rest of my district is going to Vietnam, but we are all speaking Vietnamese. We now have a new investigator named Em Tien (a.k.a. our teacher Thay Vahn) who we will teach on Wednesday. I feel much more prepared for that lesson. By the way, Thay means teacher in Vietnamese for guys, and our teachers have a different Vietnamese name than their English name. We will also get our own Vietnamese names before we leave for Vietnam. Also, it won't be hard to call investigators brother and sister, since in the Vietnamese culture you almost automatically do so. You call people younger than you Em (younger sibling), people around your age Ahn (brother) or Chi (sister), people around your parents aunt and uncle (I don't know these in Vietnamese), and older people Ba (grandma) and Ong (grandpa). Yes, a lot of these are missing tones and accent marks, but I don't know how to type that either.
As for other things going on, I have been trying to work out a bit more. The MTC food is really good, but everyone says you will gain your MTC 20 because of it. As a result, and also wanting to be more able in Vietnam. I have been working on the elliptical (that is what I am told it is called, it is the thing where you run and move your arms as you run) in the gym. I have actually been able to run more than I thought I could on it. On Thursday, I ran for a full fifty six minutes straight. I would have done a full hour, but gym is only an hour and the first few minutes consists of reviewing gym rules. I had to get off at fifty six minutes. I ended up burning over six hundred calories! I tried to do the same on Saturday, but didn't quite get as far because I took a five minute water break halfway through, but I still did fairly well. Most of the Elders and Sisters do volleyball, basketball, four square, spike ball, or some other sport, but I have decided that I will try to use the workout machines. I may occasionally join in another event.
And speaking of food, I have enjoyed every meal so far except for one. Sometime this week we got meatloaf, and it was bad. It was so bad that now whenever any of the missionaries in my district eat something we don't like, we all say at least it isn't MTC meatloaf! Most of the other food is pretty good. Every Friday is pizza day, and every Monday is catering day. Yesterday was Taco Bell night, which for some reason everyone but me seemed disappointed about. I will say though, after I ate it I was a little disappointed too. We just got a bean burrito and a soft taco. Oh well.
Overall, I have really enjoyed my MTC experience so far. For any new missionaries coming in however, I would warn that the first three days really are hard, and that they should make sure to watch the Elder Bednar talk on their first Sunday.
Thank you guys so much for all of your support! I love you!
Elder Watson
P.S. This is something my family will understand more than anyone else, but I will tell you all anyways. Over the last few days, I have been getting really bad dry skin to the point where my skin would actually crack and bleed, especially if I would clench my fist. It first got bad on Saturday, but the store was closed early, and on Sunday the store does not open. I wasn't sure what kind of lotion the store would have, but I did not think they would have the Eucerin Creme ( I am not sure if it is creme or cream for lotion) I usually use when I have dry skin, but I wasn't counting on it. I went to the store on Monday, and they had exactly one four ounce bottle of Eucerin Creme on display! I feel the Lord was really looking out for me, because my hands were getting bad. When I bought the creme, another elder in my district, Elder Hodson, was telling me to buy the cheap brand of lotion that was one quarter the price ($8 vs $2 not including the 30% missionary discount on both), but I told him that this stuff worked really well. I told him that my hands would fully heal in about three days, so I am taking photos of them each day to prove to him how effective it is. They are already a lot better today after using the lotion yesterday. Most of you reading this won't really understand, but I thought my mom would get a kick out of this P.S. comment at least.