Happy December! and Dam Sen Park! (Weeks 61 and 62)

Happy December!

Samuel Watson

Sun, Dec 9 2018

Hello everyone!

I am a little late to the punch line, as I did not send out a group email last week, but can you believe we are already in December?! It is crazy! Well, the last two weeks were eventful. I don't have a lot of time though, so I will be quick.

First off, in the last two weeks we got eight new investigators! And one has a baptismal date! Her name is Chi Thuy. Initially, she wanted to meet and talk in English, but about religion, but she really has liked what we share, and now is more focused on that! We are really excited for her as she prepares for her baptismal date at the end of this month! And our other investigators are all doing really well! I am sad to report though, that I will not be working with them after tomorrow... We got transfer calls and I am going to Binh Duong. I will miss all the people I have met here, I have almost been here for nine months! But I know God has a plan for them and will watch over them. But I am excited for my new area as well. I will now be working with Elder Quoc. I don't know much about him but I here he is a good elder. And I have heard a lot of good things about Binh Duong, so that is good too. It is a relatively new branch, and it has a lot of room to grow! I am excited to be a part of it!

Well, that is my quick update on things here. I really am grateful for the opportunity I had to serve here and both help others and grow myself. A member came up to me the other day and told me how much he had seen me grow in my nine months here.

One quick other note, we went to Dam Sen Park last week! It was really fun, and this time, we went on rides! We had permission of course! But it was good! Okay, that is all!

Elder Watson/ Nghiêm

Hey, I Thought Rainy Season Was Over! (Week 60)

Hey, I Thought Rainy Season Was Over!

Samuel Watson

Sun, Nov 25, 2018

Hello everyone!

How are all of you doing? This week has been pretty good. As you all know, it was Thanksgiving! So the day before Thanksgiving, we had zone conference which was awesome! It really focused a lot on improving our teaching, making it more prepared and personalized for our investigators. It was really good. One of the focuses I really liked was remembering to ask inspired questions. That is a really important step. We aren't just throwing information at these people, but we need them to act for themselves! That was another big focus they had. Getting people to the point they can act and not having them wait to act. Often in lessons we teach and then invite them to pray and to read the Book of Mormon at home. But as Elder Meurs said (he was the general authority who came for the conference) why have them wait? Why not just read with them on the spot? So we are now trying to apply that! And with that we are also trying to ask more inspired questions to get them more involved as we teach, to help them have their own experience with the gospel. We are not the ones who convert them, it is the Spirit that does that. And that comes from their own personal experience with God. I really enjoyed the trainings we got, and I feel we got it at the right time. I feel God really inspired our leaders to share these things. We have recently been focusing on how to better find people who are interested in our message, and the next step would be figuring out how to better address their needs. God really does give us what we need when we need it "line upon line, precept upon precept" (2 Nephi 28:30).

So that was really cool. Well, we also got lunch as a zone, and President and Sister Chiles had planned out a real treat! It was a Thanksgiving lunch! We got turkey, stuffing, and cranberry sauce sandwiches, with mashed potatoes and gravy, chips and a salad, and for dessert, pumpkin pie! It was truly a Thanksgiving feast! But it was the day before Thanksgiving... For our actually Thanksgiving we got to go to the hospital! Yay! My companion had to get his ingrown toenails cut out... Not fun! One on each foot too... But since we were in district 7, we got to go to one of the only two Subways in Ho Chi Minh City! No turkey breast... But I got a tuna sandwich. It was very good. We also had a member who decided to tag along on the journey, and he thought the sandwich was okay, but loved the cookie! It was pretty funny. So that was our Thanksgiving celebration here summed up.

Well, my companion is recovering alright from the surgery. He can bike again and we can get around. So we got to meet our investigators this week, as usual. They are all doing well. Anh Chuong, who I brought up last week is really cool. He is very open at sharing his thoughts, and really wants to follow God. He really likes meeting with us, so much so he even calls us to set up his own appointments! That is a rarity! Most people you either call and set up with, or they won't make time for you. He calls and says "hey, are you free this week? I can meet any day at 7 pm." and then he proceeded to set up two appointments this week for us to meet him. It is awesome! So he is doing great. Unfortunately, we were not able to meet Anh Phat this week... He is doing well from last week, but when we were supposed to meet him on Sunday... Well let's just say there was a huge rainstorm going on all day... One where the government put out a warning to avoid going outside if possible. So he called and had to cancel. We still went out though and got soaked! It literally rained for over 12 hours, if not more like 20. I don't know if it rained the whole time I was asleep, but it was lightly sprinkling when I woke up. Also, the lessons we had after zone conference went really well! The trainings we had helped a lot. I have heard similar things when I have followed up with my fellow district members. It is an exciting time here in Vietnam! We are seeing lots of miracles. And we think it will be a white Christmas... But instead of snow people in baptismal outfits which are also white... That is meant to be funny. But we do have a lot of people with dates in the upcoming month. Our other investigators are all doing good.

Well, I hope all is going well for all of you out there. I am really grateful to be here in Vietnam to serve the people here though, it is such an exciting time, we are really seeing the Lord hasten his work! Have a good week everyone!

Elder Watson/ Nghiêm

 

P.S. Our English activity is going good still. We had a lot of new people last week, and shared about Thanksgiving! They all really liked it, and we shared some scenes from the Charlie Brown episode on "The Mayflower Voyage", which I used to watch every year for Thanksgiving! It is both entertaining and actually teaches the story of Thanksgiving! For the spiritual thought we talked about the importance of gratitude and expressing your gratitude to others and focusing on what is important. That is all.

Happy Thanksgiving! (Week 59)

Happy Thanksgiving!

Samuel Watson

Sun, Nov 18, 2018

Hello everyone!

Well, while Thanksgiving is not a big thing in Vietnam, back in America, it is the holiday season! So of course all of the missionaries are listening to Christmas music back in the apartment! It is crazy to think this is my second Thanksgiving as a missionary! But I still have another good ten months to serve. All of our investigators here are doing well. Still progressing good. Chi Dinh and Anh Dung are doing great with commitments and everything! Chi Sang is having some hard times, so prayers for her are appreciated! We are still trying to work with her and know she truly can find peace in Christ. We also have two investigators that got switched to our area. They were found by other missionaries but live in our boundaries. We have Anh Phat, who is doing great! We have had one lesson with him, but he has been to church several times and loves it! He also is quite knowledgeable, and is really connecting with prayer and the Book of Mormon! He is awesome. And then we have Anh Chuong. He is also very cool. About ten years ago he decided to self-study Christianity, and really loves the Lord. He has a lot of good principles he applies in his life and is excited to learn more things he can do!

This week, we didn't have the most time to go looking for more investigators. On Wednesday, I had to go to the doctors to get my fingers checked, and it was a long bike ride to get there. They gave me a cream that should help my fingers. Also, my companion got to go to the doctor's too, and got his ingrown toenails checked. He will get them cut out this week on Thursday! Happy Thanksgiving! Not fun... But there is a Subway right by the doctor's office, and since we are there anyways, might as well pick up a Turkey sub sandwich in the spirit of Thanksgiving...

We had two other different things this week. Friday, we had our interviews with President Chiles and that went really well. I can definitely say he was chosen of God to help lead the mission here in Vietnam! He is always really insightful and motivating! I heard the same from the other companionships when I followed up with them. And then, on Saturday and Sunday we had district conference! That was really good. There was also a 70 from Thailand who came. On Saturday they focused on ministering. Two funny parts there. President Chiles went up to talk and a translator went with him, thinking he would translate English to Vietnamese the whole time. Well, President Chiles has been working on his Vietnamese, and kept switching languages. The translator got confused, and had to keep switching which language he was translating! It was a lot of fun, and his talk was great. And then, the 70 came up and to teach about ministering, he kept calling up volunteers and made them act out creating a ministering program. "Now can we have a branch president come up? Alright, do you approve the ministering list the auxiliaries and quorums made. Cool. You can sit back down. Now you go get two people in the audience to be the ministers..." The acting did not add anything to what was being shared in meaning, but it definitely made the room a lot more focused and awake, and it just showed how simple it was. And the session on Sunday was great too. It almost doubled in attendance from the one earlier this year! We had 370 people at the Kim Do Hotel! Overall, a great experience for all in attendance.

And that about does it for the week. Once again happy Thanksgiving to all out there! Oh, and this week we will have zone conference with a general authority in attendance. They have had us preparing thoughts on our missionary purpose for the last two weeks. I am ready to learn a lot!

Elder Watson/ Nghiêm

P.S. Guess who made tacos for the first time last night! I did indeed! Thank you, family, for sending me taco seasoning in a package! Also, I sent my first package home on Thursday, with lots of cool things for my family! They may also pass out a few things to some other people...

 

Fixing False Perceptions (Week 58)

 

 

Fixing False Perceptions

Samuel Watson

Sun, Nov 11, 2018

Hello everybody!

 How goes life? All things are going good here in Vietnam. Not too much out of the ordinary. Still working with all of our investigators. We currently have three with baptismal dates, and they are all doing good! All of them are reading the Book of Mormon, which is great to see! I really have noticed that that is the main difference between a progressing and non-progressing investigator. If they are simply willing to read the Book of Mormon for themselves, they find the answers they need! What we share with them is great, and they need to know it as well to progress and get baptized, but what every investigator needs is their own testimony, and their own personal conversion. And that does not come if they do not seek it. The way to do it is simple. Read! Pray! Got straight to the source! Ask God! He will answer! I have seen it in so many people here! You just need the desire to do it! So I am really excited for them.

Our other investigators are doing alright, but we do have several who are "just too busy" to meet... They say they want to learn, but they make any excuse they can to not meet us... And as much as we know what we have to share can help them, we cannot override their agency. So we do have a few investigators we will be dropping this week. We will occasionally contact them though, and hope someday they will be ready to learn again. We also got two really cool potential investigators, and I will briefly cover them. I will give more detail if they start to learn as planned this week. One girl used to live in America for college, and thinks Christians are really cool. She even had an internship where she gave out free Bibles, even though she didn't know fully what it was! She has always been curious and wants to learn more! The other person was an older lady who liked our message of hope and purpose. She told us when we left that she was convinced our meeting was destiny. We should be meeting her tonight!

Other things are going good here too. My new companion, Elder Tuan is pretty cool. We have a lot in common, I believe I already mentioned it, but he is from Arizona! It is also interesting being district leader. I get to call the other missionaries in the district every night to make sure they get home safe and to follow up on their day. The sisters in the district made it their goal last week to make me laugh on the phone... It will be a challenge indeed. I warned them, I am Elder Serious (Nghiêm) for a reason... Not just anyone gets that title...\

Well, we are also getting ready for district conference this weekend, essentially a stake conference but for branches instead of wards. So that is exciting too.

That about does it for today. We will be going bowling this afternoon! Also, we are now listening to Christmas music in our apartment... It is that time of year!

Oh by the way, some of the pics in this week's blog are from a conference and activity back in July - I just got the pictures so wanted to share.

Have a good week!

Elder Watson/ Nghiem

Also, quick spiritual thought. This week, I have been contemplating a lot on how people react here when you contact them. I have mentioned it before, but people in Vietnam just don't like the word "church" and "religion". We try to be bold and share, and people like our thoughts, but can't get over the concept of church. It just turns them off... So I am currently trying to figure out how to help people to change their perceptions. Not to argue or anything like that, but open their minds to the idea that church is not just a cultural and traditional thing, not something only a select few do for fun, not something you get trapped into, but something that can improve your life, bring your purpose and happiness. I want to help them see the definition of "pure religion". James 1:27 "Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world." We will see how it goes!

 

Thailand for a Visa renewal, and Happy Late Halloween! (Weeks 56 and 57)

Sam flew to Thailand on Week 56 to renew his Visa, so he had no chance to email us that week. His next update was:

Happy Late Halloween! 

Samuel Watson

Sun, Nov 4, 2018 (Week 56 and 57)

Hello everyone!

Wow, hard to believe Halloween just happened again! This is my second one on the mission. I still remember when I celebrated in the MTC with an impromptu bed sheet angel costume... That was a lot of fun! Well this year, we did not go trick or treating, but I did still dress up! We had a big Halloween party in our English activity last Tuesday, and Elder Trung and I dressed up as each other.

Now, I know that is the classic and most cheesiest thing possible for two missionaries to do, but you don't understand! We are similar enough looking and yet different enough in style that it was super funny! For example, I only have one short sleeve shirt, so I wear long sleeve almost every day. Elder Trung is the opposite. So for this I wore short sleeve, and he wore long. I wore glasses and he did not (shout out to my mom for packing me a Halloween costume over a year ago! It was intended as a nerd outfit (taped glasses), but removing the tape, it looked like my companion's glasses), he stuffed his planner and pens in his shirt pocket like I usually do, he wore my camera pouch and I wore his keychain, we switched bags and shoes, AND we had each other’s hair style. So I poofed up the front of mine, and he slicked his back. We made a lot of the members laugh really hard! And of course we switched name tags! And the activity was great. More or less a ward trunk or treat, minus the trunk or treating as people have motorbikes here, not cars. So just all the fun carnival games.

Also, we adapted a bit, such as instead of bobbing for apples, we used guavas. They are a lot cheaper. One must be thrifty...

 

Well, there is your fun story of the week. I also flew to Thailand last week for VISA renewals, but not too much to note from that... Mostly just standing in immigration lines... Did you know with an American passport you can stay in Thailand for about a month with no VISA? Also, I learned it is illegal to get a tattoo of Buddha in Thailand... Darn... I was really looking forward to doing that (sarcastic voice used here). As for transfers, I am again in district 6. And now I am a district leader. The cool thing with that is I am super familiar with the branch by now, so hopefully I will be able to use my experience to help! Also, my new companion is Elder Tuan. He was in my MTC group. He is a good missionary, and we have a good bit in common, including being from the best state Arizona! We should be able to get a lot done! Also, our district has a lot of baptisms planned in the coming months, so be ready for more news on that! The work sure is growing! Also, we have one investigator who just got a baptismal date! His name is Anh Dung, and he is really cool. He has a friend studying in Russia who got baptized there, and want to see how it can bless his life! And our other investigators are doing well too!

Really, if any of you want to know the secret of missionary work, it come down to a few simple things. I would say the main two is faith and work. And with that work, I mean WORK! If you put in a halfhearted job, you can't expect to see miracles. But when you just go out there, and talk with everyone you can, with no fear of man or failure, that is when the miracles occur! I have seen that so much here in Vietnam. Also, I don't have enough time this week, but I will share with you all next week more about what we learned in zone conference. But one part was being driven by faith, not fear.

Alright, that does it. I need to go get some things done now! See you all next week!

Elder Watson/ Nghiem

 

P.S. I also had a nice surprise my first day with my new companion. We went to get a few essential groceries, and won 500000 dong with our membership card! In all reality that is only 25 US dollars, but still nothing to sneeze at! And my companion says it can buy us 70 bags of Toonies... That is a chip brand that comes with a collectible medallion... We are trying to get them all, they have Pokemon medallions right now... But we will probably not spend all of that on them... Once again got to be thrifty and 70 bags of chips probably does not fit that definition... Just a fun side note!

 

Faith Without Works is Dead! (Week 55)

Samuel Watson

Monday October 22, 2018

Faith Without Works is Dead!

Hello everyone!

This has been another good week. Lots of stuff going on! unfortunately, we did have a few roadblocks, such as a lot of our investigators being unable to meet. Some were out of town. Others just couldn't go out in the rain... That is a very common excuse in Vietnam... Everyone fears the rain... But we had success with those we met, and got several new investigators! That is where I have a miracle story to relate. So this was on Thursday. Pretty typical day for the most part, but we had a lot of coincidences that occurred, and you know what, I don't happen to believe in just coincidence... So some background. That morning, I was trying to study on how we can find better. I mean, we have been doing alright, but there is always a way to do better. So, I found a verse in Alma 38:12 that says to be "bold but not overbearing..." and I was trying to figure out what that meant. Here in Vietnam, people are very ngại or shy to talk about religion. Sometimes it is hard to find a balance of how to talk to them about the church. Even the word church will instantly turn some people off. You talk to them, and they are like "oh, a foreigner who speaks Vietnamese!" and then you say "we are volunteers!" to which they respond "what do you do/ who do you work for? That is so cool you do volunteer work!" and when you say "oh, we work for a church" the smile often vanishes and they say "oh, I need to go now..." or, one of my "favorite" responses "anh xin đi trước" literally "please, let me go first..." So it is really hard to find a balance of how to talk to others.

 And while talking about our free English activity is good, and quite successful, I like to mix it up a bit, and I have seen in many cases that by asking the right questions as the Spirit directs, people can actually open up to the gospel offhand! The English is good to to get them comfortable coming to church activities, but if they are ready offhand, why not find out? So I wanted to be more bold, but not overbearing. Also, as many of you know, we contact about families a lot and have seen success there as well. Well, I wanted to be a bit more direct on the gospel side, but still not overbearing. So I went to a cross-reference in Alma 18:24 which says, "And Ammon began to speak unto him with boldness, and said unto him: Believest thou that there is a God?" Well, let me tell you, that is a very bold question indeed. Most missionaries here would probably tell you it was a little too bold. But coming across it, I wanted to try it out. I also shared it with my companion. Well, later in the same day we are out contacting. We decided to be bold. We came across one lady running on a track in the park and talked to her. Usual surprise we speak Vietnamese. She asked what we do. We said we help people learn how to have better lives. She asked how we do that. We told her we share about our relationship with God and our purpose in life. She asked how old we were. We said 19. She said "you probably aren't old enough to know, but what is the purpose of life?" We then went into talking about the Plan of Salvation, and she was quite impressed. She said she is Buddhist, but wants to hear more of what we have to share. We met her two days later, and she brought a friend with similar questions! It was great, and we will keep meeting them! By the way, she is named Chi Lien, and her friend is Chi Quan. So that definitely showed our boldness leading to helping others. Then came the next person. So it started raining, and we got caught under a cover. We tried talking to some people, but they weren't interested. Actually, I don't know why, but one guy just disliked us and wouldn't even say anything to us. Stared the other way the whole time we sat next to him. I did get him to say goodbye before I left though... I made it a goal he would say something to us before we left. Elder Trung talked two other ladies and the man overheard him say we do volunteer work. And I tried to talk to him. I just kept saying random phrases out loud obviously directed towards him. I would say things like "Wow, it rains rather suddenly in Vietnam..." or "how much longer is it going to rain?" When we left, I wished him a good evening, and he finally turned towards us and said something like, "yeah, you too." Little tangent there. Also, a little awkward, but I think I made the guys day better. So, with not much luck there, we decided to go back to the bikes despite the rain and visit an investigator who hadn't been answering our calls. On the way, Elder Trung pointed at another cover and said "I think we should talk to the lady in there". So we did. Her name was Nhi. Initially she was not very open, but we made conversation. Brought up we worked for a church, but she did not react. Probably would have walked away, but it was still raining. We talked a bit more. And then, Elder Trung just flat out asked "Do you believe in God" based on the conversation we had about that verse earlier. She really opened up! She said she was not sure. We discussed what it would mean if God were real, how it would make life more meaningful, and give us more purpose! We have not met her since, but she was really curious. She said if she ever had time, she would come to Sacrament meeting. Hopefully we can meet her at some point, but if not, a seed has been planted, and it was really cool to see how God directs us! We don't even always notice, but he provides a way. And the scriptures truly are a great source of revelation if you diligently study them. I thought it was so cool, that we not only applied being more diligent, but we actually got the opportunity to literally apply what we had read! Word for word! Also, Ammon is a great example of missionary work. You should read the whole story if you want more ideas on not just finding, but teaching as well! Oh, and one final miracle to finish that day, we went to visit the member I mentioned had not been answering our phone. Right as we were about to get in the elevator, his wife comes out and told us what a coincidence it was to see us, and that her husband had an emergency work trip to China. We thought he had been ignoring us or something for the last two weeks, but it is good to know otherwise. The other miracle, if we had not been there right at that moment, had gotten there even one minute later, we would not have run into his wife, and would not have known what had happened! God does put us in the RIGHT PLACE at the RIGHT TIME! So yeah, way too many "coincidences" in on day to not be directed by divine design...

Now, these are not the only miracles of the week, but if I were to put in every single miracle, well I wouldn't ever finish emailing on P Day, and you would never have enough time to read it all either! Suffice it to say, I have seen the Lord's hand help me and others in so many ways on my mission. This really is His work. He directs it. We are merely tools that He uses to get it done. If we have faith in Him, and work to the best of our extent, then He will make up the difference and accomplish great things through us. This is His work.

Well, quick recap on new investigators. We got six this week. The two mentioned above included, plus one English class student named Chi Dinh, a contact we met named Anh Duy (who agreed to meet us again the same day we contacted him and had a great discussion of the gospel!), Chi Sang who we randomly called in our phone and who agreed to meet, and Chu Lan who used to be an investigator. We don't know why he stopped, but we called him and he was excited to meet again offhand! Hasn't learned in about a year!

Well, I think that is it for the week. Lots of exciting stuff going on! Also, our Sacrament attendance is greatly increasing. We usually have somewhere in the 40s showing up, but this week it was 60! And we will keep going up from there! One side note, not necessarily fun, our apartment is infested with ants! So maybe not infested infested, but we have a lot. So we bought some JumboVape spray to kill them. I found a nest of them in the kitchen wall... I sprayed one open whole, and they started pouring out like mad from another! Then I sprayed them there too, and they just kept coming out, dying, and falling off the wall into a mass ant pile! Kind of gross! There is a photo attached...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Well, that does it for the week! Hopefully we can actually meet all of our investigators this week and start getting out baptismal dates! We have a lot of people with very high potential. Wish us luck with that! Have a great week! And don't forget to be bold in what you do, whatever that may be!

Elder Watson/ Nghiêm