Tet is this week! (Week 19)

 Monday Feb 12th, 2018

Tet is Coming up This Week!

Hello everyone!
This week has been interesting being in a trio, and with Tet right around the corner, things are very interesting here. In fact, for Tet we are going to try to travel to some members hometowns and visit with their families. I will let you know more about how that goes next week, and hopefully I will have some good photos!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Anh Thanh had his baptism this week! It was an awesome experience, and we actually had a really good attendance, even though it was the week before Tet and a lot of people were out of town. Those who were here though came, and we even had the missionaries from some other branches come with investigators to it! The spirit was super strong, and I think everyone had a good time.

 

All of our investigators are still progressing well. They have been busy with Tet coming up, but we met with all three of them this week. It is super cool to see how excited people are when they learn the gospel, and it is really a testimony of how some people really are just prepared to receive it.
Something else I got to do this week was help clean someone's house for Tet. That is an important part of Tet, and as missionaries we have been offering it to anyone we can. We really hope that Tet will also be a good opprotunity for us to talk with members and their families as we travel a bit. This gospel really is family centered, and we hope some of the member's families will be open to our message.

 

Well, I hope I can tell you all more about Tet as it occurs next week. And hopefully we will still be able to see some people. Most everything closes during the holiday, but we should still be able to find things to do. Until next week!

 

Elder Watson/ Nghiem

Time for a trio? And prepping for Tet...(Week 18)

Date: Sun, Feb 4, 2018 at 11:11 P.M.

Subject: I am now in a Trio?!

Hello everyone!

Wow, what a crazy week! As the title of this email implies, I am now in a trio, but we are in the middle of a transfer! One of our elders in our apartment, Elder Quoc, has now been transferred down south, so Elder Thao is now in our trio! Things will certainly be interesting covering an entire area in one companionship, but we'll do just fine, and with Tet coming up things will start to slow down with everyone being busy, so we might actually do alright.

 

So of course the most exciting thing coming up this week is that Anh Thanh is getting baptized on Saturday! He is awesome, and is super excited to be a member! He knows that a lot of people will be out of town for Tet this week, but when we gave him the option of waiting until after Tet to get baptized, he told us he wants to be baptized as soon as possible, which is great! Our other investigators are all doing well, although things are slowing down with Tet coming up and everyone being busy, but we are trying to help them.

I also learned how to make sticky rice pork cakes this week! It is quite an interesting process, and it takes twelve hours of cooking to make. My parents will attach a few photos showing the process. I also found new flexible abilities in a weird impromptu flexibility contest of sorts. Basically everyone here thinks it is funny how I walk diagonally and sit criss cross sometimes in chairs. Well, they started trying to copy me, and yesterday we got into a contest of sorts. The end result was the picture attached below. It is a little crazy, but it actually doesn't hurt, and was something I found quite funny this week.

One other thing to mention this week is that we got to go bless Chi Phuongs new house! It was cool, as it was the first time I have been to one here in Vietnam.

Alright, well I am running a little short on time here this week, but I hope everyone is doing well. And wish luck to my trio, we should have our hands full this week for sure!

Elder Watson/Nghiêm

 

P.S. Sorry that there are not tones on names this week. And seriously, look at the photos below!

 

Excitement in Vietnam! Soccer! (Week 17)

Sam sent Sun, Jan 28, 2018
Subject: Excitement in Vietnam! Soccer!
Hello everyone!
Wow, what a week it has been. The whole country has been in excitement lately! Of course as I have already mentioned, Tet is coming up, but on top of that I learned this week that Vietnam is really into soccer! Seriously! This week, the Vietnamese soccer team made it to the finals in an Asian tournament for the first time in history! Everyone was freaking out when they won the semi finals, and they ended up all riding their motorbikes and cars in the streets waving flags and making a ton of noise, including a chant they have that means "Vietnam has no enemies!" It was super exciting, but made the streets a little dangerous, but luckily I don't know of anyone who got hurt. It was also really funny during the game when almost all the shops were either closed, or crowded with people watching the game. Afterwards, they did not win the finals on Saturday, but still, it was an exciting time for them, and hey, they got second.

Well, I think that is enough on soccer. If you would like, you can look up more on that online. I also had another unique opportunity this week. I got to take part in a service project where we helped one of the ward members move. It was also really cool that a few other members came to help, and we even had a nonmember who helped as well! I always enjoy service opportunities, as that is why I am here on a mission.

Things are still going great with our investigators. We currently have four. One, Anh Thanh, is preparing for baptism, and will have his baptismal interview this Saturday, which is super exciting! We are also still meeting all our other investigators, and they are doing well as well. We actually now have two new investigators who I think I have mentioned before, but they are now studying the gospel with us! Actually, we met with one of them today, and taught her the whole restoration of the gospel! She is the investigator who came to church for seven hours, and she seems to really try to prepare for the lessons before she comes. We weren't planning on teaching the whole restoration, but she had read the whole pamphlet on her own and already understood a lot of what we were trying to teach, so next time we are going to teach her the Plan of Salvation. I really love teaching the gospel, and seeing the people who God prepares to be open to it.

The weather is still fluctuating like crazy. Last week started to get warm, so I started to not wear my jacket, yet today I regret only wearing a sweater and not my coat. It is a little funny. I have also eaten with members a lot lately with Elder Danh having limited mobility. I do love the food here, but let me tell you there sure is a lot of rice!
Oh, and self reliance is still going well. This last week, we learned about working with others, and I had them try out a chain making activity. Seriously, I don't know how they do it, but any new activity we introduce they master in seconds. They did really well working together. And then at the end we shared a nice video about our purpose in life and on the Plan of Salvation. Hopefully it touched some of the people in the class.

Alright, I think I have covered most everything from this week. Thank you again to all of you out there encouraging me on my mission, especially my family!
See you all next week!
Elder Watson/ Nghiêm

P.S. Sam wasn't able to find a computer with a working USB when he initially wrote this, but they've been added now! - Darren