Advocate Pho Truth: Things in Ho Chi Minh Are Going Strong! (Week 28)

April 16, 2018

Hello everybody!

This week has been interesting. Not too many large events to note, but it was a very good week. First off, this last Sunday we got three investigators to go to church! And what is more, they all stayed for the full three hours! I learned that for one of them, he has been an investigator for about six months now, but yesterday was his first time staying the full three hours, so that was super cool. He is a really cool guy named Anh Huy, but he goes by Ben for his English name. He has been attending all of the church activities and is friends with all the members. He has been studying with the Elders lately. Well, this week, we had a lesson with him on repentance. It was really good. He had some very interesting questions on it, such as he had heard some people believe you are saved regardless of what you do if you believe in Christ. We were able to share Alma 41 with him, and explain that repentance is a process that one needs to undergo. He really seemed to understand. It was great to see his sincere questions, and it also led to a great opportunity to testify of the importance of the Book of Mormon, and how it really clarifies some of the concepts that are difficult to understand in the Bible. I could really feel the Spirit in that lesson. Hopefully he will continue to think of good questions and we can help him find his answers on his journey to discover the Savior! Our other investigators also are doing well, and provided good insights at church in elders quorom.

Oh, something else really cool is that we now have a senior couple here! There names are the Holts. They seem like really awesome people, and Elder Holt has connections to Vietnam from his service days. They are excited to help out with the branch, and they told me they really enjoyed their first Sunday here. They will get to experience their first English class here tomorrow, so I will have to let you know about that next week!

And speaking of English class, we had a good lesson this last week, with four students. We continued teaching about phone calls, and then shared how Christ can help us through our challenges and mistakes in life, and how mistakes are necessary in life, just like in learning a new language! It seemed to go quite well. And for today in YSA, the missionaries are in charge and we are doing activities related to missionary work, so that should be pretty exciting.

I have to say, I sure do a lot more biking here than in Hà Đông! We visited two members this week who lived a bit away, and had really nice visits with them. One, Bà Oanh, is a little older and can't always make it to church, but she is very good with her scripture study, and is preparing to go to the temple this year! It was awesome hearing how she is remaining faithful in the gospel! And the other member we visited was also doing well, and we shared with him a talk from Elder Uchtdorf this last conference about Christ for the Easter season.

Well, the work here sure is not easy, but we have been doing a lot of good things here, and the members here are great! It has been very nice getting to know all of them. Hopefully things continue to go well for us here!

I wish everyone the best back home, and hope for things to be going well for all of you! This upcoming week should be interesting. I will talk to all of you again next week!

Elder Watson/ Nghiêm