Hello everyone,
This week I got to experience my first stake conference in Vietnam! Well, I guess it isn't technically a "stake conference", as there are not enough members here for a stake yet, but it was the equivalent idea here. It was very nice, they shared a lot of things to try to help strengthen the members here. And the church building where it was held was super nice! It looks quite impressive, and even has a garden in it! My parents should be able to share photos of that. Well, it was a great first experience for me of a stake conference here, and my Vietnamese is certainly improving, I believe I understood most of what was said. I am still working on the Vietnamese though, it sure is not easy...
Things have mostly been good this week. I don't know if I have mentioned this yet, but a lot of the elders in my apartment had been sick lately. Well, this last week it caught up to me. The last three days were a little rough with headaches, and coughing particularly, but luckily Sister Hassell prescribed some medicine and I am feeling quite a bit better today. Despite that, we still did a lot of work last week, and got a lot done. We met with some of our investigators this week, and they came to the stake conference! I think they really enjoyed the experience.
One thing I should probably mention was that the beginning of this week was a little slow. A lot of people were out of town. Monday was a holiday where no one works, so we didn't have our YSA activity. And on Tuesday, we had one student in the English class the Elder and Sister Holt teach with my help. Still, it was a good class, and the student I think enjoyed the one on one focus. And he really understood the spiritual thought on the purpose of knowing "what is included in your ticket", referring to a talk from Elder Uchtdorf on a man who went on a cruise, but did not fully enjoy the experience as he thought all the activities cost money. You can look up the video on it under the title of "Your Potential, Your Privileges". It is a very good video. The student really took it to heart and expressed the importance of finding the real joy in life such as through the gospel. He has investigated the church before. We don't know if he will come back, but his response showed great understanding of this principle, and all in the room could feel the Spirit witness of the truths he shared.
Well, luckily everyone has come back in town, so we are all good to go for this week! We are starting to teach a member temple classes this week. Going to the temple is such a wonderful experience, and we are excited to help prepare this member for that. We also have zone conference on Wednesday, and should be able to learn a lot there from our mission leaders too! And of course we will do many other good things this week, and will do it all with God watching over us and with His Spirit to guide us.
Well, that about does it for this week. And just a heads up, next week is Mother's Day (Happy Mother's Day to all mothers out there! And especially to my own wonderful mother who has raised me so well, and influenced me so much!), and accordingly, I get a phone call home to my mother! As such, I may not have as much time to write a big group email for everyone if I have time at all. So I apologize in advance for that, but will hopefully be able to write more in two weeks! Until then!
P.S. Also be on the heads up for the upcoming photos of the
Artinus Museum... It was a very fun place, and the photos will probably put at
least a little smile on your face. Who says missionaries can't have fun?
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| Please note, no missionaries were actually eaten by sharks during this photo shoot. |
