Advocate Pho Truth: An Awesomely Busy Week! (Week 35)

Monday June 4, 2018

Hello everybody,

This week was quite interesting. In particular we did a lot of things on Sunday. But the rest of the week was good too. Our English class is certainly doing well, we consistently now have around ten students, compared to the one my first week here, so that is definitely going well. We also have done some more contacting this week and found a really good spot to talk to a lot of people. Usually when we go contacting we don't have too big of a block of time, usually around an hour, so we often go to a nearby park in order to contact. On Friday, we had a big chunk of time to go contacting, so we decided to go to the Aeon mall, and as it was Friday, there were a lot of people there. Usually we walk around and talk to lots of people, but often they don't want to talk for very long and are focused on another task. Well, we inadvertently found a great spot where people stop and are very willing to talk. That is right outside the bathroom funnily enough. We found this out because, as we were walking around, my companions zipper broke on his backpack, and we needed to stop for him to fix it. There were some chairs nearby, so we sat in those. It was right outside the bathroom. Well, while he tried to fix his backpack, I was able to talk to a ton of people! Many people would sit by me for around five minutes while waiting on someone else in the bathroom. It worked out really well, since not only could I talk to them for the five minutes and see if they were interested in either the gospel or English class, but I got to talk to a wide variety of people, and as soon as one person left, another would take their place. There really wasn't a silent moment! Now we aren't just going to loiter outside of bathrooms or anything, but it turned out to be really good in the moment as I got to talk to a lot of people!

Along with the contacting mentioned above, we have been trying to look for more potential investigators lately. For part of that, we have done some of our studies out in public, often times at coffee shops. We are also trying to work with some members' families, as they have seen the changes that happen in the members lives after they received the gospel and can often be a good source of people who are more receptive to our message. In particular with one member's family, we are going to try to focus on family history with them, as we know that is something they are interested in.

So on Sunday we did several interesting things. First off, we met with Anh Quang, our investigator who has a baptismal date for this month! We are currently teaching him the commandments, and as his baptismal date is coming up soon, we have a lot of principles to go through in a short time. So on Sunday, we taught him the ten commandments, and the law of chastity in one lesson. He is doing really well though, and we are very excited for him as he prepares for baptism. Besides that, church also went well, and one member invited us to meet some of his friends that day! We met him in the afternoon and he took us to his friend’s house. They are a nice family with two kids. They are also Christian. We learned they want to make sure their son is under good influences as he is getting to an age where he could encounter some bad influences, and they want him to attend some of our activities to help him be in a safe environment with good people. It is good to know we have a good reputation in our church where people can trust us. And we are also happy to be able to help be a good influence for their son. We will see how that goes!

After that, we went to Anh Thắng's house and had a nice visit with his family. He is a member. We had a great dinner, and helped the family practice a bit of English. They are planning on going to Australia soon, and are trying to learn English, and we have invited them to come to our class. We also talked to them a bit about family, and that was good. So up to this point, our Sunday was very full of activities and excitement, but there was one other event of the day that was quite interesting... My companion and I got separated for a bit... We were on the bike ride home, and I was in the front. We got to a bridge and I looked behind me and could not see Elder Thông. I slowed down, and he was still far enough behind me that I could not see him. I pulled over and stopped. He apparently went right by me, and we did not see each other. I paused for a bit, as we were at a traffic circle, to see if he would come back to it, or if he was still behind me. He assumed I was still ahead and kept going towards the apartment. I ended up going back on the road to look for him, as is the usual procedure when you get separated from your companion. It was to no avail, as he was on a different road. I came back to the traffic circle and pulled over to borrow a phone. I tried calling President Hassell, but his phone was busy. I decided the next best place to go would be the apartment, as I thought Elder Thông may have gone there. I ended up using a guard's phone at the entrance and sent out a text explaining my scenario. Then I waited there, thinking going back and forth would probably result in us going past each other again, and I thought the apartment was a good meeting point. Soon after the other elders came and found me and called Elder Thông so he would come back to the apartment. It was quite the process, but we followed procedure and it worked out. Also, I learned I could have saved some time if I had realized I had our phone number on us... I knew I had President Hassell's number in my white handbook (the missionary rule book), but I had forgotten, and later realized, I had our own phone number written on my English class contacting cards and could have called that number and resolved the scenario earlier... Still, it turned out fine and made for an interesting story. Actually, today's email as a whole contained quite a few stories. So that is interesting. Hopefully everyone enjoyed that style this time.

Well, that experience definitely was a learning one too. I now not only have my phone's number on my cards, but it is also written in my planner, so if it happens again, we will be able to resolve the scenario much sooner. One other thing we have started doing that is interesting is that after our district meetings, Anh Thắng, the member I mentioned earlier, helps us with our Vietnamese. This last week, he asked us how we talk to people in different scenarios, and then either corrected our Vietnamese, or told us a more polite way to say it. It was very useful, and we are going to do that again this week. The members here are really awesome and very willing to help us with different things, be that in lessons, with our Vietnamese, or other activities in the branch. We definitely appreciate that.

Anyways, I think that about does it for this week. Hopefully some of the stuff I wrote was interesting. Well, I look forward to writing to all of you again next week!