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

Call in the Superstrike! (Week 54)

Call in the Superstrike!

Samuel Watson

Monday October 15, 2018

Hello everyone! 

Things here in Vietnam are going good. Actually, they are going more than good, they are going great! So some of you reading this email may be asking yourselves "what exactly is a superstrike?" No, we are not calling on any air reinforcements. This superstrike has to do with our mission's vision here in Vietnam! The main purpose is to get everyone to have faith in the vision of our mission having two stakes by May! At first it sounds crazy soon, but as we all know, with the Lord anything is possible! Currently the Hanoi branch up north is doing super well! As of last month, their average sacrament attendance was around 40, and they only had a few investigators. Now they have tons of investigators and have a sacrament attendance of over 100! More or less, this has been the vision all along, but the Hanoi branch was the controlled test subject to see just how much we can accomplish with the right vision. They also implemented a few test ideas I have mentioned before, such as throwing away all contacting cards and aiming for phone numbers, and trying to focus more on getting people to church. I may give more details on that later (I think I already did a time before) but more or less you just need to get people excited to come to church, and once they come and see the blessings they will want to keep coming!

It has been greatly successful, and they have related each of these ideas in past zone conferences. But the other areas have not picked up too much from it. I think it comes down to two things, most people don't have the vision of where this can go, and when you see something at zone conference you don't always know fully how to implement it. That is where the superstrike comes in! So, the missionaries in the Hanoi branch are now doing tons of exchanges across all the other branches. One missionary in each companionship will go up north to see how well everything is working, and the other will stay in their own area and be given direction on how to apply it there. Elder Trung and I really learned a lot from it! We were trying to implement it, but seeing the way the assistants to the president applied it helped us see how we could better apply the trainings. Hopefully we will see major improvements next week! So that is why we went up to Hanoi for two days... The combined higher vision, and the know-how of applying all the new ideas has been showing all over! This last month alone, the mission is not only performing at the highest level it has ever reached, but more than quadrupled that! Clearly, something is turning for the better! 

 

So one of the things I liked that I picked up from the superstrike was just trying to get people more excited to come to church. Because when you call and say "Hey we want to invite you to church. It will be three hours" most people don't get too excited. But when you call and say "I know you had a question about the Book of Mormon. That is actually the topic of our second hour class!" or you can say "Thai will be speaking on Sunday! He is such a good speaker and will be talking about humility! It will be really good! You have to come hear it!" people are more open to the subject. We are going to apply that this week, and tell people more so what they can get out of it to help them want to come and receive the blessings of Sacrament meeting!

 

I should mention we watched conference this week! In Vietnam we watch it a week late, but it is just as good! I learned a lot from it, and one of the focuses I really liked was focusing on taking the Savior's name upon us. Each of us agrees to do so when we are baptized. And we need to do all we can to show others we follow his way. My mission here is a little different, we are not allowed to wear our name tags... Something about needing a ministers VISA to wear Christ's name on your person... But despite that, I can still wear his name by my word and deed! As I go about doing good, trying to help others, and sharing my testimony of the Savior and his restored church, others will be able to see the light that comes from Christ! And that is what we all need to do, as the scriptures say "...but be thou an example of the believers, in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity." 1 Timothy 4:12

Also, speaking of conference, we got three new people to conference and they all want to know more about the church. First is Anh Long, who heard about conference from an announcement in our English activity and who came! We shared a bit about the priesthood and prophets, and he is curious to know more! Then is Dom, who we met a month ago he has a member friend who is currently studying abroad in Russia. Well, he too really enjoyed conference and wants to learn more about religion. He actually has wanted to meet us for a while but was busy with studies. He is now free though, and we will be meeting him. And finally, we have Chi Tuyen. This one is a cool story. So first off, we me Chi Tuyen over a month ago. She lives in the same apartment complex as us. We got her number and invited her to our activities and she never came. So we hadn't contacted her in some time. Well, we really wanted to get a lot of people to conference, as it is such a special event. We called through pretty much all of our phone list whenever we had time. We did not have time to finish the list but we called a lot, and did not have much success. Literally the last person we called was Chi Tuyen and she came! If we had stopped one call earlier, she would not have been invited! The other cool thing, she wanted to come to learn more about Jesus Christ, as she is Christian, and she was free specifically for the Sunday afternoon session which I felt focused the most on that! It was the perfect session for her to come to! And I don't happen to believe too much in coincidence... Also, we had an awesome member, Em Thanh, sit next to her, and she shared a lot about the church. Chi Tuyen really enjoyed the experience and wants to learn more! So those are our three new investigators for the week. Most everyone else is still doing good. We could not meet a lot of them, as we were in Hanoi for a good portion of the week, but will meet them this week, and plan on inviting several to baptism! Also, one other thing to report on is that a certain investigator of ours that we had lost contact with re-contacted us. We were super excited to hear from her, but it turns out she is not allowed to join the church, her family does not approve, and they actually took away her phone. She wants to join the church, but we can't really do much to help since her communication has been blocked. Prayers for her are appreciated! I know the Lord will help her in this time of need!

One quick funny story, but also a bit sad. We had a member in our branch who brought two friends to conference. That part was good, and they had a good experience. But on the way out, they were taking Grab home, and the one girl started walking towards the Grab bike holding out her phone to signify "I called you, I am the person you are picking up". Suddenly, a motorbike with two guys bolted in-between her and the Grab bike, and a guy snatched her phone! It was really sad for her, but super interesting to watch! Scary that there are people on the look to snatch whatever they can, but it was kind of impressive how smoothly they did it... We don't know how they made it in-between her and the Grab bike with a two-foot gap almost impossible to go through at high speed... The Grab guy tried to chase them, but they bolted away too quickly... So now I will have to be more careful when I hold valuables in my hand... Maybe I could just hold out a Book of Mormon, and if someone steals it, they will decide to repent of their ways... Also, we were told this isn't too common, but happens a bit, especially in the more touristy parts of town. And one other funny story while I am at it, while in Hanoi on exchanges, I got to be in a lesson with one of the investigators of the APs. Her name is Co Vy. Apparently, she really wants to do ancestor work in the temple, and the APs have gotten her excited for baptism as a step towards it. In the lesson, she went off on a ten-minute rant about all the ancestors she wants to do temple work for, when suddenly she takes a pause and said "But first I need to be baptized. And Elder Lam (one of the APS) here won't let me get baptized until October 28th!" It was really funny, but she needs to get all the lessons first and then can be baptized! So that was funny too.

Alright, I think that is enough to cover this week. Hopefully Elder Trung and I will be able to apply the things from the superstrike and report on that more next week! I will write again then!

Elder Watson/ Nghiêm

Families are Key to Everything! (Week 53)

Families are Key to Everything

Samuel Watson

 

Monday October 8, 2018

Hello everyone!

Another quick group email here, but full of lots of information! So lets just say my companion and I beat the mission record for most new investigators in a week! The secret to how we did it? Well, first off, God totally prepares the people and puts them in our path. We have been contacting in all sorts of crazy ways! As in in circumstances where you wouldn't think it would occur. I will give you an example. I may have mentioned this one before, so sorry if it is a repeat. So last Friday I believe, we were pulling in our bikes to our apartment to have our daily nap (everyone naps in Vietnam. The middle of the day, literally no one is out, so we sleep one less hour at night, and take a nap in the day.) and the machine to scan your bike card is broken. We sit there, and a bunch of people start coming in. I talked to the guy next to me for about two minutes, and I ended up getting his number, and set up an appointment! He has not continued learning yet... But it is a perfect example for how we have seen God prepare people. So my companion and I made a goal to look for that one unique contact every day... And it has been working! Anything from a really solid elevator contact (which is really tough, you get about two minutes again), to someone at a cafe who is just ready.

Actually, two of our new investigators, Elder Trung met at a cafe, and he talked to them for quite some time. The husband in particular was really interested in the church. The wife was a little less excited, but agreed to learn too. At some point in the conversation Elder Trung said the guy asked how one would join the church, and his wife tried to say "but honey, your Buddhist!" and the guy whispered something to her that more or less equated to "be quiet!" and he kept talking about it. Anyways that has been one large part of it. The other part is that we have really been focusing on families! Seriously the gospel rings so true with people, especially when we discuss families. Everyone has a family, and it is something central to just about everyone! We have been going around to people with families and sharing with them about how the gospel can bless them, and later meet them to share the Family Proclamation. We ended up with thirteen new investigators this week (the old record was twelve), and all but one were in families! Also, we now have a multigenerational family of five learning, with a man who started learning first, his wife and son, his younger sister, and his mother, who all live together! We visited their house and shared with them, and all agreed to learn more! It has been great seeing how God has blessed us to be able to find and help so many people! Now we just have to do the next step, which is a little harder, getting them to church... Unfortunately in Vietnam, most people work on Sundays... But we are telling them the blessings of the Sacrament, and some of them are going to ask their bosses if they can at least get off Sunday morning! Your prayers for them are appreciated! 

Also, here is Elder Trung's summary of our family lesson. "So we will read through "The Family: A Proclomation to the World" and really highlight on a few things. 1. Each of us is a child of God, with Heavenly parents that love us! 2. Each of us has an Eternal and Sacred Destiny in God's grand Plan of Salvation for us! 3. Families are Central to our Purpose in this Life! 4. All Families are Happier when they Follow the Teachings of Christ! 5. Prayer helps Families have Better Relationships! 6. Through a Temple Families are Forever (your family, and your ancestors)!!!! When we share this with them it is amazing to see how much they agree, and want to learn "what are the teachings of christ?" "what is God's plan for me?" "how can i help my family more?" "How can i be with my family forever?" And It's amazing to see how much the gospel truly testifies of the importance, greatness, and sanctity of families. If any of you don't know the answers to these questions... ASK! it will bless your family! I invite all of you to do the minimum and pray, pray with your family, pray for your family and you will have a happier, stronger, and closer family! That is my promise to you, and that is Christ's promise to you! Christ said "19 Therefore ye must always pray unto the Father in my name; 20 And whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, which is right, believing that ye shall receive, behold it shall be given unto you. 21 Pray in your families unto the Father, always in my name, that your wives and your children may be blessed." " He put it in his weekly email today. He also made the following comment: "So let me start by explaining my subject line. Earlier this week i said " Elder Watson and I are like a fine wine, it just gets better with time." And it has been SOOO true. 2 weeks ago we had 4 new people start learning, last week we had 9 new people, and this week we had 13!! It really has been amazing to see the Lord help us so much! So one way we've been finding so many new people has been through families! Not just teaching families, but also just really teaching about how important families are in our lives and in the gospel! So I want to start out by just sharing what we teach about families!" that line actually came before the second one.

So, a few interesting notes. It rained like crazy the other day! 

My family should have a funny photo of me in the cheapest poncho I have ever worn. It literally fell apart at the touch. The sleeve ripped as I put it on. My bag on my shoulder ripped a hole there. It was really bad... So our bike home that day got me absolutely soaked! I swear it rained something like eighteen inches in one day! It also rained hard all day! It would rain for two or three hours, take an hour break, and start again! Streets flooded for sure! Also, I am going to Hanoi today for a two day exchange! It should be cool going back up after over six months! Then back down south again on Wednesday.

 

Well, to sum up families are key to everything! I have such a wonderful family back home who emails me every week. I am not going to lie, I do miss them, and they miss me, but it is only for a short time, just two short years. Then we will be back together and because of the gospel we can be together for eternity! The following statement is so true! "Missionaries leave their families for a short time so others can have a family that is sealed for eternity." And for any missionaries out there reading this, I would like to say, try putting some more focus in looking for families. They are so important, and the foundation of society as a whole. I am grateful for the success God has given Elder Trung and I lately, and I look forward to continuing to work with the people here!

Thank you to all of you out there reading this and for supporting me out here! Have a great week!

Elder Watson/ Nghiem

One Year Already?! (Week 52)

One Year Already?!

Samuel Watson

Monday October 1, 2018

Hello everyone,

Wow, I can hardly believe it, but I have been out for over a year now! That is half of my mission! But I still have another year left, and need to make sure to be working just as hard in that year too!

Well, we had quite an eventful week. I don't have enough time to expound fully, and there is just too much to write, so I will mostly sum up what happened. We actually got nine new investigators this week! That is a crazy high number for those who do not know. We had quite a few from English class, and taught several great lessons on families! We have one lesson we have gotten particularly good at teaching, in which we share the Family Proclamation and then talk about temples. The Family Proclamation is seriously an inspired document! At first most people are a little weirded out reading the preexistence stuff, but as it goes, it highlights so many truths that ring to them, and then when we connect it back to the Plan of Salvation, that is how we invite them to learn more!

And the really exciting thing is one of the guys we met for that lesson has a family he now wants us to meet! Another interesting set of investigators is an older couple who previously signed up to attend English class, but we have really been focusing in the mission to increase sacrament attendance to invite everyone, so we even called up all of our English only people, and Co Le and her husband Chu Thang decided to come. I don't think they fully knew what it was before, but they really enjoyed it, and want to learn more about the church! And the other cool story is Anh Quoc Thang, who we found on an old list of people sort of interested in the church. He met the missionaries over a year ago but never started learning. His uncle lives in America and is a member. The missionaries went to his house once and gave his wife and son a blessing. I don't know why they didn't start learning before, but we called them up, and he was excited to meet us to learn about the church! So the Lord is really preparing people for the gospel! Also, they have not become investigators yet, but we have found several people who want to learn more about the gospel and we found them unintentionally, as in not during time going contacting. We have been finding them everywhere from Circle Ks and coffee shops, to even a guy at our apartment we talked to when the bike check in station got broken! We are really seeing God put people in our path!

 

Now for some fun stuff. Last Monday, we went to a lantern market for the Mid Autumn Festival, and I picked up two lanterns, so that was cool. And today we are going bowling with another zone, so that will be cool! That is about it for what I have now. I need to go, everyone is waiting on me to leave to go bowling...

Oh, one more thing. Our other investigators are still doing good, but Em Trang was supposed to meet us on Monday, but got in a bad motorbike crash. She is confined to home, and unable to be visited. She does have plenty of time to read the Book of Mormon now though as she said! Anyways, your prayers for her are appreciated. Also, Anh Tai is doing great, he has a baptismal date for next month and says he will read the whole Book of Mormon by then to know for sure if it is the right decision for him. We know that as he does so, he will truly get a testimony as he prays to God.

Got to go! See you all next week!

Elder Watson/ Nghiem

 

P.S. We are now officially going to plan a big English event for Halloween, so that will be fun!