Fixing False Perceptions
Samuel Watson
Hello everybody!
How goes life? All things are going good here in Vietnam. Not too much out of the ordinary. Still working with all of our investigators. We currently have three with baptismal dates, and they are all doing good! All of them are reading the Book of Mormon, which is great to see! I really have noticed that that is the main difference between a progressing and non-progressing investigator. If they are simply willing to read the Book of Mormon for themselves, they find the answers they need! What we share with them is great, and they need to know it as well to progress and get baptized, but what every investigator needs is their own testimony, and their own personal conversion. And that does not come if they do not seek it. The way to do it is simple. Read! Pray! Got straight to the source! Ask God! He will answer! I have seen it in so many people here! You just need the desire to do it! So I am really excited for them.
Our other investigators are doing alright, but we do have several who are "just too busy" to meet... They say they want to learn, but they make any excuse they can to not meet us... And as much as we know what we have to share can help them, we cannot override their agency. So we do have a few investigators we will be dropping this week. We will occasionally contact them though, and hope someday they will be ready to learn again. We also got two really cool potential investigators, and I will briefly cover them. I will give more detail if they start to learn as planned this week. One girl used to live in America for college, and thinks Christians are really cool. She even had an internship where she gave out free Bibles, even though she didn't know fully what it was! She has always been curious and wants to learn more! The other person was an older lady who liked our message of hope and purpose. She told us when we left that she was convinced our meeting was destiny. We should be meeting her tonight!
Other things are going good here too. My new companion,
Elder Tuan is pretty cool. We have a lot in common, I believe I already
mentioned it, but he is from Arizona! It is also interesting being district
leader. I get to call the other missionaries in the district every night to
make sure they get home safe and to follow up on their day. The sisters in the
district made it their goal last week to make me laugh on the phone... It will
be a challenge indeed. I warned them, I am Elder Serious (Nghiêm) for a
reason... Not just anyone gets that title...\
Well, we are also getting ready for district conference this
weekend, essentially a stake conference but for branches instead of wards. So
that is exciting too.
That about does it for today. We will be going bowling this
afternoon! Also, we are now listening to Christmas music in our apartment... It
is that time of year!
Oh by the way, some of the pics in this week's blog are from a conference and activity back in July - I just got the pictures so wanted to share.
Have a good week!
Elder Watson/ Nghiem
Also, quick spiritual thought. This week, I have been
contemplating a lot on how people react here when you contact them. I have
mentioned it before, but people in Vietnam just don't like the word
"church" and "religion". We try to be bold and share, and
people like our thoughts, but can't get over the concept of church. It just
turns them off... So I am currently trying to figure out how to help people to
change their perceptions. Not to argue or anything like that, but open their
minds to the idea that church is not just a cultural and traditional thing, not
something only a select few do for fun, not something you get trapped into, but
something that can improve your life, bring your purpose and happiness. I want
to help them see the definition of "pure religion". James 1:27
"Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit
the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted
from the world." We will see how it goes!
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