Hey, I Thought Rainy Season Was Over! (Week 60)

Hey, I Thought Rainy Season Was Over!

Samuel Watson

Sun, Nov 25, 2018

Hello everyone!

How are all of you doing? This week has been pretty good. As you all know, it was Thanksgiving! So the day before Thanksgiving, we had zone conference which was awesome! It really focused a lot on improving our teaching, making it more prepared and personalized for our investigators. It was really good. One of the focuses I really liked was remembering to ask inspired questions. That is a really important step. We aren't just throwing information at these people, but we need them to act for themselves! That was another big focus they had. Getting people to the point they can act and not having them wait to act. Often in lessons we teach and then invite them to pray and to read the Book of Mormon at home. But as Elder Meurs said (he was the general authority who came for the conference) why have them wait? Why not just read with them on the spot? So we are now trying to apply that! And with that we are also trying to ask more inspired questions to get them more involved as we teach, to help them have their own experience with the gospel. We are not the ones who convert them, it is the Spirit that does that. And that comes from their own personal experience with God. I really enjoyed the trainings we got, and I feel we got it at the right time. I feel God really inspired our leaders to share these things. We have recently been focusing on how to better find people who are interested in our message, and the next step would be figuring out how to better address their needs. God really does give us what we need when we need it "line upon line, precept upon precept" (2 Nephi 28:30).

So that was really cool. Well, we also got lunch as a zone, and President and Sister Chiles had planned out a real treat! It was a Thanksgiving lunch! We got turkey, stuffing, and cranberry sauce sandwiches, with mashed potatoes and gravy, chips and a salad, and for dessert, pumpkin pie! It was truly a Thanksgiving feast! But it was the day before Thanksgiving... For our actually Thanksgiving we got to go to the hospital! Yay! My companion had to get his ingrown toenails cut out... Not fun! One on each foot too... But since we were in district 7, we got to go to one of the only two Subways in Ho Chi Minh City! No turkey breast... But I got a tuna sandwich. It was very good. We also had a member who decided to tag along on the journey, and he thought the sandwich was okay, but loved the cookie! It was pretty funny. So that was our Thanksgiving celebration here summed up.

Well, my companion is recovering alright from the surgery. He can bike again and we can get around. So we got to meet our investigators this week, as usual. They are all doing well. Anh Chuong, who I brought up last week is really cool. He is very open at sharing his thoughts, and really wants to follow God. He really likes meeting with us, so much so he even calls us to set up his own appointments! That is a rarity! Most people you either call and set up with, or they won't make time for you. He calls and says "hey, are you free this week? I can meet any day at 7 pm." and then he proceeded to set up two appointments this week for us to meet him. It is awesome! So he is doing great. Unfortunately, we were not able to meet Anh Phat this week... He is doing well from last week, but when we were supposed to meet him on Sunday... Well let's just say there was a huge rainstorm going on all day... One where the government put out a warning to avoid going outside if possible. So he called and had to cancel. We still went out though and got soaked! It literally rained for over 12 hours, if not more like 20. I don't know if it rained the whole time I was asleep, but it was lightly sprinkling when I woke up. Also, the lessons we had after zone conference went really well! The trainings we had helped a lot. I have heard similar things when I have followed up with my fellow district members. It is an exciting time here in Vietnam! We are seeing lots of miracles. And we think it will be a white Christmas... But instead of snow people in baptismal outfits which are also white... That is meant to be funny. But we do have a lot of people with dates in the upcoming month. Our other investigators are all doing good.

Well, I hope all is going well for all of you out there. I am really grateful to be here in Vietnam to serve the people here though, it is such an exciting time, we are really seeing the Lord hasten his work! Have a good week everyone!

Elder Watson/ Nghiêm

 

P.S. Our English activity is going good still. We had a lot of new people last week, and shared about Thanksgiving! They all really liked it, and we shared some scenes from the Charlie Brown episode on "The Mayflower Voyage", which I used to watch every year for Thanksgiving! It is both entertaining and actually teaches the story of Thanksgiving! For the spiritual thought we talked about the importance of gratitude and expressing your gratitude to others and focusing on what is important. That is all.