Subject: A Great Start to 2019!
Hello everyone!
Happy New Year! I can't believe we are in 2019 already!
Well, my companion and I had a great start with it! We got three new
investigators this week, and have a lot of investigators who are showing great
potential to get to baptism! We have a lot who seem to have really high
potential. I am really excited for this upcoming year!
We got three new investigators. Two were on an exchange I
had with Elder Thao. He is a zone leader, and actually used to be in my
district when I was in Ha Dong, we were actually in a trio companionship for
three weeks back then... It was cool getting to be with him again for two days
and to work with him. Well, we found Anh Tien and Chu Que. And Tien is from
English class. We shared a spiritual thought on "The Hope of God's Light"
video and invited everyone to try to learn who God is. He came up afterwards
and said he follows Buddhism, but from what he perceives, Christianity teaches
you higher things than Buddhism, like love, so he wants to learn more! He is
really open, and even accepted a baptismal date! And then we have Chu Que, who
is a security guard at Aeon Mall. He is rather interesting. He is very
opinionated on some political items, and as missionaries we are not supposed to
talk about politics... But he thinks God and Jesus Christ teach good things and
that the missionaries are here to help people become better. So he is willing
to learn, which is good! We just have to make sure to not talk about politics
with him... But he will be cool. And he really likes us, as he has seen the
missionaries come to Aeon for a while now and we are always friendly with him.
That is something a little sad I have noticed both here and in America. Often
people just are too self-absorbed. Most people don't take time to simply wave
to someone or say hello. I mean some might argue they do it a little bit, but
in general, I would say most people just don't talk to those around them.
Especially employees at different places. Here for sure, almost no one talks to
a security guard unless there is a concern they have. And even when they do,
they just do it from necessity. But knowing the teachings of the Savior, we
must always stand as examples of Him, and be kind to our fellow man. Seriously,
just a smile and asking how someone is doing for a minute can really improve
their day. We actually have several security guards who are always happy to see
us just because we are nice to them. There is another one who watches close to
our apartment, and it is tradition every time we bike by him to say "Xin
Chào!" as loudly and slowly as possible, and he will do the same. Also,
for those who don't know, that means hello. It is really funny, and you can
tell he appreciates it too. So hey, go try to be nicer to those around you, say
hello and give someone a smile, will you?
Ok, and then we have Anh Cuong, who Elder Quoc and I met at
the hospital on Saturday. Elder Quoc needed to get some blister looked at.
Well, Anh Cuong saw our Free English tags that we wear and wanted to come to
that. Elder Quoc also invited to introduce our organization to him, and he
agreed. He came and when he learned we worked for a church, he said that he
does not believe in Buddha or God, but wants to believe in God. His family
follows Buddhism, but he was never much for it. He wants to try to grow faith.
He was really humble, and I think he will progress quickly as he tries to exercise
faith in Christ. We have high hopes for him! And he reminds us of one of our
recent converts, Anh Hoan, so we will try to get him to help in lessons.
Besides that, we met Anh Tan who I had not met before yesterday. He has
investigated for a long time, and has now determined he completely believes in
God and Christ and wants to follow them, but he wants time to get ready. I
think he is really close to being ready, but he has a few concerns he wants to
address first. But he now has a date for March, so we are excited!
Besides that, we have our other usual investigators. We met
Chi Truc. She is seriously prepared to receive the gospel! She also has so many
good questions! Our last lesson went a bit long. A lot a bit long. As in over
an hour and a half... She had so many questions and we tried to answer, but it
was impossible to give a short easy answer! But we had the answers! And we told
her that! And when she saw we actually wanted to answer her questions, and we
told her we would be able to do that as we go through the lessons we have to
teach, she was really excited. I actually wrote up all her questions on the
board and told her in which lesson they would be answered. She seemed very
excited about that! She told us she can only meet once a week until after Tet
when she can change her schedule and offered to meet for a three hour block,
but we told her that as cool as it was that she was willing to do that, it
would probably be better if we did shorter lessons, and then she could go try
to do things on her own at home too to help her grow even faster, like reading
the Book of Mormon and praying. She is really excited to try to find her own
answers too, and can't wait for us to share about the restoration next week!
She is doing great! And Chi Hoa is still doing good, though she had to cancel
meeting this week. Something came up. But we will meet her next week! And Anh
Hung is also doing good as well!
So that is the updates on our investigators! It was a great
week overall! Also, we finally all got our Christmas packages! (I mean, I got
my second one...) Mine was a lot of Christmas decorations, and was awesome! It
even had an advent calendar, as well as stockings for all four elders, and
Christmas ornaments! And of course, a nativity scene! My companion got a huge
package! He had all sorts of things from candy, to plenty of toys! I thought
one of the funniest ones was flying flinging monkeys, like the kind I had when
I was a kid! Anyways, we have plenty of things at our apartment now to say the
least... Also, Sister Phuong and Elder Gau got packages too. Elder Gau actually
got four! Three were through some Vietnamese version of Amazon. Looks like he
should have plenty of snacks for a while!
Oh, and since my parents asked, no winter does not exist in
southern Vietnam. At all. I swear, we are in the middle of summer still. All
the plants are still green. It is rather warm (though not quite Arizona hot),
and nothing shows signs of winter beyond the Christmas decorations which are
starting to be taken down... It is crazy how different weather climates are the
world over! If you really want to avoid winter, just come here to southern
Vietnam, and you will see just that!
Other things of note: there was a baptism for Em Thuan on
Sunday! Funny thing, when I first met him his gospel knowledge and faith were
so high, as well as his church activity, I not only thought he was a member,
but that he had some sort of active calling in the church! Turns out three
weeks later my companion is interviewing him for baptism! What do you know? And
our recent convert, Anh Hoan, got to baptize him! Awesome! And one other note,
we are getting close to Tet, the biggest holiday of the year in Vietnam, the
lunar new year! It should be an exciting time, and everyone always really
enjoys this time of year! It should be good!
Well that about does it! I will email again next week!
Elder Watson/ Nghiêm
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