Sunday, Dec 30, 2018
Merry Christmas everyone!
Well, I was initially going to call this one "Merry
Christmas" or "Happy New Year", but that is too boring...
Especially since I have not written a group email in three weeks... So, I will
get to figgy pudding in a minute. But hey, for those who are unaware, I am now
in my third area. It is called Binh Duong. The d is pronounced more like a y.
It is currently the only branch in Vietnam not in Hanoi or Ho Chi Minh City.
Binh Duong is actually a province, not a city. It is really cool. It is a big
industrial zone with lots of factories. Most people work at said factories. I
can tell the people here are really humble, and kind, and I think there are
lots of people here ready to receive the gospel! It is also a nice change of
pace from the city life. You can actually hear yourself think out on the
street, and you don't have to constantly listen to cars honk their horns!
Actually, you didn't hear that as much in the city, more so it was motorbike
horns. So is Vietnam. The branch here is small, but the members are very
faithful, and I am excited to work with them. My companion here is Elder Quoc.
He has been in Vietnam a year and a half. He is really cool, and an excellent
cook. He comes from Idaho, and makes some of the best French fries you have
ever had! And currently we have a good pool of investigators we are teaching
about the gospel. We have one, Chi Hoa, who is getting ready for baptism. She
learned a while ago, and then stopped, but came back and said she really wants
to be baptized. When meeting with her, she told how she doesn't fully know why,
but she had investigated other religions before, but it wasn't until she came
here that she felt something. I can tell she really wants to be an active
member. We also have Em Cuong, who is really cool. He wants to be baptized, but
is under 18, and his parents won't let him be baptized. He is very faithful though
and is trying to talk to his parents more about it. He is awesome though! And
we have Chi Truc, who learned about the church through English class and
recently started learning. She is progressing quite well as we have taught her
the Plan of Salvation. She has lots of good questions, and we are excited for
her! And we have several other investigators, but I will bring them up another
time. Also, we have gotten several new investigators the past few weeks,
including two this last week. They have known the missionaries for a while and
are really good people. They do charity work to help younger kids get a better
education. We got to share about the Plan of Salvation with them, and they want
to learn more! But they live in the city, so they will be studying with some
other missionaries. Still, we were glad to meet them and help them start
learning a bit about the gospel! Things are going well, and we really want to
help the branch grow!
Speaking of growth, our attendance at activities here has been huge lately! We have around 100 at English weekly, we had 80 come to our Christmas party, and this last week our sacrament went from around 15-20 to 36! With around two thirds of that being nonmembers! The missionaries here are working hard to get more people coming to activities! Also, speaking of English, here comes in the figgy pudding. So, we were teaching about Christmas, and taught everyone how to sing "We Wish You a Merry Christmas". Also, I am in the intermediate level now. Well, part of the song talks about figgy pudding, and I told everyone I had never had figgy pudding before. We also mentioned fruit cake as something no one likes, but again, I don't recall eating it before. Well, I didn't get figgy pudding here, but I did get some fruit cake! I actually got a really nice Christmas lunch on Christmas at Al Fresco's, an American restaurant. I got some pumpkin soup, turkey, ham, corn, peas, carrots, potatoes, gravy, and to finish it off some fruit cake. I didn't like the fruit cake much, but I have now tried it! Now if only I could find some figgy pudding... The rest of the meal was great though, and really tasted like an American Christmas.
Well, I think I am going to sign off here soon. But just so
you know why it took me three weeks to respond, two weeks ago I went to the
western part of Vietnam for a charity trip I was unaware they were doing here,
and then last week was Christmas, and I did my call home, so no time to write a
group email. But I am here this week! Oh, I also started off with great
impressions in my area, sporting a very attractive looking cyst! That is when
some nice bacteria decide to live inside of your eyelid and make it swell up
and irritate you like crazy. You can barely open your eye, it turns red, and
sometimes waters up your eye for no reason. I would not recommend getting
one... But it was resolved before my call home, so all is well!
Well, this is my sign off. Merry Christmas to all! And to
all a happy 2019!
Elder Watson/ Nghiêm
No comments:
Post a Comment