I Will Be Brief Today... (Week 81)

 

Subject: I Will Be Brief Today... (Week 81)

Monday April 22, 2019

Hello everyone!

Sorry, but this email will be super short... It was good, but my new companion was a little sick, so we had a few resting kind of days, and also I am probably driving my companion crazy by emailing for too long... So this will be brief!

Well, I am now a trainer! I am training Elder Bao, who is Vietnamese, but learned the gospel while studying in Taiwan! So he knows Chinese too! Maybe we can use that to help all the Chinese people here! That would be cool, I do know a little Mandarin... Though I definitely need to increase my gospel vocabulary... Well, Elder Quoc flew back to Idaho this week. But we had two good days together and visited a lot of people. Monday was cool, but crazy! We went to eat dinner with Em Dat and Chi Hoa's family, but there was not adult man at the house, so we couldn't go in. We had to call through our whole phone and no one was available! So we started calling non members! And still no one! But then we called Anh Quan and his wife Chi Thanh. He is friends with Anh Hoan the recent convert, and came to church the last two weeks. We told him we really needed him to come, and he came right over! We were grateful for his help, and it was good to talk to him too! And Em Dat's family is doing well. On Tuesday we had some fiery "don't procrastinate the day of your repentance" talks for some investigators who have not really been progressing. Anh Tan took it well, and has now decided to share the gospel with his father! We are so excited! That is a big step for him! For Chi Truc, she was kind of making light of not following the commandments despite knowing the gospel was true. We shared Isaiah 55:8-9 and told her God's thoughts are not hers, and that if she wants to follow him she needs to fully follow him. Half following God despite knowledge of the truth is truly choosing to go against him. It was a bit sombering, but we hope to see her again and that she will decide to follow God more. And we met Chu Duong, but not much luck there. He still has concerns with having to keep up family tradition, so we cannot keep teaching him.

Real quick with Elder Bao. He is full of energy and so excited to contact people! Especially if they speak Chinese, as that is his specialty! Also, we had to take it a little slow. He got a bit sick in the MTC. Some senior sister missionaries here suspect it has to do with foreigners overblasting the AC unit... So we now turn our AC really high at our apartment. It is a little warm for me, but hey, I come from Arizona! So it is fine. A little harder to sleep though. We had some good lessons. We are really excited for Anh Hung and Chi Chi. They are really trying to grow their faith. Anh Hung says he can't explain it, but he just feels something special at the church. And that is the Holy Ghost! He is really doing great, and we hope to help him progress towards baptism soon! Co Hue and Bac Dung came to church on Sunday. We had a bit of a rough lesson, but it was fine overall. They are both nice people, but as of now, not overly accepting of everything taught. Sometimes conversion takes time. It also takes a willing heart and mind. And besides that, Easter was great. Elder Bao got to give a talk along with Elder Duy and Elder Nguyen as they were all new in Binh Duong. And then that gets us to today!

Well, we need to get going! Our district is bowling today, and it is Elder Bao's first time! It should be fun! Hopefully we will have some great things to report next week! Actually, I know we will! I can tell Elder Bao has great potential, and really wants to serve the Lord! How great to work with him in the service of the Lord!

Well, thank you to everyone back home and who is reading this! Until next week!

Elder Watson/ Nghiem

Elder Watson's leaning tower of packages from home!

A few treasures from Mom! She sends me a package every month, with little toys and figures that I love (stuff like Zelda, Harry Potter, Mario, Star Wars, Star Trek, etc.)

P.S. We are now a technology mission! That means we will get smart phones soon... That will be exciting! Reaching more people with the wonders of technology!

I am Training?! (Week 80)

I am Training?!

 

Hello everyone!

Yes, as I titled, I am going to train this transfer! I don't fully know what I am going to do, but I am excited for this opportunity the Lord has extended me to help a new missionary in the field learn some of the ropes, and to also learn a lot from him as well. Something really cool about all of the new missionaries is the great energy they carry, sometimes I think some of us older missionaries get too used to being in the service of the Lord that we forget that excitement we once had, but I know that this is the greatest work on Earth! And I am excited to see what I can learn in this next period of my mission! Also, that means I will likely be in Binh Duong for at least two of my last four transfers. Well, as I get a new companion, that does mean that Elder Quoc is going home. We are all sad to see him go, his energy and love have really helped this branch grow! Everyone loves Elder Quoc's big, embracing, slightly choking hugs! As long as they are male. He can't hug any girls until he gets released later this week, but then he is free to get back to a dating life! I have learned so much in my three transfers with him. He is such a great example in his care for those we teach, and in his great desire to serve the Lord with all of his heart, might, mind, and strength. He has helped me become more like Christ, and I really have seen myself grow in my teaching ability, as well as my ability to express myself. I know he has served the Lord well, and will continue to do so in whatever the Lord calls him to back in Idaho!

Our area is doing well. We got thirteen investigators to see conference! And several of them were new! We met Anh Phuong a while ago, and had a lesson with him two weeks ago, but did not get to teach too much, and he did not agree at that time to learn more about the gospel. But we invited him to conference, and he came and loved it! And he brought his friend, Thang! And they both agreed to learn more about the gospel! Another new person was Chi Hang's mom. I think I mentioned her before. She comes from a Christian background, but was interested in understanding more about our church. We were making some progress with her, but had a breakthrough lesson on Friday! Co Cuc Nga helped and gave a history of the world on religion, and it helped resolve a lot of her concerns! She also really connected with our discussion on how to find the truth yourself through prayer! She then came to conference and brought her mother too, and they both loved it! And they connected well with the members! We will keep helping them learn about the gospel, and are really excited for them! Anh Hung came to a few sessions, and something really exciting is he is living the word of wisdom! He made a goal for himself to try it out and is seeing great blessings! That is because God's promises are true! Also, meeting him and finding this out was a cool story that will be explained later... Anh Quan and his wife Chi Thanh came again to church, and loved conference and will come again next week! As did several other of our investigators. I know that the apostles and prophets are guided by God as they prepare their talks, and that the messages they share are specifically for us. I saw that for myself, as well as all the investigators and members who came. Also, invite for everyone. Share a talk from conference with a friend. Think of a friend who could benefit from the message of the gospel. Then think of something you would want to share. Then review your conference notes and get that person that talk. Whether you print it out and hand it to them, send it through Facebook, or whatever, just try to do it. I know members are essential to the growth of God's kingdom in these latter days, and I know he will bless you as you try to share about what you know to be true!

Here is the miracle story of the week. Come around Monday. Normal P Day. At six, we had an appointment with Chi Tram's family. She just got baptized and wants her family to start learning. Also, her mom came to conference. Well, we had planned to go back to contact and make phone calls, but I felt the need to stop by an investigator’s house on the way, Em Vy. Turns out she saw us on the way to our appointment with Chi Tram and was sort of waiting for us! And her brother Duc was there too! We shared the restoration, which helped her, and now her brother is really interested to try out prayer and meet more! He gave a really sincere prayer at the end, and we could all feel the Spirit! Well, that was really cool, but it gets better. We are heading back, and then both Elder Quoc and I felt prompted to stop by Anh Hung and Chi Chi's house, which is also on the way! So we did. Turns out it was the only day Anh Hung was home that week, he had a special training meeting in Hanoi. So we got to talk with them, and he informed us he had just started to follow the word of wisdom to see if the blessings were true! And he had seen them! We encouraged him to keep following the word of wisdom and told him God would bless him! If we had not been by that night, he might have slipped up on his attempt to follow the word of wisdom and then never told us, but I know God had a hand here, and wanted us to help encourage him in this trial of his faith. I know God is preparing him to receive all the blessings of the gospel, and I am really excited for him!

Not too much to report on English, it was pretty usual. But we had several students come to conference to say goodbye to Elder Quoc, so that was nice.

One other thing, we got to visit Anh Ha's house for dinner, and he also invited Anh Hoan! We hadn't seen him in a bit, so it was good to see him, and Elder Quoc gave him a Vietnamese Bible, which was really cool! Anh Hoan really appreciated it.

I don't really have too much else to report on this week. We have to go back soon so Elder Quoc can start packing for his flight on Wednesday up to Hanoi, and then Thursday to America!

Elder Watson/ Nghiem  

P.S. I was excited to get another package from my family! It included another camera case so I can carry my camera every day a little easier again and have a few more pictures to share with you each week. The box was just a little mangled when it arrived...but everything was still inside. Did you know Cadbury eggs taste the same even when they've been smashed? Awesome! 

 

Progressing Investigators is the Key! (Week 79)

 Monday April 8, 2019

Subject: Progressing Investigators is the Key!

Hello everyone!

This last week has gone well here in Vietnam! Pretty normal missionary work week, but that means it was awesome! Because missionary work is awesome! Also, I know conference just occurred, but I have not seen it yet... In Vietnam, we watch conference a week after it happens. Because if we watched it live, we would be starting it at 10 pm and 2 am to watch, and I don't think anyone wants to do that... So instead we watch a recording of it a week after. But we are just as excited to get to hear the counsel of the prophets and apostles for us! How great it is to live in a day and age where we can hear directly from God's called servants!

Well, our investigators are doing good. We had to take a step back with a few of them, but it was necessary and will help them a lot. After all, we are teaching real people with real concerns. There is no one size fits all teaching approach for the gospel, if there was, then we would just get robots to do the job. And also, the missionaries aren't really the ones who convert those they teach, they encourage them to take steps on their own, but we must all find out the truth for ourselves. So, we are trying to help our investigators take their own steps! With Anh Hung, we had to take a step back. I think we were working too fast at trying to get him to baptism, when he first needs to strengthen his faith more. And he told us that. He has faith in Jesus Christ, but is still seeking his answer on Joseph Smith being a prophet, and on if the Book of Mormon is true. So we are trying to help him to read the Book of Mormon and find his answer! Anyone who earnestly seeks will find that answer! I know he can receive that witness of the Spirit that the Book of Mormon is true! He just needs to read, and seek earnestly and he will find it! And Chi Chi is doing good too! She got to talk with Co Cuc Nga and Co Nhiem, and they were able to teach a little more personally to her, so she really enjoyed that. They both came to church on Sunday, and we had a great Sunday school lesson! It was on the Book of Mormon! We discussed what the Book of Mormon helps us know, such as about Jesus Christ being the Redeemer of the world, Joseph Smith being a prophet called of God, and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints being his true restored church on the earth today! (Please see the introduction of the Book of Mormon for more on this). Then for a little fun, Elder Quoc had cut out some cardboard to make an arch to show what a keystone is, being the piece that holds the arch together, and we discussed how it is what holds the church together. All the other truths can be either proved or disproved by it. If the Book of Mormon is true, then Joseph Smith is a prophet as he translated it, Jesus is the Christ as it testifies in so many ways, and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is God's true church. That is why it is so important for each of us to "experiment upon the word" and see if it is true, because if it is, then it is what we need to follow. If you have not yet read the Book of Mormon, please do! I know you can get a witness of it for yourself! Oh, and then to finish our lesson, we showed Elder Holland's testimony on it from the talk "Safety for the Soul". Also, an excellent talk to look up.

One miracle at church. On Saturday evening, my companion and I were calling some people to invite to church. We had one investigator we had not seen in a while, Anh Quan. Out of the blue, Elder Quoc said he felt we should call him. We did, and he not only answered, but said he could come to church and he would bring his wife! It was a great blessing of following the Spirit. They also really enjoyed church and said they wanted to come again! And another miracle, the person I mentioned last week that we dropped that kicked us out of his house, opened up to us again this week. We were able to go over there with Co Cuc Nga, and she had a good conversation with him, and addressed a lot of his concerns. She will try to visit him again to continue discussing with him on it. But he was doing a lot better this week, and it was another great blessing from the Lord.

Our other investigators are doing decent. Making good progress. We have a few coming back this week from business or other trips, and we are excited to see them again. And something else cool, we have a new focus for some of our investigators struggling with the fifth step of the gospel, enduring to the end. I mean, that is a tall order. When is the end? When are we done following the gospel? Well the answer is never. At least as far as we can currently see, there is not a point in this life where we will reach perfection and be done and not have to try anymore. I mean, if you get to that point, you get "taken up" like the city of Enoch. Sometimes it is hard to picture this. Sometimes we just wish to settle for having done enough. Hey, if I was good for most of my life, can't I just break bad at the end and be okay? No, that is not what God wants of us, nor living up to our potential. Actually, I think that is why God asks us to endure to the end. Because he can see our potential, and wants us to always work towards reaching that. Perfection is a long-term goal. We will make mistakes on the way, but that is okay, as long as we correct our course. That leads me to some examples President Chiles taught me in my interview this last week. He told me how one way to help those who are struggling with the concept of enduring to the end is to explain not just what the Sabbath is, but WHY we have it. Why do we have the Sabbath? I am sure there are many reasons, but the biggest one is so we can take the Sacrament. The Sacrament is a privilege we have that enables us to renew our baptismal covenant with God, to begin following him again like new. We can erase our mistakes of that week and press forward again. President Chiles shared with me an example he heard from a pilot about this. When you go on a plane flight, you usually think of the plane as flying straight from point a to point b, but in reality, there are a lot of factors that interfere with the plane, like wind, etc... It pushes the plane slightly off course to such an extent that the pilot must correct it, and the real flight of the plane rather than a straight line is a bunch of zig zags. The sooner the pilot corrects the course though, the less fuel is wasted. If you wait too long to correct, you go a lot off course, and may even end up in the wrong location. So, it is necessary for the pilot to be alert and correct as soon as he can. Well, in this life, it is the same. Besides Jesus Christ, nobody has ever flown that perfect flight, we all go slightly off track at some point. That is where the Sacrament comes in. It gives us a chance frequently to correct our course. In this way, the commandment to keep the Sabbath is less so a burden that forces us to take two hours a week to go to church, and rather becomes a great blessing for us to be able to correct that course! How wonderful it is that we can partake of the Sacrament every single week! And with that view, we don't need to worry as much about enduring to the end. God has provided a way to correct our course to help us complete that journey! We have used this to explain to our investigators about enduring to the end, and it has made a lot more sense to them. And real quick, President Chiles told me a second metaphor. So in this one you have a person wear a heavy backpack, and explain the weight in it is like all our sins we carry with us. At baptism it gets emptied as we receive a remission of all our sins! But of course, we all make mistakes again, and that is like putting some of the removed books or items back in the bag, and adding more weight. But on the Sabbath, we can empty the bag again! Some people worry that if they make a mistake after baptism, they are done for. They can't be forgiven, as they have already promised to obey the commandments. And of course God does not want us to break the commandments, but he knows we aren't perfect and will sometimes make mistakes. So he provides a way that we can empty that bag again. He doesn't want to punish us for our mistakes, he wants us to receive peace through His son, Jesus Christ. If we repent and worthily partake of the Sacrament, it is as if those mistakes are no longer there. That is the peace that comes through the gospel of Jesus Christ. And I know that is true.

I thought those were some pretty cool explanations of what the gospel truly does for us. Well, I promised I would share about zone conference this week, but don't have too much time... But I will share the three biggest take aways. First, we learned that if we want to have success as missionaries, we need to follow the council we have received through God's called servants, and use Preach My Gospel, the resource they put together for us. It really tells you everything you need to know about missionary work. Any missionaries out there not reading and applying Preach My Gospel, I advise looking at it again. There is so much knowledge contained in there. And anyone preparing for missions, Preach My Gospel will be you best friend to prepare for a mission along with the scriptures, and the words of modern prophets and apostles. Second, we learned about how to better recognize and follow the Spirit. And to be bold to testify and invite when the Spirit is there. Our job is not to convert people to us, but the gospel, and that comes through the confirmation of the Spirit. If we can get the investigators to get to a point where they fill the Spirit, it will teach them what they need to know. We need to recognize when the Spirit is there and help the investigator recognize it too so they can recognize their answer from God. And the final one was on teaching progressing investigators, as I titled this email. That was a big eye opener. As a missionary, you may have a lot of people you are teaching. But that doesn't mean a lot of people are progressing. And in order to get baptized and join the church, an investigator must first progress. There is no way around it. Preach My Gospel defines a progressing investigator as someone who has had two or more lessons and is keeping commitments (loose definition from my memory). We were then asked in zone conference to use this definition to see how many progressing investigators we have. It was surprising. You go from having fifteen to twenty investigators overall, to realizing you only have five or six who are progressing. And you realize it is true, those who seem to have real potential to get baptized keep commitments, they desire to learn more, you don't have to force them. And you know what, they are also the ones you would agree would actually want to remain active if they were members. Sometimes we need to realize this distinction so we can know where to put our focus. We are converting people to the gospel of Jesus Christ. These people need to act on their own testimony. If they are still meeting, but really only because they want to please the missionaries, that is nice, but it will not help them come unto Christ. They need to come to know him. I know that is true. We need to help our progressing investigators continue on their personal journey. And those who are not need to find out what they are really working for, or if they are not willing, maybe they should not be occupying so much of our attention. Of course we never want to drop an investigator, we love all those we meet and all those we teach, but we cannot force them on the path back to God, they have their own agency, and we are called to lead those who are ready back to God.

I found zone conference really inciteful. It answered a lot of questions I had personally and for my investigators. I am grateful to have a mission president called of God to help me work with the people here. I am excited to be in the work of the Lord!

Elder Watson/ Nghiêm

P.S. I will attempt to attach a video here for fun... We had a superhuman ability trick contest, and let's just say, I won. See for yourself...

April Fools! (Week 78)

Monday, Apr 1, 2019

Subject: April Fools!

Hello everyone!

So I am pretty sure nobody here celebrates April Fools... But today is the first of April. So that is cool. My sister Paige tried to trick me into thinking she got a haircut, she put it all in a beanie and only had part of her hair sticking out... She does like to be tricky! Well, it has been a good week overall. Not too many big changes, but many cool little things. We met a reverend this last week! I may have mentioned him last week. His name is Reverend Jerry. He ran into us at Aeon mall and told us he is really glad that we do our work and share about Jesus Christ. He does not know much about the church, but is open to listening to what we believe. He said he heard bad things about the Book of Mormon, but said he needs to read it before he believes any rumors. So we got to lend him a copy of the Book of Mormon to read for himself! He said he would read and pray about it, and if it is God's will for him to receive it, then he will do so gladly! He is just so open to receiving more from God, I know God will help him see the truth! It reminds me of a scripture in 2 Nephi 28. This is verse 30. "For behold, thus saith the Lord God: I will give unto the children of men line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little and there a little; and blessed are those who hearken unto my precepts, and lend an ear unto my counsel, for they shall learn wisdom; for unto him that receiveth I will give more; and from them that shall say, We have enough, from them shall be taken away even that which they have." I know this to be true. As we seek, God will give us more. As we act on what we have, God will give us more. And he always has more to give us, we just need to be ready to receive it. We should never just be satisfied with what we have and stop. We need revelation to go forward. I am excited for him!

Our other investigators are mostly doing alright. We had a miracle story. I put this a lot longer in my email to President Chiles, but I will spare you all a lot of time and will get to the point. So my companion and I decided we needed to eat healthier to be more obedient. We ended up buying groceries for it last Monday. It was not an easy decision, we really like eating things out a lot, but we know we need more nutrition in our diet and bought fruits and the like and some stuff to make sandwiches, etc... Well, right as we are coming out of the store, we get a phone call from Anh Hung. He got the job! That should resolve most of the concerns he had with following some of the commandments! We are really excited for him too, that will greatly help him provide for his family. So that was a great miracle in and of itself. Well, on our walk home, we ran into Eric! I believe I mentioned him a while ago. He wants to learn more about the gospel, and is really seeking spiritual truth, but has some family opposition. He does still want to meet. We addressed some of his concerns last week, and he agreed to try to meet this week. Well, on our walk home, still holding those newly healthy groceries, we ran into him! He asked if we had eaten dinner yet, and he invited us to eat with him. We quickly ran up and put our groceries away. We had a good conversation with him about the plan of salvation. He had a lot of questions and it was a really good discussion. He is really seeking the truth. And at the end, he said it was funny we ran into him. He was thinking of calling us that night. His mother had just passed away, and he wanted to talk to us before he flew out for her funeral. I know God put us in the right place at the right time. I know God is directing Eric to find the spiritual truth he is seeking. And I know God was blessing Elder Quoc and I for trying to be more obedient. Our Heavenly Father has so many blessings he is just waiting to give us, we just need to give him a reason to give them to us, and he will. He really does love us. I am so grateful for the opportunity I have to share about God's love for us. And I am excited to try to share more with Eric!

That was one of the coolest miracles this week. Some other notes, our other investigators are progressing well. Em Dat asked his mom again if he could be baptized. She did not say yes, but she also didn't say no! She said all religions are good and he can join the one he wants, but she said he needs to get older and have more time to make that decision. So he will keep learning and working on that, but it is a good sign, and he is still doing well in his commitments and applying what he is learning! On one bad note, we did get kicked out of a house. One of our investigators came across some anti church information. He still let us come over to talk, but was confused from what he had heard, and was not listening too well. He had several concerns, one of which was our calling the leaders in the church "branch president" rather than pastor or father. I ended up sharing with him Matthew 15:1-9, where Jesus tells the Pharisees to not confuse the traditions of men with the laws of God. The title of church leaders does not affect our salvation. It is the gospel of Jesus Christ in its five steps, faith, repentance, baptism, the gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end. It is following the covenant path. He seemed to think a bit on it, but still couldn't get past the concerns of the moment, and he asked us to leave. So, while we were a bit sad, we got up calmly and left. Now of course we still feel a bit sad, as we are not currently able to teach him more about God's plan for him, but we actually felt alright as we left. We shared what we know is true. We followed the Spirit's promptings. We did not get angry and fight back. And we still love him. We have hope that he will ponder upon what we have shared, and go to God in sincere prayer, and seek in the scriptures. We are confident in God's plan for him, and know that in the end all things work out as God has planned. We trust that plan. We hope he will one day come back to the missionaries, whether us or other missionaries, I don't know, but I will pray for him and trust God's will on this. He is still a great man though, and we are grateful for what we did get to share with him.

One other side note, we now have two senior sisters serving in Binh Duong! We have Co Nhiem and Co Cuc Nga! Both really solid members for many years here in Vietnam. And Co Cuc Nga is pretty much a permanent missionary. She has served several missions and at the conclusion of each one, puts her papers right back out. She also has a fun conversion story. I won't relate it all (I don't even know it all), but she has been in all religions, and the way she learned of the church, she got revelation from God that the true church was not at that time in Vietnam. So she went over to Cambodia, got in a taxi, and asked them to take her to a church. The taxi driver took her to a church of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. She said, "no, this isn't it" and asked him to keep driving. He took her to a second church just like the first. She decided "this must be it", went in and learned the gospel. She has such a strong testimony of the restoration and of priesthood authority. She and Co Nhiem will be a great force for good in the Binh Duong branch! Oh, and President Chiles joined us in our branch council on Sunday! It was good too!

Oh, and I forgot! It was zone conference this week! But I don't have much time to write... Overall, it was great! I saw all of my questions I had prepared answered. We really focused on how to better follow and have the Spirit with us. And we also discussed how to teach better. I will explain more next week!

 

Well, I need to sign off. Back to missionary work! Have a great week!

Elder Watson/ Nghiem

P.S. Work hard, play hard, sleep well!

 

Rainy Season! (Week 77)

Sunday, Mar 24, 2019

Subject: Rainy Season!

 

Hello everyone!

I had a really hard time trying to think of an email title today. There were definitely good things that happened, but "Bac Dung comes to Church" is a little long and not too exciting sounding for an email title. Neither does “Rainy Season!”, but it is what I went for. That is because I believe we are now in rainy season. For those who don't know, Vietnam pretty much has two seasons. Wet season, and dry season. Especially in Southern Vietnam where it is always hot. No exceptions. In Hanoi, it does get chilly in the winter, but here, not at all! You would think you were in the middle of July when in reality it is the middle of December... Well, in my whole time in Binh Duong before this week (about 4 months), I think it rained once for about five minutes, and I was inside. So I had not really seen rain in Binh Duong. Well, it rained a few times this week. Once was on Wednesday; it was hard but short. And I was inside again. But on Sunday, it rained off and on, and hard! It first started right as church got out. It luckily stopped. We had planned on visiting a family that day, a friend of Co Hue's. They just got a new home, so we went to say hi, and talk to them a bit. We will try to visit them again this week and share about families. But when we were there, it RAINED! And it rained. And it rained some more. Most of the bike ride there was fine, other than the flooded roads from the rain that had just stopped. But when we got to their neighborhood, it started to rain. We got to go inside, but outside their house, it started to flood the road! They were cleaning up a mini party they had had earlier that afternoon, and everyone was up to their ankles in water. Luckily it was dry in the house. We got to talk to them, but when we would consider getting up to go, it would start raining heavily! It happened three times! Luckily though, they gave us food, so we didn't lose too much time in our plan for the day. But it was interesting. Something didn't want us to leave! They were a very nice family, and were open to us. We even got to pray over the food! With their permission of course! It was good. And then we got to bike through flooded roads again as we went to Co Hue and Bac Dung's house to talk more with them. We shared the restoration again, and it was good. Bac Dung still has a little mix up on the difference between restoration and reformation, but is making progress.

I know that God has restored his full gospel. After Jesus Christ established his church and called his apostles, there was a time when the authority of the church was lost. The apostles were killed, and there was no one to preside God's true church. Many plain and precious truths were lost. Many great men and women sacrificed on the way to fix what they could. Some tried to reform and fix the gospel. And they helped pave the way for the restoration of God's true church. But it wasn't until God restored his truth that we had the fulness of his gospel again. That fulness came through God's calling of a prophet, Joseph Smith, and giving him Priesthood keys. He called him to translate the Book of Mormon, which contains the fulness of the gospel of Jesus Christ. And he invites us all to know that truth. Anyone who will read the Book of Mormon will come to know it is true and that God has restored his church. And that was our invite for Bac Dung, to read the Book of Mormon and come to know it is true. And I know he will come to know it is true as he reads it.

Well, then to cap off our Sunday, we went to Em Dat's house for a brief visit as it was on the way home. We had a good talk with him. He is still working on getting permission for baptism, but he is doing really good at following Jesus Christ's example. He asked us this week how you would help a fellow classmate who won't talk to anyone. We talked about service and showing genuine care for others, and how with time they will see our true intent. It was great seeing his sincere desire to help this friend of his. For our other investigators, they are doing well. We are still trying to help Chi Truc see the need for commitment in baptism. She wants to follow the commandments and have the blessings, but feels the lifelong commitment is too hard. But she is warming up to it. I can tell she knows the gospel is true and God wants her to follow him and be baptized. As she continues to grow her faith, I know she will see what God wants for her. We are also working with Anh Tan on a similar question. He also feels he needs more time to prepare for the lifelong commitment of baptism. But that is something interesting. If we wait to be perfect before we agree to follow God, we will find we are never perfect. That is because Jesus Christ does not ask us to be perfect before we come to Him, but that we come and be perfected in Him. (See Moroni 10:33) All he asks is that we try and rely on Him. Baptism is not something scary that once you are in, if you mess up you are condemned. Rather it is a gate that begins us down our covenant path. If we make errors on the way, we need not fear. He provides a way for us. Repentance is not God's backup plan, it is his plan! (That is a quote from some general authority I cannot currently remember which one though...) I know we have a loving Savior who is always willing to accept us.

Also, I will just share about one other investigator this week. The rest are all doing good, but I wanted to share another cool story. We met with Em Vy this week. We had planned to teach her whole family, but some of them were going to get back late, and the others were taking care of a sick baby. So we just got to meet her today. So we followed up on her Book of Mormon reading. A lot of investigators don't read a lot (though they should, it would help their faith a lot), and when we follow up a lot of them usually only read a few verses a day. Well, we asked Em Vy, and to our surprise, she is already in Enos! That is a fourth of the way through the Book of Mormon! She loves reading and has learned a lot. She even loved Jacob 5, despite how long it is! So we got to talk to her about how the Book of Mormon helps answer our questions. She had a question for us on why some people are born with handicaps or disadvantages in life. We decided to share how we can look for answers, through prayer and scripture study. Now, we did not find it while we were there, but Em Vy said she knew she would find an answer, and said she would keep reading until she did. Her faith was so strong! I know she will find her answer, and she will see such great blessings as a result of her faith!

Well, I don't have much more time to write this week. But it was a great week full of more blessings and miracles than I can write! I am so grateful to be engaged in the work of the Lord!

Have a great week!

Elder Watson/ Nghiem

 

Referrals! (Week 76)

Sunday, Mar 17, 2019

Subject: Referrals! 

Hello everyone!

How has your week been? Mine has been great! particularly since we are teaching a lot more families! We have several investigators who introduced us to their families, and we are now teaching them! First, we have Em Vy's family. We got to visit her family this last week and shared in the Family Proclamation. It led to a discussion of the Plan of Salvation. Her older brother was really interested, and her father also seemed quite intrigued. They both agreed that we could visit again another time and share more. And they like that Em Vy is learning too. We are really excited to work with all of them! Also, her brother and his wife who live with them have less than one-year old twins, so it was a little hard to get the sister in law and the mother in the lesson, but they were really nice, and we got to talk to them a bit. We are excited to keep sharing more with their family! Then we have Em Nhu's family. They were really open! Her mother in particular was really open, and we ended up sharing the restoration. It was cool too, as we started with the Family Proclamation like with Em Vy's family, but it led to their questions on the restoration. I have actually really seen the Family Proclamation as a great teaching tool! It helps for some people to start learning in a comfortable way, and then it relates to a lot of gospel principles, depending on their needs. We are really excited for their family, they agreed to read the Book of Mormon! And they just seem very open to what we share.

And then we got to teach Co Hue's husband, Bac Dung, the restoration. He was very open to it. He did not fully understand everything taught, so we will have to clarify some things, but he wants to meet again, and agreed to read the Book of Mormon! Also, Co Hue wants to get baptized as soon as possible, so we are going to help her, but are also trying to get her husband on board too. He seems very open, so that is really cool. And the other new person we met this week is Anh Thuan. I actually accidentally called him, intending to call a different Anh Thuan... Too many people have the same name... But it worked out. We met him and shared the restoration. He wants to meet again and he said he would read the introduction to the Book of Mormon! And our other investigators are doing good. We had a cool lesson with Em Dat. Elder Quoc and I went in prepared to teach from For the Strength of Youth and to discuss the use of media, which we did do, but then it changed topics and went into baptism again. He is was a little hesitant on it, but we had a great discussion of all the blessings God has in store from him, so he now says he will ask his parents again if he can get baptized. It is very exciting! Also, Elder Quoc used a funny example in the lesson. We were talking about how technology is like a two-sided sword. It can be used for so much good, but it can also be used for so much evil. It really depends on what we do with it. But then we also said sometimes we choose to let technology control us, and Elder Quoc shared a story he heard from his young men's leader who stopped at a light in front of a school, and some teenager walked right into his stopped car because he couldn't look up from his phone. Don't let technology control you! Luckily, I just have a Nokia, and it can't really do much more than text and call. Use your technology wisely, don't let it control you! 

Oh, and everyone else is doing good. Not too much different. Anh Hung is applying for a new job, so we are praying for his success in his interviews! We know God will help him, so we told him he can pray too for God to help him in that. He at first felt like he didn't want to bother God with his request, but we shared in 3 Nephi 18 about how Jesus Christ told us that anything righteous we pray for, if it be His will, He will give us. And we told him supporting his family is a very righteous desire. So with that knowledge, he said he would pray to God for help. It made a lot of sense to him and Chi Chi.

And our church attendance is still going good! We are maintaining around fifty. Something cool though, we invited a new person to come on Sunday, Chi Thuy. We met her at a café, and she was really friendly. Initially, she was a little nervous about coming, as she had not been to church before, but she had a great experience and fit right in! She said it felt like a big family. And it really is. Those who follow Jesus Christ become one in Him, and we try to love our fellow man. We welcome all people and view them as He does. I am grateful to have that perspective, to know how much our Heavenly Father truly values us. Also, I would like to invite everyone to look at Elder Soares' talk from last conference, "One in Christ". It is a wonderful talk about how we should care for each other, and especially those who are new and may not feel like they fit in. Jesus Christ always reaches out to us, and we should likewise reach out to each other.

Well, it was just a really good week. And I look forward to another one. There really is no greater joy than sharing the gospel. Of course all the experiences I get here are cool. It is cool to be halfway across the world. To experience the culture. Try the food. Etc... But what I have seen truly makes me happy here is sharing the gospel, seeing the light as others learn the truth of God and the Atonement of His son, Jesus Christ, and then finishing the day knowing I did my best to follow God's will and bring his children closer to him. This work is true, and I am so grateful to be a part of it.

See you all next week!

Elder Watson/ Nghiêm