Monday, Apr 1, 2019
Subject: April Fools!
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!
Elder Watson/ Nghiem
P.S. Work hard, play hard, sleep well!
P.S. Work hard, play hard, sleep well!
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