Sunday January 27, 2019
Thank Goodness for the True Church!
Hello everyone!
Things went pretty well this last week here in Binh Duong. Lots of stuff to cover, but just to explain the title before more details are given below, I am sure glad to know of God's true church! My companion and I had a wonderful opportunity to attend a service with an investigator of ours at her church, and it was very nice. But there were also some simple things from our own church missing there that just made me realize how grateful I am to be a part of the true restored church of Jesus Christ, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. But, more on that in a minute. First let’s start off with our investigators!
Our area is doing good. Most people are still in town,
though some may start leaving for Tet this week. Anh Tan will be going on
Wednesday, so we set up with him on Tuesday to meet. It will be good for Chi
Hoa though, as she will be here with every day off! So we will try to meet her
more, and possibly at her house, which would be good! She is doing really well
and now has a date for the 17th of this month! We still have some concerns with
her and the Sabbath, but she may change her work after Tet, and we actually had
a great lesson with her yesterday where we talked about our priorities in life,
and prioritizing God. We gave her the talk "Now is the Time" from
last conference. I think she will really be thinking about that, and it will
help her a lot. When we truly put the kingdom of God first, we will be blessed
in all things. (see 3 Nephi 13:33 or Matthew 6:33) Anh Hung is also doing
great! We met his wife this week, Chi Chi, and the both of them are really
committed to learn more about the church! Anh Hung was telling me on Sunday how
he loves the whole family feel there, and how we all try to grow together. He
decided he likes the scriptures, and read the entirety of Moses, and then
started First Nephi! He is so open, God really did prepare him! Elder Quoc and
I think he could definitely get baptized this month with his wife if they are
willing to meet more and keep commitments! And their daughter is awesome! She
loves primary a lot! She is six, and probably more mature than the rest of the
whole youth in the branch combined! The rest run around a lot and make lots of
noise (which is kind of expected with young kids...), but she sits in a chair
for the entirety of sacrament meeting! They are such a cool family, and are
right at place in the gospel! So we are really excited for them!
And our other investigators are doing good as well. And for our new investigators this week, we got Anh Hung's wife, Chi Chi who I already mentioned. And we got Co Hue, who invited us to her church as well. She is very interesting, and very determined when she has her mind set on something. We had to discuss it four times for her to agree we could bike to her church. She kept trying to argue her church was too far. It was only a half hour bike ride... And speaking of going to her church, their church service there was very nice, and Elder Quoc and I thought it was good to go there. They are a really small Protestant church group, kind of similar to how our church was in Vietnam not too long ago. They have to rent a building, they cannot have their own church building. It looked more like a small house. Our church does too, but is a bit larger, and is permitted to have a sign in the front that says our church's name. Their meeting was a little different, they have more energy in what they do, as compared to ours being more calm and peaceful. But it was a nice worship service. And the preacher talked to us afterwards and we shared a bit about what we do. We gave him a card with the information for the church's representative in Hanoi, as well as the lds.vn website (that is lds.org but for Vietnam. It has special announcements from the Asia area presidency, as well as being in Vietnamese. If you want to check it out go for it, but you probably won't be able to read anything...). He seemed interested in checking it out. They were all very nice though. And Co Hue invited us to come to her house this week and agreed for us to share more about Jesus Christ. She also invited us to their church again. I don't know if we will go this week, but maybe sometime in the future. They were very nice people. And they also gave us dinner, they had prepared bun thit nuong (a type of dry Vietnamese soup) that was very nice, and we were the guests of honor, so we got to sit on both sides of the preacher. Elder Quoc was really nervous about it before hand, but thought it was good afterwards, and he sees a lot of good in the people there. We will have to see what happens. Well, this upcoming week we will keep trying to meet our investigators, and it sounds like some of them will be more free with some days off for Tet! And we will try to meet some of their families too, as they will all be off!
And our other investigators are doing good as well. And for our new investigators this week, we got Anh Hung's wife, Chi Chi who I already mentioned. And we got Co Hue, who invited us to her church as well. She is very interesting, and very determined when she has her mind set on something. We had to discuss it four times for her to agree we could bike to her church. She kept trying to argue her church was too far. It was only a half hour bike ride... And speaking of going to her church, their church service there was very nice, and Elder Quoc and I thought it was good to go there. They are a really small Protestant church group, kind of similar to how our church was in Vietnam not too long ago. They have to rent a building, they cannot have their own church building. It looked more like a small house. Our church does too, but is a bit larger, and is permitted to have a sign in the front that says our church's name. Their meeting was a little different, they have more energy in what they do, as compared to ours being more calm and peaceful. But it was a nice worship service. And the preacher talked to us afterwards and we shared a bit about what we do. We gave him a card with the information for the church's representative in Hanoi, as well as the lds.vn website (that is lds.org but for Vietnam. It has special announcements from the Asia area presidency, as well as being in Vietnamese. If you want to check it out go for it, but you probably won't be able to read anything...). He seemed interested in checking it out. They were all very nice though. And Co Hue invited us to come to her house this week and agreed for us to share more about Jesus Christ. She also invited us to their church again. I don't know if we will go this week, but maybe sometime in the future. They were very nice people. And they also gave us dinner, they had prepared bun thit nuong (a type of dry Vietnamese soup) that was very nice, and we were the guests of honor, so we got to sit on both sides of the preacher. Elder Quoc was really nervous about it before hand, but thought it was good afterwards, and he sees a lot of good in the people there. We will have to see what happens. Well, this upcoming week we will keep trying to meet our investigators, and it sounds like some of them will be more free with some days off for Tet! And we will try to meet some of their families too, as they will all be off!
Tet is surely an exciting time here! It is by far the
biggest holiday, and everyone is busily getting ready for their family
gathering to celebrate the lunar new year. We are about to enter the year of
the pig! So there are pig decorations all over Vietnam right now. It is a fun
time to be in, and we hope to get some good work done in it!
And for those who are curious, we had a good English
activity this week, sharing about adverbs to enhance storytelling. At the end,
we had everyone make up stories based on some entertaining prompts, such as
"I won a million dollars!" or "How I broke my phone". They
were quite clever. The person who broke his phone said it was because Vietnam
lost a soccer match, and he was so angry he threw his phone across the room.
Soccer is very big here... And he said it was based on a true story... Also we
have a potential investigator who is really cool. I might tell more about her
next week. But she decided to try praying, and saw God answer her prayers! The
first time, her mother was stressed out and feeling sick, so she prayed and saw
her mom feel a lot better! And then she prayed for Vietnam to win a soccer
match last Saturday, and they ended up winning, so she saw an answer there too!
A little more silly, but God does really care about what we care about too,
even if it does seem like a small matter like soccer. We just have to remember
somebody is probably praying for the other side to win too, and God listens to
their prayers too...
Oh, and for church, we had 41 people at sacrament! Not quite
like the 48 of last week, but considering people are going out of town for Tet
already, that is actually quite good! Wish us luck next week! Also, one of the
missionary’s fathers here payed a surprise visit with the mission president's
approval, since he was here on business. It was pretty cool, and he had us help
get his daughter out of the room so he could come in first and have her come
downstairs. It was a cool moment for them. But my family better not try to
sneak over here... That is usually not supposed to happen, and I know for a
fact that they don't have any planned business trips to Vietnam! Besides, I
will see them all in eight months anyways! They pointed out to me that I have
officially hit my sixteen-month mark, or two thirds there! Crazy! I will
definitely continue to make this last trimester count! I am on the Lord's time!
But, back to the story, we got rewarded for our efforts to help him with his
surprise with some Hostess cupcakes from America! I wish they had Hostess
here... At least it is still around, I remember when it went out of business a
few years ago... Also, we now have a returned missionary in our branch! Elder
Quoc (the native one, not my companion) completed his mission last week, and
gave his homecoming talk yesterday. He will be a great strength to the branch
with all his experience. And he is a very hard worker. I am excited to work
more with him, I remember working with him all the way back in Ha Dong when he
was in my district... Also, he was joking around a bit in his talk, the topic
was exaltation, and he mentioned how eternal marriage is a necessary step for
that, and that since being assigned that topic, he feels President Duyen is
sending him a message... We will see if he starts dating...
Well, church was really good, and the branch is starting to
implement some more programs! Now they are following the Sunday School and
Quoroms/ Relief Society schedule with the associated teaching topics, as well
as considering possibly a YSA and young men's program... We have two soon to be
12-year olds who need the priesthood... And some direction on their
responsibilities... Also, little miracle from last week. We met President Duyen
to discuss some things the branch needs to implement, such as the Come, Follow
Me program, the new two-hour Sunday schedule (we were already only two hours,
but run slightly differently), ministering, etc... And we brought up adding a
young men's and YSA. Well, it was a lot to say the least, and President Duyen
looked a bit worried about how we were going to do it all. Then, right after
the closing prayer of our meeting, a package arrives. Actually, two packages.
We take them upstairs. Open the first one, and what do you know? Come Follow
Me. Enough for the entire branch and then some. I think God wants that program
implemented. A little too nicely timed, you know what I mean? Well, then comes
box number two. We open it. What is right on top? Why Duty to God and For the
Strength of Youth pamphets. President Duyen asked what they were, and Elder
Quoc and I said "you know that young men's program we were just
discussing? These are the books they use." Yeah, I think God wants that
one implemented too. The box also had stuff for young womens. Let's just say,
God is real, and puts things in exactly the right place at exactly the right
time. I think we will be seeing some of these programs soon...
Whew! That was a lot! But a lot of good! Sorry I didn't
email last week, but hopefully this one makes up for it! Last week, we had a
good district P Day and all cooked tacos together, and then my companion, being
an Idahoan, needed potatoes somewhere, so he made some delicious homemade
fries. Then we all watched our opening calls together. It was actually a lot of
fun! Everyone reacted so different! From Elder Gau breaking down in tears going
back to his heritage as his Mom is from Vietnam, to Elder Quoc asking where
Vietnam is located, to mine, where my mom reacted a lot more than I did! I was
actually surprised how cool and collected I was in it. No wonder my name is
Nghiêm! I sure am serious! Also, most of us pronounced Hanoi wrong, from my
"Han O" to Elder Quoc's "Han A" to Chi Phuong having some
really interesting French pronunciation which I don't know how to write in
English letters. Very funny! Well, if you want to see it, you will have to ask
my parents, and they will spread it at their discretion... For all things must
be done in "wisdom and order..." Mosiah 4:27... Also, it is over
fifteen minutes long and I don't have the ability to attach it to this and send
it to everyone...
Well, until next week!
Elder Watson/ Nghiêm
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