Advocate Pho Truth: Cu Chi Tunnels and the Lai Thieu Fruit Festival! (Weeks 86 and 87)

Mon, Jun 3, 2019

Cu Chi Tunnels and the Lai Thieu Fruit Festival! (Weeks 86 and 87)

Hello everyone!

We have some exciting plans for today going to the Lai Thieu Fruit Festival this afternoon! But that means we are pretty tight on time! And I have a lot to cover since last week I didn't get out a group email, as we went to the Cu Chi Tunnels! Luckily though I was still able to send a few emails to my family on the bus with my phone! So that was convenient and cool.

Actually, I have so many photos to share about the Cu Chi Tunnels that I think I will need to post the Fruit Festival pictures with my next blog, so this post will have only Cu Chi pictures. Enjoy! If you ever have a chance to visit the Cu Chi Tunnels, I highly recommend it!

Well, we have seen some ups and downs these last two weeks. Some ups, we have five progressing investigators! Em Vy is doing awesome! She is now almost in Alma, and we are teaching her the commandments! Her faith is really strong, and she is really committed to following God. She knows He wants what is best for her. Em Cuong and Em Dat are doing great too! And Em Thuan, who is Em Dat's sister, had a great lesson this last week with Elder Bao and Elder Thinh. I was in Ho Chi Minh City on exchanges. She really wants to find peace in this crazy life, and they helped her see how the Book of Mormon can help! She is also working towards a baptismal date in July! And Chi Nhuong is doing awesome and is committed to following God! And she has good support from her husband and Brother and Sister Stone, who helped out in her last lesson. We went through the plan of salvation, and she really wants the blessings of the gospel in her and her family's life! So all of those people are doing great! Unfortunately, we are not teaching Anh Hanh any longer. I guess it is not his time now. He says he is not interested in learning anymore, so we will give him some time. We asked him to keep reading the Book of Mormon though. And we have not seen our Chinese friends lately! I think a lot of businesses get busy this time of year, but hopefully we can see them all again soon. Oh, and we got a few more investigators. We have Chi Duong and Em Thuan (a different one). Chi Duong has followed Jesus Christ before, but wants to find more in how she can follow Him and feel His love, and she is excited to learn with us! And Em Thuan is in high school, and is looking for something to help strengthen his family, and his mom is okay with him learning, so he is pretty cool! And that is it for new people this week.

Some cool stuff, I got to go to the Cu Chi Tunnels last week with my district! It is really interesting to see how they lived during the war. Definitely worth seeing, though they charge quadruple prices for foreigners... It was still only like four dollars to enter though. We also got to contact a group of tourists from New York and share the gospel a bit, and one of them is interested in hearing more! How did you meet the missionaries? Oh, I was on vacation in Vietnam, and saw them at the Cu Chi tunnels in street clothes. God works in mysterious and honestly very interesting ways! And today we are off to Lai Thieu as mentioned!

Oh, and now in our English activity we use the TV more than books and have powerpoints, which helps cut down on planning time. And it is fun too!

Also, something I am trying to work on improving in my teaching skills is just teaching what an investigator needs and not focusing too much on sharing a lesson or what you prepared. President Chiles gave us a statistic the other day and noted how a lot of people stop learning after one lesson. And I think it is largely because we try to force too much information upon people. We are so excited to teach them how to pray, and read the Book of Mormon, and commit them to come to church weekly, and get them to follow the prophet, etc, that we just scare them. What we really need to do is teach by the Spirit what they need. Give them something they can understand. Listen to them and what the Spirit says. Because if they can feel the Spirit they will want to meet again. And then they can hear the more you want to share. If you just throw stuff you want to at them and hope something will stick, you aren't truly relying on the Spirit and it will likely not resound with them. So we need to do what the Spirit directs and let God do his work. Our first priority should be the investigator's concern, not just checking off the box on the next lesson. And I saw good examples of that on my exchange this last week too.