Teach by the Spirit! (Weeks 95 and 96)

Monday July 29, 2019

Teach by the Spirit! (Week 95 and updates from Week 96)

Hello everyone!
 

My thumbs hurt this morning from texting on my phone my email to President Chiles. And now we just got back from the Cu Chi Tunnels. So I am pretty tired. I am definitely going to write an email because this week was awesome and had a ton of miracles! But why rewrite what I already typed up? I will copy part of my letter to President Chiles here with some edits.

This week worked out pretty well! It wasn't perfect by any means, but things are getting better with my companion and things seem to be moving in the right direction. My family is currently meeting the family of the foreign exchange student who will live with my family this year. They are rather nervous, this is the first time the family has come in with the student! Anyways, I have had the chance to talk to them yet today, but will later. I assume all is well though! (Also I now have talked a bit to them, and all is well!) Our area is doing good. We got one new investigator, Em Huy. He has been coming to English club for a few months, and enjoys the spiritual thoughts. He has even come to Sacrament meeting twice before. He came up this week after the spiritual thought and said he wanted to learn! He did really well in his first lesson, and came to church! We just need to make sure his family is supportive, as he is younger. And now Japan and her two friends, Tram and Xuan, are progressing! They all had prayed and were really open to trying to read the Book of Mormon! And they even set up their own next appointment without us asking! Anyways, I felt the Spirit in the lesson and they all were attentive and asked a lot of good questions, I think they will progress well. They also agreed to a baptismal invite, but would not pick a date to work towards. Elder Hieu was disappointed at that, but I think they were just surprised and will be more open next lesson. Oh, and something funny! Last time we met them, they came in normal street clothes, but decided they needed to look nicer when coming to the church. We told them they didn't need to, but this time they all came wearing white button up shirts and slacks. It was cool and pretty funny! One of them took a photo and named us "the white shirt squad!"

 

We also have some other people that we met this week. Em Linh is making good progress to her date on the 18th of August. Anh Nguyen was unable to meet this week, but we will meet next week. Same with Anh Nhan, but we got to talk a bit over the phone. We met the other Anh Nguyen, and meeting him was interesting. First off, he is a Vietnamese guy with a beard! You don't see that every day! He has a lot of deep doctrine questions, but he seems pretty sincere though in his questions. I think he will do fine though; we just need to help him focus more. I think we will help him learn to seek his own answers and help him see he needs to learn the basics before the deep doctrine. Also, we met Anh Tan. He likes what he learns with us and applying what we teach, but is pretty firmly set in tradition. I think it will be challenging to help him with that, but we are trying to help him have faith in the Book of Mormon first and work from there. He has been learning for a long time but has not put in much effort to read. Oh, and quick note on Em Linh, she talked to her boyfriend back in her hometown and just texted us saying he is okay with her getting baptized, so that is cool! Also, I was not in the lesson as I was on exchanges, but I heard the other elders had a good lesson with Anh Hoang. And I believe that is it for our investigators. We also have a few good potential investigators we are working with. One we have an appointment before church next Sunday. She came to Family Home Evening yesterday with Anh Nam, an investigator of the sisters. She enjoyed it and wants to learn more! And Em Linh wants the elders to help teach her family! She has tried with the sisters before but it has not worked out. She thinks her mother and brother specifically could use us, her mother because she needs someone more focused on the lessons, so some missionaries who are more serious in demeanor, like Elder Serious (and she said I am similar to another elder who helped her mom before being Elder Quoc who I was companions with in Binh Duong), and her brother (who is 13) who is afraid of girls. We are discussing it with the sisters, but it would be really cool for her family to learn, whoever teaches them! Also, we had exchanges with the zone leaders. Honestly they were kind of short. Not because of the zone leaders, but because other activities ate up the exchange, with a leadership meeting and interviews overlapping it. They said we would have another exchange this transfer. They didn't know about those activities until after they had planned exchanges. But Elder Thanh talked to me about my final goals for my mission, which was awesome. I came up with three. First, to "finish strong!"(a quote from my archery coach). Second was to follow the Spirit. And third was to help my companion reach his potential. So those are what I am working on! But it is interesting. As you get close to the end of the mission you want to do as much good as you can, and I have been told at the end the biggest impact you can have on the mission really is your impact on your companion. And I know that is true. God gives us companions so we can grow together. So we can build on each other’s strengths. I hope I can help my companion learn some things I have learned in my experiences. And of course I hope I can learn some things myself too! I think these will be two great transfers remaining!

Okay, back to typing and not quoting. So I really enjoyed this week and saw lots of miracles. People progressing and all. And I have really seen the Spirit guiding my teaching. I never fully understood how that was before. We all have our own style of teaching and doing things, and it is important that we use our skills. And we plan with what we have. But if we let Him, God can lead the entire lesson. If we are willing to use what we can, but also be comfortable to try things we would not normally do when prompted, the Spirit will take over, and it will no longer be you teaching, but the Spirit. The lessons will go so much better. People will be so much happier. And the more you do it, the better you get at it, and the more skills you grow yourself! I have seen this so much! And I am grateful to really be learning what this means at this time.

Oh, quick spiritual thought. I think it is so cool how much you can learn when you teach and discuss together with others about the gospel. Come Follow Me is an inspired program. We learn a lot when we study the scriptures on the more, but I have seen the Lord reveal even more when then discussing what everyone learned in Sunday School and Family Home Evening. On Sunday we had family home evening at the Bakers'. Elder Hieu and I were in charge of the lesson. We discussed how to "feast" on the scriptures (there was no good Vietnamese translation, so we used the English word), and then had a discussion on what it means that "it is more blessed to give than to receive". We had planned to talk about service. But somehow, we ended up in a discussion on how to give, someone has to receive. And how to be a good giver you have to first be a good receiver. One person made a metaphor how you need both like you need both hands to clap. One just doesn't do anything! And then we had a cool discussion on how truly we all need help. And while society thinks otherwise, it is actually a strength to acknowledge when we need help, as that is when we can improve, and it is actually a weakness to deny that we are not perfect and need help. It was a super cool in depth question that no one knew we would discuss before. It was fully Spirit led as we "taught one another the doctrine of the kingdom". So hey, actually do your reading, and then share what you learn with others!

 

And as mentioned we had a good leadership meeting. And I got an interview with President Chiles and learned a lot in that too. Otherwise I think that is it.

Have a good day everyone! Talk to you again next week! Keep following the Spirit and trust in the Lord!

 

Elder Watson/ Anh Cả Nghiêm