Things in Ho Chi Minh Are Going Strong! (Week 28)

April 16, 2018

Hello everybody!

This week has been interesting. Not too many large events to note, but it was a very good week. First off, this last Sunday we got three investigators to go to church! And what is more, they all stayed for the full three hours! I learned that for one of them, he has been an investigator for about six months now, but yesterday was his first time staying the full three hours, so that was super cool. He is a really cool guy named Anh Huy, but he goes by Ben for his English name. He has been attending all of the church activities and is friends with all the members. He has been studying with the Elders lately. Well, this week, we had a lesson with him on repentance. It was really good. He had some very interesting questions on it, such as he had heard some people believe you are saved regardless of what you do if you believe in Christ. We were able to share Alma 41 with him, and explain that repentance is a process that one needs to undergo. He really seemed to understand. It was great to see his sincere questions, and it also led to a great opportunity to testify of the importance of the Book of Mormon, and how it really clarifies some of the concepts that are difficult to understand in the Bible. I could really feel the Spirit in that lesson. Hopefully he will continue to think of good questions and we can help him find his answers on his journey to discover the Savior! Our other investigators also are doing well, and provided good insights at church in elders quorom.

 

Oh, something else really cool is that we now have a senior couple here! There names are the Holts. They seem like really awesome people, and Elder Holt has connections to Vietnam from his service days. They are excited to help out with the branch, and they told me they really enjoyed their first Sunday here. They will get to experience their first English class here tomorrow, so I will have to let you know about that next week!

 

 

And speaking of English class, we had a good lesson this last week, with four students. We continued teaching about phone calls, and then shared how Christ can help us through our challenges and mistakes in life, and how mistakes are necessary in life, just like in learning a new language! It seemed to go quite well. And for today in YSA, the missionaries are in charge and we are doing activities related to missionary work, so that should be pretty exciting.

 

I have to say, I sure do a lot more biking here than in Hà Đông! We visited two members this week who lived a bit away, and had really nice visits with them. One, Bà Oanh, is a little older and can't always make it to church, but she is very good with her scripture study, and is preparing to go to the temple this year! It was awesome hearing how she is remaining faithful in the gospel! And the other member we visited was also doing well, and we shared with him a talk from Elder Uchtdorf this last conference about Christ for the Easter season.

Well, the work here sure is not easy, but we have been doing a lot of good things here, and the members here are great! It has been very nice getting to know all of them. Hopefully things continue to go well for us here!

I wish everyone the best back home, and hope for things to be going well for all of you! This upcoming week should be interesting. I will talk to all of you again next week!

Elder Watson/ Nghiêm

Another package from home! Thanks Mom!

 

 

Elder Thong (my companion) insists on helping me learn how to cook. He is very good, and I suppose my future roommates will be happy if it works...

 

 

Notice the Olympic Rings?

My first pair of REALLY worn out shoes...

 

P-Day Fun

Two Hour Bike Rides and a Little Dat Gao (Week 27)

I thought I would start this week's blog with some pictures from a visit to a Vietnam Military History Museum in Hanoi just before my transfer to Ho Chi Minh City. We got there a little late, so we weren't able to go inside the museum, but they had plenty of military artifacts and vehicles to see outside on the grounds. Enjoy!

Apr 9, 2018

Hello everybody,

This week has been quite interesting. As many of you may know, this weekend was general conference weekend! We got to hear from actual prophets and apostles of the Lord! What an amazing opportunity for all of us here to be able to hear the word of God through his servants. I feel I really learned a lot as I listened to what the Lord had prepared to share with us. I came prepared with questions and feel like they were all answered. It was a great experience. In particular, I like how they focused a lot on personal revelation, especially with a lot of the changes occuring in the church organization with a combined Elder's Quorom, and changing the home and visiting teaching programs. It is great to be able to receive the Lord's guidance in how to run His church. Oh, and for conference, we had two of our investigators attend that, and I think they had a really good experience with that.

Speaking of investigators, we got a new one this week. His name is Chu Thuong, and he seems really cool. He has been attending our English classes for a while apparently. This week, we talked with him about families and who God is. He seemed very open to it, and agreed to learn more with us. Hopefully we can continue to teach him about the gospel of Jesus Christ and how that can bless his family! Currently, we are also trying to work a lot with the branch and branch members. They have asked us to do several things including visiting members who live further away. This week, we visited Chu Hung, who lives about two hours away by bike. He is a really great person, and was happy to see us. We shared with him and his wife about prophets and how to get ready for general conference. We are also trying to work with the branch's YSA, and this last week they played "Family Feud" which was really cool, and we had several investigators attend that activity. All in all, the branch members here are doing quite well, and I am really glad to have the opprotunity to serve with them.

Besides that, I am still adjusting to living in Ho Chi Minh City. We definitely do more biking here than I did in Ha Dong, where I used to bus more. The food here is also quite good, though different. So far, I do like the food up north a bit better, but maybe with time I will come to appreciate the food down here more... It is still really good though. It is also a lot hotter and more humid down here. When you even walk out of an air conditioned room, the heat is quite extreme! Still the heat is fine, as I am used to it in Arizona.

This morning I was playing a game called dat gao, or "shuttlecock" in English, that is a popular game throughout Vietnam. It involves a small feathered object that you play with much like a hackey sack, trying to kick it to each other. Clearly I don't have much experience, though I did a little in Ha Dong, but I actually did alright. It was a lot of fun. And some lady came by and joined in our game. She was actually impressed Americans could play at all! We also were playing with some members. Well, she apparently has some kids who want to learn English, so we gave her a card about our class on Tuesdays. It would be really cool if we saw her or her child at that event! Oh, and speaking of English class, or I should say "activity", as we are not officially qualified teachers to teach a class, it has been going quite well. Though last week for the advanced class we only had one student... Still, it was a lot of fun and we taught about phone calls. We then related it to prayer in the spiritual thought, as a prayer is similar to a phone call with God, with a two way conversation. The one student was a member already, so we went into a bit more detail with her on that, and it was really good. Hopefully we get more students this week in our advanced class!

Well, I think that is most everything to mention for this week. I really am excited to be serving the Lord and His people here. Vietnam really is a special part of  the world, and I am glad to be part of the work here. Here is to going forward in faith!

Elder Watson/ Nghiem

I am Now in Ho Chi Minh City! (Week 26)

Monday, April 2nd, 2018

 

Hello everyone!

A missionary send off as I was preparing to leave for Ho Chi Minh

I am now officially moved into Ho Chi Minh City. It is really exciting to see a new place here. Ho Chi Minh is definitely a lot hotter than Hanoi, and seems to be more crowded with buildings at least compared to Ha Dong. Still, it is really cool! One of the first major differences I noticed here was the church. The church here is huge! It consists of six large floors, and it even has an elevator! It is pretty nice to not have to climb stairs... Besides that, I have been adjusting alright to life here. The food is quite different but still very good. I also have to get used to the different accents down here. Vietnam has a few different accents, so far I have been exposed to the northern one, and I am now getting exposed to the southern one. Things are going alright so far, and will hopefully continue to go well with that.



The members found out I was being transferred and sent me off with a celebration and an awesome cake!







I miss my friends in Ha Dong already! You people are awesome!



The members here seem to be really cool. They are super friendly. This branch is also larger with over sixty members, so the organization is a bit different, such as church being three hours here! I attended Elder's Quorom for the first time in months! I also had the chance this week to meet with two investigators. Both have been investigators for a while, and are quite interested in the gospel. We taught them both about faith this week. It went well with both of them, and we had members help with both of the lessons, and as usual member help is always awesome. Members are always really helpful in lessons, as they can better understand what the investigators are going through, because they went through the same thing at one point. Anyways, I have to say that this branch seems like it is a really good one.

One other interesting thing about my new branch is that they have different assignments they try to get us on, so right now we are trying to teach some members how to play the piano. I myself only know a little bit right now, but my companion is really good at it, so once a week we will teach a member named Anh Son, and I guess I will try to learn some more as well. We also have been asked to try to visit some members who live a little further away, so this week we are going to bike a bit to go out to visit and help out some members.

It definitely seems like I have a lot to adapt to and learn about here, but I am excited to see how things work out. I really do miss the members from Ha Dong though. Actually, they somehow found out last week that I was leaving and had a small farewell party for me, which was nice. Well, I hope things are going well with them, and I know God will look out for them. And I actually communicated a little bit with one of the members today, and it does sound like things are going well back in Ha Dong, so that was good to hear.

Well, I sure do have a lot of changes ahead of me, but I know that God sent me out to this area for a reason, and I am excited to see what I can do to help His work. Wish me luck going forward!

Elder Watson/ Nghiem 

 P.S. I just thought of two other interesting things I noticed this week. When I flew to Ho Chi Minh, I contacted two people on the plane who were sitting by me. By shear coincidence, they both come from Ha Dong. I ended up giving them both pass along cards and the address of the church in Ha Dong which they said they would check out. I will have to ask my fellow missionaries back in Ha Dong if they end up coming when they return to Ha Dong in three weeks or so. Also, in my branch here, I ran into a former missionary, Elder Thoai, though now he is Brother Thoai. He served up north and just finished being a missionary two transfers ago. He is now the branch missionary leader here, and I think it is cool that he still gets to be involved with missionary work with his calling. Alright, I think that does it for this week.

I am going to Ho Chi Minh City! (Week 25)

Monday March 26th, 2018

 

Hello everybody,

Wow, it turns out I am going to be transferring to Ho Chi Minh City on Wednesday. It came as a real surprise, as transfer calls are not supposed to be until next week, but for some reason this transfer is going to end a week early, and the next one will be extended a week. While I am really excited to be going to the south, and am excited to see the members there, I will really miss all of the members here. They are a really great branch. They are super faithful, and really trust in the Lord. I am a bit sad that I won't get to work with them anymore, but I know the Lord will continue to take care of them, and I know the Lord wants me elsewhere.

Along with me moving down south, that does mean that I won't be around for Chi Thu's baptism, which is a little sad. But hey, I know Elder Dong Quang and his new companion will continue to help her, and I know that the Lord will bless her for her efforts to follow the Savior. She is still doing really well with keeping commitments. We have been teaching her the commandments lately, and she has been doing great with all of them. She had some questions with the Word of Wisdom, but when we asked her if she would be willing to follow it, she immediately said yes. As for Chi Uyen, she is also doing well. We invited her to be baptised this week! She is currently thinking about it, but I know as she prays about it, the Lord will let her know it is the right decision to make, and will bless her as she continues to try to learn about the gospel.

As for trying to find new investigators, we got one potential investigator and a former investigator to church this week! Both agreed to meet with us to discuss the gospel this upcoming week as well, which is great. Hopefully they were able to feel the Holy Ghost while they were at church, and that will work in them to help them become more open to the gospel. I know the Lord prepares people to receive the gospel, and I am really excited for them as they embark on that journey.

 

Our branch here is really great in Ha Dong. Seriously, the members here are so friendly. They really care about their fellow man. Just seeing how they work with people who come to the church for the first time, or seeing how they work with people in lessons and their enthusiasm in doing so, you can really see the light of Christ in them and how much they love serving others. I know they will find true joy in their lives as they continue to serve others, and I know that "when we are in the service of our fellow beings, we are only in the service of our God" (Mosiah 2:17).

 

Well, as mentioned, I am on my way to a new branch. I am sure there is a lot in store that I am not expecting, but I know the Lord is on my side and with Him I can accomplish anything.

Thank you again to everyone out there supporting me, and to all of you who read this. To those of you reading this on email, my parents recently updated my blog and it has a lot of really good photos, including some funny ones at a 3D art museum. Check those out if you get a chance.

I will write to you all from Ho Chi Minh City, district Q6 next week! Until then!

Elder Watson/ Nghiem

 

Elder Stevenson Conference Special (More Week 24 Pictures)

Hello everyone!

Here is another blog post to share pictures from last week's conference with Elder Stevenson. I know the first thing you all will be thinking after you see the photos is, "Where is Elder Stevenson in the pictures?". Well, I don't actually have any with him in the photo. There was a small power outage in the building during the missionary conference with him, so it was not a good time to take photos. Then during the member conference, there just didn't seem to be a good, appropriate moment to whip out the camera. Anyway, what you will see are a lot of our awesome members in the photos, and a lot of the missionaries in the Hanoi Mission. Even the missionaries that are currently serving in Ho Chi Minh (down south) were able to fly up for this conference. It was great to see and visit with the other missionaries from my MTC district. I was able to actually shake hands with Elder Stevenson, and I really enjoyed his message, which was really about being fully converted to Christ.

Also below you will see pictures from some other recent gatherings with some of my ward members. They are awesome people!

Enjoy!

Elder Watson/ Nghiem