Back to Saigon I go!

Hi everyone!  Justin is back in Saigon now and very excited to be there.  His emails have been VERY short to his mother, which I guess means that he is busy serving the people, so I will let it slide! He told me that last week, he and his companion were out on the streets and one of his relatives came up and said "Hi!  What's up?"  It really took him by surprise to just run into a family member, and he also thought it was really cool!

We were able to Skype with Justin on Christmas Eve (which was Christmas Day for him...he is 14 hours ahead of us).  He looks and sounds FANTASTIC and his Vietnamese is fluent! His buddy Elder Craghead poked his head into the Skype call to say hi as well.  The cool thing about Craghead is he lives here in Salt Lake City, too, in my sister's neighborhood!  The two of them went out on their missions at the same time and will be coming home at the same time, too. It will be nice for them to have each other when they come home.

Well...Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to everyone!  Hopefully Justin will find just a smidgen of time to send an email that is more than just "Hi Mom, everything is good!"

Photos!



1. Saying goodbye at the airport to my companion, Elder Thoai.

2.  Picture from the airplane of beautiful Vietnam...me en route to Saigon!

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3-6.  New companionn: Elder Taylor (Anh Cả Chính Tâm)

7.  My Siagon Zone!!!!

8. Talking to my family (Skype) on Christmas!  Merry Christmas and Happy New Year everyone!

Thanksgiving 2017: I'm headed to HONG KONG!

Hello Friends and Family!

I don't have much time today to say much. I will be going to Hong Kong to get my Visa renewed. I hope you all have a great week though, and Thanksgiving is coming up soon so that will be exciting!

Please enjoy some pictures!

1. Our English Class!

2. There was a baptism in the church branch yesterday!

3. Fruit cake.

4. A throwback: the beach in Vietnam.

5. My new tie that I earned from memorizing Scriptures in Vietnamese! It is 100% silk!

November Already???

Hello everyone! Sorry that it's been a while since I sent out a group email, but today I will just mainly send pictures and descriptions, and hopefully something longer next week! 

 

1. We just had some wonderful leaders come to Vietnam to give us training on how we could improve the work for the church. They are Elder and Sister Meurs from Australia!

2. A flashback to the baptism that my old missionary companion Elder Bảo and I had together (with the help of many other missionaries along the way.)

3. This is our district of missionaries for the area that I am working in right now.

October 2017 in HaNoi

Hello Everyone! I hope that you all had a wonderful week! Halloween is coming up soon! I hope that you are all doing well, and that the Holiday Season will be a blessed one for you.

As of now, I will be hitting my year mark on my mission in approximately 3 more days! (I entered the MTC on October 26, 2016). So that is exciting, but it's always good to remember, "Don't count the time, make the time count."

This week I feel inspired to share about how we receive answers to our prayers. I was emailing with my mom about this, and I really like the principle that I learned. I have had increasing struggles with really feeling like I receive answers to my prayers. Receiving answers to our prayers has to do a lot with faith, because if we want to receive an answer or a confirmation, we must act in faith first. Once we show the Lord our faith by action, we can then pray to Him for confirmation as to if what we have done is the right path to go. The answers that we receive to our prayers are not always these big moments. Sometimes, they are quiet feelings of peace that we receive that what we are doing is right. Sometimes, we might feel like the things that we must do in order to act in faith seem too hard to accomplish, or that would require an enormous amount of courage in order to do so. However, we need not fear, because the Lord is with us every step of the way. When we act in faith and when we trust Him, we are "walking beside Him." I want to bear my testimony that prayer has the power to give us direction, guidance, and inspiration when we need it most, and that our Heavenly Father really does answer our prayers. But first, we must act in faith.

I have also been thinking about faith, and I think about the scripture in Alma 32:27: 

27But behold, if ye will awake and arouse your faculties, even to an experiment upon my words, and exercise a particle of faith, yea, even if ye can no more than desire to believe, let this desire work in you, even until ye believe in a manner that ye can give place for a portion of my words. 

It can be hard to have faith sometimes, but I really love the message of this scripture: When it says "experiment," that makes me think a lot about action. If we really want to have true faith, there must be action. In other words, we must "experiment" by acting. We must also have a desire to believe, and that desire can drive and motivate us to help our faith grow stronger and stronger. I want to bear my Testimony that Prayer and Faith have the power to pull us out of darkness, and provide us with hope. Prayer and faith are the essence of the Iron Rod that leads us to Eternal Life (I Nephi 8). If we truly apply prayer and faith into our lives, Heavenly father and Jesus Christ will help us overcome our challenges. I would like to invite all of you to think about something that you are currently searching for an answer to, and then to act in faith. After you have acted in faith, ask Heavenly Father for that confirmation.

In Mission news, we have our Branch Halloween party coming up this Saturday, so I will definitely have to send some pictures of that next week! Me and my companion (Elder Thoại) currently have three Investigators that we are working with. In our Branch yesterday, we had 42 people attend Sacrament Meeting, which was awesome! A cool fact about Hanoi, Vietnam is that it has a mural that is about a mile long I believe. It's got a Guiness World Record on it for something.

I hope that you will all make it a great week, and may God bless you in all that you do!

Sincerely,

Elder Ly (Anh Cả Dũng)

Pictures:

1-3. Me with my companion Elder Thoại.

HaNoi HALLOWEEN!

More Photos from September!

1. Last District picture together before transfers.

2. Ice skating on P-Day!

3. last picture all together with the Hà Nội Branch.

4. a view from the tallest building in Vietnam.

1. the rain in Vietnam

2. me with my new companion, Anh Cả Thoại

3. at English Class celebrating a birthday!

4. picture with Anh Nhị (the Security Guard for one of the churches)

5. last picture before leaving the Hà Nội Branch

 3-D Art Museum for District P-Day

1. View from the tallest building in Vietnam, Landmark 72 (The Mission Office is in this building, which is really cool).

2. Ice Skating in Hà Nội

3. All the Elders in the District "the ice skating crew"

4. 3-D Art Museum

Fishing trip for P-Day

Much Needed Update! September 2017.

(This is the Missionary Mom...I have been a slacker about posting in the blog!  But, here are some updates!)



Ice skating in Ha Noi!  Yes there is a rink here, too!  YAY!


Bowling with the gang in Ha Noi!  This City is AWESOME!!


This has DUCK in it!


One of the recent converts to the church.


My birthday August 4th! I am 20 yrs old now!  My companion got up early and made me a pancake breakfast! Everyone gave me a GREAT party, too!






Baptisms are GREAT!


This is our Branch President in Ha Noi!


LETTER FROM JUSTIN.  Note...he has already transferred to a new area in Ha Noi and has a Vietnamese native companion now!  More to come on that!

Hello friends, family, and all!

I am so grateful for this opportunity that I have today to share some of my thoughts with you all.

An update on how everything is going: Transfers will be in about a week and a half, and we will have 14 new missionaries coming to Vietnam! I had my very first Baptism on Saturday August 12 with my companion, Elder Bảo. My Birthday was awesome and I can't believe that i am 20 years old! I feel  comfortable now speaking in the Vietnamese language, and apparently I talk in Vietnamese in my sleep! I am currently in Jacob in the Book of Mormon, and am trying to actually read the Book of Mormon from cover to cover for the first time in my life. I have just about hit my 10 month mark. One principle that I have really learned a lot about on my mission has been repentance. 

I wish to share a spiritual message with you all today: First, I would like to share a scripture found in Doctrine and Covenants 123:17. At this time, the Saints are going through a very difficult time, and Joseph Smith is trying to encourage them. The Scripture reads, "Therefore, dearly beloved brethren, let us cheerfully do all things that lie in our power; and then may we stand still, with the utmost assurance, to see the salvation of God, and for his arm to be revealed." I want to testify that this scripture is so true. If we do everything we can to endure to the end, we can know with the "utmost assurance" that the Lord's grace will be sufficient for us, and that we can overcome our trials in life. I know this to be true, because I have seen it in my own life. Since I have been on my mission, I have had increasing struggles with feelings of worthiness. There have been things that I have had to go through the repentance process before. But, I know that as I do this, continue to endure to the end, continue to repent and become better everyday, and continue to become more like Christ, that His grace is sufficient to save me and to lift me back up. I want to bear my Testimony that I know that we have a Savior and a Redeemer, and that if we do all that we can, that we can know for sure that His extending arm of mercy and grace will be there to save us and to lift us up. I want to say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

Love,

Elder Ly (Anh Ca Dũng)