18 June 2017: Everything is going great up here in Ha Noi! I'm running out of time though, so I will have to email you more next week.
Photos this week: (left to right, and down)
1. one last picture
with my companion, Elder Hung
2-3. District P-Day
Lunch in a foo dcourt! (last P-Day with the District down in Sai Gon)
4. Elder Hung skating
5. my MTC
companion Elder Dat (Elder Craghead) and me
6. Ice Skating for District
P-Day!
7. Elder Hung, me, and
Sister Tam (Return Missionary). We became great friends!
8. One last picture
with Missionaries and Members from the Thao Dien Branch. I will miss Thao Dien
so much!
9. One last picture
with all the Missionaries! Do I have to leave?!!
25 June 2017: (He did manage a group email this week)...
Hello Everyone! I hope that all of you are doing well! It has been a wonderful week up here in Hà Nội Việt Nâm!
Monday-Today was P-Day, and it was a pretty normal day. I actually went grocery shopping for real with my companion.
Tuesday-Today was my first District Meeting with the new District up in Ha Noi. This was also the day that I tried noodle soup with snails in it for the first time. I wasn't too excited about eating snails, so I just gulped them down really fast. It was too quick to actually tell what they really tasted like.
Wednesday-Today was my first English Class up in Ha Noi, and it was amazing. Up here, I am in the advanced English Class (We call it Communications). This is very different for me, because down South, I was in Beginning English Class. My companion Elder Truong (Anh Cả Bảo) and I,are basically mentors for the class, so that was really fun!
Thursday-Today we had a lesson with our investigator who is the closest to baptism, Anh Hưng. We actually taught him in the Mission Office, and it went amazing! We finished up our teaching about the Plan of Salvation, and he was able to remember a lot of it. We are so excited for him!
Friday-Today was a pretty busy day with English Class Meeting, and Branch Missionary Meeting. In Branch Missionary Meeting, I shared a bit about our investigators and recent converts in Vietnamese.
Saturday-The Sister Missionaries had two baptisms and we were able to attend.
Sunday-Church was great, and we also had two lessons on this day. We had one Lesson with one of our recent converts, Chú Hạnh, and there were definitely some miracles in that lesson! He and his 13 year-old daughter are the only members of the church in their family. He has a wife and two other kids that are not members. But, he has been doing Family Home Evening with them, and has been sharing with them about why he comes to church! That was really cool to hear. He is doing missionary work! We also had a lesson with a new investigator, Anh Hội. We did the lesson in English (which feels a bit strange sometimes), but he wants to learn the Gospel in English.
Testimony Time: On Friday during our Branch Missionary Meeting, all of the missionaries were sharing some great experiences they were having with their investigators, as well as baptisms coming up. When it got to us, we were not able to share quite as much. I began to feel frustrated. Not only did it seem like the other missionaries were having more success than we were, but it also seemed like everybody spoke way better Vietnamese than me. To be honest, I have felt frustrated for a while, because I have been out in the mission field for about 6 months now, and I still have not had a single baptism. I was feeling really down on myself Friday night. But, then I remembered an email that the Mission President sent to us about how we measure success in this mission. Your success as a missionary should not be determined by how many baptisms you get, but rather how much love and charity you have for the people that you are serving, and your desires to serve the Lord. This was HUGE for me to realize. I want to testify to all of those that are thinking about serving a mission in the future, that your success as a missionary should not be determined by the number of people that you baptize. Your success should be measured by the Christ-Like love that you have for the people you are serving, and for your diligence in helping others come closer to Christ. It's not all about the numbers. How grateful I am to be doing this work right now, to be helping my fellow brothers and sisters come closer to Christ, and have the opportunity to return home to their Father in Heaven. I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.
Picture Time: (left to right)
1-3. Me and my new companion, Anh Cả Bảo.
4. Email Time! (The Sisters go to the same place as us).
5. The Vietnam Hanoi Mission Picture-Doctrine and Covenants 4.
More photos (left to right):
1. with recent convert Anh Vũ
2. with recent convert Anh Thái
3. church on Sunday in the Cầu Giấy Branch
4. my new best friends for learning Vietnamese
5. a view from our apartment
More photos! (left to right)
More photos! (left to right)
1. Bún Chả- This is a very popular dish in Hà Nội. It's basically fish sauce broth with a few vegetables in it, and some meat patties. It comes with a side of white rice noodles, various vegetables, and egg rolls. Yum!
2. Anh Cả Bảo loves his Bún Chả!
3. A very efficient way to dry your clothes if you don't have a real washer.
4-5. Dinner at a recent convert's house. Eating on the floor with a little mat is very common, and it is also very uncomfortable. It kills my ankles! LOL!
9 July 2017: (I...Mom...am instant messaging him through email...he is giving me some language lessons...cute)
Here in Vietnam, we don't call people by their names like we do in America. We have mannerisms. For me, if someone is slightly older than me, if they are a female I call them Chị. If they are a male, I call them Anh. If they are old enough to be my mom or dad (or even older), I call them Cô (for female), and Chú (for male). fÌ they are really old (like they look like they could kick the bucket at any moment, I call them Bà (for female), and Ông (for male)
If someone is an Anh or a Chị, they call me "Em." If someone is a Cô, a Chú, a Bà, or an Ông, they call me "Con" (that's in the South) In the North, they will call me "Cháu".
Very rarely will I ever say my name, Dũng, to other people. It is only when I am introducing myself for the first time. Here is an example: If you were not my mom, I would call you Cô (because obviously you are old enough to be my mother). If we lived in the South, you would call me "Con." If we lived in the North, you would call me "Cháu."
t's not as complicated as you think...when they first taught us this in the MTC, my mind was overwhelmed, but you get used to it. It will honestly feel weirder coming back to America, and calling people by their actual name.
(Then, I (Mom) got this):
Hi mom! Sorry, I ran out of time to email, because I wrote my entire letter to President Hassell, pressed a wrong key, and the whole thing got deleted. So I had to start all over again. Please tell everyone that I am sorry that I wasn't able to reach out to them this week (literally I wasn't able to email anyone else except for you). Here are some pictures though!
1-2 pictures with member and soon to be Missionary in Vietnam, Anh Quoc Zuy
3. Companion exchange with our amazing District Leader, Anh Ca Khai (He's from Hawaii, need I say more)
5. The Sisters' Investigator, Chi Nhi, who just got baptized
