Occasionally, we get asked, "So, what do you DO all day long?" It's an innocent question, to be sure. While there are two humanitarian couple missionaries and an office/legal senior couple in the country, we are the only Member Leadership Support missionary couple in Vietnam. Our role may not be fully understood, and it is easy to wonder what we do with all our free time every day. Free time?! What is that?? We thought our mission in the Area Office in Hong Kong was busy! This has it beat by far! Free time is what we do while we are sleeping...... Yep. That's about it. Otherwise, every moment is filled with the wonder and excitement of serving the Lord to the fullest of our capacities.
There are currently three branches of the Church in Vietnam - one in Hanoi and two in Ho Chi Minh City. We were blessed to be assigned to the Tan Son Nhat branch, where they immediately put us to work. Our first Sunday here we met with the branch president and asked - what can we do to help?
So here is our line up of some of our responsibilities:
- Support the Young Single Adults (YSA's)
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| Young Single Adults participate in a team building activity |
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Teaching the Swing Dance at the
Halloween Party |
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| Two of the Young Adults at the Halloween party |
- Support the younger missionaries in Ho Chi Minh City. They are awesome! Currently, one is from Cambodia, one is from Hanoi, and the rest are from the United States - all of Vietnamese decent. For most of them, their mothers or fathers or both were refugees from Vietnam, and now their children have returned to bring the Gospel of Jesus Christ to their own people. No wonder they have such big smiles!
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| Thanksgiving lunch at our apartment |
Thanksgiving lunch - Pork roast with cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes and gravy, rice, homemade rolls, green beans, fruit salad, olives, punch, and homemade apple pie and pumpkin pie! then a round-robin of what we are most grateful for - they expressed gratitude for everything from companions to the Vietnamese people to their weaknesses. A truly humble group!
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| A sister missionary leads the Intermediate class |
- Organize and present monthly Returned Missionary Workshops and Self Reliance Workshops. There are nearly 40 returned missionaries in the two Ho Chi Minh City branches! Can you believe there are so many returned missionaries here? They are of incredible faith!
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| Our first Returned Missionary Workshop with a few of our returned missionaries. |
- We host soup suppers for small groups of young people in our apartment - an evening with support, discussion, games and laughter.
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| Elder Coffey leading the latest self reliance workshop - helping with budgeting! |
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| Our line up for the coming months - come join us! |
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| Branch council meeting |
- We attend weekly branch presidency meetings branch council meetings, and provide training to help build leadership skills. They are eager to learn their duties and are striving so hard to serve the Lord, in the Lord's way.
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| The Relief Society of the Tan Son Nhat Branch, November 27, 2016 |
But the best part is interacting with the people wherever we meet them! They are so friendly!
During the 1.8 kilometer walk to church each day we chat with people along the way. Here is one of our "street buddies". He sells computer accessories on the sidewalk, has a wife and a son, and knows a teeny teeny bit of English.
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| Elder Coffey with our friend who runs a business of selling computer accessories on the street. |
The young man, below, has been taking the missionary discussions and coming to church for several months. We met him in a rain storm under the awning of a print shop!
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Recent P Day to the outskirts of Ho Chi Minh City - we went
with Elder and Sister MacDonald -
the humanitarian missionaries -
and several branch members. |
Occasionally we even have time for a P day (Preparation Day), but usually we are pretty exhausted and just want to stay home! All this preparing for lessons, training workshops and materials is all being done largely from scratch - we are inventing the wheel here!
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Our branch friend - a recent
returned missionary |
We are pretty sure that 100% of the branch members are converts, and there are about 215 members in the branch. Only the little Primary children were born into member homes. Many of the converts have only been members for a few months. They are eager to grow the branch and to learn their responsibilities as members of the Lord's church. The work is moving forward as the Lord's spirit spreads out over this land.
The message of the Atonement of Jesus Christ is attractive to them. Many of them hear for the first time about forgiveness, being washed clean, having the burdens of sins and mistakes lifted from their heavy shoulders through the grace of their Savior, Jesus Christ.
Isn't it wonderful that the message of Jesus Christ is being taught here and blessing so many lives? It is nothing short of a miracle.
Occasionally, we get asked, "So, what do you DO all day long?" It's an innocent question, to be sure. While there are two humanitarian couple missionaries and an office/legal senior couple in the country, we are the only Member Leadership Support missionary couple in Vietnam. Our role may not be fully understood, and it is easy to wonder what we do with all our free time every day. Free time?! What is that?? We thought our mission in the Area Office in Hong Kong was busy! This has it beat by far! Free time is what we do while we are sleeping...... Yep. That's about it. Otherwise, every moment is filled with the wonder and excitement of serving the Lord to the fullest of our capacities. 
And are we ever grateful!
ReplyDeleteWe love you and grateful for great work you did. We, Elder and Sister Ihesiene, are serving MLS mission in Enugu Nigeria Mission for 23 months.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Elder and Sister Ihesiene, for your service! What a blessing you are for the Nigerian saints! God bless you and all your efforts!
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