"I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven."
They are calling it the great shake up. And no wonder. Eight new
missionaries, after a brief stay over in Hanoi, arrived today in Ho Chi Minh City fresh from the Missionary Training Center (MTC) in Provo, Utah, USA or the MTC in Manila, Philippines - joining our forces here and ready to take on the world.
Here are the eight, with their more seasoned companions!
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| He's happy with his new companion - really! It was just late at night!!! |
"And
they were all young…, and they were exceedingly valiant for courage,
and also for strength and activity; but behold, this was not all—they … were
true at all times in whatsoever thing they were entrusted. Yea, they were
men (and women) of truth
and soberness, for they had been taught to keep the commandments of God
and to walk uprightly before him."
"…. yea, they had been taught by
their mothers, that if they did not doubt, God would deliver them. And
they rehearsed unto me the words of their mothers, saying:
We do not doubt our mothers knew it." Alma 56: 47-48
They join our hard-working band, bringing fresh faith, energy, and
enthusiasm. They join those only slightly more seasoned than they, every
one of them worthy to be called sons and daughters.
This past month Elder Coffey and I have been assigned to prepare
for this very day, for their arrival. We spent hundreds of hours finding
new apartments in new areas, getting the funding, signing contracts, getting
keys, arranging the delivery of beds, desks, bikes, water dispensers, and mattresses - then assembling beds and arranging
apartment repairs, all on different days because you'd think it could all be
coordinated on one day, but not here..., then stocking the apartments with
dishes, pans, fans and mops, getting everything ready, even to the
making of their beds with new sheets and pillows!
Everything was ready. And then they came!
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| Jet-lagged, exhausted, and listening intently to last minute information before heading out to their apartments. |
No wonder the devil turned and ran!
Oh he'll be back, to be sure, but for tonight, for now, he
is fled.
So we have new missionaries, new trainer assignments, new teachers, new senior assignments, new leadership roles, new apartments, new areas, assignments to new branches, goodbyes to those going home or to Hanoi, hello to those joining our forces.
Ho Chi Minh City now has 25 young missionaries in all, plus 6 seniors. What a troop!
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| Hurrah for Israel! |
It's the great shake up of 2017 in HCMC, and we couldn't be
more excited.
Thank you to all the parents, family and friends who have sent these young people out the door so full of faith and so well prepared. We recognize the sacrifice involved. Their service will make the earth move.
"O that I were an angel, and could have the wish of mine heart, that I might go forth and speak with the trump of God, with a voice to shake the earth, and cry repentance unto every people!" Alma 29:1
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| And our well-qualified zone leaders! |
