Teaching English Conversation to Amazing Students

What is the best part of our senior mission?  The people - absolutely!  They are such an amazing delight.  Whether we are working with them one-on-one in Gospel discussions, teaching English conversation, sharing self reliance workshops, or just having fun with them - the people here are refreshingly open, teachable and very loving.  

We teach free English conversation sessions twice a week - one night in the District 6 Branch and one night in the Tan Son Nhat Branch. All missionaries share in this opportunity in Beginning, Intermediate and Advanced levels.  Elder Coffey and I lead the Advanced levels, and are grateful to mentors who assist us in the classroom!

Our fantastic mentor helping with the discussion groups

 

One of our students made a video of our last class - you'll get a good feel of what it's like to interact with these amazing students! Click here - English Class.

At the conclusion of the hour long free English class, we share a 15 minute spiritual message to those who are willing to stay and listen.  No one ever leaves.  The Spirit is strong during those messages and sometimes we see those who are being touched by the power of God as they hear, sometimes for the first time in their lives, of a God who loves them and cares for them.

Some of the crazy, fun, amazing missionary-teachers of our English conversation classes:

Bringing Life to a New Building

Twenty empty chairs faced us in our little classroom on the 4th floor. It was the very first day of our Happy Family class in the brand new church building in District 6. And we were waiting to see who would show up.

Ho Chi Minh City is divided into political administrative districts.  The financial hub of the city is in District 1.  Stretching outward from there are numbered districts (1-12) as well as districts with such creative names as Bình Thạnh, Tân Bình, and Bình Tân, not to be confused by open markets with names like Bến Thành and Tân Định! (And when you pronounce them slightly wrong to the taxi driver, you are likely to end up in a completely different part of town than you expected!)

New District 6 Branch Building

With the membership growth of the Ton San Nhut Branch, the mission made plans to create a new branch of the church in a new area. 

District 6 was the fortunate choice. A building was located that would be suitable for the start up branch.

We had the opportunity of helping outfit the new building in preparation for English classes. It was virtually an empty shell, with echoing halls and blank walls.

The new building - empty and waiting

We spruced it up with a visitor’s area, large pictures of the Savior and His life, class room dry erase boards and tables on various levels of the building. But still it sat empty.

On January 22, 2017, the new District 6 Branch was created, the third branch in Ho Chi Minh City. Because the new building was not available to move into quite yet, the branch met on Sundays in the Ton San Nhut building in the afternoons.

The District 6 Branch's first sacrament meeting  - a fledgling group with big hearts and high enthusiasm!

And the chairs of the District 6 building sat empty, waiting in hollow rooms.

But after a couple of months, the building was finally ready. There was mounting excitement for the new budding branch.  On April 4, 2017 the District 6 Branch met in their new building for Sunday services for the first time. See how much they have already grown!

First Sacrament Meeting in the District 6 Building

Scroll forward to our first Happy Family Class just this past weekend. The twenty empty chairs sat waiting. 

Then several people from the community came. Then some more.  Then more! They were coming! 

First Happy Family Class in District 6 Building

Nowadays the building is bustling with activity. It is filled with church meetings, missionaries, English conversation classes, family history consulting, and classes on strengthening home and family. It is becoming a gathering place for the community.

But it’s not the classes, meetings, offices, furnishings, or facilities that makes it a great gathering place.

It is the people. It is always the people.

English Class in District 6 Building

 What is most important almost always 

involves the people around us. 

 -President Thomas S. Monson

We love serving in Ho Chi Minh City!

The Smells of Ho Chi Minh City

It was the smell that first hit me.  I remember the first time I returned to Asia, many years ago. Leaving the airport terminal, it was like an unleashed Pandora box flooding my mind with memories of the past. It was definitely the smell. 

Thing is.. It smelled so good! Like homemade bread or freshly baked chocolate chips cookies.  Strangely familiar, yet distantly mystical.

Elder Coffey eating phớ - a specialty dish in Vietnam

And so again, as we walk the streets of Ho Chi Minh City, smells from my childhood come floating in. Smells of kickball games in the school yard of the Phoenix Study Group, and climbing trees in the alley. Smells of slurping down bowls of phở from the street vendor and climbing through rolls of barbed wire in games of spy versus spy. 

Smells of 100  chả giòs made special order by our cook.

It smells like home.

Flickr.com/courtesy of Jessica and Lon Binder - chá giòs - another signature dish.

Memories of motorcycle fumes and fresh coconut stalls, red bean ice milk and open air markets.  Yes - it definitely smells like home.

There we stood, standing on the brink of our future with the floodgates of the past whiffing by us.  We could not have had a better welcome.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         Elder Coffey and I in front of one of the LDS church buildings in Ho Chi Minh City. (Tân Sơn Nhất chapel)         

"Lift up your heart and rejoice, for the hour of your mission is come; and your tongue shall be loosed, and you shall declare glad tidings of great joy into this generation. Therefore thrust in your sickle with all your soul... And you shall be laden with sheaves upon your back, for the laborer is worthy of his hire." " D&C 31:3-5

We arrived on Monday, September 5th. Elder and Sister MacDonald, the humanitarian couple here, met us at the airport and helped get us settled in our new apartment. They were so kind.

On Wednesday we enjoyed a full day of training at the church.  Dr. Paul and Dr. McKay from BYUI were here to teach the missionaries how to improve their English teaching methods.  One of our assignments here will be to work with the missionaries on the free English classes that are taught each week.  The six Elders and two Sisters teach Beginning, Intermediate and Advanced English classes once a week at the church. They are great teachers and eager to learn new methods to improve. 

The missionary team currently in Ho Chi Minh City.  More are on their way!

Dr. Paul discusses a teaching principle while
Dr. McKay looks on.

Elder Coffey visiting with Dr. McKay

Elder Rigby, the District Leader, conducts the training meeting.

The Elders study their agenda in preparation for the evening English classes.

The Sisters prepare for Wednesday night's English class using the new methods taught that day.

They did a GREAT job!

It still is amazing to me that we have full-time missionaries in Vietnam, two chapels in Ho Chi Minh City and one in Hanoi, a mission home and office in Hanoi - and that we are actually here!  

My home where I lived in old Saigon from 1968-1972 still stands.  It is not far from our current apartment.  I'll snap a picture of it someday and post it.  

Isn't the Gospel wonderful?  To every land and people it goes - and wherever the banner of truth is unfurled, communities are bettered, homes are strengthened, and lives are blessed. Today the Sisters taught an investigator at the Church.  She says she will return for the branch activity tomorrow.  The work moves forward.  We are so blessed.