Seekers in the Lord's Kingdom

The eye is an amazing organ.  It can focus on things near or far, small or large.  Most people have within their eye little bands or squiggly clearish threads that float around.  Perhaps you have noticed them as they move around depending on your own eye movement.  These are called “floaters”.  You may go years before you notice them, but once you first notice them, they can be all you think about – what are they, how did they get there, are they obscuring my vision? After awhile you begin to forget about them until the day comes when you don’t even remember that they are there. They are ever present, but because you are not focusing on them, your eye virtually “sees through them”. 

Photo courtesy of Flikr.com/lteachr

The Savior taught – The Light of the body is the eye. If therefore, thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light.

It seems that when we focus on the things of God, that which would obscure our path gives way and we can see more clearly the bigger picture that God has for us.  Our minds, too, learn to “pay no heed” to the challenges surrounding us as we remain fixed on the Savior.  Truly, when we love God with all our heart, soul and mind and put him first in our lives, our eyes are single and our whole body is full of light.

The Savior admonishes us, “But seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you.”

While in Thailand to attend a wheelchair distribution on our previous mission, our van sped along the road, passing beautiful fields of velvety, green rice paddies.  I was determined to get a clear picture of the beautiful scene, even from inside the moving van.  Yet as I took picture after picture, I was irritated to find the image in my camera was obscured by rows of blurry trees. 

Where had those trees come from?  They were not there when I took the picture! 

Then I looked up at the scene again – and sure enough, lining both sides of the highway were rows of small trees.  I had not seen them before.  I had not even noticed them. Not until I took the picture which focused on what was closest did I notice them.

"…when we choose not to focus on what is missing from our lives but are grateful for the abundance that’s present….the wasteland of illusion falls away and we experience heaven on earth.”      Sarah Ban Breathnach

 

So it is with life.  

If we look too closely our vision is obscured.... but when we pull back a little.....

...when we pull back and look at things from an eternal perspective, we realize we are basking in a beautiful garden.

Quoting a well-known author, President Monson said,

“Both abundance and lack [of abundance] exist simultaneously in our lives, as parallel realities. It is always our conscious choice which secret garden we will tend … when we choose not to focus on what is missing from our lives but are grateful for the abundance that’s present—love, health, family, friends, work, the joys of nature, and personal pursuits that bring us [happiness]—the wasteland of illusion falls away and we experience heaven on earth.”

May we all be seekers in the Lord’s kingdom,

 paying no heed to the obstacles,

and watch the miracles unfold before our view.

  

Standing on Holy Ground in a Commune in Vietnam

Chúc Mừng Năm Mởi - Happy New Year!

2017 welcomes in the Year of the Rooster – an auspicious year to be sure.  If you were born in a Year of the Rooster (Years of the Rooster include 1933, 1945, 1957, 1969, 1981, 1993, 2005, 2017, and 2029.) then you might be very observant, hardworking, resourceful, courageous, and talented.  Roosters are very confident in themselves. Roosters are talkative, outspoken, frank, open, honest, and loyal individuals. They like to be the center of attention and always appear attractive and beautiful.  And being a surgeon is a good career for them.

Do you know someone born in one of those years?  Do they fit the mold?

But watch out - If you are a rooster, the Year of the Rooster is actually unlucky for you – sorry. Go figure!

To help prevent bad from getting worse, stay away from red, avoid 1, 3 and 9, and don’t go east. All very unlucky, they say! There are 12 of these animals, and they rotate on a 12 year cycle. Sister Coffey is a dog.  Elder Coffey is a horse.  Guess we’ll be safe this year!

But we always start the year off big – and Tết, the Vietnamese Lunar New Year, is a great way to welcome in the New Year. The amazing array of flowers in Ho Chi Minh City - thousands and thousands of flowers brought in special for the occasion, excites the senses, but especially the bright yellow Mai flowers. "Mai" sounds like "may" in Southern Vietnamese, which means luck, so the Mai flowers are the luckiest of all the flowers for Tết.

Tết is a bit like Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's all put together. The central event of the occasion is a big dinner with family and friends.  Or several big dinners, as Tết will last for up to 7 days. We were blessed to be invited to three dinner celebrations.

This is the home of our Branch President and his family, who live with his wife's parents and other extended family members on different levels of the home.

For another meal, we spent 2 hours traveling first by bus, then by tuk tuk. Our friend lives in a commune in the southern most part of the province, and the only way to her home includes crossing two small bridges that are only big enough for motorcycles or tuk tuks. Thus the need to travel by tuk tuk - our first experience with this!

After a very long wait at the bus stop, we finally found a tuk tuk going our way, but it was full.  Ten people were already loaded in.  But they seemed undaunted and cheerfully let two more on board, as we squeezed, squeezed, squeeeeeezed in until we found a spot to sit.  Elder Coffey was assigned to a tiny plastic stool in between the two passenger benches, amidst poking knees, bags, and assorted wares. The tuk tuk stopped to pick up more people along the way.  At it's peak, there were 17 people in and on our little tuk tuk! Finally we reached our destination and gratefully piled out.

Elders hopping off the tuk tuk on their way to our friend's Tết dinner.

After the 2 hour ride, we walked down alleys and around corners and over bridges to finish the trip to her home.

Elder Coffey makes his way down one of the alleys.

The Elders cross the last bridge. Notice the hanging sausages

 drying out in the sun to the left.

Branch members and missionaries gathered at our

 friend's home to celebrate.

Our wonderful friend who graciously hosted us in her home that day. 
She has been taking the missionary lessons from us 
and is such a wonderful person.

Helping prepare the red dragon fruit in the kitchen.

As the meal concluded, we invited the missionaries to share a spiritual message before they left. One of the Elders began sharing the message. He is one of the newest Elders here and is still learning the language. 

As he spoke, he struggled with each word and phrase.  Sometimes he would have to stop and think how to say the next part.  Sometimes his pronunciation was not clear and the investigator had to guess what he was trying to say and help him a bit. His companion/trainer watched, patiently, never intervening, never showing any signs of impatience or frustration, even though any of them in the room could have delivered an eloquent, fluent message.

Instead, we watched as this humble Elder struggled, paused, then continued with his message of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Our hearts went out to him as he endeavored to find the right words with his limited vocabulary. It seemed like it took forever.  But with that slowing of time came a power into that room that filled the hearts of everyone present. The Holy Ghost, in powerful majesty, bore eloquent testimony of the truthfulness of the young Elder's words.  The Spirit filled the home, the room, and the heart of each person there.  What the Elder lacked in language, the Lord provided with the language of the Spirit.  What he lacked in fluency, the Spirit amply supplied. We realized then that we were witnessing a sacred, hallowed moment in time in a little commune in Vietnam. We stood on holy ground.

"Do ye not remember", Nephi reminds us, "that I said unto you that after ye had received the Holy Ghost ye could speak with the tongue of angels?" (2 Nephi 32:2) 

This was the tongue of angels.  

The Lord has said, "...that the fulness of my gospel might be proclaimed by the weak and the simple unto the ends of the world..." (D&C 1:23), and "by small and simple things are great things brought to pass." (Alma 37:6)

Thank you, Elder, for your simple message that day.  It was a lesson we will not soon forget.

Here We Grow Again! New Branch in Ho Chi Minh City

“A marvelous work is about to come forth among the children of men.”  D&C 4:1

As the message of Jesus Christ and the restoration of His church spreads across this country, people’s hearts are touched – one of a family, two of a village – here and there, little by little.  We were blessed today to be in attendance at church as the third branch in Hồ Chí Minh City was created – the District 6 Branch. 

Hồ Chí Minh City had two branches of the Church.  The one we attend, the Ton Son Nhut branch, was formed only about 2 1/2 years ago with only a handful of members. Now it is full to capacity in our little building, necessitating the need to split and form an additional branch. 

The new District 6 Branch begins again with only a handful of members - with about 15 active members.  But the enthusiasm is there and the members are excited to have their own place to worship closer to where they live. The District 6 Branch takes in the western part of Hồ Chí Minh City. 

Below is the new District 6 Branch Presidency.  The Branch President is the second from the right. They are men prepared by the Lord for this great moment. The Branch President was serving as a counselor in the Ton Son Nhut Branch Presidency prior to his new calling.

Below is the newly formed Ton Son Nhut Branch Presidency.  The Branch President is the second from the left.  He has been serving as Branch President since the branch was formed about 2 1/2 years ago. His former counselor and clerk are now part of the new District 6 Branch; thus the need to reorganize with new leaders to continue moving the work forward. They are men who love the Lord and are committed to His service.

Below are the two new branch presidencies with their families.  

Having a new branch brings the church closer to those living in the western part of the city.  This gives a wonderful opportunity for those who are less active to find the church and be able to attend more easily.  This also gives people greater opportunities to grow in their new callings as the branch expands and develops. No wonder everyone is so excited!

This has been an historic day for all of us.  Vietnam now has four branches of the Church - one in Hà Nội  and three in Hồ Chí Minh City, with small groups of members in various locations throughout the country. We are small, but watch us grow!

January 22, 2017 -Sunday - the District 6 Branch meets for the very first time.

Sludging Through the Mekong Delta

The human powered canoe quietly made its way through the muddy canal which cut through the middle of Tan Phong Island.  As a short cut to the other side, the canal sees more than just tourists wearing cone shaped hats. Slender canoes wound their way around us loaded with bananas, rice or other wares.

Our daughter Kristi flew in from BYU-Idaho to join us for Christmas break. It was a great reason to excuse ourselves from the busy mission work and see some sights together.

 

Our friends, Elder and Sister MacDonald, joined us for the excursion.  They are the LDS Charities humanitarian couple in Ho Chi Minh City and they do amazing charity work all throughout the southern part of the country.

Tan Phong Island sits between Tiền Giang and Vĩnh Long provinces (just in case you want to Google it!). The village of Cái Bè , and the island near it, are popular tourist sites. The island is also a paradise for growing jack fruit, papaya, mangostein, bananas, dragon fruit, guava, milk apples and a host of other fruits.  Tropical flowers surrounded us on every turn.

Courtesy of flickr.com Adrian Salgado

There we were, sitting on the banks of the Mekong River, snacking on dragon fruit and watermelon, listening to traditional music by musicians in local costumes, basking under the thatched roof and surrounded by tropical lush foliage. It was a world away from the world.   

And a world where tourists can dress in typical local farmer clothes and participate in traditional fishing practices. Kristi and I were excited to go. Our wonderful tour guide accompanied us.

Little did we know what awaited us! Rather than iconic river fishing with nets, we sludged through heavy thick mud, looking for elusive snakefish, while our tour guide and the attendant lowered the water level of the canal with a 68 year old bamboo basket.

Who would have known mucking through the canal mud could be so much fun! Gross, but fun!

"I caught one"!!!!!

It took awhile, but finally we caught three!  We had the option of grilling them or letting them go.  We let them go. After all that mud-mucking, they didn't look very appetizing...

You can see the cone shaped 68-year old bamboo basket they used to help lower the water level in the ditch so we could find the elusive fish!

Our trip continued down the Mekong River.  The shacks and shanties along the river, often held up only by deteriorating posts and thatched walls, depicted the despondent river life of poverty.

Even so, people smiled and waved to the tourists - bringers of much needed income, bringers of sustenance for another day.


Video of the Mekong River trip: HERE  and also HERE

 
  

The famous, iconic floating markets along the Mekong River are slowly diminishing.  Still, many set up their wares daily, selling more to locals than to tourists, coming in from the countryside to live on their boats for weeks at a time until their goods are gone.  Some live on their boats forever, making them their life-long habitation, using the life-giving river for both water and bath.





Some even have a generator to provide electricity for important things like lights and television!

Then it was off to a local village to see how the villagers make popped rice, rice paper, and coconut candy, with delicious samples of each.

Here a woman demonstrates traditional rice paper making.

A delicious seafood lunch topped off the day- elephant ear fish and river prawns. The river provides life and sustenance, income and community. 

And the boats are the center of their lives.

The river people paint large bright-colored eyes on their boats. The boats, which are central to their lives and livelihood, need the eyes to scare off evil spirits and keep the boat safe.

Eyes are an interesting thing - we talk about our eyes being single to God - meaning we focus on Him for our daily walk and our protection.  We focus on Him as the center of our lives.

"And if your eye be single to my glory, your whole bodies shall be filled with light, and there shall be no darkness in you; and that body which is filled with light comprehendeth all things." D&C 88:67

As we work to keep our own eyes single to the glory of God, we recognize the eyes of the Lord watching over the good people of Vietnam.  This is their time. This is their day.

All eyes are on you, Vietnam. Good things are coming!