Heaven is Pho Real: Người Châu Phi

This past Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, my companion and I went up to Hanoi for MLC and exchanges! Tuesday night I got to go visit one of my FAVORITE families, Cô Tâm, and the whole time Cô Tâm couldn't get over how much tanner I've gotten since being in Sài Gòn. She just kept saying, "Kim Thư là người Châu Phi!!" which translates to "Kim Thư is black!"

Reunited with Chi Tam in Hanoi

This past week we had 2 great lessons with our new investigators Cô Hương and her daughter Chị Thanh. They have been coming to church on their own for about 2 months now, but EVERYONE thought Cô Hương was member! Part of that may be because she told us all that she was a member already.. We always new that hẻr daughter, Thanh, wasn't a member, but everytime we asked if Thanh wanted to meet with us to take discussions she always said no! Then one day, out of the blue, we receive a phone call from President Hassell who said that Co Huong's brother in California wants them to start learning about the gospel (he's the branch president over there). Next thing you know, we're meeting with them and learning the real story that Co Huong IS NOT A MEMBER and chi Thanh ACTUALLY WILL MEET WITH US! Everyone at church was so surprised to find out that Co Huong actually hadn't been baptized yet. But she's adorable. She paid her tithing yesterday and didn't know what they used tithing for until we explained it to her.

Long story short, make sure that you deeply interview everyone in your branch/ward/stake because there is a chance that someone actually isn't a member.

Just last night, my companion and I had a lesson with another investigator, Nhu, and I had a huge epiphany of how great the Lord's timing is. Nhu has been coming to English class for quite a while, and most of the time will stay to hear the spiritual thoughts. However, my companion and I have never had time to talk to her about the gospel because we've been focusing on other people after english class. Well, just two weeks ago she approached the elders with one of her friends and asked to meet with them to learn more about the differences between our church and the catholic church (she's catholic). The elders invited us to come to the lesson as well, and now she's one of our investigators! Just last night after our lesson, she told us that she was going to start learning Japanese and doesn't know if she'll have time to come to English class on Wednesdays anymore. I am SO SO SO THANKFUL that, with the help of the Lord's timing, we were able to start meeting with her before that happened! If she had stopped coming to English class 2 weeks earlier, then we would never have had the chance to teach her about the gospel. The Lord really does have a certain schedule for everything, and everything will occur according to His timing.

The quote for this week comes from my lovely companion, "Chúng ta phải làm sức khỏe cho thế gian" (We need to make health for the world). She was trying to say something along the lines of "Don't pollute the earth" and this is the translation that we got! It's probably better than what I could do.

Thanks for all the emails, pictures, updates, everything!

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