Hanoi Elders to The Rescue

April 7, 2018

One of the LDSC projects we've worked on is at Bach Mai Hospital, the largest hospital in Vietnam. While working to complete new and improved latrine facilities here, we were also informed of a need to have wheelchairs for the sick and crippled patients that are coming in daily to the 24 clinical departments and 2 outpatient departments of the hospital.

We proposed a project that would supply wheelchairs that are unique in design and that would be recognized and not confused with the other wheelchairs used in the hospital. The finished product is a bright green and yellow wheelchair that has delighted the hospital, as well as the patients it benefits. 

On the day of delivery, problems arose of how to retrieve the wheelchairs that had mistakenly been delivered to the wrong part of the hospital, as well as the tasks of extracting them from their shipping cartons, assembling them and distributing them to the various departments in a timely manner. 

Inspiration told us to call the mission office and invite the mission elders to get involved. President Hassell authorized LDSC to mobilize the Hanoi Mission Elders. With little notice, 14 elders responded! What a blessing this turned out to be. 

On the appointed delivery hour, the elders showed up and ate a lunch that the hospital kindly supplied for them. After eating, the elders got busy ripping off the cardboard cartons and quickly assembling wheelchairs. It was quite a site to see in the main lobby of the hospital with the elders in white shirts and ties working hard to accomplish the tasks. 

Dr. Thang of International Relations, was in charge and was amazed upon seeing these young men who, obviously, were foreigners, accomplishing this act of service. Not only were so many kind, well dressed young men hard at work in the hospital lobby, he couldn’t believe that they all could speak fluent Vietnamese!

He wanted to know who these special young men are. It was a good opportunity to explain to him about our missionary program, and also for him to feel the spiritual presence of the elders. 

Because of this service project, Dr. Thang asked the elders if they could start teaching English classes at the Hospital. Although they aren’t allowed to give a spiritual message, the hospital staff knows who they are what they stand for. One hundred and fifty doctors and nurses showed up for the first class. They have been going strong ever since!

The following week we were invited to the hospital for a visit from the press, scheduled by the Bach Mai hospital administrator, to see the handover of LDSC wheelchairs to several patients. We were interviewed, and not only were we featured in the newspaper, but our story was also on The National Vietnam News. 

The wheelchair distribution has definitely been a success and an opportunity to have the name of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, as well as Latter Day Saints Charities more recognized in Vietnam. We are constantly amazed by the many miracles that help the Church to be recognized in this country. It reaffirms our testimony that THE LORD IS IN CHARGE and we are instruments in his hands. 

A Visit With Family

March 15-27, 2018

We were excited to have Sharon's daughter and son-in-law, Shauna and Andrew, visit us for two weeks. Seeing them, after not visiting with family members for over a year, was a wonderful experience. We wanted them to see what our mission is really like and what we do, working with Latter Day Saints Charities for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, so we planned a very busy couple of weeks.

The morning after Shauna and Andrew arrived, we drove with with them several hours to Thai Binh to visit four different schools in the area and view the various stages of progress on our current projects with LDSC, providing new updated latrines for the students. Mr. Giang and The Red Cross has been a great partner to us, helping us to get clean water and new latrines in many schools there. Shauna and Andrew were able to participate in a ground-breaking ceremony for the new latrines at one of the schools we visited. As always, the people are gracious and so generous with their gifts and gratitude to us. Mr. Giang treated us to a delicious lunch of fish, crab and shrimp -- the first of many authentic Vietnamese meals for Shauna and Andrew to experience. 

The very next day, we took them along for the combined activity with the Long Bien and Hanoi branches -- hiking, paddle boating and a picnic. Exploring and spending the entire day with the branch members was an opportunity for Shauna and Andrew to get to know and fall in love with the special LDS members here. 

After exploring, we were pretty hungry and sat down to eat, only prepared to have a snack of spicy mango, french fries and a few veggies, but the Branch members soon brought plate after plate of delicious food to our table -- BBQ pork kabobs, 2 kinds of tasty sticky rice (the best we've ever tasted!), hot dog sushi, and fruit for dessert... It was quite a feast and we were touched that they shared all of their amazing food with us.

Finding a little time to do some sight-seeing, the four us us took a few days to tour Cat Ba Island, by way of ferry from Hai Phong. It was an incredible, once in a lifetime experience, taking in the views of the unique limestone islands, while cruising through the emerald green waters of Lan Ha Bay. It was also an opportunity for us to get a rare glimpse of the sun that is usually veiled by the thick clouds and smog in the city of Hanoi. 

Kayaking in Lan Ha Bay

The cook and crew were phenomenal!

Sunset on the bay

View at the top of Ngu Lam Peak on Cat Ba

View of the bay from the resort on Cat Ba

We were invited to a Government Spring Festival Friendship Tour with PACCOM and they arranged for a procession of buses to take us to the oldest Citadel in the city, as well as a classic Vietnamese water puppet show, and finally, finishing off the tour with lunch and authentic Vietnamese cultural entertainment at Smileyville. This was a rare opportunity to visit with the local Communist Government leaders, as well as a lot of the other NGO’s, working here in Vietnam to improve the quality of life for the people, here in the country.

On Sunday we went to the Long Bien Branch church meetings. Afterward, Shauna came along with the Women’s Organization and the sister missionaries to visit Hai Anh’s home -- an investigator at the time of our visit. Her father treated us to a delicious Bun Cha lunch. (Hai Anh was recently baptized in May.) 

One of our most treasured experiences was to take Shauna and Andrew to celebrate at the Quyen Hoa Vocational School handover ceremony. We have worked to help this school re-build their collapsing, almost non-existent kitchen, as well as to give wheelchairs and computers to help with the training of the handicapped students. It was wonderful to finally celebrate the completion, and see how this project has changed and blessed the lives of the students here. Upon our arrival, we were welcomed in a big way.

The students were so excited to see us and share in the celebrating, and expressed their enthusiasm by greeting us with big hugs and smiles. They wore their best school clothes -- many of the girls in their pretty Ao Dai dresses; and they conveyed their gratitude by presenting flowers and gifts, singing for us and serving us a delicious lunch. We spent the rest of the afternoon visiting, dancing, and taking lots of "selfies"! -- an activity that we find teens and tweens love to do here, in Vietnam, almost as much as they do in the USA.

We were also able to go to Bach Mai Hospital, the largest hospital in Vietnam, to the spinal injury center, and oversee the progress on our continuing projects there -- providing new latrines and wheelchairs for the patients there. 

It was a busy couple of weeks for sure, and so special for us to be able to share with Shauna and Andrew, the projects we've been working on as missionaries for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. In just the short time that they were here, they grew to love Vietnam and the remarkable, gracious and generous people that call this country home.

Having Shauna and Andrew here was a poignant reminder that we are so far away from the family we dearly love and miss back home. However, we know that we are where the Lord wants and needs us to be, and we are so grateful for the incredible opportunities we are experiencing through loving and serving the people here, in Vietnam. We will cherish these eighteen months and always remember the love and camaraderie we have felt, living amongst our now and forever Vietnamese friends. 

A Visit From An Apostle of the Lord

March 14, 2018

In March we had a rare opportunity of having Apostle Gary E. Stevenson come for a visit, here in Hanoi. The Vietnam Mission just passed its 2^nd anniversary and Elder Stevenson told us that we are witnessing true miracles here in this country. Two years ago, we started with 12 missionaries, and today we have 60 missionaries in the country, with two districts -- one in Saigon and one in Hanoi. We also have six branches in HCMC and four branches in Hanoi. This is progress!

Elder Stevenson said that there is a light about the people here and that miracles are happening. He urged the members to be true disciples of Jesus Christ. Even though trials will come to the members, their families will be blessed and come to know Jesus Christ. God loves His people and will give them strength that their burdens will be light. 

Elder Stevenson told a story about a pioneer company that was coming across the plains and had to cross a river on a ferry because the river was too deep to cross any other way. The company pooled all their money, but still didn’t have enough money to cross. Some of the people thought it would be a good idea to catch some fish in the river and sell it to the ferry master. They caught the fish, but it still wasn’t enough. They prayed that there might be an answer and that they would be able to cross the river without any more delay in time. That evening, they decided to cook the fish because they were hungry. There were several little fish and one big one. As they were preparing the fish to be cooked, they found in the belly of the largest fish, a gold coin that was worth enough to cross the river on the ferry. 

“Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen”  - Hebrews 11:1

Heavenly Father does love us and will give us answers to our prayers so that we will be able to endure our trials. The answers He sends are His miracles; and when you look for the miracles each day, your faith and testimony grow stronger. This is the Lord’s work and we are blessed to be part of it.

We were honored to have Elder Stevenson visit us and give such a wonderful blessing to encourage the sweet people of Vietnam.