Dear Family,
This last week has been kind of crazy. Hoang has still been sick just about all week, but we've made things work, despite that. We got a little forceful with Hoang one time. He was telling us that he was feeling sick and that we would meet the next day, and so we told him that was fine and that we'd be at his house at 7:00pm. A few minutes later we got a phone call from Hoang. I picked up and said hi, and he asked if we could come earlier, like 3:00pm or 4:00pm. That was pretty cool. We went over and taught him a lesson and then gave him a blessing so that he could get better faster. As the week progressed on, we could see that he was getting better and we think that he was almost completely better before he left yesterday.
This week we taught him the restoration (the Joseph Smith story, the Book of Mormon and Praying to know it's true), the entire third lesson, priesthood authority, word of wisdom, tithing, chastity, studying the scriptures and how to donate tithing and fast offerings. Hoang is just so awesome. He accepted everything, hands down, without asking questions. It was just like Denisa all over again. When we were teaching Denisa, whever she would ask why, we'd just tell her it's because it's a commandment from God and that if we lived by it, He would help us. It was the exact same with Hoang. We would just tell him that it was a commandment before we'd talk about what it was, and then he would accept without asking.
When we taught him about tithing, we had him read the section out of Preach my Gospel in vietnamese about it, and after he read it, he looked up at us smiling and said, "I agree everything." Just the way he was smiling, you could tell that light was entering into his life and that he really knew that these things would help him. There's nothing that you can replace those kinds of feelings of satisfaction and joy with; just knowing that you're helping one of your brothers or sisters come back unto our Father in Heaven. It has no price. As we continued talking about tithing, after this, we could see that he didn't completely understand it, but he had already committed to it in his heart. We started talking about on what money of ours we need to pay tithing. He was a little confused, but he just told us that the missionaries in Vietnam would explain it better because they'll be able to speak his langauge and tell him the way that he needs to hear.
We also gave him the study program that we've been making for a long time now, so that he will have something to learn and read with his family while he's in Vietnam. We split up all the principles from the first three lessons (restoration, plan of salvation and gospel of Jesus Christ) and gave them one to read every other day, and also threw in the commandments where we thought they'd work the best. So, by the end of his stay in Vietnam, his family will have learned all the material together, and they'll be completely prepared to be baptized. We put so much time and prayer into that program, and we know that Hoang could see it. He was extremely excited, and wanted to read every single one with them. You could just see that he had such a desire to share these things with his family. It was far too cool.
Also, this last week, we were in Prague for a conference and we spoke to President about Hoang going to Vietnam and how we don't know what the church is like there; whether there's meetings, members, missionaries, anything! So President got on it, called up the church, found out where the missionaries were, got their number, got the church building's address and gave them to us. We took the information and showed it to Hoang at one of our meetings, and he looked at it and said, "What's this?" We told him that that is where the church is in Vietnam. He was very surprised and excited. He then told us that the address was just ten kilometers away from where he lived! He then gave us his information and we gave that to president to give the missionaries in Vietnam.
Hoang is so prepared and ready to go to Vietnam and share the gospel with his family. We were thinking about how it would be so awesome, but also a little bit of a downer if he got baptized there. We would love to be at his baptism, but we know that it's important for something this important to not be procrastinated. We are just glad that we're working on the same team as the missionaries in Vietnam. This'll be one of the stories that they go home talking about. Some man who's been living in the Czech Republic comes home for Christmas, finds the missionaries, tells them he wants to be baptized because he knows that everything is true, and that he has a wife and two daughters who can all be baptized and that he'll help them come unto the waters of baptism! How awesome is this work! Hoang said that he'd keep in contact with us, and we know that he will. He's going to be gone for about two and a half months. That's a long time, but I know he'll be there in good hands, rooting his family firmly into the gospel.
I love you all and hope that you will all be having a wonderful and pleasant Christmas,
Starší Monk