Elder Matthew Manhardt: Several pictures included in this post!

OK, well this week has certainly been a great one. Most of it was fairly average, but there is one event in particular that made it spectacular. I'll try and portray that. So here goes:

So, if you remember, every Saturday, we have what is called TRC, where volunteers come in and we teach them. On our first week doing TRC we were surprised to find out that one sister, Chị Hương, was a non-memeber. We didn't know why she was coming to TRC, or really much else about her. But we continued to teach her and cherished the opportunity to teach someone that really needs the things we are teaching. I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to teach her every time that she was there, every week but one. That adds up to about 5 or 6 times. Well, we found out on Thursday that she was getting baptized! Our teacher told us and said that we should ask our Branch President, President Seamons, if there was any way that we could go. The baptism was scheduled for Saturday. We were all, of course, super excited. While the rest of our district was having a guided study with our teacher, Elder Robison and myself went to find President Seamons, who was fortunately at the MTC that night to meet the new missionaries in our branch. We found him and explained our situation. He was excited and said that he really wanted us to be able to go, but he didn't know if we were allowed. He went immediately (he ws just about to start an interview with an elder) to try and find someone to answer the question. He wasn't able to though. The assignment was given to one of his counselors, President Howard. We didn't hear anything else that night.

Next day (Friday). President Howard comes into our classroom during personal study and asks for a little more info and to hear the story for himself. He then told us that he was about to go talk to the District president, President Bartasso. Friday night, we got a call to go down to his office and he told us basically the same thing President Seamons did. He wasnted us to go, but he couldnt give that authority to leave campus, he had to talk with President Brown, the MTC President.

So now its Saturday, the day of the baptism, and we still don;t know if we are allowed to go. The baptism is scheduled for 4pm. After waiting all morning for something, we finally got a call from President Bartasso. President Brown gave us permission to go!

We still had TRC that day, and guess what? Chị Hương was there again! And I got to teach her again. Great stufff. She was so excited about her baptism later that day, and she was even more excited, and probably a little surprised, when we told her that we were able to go. The lesson went well. After TRC, we finished our class time and then walked with our one teacher over to the meeting house for the baptism.

Basically, it was just incredible! We able to talk with some of the Viets that were there, and get to just enjoy being off campus too. We were also able to talk with Chị Hương before hand and get some pictures (to come in the mail soon). When we asked her if she was ready, she replied without hesitation, yes.

Seeing a baptism now, as a missionary has so mush more meaning. I can understand so much more the step that these people are making in their lives. I can see the importance of it so much more clearly. Another, really cool thing was when Chị Hương was changing after she was baptized. An invitation was extended to any converts to bear their testimonies. Most of the people that did so were Vietnamese, and even cooler, all of them are recent converts. I think there were about 5 of them and the oldest in the church was baptized a year ago. One of them was apparently the guy I was named after! He was only baptized last week! Unfortunaltely, I wasn't told that I was given my name because of him until after we were back at the MTC, so I didn't really get a chance to get to know him at all. But anyways, the Viets are so much different in culture, but they told some great stories of their conversions. This was really my first exposure to Vietnamese people, but I can already say that I am so excited to be able to serve them. Seeing this just farther supported my call to serve in Vietnamese. I still don't know why I am supposed to, but I can now see very easily that it is right.

All in all, it was just a very special experience. I wish I had time to write more about it here, but I dont.

Hope all is going well. Enjoy the week!

Tình yêu thương,

Anh Cả Phong Manhardt

Here are some pictures that Elder Manhardt sent home a while ago, and I am just getting around to putting them up. It looks like he's having lots of fun!