3/19/12 Email

I have some scary news to report. As of last Wednesday, I have been suffering from a case of getting older. Last Wednesday was my 6 month mark! Where did the time go!?! It feels like I just got to Houston and yet I am already 1/4 of the way done with my mission! This is really just ridiculous.

 

This last week was much the same as last week. The time goes by quickly. We have talked with a lot of people. What the mission goal (and its relation to a promise from an apostle) is for each missionary to talk with at least 10 people in purpose driven effort to share the gospel each day. If we reach that mark on a day, we get a "key". So the goal is to get 7 keys a week. Up until this point I've never gotten there. The week before last I got 4 which had been my highest, but last week I had 5. It is a real goal to reach that mark of 7. Those promises come that if we talk to that many people every day that we will always have someone to teach. We really need that. Right now we dont have much of anybody to teach. So that is one of our main focuses.

 

This last week was enjoyable (for the most part). The one problem that we are having is that I have bed bugs! Ahhhh! Not fun, at all. So today we have been doing stuff to take care of that. The mission office has supplies at the ready for us. So I am excited to get that resolved because it isnt fun to go to bed at night when you know that you will wake up with bites all over. I'm not even going to tell you how many bites that I have, mainly because I dont know. There's a lot. They'll go away fast enough.

 

Saturday was a branch activity. It was called a Spring Fling. It was a really good time. It allowed me to get to meet more of the members of the branch. It was a really good activity. There was food and some games and just a good social activity. I know that I had a lot of fun and that the other members and investigators and friends did as well.

 

I did some translating for sacrament meeting this week. If was the first time I have ever translated from Vietnamese into English. It went very well, though it was the other elders, Elders Robison and Wilkinson, that spoke. It is a lot easier to understand them than a real Viet. Oh well. It was good.

 

We are looking foward to some good things happening this week. Besides just the missionary work, today we are planning on heading over to the King Tut exhibit that is here in Houston. It should should be pretty interesting. I'll be sure to send some pictures next week.

 

Well, I think that is about all that I've got for now.

Have a great week!!

 

Love,

Elder Phong Manhardt

Changes for Elder Manhardt!

Well this has certainly be a week that I will remember for a while.

 

Without our car, this week was a lot different from any of the others that I have had here in Houston. We were on our bikes every day and as such, we got to talk to a lot of people. Whenever you meet new people, interesting things are bound to happen. For example, one day me met a man that claimed to be a prophet. He said that he knew we were coming and that the meeting was inspired. Not because he needed to hear from us, but because we needed to hear from him. He told us we needed to repent and not to be surprised on the next morning (not really sure what we were supposed to be surprised about, but whatever). To make things even more interesting, he kept speaking in some foreign language and shaking as he did as if he were transmitting some sort of power. It was an interesting experience for sure.

 

But we also happened to run into one Vietnamese guy from Connecticut. We had a good conversation and he took and committed to read the Book of Mormon. We will probably never see him again, but some missionaries in CT will have one pretty cool guy to teach. Besides talking to a lot of people, the work in our area suffered due to lack of car. Many people were unreachable for us by bike. It made for an interesting week.

 

But the real interesting stuff happened yesterday and today. Yesterday some time after church got out, we were going to see one of our investigators. As we were standing outside their door, our phone rang with a ringer that we certainly didnt expect. That ringer is the one for our mission president, President Saylin. Oh boy! He asked how things were going, but of course that wasnt really the purpose of his call. He informed us that Elder Pham's visa had come in and was leaving tomorrow (that meaning today) for Cambodia. That also meant that there was a hole that needed to be filled in that area. So they needed me to go out west and have Elder Hoopes stay in the east with the English missionaries to help finish things up and make some transitions. Being as we dont have enough Vietnamese missionaries to sustain the 3 different areas, things are being consolidated. The area I have been in, in the east, is being "shut down." So really that means that the few Viets that we had going to church out east will now either have to travel out west to the Viet branch or stick with the English. That makes things complicated because the member that we have that really needs the Viet translation doesnt have transportation. We dont really know how he is going to survive that change. To make things more interesting, he was just starting to really progress in the church. He will get the Aaronic Priesthood this coming Sunday. Things will be interesting, and that will be part of Elder Hoopes job out there, trying to transition to just the Viet branch. He will also be serving just as an English elder until this transfer ends.

 

So, there ya go. My first transfer is an emergency transfer. I'm now in the southwest side of Houston serving in the Vietnamese branch. We'll see how things will go. My companion is Elder Campbell. He is relatively new as well. He got to Houston 2 transfers before me, he was also trained by Elder Wilkinson in the East area. We're brothers and now companions. Things are going to be good. So my new address is:

4400 Boone Rd #113

Houston, TX 77072

Of course things can always be sent to the mission office as well.

 

Well, I hope everything is going well as it sounds like it is, as usual. Have a good week!

 

Love

Elder Phong Manhardt