A special meeting was held in Hanoi Vietnam on Sunday December 12, 2010 in order to organize the first church district in Hanoi. More about that written below. Choir Director, Hannah Harrison also Branch Relief Society President gets ready to rehearse the choir for their special number. Sorry for the blurry picture. I had left the lens on landscape and go too much light.
The wonderful choir. Our missionaries flank both ends.
They are practicing practicing.
This is everyone in attendance at this first District meeting. There were 69 in Hanoi and 88 in attendance in Ho Chi Minh. So in this picture are the 69 attending. Some of those are not baptized members yet.
December 12, 2010, Sunday from 10-12:00 a special conference was held in Hanoi, Vietnam with a webcast to Ho Chi Minh to organize the first Church district in Vietnam. This was an historical event in the history of the church in Vietnam. It has two branches and at the conference a third was added. The first two are in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh and the new third branch is everything else in Vietnam. We have maybe 1000 members scattered all over the country and so their memberships will be in this unique branch. They will probably do some web cast meetings to reach the members. The largest group we know of outside of these cities is in Southern Vietnam that used to be Cambodia, there are at least 14 members that we know about. One of them came to Church last month while we were there. It takes them 7 hours to travel to Ho Chi Minh for Church! Needless to say, they only can come once in a while. Most there in that particular area, used to live in Cambodia and were baptized in Cambodia, but moved back to Vietnam. Above is the new District President, his counselors and the District Clerk. The sign for the Church was put up just two days before the conference. The government gave permission to advertise the church and a sign is a great way to do that helping people know they have the right building. This building is hard to find, so it's great to have a sign now. It will help many visitors.
The new Presidency l-r: Brother Nguyen Hoai Thanh from Ho Chi Minh is the new District Clerk. He is also Elder's Quorum President in Ho Chi Minh. First counselor is Pham Ngoc Khanh. He is also the Branch President of the Ho Chi Minh Branch. District President is Hoang Van Tung. He is also Branch President in Hanoi. Second Counselor is Brother Christian Marchant. He is the first counselor in the Hanoi Branch. They will have many meetings I imagine through the use of technical sources! Thanks goodness for that.
Elder and Sister Watson, Scott and I and the new District Presidency with their families. The first counselor has two children, but they were being baby sat in Ho Chi Minh. It is 1200 miles from Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh City. In the Vietnamese papers they abbreviate Ho Chi Minh with these letters: HCMC. So I think I will do the same! The District President's wife couldn't come, but his son was there and he was just a really good kid while waiting for all the meetings afterward.
The new Branch President of the new Hanoi District Branch is Ryan Roswell Bird. With him is his wife Teresa. They live in Ho Chi Minh City and have 5 children. Their children were also were being babysat. Scott set apart everyone but the District Clerk and the new Branch President. Elder Watson set apart brother Thanh and President Tung set apart Ryan Bird. Ryan also is President Smedley's Assistant Executive Secretary for Vietnam. He has been a great help for the church here. Brother Marchant works for the USA Embassy in Hanoi and is the Human Rights/Religion officer. He just got the human rights officer of the year out of all the embassys for the USA. Wow! We were impressed.
December 12, 2010, Sunday from 10-12:00 a special conference was held in Hanoi, Vietnam with a webcast to Ho Chi Minh to organize the first Church district in Vietnam. This was an historical event in the history of the church in Vietnam. It has two branches and at the conference a third was added. The first two are in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh and the new third branch is everything else in Vietnam. We have maybe 1000 members scattered all over the country and so their memberships will be in this unique branch. They will probably do some web cast meetings to reach the members. The largest group we know of outside of these cities is in Southern Vietnam that used to be Cambodia, there are at least 14 members that we know about. One of them came to Church last month while we were there. It takes them 7 hours to travel to Ho Chi Minh for Church! Needless to say, they only can come once in a while. Most there in that particular area, used to live in Cambodia and were baptized in Cambodia, but moved back to Vietnam. Above is the new District President, his counselors and the District Clerk. The sign for the Church was put up just two days before the conference. The government gave permission to advertise the church and a sign is a great way to do that helping people know they have the right building. This building is hard to find, so it's great to have a sign now. It will help many visitors.
The new Presidency l-r: Brother Nguyen Hoai Thanh from Ho Chi Minh is the new District Clerk. He is also Elder's Quorum President in Ho Chi Minh. First counselor is Pham Ngoc Khanh. He is also the Branch President of the Ho Chi Minh Branch. District President is Hoang Van Tung. He is also Branch President in Hanoi. Second Counselor is Brother Christian Marchant. He is the first counselor in the Hanoi Branch. They will have many meetings I imagine through the use of technical sources! Thanks goodness for that.
Elder and Sister Watson, Scott and I and the new District Presidency with their families. The first counselor has two children, but they were being baby sat in Ho Chi Minh. It is 1200 miles from Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh City. In the Vietnamese papers they abbreviate Ho Chi Minh with these letters: HCMC. So I think I will do the same! The District President's wife couldn't come, but his son was there and he was just a really good kid while waiting for all the meetings afterward.
The new Branch President of the new Hanoi District Branch is Ryan Roswell Bird. With him is his wife Teresa. They live in Ho Chi Minh City and have 5 children. Their children were also were being babysat. Scott set apart everyone but the District Clerk and the new Branch President. Elder Watson set apart brother Thanh and President Tung set apart Ryan Bird. Ryan also is President Smedley's Assistant Executive Secretary for Vietnam. He has been a great help for the church here. Brother Marchant works for the USA Embassy in Hanoi and is the Human Rights/Religion officer. He just got the human rights officer of the year out of all the embassys for the USA. Wow! We were impressed.
All three branch presidents for the Hanoi District. We just love our new sign! Now they're working on getting one in Ho Chi Minh.
Ryan Bird and Teresa Bird.
Our missionaries in Hanoi with the Watsons and us. Elders Ly and Son and Elder and Sister Talbot. Sister Talbot sang in the branch choir. Everyone was wearing their Vietnam dresses that they wear for special occasions. One gal who is a non-member and only been to Church a couple of times took a real liking to Sister Talbot and said well, I have an outfit that will fit you. So she brought her the dress and it fit perfect except Sister Talbot had to sew up the slit. She likes a little looser fit, but she looked great in it! And I have to say, my outfit, not so flattering, but I like it anyway
These young men are all future missionaries from Hanoi. The one on the right has his papers in and he will be a member one year in February and then can come. We sure hope he gets assigned to our mission. They are all working on coming. The one on the left is Brother Coy. His family was the first one from Hanoi to be sealed in the Temple. The Talbots besides doing their LDSC events are also the Young Adult Advisors and teach an institute class once a week. They are well loved by the youth who like to come to their home. They leave us the end of this month. We will sorely miss them.
Maury and Brother Lee were there from the service centers in Cambodia and Hong Kong to make sure the webcast went well. They did a terrific job and we sure appreciate their efforts.
Our missionaries in Hanoi with the Watsons and us. Elders Ly and Son and Elder and Sister Talbot. Sister Talbot sang in the branch choir. Everyone was wearing their Vietnam dresses that they wear for special occasions. One gal who is a non-member and only been to Church a couple of times took a real liking to Sister Talbot and said well, I have an outfit that will fit you. So she brought her the dress and it fit perfect except Sister Talbot had to sew up the slit. She likes a little looser fit, but she looked great in it! And I have to say, my outfit, not so flattering, but I like it anyway
These young men are all future missionaries from Hanoi. The one on the right has his papers in and he will be a member one year in February and then can come. We sure hope he gets assigned to our mission. They are all working on coming. The one on the left is Brother Coy. His family was the first one from Hanoi to be sealed in the Temple. The Talbots besides doing their LDSC events are also the Young Adult Advisors and teach an institute class once a week. They are well loved by the youth who like to come to their home. They leave us the end of this month. We will sorely miss them.
Maury and Brother Lee were there from the service centers in Cambodia and Hong Kong to make sure the webcast went well. They did a terrific job and we sure appreciate their efforts.
No comments:
Post a Comment