Sept. 1st, 1st Sunday in Vietnamese Branch

Sunday, Sept 1 2013

First Sunday here in San Jose.  We have been assigned to the Vietnamese Branch, which the Crawfords have been attending.  It is very small.  The Branch President is President Shelton.  He doesn’t speak Vietnamese either.  There is an interpreter named Sister Kim…..Kim is her first name.  I learned from Sister Janette that they all go by their first names, because a lot of their last names are similar!  Sister Kim sat up where the clerk usually would sit.  She had a regular microphone and also a headset.  When someone spoke in English, like the Branch Pres. when conducting, she would speak into her microphone and translate into Vietnamese.  When someone spoke in Viet, she would put the headset on and translate into English for those of us who only spoke English, and we had headsets on to listen.  Today was testimony meeting, and as it began, Pres. Shelton first spoke and explained that a testimony should be uplifting, and if it wasn’t, then you shouldn’t get up to speak.  We learned later that there has been a feud going on between a couple of families, and they use testimony meeting to get up and bad-mouth the other family, so very negative.  None of that happened today after Pres. Shelton’s remarks.  We learned that meetings don’t cover as much as a normal ward does, because of the time involved to translate.  That slows down the process.

In Sunday School, Elder Crawford gave the lesson, and Sister Kim stood up front and translated.  Again, not much covered because of the time translating.  Also, there was some back and forth in Viet as they debated the proper word to use in translation of the word Martyrdom.  Elder Crawford finally changed the word to Killed.

In Relief Society, there were several announcements….both in English and Viet.  One being that on Sept 15^th, that will be Elder Atkinson’s last day, so they want to hold a potluck farewell for him after church.  They passed around a sign-up sheet (couldn’t read it).  Sister Kim showed me where she had filled in something I couldn’t read and told me it was a dessert.  I also signed up for a dessert, since she had pointed out that column, and I put down Brownies…..don’t know if that was what was what I was supposed to write down or what!  Also announced…..a couple will be going to the temple on Sept. 14^th for the first time, and getting married.  They will have a reception on Sept. 21^st, put on by the ward because they have no family here and no money.  It was asked that anyone that can do so, to please  donate money for it.  They will purchase food with the money, and any left over will be given to the couple in a gift card, with a card signed by all in the ward.  And, we were told that if you couldn’t donate anything, sign the card anyway, as the gift was from all in the ward.

When the RS lesson was taught, it was by Sister Lan, who is the Relief Society President.  She speaks English too, so she did her own translating.  It was on Forgiveness.  We didn’t progress too far into the lesson.  One sister, don’t know who, made a comment in Viet, which I learned was that she was saying that she had forgiven a certain person all she was going to, and that she was sure that God didn’t expect her to keep forgiving that person!  Sister Lan said, in both English and Viet, that we needed to forgive all, as many times as needed.  She gave scripture examples….7 times 70…..I the Lord will forgive whom I will forgive, but you must forgive all.  She also said if you carry anger around, it becomes a burden to you, and doesn’t help you to have peace or to follow Jesus’ example.  The class ran over about 20 minutes!  Sister Crawford tried to suggest we needed to end (she had an investigator she needed to take care of……take him home.), but Sister Lan said that she needed to finish this discussion first.  Sister Janette was sitting by me, and said that Sister Lan wanted to make sure the point was understood by the sister who was disagreeing.  People want it understood that they shouldn’t be feuding, and they want her to understand why and take it to heart to be forgiving….that we all have faults.  That no argument is 100% one person’s fault. 

So, interesting Sunday meetings!

Started setting things out for tomorrow…..packing a lunch for both of us.  We plan on getting up early to go walking before we shower and get dressed. 

Oh, Elder Crawford gave us a San Jose map today….we looked it over after church to get a better idea of the main roads that connect us to places.  It helped to visualize the layout of the locations we need, so we don’t have to rely on the GPS so much…..too many times it wants to take us on 101.  Even when I check avoid Freeways.  Because 101 is listed as a hwy, though around here it is like a freeway!

Hope we get a good night’s sleep to be ready for tomorrow!  We were told on Friday when we stopped in at the mission office, that they are so busy that they don’t even break for lunch….they just eat as they work!  Oh, well, keeping busy helps the time pass quickly!