Brother & Sister Hughes - Vietnam

  November 28, 2023 Dear family and friends,    The weather is beautiful here, not hot, not cold. I went shopping today and they are just putting out Christmas. They play Christmas music in English in the airport and the malls. In the airport I heard quite a few religious Christmas songs. Too bad they don’t understand the words and the meaning. That is why we are here! Our little band of missionaries are working hard. We are proud of them.  I decided that this year I wanted to celebrate Christmas with our missionaries, our returned missionaries and our leaders. Because we have 2 locations an airplane flight apart it is 6 parties. Poor President Hughes, he’s so nice to let me do this but it is totally out of his comfort zone. I’ve asked missionaries to plan the parties in the North and the south. I’ve been trying to do some preparations everyday. Freezing cookies and cookie dough, buying food, buying cards and gifts for the missionaries. We are going to share about cr...

  October 15, 2023   Hello everyone,   Our week has been filled with lots of service for the Lord. On Sunday we did quarterly training with the Ho Chi Minh district and the week before in Hanoi District. We did training with President Vuong and two district Family History consultants. It was centered on one of the Area Presidencies goals which is for everyone who is worthy to take a name to the temple with a story. The consultants did a great job teaching the importance of family history and how to create a family search account then add names, reserve ordinances and add memories. The Mission presidency reviewed how we are doing on our goals, how leaders can support members to prepare and go to the temple and that each Branch should create a temple and family history plan. It was a good meeting and I think people understood the power of having a recommend even if we don’t have a temple close by, how focusing on the temple will help us act in higher and holier ways.  ...

  September 18, 2023   Dear Family and Friends,    I think when we look for God’s hand we see it. When we look for miracles we see those too. I had a miracle last week but not in the way I would have wanted. Last week was our busy Zone conferences and interviews week. They are long but great days seeing the missionaries and feeling the spirit. After our zone conference in Hanoi we did interviews at the Ba DInh church building and the Hai Ba Trung church building. At our second stop we finished about 6:30 at night. It gets dark in Vietnam at that time, We were on the 3rd floor. Even though there is an elevator, President Hughes, myself and then the 2 missionaries decided to use the stairs, We had been sitting a lot that day. Larry hurried down the stairs to tell Noi our driver we were coming. I went next and was almost to the second floor when someone turned the stair well light off. My eyes did not adjust quickly and it was pitch black. I thought I was close to the b...