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Hyrum's last email from Vietnam! (and photos added by laurel-thank you all for supporting and loving Hyrum these past two years!)

I have now served as a full time missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints for 2 years and will be returning home on the 30th in SLC Utah. My homecoming is on August 4th, all are invited.

God lives and He is our perfect Father. We are all His children. Over 100 million of His children are in Vietnam and He loves them all. I am so blessed to have had the chance to serve these people. They are AMAZING!

Jesus taught that the greatest commandment is to “Love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.”

Jesus then taught that the 2nd greatest commandment is to “love thy neighbor as thyself.”

The prophet Joseph Smith taught “When we obtain any blessing from God, it is by obedience to that law upon which it is predicated.”

I know that obedience to the 2 greatest commandments brings the greatest blessings you can ever have. The blessings linked with loving the Lord are too great to get in any other way. My love for the Lord and my Vietnamese neighbors has grown so much, and I have been personally blessed because of it in too many ways to count.

God lives, He loves us, and loving Him in return brings the greatest blessings available.

-Elder Hyrum McConkie

New Area and Pictures - Bình Dương, Vietnam

 Hello everyone!

Since I have last written, I have moved to a new area. I was in my previous area for 8 months, most recently was with Elder Khôi as my companion. We were MTC companions and it was so great to go with him again. He's probably the most efficient missionary I've ever served with, and incredibly fun at the same time. We got a lot of great work done, bought some awesome new suits, and finally found some more variety of good restaurants in that area. I will forever love Cơm Thập Cẩm 49. Elder Khôi is one of the best, most trustworthy people you'll ever meet, and he is my favorite person ever to go finding with.

I also loved the members in Ba Đình. What wonderful saints. They are proof that a life with the Gospel is always better than a life without it. There are far to many I could tell you about, just know that the Vietnamese members are probably the greatest group of people on the planet outside of my immediate family.

I am now in an area called Bình Dương. It is a blessed and promised land. I just love it. The branch is smaller than normal in Vietnam, but this place already feels like a home. It is outside of the main Saigon area. But there are still millions of people in our area. The food is cheap, delicious, and there's a lot of variety. My companion is Elder Blair and he is awesome.

I was blessed to have the chance to speak about Easter in Sacrament meeting on Sunday. In a buddhist focused country there is not much celebrating going on in Vietnam. The prophet Nephi taught of a Spiritual death (sin) and a Physical death. Both are unavoidable for every living person on earth. And the only way to overcome either of those deaths, and even both of them, is through the efforts, love, dedication, obedience, teachings, and power of Jesus Christ. Every struggle we are currently facing, He felt it. But the difference is, He overcame it already, and we haven't yet. So if we want to get over these sins and trials and even death, there is someone who's already done it. Someone who has the power to help you do it to. And someone with enough love that He wants to help us.

2 Nephi 25:13

13 Behold, they will crucify him; and after he is laid in a sepulchre for the space of three days he shall rise from the dead, with healing in his wings; and all those who shall believe on his name shall be saved in the kingdom of God. Wherefore, my soul delighteth to prophesy concerning him, for I have seen his day, and my heart doth magnify his holy name.

Happy Easter!

-Elder H. McConkie

Ba Ðình area in Hanoi, Vietnam

Hello everyone!

Life in Vietnam as a full time servant of the Lord continues to be one of the greatest ways of life ever discovered. I'm still in the Ba Ðình area in Hanoi. 2 weeks ago I got a new companion named Elder Moore, he's great!

Things fell into place quickly and we hit the ground running. I love serving the Lord with him!

My time with Elder Vuong came to and end. We were companions for around 8 months (6 transfers) which is 1/3 of my mission with one companion. He feels like a brother. We saw so many amazing things happen together. I'll send a picture of when we had the chance to fly on a small plane to southwest Vietnam to a place where no missionaries are allowed to live. We baptized 3 friends there that we had been teaching online. Those saints are among the greatest I've ever met!

And we were blessed to teach so many amazing people, Chị Dung, Bà Minh, Chú Thích just to name a very small few. I'll miss playing basketball with him too. His playing style is just like Chris Paul. 

The Lord really works miracles. I recently studied the doctrine of miracles. What are they? how and why do they happen? What miracles does the Lord have a pattern of performing to accomplish His work? The best source I can find is Mormon 9 in the Book of Mormon. I put it to the test recently in my calling and truly have seen things come to pass that align with what is taught in the Book of Mormon! Here's an example:

About a week ago Elder Moore and I baptized one of our Friends that has been taught by us and Elder Vuong for a while. After that we didn't have many people to teach. We applied what Mormon taught, to pray in the name of Christ, doubting nothing, with righteous desires to glorify God and build up His kingdom. Then this week we met Cô Lộc! She was eating dinner at the table next to me and Elder Minh on an exchange. She is 70 years old and has asked if she could come everyday to learn about Jesus. She is incredibly elect and has plans to be baptized on the 31st. She asked us lately "why didn't I know about this place sooner? Why didn't anyone tell me about it until now?" She really wants to make a covenant with the Lord.

All glory to God for performing miracles in our lives! He really is the source of all that is good! The Book of Mormon teaches how each of us can see more miracles!

Love you all!

Elder McConkie