Duc knows it. And I know it.

8/24/09 Email Message

Family,

So this was a great week. Our companion exchange this weekend was fantastic. I worked with Allred choro. He was my senpai in the MTC and he was actually my Zone Leader there too. I remember when I first arrived at the MTC he was the first senpai I met. He had been there 6 weeks, but from my perspective he might as well have been there 6 months. I looked up to him during our entire stay in the MTC - and last weekend I finally got to work with him in the field. And it was a blast. We found a lot of interested people and had a great time talking with them. It was fun.


And then on Sunday Duc got baptized. And it was a great. His story is awesome, so I want to share that with you. Duc is Vietnamese but he is going to graduate school in Japan to get his PHD in Mechanical Engineering. He began meeting with missionaries about three months ago. He came to church a few times and heard a few lessons. But at that time he just could not believe in the Restoration. He said he could not believe that Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ would appear to a 14 year farm boy just to answer one prayer. He also could not believe that the Book of Mormon was true because of "inconcistencies" between its teachings and the Bible's. So after about a month he stopped meeting with the missionaries.

Fast forward to about three weeks ago. In the middle of the day, we got a call from Duc. The first thing he says is "I have had a significant spiritual experience and I would like to be baptized. When can we do it?" We were shocked. We didnt really know what to say at the time, but we set up an appointment to meet and talk about it. We met the next day and he told us what had happened.

For about 6 months he had been working for his cousin, delivering CDs that his cousin had sold over the internet. What Duc didnt know is those CDs were illegal pirated copies. About a week after he stopped meeting with the missionaries, the police came to his home, arrested him, and took him to jail. He was in jail for over three weeks. He cannot speak Japanese so he had no way to help himself get out of his situation. All he could think to do was to pray like the missionaries had taught him. And as he did so, he felt like he also needed to read the scriptures. He called a friend and had him bring him a Bible and a Book of Mormon. And over the next three weeks in jail, he read the entire Bible and the entire Book of Mormon. By the time he had finished he had received an answer from God that everything the missionaries taught him was true.

Through careful study and prayer he received a testimony that the Bible as well as the Book of Mormon was the word of God. He realized that there are no "inconsistencies" between the two, but in fact they actually support and complement each other perfectly. He gained the knowledge that Jesus Christ is his Savior. He also received a burning testimony that Joseph Smith was indeed a prophet of God who actually met Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. At that point, Duc told Heavenly Father that he would serve Him the rest of his life and would follow the Savior and be baptized no matter what happened to him. As soon as the police figured everything out and released him, he called us on the phone. And on Sunday he followed through on his promise to God and entered His church through the waters of baptism. It was such a spiritual experience to witness all of it.


When he got up and bore his testimony at the end of the meeting it was just amazing. He stood up and said very simply what his heart knew to be true. God is our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ is our Savior and Redeemer. The Bible and the Book of Mormon both contain the living word of God. Christs church has been restored in our day through a prophet of God, and we can all be happy forever by living the gospel that has been restored. Duc knows it. And I know it. From the bottom of my heart.

Much Love,
Elder Brendan Kingsford




Duc, me, my companion, Takami choro, and the Hansens (the office couple, who also helped us teach a lot)