Deseret News | First missionary couple to Vietnam recall hardships, successes

Reader comments
First missionary couple to Vietnam recall hardships, successes

Lei Chung Tran | 7:23 a.m. July 22, 2009

I became a convert to the church in 1994 having met Stanley and Mavis. They were very convinving in their testimony of their faith. I have visited them in Utah and they have a lovely yard too

rampeer | 7:25 a.m. July 22, 2009

Is there a part-two to this?

Tran Po Kung | 8:34 a.m. July 22, 2009

They do have a lovely yard. I particularly like their Rhodedendrums and I look forward to their next annual garden party for SLC Vietnamese members so I can see what changes they have made to their foliage during the past year

Comments continue below

Vietnam Missionaries | 8:45 a.m. July 22, 2009

In the summer of 1969 while Armstrong was walking on the moon, I like many others were in Vietnam. One night we were guarding airplanes near the Thai-Laos border when we were told some Civilians were coming through our area to go into Laos. I heard later they were Catholic missionaries(several nuns)were needed at a orphanige. Years later I read they were killed by the Viet Cong.

Diligent Dave | 8:53 a.m. July 22, 2009

Too bad the Steadmans were allowed to put together a musical, like 'South Pacific'. Mavis Steadman was a drama teacher. I knew her at Kearns High School back in the early 1970's.

Stuff with VietNam is no small thing. I was looking at nations by size of population the other day, and Viet Nam is the 13th largest country in the world according to size of population. It is larger than Germany, the United Kingdom (Great Britain), France, Argentina, South Korea, Turkey, Italy, and many other nations! It has over 88,000,000 people!

Diligent Dave | 8:54 a.m. July 22, 2009

I meant, too bad they were NOT allowed to put together a musical. Mavis always did a great job on musicals!

Church in Vietnam | 9:55 a.m. July 22, 2009

There are two government registered branches in Vietnam; one in Hanoi, the other in HCMC. The branches are bi-lingual with both foreigners and locals contributing. Vietnam is a part of the Phnom Penh, Cambodia mission and has very limited proselytizing. However, all are welcome to visit services on Sunday and referrals are greatly appreciated. Baptisms are a common occurrence and there have been several missionaries called from Vietnam. If you have family or friends in Vietnam that might be interested in the Gospel, please contact the Cambodian mission for more information. If you are planning a trip to Vietnam, take time to visit our growing branches, you won't regret it.

Many thanks for the hard work and prayers from all around the world that have helped the Gospel take root and grow in Vietnam.

RE: Vietnam Missionaries | 9:59 a.m. July 22, 2009

The Catholic Church has a strong history of missionaries that will go into harms way.
(James 1:27,NIV) Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world. sounds like a nun,and I am Lutheran.

RE: Church in Vietnam | 2:00 p.m. July 22, 2009

What about the status in Thailand,last I heard,Mormonism and Scientology were banned, both were on cult awareness list.

Thailand? | 2:23 p.m. July 22, 2009

My nephew just finished a mission there. So it definately not banned.

veedub | 2:33 p.m. July 22, 2009

While missionary couples may not have been sent to Vietnam until 1993, missionary elders were sent to (then-South) Vietnam to teach from about 1972 to 1975, when the US withdrew from Vietnam. Vietnam was part of the Hong Kong mission, where I was serving, and I knew several of the missionaries who were called to go there. They weren't allowed to proselyte, but could teach when people showed an interest. Many servicemen referred locals to the missionaries and many of these local converts escaped to the US as refugees. I met several of them after I returned from my mission.

My wife | 4:15 p.m. July 22, 2009

is Vietnamese Mormon.

Add your comment

Comments are monitored. Any comments found to be abusive, offensive, off-topic, misrepresentative, more than 200 words or containing URLs will not be posted.

Words Remaining

E-mail address: For internal use only. We may want to contact you to publish your comment (not your e-mail address) in the newspaper or for a separate story idea.