It was 1974, and a lanky young Mormon missionary from Salt Lake City was sent into the heart of what had been America’s biggest nightmare: Vietnam.
For decades, an unpopular war in Southeast Asia had taken the lives of
tens of thousands of U.S. soldiers and hundreds of thousands of
Vietnamese, while protests against continued U.S. involvement raged on
college campuses and city streets.
By the time 19-year-old Lewis Hassell arrived in Saigon, the war was
winding down. The U.S. military had withdrawn, leaving behind mostly
American expatriates and contractors. Still, he recalls hearing — and
feeling — pops of artillery nearby.
Hassell, who at 6-foot-5 towered over the locals, was called to serve
in a tiny Vietnamese district of the LDS Church’s Hong Kong Mission.
With his missionary partner, or companion, he spent his first two months
being schooled in the language by a non-Mormon tutor, then walking the
streets to seek converts.
More @ Salt Lake Tribune
Thank you, Brock, for sharing this.
ReplyDeleteI have been permanently barred from posting comments at "THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE" newspaper's web site.
But, here is the comment I posted at my FACEBOOK page and at the YAHOO! web site to counter all of the many hateful anti-Mormon, anti-American, and anti-Vietnamese comments that were posted in response.
________________________________________
"I am a convert in The Church of JESUS CHRIST of Latter-day Saints (i.e., the 'Mormon' church), having been baptized in 1967 when I was twenty-one years old, and I served two years in the old Republic of Viet Nam as a soldier in the United States Army.
I invite you to visit the web site of the Ken Burns documentary of 'THE VIETNAM WAR', where you can view my own personal photographs and read my accompanying stories by clicking on this URL:
http://www.pbs.org/kenburns/the-vietnam-war/vietnam-stories/
and then in the 'LOCATION' menu, select, 'UTAH'.
I also invite you to read the story, 'OUT OF THE TIGER'S DEN', published in the June 1989 issue of 'ENSIGN' magazine, a publication of The Church of JESUS CHRIST of Latter-day Saints, available at this URL:
https://www.lds.org/ensign/1989/06/out-of-the-tigers-den?lang=eng
which tells of the ordeal of Viet Nam's first LDS Relief Society president, Cong Ton Nu Tuong-Vy.
After Saigon fell, I joined with a small band of fellow Mormon Viet Nam veterans to (sometimes clandestinely) assist Vietnamese Latter-day Saints who were stranded when the Communist regime took over.
Over the passing years, our efforts were successful, and today, The Church of JESUS CHRIST of Latter-day Saints is now officially recognized and accepted by the Communist government of the Socialist Republic of Viet Nam."
Thank you and why were you banned, pray tell?
DeleteThey consider my comments to be hateful, racist, sexist, homophobic, and threatening to homosexuals.
DeleteJust a good old American boy from the fifties! :)
Delete