The Book of Mormon Vietnamese · 2017-02-26 · The Book of Mormon – Vietnamese Sách Mặc Môn In 1967, in the midst of the Vietnam War, Gordon B. Hinckley made the journey to

The Book of Mormon – Vietnamese

Sach Măc Môn

In 1967, in the midst of the Vietnam War, Gordon B. Hinckley made

the journey to visit and uplift the saints and the LDS servicemen in Viet Nam.

There he met with the Sai Gon Branch President, President Nguyen Cao Minh.

Of this meeting, Elder Hinckley said,

“We stood under the porch of the building while he pleaded that he

be given opportunity to translate the Book of Mormon into his

native tongue. . . . He [said] that the gospel must someday come to

his people and that they will need the testimony of the Book of

Mormon. . . . He had read the Book of Mormon. He had felt of its

spirit, and he knew that others would be similarly touched as they

read it in their own tongue.”2

The early Vietnamese members understood the essential converting

power of the Book of Mormon. And as the Lord has always done, He prepared a translator of the Book of Mormon into

Vietnamese. That person was Công Tôn Nư Tường-Vy.

Sister Công Tôn Nư Tường-Vy was born into the royal Vietnamese family in the ancient capital of Hue in 1923. At

the age of 20 she graduated from school, married a few months later, and had four

daughters and two sons. In 1950 her family moved south to Sai Gon, and after her

divorce she began teaching high school and later managed a travel agency called SVP (S’il

Vous Plait). In 1967 her life would change. Sister Vy wrote,

“In 1967 . . . Robert J. Lewis, a member of the Church, came to my office. . . . He

wanted the pamphlet The Testimony of Joseph Smith translated into Vietnamese . . . I

was not very good at speaking English and worried about how I would translate it. I

took the pamphlet home and stayed up all night reading it. As I read, something

strange happened to me. . . . I did not know it at the time, but I was translating by the

Spirit.3

Sister Vy then gave her translation to Robert Lewis, and offered to give him a refund if he,

and the Vietnamese Saints, didn’t like it. However, it was so good that she was given

many more pamphlets to translate. As she continued to translate pamphlets for the

church she said,

The 1982 edition of the Vietnamese Book of Mormon

Sister Vy at church in Viet Nam

“I began to love the Church and the doctrines and

teachings of the gospel. I asked Brother Lewis to send

me some missionaries. He sent two American

servicemen. They taught me for three months, and I

was baptized [on August 25, 1967].”4

Shortly after her baptism she became the

Relief Society President of her growing branch, and

continued to be a faithful member of the church.

Because of her abilities to speak French, English, and

Vietnamese she began assisting Brother Nguyen Cao

Minh, Brother Nguyen Van The, and the missionaries in

translating church materials

As the Sai Gon Branch began to grow, the First

Presidency saw the need to begin work on the Book of

Mormon in Vietnamese, and started searching for a

well-qualified translator. Of this Brother Nguyen Van The said,

“. . . the Church had hired the brightest, most educated linguists available . . . and had them translate a few

pages of the Book of Mormon. The Translation Services Department analyzed the linguists’ work and found it

to be nearly a word-for-word translation that lacked the feeling and intent of the book.”5

Because of her experience, in December of 1969, Sister Vy was called to be the head translator of the Book of Mormon.

Nguyen Van The, wrote that, “[She] approached the task with humility and soberness.” 6

The night she was called to translate the Book of Mormon she went home worried about how she would be able

to complete the task put in front of her. At that time, Sister Vy was still the manager at SVP, and she felt that she needed a

quiet peaceful place to do the work of translation, and her 6-story home on the busiest street in Sai Gon, filled with her 6

children and many grandchildren, wasn’t the place. Sister Vy prayed to find a solution, and Heavenly Father provided a

way.

“Soon after, my son Le Viet Hung, who had just joined the military and moved to a base, came to me early one

morning. To my great surprise, he gave me a gift of 400,000 piasters that he had just won in a government

contest. When I got the money, I gathered my children and told them, “I give to you my home and all that I

own. I take only this amount from the contest. I will quit my job and buy some land in a remote area.

My children agreed—the property was worth about six million piasters—and I found a quiet place about one

acre in size fifteen kilometers from Saigon. There I built a cottage and planted a garden. I took one nanny to

cook.”7

Of this time, she said,

“I secluded myself and studied

extensively. I borrowed many books on

Jesus Christ and, because my French was

better than my English, studied a French

Book of Mormon. I read the English Book

of Mormon many times. When I came to

difficult parts, I asked one of my relatives,

a priest in the Catholic church, to help. He

understood a lot about the Bible.

When trying to translate the difficult

parts, I pondered and prayed. I would

Sister Vy translating the Book of Mormon

A translation committee meeting

often dream at night about the parts and see where I could find help in my

library. So I began to write. And as I translated, I pondered. I forgot myself. It

was almost as if someone else was helping me write. . . . It took me two years to

finish.”8

While she worked to translate, Brother Nguyen Cao Minh, Nguyen Van The, and

other branch members would help her and edit pages as she finished them and

edit the final manuscript. Even a then non-member assisted her by typing up the

transcript. Finally, in May of 1974 the Book of Mormon was complete. Afterwards,

President Bradshaw (President of the Hong Kong Mission) made fifty copies of the

manuscript and distributed them to the members and missionaries in May 1974.9

In April of the next year just weeks before the Fall of Sai Gon, and the

disintegration of the church in Vietnam, the missionaries left the country taking

the manuscript of the Book of Mormon, which was finally published in 1982.

Of the work in Vietnam, President Hinckley said,

“I seek to call your attention to that silver thread, small but radiant with hope,

shining through the dark tapestry of war—namely, the establishment of a

bridgehead, small and frail now; but which somehow, under the mysterious

ways of God, will be strengthened, and from which someday shall spring forth a great work affecting for good

the lives of large numbers of our Father's children who live in that part of the world. Of that I have a certain

faith.”10

Sharing her testimony, Sister Vy said,

“If you cannot believe that a young man like Joseph Smith, uneducated as he was, could translate the Book of

Mormon, then consider my experience. I don’t know how I was able to translate the book, but Heavenly

Father helped me. The translation is a good one—many have studied it and said so. . . . I know by personal

experience that nothing can destroy the gospel our Heavenly Father has given us.”11

1 Agar, Simon. Vietnamese (Tiêng Viêt / 㗂越). n.d. <http://www.omniglot.com/writing/vietnamese.htm>. 2 Gordon B. Hinckley, E. G. (1968). 138th Annual Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. 25-28 3 Cong Ton Nu Tuong-Vy, C. T. (June 1989). Out of the Tiger's Den. Ensign. 4 Cong Ton Nu Tuong-Vy, C. T. (June 1989). Out of the Tiger's Den. Ensign. 5 Nguyen, The Van, David Lynn. Hughes, and Virgil N. Kovalenko. When faith endures: one man's courage in the midst of war. American Fork, UT: Covenant

Communications, 2004. Print. 6 Nguyen, The Van, David Lynn. Hughes, and Virgil N. Kovalenko. When faith endures: one man's courage in the midst of war. American Fork, UT: Covenant

Communications, 2004. Print. 7 Cong Ton Nu Tuong-Vy, C. T. (June 1989). Out of the Tiger's Den. Ensign. 8 Cong Ton Nu Tuong-Vy, C. T. (June 1989). Out of the Tiger's Den. Ensign. 9 R. Lanier Britsch and Richard C. Holloman, J. (August 1980). The Church's Years in Vietnam. Ensign. 10 Gordon B. Hinckley, E. G. (1968). 138th Annual Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. 25-28 11 Cong Ton Nu Tuong-Vy, C. T. (June 1989). Out of the Tiger's Den. Ensign.

*Pictures courtesy of LDSViet.com, except “The 1982 edition of the Vietnamese Book of Mormon” courtesy of Ebay.com, and “Sister Vy in 1989 holding her Book of Mormon” courtesy of June 1989 Ensign.

I am so grateful for Sister Công Tôn Nữ Tường Vy’s and the other early Vietnamese saint’s stories of faith. I am honored that I could compile all of these stories, articles and pictures in order to share this. I am especially grateful for Công Tôn Nữ Tường Vy’s article, “Out of the Tiger’s Den”, Nguyen Van The’s “When faith endures: one man’s courage in the midst of war”, and LDSViet.com for helping me learn this story. The following are all the resources that I found relating the story of the early Vietnamese saints, whether I used them or not. If you want to learn more just look these up.

“Out of the Tiger’s Den” Cong Ton Nu Tuong Vy, Ensign June 1989

“When faith endures: one man’s courage in the midst of war” Nguyen Van The and David Lynn Hughes, 2004

“Sợi Chỉ Bạc/The Silver Thread”, Thao Tran and Jerame Larsen, Video

“Of Good Report”, Ensign Jun 1992

“The Church’s Years in Vietnam”, R. Lanier Britsch and Richard C. Holloman, Jr., Ensign August 1980

“Vietnam and the Restored Church”, William R. Heaton, Jr., Ensign June 1973 “Seasons of War”, Dennis A. Wright, BYU Devotional Speeches, March 15, 2005

Sister Vy in 1989 holding her

Book of Mormon