Rangely residents called to LDS mission in Vietnam

RANGELY — Mark and Pam Berrett of Rangely have accepted a mission call for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and will serve in the Cambodia-Phnom Penh area mission.
They will be spending the next 18 months stationed in Hanoi, Vietnam, providing humanitarian services to the entire population as well as the handful of Saints in the area; there are about 40 members out of a population of around six million in the city of Hanoi.
Although Vietnam is now fairly stable and inroads of free market capitalism have been made, the country is still under communist control, so open proselytizing and public religious acknowledgements are strictly prohibited, such as the display of the customary missionary name tags and calling each other “Brother” or “Sister” is not allowed.
Members are allowed to hold meetings, make religious observances and teach about the church in their private homes and the church is being allowed to provide health, financial and personal counseling in non-religious settings.
The Berrett’s are recently retired, Mark from Chevron and Pam from the Rangely District Hospital.
They are already gearing up for the adventure learning the basics of the culture and language, getting their local affairs in order and preparing to enter the Mission Training Center on Feb. 2 for two weeks of further training.
They will not have to go through the rigorous language training that regular Elders and Sisters usually do. The Berrett’s will be speaking Sunday, Jan. 25 in the Rangely Second Ward at 11 a.m. All friends and interested persons in the community are invited to attend.