Catch Up... to Our Second Sunday

 September 29, 2024


I forgot to write about our first dinner appointment/invitation with a member family! Phuong and Tuan kindly invited us to their home on Tuesday, and we almost managed to get lost despite the Grab driver getting us to the right place (albeit the back of the building). Luckily everyone uses FB Messenger to send texts or to call and we were able to have the husband Tuan come down and find us. Phuong had fixed a wonderful traditional Vietnamese meal called Banh Xeo: a crispy stuffed rice pancake. That doesn't even describe it well, but it's delicious! 

Phuong is the Primary President and Tuan is the branch clerk, and they are wonderful, as are all the Vietnamese people.

On Friday, Allen and I were in charge of Family Home Evening for the branch. Our presentation was Families Can Be Together Forever and we had fun showing a Power Point with pictures of our own family and then each of our parents and grandparents. It went well, and afterwards the branch members presented us with a cake as a welcome to the branch!

Then we made it to Sunday!

As a counselor in the branch presidency, Allen had his first chance to teach a part of the second hour of church, since it was the 5th Sunday. His topic was Prayer, and he worked on it hard once he was given the assignment yesterday morning. He was able to enlist the aid of the young missionaries for translations and arranged for a story to be read in Vietnamese. In other words, he (and I) are learning to adapt to living in a country where we don't speak the language. Today was better than last week, so each week we'll be more and more comfortable with the meetings and the people and participating. THAT gives me hope!

It's strange to be at the mercy of the Grab cars whenever we want to get anywhere. Today our car was driving right next to the Elders as they rode their bikes to church and we were able to get some good shots of missionaries in actions, and to marvel just a tad over their survival on bikes in the midst of the scooters and cars, all which drive willy-nilly on the roads. It's amazing to have our car turn left in front of oncoming traffic (no light) and expect them to rearrange themselves to suit our purposes; likewise, when turning right in the midst of oncoming traffic. Yesterday we were in a car that came up to a completely jammed road and we proceeded to turn right and force our way into the traffic. It's like there are 3 lanes of traffic back home and 6 crazy lanes of cars and scooters and buses and trucks all fitting into those 3 lanes. And yet no one gets hit! It's a fantastic example of working together and helping each other out. It's also why it takes 40 minutes to drive 7 miles.


We are among the lucky missionaries who have a dryer as part of their washing machine. Last night I washed a load of whites and set it to also dry, and it said it would finish in 6 hours. This was the result...
Thank goodness we have a dryer!
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!

We hope you all have a wonderful day/week!!

P.S. I also miss soft toilet paper. 



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