A Day in the Life...

 

In response to a question from his brother, Allen wrote this:

Brent asked about our typical day, and as I said we haven’t had typical days lately with the conference and visits going on. But we will get back to more typical days after this week. Up at 7:00, breakfast (usually expensive granola because it is a specialty thing here) and exercises. Scripture study and preparation for FHE, talks, etc. Sometimes Barb works on missionary health stuff. We study Vietnamese with the time that is left, which can be a few minutes or three hours. We have some language books, listen to YouTube videos about tones, pronunciation, or vocabulary. Barb does Duolingo. I have started trying to read the Book of Mormon, looking up all of the words I don’t know. We write down sentences for prayers or testimonies and try to then memorize them. Lunch is usually something simple, we usually go out and get Vietnamese food for dinner. We only cook dinner if we want a break from Vietnamese. After dinner it is usually more of the same, prepping or studying. We try to get out sometime every day to go for a walk so that we don’t go stir crazy. We don’t have a regimented schedule like the young missionaries, so we go shopping when we need to. And a couple of nights ago we put everything aside and played Rummikub. P-đay is Monday.  We have district planning meeting Tuesday at noon with the four young missionaries. The two sisters are Vietnamese, so most of that meeting is in Vietnamese. Thursday evening and Saturday afternoon is English activity; most of the attendees - 20 to 30 -  are not members, and yesterday 3 of them came to church.  Friday evening is FHE. Branch Presidency meeting is Saturday afternoon. The branch President speaks English quite well, but the Ward clerk not quite as well, so that meeting is half English and half Vietnamese, which can sometimes be challenging.

But the Lord sent us here, he knows our abilities and limitations, so we just try the best we can. We are so happy to be here, and we think we are making a difference. 

Allen

And I will add to that by saying:

Allen is the one who is diligent enough to have any schedule at all. :)  I hope to be out of bed by 8 after reading the Book of Mormon, and FB, and WhatsApp, and emails, and doing stretches. We give ourselves 3 days a week to go to the apartment gym and work out. And every week we have at least 3-4 days where we've walked 2-3 miles in our meanderings, and some weeks it has been 4-5 miles 2-3 times a week. If we sit in the apartment, we feel like we're wasting time, so Allen has found us parks to go to within walking distance. The thought is that we will sit in the park, surrounded by many people who will see us studying their language and they will want to know who we are and what we're doing there. These will be our Golden Contacts! The reality is that the first park wasn't much of a park, but we sat and studied and a few people looked at us. The second park (which I will write about in another blog) was huge and virtually empty. Needless to say, we are not having much luck in parks. We even brought our frisbee so we could engage with people. FYI Vietnamese people by-and-large are not familiar with frisbees or how to use them (which means they have no interest, being afraid of them). Our p-days are when we go on adventures that are fun to write about, and where we love to learn the culture and history of Vietnam. But that is only one day a week, and the rest of the days are spent making sure we have enough food to eat and making sure we are prepared for the meetings Allen mentioned above. Life on the 31st floor is very different from any other that we've experienced, and we are enjoying it. 

(He's actually right outside our bedroom window.)

A few things Allen didn't mention is that whenever we need to travel to the church building, we have to get a Grab car (Uber). We need to plan to leave well in advance of the time the event will begin, i.e.: leave at 8:15 am for church at 9:00 am; leave at 1:10 pm for meetings at 2:00 pm; leave at 6:10 pm for English activity at 7:00 pm; and all those are held at our church building 2 miles away. We have been known to arrive 30 minutes early or 10 minutes late, depending on traffic. This really eats up our time. When we take a Grab car anywhere, we try to be bold enough to ask the driver if he speaks English. Often our answer is silence, and that IS our answer. And sometimes the driver will say something in reply and then we're in trouble! We don't understand his reply! A few times our driver has been friendly enough to speak slowly or speak into the Google Translate microphone and we can carry on a very halting conversation, but while that is fun it is also exhausting.

Allen is the organized studier; I am busy with missionary care and writing it up on the computer, so he gets more studying done while I'm busy with that. (I take care of 2-3 calls some days, or none.) I also teach a music class on Saturday afternoon for anyone who wants to know how to lead music. And of course I NEED to make cookies!! One of my main responsibilities is to support the young missionaries, and I do that by giving them a taste of home when I can. I now know how to make cake frosting without powdered sugar, how to make cookies without brown sugar, and how to find substitutes for sour cream, chicken bouillon, and sage, how to peel and eat a pomelo, and what a custard apple is. 

When we try to explain our missionary day to people, it doesn't come across as busy as it is, so you'll need to use your imaginations a bit. As Allen said, we are not like the young missionaries; our calling is to support the missionaries, members, and branch leadership. But as he also said, we do what we can and know God will make up the difference for the things we can't do. 

We are happy to be here, and we love getting to know the people. We're trying to soak up each day of memories as it happens and to not have any regrets in 15 months.