Miles and Miles and Miles...

 This week was transfers. We lost two of our district missionaries and gained three new ones, which meant that on p-day, our Adventure Day, we were less adventurous. Allen and I had been looking for a couple of folding chairs to buy for our apartment so that when we had the 4 young missionaries in our district (5 young missionaries now) come over for lunches and for planning meetings, all 6 of us would have a chair to sit on. We hadn't found any on our previous walks, so we took a Grab, found a store, ordered 2 chairs, and made it back home in time for a final buffet lunch with our 4 young missionaries. We splurged and each person paid $8 for an array of Vietnamese dishes cooked over the charcoal grill at our table.

Yep, octopus and squid, as well as catfish, beef, and pork.

They cooked it and cut it for us until we figured out how to do it, and then we burned it ourselves. Well, only a little bit. 

Allen enjoyed the squid.

The squid was much better than I was afraid it would be. 

We will miss our previous district missionaries, as always after a transfer, but we are excited to work with our new zone leader/district leader who has been in the south, and another new Elder, and another Sister who was in the south. We now have 2 new (green) Elders, our zone leader is from Utah but has Vietnamese parents, and our 2 Sisters are natives. (We're secretly hoping that this means more English will be spoken in District planning meetings!!)

Miles and miles... We walked 7 on Tuesday...

In all of our travels, we've noticed that almost every business has a small family altar somewhere, and there are many stores where we can buy our own, if we ever decide to redecorate. :) :) 

(For Sale)

They sell the most BEAUTIFUL orchids here! 

We saw more interesting examples of Vietnamese homes: narrow and tall, with shops on the bottom floor...

Each of the houses has a different shop below, and yet each shop is a duplicate or triplicate of the other ones you'll find on each block, or each street, or each area of Hanoi...

 

Some areas are very old looking, while others are newer; some are cleaner, and some not so much.

And EVERYWHERE the bakeries seem to know how to make beautiful cakes!

Rush hour is a very loud, colorful, crowded, busy time of day! It's so interesting, and yet so tricky to walk on the sidewalks! The scooters know that they're not restricted to the already-packed roads, so the sidewalks become their domain...

The sea of scooters is just crazy...

The streets are where the people lay out their food to buy...

Or not to buy...

On Thursday, we were able to do some service for our branch president, who then told us about a street in the Old Quarter of Hanoi that specializes in selling whatever the current holiday demands, so we went to see Christmas Street! It was amazing--we could have found anything we wanted for Christmas, and it was very fun to look around. There wasn't anything religious about Christmas on that street, but plenty of what the Vietnamese associate with Christmas. 

It was colorful and fun, and we found our apartment decorations there...

A bit sparse, perhaps, but fun just the same.

It's hard to believe that it's already December! We'll soon have been in Hanoi for 3 months. The weather has turned a bit cold with temperatures in the 60s some days, and with little to no sun shining; today was 66 degrees, but Tuesday we'll be back at 79. The pollution and the clouds vie for dominance some days, and the natives wear their coats no matter what. When we get home in a year and a half, we'll probably do the same. 

Our branch today had quite a few visitors; the Sister missionaries had a man come for a tour who stayed for our meetings; and 2 others came who come to our English activities. I teach a basic music/conducting class on Saturday afternoons and the 2 other men who came to church also come to that class. We are hopeful that the Christmas season will have more branch members coming to church and to activities, as well as friends who feel a special spirit at Christmastime. We're so impressed with the young missionaries we serve with and how hard they work to teach people and bring them to Christ.

We are grateful to serve a mission, and grateful to remember that Jesus Christ loves ALL of us everywhere and wants the Vietnamese people to learn of Him and know how much He loves them. It is our privilege to be involved in that effort.

Thank you for your love and your prayers!!