We had an interesting week that began last Sunday evening. Young adults from Vietnam are often called on missions to different places--the U.K., Australia, California, and even more far-flung areas, as well as to Vietnam. One young woman in our branch will leave soon for the U.K. and her parents, not members of the Church, are not happy about it. Her mom in particular is worried about her safety. We were asked by our Branch President to go on a visit with him to explain to the parents what her daughter would be doing as she served a mission. He was the perfect person to explain, as he had served in the U.K. himself. It was interesting, and we had lots of things to reassure her about, having had so many of our own kids leave on missions. We had a good visit and even though they're not thrilled with her going, they feel more comfortable and assured that she'll be safe, though far away.
On Monday we had a repeat destination for p-day, to Soc Son Temple about an hour's drive north of Hanoi.
We had visited this place of the "1000 steps hike" before, to where Thanh Giong's statue waits at the top of the stairs.
We decided it would be worth going again because there was a spring festival that lasted 3 days, and Monday was one of those days. We talked our young missionaries into going with us (it didn't take much talking!) and loaded into the Grab car. We arrived around 11 am, and where there had been deserted streets the first time, there were now CROWDS of people, booths, food, and decorations to celebrate.
Elder Felt was such a good sport! He couldn't go 5 steps without being accosted by people at least a foot shorter who wanted to have their picture taken with him. We decided to keep a tally of how often he had to stop for a picture, but we stopped counting at 60. Literally.
It got to be very wearing...
But some of them he didn't mind as much. :)
It was much more crowded everywhere--on the stairs, at the top, at the bottom. And I swear the steps got steeper than the last time I was there.
But the view was much more clear and beautiful this time.
And the Soc Son Temple halfway up the mountain was still amazing!
I even had a share of the picture taking!
This was part of the offering to ancestors--fake money.
The bundles of colored sticks are actually sticks of incense for the shrines.
Everyone's legs were a bit sore for the next few days.
On Tuesday, we began a new activity for the branch members and the investigators to get to know each other: Game Night. It got a li-tt-le bit competitive!
And of course, we got in our usual amount of walking: we average about 4 miles a day when we have time to walk.
We're famous...somewhere! We got asked to pose with this business's tiny spectacle of a parade. It was only afterwards that we were afraid we may have been part of a beer commercial. We weren't. (Whew!)
A fun part of our week was Zone Conference! It's always fun to get together with all the missionaries and see the fun relationships they have with each other, and with us. We love to work with them.
We had our usual meetings and activities this week, as they all started up again after a brief respite due to Tet. English activity is Thursday night; Friday night we had to prepare to teach Family Home Evening. We had a lesson on listening to the Spirit, and what we need to do to feel the Spirit. The lesson included the story of the Liahona, which is seriously cool. And then Saturday we had Music and English and... wait for it... a Baptism! The first in over 6 months!
It was really interesting to see how baptisms are prepared for and happen in the branches. The portable font was brought into the first floor of the church building, and it took about 4 hours to fill with all the hot water they could get from the heaters, which wasn't enough to keep it warm.
There was a lovely crowd of branch members in attendance, and the Spirit was there, and Hoang was so happy to be baptized. He told us he had felt a change in his life ever since he began to hear about the gospel, and felt more happiness and peace when he came to church. The Vietnamese people are so sweet and so sincere, and it is a privilege to be involved with teaching and fellowshipping them.
And here is our joy, and here we will leave you for another week!
Be safe and happy and healthy!
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