So This is Tet!?

We now have a much better understanding of what Tet is all about. We were told to prepare early, as the stores and restaurants would be closing as early as the beginning of this week. So last week we bought extra groceries and withdrew extra cash out of the bank. We were prepared!

Our week began with p-day on Monday. The Hanoi zone was going to have a big activity day on Wednesday, which was the first day of Tet, since no one would be available for any teaching on that day. (It's kind of like Christmas in the states, but think bigger.) Since our District Leader is also one of the Zone Leaders, he needed to go to the site of Wednesday's activity and scope it out, which we did. We traveled about 9 miles and 20 minutes away to Ocean Park, a subdivision in Long Bien that has a manmade lake and beach where all the missionaries could gather and play games. Monday was our trial run with Spike Ball, a fun game which is a cross between Volleyball and... I don't know what else. The net is about 3 feet in diameter, stretched horizontally on the stand which is a foot off the ground. You play with a ball the size of a softball, but of a soft rubber, inflated to be firm. The rules are similar to volleyball, with up to 3 hits per team, and you spike it or hit it onto the net to make it bounce back to the other team, hoping that they can't hit it back to you.

It's a beautiful area, and the weather was nice.

It was VERY fun, and apparently the missionaries thought that we're old and decrepit and unable to play, because they seemed to think that me going after the ball, even diving into the sand, was amazing. I let them think that.

At one point, while the indestructible youth were playing, Allen and I got a ride about 15 minutes further down the road to a different area because Allen had discovered there was a lantern festival being held there for about a month. We wanted to check it out, and we are NOT sorry that we did!

"Lanterns" doesn't quite give the right impression of the creations that were there. The lanterns were actually structures that (we assume) are all lit up at night. We want to go back and see if we are correct, because that would be a beautiful sight to see.

The entrance.

The legend of the turtle carrying the sword to the king.

These 2 lion dragons are made entirely of small colored bottles. You need to imagine all of these things all lit up at night. We are imagining that and want to go see if it's as good as we think it must be!

The legend of Saint Giong, who saved Vietnam from her enemies.

The whole place was beautifully decorated and landscaped, and the day we were there it was very empty, as Tet was that week, and many people were already headed out to home villages. At least, that's why we think it was so empty.

When we finished at the lantern festival, we returned to our missionaries to play with them, and then we hurried back home because our Branch President had invited all of us to have dinner with his family on the day before New Year's Eve. This is the beginning of the celebrating, according to his wife. They have a big meal on that second day before Tet, and then the day before Tet they have another big meal, and then on Tet is the biggest meal. All of this signifies that you are prosperous enough to eat well before the New Year begins, and then you keep eating well, and so you will be prosperous and have plenty of food and good fortune throughout the year. At least, that's my understanding of her explanation.

They wanted us to experience some Vietnamese cuisine that we hadn't had yet, so we ate hot pot at their house. We did have something similar two months earlier when we went to the young single adult conference, but this was a bit different. There was a hot, simmering pot in the middle of the table, with chicken, tofu, vegetables, mushrooms, corn, etc., ready to be put into the pot and cooked, and then taken out and eaten.

There were also some chicken feet.

Allen said they were chewy; I agreed.

Our hosts explained that every part of the chicken is used in Vietnam, even the upper chicken beak; fortunately, they agreed that no one wanted to eat this rooster's cockscomb.

I got brave and ate balut--the duck egg with the developing duck in it. I was fortunate; the duck wasn't too far along in it's development--no feathers. It actually tasted pretty good, like a meaty egg.

We have a wonderful and generous branch president, along with his wife, and his two little girls are adorable. Allen is his first counselor and is happy to be able to help him. He is 33 years old and has been the branch president for about 6 years. The branch and district leaders in Vietnam are often young--in their 30s and 40s--and often are fairly young in the gospel, as well. One branch president was given his calling within 6 months of returning from his mission. Some have experienced rejection or hardships from family members, and all have the challenges of work and family in a difficult environment. We are constantly impressed by their faith and willingness to serve.

Tuesday was New Year's Eve, and also our District Planning meeting. Our missionaries are happy to be here in Hai Ba Trung Branch because I like to make cookies and brownies, and I like to make them happy.

When the meeting was finished, Allen and I went for another walk in the neighborhoods. Allen wanted to go visit the Quynh Loi Pagoda again. This is the pagoda we had visited in the fall where we met Thich Dao Thong, the vice president of the Buddha Sanga of Vietnam. We wanted to see the pagoda all decorated for Tet, and to our surprise, Thich Dao Thong was there again! He recognized us, the "grandparents", and personally took us on a tour of the shrine area, explaining who the people were on the pedestals. He was very kind, and he and we went back and forth quite a bit on Google Translate, trying to understand and be understood. He was very generous again and sent us off with a gift bag with Chung Cake (the traditional Tet cake), other treats, and a bag of tangerines. He also gave us envelopes with Lucky Money, which we tried to explain we weren't allowed to accept. He looked so disappointed that we would refuse the hospitality of the Vietnamese people that we took the envelopes and have determined that they will be our souvenirs of his kindness.

The Emerald goddess...

We were especially amazed at his kindness when he told us he is usually not even at this pagoda but is in the provinces, but he came home to officiate at the New Year's celebration to be held at midnight that night, when the place would be very crowded with all the people there to welcome the new year and to pray for good fortune for the coming year. He showed us videos from last year and it really was crowded! Today he had to get ready for a big celebration and he took time from his preparations to show us hospitality and kindness. Amazing.

Allen and I would have been interested in seeing the fireworks for New Year's except that they happened at midnight and we were tired. So we went to bed... until the neighborhood fireworks woke us up at 11:45 pm, and the city fireworks kept us up from 12:00 to 12:15 am.

They looked pretty darn cool from 31 stories up!

And now we made it to Tet! The first day of Tet is dedicated to family, immediate as well as distant. People spend their day visiting with all of their family; this is a very big deal in Vietnam. And before the first day, people stay up all night and sleep in all morning which means...

Empty Roads! We borrowed bikes from the Elders and got to ride down the streets with no fear of death! And we realized what a skewed perception of distances you get when a Grab ride takes you 40 minutes to go 3 miles, and we went that far on our bikes in half that time!

This is where the mission office is; it used to seem so far away...

A very cool pagoda behind us...

Ho Chi Minh's Mausoleum is in the background.

We rode down some very narrow alleys that had home entrances off of them.

It was a wonderful day. On the way home we rode with people who were headed out to temples; many women were in their ao dais on scooters. We ended our ride after 3 hours and somewhere between 20-30 miles; we couldn't tell quite how far we went. We only know it was wonderful.

In the afternoon of Tet (Wednesday afternoon), the Hanoi Zone had its activity day, and the missionaries had SO much fun! Spike Ball, badminton, and frisbee football. Here is where Allen made his mark as an amazing senior missionary: indestructible, indefatigable, brilliant in every way. He and I both paid for our youthful participation in the following days, but we'll never admit it!

It was a beautiful setting.

The second day of Tet was Thursday. The second and third days of Tet are spent traveling to friends' homes for visits. Traffic is still very light, and stores and restaurants are still closed. Nothing to do but go for another walk, and of course we found another neighborhood temple, crowded with people honoring their ancestors and praying for a prosperous new year.

This tree reminds me of the tenacity of the Vietnamese people. They overcome all obstacles and hang on for dear life.

Our Relief Society president kindly invited us to dinner that night.

Dinner was delicious, and she is very good at ensuring you don't go away hungry! The food kept coming!

AND it turns out her home is very close to part of Train Street.

There is a risk you take at Tet; many of the Grab drivers have gone to their hometowns for the holiday! We were obliged to have a new experience in Hanoi: riding the bus. It was a great alternative, because during Tet, the Grab drivers can double their fares due to a scarcity of drivers. A car ride home that night would have cost us 162,000 dong for the 4 of us; the bus cost 40,000 for us. It's really good to know that the bus is another mode of transportation available to us now that we know what we're doing.

The last big adventure of the week was on Friday, when our friend Jonathan (Giang Le) picked us up and, along with another senior missionary couple, took us an hour and a half away to the Hung King Temple. This was near his hometown and is one of the major temples near Hanoi. I don't have all of the history of the Hung King Temple, but Jonathan was explaining that the leaders of Vietnam would meet there to worship. He also said that foreigners usually don't go there, and since it was rare we might have a lot of attention shown us by kids wanting their pictures taken with us. Yep. Happened. Best part of the day, although Jonathan wouldn't say so! It was an amazing compound with stairs leading up and up on the mountain, where we passed 3 temples on the way up and one more on the way down. And the countryside was beautiful, even though the air was still not clear.

We ended our week of Tet at church with wonderful friends and missionaries. It was the last real day of Tet celebration, so a lot of the sisters (and missionaries) wore their dressy ao dais. We have some very special friends here and are grateful to be able to serve alongside them.