What Do You Mean, It's the End of June?

 That is the focus of my thoughts today. I may not be able to write a blog, as my thoughts keep jumping to the fact that my calendar is about to flip the page. Wow. Decorations for Tet--the New Year--are still up in many places in Hanoi, and I occasionally see Christmas decorations, although that is becoming more rare.  But for so long, we've imagined what the summer was going to be like, and now it's summer. We've always heard that June has the worst heat, but the people who have told us that must be wrong. And we've heard how rainy it's going to be, but it hasn't happened yet. I think I'd better knock on wood because I've probably cursed us now!

Our balcony view has been looking pretty good lately. Some days we can see off to the mountains; some days the air quality keeps us from seeing too far; some days the clouds threaten rain.

Our week began with another trip to the dentist to carry on the joy of dental work. Another hour was spent in preparations for a new crown to add to my collection, but first things first on a p-day! It's a day missionaries get to connect with family, so we connected with Allen's family. They zoom together every 4th Sunday, which is our Monday morning, and is a fun chance to catch up on the latest family gossip. Funny how the old joke of old people sitting around and comparing their aches and pains and surgeries is no longer a joke but a reality. Yikes. And the dentist was after that! We had to put off socializing with the young missionaries until later, but we bore it gracefully, as they had chosen to make bracelets and candles, and we weren't in a hurry to get there. (Sorry, guys.)

We ended p-day as we always do, with dinner! This was a delicious Japanese one.

Tuesday was game night, and a reminder that we're missing the world of movies! The favored game in this group is Werewolves. Yep.

We took the chance on Wednesday to go walking after one rainstorm and before another one came. It kept it cooler, but muggy. And we were reminded that any street, no matter the size, can hide a pagoda.

We ended up walking the 4 miles to Hoan Kiem Lake, which is always pretty. This was the Turtle Castle on the little island.

The days have been getting busier with missionary activities and lessons we share in. We enjoyed Book of Mormon class on Friday evening which the Sisters taught. When they teach, they sometimes forget to translate and we figure things out by the scripture references written on the board. We began the evening with only one member, baptized a month ago, and by the end we had 2 new members and one investigator. We're looking forward to the day when the members will outnumber the missionaries, but everyone is so busy with work and life, and when there is any rain in the forecast, our numbers drop way down--it's hard to ride your scooter in the rain! 

Saturday was another busy day. In the morning, Allen went around behind our building and saw a shop opening. The owners often go all out to welcome people into their business and try to get them interested. 

My music class on Saturday afternoon is popular, but very unstructured, which makes it hard to teach. Each of the 4 adults and one child who came today (at various times, and with only 4 keyboards) were at totally different places in their knowledge, and only one has been coming regularly. I need to figure out how to meet everyone's needs and expectations without going crazy and I just don't think it's possible. Fortunately for me, these people in my class don't have a lot of expectations, so whatever we accomplish makes them happy. I think.

After music came English activity, and a few new people. The topic was The Weather, and Allen and I always try to think of a song to sing; it's a fun addition. Today (and Thursday) we sang "It's Raining, It's Pouring, the Old Man is Snoring...", so you can see how classy our songs are.

And after English, we had the joy of another baptism. It's been a little while since the last one. Our Elder's Quorum President is anxious to have native members take over in every aspect of branch activities, so he himself played the piano, which meant only the chorister was a missionary. Wonderful. 

This is Le Xuan Hung, the newest member of the Hai Ba Trung Branch. He was so very happy.

I always like a reason to make my brownies. They are waaaaay sweeter than anything you'll find in Vietnam, and they get eaten pretty quickly. The other food is sticky rice with sausage--I don't remember the name.

We are mugging for the camera, not making a statement on the food, which was quite tasty.

Our week ended--and almost our month--with a dinner with our district missionaries. This was transfers, and on Tuesday we lost 2 missionaries, Elder Hoang and Sister Ngo. We always have a Last Supper to tell them goodbye.

Our missionaries work so hard and are adopted into our family for 6 weeks and usually longer. It's hard to see them go! But the adventure continues, and we got two new "family members" on Tuesday night and the next 6 week cycle began.

Happy End of June!