Making the Most of It

(Outside our elevator this morning.)

 If it's not the heat, it's the humidity. If it's not one thing, it's another keeping us indoors or busy or not busy or scurrying around or wondering what to do next or...

Monday was the heat and the humidity day. The young missionaries opted for a quieter day indoors, so we offered to host a game day/cookie-making day in our apartment. They all took a long morning break, and could probably use it! This is their only day to sleep in, do laundry, call family, send emails, read emails, do big shopping trips, etc., and we usually keep them busy with sightseeing, so they need a day once in awhile to regroup. And our Vietnamese Sisters said they had never made cookies before! When I offered, they were excited to have the experience. So...

In the afternoon, they made their way over to our place (where the air conditioner STILL is not functioning well) for some competition and cookies. We started with the game Exploding Kittens, which was more cerebral than I had realized and was actually more fun than I had anticipated. And then the Sisters and I headed to the kitchen for them to learn to make chocolate chip cookies. I advised and showed how, but that was my only role. They thoroughly enjoyed the culinary experience, and Chi (Sister) Vy asked if we were going to take cookies to Zone Conference the next day. That hadn't really been part of my plan, but I thought that would be a fun way for them to show what they had done, so we limited the Elders in the number they could eat (they actually got to eat all they wanted) to make sure we'd have enough for Zone Conference the next day.

Chi Vy above and Chi Tuyet below.

She wanted to watch them cook.

Allen and his dice game...

Tuesday morning: Zone Conference. We all Grabbed together at 7:45 am to be sure to arrive to Zone Conference by 9:00 and we got there at 8:20 am.  You never know... And we saw some very "Vietnamese" things along the road that morning...

This was a man walking across the road, through all the traffic, trusting no one would hit him. No one did.

There are loads like this on motorcycles all the time; and two women in front of him and beyond him are wearing the full-length outfits; we call them ninja outfits; they're actually called "ao chong nang" meaning "long shirts to protect from the sun". You'll notice that they're all wearing jackets, and I can tell you the weather was probably already in the low-80s. They are very concerned with protecting themselves from the sun and the bad air.

I had to put this picture in; I love that his phone has its own umbrella to protect against the sun and the heat.

This is one company of taxi scooter; there are others. There are Grab scooters (we take the Grab cars), Xanh cars (this is a Xanh scooter), Be cars and scooters...

I love zone conferences. I love that I get to play the piano; I'll be sad when someone better comes along and I'm put out to pasture.

And we always get to eat lunch together. (This one was not my favorite; the hot dogs and kimchi didn't appeal to my stomach.) And the Sisters' cookies were a BIG hit!! 

Here's our District in blue this week...

And the Hanoi Zone.

And then we made it home in time for Game Night.

We're attracting a younger clientele... They sort of commandeered the table tennis.

Allen and his dice game are becoming very popular.

Wednesday was District Council meeting because it was pushed back from Tuesday. It was also exchanges for the sisters because we have the Sister Training Leaders in our District, which means one of our sisters had traded spots with a sister from Ba Dinh for a day and a night. This is what they do to make sure all the sister missionaries are well and happy and know what they're doing.

And then that night there was a branch activity to decorate 2 bulletin boards in our church building. One of these is out on the "porch" of the building and one is inside, and each one is important to make a good first impression for anyone visiting our church building for the first time. When the missionaries receive referrals from Social Media posts, the people often come to the building for a church tour, and when people come to English activities, these bulletin boards can tell them enough about the Church to pique their interest--we hope. So while it may sound like a simple activity to have, it's actually a very important one for our branch.

Thursday morning, Allen suggested that we go for a walk and I was almost ready to go when I got a phone call from a Sister missionary who had an infected finger and needed to go in to the doctor that morning. I sent Allen on his walk while I took care of getting her Guarantee of Payment from the insurance company sent to the clinic where she needed to go. These calls aren't usually so urgent, but she had reached her limit on pain and needed to go and have the finger taken care of.

On his walk, Allen found a small pagoda that he had seen street signs for in the past, but he hadn't been able to find the actual pagoda when he looked. Today, he persevered and went up and down the narrow streets until he found the right street.

Thursday evening was English activity. We're trying something new by dividing the group into a beginner group and a more advance group. I've been able to go with the more advanced group this week, while Allen has stayed to help with the beginners. The topic has been MUSIC, and so for our song at the beginning, we have sung Do-Re-Mi.  It's very interesting to sing this very famous song, because it isn't famous in Vietnam, but the words "Do Re Mi Fa So La Ti Do" ARE very famous. They are part of a musical technique called "solfege" that uses those tones to teach music. So while the Vietnamese don't know that song, they certainly do know the scale using those note names! And now I've learned something, too!

Friday began eventfully, as the same Sister missionary who had the infected finger called me early to tell me she was having a strange reaction to the medication from the day before. I had her call the clinic, she ended up going in, and she spent the afternoon with an IV for a few hours before they finally sent her home. Never a dull moment.

Our Young Single Adult program is just getting under way; they had their first activity Friday night. A dozen people showed up, 6 of whom were missionaries. We are hoping that the word will spread that these are fun activities and that more and more people will come.

Saturday morning, we accompanied a young family while their 2-year old received his vaccinations, and Allen and I went walking and exploring afterwards. This was fun because we got to start our walk from a new place, rather than walking from home out TO this vaccination center (which we have done before). As per usual, as we walked down a street, we noticed a high wall with a dragon on top and stopped to explore...

Looking closer, we realized the entrance was around the corner on the other street, so we found our way in and discovered that this particular pagoda was in a certain stage of being refurbished. It had some interesting things to see, but we didn't stay long.

monks ride bikes

This same area had a large marketplace that we explored, too. There was lots of VERY fresh seafood.

Eels...

Fish (being scaled in the back)...

Snails of all sizes...

Prawns? Non-shrimpy shrimp?

                                                                                                     And squid.

It was also a day to notice old buildings...

Saturday afternoon we made it back to the church in time for Allen's meeting at 2 pm and my music time beginning at 2 pm. Amazingly, the only adult I had today was Hoa! Her son actually sat down for a 15 minute lesson. Khang is 7 years old and back in the U.S. he might be labeled as ADHD; he's probably just a little hyperactive. And then a 4-year old came in with the attention span of a gnat. I've declined to teach her, but her aunt brought her in anyway, and I don't have any way to tell her I can't teach her, so for 5 minutes I tried to show her the keyboard and how her fingers are numbered 1-5. 

For English, I went again with the advanced English group with the Sisters, and they leaned over to me and asked if I could lead it because they hadn't done any preparing. So we had an impromptu lesson on choir vocabulary: staff, soprano, alto, tenor, bass, A Cappella, melody, harmony, etc. It worked!

And Allen and I made it home early enough (after a missionary correlation meeting from 6-7:30 pm) to get some food to take home and watch a movie! Yay!

That took us to Fast Sunday today. August is Allen's month to conduct and I think he's getting used to it. We had around 30 people in our meeting today, which seemed to be a good turnout. Sunday School was right after Sacrament Meeting. Branch Council meeting was right after church. Allen needed to count tithing after that, and we made it back to the apartment with just enough time for him to grab the computer and get back to the church to teach the self-reliance class from 2-4 pm. From 7-8 pm we had a Why I Believe devotional, which is a mission-wide testimony meeting of sorts, but it includes hearing only from recently baptized members, and by invitation only--about one from each branch. 

And now Allen has gone to bed and as soon as I finish this I can go to bed! So guess what?! I'm finished! 

May you all have a wonderful week! We're looking forward(?) to 99 degrees tomorrow with 80% humidity; it's a stay inside kind of day. Next week's blog may be boring on Monday, but stay tuned for the rest of the week! We have a surprise visitor!

Until next week...  Tam Biet!