We visited the oldest university in Vietnam again, with one of our newest missionaries, who was most excited to celebrate the day--Vietnam Women's Day--by wearing her brand-new ao dai (traditional Vietnamese dress) along with her companion in this very traditional place.
I opted not to wear my ao dai, as I knew we would be walking through the streets of Hanoi.
This type of exercise equipment is all over Vietnam!
We finally made it to our destination...
This place is called the Temple of Literature and was built in 1070 A.D. It is a beautiful, old, series of 5 courtyards inside the walls:
"The Temple of Literature was initially established to honor Confucius, whose teachings heavily influenced Vietnamese governance and philosophy. In 1076, the complex became the country’s first university, known as the Quốc Tử Giám, which trained Vietnam’s royal and elite scholars for government positions. For centuries, it remained a prestigious center of learning, where students studied Confucian texts and prepared for rigorous imperial exams.
Today, the temple serves as a monument to Vietnam’s academic traditions and is one of the most well-preserved examples of traditional Vietnamese architecture. As you explore its five distinct courtyards, each representing different aspects of education and scholarship, you will gain a deeper appreciation for the country’s reverence for knowledge and intellectual pursuit."
After we left the Temple of Literature and the missionaries went home for the evening, Allen and I went on assignment with the Relief Society President to visit a sister in our branch. She lives very near a portion of Train Street, so we took advantage of a few minutes to walk up and down the decorated street, which is always exciting.
The missionaries were a bit jealous, as that had been on our list of things to do for the day, but we ran out of time. Sorry!
This is still train street, but it's a continuation of just the tracks after the commercial portion has ended.
And here is our R.S. President in front, and our sweet sister in the back near Allen.
We had to take a picture of our petite little R.S. President riding her big scooter! She doesn't look big enough for it!
And after we left the sister's home, we walked a little way through the streets to a park, where we found this statue (that I liked and wanted a picture of) and then we caught a Grab ride home. It was a great day and a great evening.
Tuesday night we had our game night, and had a really good turn-out, with some new people who had a great time. We love when we have a crowd. The whole purpose of the evening is for a chance for new friends to meet branch members and have fun together, and tonight worked well.
Wednesday was an interesting day. We ended up in the city for an errand, and ended up riding the train for a new experience. It was fun to be high above the city on the elevated train and to look down on the shops and houses--all types and sizes and ages and colors and degrees of repair and disrepair.
When we got off the train, we walked to a huge mall--the Royal City Vincom Mall. In the following pictures, what you see above the ground is above the mall, which extends back to the apartment buildings you see in the back of the pictures. We walked back to the back and took the escalator down inside the mall. It turned out to be very much like the mall near our own apartment. We are a bit jealous of the people whose apartments are directly above a big mall like that!
And then, once again in the evening, we went with our R.S. President to visit a sister and her husband in our branch who haven't been able to come to church for a while. We wanted to make sure her pregnancy was going well, and she knew we were thinking of her and love her. She's doing well.
Maybe all R.S. Presidents should travel by scooter!?
Allen was asked to help with a lesson on Thursday afternoon, which is always a wonderful thing to do. The friend was scheduled to be baptized on Sunday (stay tuned to see what happened), and after the lesson, we went for a walk toward the river, a couple of miles away.
Found a bamboo forest...
...and a real? telephone booth.
Washing dishes on the sidewalk...
Exploring...
And we found a church!
A pretty cool looking church! But the gate was locked, and we had to go home.
Saturday morning, Allen helped a family with an errand and then got to go for a walk around Hanoi. He saw some cool things...
And then Sunday, another highlight of our week! That young man who had a lesson that Allen helped with on Thursday DID get baptized! Truong is his name, and he seems to be a very intelligent, sincere and committed young man. It was exciting to be able to see and participate in his baptism.
Truong had initially asked Allen to baptize him, but Allen really wanted a new branch member to have the opportunity to baptize a new member. Truong understood and agree to have Sy Dung baptize him; Sy Dung was baptized himself this past summer and felt honored to have the opportunity to baptize Truong. It was a great program: newly baptized members (within a few months) gave the talk on baptism, gave the talk on the Holy Ghost, baptized Truong and then confirmed him. It was wonderful to see these young (and older) men being able to participate in a baptism this way.
We hope your week was wonderful! Ours was!Thank you for your love and your prayers!
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