Making Christmas Joy
Our second Christmas in Vietnam was somehow more poignant than the first for me: we not only had the feeling of missing family for the second Christmas in a row, but also the realization that we wouldn't have our Vietnamese friends to celebrate with for the next Christmas. At least, that's how my mind played out the scenario. I find myself tipping between one and the other of those emotions, and it's a bit unsettling. Time is hurrying past now that we can count "months left" on one hand, and I'm not sure how I'm going to transition into life as "not a missionary". But that will be a topic for another day.
We began our week on a quest to find outstanding Christmas decorations, which we heard were to be found in the up-scale part of Hanoi called Ocean Park 2, of which we have written before. We fully believed that a place as nice as that could very well have primo Christmas decorations, so our district all traveled by (free) bus to see.
One problem we have whenever we travel together is that there are now 8 missionaries instead of 6, and the Grab taxis only carry 6--a major bummer. There were also some extra friends who joined us this day, so the bus was definitely the best choice for us all.
We landed at the mall first, to find lunch. Most businesses decorate for Christmas, not with any sentimental attachment, but only for the increase in profits they hope that brings.
Some of them really do have some great decorations.
Then we went out into the unique environment that is Ocean Park 2.
(By the way, did you notice the special, fancy Christmas decorations? Neither did we. A few perhaps, but not what we were expecting)
This is inside our apartment lobby and the picture before it is the outer doors of our apartment building.
Tuesday turned into a busy day for us. It was District Council Meeting, and the next day, Christmas, was to be our Hanoi Zone Missionary Christmas Party, which our district had the honor of planning. One of the big ticket items for the party was a Sugar Cookie Decorating Contest, which meant that our district needed to make sugar cookies, and lots of them. I had made cookie dough Monday night and put it in the fridge overnight, so after our council meeting on Tuesday, the 3 companionships took turns cutting out cookies and baking them. It was a bit tricky, as the dough was extra sticky for some reason, but they managed to cut out 105 Christmas cookies!
The fun still wasn't over for the night--Tuesday night is game night, and we had a big crowd come!
The next challenge, on Wednesday--Christmas Eve-- was how to celebrate with 7 kids here in Vietnam, representing our 7 kids back in the U.S. Our Hai Ba Trung District has 6 young missionaries now, and we had a visiting young adult from Ho Chi Minh City who heard that we were having a party and he asked if he could come. Since we needed 7, we let him be one of the gang.
We found some baking pans large enough for oven-fried chicken, and yet small enough to fit into our "E-Z Bake Oven", so we were able to plan for fried chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy, corn, rolls, and watermelon, with apple cake and whipped cream for dessert. Yep. Real food for a real holiday.
We bought each missionary a can of Pringles potato chips, a small roll of Oreo cookies, a Vietnamese game called Da Cau. (Think of a shuttlecock, made with a metal head but with feathers, that you kick with your feet like a hacky sack, and you'll have a good idea of the game.) And a final gift: a small clay pagoda for the Elders and a small stuffed moose for the Sisters.
A good time was had by all!!
CHRISTMAS DAY!!
Today was the big day...Zone Christmas Party!
Hamburger and fries for lunch, along with a hot chocolate bomb for the hot milk.
Sugar Cookie Decorating Contest.
Gift Exchange--no stealing, just exchanging. :)
Devotional: watching the Church Nativity film and listening to our Mission Leaders.
It was a wonderful day.
This is a scene from a Celtics basketball game. The players have numbers on their vests.
These cookies are awesomely decorated!
Here is the Nativity. Beautifully done.
Here we have an amazing baby Yoda, and Santa, and a tree on the bottom and a Wise Man on the top.
Everyone really enjoyed the cookie decorating!!
Gift Exchange!!
Special musical number from Ba Dinh District.
All the Senior Missionaries with President and Sister Howell, minus Sister Harris and Elder Hanley.
Our Grandsons, the A.P.s
And our Hai Ba Trung District.
Friday at 1:30 pm I was told that my crown didn't just come off, but the tooth had broken off below the gum line. This meant that the tooth would need to be extracted, which would be done Saturday morning.
Friday after the dental appointment, Allen and I had some spare time so we walked 3/4 of the way around West Lake to see some things we hadn't seen before. We found some very beautiful pagodas and some other things worth looking at, which means this blog is getting even longer...
(We're not sure we'd eat any fish that came out of any lake in Hanoi.)
But it sure is beautiful.
This coffee shop is called the City Cave (Hang) and is made to look just like a big cave. I had to have a picture.
I love that this exercise equipment can be found in almost any little park throughout the city. If you see a little park, you might think it will be a playground for kids but you will usually find that it's this exercise equipment.
I had to get a picture of this tree with the low-hanging branch. Some kind person attached Styrofoam to it so you wouldn't bonk your head too hard.
Here is the first of 3 different pagodas we found.
All pagodas seem to grow trees with pomelos.
These are 2 little unicorns, apparently.
This is the next pagoda. We had to go around the corner to find the entrance. The complex was HUGE.
A beautiful mosaic dragon...
This is the third one we found, and we couldn't find the entrance...
...until we went clear around the street to the other side.
This place was so beautiful. It was definitely worth persevering to find the entrance.
After we left the last pagoda and walked to the nearby mall, we passed these 2 dragons at the edge of the lake. We love dragons; we've come to the right country!
Saturday was the day for my tooth extraction. Enough said. Ouch.
I was still able to have my piano class and was quite happy that only 2 students came. Less talking was very helpful this day.
English was also a very small gathering, and Allen and I made it home early, where I made (soft) pancakes for dinner and we watched a movie.
I also discovered that there was no Relief Society teacher for the next day, and no Relief Society president. Khong Sao. No worries. Allen was teaching Elder's Quorum and now I was teaching R.S.
Sunday is always a good day, if very busy. Today was no exception, and the busy-ness was really good: we had a baptism right after church!
A young man named Huy was baptized, and he was so very happy about it. He bore a sweet testimony about how this decision has changed his life, and about how the missionaries have taught him how to love himself and to love others. He is a very sweet young man, and that made the day very special.
Another thing that was very special about the baptism today was that Huy was baptized by Hoang, who was the first young man baptized in Hai Ba Trung Branch after we arrived on our mission--the first baptism in 2025.
If you've made it all the way through this blog, congratulations on your stamina!!
I barely made it myself!
You may not believe me, but we are NOT tourists in Vietnam. We do, however, take advantage of the spare time we have in our days and we truly appreciate seeing the Vietnamese culture that is all around us. And as I said earlier--waaaaay back at the beginning--we are beginning to realize that our time is quickly coming to an end, so we are doing all we can to see all we can in any time that we can.
Happy New Year!!
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