Let's Begin Again

 Another year has begun. People have returned to their homes--most of them. School will start again soon. And we decided to try to go to the Imperial Citadel for p-day again and see if they still had their Tet decorations up, as they said this was the final day of their celebration.

Aha! This time it wasn't closed!

The flag tower is the most easily recognized sight of the citadel.

It's a very interesting place, and has a lot of historical information. I would love to read it all some day, but usually the missionaries we bring are not that interested in reading about the history of the citadel. These Elders, in spite of their having ridden their bikes there, actually took time to read a lot of the information. The sisters did, as well.

There were some very pretty visitors from China this day.

And although the Tet Fair that Allen and I had seen when we were here before was removed, the decorations were actually prettier, with flowers and lanterns put up everywhere.

This is down inside the bunker that was used during the Vietnam war.

Pictures of cryptographers are on the walls.

It was a good p-day activity; the Elders especially liked riding their bikes to and from the citadel.

Tuesday was  a different day for us because we got to fly to Saigon for a few days. Allen is the Mission Bike Advisor, and he has the assignment of keeping track of each bike in the mission, where it is, who is using it, and what condition it's in. He had decided to put numbered decals on each bike and take pictures of each bike to help with this task and to make it easier for the future bike advisors to keep track of everything. So this was a business trip for us, and the mission agreed that it was a necessary thing. 

For the first time ever, we were upgraded to business class on an airplane!  First, we got to visit the lounge in the airport. Sadly, we didn't know they served food there (free) until after we had bought our lunch. haha

I tell you, I could get used to this!

And the hotel gave us complimentary coconut drinks...

We ended up eating breakfast with the former mission president of Vietnam and the current area authority of Asia, Elder Chiles. He's a very nice man and was on his way back home to Taiwan.

Wednesday was a busy bike-checking day. We covered a lot of territory down south and saw a lot of Ho Chi Minh City that we haven't seen before! We first stopped in the branch that is furthest out, Binh Duong, and then caught up with missionaries from a couple of branches in the center of the city. Here are some pictures of Allen in action!

Lunchtime! Thank you, Elder and Sister Brimhall! They gave us a bag of fruit for the day.

This is the chapel in Thu Duc down south. It's a very nice building.

After we finished cataloging the bikes from Wednesday's list, we turned into tourists to go see a HUGE pagoda that we had seen as we drove to one of the chapels. It was called Minh Dang Quang Buddhist Institute and it's beautiful.

Look closely at the base of this monument; it's a one-pillar pagoda, or monument, I guess.

If you think I'm putting up the same picture over and over, this shot should prove that I'm not! There were large pagoda/buildings in all the corners of the property. It was very extensive.

This is the blossoming tree for Tet; I don't remember which kind of blossom it is. This was a labor of love; the yellow blossoms have all been wrapped onto the branches of the tree. They're all plastic, and they're still beautiful. Then red envelopes are attached, and red streamers. These are all for Tet; the envelopes are the Li Xi, or Lucky Money, envelopes. The red streamers have New Year wishes printed on them.

It was just beautiful, everywhere we looked.

This says "Heaven".

Check out the scene on top of the building...

Beautiful orchids seem to be in every temple and pagoda.

This picture is fun because you can see the train in front of the tall buildings; it's a mesh of old and new, ancient and modern.

Turtle with the sword...

Unicorn, or Lion-dog...

Phoenix, or crane...

Dragon.

This is a large map of Vietnam that leads up to the colorful Buddha at the other end of the pool.

We miss seeing the beautiful sky in Hanoi. The air in Saigon was much cleaner.

Dinner that night was at the Mad Roosta. Allen's was better than mine, but the best thing was...

RootBeer!

Thursday was another bicycle day, which was actually fun. And it ended with dinner with The Howells and another senior missionary couple, the Brimhalls, who have been in-country for only about 6 weeks. They are assigned to Binh Duong, which is a great boost to that branch.

And it was Mexican food! Good Mexican food!

Friday, Zone Conference. I love Zone Conference and seeing all the young missionaries. I got to give a short teaching about making sure they contact me for doctor visits so I can get them their Guarantee of Payment, which the doctor requires before they will treat the missionary. And a lesson on what it means to eat fiber.

What fun it is to be a part of the missionary force in Vietnam! This was a repeat of the Zone Conference message from last week in Hanoi that touched my heart so much, and that reminded us of how much God loves the people of Vietnam. We are so lucky to have been called to serve in Vietnam. I will be forever grateful that our mission call did not say Australia, as I had hoped it would. This experience has been life-changing. Maybe next time it will say Australia...

The missionary pairs were calling real people to practice cold-calls in a non-threatening way. These calls were to family and friends of other missionaries; it was pretty sweet.

Elder Gordon is showing off his cookies and trying to make me feel bad that I didn't bring him any. Elder Anderton is an innocent bystander.

Interpretation has been one of the hardest things about this mission. Sometimes it works; sometimes... meh.

Lunchtime! Today we got to eat com tam--broken rice. We've heard that it's much better in the south than it is in the north; yep, that is correct! It was delicious. AND we had really good smoothies!

This is Sister Balden, who is going home next week on Tuesday.

Sister Luu is also going home next week. She and Sister Balden were in the MTC at the same time as Allen and me. We would be going home one week apart if we hadn't extended for 2 more months. THAT is a crazy thought!

Elder Petersen will be going home next Tuesday, as well.

Ho Chi Minh Zone. They have more missionaries than we do in Hanoi.

These are the missionaries who were in the MTC together! The 2 Sisters are going home; the Elders will be here for 5-6 more months, depending on schooling plans. They let us be a part of their MTC picture, which was fun. It's hard to believe that they're so far along in their missions now. I remember what a struggle it was for some of them, and they are all such good missionaries now. Some of their number are in the Hanoi Zone and not in the picture. They're all special to us.

Well, all good things must come to an end, so we had to leave Saigon and come back to another "good thing" in Hanoi on Friday night after Zone Conference.

Saturday morning was a chance to sleep in, and we took it! But then it was back to normal, with studying and getting ready for meetings, piano class, and English activity in the afternoon.

In the evening, we had been invited to participate with the YSA in their activity to learn how to dance. I got to speak for 10 minutes and talk about my experiences dating, and any ways that dancing tied in with that. Yep, everyone in Vietnam (the YSA, at least) now know how Allen broke up with me and made me cry. But they also know that we got back together, and how important it is to BE the kind of person that YOUR ideal person would choose to marry. Important stuff. It was a fun evening. I almost gave up on learning the line dancing, but I persevered and conquered it. Allen photographed from the sidelines.

And then we had fun talking with a young sister who had served a mission to England and who will be married in June. What wonderful people you meet at dances!

We hope you all have a wonderful week!

Don't forget to...

Dance like no one is watching...