Something Old, Something New...
We've been waiting and waiting to bring our missionaries to this beautiful place of Chua Thay! We discovered it from some missionaries who came here, not knowing they didn't have permission, so we explored it with the senior missionaries. Then Allen explained to the mission leaders how this was outside the zone but still in Hanoi, and so we have permission to bring the youngsters. They loved it, and so did we.
We start out exploring the lake at the base of the mountain...
and the very cool temple/pagoda that is there, with it's statues and shrines.
Starting up the approx. 270 stone steps to the pagoda in the hills. Mind you, these stone steps are typical Vietnamese steps: uneven, slippery when wet, and steep.
There's always a great view.
There's usually a dragon somewhere...
And a turtle.
Here is the cave behind the tree roots. You've seen these pictures before in other blog posts.
This is the gateway at the opposite side of the pagoda. Through here we find the trail to the cave we were after--where the soldiers were sealed in by their enemies and 3000+ men perished.
It's called Tricky Cave because it's steep and you have to be careful!
We finally made it out and continued on our way down the other side of the mountain to some other pagodas which are built right into the rocks. Beautiful.
There is a most glorious narrow crack in the mountain where the wind was blowing through nice and cool on this very hot day.
This pagoda complex is up high on the hill...
with multiple rooms built into the rock.
It was a great p-day, and the missionaries all loved it. We had 2 friends from the branch along with us, since we had rented a van to take us there, and we had extra seats.
Our District Council meeting on Tuesday had a fun training section where we learned that we all have a job to do and we all work together to do our part and make things work out best. We ended up with delicious banana muffins as a result of working together.
Tuesday night was game night. Every other Tuesday night will be Book of Mormon Club, but this week was games. 
On Wednesday and Thursday we got to experience the "Something New" of our week. If you don't know by now, Allen is a Master of finding festivals and local celebrations. This week, he discovered a 3-day festival being celebrated at Bat Trang, the pottery village, so off we went. He has also discovered that it's very difficult to find any type of schedule for these festivals so we're always struggling to find out when we should go there and where we should go! He made a stab in the dark; it turned out to be a pretty good stab, and we caught the tail end of a parade. Since they were going to the same place we were going, we ended up marching at the end of their parade. Fun. This was Wednesday, and we ended up walking with this group to the Community Center.
This is what was taking place inside the courtyard of the community center, with different groups gathered around the edges of the large area. One by one, the groups would take turns going up to the steps of the temple and making an offering of some sort, and then letting the next group have their turn.
This is right by the river, and there are 2 beautiful overlooks, for lack of a better word, build out from the road where you can go and watch what is happening down below on the river.
This is looking back toward the community center.
This man is called Xuan and is one of the people in charge, from what we could tell. His English was quite good, and he took a liking to us. He invited us to come up and take pictures, and be up close to all the activities going on, both Wednesday and Thursday. After the last group here had made their bows, the whole group began to march toward a different pagoda in town, and he told us we should come with them. We started out to do that, but somehow got separated.
We saw this fellow on his motorcycle, loaded down with coconuts.
Bat Trang being the village famous for pottery, everywhere we walked we could look into the factories or shops and see ceramics of all shapes and sizes, and in all degrees of being made. It was fascinating. And since we were walking through parts of the village that we had never seen before, we couldn't help but see ceramics in various stages that we hadn't seen before.
We got lost from following Mr. Xuan, but we found another staging area with a very ornate false-ceiling and more decorative temple furniture (horses, drums, carriages, etc.) and many more people dressed up. We stuck around with this group for a while until they began a march to another place, and we followed them to see where they would go.
Part of the parade consisted of large cylinders that were exploded, somewhat reminiscent of cannons, and which shot out flower petals so that the ground along the parade route was littered with them.
This shopkeeper is sweeping up the petals from the "guns".
I loved to see new ceramics in the windows of the stores we walked past.
These ladies are carrying offerings to the next shrine.
We found new pagodas in Bat Trang that we never knew existed.
And murals, too.
And beautiful mosaics.
We landed at another place; I couldn't keep track of the different places. I can tell you, however, that we walked close to 6 miles on Wednesday along.
It was interesting--and frightening--to see them transport their pottery on these carts and motorcycles.
This pot had depictions of soldiers on it, and I had never see pottery like this.
How do you get around when there is a festival and you're all dressed up? You ride your scooter, of course!
It still fascinates me to see how trucks and cars can maneuver down the smallest alleys.
We finally dragged ourselves away from the very acrobatic lion dancers (they were finished, anyway) and went to see where the other groups of celebrators were, because we hadn't seen Mr. Xuan yet today, so we knew there were others somewhere else. We wandered for a bit...
A shrine, made to look like a cave...
...in the forest...
On this stage are people doing the Quan Ho singing--the males sing, then the females reply, and it goes back and forth. This is an old style of singing done in villages as a way of courting.
Mr. Xuan was so very solicitous of us.
These cute 10-year old girls wanted to chat.
These boys were performers--the Lion Dancers. They did a great job!
Back to the Community Center; this time there were boats ready to take the celebrators out in the middle of the river to collect "holy water" for the temples as part of the ceremony for the festival. Our friend, Mr. Xuan, had invited us to come out on the boat with him, but we didn't think that would be a good idea for 2 LDS missionaries to be seen as part of a "holy water" gathering expedition. But it was very kind of him. While we were at the Buddhist temple, he also invited us to make a donation, which we declined, so he donated in our behalf, which we couldn't stop.
All the celebrating people seemed to be invited to get on a boat a continue to be a part of every aspect of the festival. It was really amazing to see. We were sad that we would need to miss out on day 3 of the festival, although I'm not sure what else we could possibly see that we hadn't seen already.
Friday of this week saw us attend the final Zone Conference of our mission, a bittersweet experience. I love Zone Conferences, I think because our mission is small enough that we are able to know all of the missionaries--or most of them--on a personal basis. When I was Mission Health Advisor for the Newport Beach Mission, with around 200 missionaries in many, many zones, I never attended zone conferences. Knowing what I know now, I may have tried to attend some of them.
I got to play the piano for a special musical number for 2 of the Sisters. I found them a Sally DeFord arrangement of For the Beauty of the Earth. My goal was to play 50% of the notes with 75% accuracy--a good goal. I did alright; they sounded beautiful. 
Lunch is always fun; I've made myself the "official-unofficial photographer" who stands on a chair. President Howell always gives me grief about being in the next Safety Zone video that the missionaries have to watch in the MTC about what not to do on your mission.
And then it was time to say goodbye to departing missionaries: Elder Bao, Sister Adams, and Elder Adams.
Our Hai Ba Trung District
Elder Bao
Elder Fairbanks
Sisters Carlile and Nelson, who sang today.
Com Trung--whipped egg on top of rice, served with chicken. We had stayed after zone conference with our district for their interviews, and ended up eating this for dinner with Elders Budd and Fairbanks, and then we hurried to the church for YSA--an Easter Egg Activity!
Sweet Jessica, who wrote a very nice note to us tonight.
Saturday finally got here, and was as busy as ever. Piano class saw 7 people come to either learn or practice. After that came English class, followed by Missionary Correlation Meeting, then dinner in a restaurant with the missionaries and a friend, and then we got to go shopping for Easter dinner. We had invited 6 missionaries over to have a nice dinner with us for Easter, and I needed a few things from the store. Allen was needing to write a last-minute sacrament meeting talk for the person who wasn't going to make it, and so we made it home for the night at around 8 pm.
This was the best Nem Nuong we've had in Hanoi, we decided.
Easter was a beautiful day, partly because we were able to have the baptism of Quyet, a young man who has learned the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ. He seems to be a very impressive young man.
Quyet and Tuan
Elder Budd with 2 more friends who are learning the gospel.
Here is an amazing group of missionaries and friends...
And here we are, so happy to be a part of this day!
We hope your Easter sabbath was beautiful. We look forward to hearing General Conference next Saturday and Sunday, as they will be broadcast in Vietnam at that time.
We are so grateful for this special day to focus on Jesus Christ, and try to realize again what He has done for each of us. Our lives are better as we try to be more like Him; we can be more forgiving when we remember His example and His love. We are grateful for the part each of you plays in our lives.
Have a wonderful week!
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