"The Warmest Winter in Years"

Hi Everyone!

Hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday for those of you celebrating. Good luck to all of you who are preparing for fall finals! You've got this.

This week was great! Elder Mayne and I did a lot of contacting (stopping by and saying hi to people) and some lessons too. We had a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner with some members, then visited an assisted living home for those who may need an uplifting message.

I've decided "tracting" in an assisted living home is the best because:

1). It's warm.

2). People are friendly and happy to talk.

3). Everyone has their name on their door.

4). All the doors are already open. No knocking required.

On Friday we attended the Bemidji Christmas parade and lighting of the city. For being out in the middle of nowhere - they know how to celebrate! They have over 750,000k Christmas lights this year, hoping to hit 1 million in a couple years. Although the celebration was fun, I have never been so cold in my life.

It's very cold here. People keep saying this has been the warmest winter, so I'm grateful, but it's still cold. The weather app says it is 13⁰F, but with wind chill and humidity it "feels like" -3⁰F. Only a little bit if snow so far, but the lakes have started to freeze over! I don't know how people stay warm - especially residents the reservation in metal homes.

I also did some black Friday shopping because I needed a blanket and found "Space Laser Kitty" or "Carl". I really hope I can bring Space Laser Kitty with me to Vietnam.

That's pretty much it! I'm working on taking more photos. Make sure to check out the videos of the fireworks and the wind.

Have an amazing week, and happy holidays! Love and miss you all.

Elder Ethan Reynolds

The WIND!

Dogs are everywhere here

Sunset over the lake

Comments

Welcome to Vietnam - Don't Take the Honking Personally

Xin chào mọi người! They're sending me to Vietnam... it's a whole lot of scooters... Things have been great here in Vietnam. I'm currently sitting in a park after doing my second dance practice with some people we met last week. We're waiting for a friend to meet us to play some pickleball. If I wrote down everything that has happened within the past week this email would be too large to send, so here is a brief bullet point list of the highlights: -Landed in Hanoi and did orientation. Was told I would be serving in the Ho Chi Minh area. Woo hoo! My Mission Presidency is awesome. -Met my companion Elder Luân. His English is good but communicating is sometimes still difficult. 😅 I am constantly speaking Vietnamese, which has helped me learn a lot. -Had first English Activity night and taught about Idaho, haha. The slideshow was already made by someone from Vietnam, and went over all the highlights of things like: Potatoes, sagebrush, dairy cows, and irrigation....

Hours in Hồ Chí Minh

Alo, This week was an adventure - filled with good stories and blessings. I'm a little tired, but I'd rather be a tired missionary than a bored missionary. Monday - Trains, Planes, and Automobiles Monday afternoon while enjoying Preparation Day in the Old Quarter District, we got a call from the Elders who help our Mission President, the Assistants. The Assistants were flying down later in the evening to Hồ Chí Minh City to do a mission presentation -- but unfortunately one of them became very ill and would be unable to fly. They asked if I would be willing to pack and head down to help. Certainly wasn't what we expected, but we were ready to help. Elder McBride and I traveled back to Hà Đông, packed, and headed over. Elder McBride stayed with the ill missionary, while the other Assistant and I went down South. We left at 7:15pm and landed in Hồ Chí Minh at 9:30pm. We got a taxi and stayed the night in Thảo Điền- the very first area I served in Vietnam, one year ...

We Didn't Start The Fire

(Note from Sally: This week is an extra long letter, so good thing you have the holiday break to read it. :) Ethan just found out this morning that he was on the Vietnamese National News - his part starts at the 19:00min mark. Also, he was asked to write his testimony and thoughts about this Christmas to share with our home ward here in Idaho, so I attached those in a Word Doc as well. ) Merry Christmas! Alo mọi người, Yes - the title of the email is a reference to Billy Joel "We Didn't Start The Fire" and it is relevant to the story. This week was one for the books. That's why this email is going to be a bit longer than the previous ones I have been sending. We've had about everything, from the police in our apartment to a wild Branch Christmas Party. Make sure to check out the Google Photo Album this week. Last Monday - The Vietnamese UFO: Last Preparation Day, as I mentioned in the previous email we were visiting a Non-Profit Government Organizati...

Elder Reynolds in Hanoi

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