Week 8: The Final Week of Provo MTC

Hello everyone!

I hope you all had a great week! I got to chat to lots of people this week - it's so fun to hear updates from everyone. I hope school, mission, work, or whatever adventure you may be on is going well!

As said in the title, this is my final week at the Provo MTC! This Thursday I will be flying to the flatlands of Bismarck, North Dakota where I will meet my trainer and new district. I have to say I'm pretty sad to be leaving my district. They feel like my kids, hahaha. We have bonded and become very close throughout these past 8 weeks. I feel very grateful to feel this sad about leaving. I have really enjoyed serving as a District Leader as well. It was so fun to get to know everyone and serve them - each person helped strengthen my testimony in different ways. Overall, this experience taught me about trusting in God.

Once again, Heavenly Father has proven to me how I need to trust him and his process more. Truly, when I have decided to put my trust in his hands on guidance I have always found myself in a better place. It's hard to see from where you start, but you always come out on top. I was not called Mandarin speaking - but I was called to serve these people and serve alongside these missionaries. I couldn't see myself anywhere else. The MTC experience would be relatively the same if you took out certain aspects or elements. However, it's the people who influence it the most. I know my district was a blessing and an answer to my prayers.

With this mindset, I am still very excited and hopeful for North Dakota! I'm certain there will be many new challenges, but I'm hopeful I will have an amazing and growing experience there, too.

This week we had the opportunity to hear from Elder Uchtdorf, a third apostle! That means I've been here for waaay too long. What a privilege it is to hear from a quarter of the 12 apostles. (Elder Gong, Elder Anderson, and Elder Uchtdorf). We waited outside for 1.5hrs, because we heard some rumors he was coming. We got front row seats, and I sat right in front of the right teleprompter. This meant whenever he read off of it, he was staring dead at "me". He gave an amazing talk on the aspects of Hope and Charity on our mission.

Other than that it's been a pretty standard week of study and daily routine. Next week will have some new adventures for sure!

Have a wonderful week, wishing you all the best!

Anh Cả Reynolds

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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