Hello everyone! Hope you have been doing well. Congratulations to those of you finishing up your semesters, and keep pushing on for those in the end game!
Remember in my last email I said "pray for some stories?". Well - I don't know who prayed for them, but Heavenly Father certainly answered your prayers. This week has been quite crazy, but fun.
Last Preparation Day:
Last Preparation Day was a blast. We planned with our district to travel to a cool hike with a cave and Buddhist temple. So, we ordered our taxi and went on our way. Thirty minutes into the taxi ride and checking on the map we realized we were in fact not going to the correct Buddhist temple - we put in the wrong address, and were riding in the opposite direction. Being 10 minutes away from our new destination (and almost accidentally leaving the zone) we decided to see what the temple would be like.
Upon arrival, it was clear the temple was under major renovations and closed. We checked out the little parts that were opened and then met a Buddist Monk who was maintaining the grounds that day. She brought us into the temple and gave us fruits and rainwater that she just boiled for lunch. It was a really neat cultural experience to learn about her life and religion.
Still determined to have our hike, (and the taxi driver still waiting for us because he knew we had no way back), we ordered the taxi to the correct location. After another 30min drive we finally made it. The hike provided a super cool view of the surrounding area and a good view of the drop into the cave. We took some pictures and enjoyed the cool weather on the top of the mountain. We ended our night with some pizza and began our week.
Still determined to have our hike, (and the taxi driver still waiting for us because he knew we had no way back), we ordered the taxi to the correct location. After another 30min drive we finally made it. The hike provided a super cool view of the surrounding area and a good view of the drop into the cave. We took some pictures and enjoyed the cool weather on the top of the mountain. We ended our night with some pizza and began our week.
The 7 Hour Long Picnic and Baptism:
Thursday was a crazy day. We woke up to the booms of a massive thunderstorm rolling into Hanoi. It started pouring rain for about 10min and then completely stopped. Although I love the rain and thunder I was grateful for its conclusion - because we had a 45min bus ride to a park where our branch was having a picnic outside of our area. From 7am to 2pm.
With the permission to leave our area and participate we left and went to the picnic. A good amount of people participated and our friends came! We had plenty of sausage, mangos, and noodles to eat for our 7 hour feast. (I think the feast was because it was the holiday of King Hùng, the first king of Vietnam, but I am not certain). Around 11am it started to get pretty hot and the Hanoi sun finally started to show its power. After the canopy broke a couple times, we baked in the nice heat.
After the picnic we walked 2km back to the bus station where we were constantly stopped by random people and bus drivers trying to offer us rides that were far too expensive. Elder Vassantachart attempted to have a deep conversation with one of the scam drivers. Unfortunately, neither one of them were successful in their endeavours. Nevertheless, it was an admirable attempt for both.
We finally made it to the bus station and rode back to the church where we prepared for a baptism! We were so excited to have 2 new members here in the branch. They are part of a family, and it seems like the other family members would also be interested in learning more about the gospel. I had the opportunity to witness which was special. As always, it was a wonderful experience, and I am excited for them to come closer to Christ!
After the baptism and a small dinner we prepare for English activity. We did an art activity with Bob Ross which was fun. After the activity, we went back to the apartment, packed, and then took a taxi to Ba Đình where we began our exchanges with the Zone Leaders. While we taxied there we ordered McDonalds to be delivered to the same apartment and raced the Grab driver. We pulled up right when he did. Miraculous timing.
Boujiee in Ba Đình:
We finally crashed in the ZL's apartment in Ba Đình and spent Friday there. BĐ is super cool and their apartment is pretty fancy. They live on this sorta island on the side of the lake - walking around the neighborhood reminded me a lot of Venice with the water and tight alleyways. I got to use some of the missions new bikes which have horns and finally had the opportunity to speak "Scootermese" and honk. I got to be with Elder Mai for the day which was fun - he loves making videos. We had some good lessons, ended our exchange and finally returned to our own apartment where we could finally crash from this crazy week. Not for me.
Elder Vassantachart's Night Terror:
I share this story with his permission - it is pretty funny.
At 3:30am I woke up to the entire bed shaking furiously (Elder Vassantachart sleeps on the top bunk, I am on the bottom). After jolting awake, Elder Vassantachart started screaming, quite loudly, "NO NO NO WAIT WAIT PLEASE NO-". At first with the huge amount of shaking I thought there was an earthquake. After hearing him screaming I then thought someone was trying to kill him, because it really sounded like someone was. I groggily (but bravely) jumped out of my bed and attempted to find whoever or whatever was killing my companion. No one was there. After 20 seconds he stopped and I asked "Elder Vassantachart, are you okay?" His response: "...we aren't on a boat... goodnight". He peacefully went back to sleep while I stood there in the room - full fight/flight. I did not sleep for the rest of the night.
After waking up in the morning I asked Elder Vassantachart how his sleep was. He mentioned nothing of the night terror. When I reminded him of the episode, he remembered a dream where he was locked on the bottom of a sinking ship and was screaming for help. That explained a lot to me why he sounded like he was screaming for his life. Overall it was a pretty funny experience - but I argue his night terror was more of a terror for me than him ;)
General Conference Weekend:
After waking up in the morning I asked Elder Vassantachart how his sleep was. He mentioned nothing of the night terror. When I reminded him of the episode, he remembered a dream where he was locked on the bottom of a sinking ship and was screaming for help. That explained a lot to me why he sounded like he was screaming for his life. Overall it was a pretty funny experience - but I argue his night terror was more of a terror for me than him ;)
General Conference Weekend:
This weekend we had the opportunity to watch General Conference in Vietnamese with our branches! It was my first time watching this session of conference and I loved all the topics talked about. I'll share more about what I liked in my spiritual thoughts in the coming weeks!
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Spiritual Thought:
Tuesday we spent our day at Zone conference learning about following the promptings of the spirit. We discussed different ways we can incorporate the spirit into our missionary work and have an increased awareness of its promptings. Learning the language of the spirit is just as difficult, if not harder, as learning a foreign language. The unique part about it is that it is unique to each person. We took some time to write down times we felt the spirit and how we felt it. I invite you this week to do the same! Think of a time you felt the spirit and write down the situation you were in. Maybe you will find a correlation or method that helps you. It may not be 100% accurate, but I found it to be an interesting spiritual exercise.
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Alright - I know this was a novel of an email, but it was a novel of a week. I hope you smiled from some stories and are having a great start to your week! I have quite a few good videos/photos from this week in my Google Photos if you want to take a look!
Love and miss you all,
Anh Cả Reynolds
Elder Mai and I
Rain in Hanoi
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