Political Pottery

Alô mọi người,

Thank you for all the wonderful birthday messages and wishes. I had a great birthday and look forward to the next while I am here! This week was busy with lessons, making new friends, and preparing trainings.

Last Preparation Day:

Last preparation day was fun - we went to a big town called Bát Tràng which is an entire town dedicated to pottery. We walked around and learned all about the history of pottery and ceramics in Vietnam. I'm not a big pot head haha but it was interesting. I'm still trying to figure out how they decorate all the pottery after they shape it and fire it.

I was feeling a bit down that day - but Heavenly Father helped me out. While we were sitting at lunch a couple from Europe sat down next to us. The woman was from France and the man was from Spain, but spoke perfect Italian. They were on a long trip here in Vietnam "enjoying the cheap food" and "touring around". They were really friendly, until I called the city "Hồ Chí Minh" "Sài Gòn" and the French woman went on a small tangent about how I am supporting colonialism by calling it Saigon. I understand where she was coming from - I appreciate her being culturally sensitive. I won't get into the details, but if you think about it for a minute, you will see the irony. Anyways.

We went and did some pottery where I didn't do half bad of a job for my first time. I certainly made a bowl-like shape - unfortunately, while I was spinning the wheel I cut my finger pretty good on some dry clay. No worries though, because the old woman came over and washed my finger in the bowl of clay water (super dirty) and then covered my wound with the clay to stop the bleeding. I don't remember that being in Boy Scouts, but it worked. Stay tuned to see if my fingerprint comes back.

In the evening we went to the Mission Home for dinner and spent time with President and Sister Hughes, and their son and daughter-in-law who were visiting. They made a roast (oh how I have missed roast) with some cupcakes to celebrate my companions birthday.

21:
Yup, then I turned 21 this week. I blew out someone's phone flashlight over a pile of half-eaten mangos, which was pretty fun. I loved it. I wish I could show myself 1 year ago what this next birthday would've looked like. I would have been shocked.

Spiritual Thought:
I gave a talk this week in sacrament meeting about how missionary work has blessed my life. I talked about how missionary work has blessed me to trust in Heavenly Father's plan, and the reality of miracles.

Don't worry, I got some photos this week. Make sure to check out the album.

Love and miss you all,

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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