Elder Reynolds in Hanoi

 Alô, Hope you are having a great week! We have been having lots of storms here in Hanoi which has made things interesting. This week felt really long - nothing too exciting happened. The slower weeks come and go, though! The most exciting thing that happened this week was our transfer calls -  I will be returning to the area I previously served in here in Hanoi, Cầu Giấy!  It will be a district of 4: My companion and two other sisters.  Our mission is saying goodbye to a group of 7 Elders, meaning our mission is getting a bit smaller. [RIP Elder Khôi- I'll miss him.] Last I checked we had a total of 16 missionaries here in the North and 24 in the south. It is going to be an interesting transfer! I will be with Elder Hữu who is a fun Elder! I look forward to seeing what happens.  I will be moving around lots! The apartment originally in the Cầu Giấy area for Elders got sold unexpectedly - meaning when we move to the area, we are going to stay in a temporary apar...

 Alo, Thank you everyone who reached out about my illness last week! I am doing much better now after eating many bananas and other diet foods. I am back to 100% and eating normally which has been a blessing. Many prayers of gratitude have been said this week. This week was just full of random stories and events - I didn't take any pictures. Sorry :(. I am going to break my regular email format and just leave some of the small stories in a series of bullet points below from the week.  Enjoy! Monday: Our district went to one of the Mega Malls here in Hanoi and played Pool and Bowling. I got a burger and Dairy Queen ice cream to test my stomach capacity. That was a mistake and I repented. Talked to a man in line at the store - he mentioned he was from France. I tried speaking a little and apologized for not speaking French. He said, in the most French way possible, "Unfortunately, for you!" [That I do not speak French]. I asked him where he was from in Paris - he asked how ...

  Alo, The answer... is E. Coli...  Apologies in advance, but this email is gonna be a short and sweet one. Mainly because I was out of commission a majority of this week due to getting a pretty serious case of E. Coli, and 2 other viruses on top of it simultaneously. It's actually a pretty common occurrence when you have E. Coli - I just so happened to get two of the least fun ones.  Long story short  -  Monday night was not fun and when it all started. If I had to describe my experience using a movie title, I would use the movie "Everything, Everywhere, All at Once". Tuesday and Wednesday I spent a majority of the days at the doctors office doing rounds of IVs. It was super boring and just involved me laying there for hours going through anti-nausea, water, and painkillers. I couldn't eat or drink anything, not even water, so I was just dirt tired. I have some nice bruises on my arms from the IVs.  I had an ultrasound which was fun (Don't worry, I'm not p...

  Alo, Happy July and Merry Independence Day. I hope everyone had safe travels to wherever people went for the 4th. Or if you stayed home, I hope you had a good view/smell of fireworks.  Unfortunately, the 4th of July isn't very big here in Vietnam.  Last Preparation-Day: Last P-Day the district went to a big "city", if you want to call it here in Hanoi called "Oceanpark". Think of it as this megacorporation urban development designed to keep people entertained 24/7 so they never have to leave. It is constructed by this large private company here in Vietnam called "Vincom". It is basically like if people wanted to live on mainstreet in Disneyland. To my understanding, the "Vincom" company not only does the major real estate development here, but they also do cars "Vinfast", Malls "Vincom Malls", and also... milk... Vinamilk. I'm not certain what their exact target market is ( other than monopoly ) but it seems to be wo...