Hitchhiking Hanoi

Alo -

For the sake of the read time of this email, let's just get right into it. It has been a crazy week. Let's take it day by day:

Monday:

Before receiving the new missionaries on Friday afternoon, the Elders were put into temporary assignments until we got our new companions. Elder Kotter, Elder Vassantchart and I were a trio for the P-Day. We got their apartment ready for two more Elders and got some burgers. For the evening, we organized a plan to get all of the bikes to the correct apartments. It was a bit of a complex plan, because some bikes needed to be switched with other bikes to meet the needs of taller Elders.

Tuesday:

I stayed half the day with Elder Vassantachart and Kotter until Elder Esplin flew into Hanoi. Then I went with him back to HBT where we stayed temporarily. Elder Esplin and I then had quite an adventure: To help with organizing the bikes correctly, we rode around with the delivery driver all day in his big truck. It was a fun time and definitely an experience hitchhiking around Hanoi. We got all the bikes sorted correctly and everything prepped for the new apartments.

Wednesday + Thursday:
Pretty normal days. Elder Esplin and I did all of our coordination for the Zones since we are going to be split this next transfer. The upcoming transfer I will be having three roles as a district leader, zone leader, and trainer. It is a bit to balance, I won't lie, but I have enjoyed it so far. It is enjoyable to serve and to have the opportunity to work with so many other people. I am learning a lot and rely on patience and humility a lot.

Friday:

The big day finally came! We went to the church and got our new companions we will be training. I will be training Elder DeGasser!! He is wonderful to work with. I am so excited to be learning from him and helping him do missionary work in Vietnam. He is willing to try new and strange things, like corn milk, so he is certainly a bit more adventurous than me, when it comes to food. I am so excited for these new 14 missionaries. They are going to bless this mission, the branches, and all the friends they are going to find and teach.

Saturday:
Elder DeGasser and I went for the bike ride for the first time and he crushed it. He is already a natural. We practiced walking around and saying hi to people and had lots of lessons. We also did a visit to a member's home far away, so he did his first 5pm long haul bike ride. (I may have gotten us a bit lost, but thankfully if you ask someone directions they will most likely just hop on their scooter and show you where to go. Bless the GrabFood Driver that helped us).

Later that night we were in the store grabbing food for Sunday. We were talking to someone and we realized we were both studying Chinese. We had a brief conversation, when behind us we heard a man say "Both of your Chinese is so good" and it was a random Chinese guy. We were all laughing, it was a funny situation.

Sunday:
Crazy busy. I did translation for 1st hour, both English and Vietnamese, and then taught for the second hour. I think Sunday afternoon might have been one of the most tired times I have ever felt on my mission, haha.

Monday (October 29th, 2024):
We went to the pottery village here in Hanoi and looked around. We went to a big museum and wandered around looking at all the cool art. Then we went down the street to a big Buddhist Temple and took some photos.
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Other Announcements:

Finnish Baptism:
I keep forgetting to mention, while I was in my area two transfers ago, a friend that was progressing really well moved to Finland. We got him in contact with missionaries there to hopefully help him continue, and he got baptized!! It was so wonderful. Wish we could have had him baptized here, but it doesn't really matter.

Henry:
Back home, for those of you who don't know, our family has a little schnauzer named Henry. Due to age and health, we are unfortunately going to have to say bye to him this week. It was sad to hear, but I know he will be happier and healthier with all his other dogs, friends, and family to greet him there on the other side. I will miss him and his little tippy-tap dances lots.
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Spiritual Thought:
Read the talk "Weapons of Rebellion" by Elder Christopherson. It was what I taught about in second hour this Sunday.
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Love you all, so sorry for the rushed and long email. Things are crazy. I am doing alright. A Pina Colada sounds good right now.

Love,
Anh Cả Reynolds

Videos and Photos: https://photos.app.goo.gl/KXNEyuJ6epdKQtAq6