(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 Organization called the "Vietnamese Union of Friendship Organization" as a Zone. It was a really neat experience, but exhausting. We sat in this massive conference room and listened to the President of the Organization, President Sơn talk about the mission and values of his organization. Then, the LDS Charities representatives from Hong Kong and him discussed working together to help bring wheelchairs, building homes, and other projects to help reduce the poverty rate in Vietnam. They discussed how Vietnam has had extremely fast development, opening a lot of opportunities for Vietnam. They are very proud of NVIDIA, the graphics card company, along with many other foreign companies that have started FDI in the country.
It was interesting to hear them talk and discuss the war. Although it is in the past - it is still a very real and heartbreaking event for many. They called it the "unfair war", "unjust war", and a variety of other similar terms. It was really insightful and I learned a lot from their perspectives. The President of the VUFO talked about how there are still thousands of people every year injured by unexploded ordinance and other remnants of the war.
After their discussion, they wanted to talk to the missionaries. It was strange - the President went from the tone and setting where he was talking about the unfair war to then asking us, "So... you guys like Bún Chả" (a famous fish here in Hanoi). We got to share our experience being in Vietnam and focused on how we help individuals and families have more happiness in our life. Our district got chosen to share specifically by The VUFO President which was a bit scary, but everyone spoke great. Sister Johnson shared perfectly about the importance of families and everyone clapped -- it was so cool.
Then they took us to the pottery village and we made some pottery. It was fun. Pottery is certainly not my talent, but it was good to try a new experience.
Last Wednesday - Hello... Police:
After a typical Wednesday night, Elder McBride and I returned to our apartment to start winding down for the day. While getting things ready, we heard a knock at a door. We looked through the door camera and to our surprise saw 3 police officers standing outside our door. Not the typical traffic police, or even just regular police in blue - it was the military police in their green and red uniforms. We were a bit surprised, to say the least.
We opened the door and they all looked at me, and then just said "Hello... police.". Being the amazing host that I am, I told them "Mời vào" (Please, come in) and gestured them in. They smiled and laughed. They walked in, and I heard one of the officers read our name tags quietly out loud to his other friends and say "Yup, this is them". They did a quick inspection of our apartment and then asked to see our passports and sat down on our couch. They were friendly and just asked the typical questions - "What are you doing, how long you've been here, where is your church, etc." We talked about soccer and had some small talk about Christmas. That's when the police officer asked us directly:
"So, you guys are Christians?"
I got a little scared, to be honest. Being a Christian in Vietnam is certainly not illegal. He just had this expression on his face when he asked, and I couldn't tell if my answer would upset him. Furthermore, having the police enter your home unexpectedly is a little nerve racking. Regardless, we answered yes and stated we were missionaries working for our nearby church. He sat back confused and then asked: "So... where is your Christmas tree? Don't Christians have a Christmas tree? You don't really seem Christian if you don't have one. You really should go buy a Christmas Tree this weekend, they are pretty cheap..."
We laughed, and told him we would certainly try to get one. As they wrote down the rest of our information one of the officers stood up and took a quick picture of all of us sitting on the couch. Elder McBride and I sat up nice and straight and smiled, to which the officer said "This is just for the record... you don't need to pose..." and told us to be normal.
We shook hands, they left, and all was well. They were really friendly and we had a good time - it was just crazy to have them come and stop by.
Thursday Night - We Didn't Start The Fire:
Billy Joel, I get it now. You were probably framed too.
After a great English Activity, Elder McBride and I again returned back to our apartment ready for some good night sleep. I took my Melatonin, and popped my new earplugs and eye mask I got in the mail. (Thanks for the package, Mom!!). Then, we went to sleep.
We first woke up to a slow beeping noise. Then another ring. I thought it was just my phone so I kind of ignored it. It rang again. Is it the washing machine? Then, it went again... Wait a minute... that's the doorbell... The doorbell rings again. At this point it is just really strange and kinda creepy because our doorbell sounds a little scary. I finally got annoyed and woke up because the doorbell had rung about 10 times. Now, I'm certain it's the doorbell and think it is someone just drunk outside of our apartment (interesting neighbors) or someone is downstairs in the lobby ringing the wrong door. As I'm getting up, I notice there is a slight smell of smoke. I groggily open the door to the room, walk over to our camera and see a group of people standing in our hallway, all in hats and security uniforms. I thought the police for sure were back and ready to deport us.
Elder McBride is up, and for the second time this week, I say, "HEY, the police are here". I opened the door, and before I could even ask "Who are you guys" all of the men rushed into our apartment. They rushed right past me and Elder McBride and went straight into our room and opened the door where we have a balcony. The smell of smoke is strong now. I finally get to one of the security guards and ask him what is going on. He just looks at me and says "Fire". We walk over to the balcony... and don't see anything except a big pile of ash and a huge black spot. They all suddenly get up, run out of our apartment, and go to the apartment upstairs.
As the security guards go upstairs, Elder McBride and I go to investigate the balcony. Something was definitely on fire - but we don't have anything on the balcony. We don't even use it, because we have a dryer. We've never even gone out on it before. We figure the main fire must've happened in the apartment above us and things fell out onto our balcony. A little shaken, at 1:50am, we started moving stuff to go to sleep in the other room. Until the doorbell rang again...
The security was back and told us we need to come down to their office. So we went down to the basement floor and went to their little closet (it's a dungeon) and they started asking us questions. We had no idea what the man was saying. He was super hard to understand and not very patient. He then asked us for ID, and we told him it was up in the apartment. We said we'd go grab it, and he said "No. One of you stays here. One can go get the ID." This is complicated, because our missionary standards say we have to always be with our companion. It helps protect us, especially in situations like this. We tried explaining but he didn't want to listen -- so Elder McBride held the frontline while I dashed for our passports.
Upon returning, Elder McBride was still there and all was well. Fortunately our Mission President answered the phone when I called, so he knew about our situation. [President Howell, I'm sorry for waking you up at 2am]. While we were waiting this random guy walked in from the room and showed us the picture of the fire they saw outside. (See below). We sat and waited while the security guard wrote out our report of "what happened".
The guard put the piece of paper down, told me to come over and have me sign the report. I couldn't read anything. I told him I didn't want to sign it. The guard said it wasn't a problem and for me to sign it so this can be over with. I told him I can't read it, his handwriting is bad, and so I don't want to sign it. He gets upset and starts quickly reading what it says and from what I understand him saying is he is saying "...this time is just a warning. Second time will have consequences from building blah blah blah...". I told him I still didn't want to sign it until I knew what the document said. I told him we did not light a fire and had absolutely no responsibility for anything to do with it. We were just asleep until the security woke us up. He was not happy and told me to sign it, and I told him no again. He was more upset this time, and grabbed our passports on the table. I was now really, really upset and frustrated. Every time I told him I didn't want to sign it, he would keep touching or holding our passports. He kept insisting to sign the document. I asked him if it said anything about us being at fault and he said "No, it's just a warning so this can be over with". I had him then pick up the report, read it into Google Translate, and listened to confirm. Nothing the document he "read" stated we were at fault. Reluctantly, I signed and he got us our passports back. We went back, called the Mission President, and went back to sleep.
Waking up in the morning is normal, until the President calls and says that the landlords have a video of Elder McBride and I burning paper and Styrofoam boxes on our balcony, which caused the fire. This is obviously false. They also said that we resisted when we opened the door, which is also false. The document I signed also apparently supported this false claim, and the document said we "admitted to lighting Styrofoam and paper on fire on our balcony and take full responsibility". The security guard had lied straight to my face. These were just ridiculous accusations, and I sent a message from our side and how this was an extremely unfair situation and how we were essentially framed and felt pressured to sign because of the passports, 2am, foreign languages, miscommunication, all made us very confused.
Once 11am rolled around and the Assistants, our mission housing manager and the apartment owner stop by. They come and evaluate the damage- it is minimal. The only thing that was damaged was the flower box hanging from our balcony, and tons of clumps of rice everywhere. We explain the situation and show that there was no way we could have started the fire or reason why we would. Here is the theory of how the fire started:
Someone was smoking on the floors above us, threw the cigarette off and it landed in the box, igniting it. OR... Someone on the floors above us had a bad day cooking rice and threw burning hot rice off their balcony. It fell, landed in our dry dry flower box and it caught fire. There are just random clumps of rice everywhere on the balcony and in the other flower box that survived unharmed. Here is where things get even more strange... no one lives on the floor above us...
Okay- phew. That was a long story. I know I probably wrote some parts that sound a little dramatic, but I promise you this is a pretty accurate description of what happened. In the end everything worked out, the security accepted we didn't do any damage or start a fire. They changed the statement I signed and we all moved on. Everything is really OK, and we are perfectly fine, it's just a unique experience and a funny story. Vietnam is a good place and has good people -- there is just sometimes some miscommunication.
Saturday - Branch Christmas Party:
We had lunch at our Branch President House where we got to break some coal, and ironically... help him start a little fire to cook. We ate with him and prepared some food for the ward Christmas Party happening later in the evening. I got to sing in the choir and the other missionaries were in the Nativity.
The food was great and the music was crazy. We started off with some Christmas classics, but then our DJ (a 20 year old connected to the speaker) started blasting Justin Beiber Christmas Music and some new song by Bruno Mars. It kinda turned into a party, which was funny. Not certain what the standards mention about that, but it was our dinner hour, so... it's probably alright. Check out Google Photos later today to see the fun.
Sunday - New Tahitian Friends + No Power
Fortunately Sunday was pretty relaxed. We had our one hour church service and I had the opportunity to translate for a big Tahitian family that was visiting. His name is Pierre Utahiah or something like that. He knew where Meridian, Idaho was and said everyone in Tahiti knows him, so, if someone has random connections to Tahiti see if you can recognize who we met. Apparently he is pretty well known in the church and government there.
We did our usual Sunday routine, came home to relax and... found the power to our apartment had been turned off. We called our housing coordinator, he paid the bill, so we went down to tell the security they can turn our power back on, and they said they won't turn it on until 8:30am tomorrow morning. Our housing coordinator told us we can find a hotel for the night, but honestly we are just so tired and it is already 10:00pm, so we are just going to bed and will figure it out tomorrow.
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So - that was our week in a nutshell. It's been busy. P-Day will be refreshing tomorrow. Spiritual Thought from me would probably be something about enduring to the end. My invitation for you is to search "Endure" in the Guide to The Scriptures and then send it to me. :)
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I'm great. I'm laughing and life is bizarre, as always.
Love you all,
Elder Reynolds
Photos CHECK IT OUT THIS WEEK: https://photos.app.goo.gl/
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