Two scenes from Hanoi.

This lady came in front of the Church while we were taking pictures. Similar scenes are also seen in Cambodia.

In our Hotel they had this big beautiful gingerbread house. I think they made a frame and glued the gingerbread on to the frame. i thought it very nicely done. The Hotel also had huge decorated trees in all the rooms in the lobby and restaurants, with lights and garlands on the railings. It was beginning to look like Christmas!

This perspective shows how big the display was. They had another similar to it on the othger side of the pillar. And another one in the restaurant up on top of one of the serving tables. That one had little people made of frosting. Scott took some pictures of that. I'll have to put them on this post.

New Hanoi Vietnam District

A special meeting was held in Hanoi Vietnam on Sunday December 12, 2010 in order to organize the first church district in Hanoi. More about that written below. Choir Director, Hannah Harrison also Branch Relief Society President gets ready to rehearse the choir for their special number. Sorry for the blurry picture. I had left the lens on landscape and go too much light.

The wonderful choir. Our missionaries flank both ends.

They are practicing practicing.

This is everyone in attendance at this first District meeting. There were 69 in Hanoi and 88 in attendance in Ho Chi Minh. So in this picture are the 69 attending. Some of those are not baptized members yet.

December 12, 2010, Sunday from 10-12:00 a special conference was held in Hanoi, Vietnam with a webcast to Ho Chi Minh to organize the first Church district in Vietnam. This was an historical event in the history of the church in Vietnam. It has two branches and at the conference a third was added. The first two are in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh and the new third branch is everything else in Vietnam. We have maybe 1000 members scattered all over the country and so their memberships will be in this unique branch. They will probably do some web cast meetings to reach the members. The largest group we know of outside of these cities is in Southern Vietnam that used to be Cambodia, there are at least 14 members that we know about. One of them came to Church last month while we were there. It takes them 7 hours to travel to Ho Chi Minh for Church! Needless to say, they only can come once in a while. Most there in that particular area, used to live in Cambodia and were baptized in Cambodia, but moved back to Vietnam. Above is the new District President, his counselors and the District Clerk. The sign for the Church was put up just two days before the conference. The government gave permission to advertise the church and a sign is a great way to do that helping people know they have the right building. This building is hard to find, so it's great to have a sign now. It will help many visitors.
The new Presidency l-r: Brother Nguyen Hoai Thanh from Ho Chi Minh is the new District Clerk. He is also Elder's Quorum President in Ho Chi Minh. First counselor is Pham Ngoc Khanh. He is also the Branch President of the Ho Chi Minh Branch. District President is Hoang Van Tung. He is also Branch President in Hanoi. Second Counselor is Brother Christian Marchant. He is the first counselor in the Hanoi Branch. They will have many meetings I imagine through the use of technical sources! Thanks goodness for that.

Elder and Sister Watson, Scott and I and the new District Presidency with their families. The first counselor has two children, but they were being baby sat in Ho Chi Minh. It is 1200 miles from Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh City. In the Vietnamese papers they abbreviate Ho Chi Minh with these letters: HCMC. So I think I will do the same! The District President's wife couldn't come, but his son was there and he was just a really good kid while waiting for all the meetings afterward.

The new Branch President of the new Hanoi District Branch is Ryan Roswell Bird. With him is his wife Teresa. They live in Ho Chi Minh City and have 5 children. Their children were also were being babysat. Scott set apart everyone but the District Clerk and the new Branch President. Elder Watson set apart brother Thanh and President Tung set apart Ryan Bird. Ryan also is President Smedley's Assistant Executive Secretary for Vietnam. He has been a great help for the church here. Brother Marchant works for the USA Embassy in Hanoi and is the Human Rights/Religion officer. He just got the human rights officer of the year out of all the embassys for the USA. Wow! We were impressed.

All three branch presidents for the Hanoi District. We just love our new sign! Now they're working on getting one in Ho Chi Minh.

Ryan Bird and Teresa Bird.

Our missionaries in Hanoi with the Watsons and us. Elders Ly and Son and Elder and Sister Talbot. Sister Talbot sang in the branch choir. Everyone was wearing their Vietnam dresses that they wear for special occasions. One gal who is a non-member and only been to Church a couple of times took a real liking to Sister Talbot and said well, I have an outfit that will fit you. So she brought her the dress and it fit perfect except Sister Talbot had to sew up the slit. She likes a little looser fit, but she looked great in it! And I have to say, my outfit, not so flattering, but I like it anyway

These young men are all future missionaries from Hanoi. The one on the right has his papers in and he will be a member one year in February and then can come. We sure hope he gets assigned to our mission. They are all working on coming. The one on the left is Brother Coy. His family was the first one from Hanoi to be sealed in the Temple. The Talbots besides doing their LDSC events are also the Young Adult Advisors and teach an institute class once a week. They are well loved by the youth who like to come to their home. They leave us the end of this month. We will sorely miss them.

Maury and Brother Lee were there from the service centers in Cambodia and Hong Kong to make sure the webcast went well. They did a terrific job and we sure appreciate their efforts.

Museum of Ethnology of Hanoi

On December 11, 2010 after we dropped the Watson's off at the Hotel, we decided to go one more place before lunch and our meetings. The museum of ethnolgy is a museum that showcases the different Ethnic groups of Vietnam. They all have a little different way of dressing, dances, different weaving of material, etc. We went to a Craftlink shop there at the museum that has many crafts of the various ethnic groups. It was quite interesting. I did bring home a woven table runner of an ethnic group that lives 30 miles north of Hanoi. Do I remember the name? Nope. But for $2 I bought a little bamboo hanger to display my $4 table runner on! Of course, I had to hand carry it home, but it wasn't so bad. We then went to a puppet show that showcased various folk tales or customs of the groups. This museum is kind of based on the Polynesian cultural center as is the Cultural center in Siem Reap. Cambodia. This little puppet show was quite entertaining and educational even though it was raining off and on. The group above are the music and sound effects. They are pretty good. And I enjoyed the music.

This is portraying water buffalo fights that they have in Vietnam. I didn't even know water buffaloes would fight. They seem quite docile. These are water puppets by the way. I think water puppets must be unique to Vietnam. I have never heard of them elsewhere. Anyway, it is quite fascinating.

I think this one depicts a guy trying to catch fish. Nope it is a guy playing a flute on the water buffalo.

Going home to take fruit to the Buddha for worhip to the ancestors. I'm thinking that's what this one depicts.

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The guy manning the puppets is behind the blue curtain. He lifts it up to pull them in. The puppets are all on a wooden rod that can be manipulated to move them around the water and also move them up and down, climb a tree, move their hands, etc.

There were four puppeteers. They all wear waders that are also boots. They had just taken a bow and I caught the last one going in!

It was a nice little break before the meetings.

Hanoi Cultural Experience with the Watsons

On December 11th, 2010, Elder Kent Watson of our Area Presidency and his wife Connie came to Vietnam to preside at the organization of the first District in Vietnam! So previous to our Saturday meetings, in the morning, we took a quick trip to the Temple of Literature. this is where 82 men received their Doctorate degrees back in the 1400's I believe up until a certain period of time, then this site was disbanded as a university. On a previous blog in September I believe, I posted pictures of the stellas of the Doctoral Thesis sitting on top of carved turtles. So, I didn't take pictures of those this time. There are 82 Stone stellas with the doctoral thesis written on them in Chinese. Each stella is sitting on top of a stone carved turtle. Each turtle is different. It's quite something to see. Bottom picture is l to r: Scott , me, Elder Talbot, Sister Talbot, Sister Watson, and Elder Watson. Top right is Jenny Marchant who organized the visit for us. She even drove which is an amazing accomplishment in this city! The middle picture is the main courtyard. Keep in mind, this is over at least 600 years old. I need to look up the stats. I probably am giving out inaccurate stats. The gardner lady is cleaning up on the top right picture.
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Sister Watson bought a turtle here because the stellas are all on turtles carved of stone. In Vietnam they believe the turtle means long life. The clerk told us because we purchased there we will have long life and good luck! Yeah! I would love that. I must have moved the camera little because I blurred the picture. Sorry, Sister Watson!


Beautiful young Vietnamese woman. Many come here in national best dress to celebrate the end of a test, or school year, or to come and pray to the Buddha that is there, or come to rub the stone turtles for good luck on their finals or special tests. It was a great visit here again!

The Feast

After the rice harvest we had to cross this road. I couldn't resist taking this picture. I was amazed that he stayed upright. He is a very skilled driver, I would say!

The members wanted to thank us for helping so prepared the meal the best way they new how. The sister has boiled vegetables and chicken. In the tray below there are fresh vegetables (which I did not eat, because I didn't see any clean water to clean them in.)

They gave us their best and I ate the rice and vegetables with chicken. It was delicious.

This is a dish, I choose not to even try. It is "stinky fish" brohoke. They mash it up good, cook it and put sometimes put pork in in

Harvesting Rice at Bakhu

President Smedley (Scott) and I had an opportunity to go with Elder and Sister Snyder and the Takhamau District of Elders to help some new members with their rice harvest. They didn't get it quite done before the Sabbath. But left it in the fields and went to Church. The Elders decided they would help them and the Snyders are help out at the branch and invited us to come along. Bakhu is about 30 minutes south of Phnom Penh. It is a humble village where many are rice farmers. This one was quite a large field and they do this all by hand. The middle picture is the road we walked down to get to the field. The bottom right shows the path to get to the fild. To harvest the rice, you take the top foot and a half probably of the stalks of rice and use a scythe to cut it. You hold your hand away from you and then pull the scythe fast and it cuts so fast. I decided that I should definitely move my let. My teacher is on the left and is one of the owners of the field. He showed me what to do and then left me on my own. There were three of us finishing up that end of the field. As each of us cut the rice we put it in piles as you can see below. Then people come and pick up the piles.

The beautiful young woman is a gleaner. She follows behind and gathers up the stalks of rice that didn't get cut and puts them in piles. Elder Haem on the top left is Khmer, but this is his first time in the field. Elder Da, the one on the top right is an old hand at this. I think he looks very comfortable doing the harvest. Elder Oleson is on the left.
The farmer on the bottom right is so strong. Those piles of rice stalks and rice are heavy. They do not waste anything. The rice is put on a tarp to dry out in a big pile with the freshest cuts on top.

Scott is trying his hand at harvesting. We had a good group and were finished after one hour! The big pile is what they have harvested so far. It is much bigger than it looks here. The rice stalks are drying out in this field. It is white and ready to harvest!
Our Elders helping were: Elders Oleson, Draper, Da, Haem, Sok and Try.

The road back was just as long as coming in! It was a great experience and we are so appreciative that we were able to be of service. I hope we helped a little anyway, since we were amateurs! They seemed to appreciate our good intentions!

First Fireside in Mission Home

We were pleased and honored to have the 9th branch missionaries: Elders Ross and Hill invite some of their investigators and members who are fellowshipping them to our home for a fireside. This was our first one. After the fireside talks and special number that the Elders did, we invited them upstairs tot he family room for Caramel corn. For most, this was a first. They started out cautious, but then really liked the popcorn and most had 2 helpings! We have 5 investigators and 4 members. We loved doing this and will do it again but with a different branch and missionaries. We took two pics: One with President Smedley and one with me. We were the photographers!

Christmas in the Mission Home 2010

Coming in to the Mission Office you see the tree up on the right corner, then walking in front then up a step to see the display in the middle and on the dividers you see the garlands. Now we go up the stairs to the Mission Home on the 2nd and 3rd floors.

First stair corner landing there is the poininsetta and the snowman. Going up to the top of the lst stairs and the 2nd floor landing we see a small Chrismas Tree. And up to the 3rd flight of stairs on the corner, there are a group of three trees. Under the small decorated one is a Crocheted Nativity. This was crocheted by some women who were taken off the street by an NGO and taught a skill. The NGO store is called Tabitha and the board of directors is an LDS sister from Israel, I believe she said. Anyway, the work is done very well and it is well worth the buy because you are helping someone to be self-reliant. They work right there at Tabithas.

Going on to the 2nd floor, is our family room. We hold new missionary meetings in here and when we have guests, they utilize this room. This is the first year we have had a Christmas tree in there. It makes the room very inviting and cozy. Going on up the 3rd and 4th flights of stairs at the top of the landing is hte display on the top right. The left is a closeup of the poininsetta arrangement. I chose the flowers and stuff that went with it and a lady, was right there and arranged them. I bought one of their beautiful vases for $5 and the arrangement cost me $7. I love it and it looks so prety by the mirror. Going left into the kitchen we see in the middle a few decorations. For those who have been into our Layton home, these will look familiar! On the bottom left is a great decoration. Scott Smedley reading all of the letters from the missionaries and other correspondence!

Going straight across the landing we open a door into our living room and bedroom area. The only decoration in the bedroom is this little pillow on the bed. Oh, and on the dresser is a little nativity that Scott's Mom sent us for Christmas last year. The stars on the wall in the bottom right picture, the red silk tree on the piano, and the wall hanging in the middle picture are all from women who work on near a village near the Mekong in Vietnam. They get a nice profit from these quilted items. They also have lots of quilts at this store. The quilts are all hand quilted and made. They are beautiful and the prices are really good for all this handmade and handquilted stuff! The store is called MeKong Quilts. They now are utilizing Cambodian women and making dishes from bamboo and some fish that are moulded out of paper Maiche. It's a fun store and you can see that I quite like it. My olive wood nativitiy came from Israel. Have a avery Merry Christmas to all who may read this! Thanks.

Thanksgiving 2010

I found a great turkey at one of the stores that caters to Western tastes. It is a once a year treat and there was totally NOTHING left over but 1/2 cup of turkey. Scott is the master carver and we got two big platters of turkey.

The beautifully set tables with my little favors full of nuts and seeds to remind us of our pilgrim forefathers and our many blessings. We served 19 people including the guard and the cook/housekeeper who don't eat with us. I invited, but they are very conscientious about doing their jobs. But they did come and get a good plate of food!


The clean-up crew: Sister Liggett, Elder and Sister Curtis and Sarat.

Sister Ellingson and Sister Snyder! I was so busy enjoying the delicious food that I forgot to take pictures of the good food and the great company. We had all the 5 Senior couples serving here in Phnom Penh, the Assistants, the Office Elders, Sarat, and the guard.