Ho Chi Minh and Hanoi

On sept 2nd, Scott and I flew to Ho Chi Minh. However,all of my pictures this time are of Hanoi! In Ho Chi Minh we met with the Blinns and had a Zone Conference at our hotel in a conference room. It was a wonderful training and experience feeling of their great spirits and that of Sister Clare Zhou, one of our former members in the International branch who went on a mission to Temple Square. She is now working in Vietnam waiting her time to go to BYU Hawaii. The next day, Scott had 18 interviews at the church. I stayed in the Hotel and did some church assignments on the computer. It was quiet and I enjoyed my Saturday there. In the afternoon I took Sister Blinn on a little excursion to a market nearby the hotel after eating lunch with her. We had a great visit and she is a wonderful senior sister missionary. Her and her husband are the LDSC couple in Ho Chi Minh.
The flowers above however, are from the hotel in Ho Chi Minh. We flew to Hanoi on the late flight and arrived about 10:30. Scott realized as we were getting in the taxi, that he had left his new Ipad2 in the airplane from Ho Chi Minh. So after much inner prayers, he found someone to help him and he got his Ipad back! It was a miracle, I'd say. So we finally got in about midnight or later to our hotel in Hanoi. In Hanoi after church they had 4 baptisms. There is no room outside the building for a font, so they have one they set up in the back of the Chapel area in the kitchen area. It is not deep and the one baptising has to bend down quite a ways, but only one person had to be baptized twice! Elder Son visits with Anita, one of our stalwart members in teh Hanoi branch.

I loved the flowers in the Hanoi hotel also. You can see how big they are as I am standing next to them. We went into a home there after church to see the new member's home. Her husband collects antiques and stuffed animal heads. This one had huge antlers. The chest has the inlaid ivory in it and is just beautiful. We were later invited to eat at her house several days later.

From the Hotel we can see this lake. The people are on little swan paddle boats going out on the lake. It all looked rather serene. At this hotel I rarely see anyone swimming in the pool. I had to capture on camera, that people actually use it!. I got to train the Primary and Relief Society presidencies on Monday afternoon, after we had our Zone Conference with our Elders and the Michels.

Later Monday evening we got to go to the Young Adult Home Evening. They were having a fruit decorating contest. This event took place int eh Michel's apartment . They had the Michel's neighbor come and judge the most artistic arrangements of this pomeo. I was quite impressed with their ideas. We then had a great meal that wonderful Sister Michel had made. What a woman to feed this large crowd! She serves a great German potato salad. One of my favs. It was a great night, with I think about 11 nonmembers present! It was the last night for the sister conducting to be part of this group. Her and her boyfriend were getting married that weekend in the Manila Temple!