A Visit With Family

March 15-27, 2018

We were excited to have Sharon's daughter and son-in-law, Shauna and Andrew, visit us for two weeks. Seeing them, after not visiting with family members for over a year, was a wonderful experience. We wanted them to see what our mission is really like and what we do, working with Latter Day Saints Charities for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, so we planned a very busy couple of weeks.

The morning after Shauna and Andrew arrived, we drove with with them several hours to Thai Binh to visit four different schools in the area and view the various stages of progress on our current projects with LDSC, providing new updated latrines for the students. Mr. Giang and The Red Cross has been a great partner to us, helping us to get clean water and new latrines in many schools there. Shauna and Andrew were able to participate in a ground-breaking ceremony for the new latrines at one of the schools we visited. As always, the people are gracious and so generous with their gifts and gratitude to us. Mr. Giang treated us to a delicious lunch of fish, crab and shrimp -- the first of many authentic Vietnamese meals for Shauna and Andrew to experience. 

The very next day, we took them along for the combined activity with the Long Bien and Hanoi branches -- hiking, paddle boating and a picnic. Exploring and spending the entire day with the branch members was an opportunity for Shauna and Andrew to get to know and fall in love with the special LDS members here. 

After exploring, we were pretty hungry and sat down to eat, only prepared to have a snack of spicy mango, french fries and a few veggies, but the Branch members soon brought plate after plate of delicious food to our table -- BBQ pork kabobs, 2 kinds of tasty sticky rice (the best we've ever tasted!), hot dog sushi, and fruit for dessert... It was quite a feast and we were touched that they shared all of their amazing food with us.

Finding a little time to do some sight-seeing, the four us us took a few days to tour Cat Ba Island, by way of ferry from Hai Phong. It was an incredible, once in a lifetime experience, taking in the views of the unique limestone islands, while cruising through the emerald green waters of Lan Ha Bay. It was also an opportunity for us to get a rare glimpse of the sun that is usually veiled by the thick clouds and smog in the city of Hanoi. 

Kayaking in Lan Ha Bay

The cook and crew were phenomenal!

Sunset on the bay

View at the top of Ngu Lam Peak on Cat Ba

View of the bay from the resort on Cat Ba

We were invited to a Government Spring Festival Friendship Tour with PACCOM and they arranged for a procession of buses to take us to the oldest Citadel in the city, as well as a classic Vietnamese water puppet show, and finally, finishing off the tour with lunch and authentic Vietnamese cultural entertainment at Smileyville. This was a rare opportunity to visit with the local Communist Government leaders, as well as a lot of the other NGO’s, working here in Vietnam to improve the quality of life for the people, here in the country.

On Sunday we went to the Long Bien Branch church meetings. Afterward, Shauna came along with the Women’s Organization and the sister missionaries to visit Hai Anh’s home -- an investigator at the time of our visit. Her father treated us to a delicious Bun Cha lunch. (Hai Anh was recently baptized in May.) 

One of our most treasured experiences was to take Shauna and Andrew to celebrate at the Quyen Hoa Vocational School handover ceremony. We have worked to help this school re-build their collapsing, almost non-existent kitchen, as well as to give wheelchairs and computers to help with the training of the handicapped students. It was wonderful to finally celebrate the completion, and see how this project has changed and blessed the lives of the students here. Upon our arrival, we were welcomed in a big way.

The students were so excited to see us and share in the celebrating, and expressed their enthusiasm by greeting us with big hugs and smiles. They wore their best school clothes -- many of the girls in their pretty Ao Dai dresses; and they conveyed their gratitude by presenting flowers and gifts, singing for us and serving us a delicious lunch. We spent the rest of the afternoon visiting, dancing, and taking lots of "selfies"! -- an activity that we find teens and tweens love to do here, in Vietnam, almost as much as they do in the USA.

We were also able to go to Bach Mai Hospital, the largest hospital in Vietnam, to the spinal injury center, and oversee the progress on our continuing projects there -- providing new latrines and wheelchairs for the patients there. 

It was a busy couple of weeks for sure, and so special for us to be able to share with Shauna and Andrew, the projects we've been working on as missionaries for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. In just the short time that they were here, they grew to love Vietnam and the remarkable, gracious and generous people that call this country home.

Having Shauna and Andrew here was a poignant reminder that we are so far away from the family we dearly love and miss back home. However, we know that we are where the Lord wants and needs us to be, and we are so grateful for the incredible opportunities we are experiencing through loving and serving the people here, in Vietnam. We will cherish these eighteen months and always remember the love and camaraderie we have felt, living amongst our now and forever Vietnamese friends.