Ceramic Village, Hanoi

Hanoi Vietnam December 15 - 20 2012

We enjoyed a wonderful district conference and zone conference in Hanoi Vietnam.  Pres. Moon and Elder & Sister Gong were there Saturday/Sunday with the members for the district conference, Sis. Moon and Mackenzie joined on Sunday night for the zone conference (due to the Christmas choir concert in Phnom Penh that Mackenzie was in).  We had a wonderful time in Hanoi and really fell in love with the city.  This was the first time we have had time to see some of it.  Below Sis. Huong (recently completed her mission here, now lives in Hanoi) spent some time with Sis. Moon and Mackenzie showing them around.

A very old Catholic church in Hanoi

Christmas activities with the Vietnam missionaries!  We made school supply kits that Elder & Sister Jones will take to schools.  They included notes from the missionaries encouraging them.

A beautiful view of Hanoi from the Jones' 17th floor apartment-- it was a gorgeous sunny day with very clear visibility-- something of a rarity.

We had fun playing the gift exchange game...

The missionaries seem to have taken to heart Sis. Moon's advice to buy lufas and make sure they are scrubbing to avoid skin diseases!

Carving the turkey... the Jones' had a wonderful turkey dinner catered in.. complete with stuffing, mashed potatos, gravy and rolls.  Delicious!

The missionaries with wonderful gifts sent from some wards back home...

The picture below was actually at the North District Conference in Phnom Penh, with Elder & Sister Gong... we have had two wonderful district conferences with them in December... they are absolutely wonderful and we have learned a lot from them.

Zone conference in Hanoi with all the Vietnam missionaries (below).

A group photo from the Hanoi Vietnam zone conference -- held in the chapel there.  We had a wonderful day of training and testimony together, and Elder & Sister Gong joined for part of it, and shared some wonderful thoughts and teachings with us.

Early December happenings

Some of the friends from Chamkamorn and other branches that came to support Mackenzie at her ballet performance.

On stage with others in the dance company...

Merry Christmas!

Making Nativities

One day for a family activity we decided to go to the market and see if we could find any materials to make our own nativities-- we browsed the Ouressay market for a while, and bought buttons, beads, and various things.  Then we came home and each tried to make a nativity.  Mackenzie's was very cute with made out of wooden buttons and beads of different colors.  It was a little frustrating at first as nothing seemed to work right, but with some patience and perseverance it turned into a really fun activity together as we listened to some Christmas music.

 Mom's (below) was made out of some colored glass baubles and some buttons

And Dad's was the most strange made out of finger nail polish bottles covered with beads and glue.

Deep Cleaning and Sports Day

Last week of November there is a national holiday "Water Festival"-- usually there are boat races on the river but they cancelled those this year.  But it is a tough time to do effective proselyting with most families gone to visit relatives, so we had the missionaries deep clean their apartments-- and then as a reward we had a Sports Day one morning at the North DIstrict Center, where they played basketball, volleyball, ping pong, and other games.  We joined in for some games of speed-- Mackenzie did pretty well even against the elders!