Chúc Mừng Năm Mới!!

It's officially 2017! Which means the year that I come home.. Also the year that I turn 20.. I don't know which one is weirder.

I'd like to start off by apologizing. There are going to be so many pictures today. I'm so sorry. But we just happened to have the coolest P-day ever last Monday (Ninh Binh), plus all the Christmas activities - hence 100s of pictures coming your way.

The other day, Chi Man Nghi and I were out contacting when I spotted a Starbucks on the corner of a street. It was almost lunch time so 1) I was hungry 2) I haven't had Starbucks in like 8 months and 3) it was cold outside, so I asked her if we could stop by and get hot chocolate. She knows how I feel about chocolate, so she agreed. Long story short, we ran into two dads and had a good conversation with them about missionary work and the church! It was awesome! The lesson that we can all take away from this experience is this: Never shy away from your chocolate cravings. It will always lead to good opportunities to share the gospel.

We got a fresh batch of elders on Thursday! And, the best part, 3 of them are 100% American with absolutely no tie to Vietnam! Elder Player, Anh Ca Cong, is in our zone here in Hanoi - the others went down to Saigon. It's so funny to see this tall, 18 year old American walking around among all the Vietnamese people. It's awesome.

And, the last exciting thing of the week - I KNOCKED ON MY FIRST DOOR. We aren't allowed to go tracting here, which is when you go around knocking doors. We normally just go contacting at stores or parks. But, the Thursday before Christmas, we made some toffee to pass around to all of our neighbors that live on our floor. We got to go around, knock on their doors, introduce ourselves and invite them to church! It was SO MUCH FUN. A little bummed we don't have permission to do that everyday.

If there was one quote to summarize the past two weeks (because I didn't email last Monday), it would be this: "Chị là người nữ, và em ấy còn trẻ, thì không sau, an toàn mà." (translation: I'm a woman, and he's still young. It's fine, totally safe.) This was told to us by a PI we met the other day. We stopped by her house again to give her a Book of Mormon, and afterwards she told us that if we were ever too tired from our work, we would just crash and go to bed at her house. So so so nice, but breaks about 100 missionary rules. I just love how kind Vietnamese people are.

I hope everyone had a great Christmas and a happy New Year!! I got to Skype my family Christmas night, LOVED IT (even though they were half asleep because it was 7:30 in the morning, I know, SO EARLY). Thanks for all the emails and pictures! Have a great week!