Celebrating Tet

 January 24, 2023

Hello Family and Friends,

We are in the middle of Tet celebration week. Every business except essential ones have closed their doors and gone to celebrate and be with their families. Parts of the city are so quiet but where there are Pagoda’s or pretty places for pictures there are so many people! There are colorful flags, lanterns, red country flags, lots of flowers, especially orchids, yellow mums and red poinsettias. There are kumquat trees, peach trees with pink blossoms and apricot trees with yellow blossoms being sold along the streets. Homes and businesses will have some type of decoration. The poor will buy a small 1 foot tree or small twigs to display and the rich will have multiple large live trees in pots around their home and large flower arrangements of orchids inside. There were fireworks all over the city on New Year's Eve. Church attendance was pretty low because people were on their hometowns with parents and grandparents. Before Tet starts the children and grandchildren clean the homes of their older parents and grandparents. They may stay up until 2 am getting a home clean and in order. The least favorite job is dusting the ornate details in the wood furniture with q-tips to get it dust free. 

During Tet families visit cemeteries to remember their ancestors, then they travel from house to house to visit extend family. Traditional food is served, boiled chicken, pork sausage (looks like lunch meat), cooked vegetables like broccoli, corn, bok choy, rice, spring rolls, fish sauce (taste good, smells bad), soup, a meat dish that looks like meat jello, chung cake, and other foods I don’t know how to describe. Dessert is fruit, watermelon and pomelo are the most common. 

As mission leaders/church leaders we invited the members when they went home to take  pictures of the headstones, record the stories told about their relatives, take pictures of their family genealogy books. Most families have one book, The Gia Phả, or the Family or Clan book. Families have kept these records for 22 or 24 generations. The problem is accessing the book. But if they are given access they will learn 1,000’s of names, sometimes only the male names in the family and sometimes the whole family. 

We had the opportunity to celebrate 3 different times. Once with Sister Thu, a returned missionary. We enjoyed eating with her mom, brother, sister and grandpa. Other family and neighbors greeted us and stopped by to say hi. We also celebrated as a mission. We ate a big variety of food and had some talks about traditional clothing, food and celebrating Tet. Next we enjoyed a Tet meal at another returned missionary Sister Minh’s home. We were joined by other returned missionaries, and 2 senior couples. Her mom and brother were also gracious hosts. At sister MInh’s home we ate hot pot. This is were you gather around boiling broth cooking in a electric pot. It is similar to fondu but on a bigger scale. Vegetables, balut, chicken, pork, beef, fish, noodles, all are added in and you take out with chopsticks what you want to eat, FOod is continually added as everyone eats. I am getting much better at chopsticks! Larry ate his second ballot (a fertilized duck egg boiled). I took one bite, it tasted like a boiled egg. I reached in and grabbed another piece of chicken with my chopsticks. A whole chicken has been chopped with the bones and all into 3 inch by 1 inch pieces. The meat cleaver must be so sharp. I had seen the feet boiling in the pot and I pulled out a piece that didn’t seem to have much meat on it. Upon further inspection, I had pulled out he chicken head! Lucky me. I graciously declined eating it. We also had some returned missionaries stop by for a visit and we went to visit some or our leaders to wish them Happy New year. The definitely know how to celebrate Tet more than Christmas. But they celebrate Tet very similar to Thanksgiving. Everyone looks forward to it. It is a happy time in Vietnam. 

We will be receiving 15 new missionaries next week. It is wonderful they are finally arriving in Vietnam. We are happy they are coming. The Americans are really out numbering our locals now and it has changed the culture of the mission. Not in a bad way, just a new way. We really need more locals to serve, it will strengthen the YSA converts and the foundation of the church in Vietnam. We could use your prayers for the YS’s to have the desire to serve and the courage to ask their parents if they can go. We need more Amuleks. 

We love you, we are working hard. We love the members and missionaries so much. We feel blessed to serve and lead them. We wish you a happy, healthy, and blessed New Year. 

Love, Sister Hughes