JoBro's are da bomb

Sorry I'm writing you all on a Tuesday instead of Monday like usual. We had a conference yesterday with President Moon. He came out to HCM for a couple days as our "Christmas present". It was pretty good other than the fact that the power was out the entire morning and we were forced to have the conference in the dark and without air conditioning. I love the heat though so no probs. The best part of President Moon coming is always the food. Last time he was here we ordered Domino's Pizza and this time we went out to a pretty good restaurant. I had a chicken panini and it was a major throwback to my SVU days when I ate chicken panini's every single day. The menus at the restaurant had pictures of the Jonas Brothers on it though...that was basically the worst thing to ever happen.

Jonas Brothers menu's at a "high class" restaurant. 

 

 Last week the district went to Burger King and the JoBro's were playing and I wanted to die because I have loved them for like five years. I had to cover my ears while at BK and yesterday at the restaurant the Elders took the menus away from me. #RoughLife Seriously though, music has been a HUGE temptation for me. Trying to leave behind all those worldly things is so much harder than I thought it would be. Once while at BK Norah Jones started playing. NORAH JONES! The woman that I have loved since I was like 10 years old! And a couple weeks ago I had Pocket Full of Sunshine stuck in my head! Seriously, of all the songs that could be stuck in my head it was that. PMITF Usually when I get those worldly things in my head though I just sing "Come Thou Fount" and I feel like a 10 again. 

 

-So each Thursday and Friday we have English classes and this week was the end of a six week course so we had a special activity - BINGO! I was the Emcee along with Anh Ca Tri and it was the bees knees. No one understands my jokes so that's always the best. The grand prize for the winner was a rice cooker...classic. When we presented it everyone flipped out. I've never seen such an intense game of bingo!

-At the church we have two security guys who're basically the absolute best! They're hilarious and they're kind of like dad's for the missionaries. They always help us out and talk to us while we wait at the church for lessons. Early last week one of them saw that my watch is gold and told me I have to get rid of it or someone will cut off my hand while I'm biking. Yep, that legitimately happens. I bought a new watch a couple hours later...

-I used to think in Vietnam there were only two accents, but apparently people in each province speak differently. The members think I speak with a central accent, so now I'm totally embracing that. There aren't any missionaries that aren't native that speak central, so my goal is to get really good at it. I'm not quite sure how I have developed a central accent other than maybe it's from hearing the family speak with it and the summer I spent here I lived in a central city, but I don't know if that's enough for me to actually speak like that. I've learned most of my Viet in the MTC and in Saigon, so it's interesting that I sound different. Plus, my companion is northern so if anything I should be speaking like her. I refuse to have a northern accent though! Everything in the south that would be said with a 'ra' or 'ya' sound, the northerner's say 'za'. I absolutely hate it. 

-The best news of this week: I'm changing my name! That's right, I'm no longer Trinh, at least for my first name. I chose the name Trinh before because it's my mom's maiden name, but her Trinh has a different accent that makes it a last name. For missionaries we use first names though so I had to make mine different. Well, I never really liked the name so I'm changing my name to Ly. In Vietnamese if a person is older than you, you call them Chi or Anh and they call younger people Em. I'm younger than most people so they call me Em Trinh and if I change my name everyone will call me Em Ly - Emily! Sweet huh?! And now that I have a different first name my last name can be Trinh like my mom's maiden name! So my name is Ly Trinh. I still have to figure out what my middle name is though. I'm pretty excited about this! 

 

And that is all for this week. It's almost Christmas! I hope the holidays are going well for all of you! 

Listen to the JoBro's for me, okay?

 

You know you're in Vietnam when the Christmas tree isn't full enough until it gets wrapped with Christmas garland. 

 

-Chi Ca Ly

 

P.S. I already know the Jonas Brothers broke up so if anyone reply's to this email telling me about it I will be upset. I already went through a mourning period, I don't need to be reminded of that.