Kien and Thanh

Serving a Vietnamese mission means you have a Vietnemese name - Matt (Thanh) and James (Kien) were able to hang out recently, something that needs to happen more often - James and Monica would definitely have a house in our dream cul de sac. James lives in Ilinois and is going to law school - he was talking to Matt about becoming a lawyer... hmm, we'll see. James has three kids and you can tell he is a good dad because he would play with Claire when even her own parents were tired of playing.

A side note about this picture - Matt took James to the airport early Sunday morning; we have church at 1 pm so Matt wasn't ready in his church clothes yet, and just grabbed this yellow soccer jersey even though there were several other respectable polo shirts nearby. He said when I took this picture, he felt a little silly to be next to James in his white shirt and tie.

After Matt dropped James off at the airport, he was on his way home via the airport connector tunnel, a section of the 215 freeway that goes underneath the airport and is pretty dark and scary to drive through when traffic is bad. There was a car stalled in one of the lanes - a woman by herself trying unsuccessfully to push the car. Matt pulled over on the side of the tunnel and ran back to help her, just as a car narrowly missed the stalled vehicle as it sped through the tunnel. He was at that moment grateful to be wearing a neon yellow shirt, despite wearing it for the only picture he took with James.