MTC Week Five

Hey all,

Well, last Tuesday, out of the blue, I got sick. Sick enough that later that evening I had to go back to the residence early to sleep. I had a fever, the chills, a headache, and I was completely stuffed up. Wednesday I had worse symptoms, but it luckily seemed to have run its course by Thursday morning. All in all, I feel great now, and I got a couple wonderful naps out of it, so I'm not complaining. 

Last Tuesday, Elder Stevenson came for our devotional. Luckily I was feeling well enough to make it. He talked about Preach My Gospel and developing Christ-like attributes. That's the second apostle I've actually seen here, and the third one to come to the MTC during my stay. Eight more and I'll have the whole set.

I feel like my Chinese improved a lot this week compared to last week. I was able to understand our investigators a lot better in our practice lessons. It feels pretty cool to be able to speak and understand so much after only five weeks of learning. 

I've also been trying to learn enough characters to be able to understand scriptures in the Book of Mormon. I swear you have to have degrees in both art and Asian history to even have a chance at being literate in this language, but I'm doing all right, considering my lack of education. The Spirit is making up for what I don't have.

Other than that, the only interesting thing is that we're gonna lose another district next week. I'm sad to see them start packing in preparation to head to the field, but it's also good to see that there is an an end to this experience. 

That's the news from the MTC this week. Hope you all are doing well. Your prayers, love, and candy are always appreciated. 

Love you all!

Elder Chan's scripture covers designed from British candy wrappers.

All my scripture and language study materials!

Friend Elder Monk, who will be shipping out soon.

Elder Hadden

Mormonspeak

Preach My Gospel: the missionary training manual of the LDS church. You can get it on Amazon here! 

A Report from Elder Chan

Elder Chan is Elder Hadden's MTC companion.  They do everything together, keep each other on the straight and narrow, help each other learn.  Yesterday, I got an email report from him.


"Good Morning,

. . .

Elder Hadden is a great companion to me, we get along very well. He is very hard working, and becomes my alarm clock when I drift asleep during the day. It has been a pleasure learning/growing with him so far, and I look forward to the remaining weeks with him. 

I wish you all the best.

Kind Regards,

Elder Chan"

MTC Week Four

I've gotta be really into the swing of things now, because it feels like my last P-day was yesterday. Things are going just about as well as they always have been. The language is still coming along pretty well.  I memorized the First Vision in Chinese this week, which adds to the Missionary Purpose and Moroni 10:5 that I've already memorized. Everyone in my zone can recite all three of those in Chinese, but no one can recite them in English. It's pretty funny. Every time I teach, I can say more and more, and speak more fluently.  I think it probably took me about a year and a half to two years to get to this point in French, so honestly I'm amazed at how quickly it's coming. Yuyan de enci shi zhenshi de. 

That's not to say I'm by any means good at speaking Chinese yet. The other day I was praying with Elder Chan and I meant to say "women ganxie nin cigei women zhege jihua de jihui" (we thank thee for giving us this planning opportunity) but I accidentally said "Women ganxie nin cigei women zhege panjiao de jihui" (we thank thee for giving us this apostate opportunity). It was a little awkward.

Elder Hadden's October package. 

Elder Chan and I got our packages this week. We were both very excited, and he was very grateful to have some British chocolate again. We both loved our hats and all the other goodies you sent to us. Thank you.

Yesterday we had the president of UVU come to give our Sunday devotional. He talked about how Christ is our guiding star to happiness, and how important it is that we hold on through the hard times to receive the happiness that he offers. He compared our missionary experiences to the story of the Provo Tabernacle to say that even though we may be beaten or spiritually destroyed, the Lord will build us up into an even more incredible temple if we hold on and trust in him. It was really good. 

The Provo Tabernacle after the 17 December 2010 fire.

About once a week I run into someone who either speaks French or is learning French, and every once in a while I run into someone who's going to Montreal speaking French and Spanish. I've yet to meet someone going there speaking just French, or anyone besides the one Elder who's speaking Chinese. It's always nice to speak French with them just to make sure I still can, and remind myself that there is a foreign language I can speak better than a toddler.

We got new Mandarin missionaries in our zone this week. Three Elders and six Sisters, most from Utah, one from California, and one sister from New Zealand.  It feels really good not to be the newest people anymore, and it's fun to meet new people who still have their sanity. 

I think that's about it for this week. I'm another week closer to leaving for Quebec, and another week into learning Chinese. 

Thank you all for the letters, emails, and packages you send. They make my day whenever I get one. I love you all. 

Wo hen ai nimen,

Elder Hadden

Mormonspeak

The First Vision

The story of Joseph Smith seeing God and Jesus Christ, and eventually receiving the gold plates which were translated into what we now know as the Book of Mormon.   The First Vision

Moroni 10:5

"And by the power of the Holy Ghost ye may know the truth of all things."

Provo Tabernacle

The Provo Tabernacle in 2016 after it was reconstructed as the Provo Temple.

On 17 December 2010, after Christmas decorations had been put up in the Provo Tabernacle, the building caught fire and the interior was completely destroyed, except for a large painting of Christ.  Over the next six years, it was rebuilt as an LDS temple, to the same exterior specifications as the original building, but with a much more updated and beautiful interior.

CHRISTMAS in the Mission

From President and Sister Philips        

Dear Family,                                                                                                       Oct 19th 2017

Hi everyone. We know that it is only October and many of us are not thinking about Christmas yet, but I decided to send out a quick email to the families of our missionaries about Christmas packages.  Having been a mother of three missionaries so far, I know that it is important to many of you that your son or daughter gets their Christmas package on time.  Here are a few tips that may help:

1.  Make sure that you send things well in advance.  Any letters sent from our home in Idaho take two weeks to get to the mission home.  If you send mail or a package to the mission office, we collect those packages and take them to the respective zones about once a month.  It may be more often, but sometimes it takes that long.

2. We would prefer that you send Christmas packages directly to the mission office.  The postal service will often not deliver to an address that does not have the correct name associated with the package being delivered.  Leases are not set in your missionary’s name.  The address for the mission office is:

Canada Montreal Mission 

470 Rue Gilford

Ste. 300

Montreal  QC   H2J 1N3

Canada



3.  We will be delivering the packages at the December zone conferences.  The first one is Dec 11th.  If your missionary’s package is not here by their zone conference, we will not be able to get it to them. The farthest zone is 3 hours away, and some missionaries are 6 hours away from the office.  We cannot make another trip to bring your package to them.  Sorry J

4. A great alternative is Amazon.ca.  There are no customs associated if you order from them and they will deliver what you purchase directly to the office.  Prime works J

5. If you send a Christmas package, please clearly mark on the package that it is for Christmas.  J

6. Customs is tricky!  Be very cautious about the dollar value of what you send.  I have talked to the Canadian postal service and they have told me that any value over $100.00 will end up in customs and your missionary will be charged when the package arrives.  We have had several missionaries have to pay large amounts, up to $125, for packages sent from home.  Customs also delays your package by several weeks.

7. On a personal note, with my children who have served in Switzerland, Mozambique and Ecuador, I have often sent two small packages instead of one large one to avoid customs.  If you decide to do that, make sure both packages are clearly marked for your missionary for Christmas

8. Last note…no matter how hard we try, sometimes the postal system does not work like we wish and our missionaries do not get their packages on time.  I sent a Christmas package to Ecuador the first of November and my son opened his Christmas package on Valentine’s Day.  Sometimes that is what happens, and we just have to smile and know that we tried our best.  The most important thing is that our missionaries need to know that we love them and that we are proud of the service they are giving.

If you are planning on sending Elder Hadden something for Christmas (and thank you, in advance, if you are!), please mail early (BEFORE Thanksgiving) and send it to the mission office.

Rose and Todd Hadden

MTC Week Three

Hey everybody,

Last Tuesday Elder Christofferson came to give a devotional. It was super cool cool to have him come just to talk to us. He talked about the history of the printing of the Book of Mormon, and how important it was to the early Saints. I hear they try to have at least one apostle every three weeks speak, so hopefully I'll get to see a couple more before I leave.

The dedication of the new buildings was on Friday. Elder Oaks and President Eyring came, but I didn't actually see them so I don't count it.

Other than the apostles, nothing particularly interesting happened this week. All the days are starting to blur together because they're all effectively the same. Chinese is still coming. Much slower than I'd like but way faster than would normally be possible. Elder Chan and I taught at least one lesson to our "investigators" every day this week, and did an activity on Saturday where we taught real members who spoke Mandarin. That was really cool. Teaching real people is a lot more rewarding than teaching actors.

I met the other Mandarin-speaking missionary going to Montreal this week, but he left today so I'm not gonna see him again until I get out there. He seemed like a really cool guy though. I also met a sister from Montreal the other day. She's going to be serving on Temple Square so you might run into her at some point. We spoke French to each other and asked each other questions about our mission areas since we lived in each other's missions. It was pretty cool.

This week marked the ninth week for two districts in my zone. A couple of them gave talks in church yesterday, and they all shipped off for their missions today. Our residence is super empty now, but we have another district coming in on Wednesday to replace them. We finally won't be the new kids anymore.

My district got asked to be greeters when the new missionaries arrive on Wednesday too. We're all super excited for that.

That's pretty much my week. It was pretty normal. If you guys have any questions, feel free to ask.

Love you all,

Wo ai nimen

Elder Hadden

My district at the temple this morning 16OCT17

Mormonspeak

Temple Square - the block in downtown Salt Lake City where the Salt Lake temple is located, as well as two visitor centers, the Tabernacle (home of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir),and other church admin buildings.

MTC Week Two

Hey all,

This week has been pretty good. I'm into my normal schedule now, so the next weeks should hopefully go by pretty quickly. 

I greatly appreciate all the mail I've been getting. The package from Grant and Lucy made my day,

and the Biscuits Voyageurs are great. I love you all lots, and I'm glad you're thinking about me.

One of the elders in my district tried to do a back flip the other day. He weighs 270 pounds, and is built like a tank. Considering how big he is, he got really close to landing it, but he didn't, and now he's on crutches and has to go to the BYU Clinic today. Exciting stuff.

Everybody seems to be really interested in Elder Chan, but I don't really know what else to say about him. He was born and raised in Birmingham, England. He's 19. His dad is from Hong Kong. He has several older siblings who all served missions, most of them speaking Mandarin, either in Australia or Taiwan, except for one who served in Russia, speaking Russian. This is the first time he's been out of the UK, and I kinda feel bad for him because he's stuck here and unable to actually see anything. He's a really cool guy. I'm glad he's my companion.

My daily schedule consists of an hour of exercise in the morning, either before or after breakfast. Then Elder Chan and I head up to the building our classroom is in and do personal companion and language study for an hour each. Then we have lunch, and then class in the afternoon. He's the district leader, so we get to go check the mail at lunch and dinner everyday, which is pretty exciting. After afternoon class, we have dinner and then another language class. This week we taught 3 more lessons to our "Investigator," who then became our language teacher on Friday. He gave us some tips and a really cool perspective on the Gift of Tongues. He told us that the gift of tongues is not the magical ability to speak perfect language, it's the the power and spirit that your limited words can carry. With that knowledge, he challenged us to prepare a lesson without scripting any Chinese or reading from our cheat book of missionary phrases. Elder Chan and I did this, and taught him again (this time he was playing a different investigator). our lesson was very short, and very simple, but really good. We taught with the Spirit even with our limited words. It was super cool.

For Dad, I'm in the Ray L Pratt building, which I think is just south of the Erastus Snow building. I'm in Branch 2, District E. I have very little contact with Canadian missionaries. There are a couple elders in my branch from Alberta, who I've talked to a lot. I've met a few Elders going to Montreal speaking French and Spanish, and I hear there's an elder in the other Chinese branch, Branch 1, who's speaking Mandarin and French in Montreal, but I haven't met him. I'm almost certain he'll be my companion at some point though.

Overall, I'm doing really well. Nothing is going wrong. Life's good. I'll see if I can get some pictures this week.

Here's a picture of Elder Chan and me at the temple today. (09OCT17)

Here's the BYU marching band in the homecoming parade that we watched from our classroom window while we should have been studying. Good times.

Here's the view where Elder Chan and I normally study.

Have a good week everyone. You can send me emails any time. I read them every evening.

Love you All!

Zai Jian

Elder Hadden

Voyageurspeak

Biscuits Voyageurs - small cookies made with every seed and nut and dried fruit imaginable, plus some M&Ms and chocolate chips thrown in for interest. A staple of the French Voyageur students at Concordia College's French language camp, Lac du Bois, at Bemidji, MN.

Mormonspeak

BYU - Brigham Young University, which campus is right next to the Missionary Training Center (MTC) in Provo.

Elder - All male missionaries are addressed as Elder, and all female missionaries are addressed as Sister.

Spirit - the Holy Spirit or Holy Ghost.  

MTC Week One

Hey Everybody!

Mondays are my P-Days, just so you all know. 

Life is pretty good here. I thought it was gonna be really hard to adapt, but it hasn't been that hard. The first few days were pretty long, but they're starting to really speed up now. 

My companion is named Elder Chan. He's from Birmingham, England. His dad is from Hong Kong, but he speaks just as much Mandarin and Cantonese as I do. He's going to Calgary on his mission. The other missionaries in our district are all really cool. They're all going to the US, Canada, or Australia, speaking Mandarin, with the exception of Sister Rafie who's going to Hong Kong. We started language classes immediately after getting here (seriously, I put my stuff in my room and then went to my classroom where I was bombarded by Chinese), and since then we've all learned a lot and taught a discussion in mandarin. The discussion was really rough. Elder Chan and I had absolutely no idea what our "investigator" was saying and our whole lesson was read word for word from a language book, but we both bore our testimonies and got him to commit to pray. At least, I think he did.

Conference was super cool here. All the missionaries in the MTC watched it in the assembly hall/gym. There was a great spirit there as everyone studiously took notes on all of the talks. The seats in the assembly hall are the most uncomfortable seats I've ever sat in, so it was hard to sit there for so long, but at least we all stayed awake. 

In other news, the food is fine. It's about as good as camp food, so I don't mind it at all. Some of the elders in our district woke up early this morning to do a session in the temple, and that was really nice. I have an Ipad here for some reason, so I think I can read emails at any time during the week, but I just can't respond to them. So if you guys want me to know something, just say it's really important and I might have time to read it. I feel like I'm adjusting well and everything is going all right. I hope it's the same there. I'll try to attach some pictures as well. 

(Never mind, Elder Chan and I have both tried to upload a picture, and it's not working. Maybe in future weeks. Stay tuned.)

I hope you all are doing well,

Elder Hadden

Han Zhang Lao

Mormonspeak Dictionary

Conference=General Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. These happen twice a year, in October and April. The leadership of the church gives direction to the members.  It is broadcast on TV in Utah, and at the meeting houses in the rest of the world.

MTC=Missionary Training Center. This one's in Provo, Utah.

P-Day=Preparation Day:  The one day during the week that missionaries don't have to work.  Instead, they do laundry, write to their families, play basketball, see the sights, etc.