Food, Food, and an Adventure in the Metro this Morning

Well, it's me again, coming to you live from the Great White North.

It's been an exciting week, and not just because of Christmas. Last week we were busy going to Christmas activities and preparing for the big day. On Saturday, we spent the morning singing Chistmas carols for really, REALLY old (some of them were over 100!) Cantonese people in the Montreal Mandarin Hospital. They didn't speak Mandarin, but the writing system is the same, so at least we could give them cards that said Merry Christmas, or 圣诞快乐. 

That evening we had the opportunity to go to a fireside from Brother and Sister Chen, the branch mission leader and his wife, about their mission in China. They're from Taiwan and, at least as far as the Chinese government is concerned, Taiwan is China so they could actually serve there. It was really cool to hear that the Church actually does exist in China, even if it's small and spread out. A lot of the members there were baptized outside and then returned to China. It's really cool to think that I'm helping to build the church in China.

Christmas was good. We called home in the morning and then went to lunch in China Town with Alice. After lunch, she bought a riduculous amount of food and we went back to her apartment for dinner. I was still full from lunch, but she just kept making food. I ate as much as I could before I was almost sick and then had to stop. She gave us the left-overs. I don't ever want to eat Chinese food ever again.

This morning was really exciting. As Elder Tsai and I were hurrying to get on the Metro, I slipped and dropped my wallet. Being in a rush, I didn't notice until we were two stations away. We went back to look, but someone had taken it. So much for Canadian manners, eh? 

Anyway, I got to call home again to make sure that my account was frozen (I dropped my wallet basically in a mall on a day that's the Canadian equivalent of Black Friday), and then went to the mission office to figure everything else out. Everything is fine. I'll be good. Elder Tsai still has enough mission money to feed us until I get a new card and besides that, we have enough food in our 'fridge to live comfortably for at least a month. 

That's the news from me this week. Hope you all have a good week.

Elder Hadden

Montreal subway

Christmas Call 2017

At about 10:15 on Christmas morning, Elder Hadden skyped his family, who was anxiously awaiting his call. 

LtoR: Mom, Caitlyn Rogers, RoseE, Caiti

He and his companion, Elder Tsai, were enjoying Christmas festivities at the home of an investigator named Alice from near Beijing, who gets baptized next Saturday.

Elder Hadden seems to be doing well.  He's not cold or hungry, and has his own bed in a tiny apartment in downtown (almost) Montreal.  He reported that Elder Tsai makes good stir fry.  They are two of six Mandarin missionaries in the immediate vicinity, and there are six more scattered elsewhere in the mission.  The branch council is more missionaries than members. They are in one of the few no-car areas of the mission.

They went caroling at the Chinese hospital during the Christmas season, but everyone they sang for spoke Cantonese.  They sang in Mandarin anyway. 

He has worn out his first pair of boots, so will be hitting the Boxing Day sales in Montreal on Tuesday for a new pair.  He also requested some "tracting pants" for his birthday in February. Other than that, he is keeping warm.  

Distinguishing the tones of the Mandarin language is still a struggle, especially if the subject of the conversation or the accent of the speaker is new to him, but he said some things in Mandarin during the call which sounded very impressive to us non-Mandarin speakers. The local Mandarin accent throws extra rrr sounds everywhere, which is also confusing. He said it's like a pirate speaking Mandarin.  So it's getting better, little by little.  

His bucket list for P-Day includes the aquarium/aviary Aquarium Récifal Raging Reef - Montreal. 

 

The Carbs Never Stop

大家好 Bonjour tout le monde! Hey everybody,

(whichever language you prefer)

I figured out how to type in Chinese this week, so now I don't have to think of interesting subjects anymore. Life gets easier every week.

It's been an interesting week. Friday was the Branch Christmas party. It was essentially the same as any other ward/branch Christmas party, except that everything was in Chinese and we got Asian Santa to come instead of White Santa. It was a ton of fun. We talked to a lot of less-actives, investigators and non-members. I talked to a Romanian(?) guy who I think is dating one of the recent converts in the Branch. He doesn't speak Chinese, but he came anyway. You never know who you're gonna talk to here.

Alice, our bread investigator, finished her unit on baking this week, so we stopped getting bread. I think we've finally managed to eat our way through it all. To compensate for our lack of bread, we got at least a half gallon of mashed potatoes from the Christmas party. I'll probably be a healthy 250 lbs when I get back if this keeps up. 

The weather this week has been cold. I think the lowest it got downtown was -17 C (1 F) with -25-ish C (-13-ish F) wind chill. Needless to say, we contacted in the Metro as much as possible instead of on the street. The weather forecast has the high at 4 C (39 F) with freezing rain. It's not raining yet, but I'm not really looking forward for it to start.

In other news, we have some big plans next week. On Christmas, Alice wants to make even more food for us, so we're gonna spend most of the day with her eating lots and lots and lots of food. In addition to Christmas, next Saturday we have three baptisms scheduled.  Next week might be the most interesting week of my mission for a long time. I'm looking forward to it.

I can't think of anything else to write, so I'm gonna move on to pictures:

Here's a really awkward picture of me with my first poutine in Quebec.

Last P-day we went and got poutine. 

Here's another picture for good measure.

More pictures of the city from the top of Alice's student residence

This is a chapel on the McGill University Campus. We taught a lesson here yesterday because it was quiet. McGill is an anglophone school, so the campus looks a lot more British than French. 

That's all from me. I hope you all have a good week. Love you all.

Elder Hadden

韩长老

470 rue Gilford

Here is where your letters and packages to Elder Hadden go, and where he goes to pick them up.

470 rue Gilford, Montreal, QC H2J 1N3

It Got Cold



Elder Tsai and Elder Hadden @ the Montreal Temple

Bonjour Hi (that's how everyone greets each other here. It's kind of funny. You never know which language to speak)

Well the days of balmy 0 C temperatures are over. It's currently dumping snow outside, holding steady at about -11 C (12 F), 87% humidity, and -17 C (1 F) wind chill. It's exciting.I did get a coat, so you all can stop worrying about that. I spent a total of 100 USD on a down coat and jacket from a liquidation sale at Sears. They're plenty warm and should hopefully last 2 years. I'll keep you all posted.

Transfers were this week, so Elder Tsai and I are alone now. Elder Leung is now in the Mandarin West area, basically covering the west side of the island. The best part of all of this is that I actually got to unpack my bags this week and I have a real bed now. I'm moving up in the world.

Saturday morning, the branch had temple baptism trip, so we all got to go to help out (there're not enough priesthood holders in the branch to actually run temple baptisms). The temple is really, really small, but just as wonderful as Salt Lake. It was a nice way to spend a morning.

Saturday evening was the Mount Royal stake (the non-French-speaking stake) Christmas concert. I was in the missionary choir and the Mandarin choir. We met some new non-members, including a couple of girls from Korea who are friends with one of our investigators. 

To answer some questions:

Elder Tsai is very nice. He's a pretty funny and very down-to-earth guy. We're getting along really well, even though I'm horrible at being a real missionary and don't speak Chinese.

The biggest issue I'm facing speaking the language is tones. I sound super white whenever I try to talk. The biggest issue with understanding is just vocabulary. 

The main part of our diet is bread. One of our investigators, Alice, is studying cooking and baking, and she gives us all the bread she makes that she can't eat. We have a lot of bread.

Oh yeah! I have good news for you all. So, all mail needs to be sent to the mission office, but guess where I am right now and go at least once a week? The mission office! So feel free to send anything you want here, and I'll pick it up at least weekly for as long as I'm in Mandarin Central. Also, in the spring, the mission is becoming a smart phone mission so I'll be able to check my email everyday like the MTC. Probably.

Cool. That's pretty much it for me this week. More people, more Chinese, more bread, more snow. Adventures every day. 

Love you all. Have a good week,

The doorway to the Montreal Temple

Elder Hadden's apartment building at night.

Elder Hadden


An example of Montreal architecture

Chapel where the Mandarin Branch and Montreal ward meet (in summer, 2 years later)

A Note and Pictures from Sister Phillips CMM

"Thank you for sharing Elder Hadden with us!  This is the group that came in the week after him and they had met him in the MTC. We enjoy having him here and are excited for all that he will be able to accomplish on his mission. Elder Hadden has a tough language to learn, but he is in an excellent environment to be able to learn it. He also has a great attitude.  We truly appreciate having him here. Enjoy the pictures!

Love, Sister Phillips"

Pres Phillips, Elder Hadden, Sister Phillips

Sis and Pres Phillips, Elder Hadden, Elder Tsai

CMM: Canada Montreal Mission

Bienvenue à Montréal

Dear all,

Well, I made it out here. Forgive my typing and spelling; the keyboard I`m using is convinced I`m spelling everything wrong because it is not French.

Anyway, its all good.

I've learned a lot this week. One of the most important things is that I do not speak Chinese, and I don't speak French very well. Communication is a little awkward, but everyone speaks English, anyway, so its not too bad.

I'll start from the beginning. I left the MTC bright and early Wednesday morning, hopped on the train, and went to the airport. I had a wonderful conversation with a Québecois couple while waiting for my flight to Toronto, which made me feel pretty confident. I was scheduled to have a one hour layover in Toronto before catching my flight to Montréal. However, when I landed, I got funneled into Customs for about 50 minutes. When I finally got my visa, I frantically ran around trying to figure out how to even get where I needed to go, all the while praying that somehow I would make my flight. I didn't even make it through security again until half an hour after my flight had already left. So, I was alone in the airport of a foreign country surrounded by people speaking French and all kinds of other crazy languages, and I was stuck. Luckily, a super nice lady working in a café let me use her cell phone to call the travel department to figure out what to do. After a short conversation with Salt Lake, I talked to the airline and had them arrange for me to be put on the next flight to Montréal without any problems. Everyday miracles.

I finally made it to Montréal about 3 or 4 hours later than I had been scheduled to. I was luckily able to find President and Sister Phillips without any problems. Salt Lake had told them that I was going to be later than scheduled, but they told them that my new arrival time was an hour before my flight actually landed. They had been waiting for about an hour and a half in the airport for me to arrive, terrified that I wasn't going to make it. We all had a good laugh about it. They took me to Tim Horton's to get some dinner, and then to my apartment.

At my apartment, I met my trainer, Elder Tsai from Taiwan, and his current companion, Elder Leung from Hong Kong. I arrived a week before the transfer, so I'm in a trio for the first little while. Elder Tsai is a native speaker, but he has lived in Vancouver for the past few years. Elder Leung is a native Cantonese speaker, but his Mandarin is just as good. I understand next to nothing they talk about.

My mission district LtoR: Elders Chih, Kim, Leinhard, Saunders, Leung, Tsai, and me

My apartment is right next to downtown. Mount Royal Park is just a few blocks up the road. Our area is downtown Montréal. We spend most of our time teaching college students from China, and contacting around college campuses, in the métro, or on the street in downtown.

Montréal is an insane place. Everything is in French.  About half of the people speak English, and a lot speak something totally different. On Thursday, I went on an hour and a half exchange with Elder Gauthier, an AP from France, also called to Chinese-speaking, and I spoke English, French, and Chinese. Sometimes all three at the same time. It's crazy.

Friday, we did exchanges with the district leader, so I spent a day with Elder Kim, from Korea, instead of my trainer. We went and visited a less active member with a member of the high Council named Cédric. Cédric is a crazy little man from Vietnam, but he has lived in Québec for about 25 years. His English is really good, but his French is better, so I talked with him in French mostly. He shared a message with the less active in French, while showing her  a video in English, as Elder Kim and I added stuff In Chinese.

The rest of the weekend was pretty normal. I've gotten into the rhythm of things a lot more now. I bore my testimony in Chinese in the Chinese branch yesterday, and met the Branch president, a very old Canadian white man.

Yesterday we taught a lesson to one of our investigators. We invited her to be baptized and she agreed. I think.

It's been a crazy week, one full of speaking lots of different languages and being really confused, but I am all right so far. I'll be sure to keep you all posted.

I love you all. Thank you for your love and support.

Sorry again for my spelling. [corrected by Mom so you won't see it]

A la prochaine

Elder Hadden

French

A la prochaine - Until next time