Twisters and Transfers

                                                                                 Dear all, 

A really dramatic picture of me dressed like a WWII soldier.

I regret promising to send a more interesting email this week, because this week got REALLY exciting. If you hadn't heard, Ottawa got hit by a pretty serious tornado on Friday night. We didn't get hit too hard, since we're pretty close to Downtown, but the far west side of the city pretty much got destroyed, and a lot of other areas lost power. Our building lost power for about a day, and that was as serious as we got. 

Elder Burton and I got the call from the Zone Leaders telling us to go on lock-down while we were downtown. So we struggled through the storm and the traffic to make it to the church building right next to our apartment building to wait out the storm. We spent a few hours there, and lost power after a while. Once the storm had calmed down it was about 7 pm, and we headed back to our apartment to eat some dinner. When we got there though, we realized we had no power and couldn't make any food, so we drove downtown (which still had power) so we could eat at Subway. 

Our tornado selfie.

Me after our midnight trek across Ottawa.

We decided to spend the night in our dead apartment, and that went pretty well until about 2:30 am when our carbon monoxide detector went off. Elder Burton and I, with our sleep-deprived brains, decided that the best course of action would be to ditch our apartment and head to the Dow's Lake Elders' apartment (which is currently uninhabited) downtown. After a quick text to the Zone Leaders, we drove across a totally dark and deserted Ottawa, and spent the rest of our night there. Our power came back later the next day, so we went back home that evening.

Yesterday, all the missionaries in Ottawa headed out to Dunrobin, a little suburb way to the west of the city, to help out with cleanup. They got hit the hardest, and most of the houses were missing roofs, or walls, or were totally destroyed. It's kind of weird to help people pick up their broken house, but it was really nice to help out and do some manual labor. 

Us helping out in Dunrobin after the tornado 9/22/2018

The beautiful sunset that followed the storm.

In other news, transfer calls came. I'm going back to downtown Montreal to be in the English-speaking Montreal ward. It's pretty much the same area as I was in with Elder Tsai and Elder Furness, I'll just be speaking English instead of Chinese. I'm definitely excited to go back to Montreal, but I'll miss the laid-back feeling of living in a smaller city. It should be pretty fun when all is said and done, though. 

Elder Burton and I took a selfie in front of Hitler's car.

Oh, we also went to the war museum last week. 

Love you all. I'll send pictures, too.

Elder Hadden

A for-real piece of the for-real Lusitania.

More dress-up.

. . . and more dress-up.

More sunset.

Fried Rice

Dear all,

It's been a long week. It feels like they slipped a couple extra days in there. And it was really hot, too. It started to cool down last week, so it felt all nice and autumn-y, but this week it went back to being in the thirties (Celsius) every day. Hopefully it will cool down again soon. 

Despite it being long and hot, we actually got a lot done this week. We found a lot more Chinese people around the universities and actually started meeting with a few of them. None of them are super involved yet, but hopefully some are on there way. Things are certainly moving along.

It's all just in time for me to (maybe) move, too. Transfer call comes this Saturday.  We'll see if I'm gonna stay here or leave. I feel like I might leave Ottawa and speak French, but I also might train a Chinese missionary here. Or maybe I'll go back to Montreal. You never know. Maybe I'll even get to keep a companion for a full two transfers for the first time ever...

Our experience at Chocolats Favoris

In other news, Elder Burton and I went to the famed Chocolats Favorits last P-day, and it was about what I had heard. Pretty much just a really rich and really fancy DQ. We got the small cones and almost could not finish because it was just so rich. The first couple bites were pretty good though. 

Today we are gonna go to the war museum maybe. We'll see what happens in the end. 

Next weeks email will be more exciting. I promise.

Love you all,

Elder Hadden

Oh yeah. I forgot to talk about the interesting thing that happened this week. On Sunday, Elder Burton and I got to be part of a baby blessing for the son of a member in the ward. Her husband is a CBC (Canadian born Chinese), who isn't a member. The kid's middle name is 超凡 (Chao Fan) but if you say it wrong it's 炒饭（Chao fan) which means fried rice. Elder Burton and I joke with them about it. It was really cool to be a part of the blessing, and I'm really glad she asked us to.

Oh yeah, and pictures:

A cool view of the canal at night by Carleton University

A really big spider we saw at Carleton.
There were a ton of them out and about that night.

I remembered the subject line this week

Dear all,

This week I sweet exchanged with Elder Luedtke in the Chapel Hill area on the east side of Ottawa. He's from Davis County [Utah], and we spent our day telling each other stories from high school and the MTC. IT was a wonderful day.  Exchanges are really just like missionary sleep-overs. You spend the whole time gossiping about stuff back home and goofing around. They are a wonderful break from normal missionary work. 

Train selfies in the science museum

Other than that, Last Tuesday Elder Burton and I went to the Canadian Science and Technology Museum and played a sweet theramin (videos attached maybe). 

In terms of actual missionary work, we finally got to meet with a Chinese recent convert in Riverside who has spent the last few months back in China. His name is Xu Hai Gen and he's a student at Carleton University.  We came over to his house to see his really impressive collection of BB guns, and eat some really good Chinese food. Probably one of the best meals we've had so far in Riverside. 

The hours of walking around college campus are starting to pay off. We've talked to a few people who are interested, and have scheduled a few return appointments for this week. We'll see how they go.

We walked past some waterfalls on the
Rideau River the other day

Today, Elder Burton and I are going to a Quebecois ice cream place called "Chocolat favoris." Among French-speaking missionaries, it's regarded to be "the best thing ever"; however, I've heard some skeptical reviews from Mandarin missionaries (they have very different perspectives on just about everything. It's almost like a counterculture in some ways.) Neither Elder Burton nor I have been there so far, so we're gonna check it out. 

Love you all,

Some chamomile tea

Elder Hadden

Chocolat Favoris - these look amazing!  Here's a link:  Chocolat Favoris website

theramin - here's a link to the wikipedia definition of one:  Theramin description. Even cooler, here is a video of someone playing a theramin (although not Elder Hadden):  A Theramin being played

Ottawa Zone 20AUG18

This was posted today on facebook by Michelle Phillips, the mission president's wife.

School is Back in Session

Dear all,

School is back in session now. There are many Chinese people all over the place again. It's wonderful. We spent a ton of time around the University of Ottawa campus. I remember walking around the U at the beginning of the semester last year and thinking about how much it looked like some kind of weird summer camp, and how glad I was that I didn't have to deal with all that nonsense yet. I've had the same feeling this year, but I do feel a lot more prepared to deal with it for next year #trunkymoment. I'm still glad I don't have to deal with all that right now.

In other news, all the people we are teaching are still as interesting as I explained last week. Nothing changed there. 

My good friend Vincent Mooochaw of the LaSalle ward in Montreal come out to Ottawa this week and took Elder Burton and me to lunch. It was a party. I almost feel like I'm on a mini mission here in Ottawa sometimes. Like I've taken a short break from my mission home in Montreal to come here and serve for a period of time before going back to Montreal. Hopefully I go back to it, at least. I miss that place.

Speaking of going back to Montreal, I went on an exchange with the Zone Leaders this week, so I got to spend an entire day across the river back in the lovely city of Gatineau in the lovely province of Quebec. It's crazy how quickly the environment changes from Ontario to Quebec. You go from well developed, good roads, Anglophone, with Canadian flags to really foresty, horrible roads, Francophone, with Quebec flags. There is a very apparent shift in culture. It's quite an experience to drive across the border. It felt really comfortable to be surrounded by all the familiar sounds and feelings of the province. It was a good experience, all in all. 

That's it for me this week.

Love you all

Elder Hadden

#trunkymoment:  In missionary slang, being 'trunky' is the feeling you get when you are about six months from the end of your mission, and you just want to pack your trunk and go home, instead of continuing with all this missionary stuff.  As I understand it, it gets worse the closer you get to the end.