Balut

                                                                           Dear all,

Here's the poppy I wore on the 11th. Remembering the
armistice is a pretty big deal up here. I tried to blend in.

More fun in all of Montreal this week. It's really starting to get cold now. I don't think it's stopped raining for more than 24 hours for about 3 weeks now, and we're just hovering around freezing. It snowed a little bit this morning, but it was more rain than snow and it didn't last very long. I know we'll be up to our knees in it in not too long though. I am not ready to be consistently cold for the next 6 months.

Despite the cold, things have still been going very well. Last Tuesday the Elder's Quorum President in the ward took all of the missionaries (there are 8 of us in the Montreal ward) out to dinner and then on a tour of his work. He works as the producer for a pretty big VFX studio in Montreal, so we got to see all the apple computers that made the visual effects for things like Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, Stranger Things, Game of Thrones, and even Deadpool. He showed us some of the in-the-works stuff for the new season of Stranger Things, and showed us the layers of effects and the process that goes into making so much of movies and TV. It was pretty cool to get such a personal behind-the-scenes look at all of it.  Not really very missionary-related, but President approved it, so it's all good.

Sunday night, Brother Brao, one of the numerous Filipino members of the ward, invited us over for dinner(?). Really, we just talked to him at church and then he was like ''you can come over sometime tonight. Just knock on the door.'' So, we came over at a totally random time that evening, and he very happily let us in. We came in just as his family, and another family were finishing up eating some balut Brother Brao had prepared early that night. During my time here in Montreal, I have often heard stories (mostly from Vincent Muuche who is Filipino, too) about poor white missionaries experiencing the Filipino delicacy of balut and having many adverse reactions. Balut is a fertilized duck egg that you boil (like a hard-boiled egg) and eat with salt and vinegar. Usually, they are fully formed little duck fetuses that you eat whole, beak, feathers, bones and all. I have really wanted to try it (It's apparently really good, despite looking and feeling disgusting), so I jumped at the chance to finally see what it was like. They were more than happy to share, and sat me down at a newspaper-covered table and gave me an egg. After some instruction, I cracked it open and ate the whole thing. Luckily for my ego, I got one that did not have a fully formed little duck fetus inside, and instead just at a large, brown, and chunky hard-boiled egg. The texture was pretty much halfway between that of chicken and that of a hard boiled egg, and it tasted more like pizza than anything else. I would recommend it.

That was the most exciting thing for this week by far. Coming up this next week is zone conference with Elder Hamilton of the seventy. Should be pretty exciting, and stake conference, also with Elder Hamilton. This will be my 3rd or 4th stake conference this year.

Love you all,

Elder Hadden