After Transfers

Dear all,

So we had our transfer this week. I am now with the one and only Elder Kunzler from Portland in the mission (there is however, another Elder Kunzler in the mission from Logan, Utah, and another Elder Kunzler from Portland, Oregon, ironically serving in our neighboring mission in Portland, Maine). We've had a grand old week so far making all those cultural references that only Americans get. We were both with international companions last transfer, so it's been nice to feel a little closer to home.

Last Friday, the other Elders in our district totaled their car. They were both uninjured, but they were  left without transportation. Luckily, we had Zone Conference just yesterday so they got their new car afterwards. We had to spend the night at their apartment and then drive them the rest of the way to Montreal for Zone Conference the next morning. It worked out to be easier for us, but we were still late... Oh well... 

Other than being late, Zone Conference went pretty well. I often find them to be a little stressful or monotonous, but I actually really enjoyed this one. It was simple and spiritual and I felt uplifted, despite being late. 

One day after the transfer, we were knocking around in some apartment buildings in Granby, and we knocked into a lady who seemed genuinely interested in what we had to say. She seemed like she was really looking for God and peace in her life, and she told us that we could come back tomorrow morning. We gave her a pamphlet, and we're gonna go back to get to know her more. Finding people that seem interested at the door hardly EVER happens, so it's a big deal when it does. Even if she's not interested in the end, at least she was interested at first. That's gotta count for something. 

That's all for me this week.

Love you all, 

Elder Hadden 

I forgot to take pictures.... But here's a picture of a house of pass-along cards I made a while ago. I hope it keeps you entertained until next week. 

Lakes, Easter, and Transfers

Artsy geese at Lake Brome

Dear all,

We got the transfer boards this morning. I'm gonna stay here in Granby with Elder Kunzler from Portland. I was Elder Kunzler's district leader for a transfer in Ottawa, so we've gone on exchanges together before. It's really nice to receive a companion whom you've already spent time with, and even better to receive a companion whom you're already friends with. It should be a good transfer. Also, he's not a native French speaker, so I'll have to stop being lazy and actually talk to people. My French is gonna get good.

Other than transfers, this week was really good. We had a great Easter on Sunday. There were lots of visitors in sacrament meeting that members had invited, and the talks were all good. None of the visitors expressed interest in learning more, but at least they came for the day. All in all, I would say it was a very successful Easter meeting.

Later that day we passed by a former investigator named Omar. His mom answered the door, and immediately told us that she didn't have time to talk because she had a long distance call. As we were turning to leave, she saw our name tags and told us to come back. The she told whoever was on the phone that she had to hang up because her friends were there. She was very happy we stopped by, and practically made her son talk to us. I don't think either of them were very interested, but they seem to have a very positive attitude towards missionaries and the Church. We'll keep meeting with them and see what happens. 

Last week, we went and ate lunch with the temple president and his wife, President and Sister Carter. They live in a town called Lake Brome about 30 minutes from Granby, and they have probably the most beautiful house I think I've ever seen. It's a simple-looking house nestled in a quiet part of town (the whole town is quiet, but their house was particularly quiet) on the lake. They have large windows overlooking the beautiful lake, and a beautiful terrace. It was a little slice of heaven. They served as mission president and wife in Lyons, France a few years back, so eating with them was kind of like eating with President and sister Phillips. It was nice to get to know them a little better. 

This morning we went to the national park not far from Granby. It was a Québécois national park, rather than a Canadian national park, so it wasn't phenomenally spectacular, but it was nice to spend a few hours surrounded by the cool damp maple forests and see some wildlife. Pictures included. 

That's it for me. 

Love you all, 

Elder Hadden

Lake Brome

Lake Brome

Random Granby sunset

Us in the woods

Us at Lake Brome

Me at Lake Brome

Chipmunks

A walk in the woods

The reservoir in the park

Hot Chicken

Dear all,

My phone is about to die so I'll do some highlights quick.

This week I gave a talk in sacrament meeting with President Phillips. They asked me to give it in English at the last minute, even though I was prepared to do it in French. I was very relieved and it went very well. English is so much easier than French.

After church, we had a cabane à sucre at the church. There was a lot of food, a lot of syrup, and we even did the maple syrup on snow. 

We chatted with Melanie and Hector, the sister and brother in law of Marie-Soleil who haven't yet been baptized but are working on a date. The seemed a little bit more open with us than they had previously, so we'll see if they'll be willing to accept a baptismal goal this weekend

In other news, we ate with Brother and Sister Beauregard this week. They served us something so québécois I asked if I could take a picture. I asked what it was called and they said "hot chicken." Not "poulet chaud," "hot chicken." Picture included. 

I gotta go. Love you all! 

Elder Hadden

'Hot chicken'

It rained a lot, so the river in Cowansville is really swollen

Selfie by the Beauregard's backyard woods.

I saw this in Walmart. I can eat Filipino spaghetti even without the filipinos

General Conference

All the maple trees hooked up to the automated collection tubing

Dear All,

Despite the speculations of other missionaries, a member family in Drummondville, and my father, my mission is still two years long. So, here's another weekly email.

We started off pretty excitingly with Zone Leader exchanges on Tuesday night. I was with Elder Leudtke from Davis County, UT. Elder Leudtke and I were in the same district in Ottawa so we're already homies and we had a grand old time wandering around Granby knocking doors and going to Branch meetings. Manon and Marie-Soleil took us out to eat at the Québécois Chinese buffet in Granby and I impressed them by being able to use chopsticks to eat my orange chicken. It's been a darn long time since I've had westernized Chinese food. It was pretty weird to eat it again. But still good.

Later on in the week we knocked into a family from Syria who were super nice and welcoming and made us sit down and eat fruit and talk to them for an hour or more. They didn't really speak English except for one of their sons--sort of--so it was very difficult to communicate. They speak a dialect of Kurdish that doesn't exist on Google translate, so we used Arabic instead. In our conversation, they told us that they really liked reading the Bible and that they had a Christian missionary friend in Lebanon. We gave them a Plan of Salvation pamphlet in Arabic, and they said they had read it all already, so we got really excited thinking that they had already met the church somehow and we're open to hearing more. We went back a couple days later with a Book of Mormon, and after further talk we realized that they hadn't met the church and weren't really open to meeting with us. They were super nice, though. Maybe we'll run into them again when they speak better French.

This weekend we watched most of the sessions of Conference with our Elders Quorum President at the church, but we watched Saturday afternoon and Priesthood sessions with the Wongs and the Bergerons. The Bergerons fed us all dinner before we watched the priesthood session together.

I really liked Elder Holland's talk about the sacrament. I've been on a big kick with symbolism in the scriptures and the church recently so it was cool to hear him talk about how important and meaningful the sacrament ordinance is.

Yesterday that Wongs took us to cabane à sucre with their shuffleboard group. It was a big mapley brunch with a bunch of old anglophone quebecers and a Chinese couple. Very very enjoyable. Pictures included.

That's all for me this week. 

Love you all! 

Elder Hadden 

General Conference - The first weekend of April and October, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints hosts a conference for all Church members and welcomes visitors.  Topics range all over the board.  Here's a lengthier description. which includes a description of the Priesthood session Saturday evenings.

Elders Hadden & Tarati eating maple syrup taffy

Sister Wong eating maple syrup

la cabane a sucre

Life in Granby

The river in St. Hyacinthe

Dear all,

Life continues.

I haven't really talked about our teaching pool here too much, so I will now. I would compare it to a Pillsbury biscuit because it's large and flaky. We find tons and tons of people to teach, but none of them really stick around for very long, if at all. It means our finding feels really productive while we look for the people who really care though. I've never found more people who at least say they're willing to meet than I have here. I feel like we'll find someone who's serious very soon, or that possibly we have already found someone who will progress.

This week we went on exchanges in Mont Saint Hilaire with Elder Beckstrand and Elder Moellmer. They're the only other Elders in our district and they live about an hour away from us, so it was a pretty big deal to head over there. Both Elder Tarati and I stayed in Mont Saint Hilaire and we just separated with our different companions to work for the day. I was with Elder Beckstrand from St George, and we headed out to St Hyacinthe to do some tracting. We didn't find anyone who was interested, but we had a grand old time anyway, swapping mission stories and talking about high school. It feels really nice to talk to Americans after you don't talk to any for a while.

While we were together, we had an impromptu lesson with an Arabic guy in Granby over Facebook. He taught us some Arabic, and said we could meet up sometime to teach him English. He didn't seem too interested in our message, but maybe that will change. 

After the exchange, Elder Tarati and I taught an English lesson to a man from Côte d'Ivoire. Since we don't have too many very solid people to teach, we're trying to teach English to build some relationships and hopefully help people be more interested in what we have to share. It's a pretty weird experience to teach your native language to someone who has absolutely no knowledge of it. We started by teaching him the basic pronouns and how to conjugate "to be" with some simple example sentences. Trying to teach him how to pronounce "are" and "him" correctly was a little challenging, but he got it in the end. It's weird to think that there is a large portion of the world that has never made an "H" sound before.

We saw Manon and Marie-Soleil again this week. They again fed us more food than we possibly could eat, and gave us plenty of left-overs for home. I hardly ate anything the morning before we saw them to prepare, but I still could not finish all the food they gave me. It was quite the meal. 

We ate with the Wong's again this week. They told us more entertaining stories about their travels around the world and how rough Chinese politics are. Sister Wong showed us the landscape watercolors that her father painted, and she was surprised that I could read the Chinese. It was very enjoyable again.

We have General Conference this week. Everybody's spreading rumors about mission lengths changing. I guess if it does, this will be my last ever email because I've already passed 18 months.

I doubt it though. 

Love you all, 

Elder Hadden

I realized à day late that it was my 18 month mark,
so elder Tarati and Iwent to subway for a day late celebration.

Elder Beckstrand and I eating some good old Benny's President Aloi style