My 10th Companion . . .

Dear all,

I actually thought of a new subject line this week so I can stop making excuses about emailing in my phone. Yay.

This week I went on an exchange with Elder Burton in Riverside. Being with him in the mission field is an experience I would have never imagined to have, mostly because I'm simply not creative enough to think of a reunion as random as this one. It was a good exchange nonetheless. It was nice to talk to someone who knows the Rose Park hood like I do, and it made me feel better about telling other people that there were really people who aren't white in my neighborhood. Everyone is pretty convinced here that Salt Lake is some kind of "Scarlet Letter"-esqe puritan white Mormon society. It's good to have a second witness that it isn't actually.

Tshi-Tshi, the Congolese guy from last week, did not come to church this week, but we did get him to come to the ward FHE activity last night. He seemed to enjoy it. We'll see what else happens with him. I didn't start writing about him because he seems particularly interested in learning about the gospel, more just because he was really funny. 

Elder Leung is going home this week. He had his final district meeting last Thursday, so we had impromptu funeral services for him. He's heading out this Thursday, leaving Elder Burton without a companion for the last couple weeks of the transfer. So, Elder Burton will be with us in a trio for the remainder of the transfer starting Thursday morning. This will be my fourth trio so far on my mission, and my 10th companion. I think I have pretty much every other missionary beat at this point.

This morning Elder Tarati and I tried to go to parliament again. Again, we didn't manage to make it inside, but we did have quite the spectacle from the outside. There must have been some commemoration or something going on today, because there were a bunch of military people in dumb looking hats playing in a band. They had both a pipe band, and a brass band which played together. I have to say, it really doesn't matter how good your musicians are, or how significant your band is, but bagpipes and trombones do NOT sound good together. At least not to me. Everyone else thought it was cool, but I just shook my head.

We're going on an exchange with the Zone Leaders tonight. It should be a party. We'll see.

Love you all. Don't support weird bagpipe fusion music. Especially not Celtic rock. 

Elder Hadden

Pictures next week. My phone farted out today and it didn't work. Sorry