The adventure has begun

Starting with the longest plane flight of my life, this has seriously been a wild ride. I showed up at the airport only to find out that my original flight had been canceled and rerouted. Instead of flying up to SLC to meet all the other missionaries, I was rerouted to LAX and then from LAX to MEX. On the flight to Mexico my body decided it was a good time to take revenge on me for eating Chinese food the night before. I felt the nausea coming so I bought some Dramamine at the airport, but I didn't have any water so I just chewed the tablet. I don't know if I have ever tasted something more disgusting than the rancid taste to Dramamine. Satan had taken hold of my stomach and my taste. After finally arriving in Mexico 5 hours late, they transported the missionaries to the MTC. That was the second time I thought I was going to die. Our driver didn't speak any English and kept yelling "Nacchhhoooo'' he also stopped in the middle of the freeway to show us where the Mexico City Temple is.

I've been at the MTC now for over a week and I have really enjoyed it. Our days as packed with classes, instruction, and laughs. Its amazing how fast you learn Spanish here. There were about 30 missionaries that came in the same wave as me, they split us up into smaller groups called districts. Our district is 4 Hermanas and 4 Elders. My companion's name is Elder Nielsen and will be my companion for the entire time I am here,. Elder Nielsen and I are also going to the same mission, and what's weird is that we are the only two missionaries going to a foreign mission out of all the 30 missionaries that came in at the same time as us. Everyone else is going back to the US. Elder Nielsen and I have so much fun, but he knows no Spanish. Last week a Latino asked him "Cual es su mission?" Which means what is your mission. And my companion responded with "mi nombre es tienda", which means my name is tent.

I am so thankful that I took Spanish before. I had really prepared myself a lot more than I had thought. I have great study habits from school and I'm used to working long days. Some people hate the MTC, or complain that it's a jail, but I actually really like it. The language is coming to me really easily, and we have already began teaching lessons to investigators. On our third day, we had to teach a lesson to someone investigating the church, and some of these kids had never spoken a word of Spanish until day 1. Its scary to think that our investigators impression on the church is completely based on our lessons. Our investigators don't speak a word of English, so we use a lot of hand gestures and sign language to talk with them. But our Spanish has improved so much that on our third lesson, we invited our investigator to get baptized and he accepted. It feels like everything is clicking, and all my Spanish is coming back to me. 

These are some Mexico MTC fun facts :

• At 8:00 pm, everything smells like sewage, I don't know why, but the air just reeks.
• They like to feed us hot dogs for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
• There are free hair cuts at the MTC.
• Elders do these things called "tie trades" where everyone goes and brings their ties and trades them. Paisley ties are a hot commodity here at the MTC. 
• Every day at 6 am a nearby church shoots some cannons, and throughout the day, they continue to shoot cannons. 
• Mariachi music and sirens from ambulance and police cars go all night long.

We are already on week 2 and the time is flying by. Have a great week guys.
Love, Elder Haddad. 

Enjoy the pictures

                       The big guy is my companion, his name is Elder Nielsen. 

                 The two guys on the right are Elder Jensen and then Elder Crockett

Elder Nielsen having fun!