French Toast Conversion and the Staycation

Crazy week down here, but I have some good stories to share. There's something called the natural man, and I've heard it been described as the Cookie Monster. Bless his heart, but the Cookie Monster only has one motive in life, cookies. That's kind of what the natural man is like, "I want cookies now!". The natural man wants what he wants, when he wants it, and it can basically be described as a selfish desire. And well, the natural man was working hard on me one day. All I could think about was french toast. I know what you're thinking, how is my heart in the work if my mind is always drawn to food? For this exact reason, I am weak. However, I came up with a genius plan to satisfy my desires for french toast, and apply it to the work. I call it the French Toast Conversion. 

After many minutes of pondering the delicious breakfast food, I realized that the process to make it is a lot like one of the lessons we teach. Everyone starts out as bread, there are a bunch of different types, and even in the same loaf, not one of the slices is exactly the same, just like us humans. Then the next step in the cooking process is to dunk the bread in the egg wash, and you know...that's kind of a lot like baptism. Being born again into a wet egg wash, and then getting the sweet topping of sugar and cinnamon. The sweet topping is kind of like receiving the holy ghost, it always stays with you after baptism. At this point, you are probably rolling your eyes, or maybe you're like me and your mouth has begun to water, but wait, it gets better! When our egg washed, sugar coated, bread is put onto the pan to be cooked, it is like enduring to the end, aging through this life. At the very end of this life, we have three slices of french toast, all on separate plates. The first of which is plain, the second would have peanut butter, and the third would have peanut butter and syrup. To blow your mind, this represents the three kingdoms of glory, each one sweeter and more delicious than the previous. 

We actually invited someone to baptism with this example, cooking the french toast in their house, and asking them which of the three pieces of toast would be the most delicious. The best part of the example is how it works logically. You can't enter into his kingdoms or be considered french toast without the egg wash part...you're welcome for this tasty story. 

Also this week we had a little staycation in our house. It's super fun, its like a vacation, but you send all of your suitcases to a different town, and you live out of your carry on in your own house. How exciting! We are currently in the process of moving everything out of our house, because they are closing our sector. And because Elder Ryan and I are getting transferred, I'm going to Punta Arenas Estrecho, which is the farthest south of the farthest

south you can get. Literally the end of the world! That's why it's been a crazy week, but love you all! 

Elder Haddad 

The last photo of Elder Ryan. This is all we have in our house right now, our wood stove, our mattresses, and our sleeping bags. No food or anything haha. 

We also had a baptism this last week, this is Carlos

Winter is coming

The title of this email kills me, it honestly does. We finally hit winter here...as if it didn't already feel cold enough. You're probably wondering how cold it gets here. I don't have a thermometer to measure it, but I can give good examples. When we wake up in our house, my breath is icicles. We also wear about 5 layers to go outside, thermals, sweaters, wool sweater, and a wind breaker/rain coat. When the wind comes up from the south, it's coming from Punta Arenas, and it is bone chilling. When the wind comes down from the north, it brings all the rain clouds. So we balance sunny and windy with rainy and cold. Only 6 more months until it gets warm...I can do this....

 

We had a great week here, I applied for my visa, went to the police department, and got everything squared away with my application to become an official Chilean. The only thing I'm missing now is a soccer jersey. This past week we have been dealing with the "Copa America" a huge soccer tournament for teams all around the world, that is being played here in Chile. I had never heard of this tournament before, but wow it is popular! I also don't know why the US isn't playing. I could only guess that we already have our own North American tournament, so we don't need to compete with all of south America. When Chile is playing, there isn't a soul outside. We end up just doing our studies at night, so that we can actually get something done. Nobody lets us in to their house when there's a game on. 

This week we found out some big news. We are getting transfered. I don't know where yet, because we are still two weeks shy of knowing, but we received early notice because the mission is closing down our home. We have to move everything out of our home this next week, and the following week, I think we will be living in Puerto Varas with the other elders. It's not very common to know this early about the transfers, but since we had to end our housing contract and everything, we got early notice. That means Elder Ryan and I are definitely leaving Frutillar :(. I'm really going to miss this place. Having our landlord sign the contract was so sad. He is such an amazing and loving man. I have talked a little about him, he is constantly giving us food, bread, desserts, chopping our wood, or helping us out. He said if we ever come back we are welcomed to come and stay in his house. Elder Ryan mentioned he would come back with his wife and then his kids, the landlord offered to prepare a love suite for them hahah. 

This next week should be interesting...and cold. 

Love you guys, and Happy Father's Day to all of the amazing dads out there. 

 

Elder Haddad

Over the Rainbow

Beautiful Rainbow

Last Monday we had an adventure. We went to Puerto Montt for the day, to a place called Angelmol. Absolutely beautiful! It was filled with all of these artisan vendors. There were hundreds and hundreds of little stores, all filled with sweaters and souvenirs of all sorts. It was a giant flea market basically. Angelmol is a little cove, with a bunch of fishing boats docked, and restaurants over the water. It reminded me a lot of Seattle, it's a spitting imagine of Pikes Place market. At the very end of the cove is a giant covered fish market. The photos can explain it way better than I could. We had a lot of fun, and the weather was perfect as well. 

Angelmol

The fish was caught that morning,and they were just skinning it and selling it. We ended up buying a salmon to make sushi...not my idea. But I also have never seen salmon cheaper in my life. We bought 15lbs of fresh caught salmon, for $30 USD...absolutely the cheapest and most delicious salmon I have ever tasted. Please try to find me a deal that amazing in the US. Then we fed all the salmon trimmings to the sea lions.  

This is Elder Watson, and that's how you feel after you buy an entire salmon for $2 a pound.

Had a second birthday at the Retemals. This family has become like a second family to us. We call their son, Daniel, brother. They are such amazing people, I love spending time with them. 

We also had exchanges this week. I left for Puerto Varas and we had lunch out in the campo. It was absolutely beautiful, and this picture describes Chile pretty well. 

We had a great week.  I really love the people and doing the Lord's work in this beautiful country.

Love,

Elder Haddad

Elder Haddad Turns 19

We had a fantastic week, and thank you all for the birthday wishes. These last weeks have been filled with great laughs, good food, and fun times. This post is all the photos of the past two weeks:

Last week we did some renovating on our apartment, and installed a wood burning stove. I'm now officially Chilean. We installed the metal pipes that lead the smoke out of the house. It snakes out of the house, and goes about 10 feet in the air. So we also had to weld some type of lasso out of metal to nail to the house, to secure the tube from getting blown over by the wind. We probably broke every safety precaution that exists with ladders and hammers and welding...but hey...it´s Chile...no rules right? It was installed without any injury, no need to worry! So every day we chop wood to start a fire in this little monster. It's really difficult to start, but it is really hot when it gets going. Everyone uses these to cook, most people also have a gas burning stove too. 

Chilean stove

Master Chef Elder Ryan also made some no bake cookies this week without even a recipe or measuring cups! We gave some to our landlord...or dueño. 

Master Chef Elder Ryan

This week we had lunch out in the campo, it took about 20 minutes to get there in a taxi. It was past Frutillar Bajo, and up in the hills. We were also on exchanges, Elder Ryan was in Puerto Varas and I was in Frutillar..and I had no idea how to get there. Somehow we managed to get there in a taxi, but we ended up having to walk halfway around the lake to find a taxi home! Elder Peterson and I got a great tour of the lake, and walked on the beach the entire way back haha. It was also sunny for about 1 hour this week...

Lago  Llanquihue

Our dueño (landlord) also gave us some kuchen, which is a German dish that is really popular here. Our dueño is such an amazing man, he chopped all of our wood, and is constantly giving us food. Honestly I think he just feels bad for us because we have nothing in our house...

Kuchen

Birthday breakfast - french toast with peanut butter and syrup. We also used a fresh, homemade loaf of bread. Wow the ingredients (syrup, cinnamon, and peanut butter) were hard to find. But it was so amazing. Describing this dish to people is hilarious, they have never heard of anything like it. We would tell them to dip the bread in egg mixture and put it on the stove and then to put cinnamon and sugar on it..it grossed everyone out. Their loss...it was amazing

Birthday breakfast-French toast with peanut butter and syrup

Birthday Cake

Yummy!!

We had a family home evening with a less active family yesterday. We walk in to see the entire table set...my mouth fell down to the floor. I wasn´t expecting to walk into a birthday party. But wow, the Gallerdo family really made it a special day, and I feel so lucky to be here. That cake was gigantic, it feed 8 with more to take home...not to mention Hna. Gallerdo also made empanadas, so delicious! I will never forget this birthday.  

Gallerdo Family

Here we have the master himself, in the flesh. He´s trying to teach the fire who is the boss,
after failing to start it 3 times!

A Day in the Life of a Missionary

This was all I got from Elder Haddad for this week's email:

I had a pretty good week, time is flying down here. The weather could be better, its been really really cold, but we installed a wood burning stove in our apartment, so when its going, it is nice and warm. but its super hard to start, because there is so much air going through the tubes going down into the fire area. We are working well with the members, and seeing a lot of new people come into our teachings. I will have an email prepared for next week, but not much went on this week here, even in my personal study. I honestly don´t have anything to share, but I'm getting the hang of this whole mission thing. (Mom's note-I see he has replaced his overuse of the word "like" with the overuse of the word "but"!)

These are questions I had asked in earlier emails (in bold) and his answers:

Can you describe what your typical day like, what type of exercise do you do? 
Our schedule here is wake up at 7 and go to bed at 11, which is really nice actually. Wake up at 7, 50 push ups, 50 crunches, 25 leg lifts, stretch, run a mile. If we don't run because of the rain, I do more exercises. We then get ready and eat, and at 8;30 we have personal study for an hour, then companionship study for 2 hours, then language study for an hour, then at about 1:00 we leave for lunch. We are outside for about 6 hours a day, and usually our schedule gets pushed around in the morning because of appointments or what ever time lunch is that day. We eat lunches with members, not dinners (lunch is their main meal). It's hard because sometimes we have to take the meal back home because there is no brother member home. 

Do you have regular service opportunities?
None, nobody and I mean nobody wants strangers help here. Even if it's a 90 year old lady chopping wood, we ask everyone, but nobody accepts. 

What do the people do for fun there? 

They listen to music, soccer, and eat. 

Are there movie theaters? 

I don't think so

Have you played any soccer yet? 
We aren't allowed to because too many missionaries got hurt :( 

 Do you still remember how??? 
 - funny :P

How much do they give you to live on per month?  
$100 per month. Its honestly not that bad, but it's just tight. I've been trying to be better and smarter (with his budget), but it's hard to live off of food, toiletries, and household supplies on $100 a month, especially when the food is not any cheaper here.

What type of houses do people typically live in?
The culture here is just small houses.  People don´t want to spend anything on their homes, but everyone still wears North Face jackets and really nice clothes, and they live in a dump with no lawn, and trash everywhere. The construction here is soooo cheap, and the cost of housing is so cheap. We are paying 130,000 a month, go do a clp to usd conversion on that, but I think its like $300 a month or something (Actually it's $208.30 a month for rent). 

 Zone Conference

Missionary Selfies (yeah we're still cool!)