Estrechito

Quick update, more to come next week. My new companion is Elder Weyand, he is from Tucson, Arizona. More pictures to come next week, but since we finally hit a streak of nice weather, we left to run in the morning. This is the sunrise off the estrecho, it is breath taking. Photos were taken by my companion. 

Love to all
Elder Haddad

September 18

 We had quite a fun week, especially because September 18th was Chile´s independence day. We had a big BBQ, played some soccer and ping pong , and ate a lot of delicious empanadas. I probably ate too much, but hey, we walk a lot in this sector haha. It´s been a crazy week here, not much happened in good old Estrecho, but we had a tsunami warning because of the earthquake in Santiago. Living 5 houses down from the coast did not become so desirable anymore. Thankfully nothing happened. 

In other news, the Falkland Islands are being added to our mission. Some missionaries here in Punta Arenas left to go check it out. Apparently it´s a Britannic country where they speak English, and it just so happens that there are like 10 members there. It´s kind of like Easter Island, from what I understood, but it´s to the left of Argentina. 

However in better news, I found a graffitied spongebob and took a picture with it, and also ate the most delicious sandwich in the world on an exchange with the zone leader Elder      

LLancoñanco (I don´t think you could pronounce his name correctly). 

Have a good week!

Love,

Elder Haddad

 What Punta Arenas looks like on a nice day. Picture from the Stake Center. 

 Dancing the national dance called the cueca

 Bobesponga (sounds way cooler in Spanish!)

You always have to pig out on exchanges, you can´t tell but that sandwich is about the size of your face. 

Club Andino

Yea well, we had a solid week here in the end of the world. The mission president came to our house, and wasn´t impressed with the living conditions. With the 4 layers of paint peeling off from the bathroom wall (why ceramic tile was not used in the construction of the bathroom is beyond me), and the collection of creepy Jesus paintings, we were advised to either move or redecorate (renovate) the house. 

The title of this email comes from the service we did this week. As some of you might know, it was worldwide service day on Saturday, and the stake of Punta Arenas formed together to go clean up a hill. I promise you it was cooler than it sounds, Club Andino is a ski resort just outside of the downtown part of Punta Arenas. We met up at a local school, and separated into cars to get up to the service location. Living in the windiest city (most windy city) in the world, the trash gets blown all over the place. We chose a field on the way up to the ski resort that was covered with years of trash. I mean computers, mattresses, rebar, drywall, cosmetics, groceries, bottles of all types, bones of all kinds, we even found a baby. A baby doll of course! We were met with some fierce weather as it rained sideways with 45 mph winds, I tested my flying abilities by doing some long jumps with the wind. We ended showing up late to the hill, because our driver got confused about the directions. We drove all the way up to the ski resort and past the site by several miles. Once we hit about 6 feet of snow I mentioned that I didn´t think there was any trash to pick up under all that snow. The little tinny car we were in, was incapable of climbing the snow covered hills, so we pretty much slid back down the hill. I had never slid so far back in a car in my life. I think we slid about a mile back with the car off, and finally we debated whether getting hot chocolate at the club house would be  better service for ourselves than cleaning a hill filled with old baby diapers. But we came to our senses, made a couple calls, and finally found all of the members quite a ways down the hill. It was a great experience, and though I forgot my camera, I have evidence that I went from the beautiful bruise I achieved on my elbow, from slipping and falling down the wet hill and colliding with a rock.  

With love always,

Elder Haddad 

Taking Pictures with Dead People

Over the past couple of weeks I have really been thinking about everything that I have learned on the mission. A talk that is given to every missionary in our zone has really made me think, its called the Fourth Missionary. It talks about the changes that missionaries experience, and considering that so far my mission has been everything that I didn't expect, I've definitely had to change a lot. It talks about two ways of changing, either deliberately or accidentally. You either decide who you want to become, or you just float through, becoming whatever life makes of you. But whatever you become accidentally, will never be a full measure of your potential. The only way to reach a full measure of your potential is giving your heart and your will to the Lord, for those are the only two things he doesn't already have. It's something hard that I've learned but something so rewarding. 

The title of the email is referring to our pass through the cemetery this week. Turns out it´s one of the nicest in the world, and it´s taking up a huge part of our little sector. But enjoy the photos! 

Love,

Elder Haddad