The Secret to Success

Alright, this email comes from something I was studying in the Book of Mormon. Something that really called my attention was a story that I never really understood. I remember when I was investigating the church and the missionaries asked me to read the Book of Mormon, I started from the beginning and it was going great. There was some guy named Nephi, he had some cool stories with his family, he built a ship, he crossed the sea, etc. I didn't understand everything, but I understood some of it. But then I got to this one chapter, Jacob 5, and I didn't understand anything at all. Something about a vineyard, and grafting branches, and burning things. The story is a metaphor that talks about how the Lord never gives up on his children. He worked diligently with his servants, even though his vineyard was not producing fruit. 

This week we saw the same thing in our sector. We worked and worked and worked, but we did not see anything really changing. In the story the Lord asks, what more could I have done? At the end of the day we asked ourselves, what more could we have done? 

The secret of success is being patient and working with diligence. After reading this story like 10 times I finally am understanding what the Lord requires of his servants and what he feels for us. Success will come, that I am sure of! 

With Love,

Elder Haddad

Regional, Valdivia

Wow, what a transfer! This transfer I haven´t given very many updates about what we have been doing. The reason is because there have been so many changes. In the beginning of the transfer I was in Rahue Bajo in a trio with Elde Shobe and Elder Perkes. Then I moved over to Camino Real with Elder Mendoza for 4 weeks. On Tuesday this last week, I got another call, and I  was told to pack my bags again, to head to Valdivia. My new companions were going to be Elder Komenda and Elder Ballard.  3 sectors, 3 different trios, 5 weeks. Elder Komenda ended this mission, so now I'm finally just with Elder Ballard.  

I'm now in Valdivia with my new companion Elder Ballard, he´s from Las Vegas. Valdivia is famous for the rain, but this week we got a little more than rain. It started hailing, which apparently isn't normal at all. Attached is a video that I took of the hail. It was the first time I have ever seen weather this crazy. We also had a baptism this Saturday, which was really cool. Camilia got baptized by her boyfried Julio. I'm in the ward called Regional and it is a really cool ward, especially because we are close to the university austral of Validiva. Which means we have a lot of students in our ward. We have a lot of investigators that are also college students. Its like the closest thing I could imagine to serving in a young singles adult ward. I'm really excited for these next weeks. We have some warmer weather in sight and Elder Ballard and I are working really hard in finding all the people we can. 

I remembered something my mom always told me, "Go with the flow." That was really the theme for this last month. Enjoy what you have. Enjoy where you are. Enjoy who you are with. 

Have a great week everybody!  

Love, 

Elder Haddad

 (I was unable to load the video onto this blog)

Villarrica

This weeks adventure lead us to Villarrica. We passed through Panguipulli, Coñaripe, Lago Pullinque, Lago Calafquen, Pucón, Licanray,and Loncoche. The adventures have come to an end now that we have finished the housing inspections. We always left early in the morning to come back to have time in our sector.  We were able to find so many new people this week. 

This week I completed 3 years as a member! 

Puerto Varas

I can´t express how amazing Chile really is. Photos don't do justice to how amazing the south of Chile is.  These are photos from Frutillar, Puerto Varas, and Calbuco. With luck, the weather turned out perfect. Here is the folder! 

 

Niebla, Valdivia

We headed up to Valdivia this week to do some housing inspections, but we got distracted in how awesome Valdivia really is. Attached are photos from Niebla which was a fort years ago on Río Cruces to protect the city. It was really cool. Chile is so awesome.