Monday, November 16, 2015

Inspiration

“I can live with some human imperfections, even among prophets of God—that is to be expected in mortal beings. I can live with some alleged scientific findings contrary to the Book of Mormon; time will correct those. And I can live with some seeming historical anomalies; they are minor in the total landscape of truth. But I cannot live without the doctrinal truths and ordinances restored by Joseph Smith, I cannot live without the priesthood of God to bless my family, and I cannot live without knowing my wife and children are sealed to me for eternity. That is the choice we face—a few unanswered questions on one hand versus a host of doctrinal certainties and the power of God on the other.” Tad R. Callister, Sunday School general president,

I don´t think I could add anything to this email, that wasn't already perfectly described by that quote. 

Love you all, 
Elder Haddad

Monday, November 9, 2015

The Miracle House

Last week I left a short message that we moved, we actually had a pretty interesting experience of how we found the house. The missionaries in Estrecho have been trying to move out of the old house for years. It got pretty cold in the house with the really poor construction. Now I don´t want to complain, but it was not enjoyable in that house. We looked and looked and looked, and found nothing. The sector seemed impossible to find anything that would fit our budget. Our sector is sandwiched between downtown and a university, we also are on the coast, so the houses can be a bit more expensive for the location. After touring about 2 houses and looking in the newspaper daily, we finally found a house one day doing contacts. 

We called the owner and he agreed to meet with us within the next couple of days. When we entered the house we saw a well constructed, spacious house with plenty of light, but best of all, heaters! We toured the whole house and because it was a little expensive, I was wary. Elder Weyand told me, "Elder Haddad this is our house, did you see the hint?" The hint? I had no idea what he was talking about. Only seconds later did I realize that the only remaining item from the previous owners was a little pass along card of Jesus Christ. A very old, sun damaged card from our church that had been wedged at the top of the door frame for years. Now I thought that was pretty dang cool, and somehow we were able to speed up the process in move into the new house in the following two weeks. 

Love to all,
Elder Haddad
We did a lip-syncing activity this week in the church. Big success!
Elder Weyand and I lip-synced and danced to Cotton-Eye Joe.
 

Seminary teacher of Estrecho, Bishop, daughter of the Bishop,
and our ward mission leader performing YMCA.
 

Monday, November 2, 2015

El Tío

You are now looking at the proud new owner of "El Tío" fastfood truck. I have decided that the Lord has called me to serve the people of Chile fried foods instead of the gospel.  (Just kidding!)

More to come next week, but quick updates: We are moving houses this week, Elder Weyand and I are together for another transfer here in Estrecho, and it snowed today in case you were wondering.
 
Love, your favorite missionary, Elder Haddad. 



I thought I would share part of his email to me:

Ughh mom, not going to lie I'm a bit frustrated I'm going to be here for another transfer. That's 6 months in a ward that has 30 members...and 3 of them are moving out. We have had investigators coming, but man this place is getting to me. Elder Weyand and I are staying another 6 weeks together, and I just hope it goes by fast.  I know there is a purpose for all of this and for why I'm still here, it's just hard to come to terms with. I feel like I want to move on, progress, and grow, and I feel like I can't in this sector...but the Lord never asks us to do easy things. I will be knocking every single door 4 times now, talking with the same people for the 4th time. I just hope it goes by fast...but besides that, we had a good week. We had a devotional, and we are also going to move houses within the next week. Hopefully life will be better at the new house.


Tuesday, October 27, 2015

Torres del Paine

This week we had a once in a lifetime opportunity to go to Torres del Paine. The views were amazing, photos for this email mainly! 


View from the stake center in Punta Arenas, it overlooks the entire city. 






I 


Ice Berg Lake



Cave Exploring
 These are wanaco or something like that, it's basically a chilean llama

Monday, October 19, 2015

El Diablo

This is the story of Juan, El Diablo. 

Once upon a time, two missionaries were looking for a store to make photo copies. They innocently stumbled upon a corner store, nestled in a neighborhood of suburban houses. Upon entering the store, the owner and worker announced himself as Juan, el Diablo. The missionaries were caught off guard, and laughing it off, politely asked the man if he was able to make a photo copy. To which the old man responded "sschol, losh kibish, slrews." Then the missionaries were really confused, and sensing something was wrong they laughed lightly. The man then commanded his dog not to eat the missionaries, but was interrupted by new customers entering the store. Upon the entry of more people into the store, Diablo, introduced the missionaries as servants of the devil. After all of the jokes, he gave the missionaries free photocopies and gave them some free candy. That´s how it all started with Juan, El Diablo, and now we get free photo copies whenever we want. Attached is a photo of this legendary man. 

This week I also got the chance to talk in church. Elder Weyand and I both, actually. I chose a theme of home teaching, and focused on the conversion story of my mom. Quoting a scripture in Lucas (Luke)15:4, that search for the one lost sheep was just as important as the other 99. We also had investigators at church today, two kids of a less active lady that we had found the week before. She had not come to church in 20 years, and she said that she had felt greatly touched by my talk. It doesn´t matter how far away you have fallen from the path, there is always a way back. 

With Love, 
Elder Haddad

El Diablo

Monday, October 12, 2015

Exorcism Avoided

About two months ago, week of August 17th, I wrote in my email that we met a club owner. This week we found him again and I could not believe what had happened. About two months ago, we found a bunch of really interesting people all in one week. One of them was a partner of a night club, that immediately let us into his house. He said, that he imagined we had been knocking doors for quite some time and that we would like to come in. This doesn't happen a lot, and to be honest, when it does, it's usually someone kind of out there. Big surprise that the missionaries always find the crazies. Anyway, we start getting to know this man, who is about 25 years old, and indeed he was a little out there. Along with his crazy night life, he has passed enough nights without remembering anything, that he has 3 kids with 3 different women. Not the greatest introduction I know, but we sat there listening, though it was painful. 

We shared a message about the gospel of Jesus Christ, we talked about faith, repentance, baptism, the holy ghost, and keeping the commandments. Though you might not think these principals and ordinances have little relation to this man, we were able to change his life. He confessed that he knew he was doing something wrong, and that he was hurting and ruining peoples lives by what he did. However, though it was wrong, but tried to justify that he had good intentions. He wanted to make enough money so that he could provide a good life for s 3 kids and fix his life, and he said in 2 more years he will be able to make enough. As someone who accepted all religions to come into his house and share there message, this man had of course shared with Evangelists, Jehovah's witnesses, and the other denominations. However, he said that we were the people who actually listened to him and still shared a message of love, the others thought the only way of helping this man was an exorcism. We taught him how to pray, and we convinced him to ask in his prayer, if God wanted him to change now, or to wait. In the end of the lesson, he didn't end up doing the question but he felt it. I knew he did. 

This was all two months ago, and on Tuesday we knocked his door again and he let us right in. He told Elder Weyand and I that he had changed his life because of what we had taught him. He had delegated his work to some other kids, given up his office, and even bought a house for his kids. He told us that he had taken 20 steps toward the right direction instead of just one or two. He cut his weekly hours in the night club, in half. We shared another message with him and in his ending prayer, he thanked us for the way we had helped him. It doesn't matter who you are, or what you have been through, your past does not measure your future potential in God's eyes, nor in mine. 
Have a great week everybody. 

Love-- 
Elder Haddad

Monday, October 5, 2015

General Conference

Finally an introduction to the great Elder Blake Weyand. Elder Weyand thinks its cold down here, even though we have had the nicest weather I have ever seen! I've been trying to convince him that it snowed a week before he got here, but hard to believe when there is sun out all day. Elder Weyand is a smooth guy, he has a little bit more time than me in the mission, and is quite a character. He is a powerful missionary, humble to every extent, and has a great attitude. He also talks Spanish 100% of the time, which is really admirable. This is going to be a really fun transfer, and it's hard to believe that two weeks have already gone by.  Attached is a photo of this kid.

This week we had a special church meeting, and we even had our Colombian investigator come. I imagine it was pretty interesting for this man to watch a bunch of old white men give talks and then a tremendous chorus sing in English...yea there's no Spanish translation for the Mormon tabernacle choir. Watching the conference in a different language is different, the translating is a good time. Sometimes the person translating gets really emotional and they quickly switch to someone else, and it's also really interesting when they use something that doesn't translate in Spanish. Like "walk the walk, and talk the talk." That leaves everyone in the audience really confused. 

The rest of the day we spent playing volleyball in the church, between sessions. There was even a little room set up for the Gringos and the Latinos who think they speak English. It was a great weekend, until next week,



Love,
Elder Haddad

Elder Blake Weyand

Watching Conference in English