Travel plans

Travel plans came this last week.

But before we get to that, here is the lowdown of the last 7 days!

We got to do a Skype TRC with a person from ARGENTINA! Her name was Isabel, and she lived way clear down south in Neuquin... I think it's how it spelled. Me and Elder Sargent talked to her about the Restoration, and then we started talking about how all things are possible through Christ. After that Elder Sargent asked her to bear her testimony. She got pretty emotional and to be honest I couldn't really understand what she was saying, but I did hear that she said life can be really hard. So basically our lesson worked perfectly, at least in my opinion. If y'all ever need a pick me up, read the last couple of verses in Romans 8. In fact, just read the whole chapter because it's AMAZING. 

We wrapped up teaching our teachers ('Alex' and 'Alberto') and Nayeli this week. Our final lesson with all of them was on Baptism, and Alex and Alberto accepted! Even though they were just our teachers, they were playing investigators they had, and it felt so good to be able share something that is so special to me and see them accept it and apply it and change for the better. I seriously love our teachers here, Hno. Magallanes and Hno. Weekes are super duper great. Plus I'm pretty sure me and my companion are basically their favorites too so it whatever :)

Our last meeting with Nayeli was sad. We really had a 180 degree change with her, and she was legitimately sad we couldn't teach her anymore. BUT now we are teaching other people in our district, and guess who gets to act as an investigator? THIS KID. This is probably as close to acting as I'll get for two years, so I'll enjoy it while I can. IT IS SO FUN. My name is Ignacio, and I've based him off of myself if I didn't have the gospel. Its crazy to think of all the ways the gospel has blessed me, and how my life would be completely unrecognizable without it. THE GOSPEL IS GOOD PEOPLE.

...so back to the moment you have been waiting for. Our travel plans came Friday, and

...and

...AND

I AM LEAVING FOR BUENOS AIRES MONDAY! My FBI clearance went through I so my next stop is Argentina! Yesss. So next time you hear from me, I will be on the other side of the equator. I AM SO EXCITED. I still cannot speak this language well, but that's okay because that's life, and I can understand most of what my teachers tell me now and so looking for the positives is how you should take life. But I am so excited for this new adventure. 

Until then, chau! (seriously, that is how they spell it in Spanish)

See you all soon enough!

Elder Hardcastle

District 38C Elders love Argentina

Elder Holtry has skills

Basicalmente una mes a la CCM

Bienvenido! So this week was a week. But I've Been at the MTC almost a whole stinkin' month now! Booya!

Lot's of stuff here is pretty much the same every week, But hey! esta bien. My Spanish is getting better... still not great, but better! The grammar is muy loco! And all the conjugations. But I'm still alive and that is nothing to sneeze at.  Haha I actually had to take a Spanish assessment here, and though most of what I said probably wasn't very great, the person who analyzed it said I didn't sound like a Gringo!  ESO ES EMOCIONENTE! ( if that doesn't mean anything I'm sorry.... I hope it said that is thrilling)

I ran once this week. but mostly have been playing volley ball. All the Italians left so we play with Dutch and Germans.

Also I ate a turkey burger today. So that's news.

Recently I've been reading about Amulek in the Book of Mormon. I like that man, I'd like to think that him and me would get a long pretty well. Anywho, I was reading about his insane doctrine smackdown over Zeezrom (Alma 11), and I was most impressed. Amulek and Alma went through so much heartache on their mission! I mean, they went and taught this one city, and then the bad people in the city burned all those who believed on their words. People like that make me angry. But one of the great parts of the story is when Zeezrom becomes converted. Once a hater, now a believer and a teacher. if you're in for some heart-wrenching but great el Libro de Mormón reading, go through Alma 11, 14, and 15. There is so much good in it but I just don't have the time to tell it all well.

An Elder in our Zone received a whole watermelon in the mail. So we ate it. 

I had to say goodbye to Sister Lemon on Monday night, and that was super duper sad. Hopefully she arrived safe and sound in Taiwan! 

Sorry this is not very long (and not very organized), I'm learning and learning and learning and really love this place! It's hard, PERO, vale la pena. (that mean's it's worth it).

Love you guys! See you all soon enough!

Ciao,

Elder Hardcastle

Hey look it's my neighbor Sister Kartchner

Just some Missionary essentials. Notice my notebook.

Sister Lemon the night before she left.

Too much time with Sister Lemon

Beunos Dias Ustedes!

Notice: Me and Sister Lemon don't spend too much time together. But we do see each other a lot and sing together in choir and sat by each other on our Sunday movie time and such and saw each other after watching the fireworks. So if ya'll are jealous cuz we are having a mormon party over here, it's going to be okay :) 

Not very much to report, I mean like basically its the same every day! BUT I will share a KILLER moment from this week with our TRC investigator (training resource center, which is as close to a real investigator as we get)  Nayeli. 

We had our fourth lesson with her yesterday, and when we first began teaching her she was kind of stand-offish, but has warmed up more to us lately. 

Let me start from the beginning:

on Monday Hermano Rios (aka Jorge) pulled me out of class during personal study hour to see how my studying was going and how to improve. It made a whale of a difference! He said to devote the time to your investigator's need, so we worked on finding stuff that would help Nayeli. She has tensions with her mom, and so we decided to address that. As we were looking for an answer in the scriptures, I though of the story where Nephi breaks his bow and basically his whole family gets mad at him but he flies above the haters and makes a new bow and humbles his family through his example (see 1 Nephi 16:18-31) Hermano Rios said he didn't even think of that scripture, but that it would be awesome! So I prepared for it and we worked on it more in companion study under the guidance of Hermano Rios, and I had some pretty good material! The only part that was scary was my Spanish; the day before I had just come from a really tough lesson with Alex (Hermano Weekes), where I basically said only two sentences and my companion did the rest of the talking. BUT I really wanted to do most of the lesson with Nayeli and didn't want it all written out and just staring at my notes the whole time. So I only wrote down like two sentences and vocab I needed. PEOPLE. IT WENT SO GOOD. Nayeli has a hard time believing the Book of Mormon is true, but she was like "I am Nephi! We are the same."  It was so funny and we were laughing so much, and she really loved the lesson and told us she would talk with her mom and try to offer to help her, to be an example to her family and take the first step at strengthening her relationship with her mom. AND we got her to pray! Afterwards, Hermano Magallanes (one of our teachers) pulled us aside and said that he'd never seen her like that before so early on in meeting with the missionaries! (there are cameras that film you while you teach) It was sosososososo good. I  have learned two things while meeting with Nayeli; The first one is to BE PATIENT AND STRONG.  When we first met with Nayeli, we hated it because she was so unresponsive. Now it's great! The second thing is that THE HOLY GHOST CAN BE WITH YOU EVEN WHEN YOU ARE LAUGHING. We tend to think of the spirit as a tearful testimony, and that is not always the case! One of the fruits of the Spirit is JOY. And let me tell you, there was much joy to be had in that lesson. It was my greatest experience yet at the MTC I think!

Yo creo que Dios es verdadero, y que Jesucristo es Su hijo, y que nos aman. Yo quiero las escrituras. Ellos consolan, calman, y traen compresivo grande. Yo se que este evangelio me ayuda a vivir feliz. Puede estar dificil, pero es que vale la pena. En el nombre de Jesucristo, Amen.

Love you all, thanks for the emails! 

See you all soon enough!

Elder Hardcastle

COMPANION AND FIREWORKS!!!!!

COMPANION AND TIFFANY AND HER COMPANION (after) FIREWORKS!!!!!

okay bye.

Todas las cosas son macanudo.

Hola amigos!

Wowzers, another week down! I'm 1/3 of the way done with my time at the MTC! WOOOT!

The days here are running together, its hard to remember what happens one day and what happens another, because for the most part they are all the same. Well except for Pday and Sunday and Tuesday night devotionals.... but other than that they are structured basically the same! 

I really love the MTC guys. Yes it is hard, but I am SO grateful I prepared myself before I came, it saves lots of stress! All I really have to worry about is strengthening my own testimony, which is hard but is a LOT easier to do this without feelings of guilt. If you are leaving for a mission in the near future, work on preparing yourself NOW. Strengthen your testimony, repent of things even if they seem not so big, try to live the attributes of Christ! Also make sure you bring school supplies... it sounds silly but I have made many a trip to the bookstore to pick up index cards, scissors, tape, glue, notebooks.... just lots of stuff:) I haven't used all of it yet, but it always best to be prepared!

Spanish is still tough, but hey what's new? I'm not too scared yet though. I can understand some of the key words to what is being said and patch up what I can! I bought a book of verbs (courtesy of the bookstore:)) so hopefully that will help me! I write down words in a notebook if they stick out to me and then try to look them up or ask others what they mean, or something. it's whatever:) I figure the language will come when it comes, so why worry? 

Me and Sister Lemon got to have a full on conversation yesterday! It was wonderful. We sat by each other in choir for the devotional, we were even shown on the big screen! So that was fun! It's so fun seeing people I know here! So if y'all know anyone dropping by in the near future let me know and I'll look out for them! 

Sunday we had a really good devotional by Stephen B. Allen.  He talked about stages we go through when we start new experiences; the Honeymoon phase, the Hostile phase, the Grin-and-bear-it phase, and the Adapting phase (i sorta forgot to write down the last one, but I'm pretty sure it was something like that) SOOOOOO GOOOOOD. And he was sassy, which was good. YOU CAN HAVE ATTITUDE AND BE A SERVANT OF THE LORD!

I know it's a bit scattered and not very long, but I'm running out of time! LOVE YOU ALL and I'll see you soon enough!.

Elder Brock Hardcastle

Me and Elder Sargent

Sister Lemon is cool

Our District

ELDERS: me, Hoopes, Sargent, Steele, Holtry, and Christensen, and one of our super great teachers, Hermano Magallanes

HERMANAS: Adkins, Landen, Smith, and Powers