Fotos

No words this week, just pictures.

Fotos
1. Conozca a los mormones with Rodrigo

 2. Hno y Hna Pineda

 3. Bye bye Eldersito McBride

The Call

[in the voice of Dumbledor] ''Another transfer, gone.''

What a time Elder Juzga and I had together, and will contintue having because we are both staying in our area. It has probably been my most productive transfer so far in the mission. Elder Juzga and I get along super well! It is SO AMAZING what you can do with a companion who is so dedicated to the work and wants to work in every moment. We worked hard, we were obedient, and even I have thought a lot about this transfer in regards of investigators and baptisms, I feel like we did a lot of good work in the Villa, and saw a lot of personal progress. We have definitely started working better with the ward, and I keep loving Soldati.

Some good news from this week.

So once upon a time I wrote you guys about our basically golden investigator, whose only obstacle between her and baptism was her working Sundays. We have worked a lot with her because she is just so great, and this week she has finally found someone to switch work schedules with! YESSSSS so she will be able to be baptized up here soon, and we are oh so happy. 

This week  we had lunch with the Cornejo family and they are now like my favorite little family here in the ward. They are a young couple with a little girl. They both were born into member families, which is so uncommon here in Argentina. Anyways they fed us and I was talking with Hno Cornejo and he told us he works in a chocolate factory! What!!! He then pulled out chocaolate and we get to test it out. I told the family then that I am pretty much chocolate's number one fan, AND HE GAVE ME A BAG OF OF CHOCOLATE. I was so happy and I just couldn't stop smiling. THESE ARE MY TYPE OF PEOPLE.

And now time to explain the subject line, an occurance that happened yesterday that was probably one of the happiest moments ever. Yesterday we were walking in the rain (newsflash it is raining gatos y perros down here) and we got a phone call. Elder Juzga answered it and it was the Elders in Pilar 2, my first area. He passed me the phone and then the elders on the other side passed it to another guy. It was the Aguirre Family, who I baptized in Pilar! I got to talk to the husband and wife and their oldest daughter who was confirmed my first week in the mission. President Ayres gave them permission to call me. Friends and family, What joy it brings to talk to this family that I grew to love as they grew to love the gospel. I was so, so happy. They are like my family here in Argentina, they even call me their son! I really did so little for them, being such a youngster in the mission and not being able to do hardly anything, but I love them with all my heart. It was such a great experience. 

That's about all this week. Stay safe, and I'll see you all soon enough (like in 14 months because I completed 10 this last week!)

Chau,

Elder Hardcastle 

I was going to send pictures but it's not working.  =(

The (almost) Dengue Days are (not) Over

Howdy Everyone!

So don't freak out just yet. I am LOTS better now. But this last week Eldersito Hardcastle took a little tumble once again in the illness boat. Let me explain a bit.

This last week we were eating with some members and I there was a piece of meat. As I was eating it, I realized that it was not cooked 100% through in one area. More like maybe 30%. I ate around it to avoid it, but when it was all that was left I just looked at it and told myself 'You cannot eat this'. Luckily I am learning about all my talents here in the mission, and I guess I am pretty good at hiding food too (I have only had to do it twice so far. but so far, so good), so I snuck it away into my fanny pack (it is a miracle bag). But I think the parts that I did eat did some damage and the next day I had nausea and after our zone meeting I threw up in the premetro/subway station. Don't worry, I was outside. After that I called Sister Ayres again and she told me to take a rest. We were going to go back to work after a couple of hours but I felt bad again and so we took another sick day. Two in two weeks! Through all of this my immune system was beat and I'm pretty sure I had bronchitis for a couple days after, but hey. I'm back to the grind and happy to be there!

Elder Juzga and I have been talking about how we can improve our work here in Soldati, and we decided that we were going to start working with a greater sense of urgency. And we did it! We had a fun experience yesterday when we went with a member to contact the reference she had. We went to the house and they told us that this man didn't live there. But we got talking to her and she was so great! I invited her to be baptized and she told us that if it fills her, then yes! We were like YEAH IT IS GOING TO FILL YOU! It was so great! It is always great when you find elegidos!

Bus prices went up this week, and there was a sort of protest, we think. At first I thought there was an accident because there was a bit of smoke and police, but then some teenagers ran around banging stuff and saying some bad words, at least that's what the Latino elders in the apartment told me. Either way it was pretty lame and not quite as exciting as I was thinking. 

We have a fun new past time in the apartment- JENGA!  I don't exactly know where the jenga set came from, but now we play it every so often before we go to bed. I have sadly lost a bit of my touch, but my companion is playing surprisingly good! We have even created a new verb- jengar. ¿Podemos jengar hoy? Sí, jengaremos esta noche. ¡Nos gusta jengar! Just some example on how one might use this new verb.  =)

That's it for this week! Sorry my emails seem to be so short! But I hope you all enjoy them nonetheless. This week, I hope you all share a spiritual thought with a friend. Fill them with the Spirit and your testimony!

See you all soon enough!

Con Amor,

Elder Hardcastle

1 and 2: Cats of Argentina

3. Elder Juzga REALLY likes his empanadas.

So basically I had dengue

Hello people! It is raining over here and there is a cat sitting right next to me in the cyber and I am basically on cloud 9 because of that. 

Oh, you don't care about the cat and just want to hear about my burst of basically dengue? Fine. I see how it is. Cat haters.

Dengue

So a little over a week ago I started having stomach problems and a headache. After P-day last week, my temperature started rising and I was hurting a lot in my neck. I know that when your neck starts to hurt that never means anything good, so I figured that it was time to call Hna Ayre (We are basically pretty use to talking to each other now because I have been calling her quite a bit recently because of some issues that my companion is having, and she now recognizes my voice when I call. I am special=)) and we thought there was a possibility that I had meningitis. She figured it wasn't worth risking, so at like 10pm we went on my second night adventure to the hospital! This time, we went to Hospital Britanico, so that was exhilarating (but don't be fooled, it was all very Argentine. But there were signs in English and Chinese!). So after quite a bit of waiting and some pretty light testing, the medic told me I had a viral infection. He told me to spend three days in bed and to drink lot's of water and avoid fruits and vegetables (umm... what?) and take some ibuprofen. So then we went back to the apartment and I slept a lot the next day and was able to read a lot of the Book of Mormon, which was so great because we had a goal as a mission to finish it before conference and I was very, very much behind. I am not the type of person that reads fast! But yeah the next day I started working again, but Hna Ayre told me to start on a antibiotic because we didn't really think the diagnosis was 100% amazing, and I was still having gastrointestinal distress. And fast forward a few days, and I am pretty much okay! I just have a cough now, but I am all great now! We still don't know exactly what I had, but I did have some of the symptoms of dengue so I'll just keep that going around=) I think it was actually a bit of a blessing so I could get some more sleep (I was sooooooo tired) and catch up on the Book of Mormon. Miracles come in crazy ways!

The Work and the Glory

Missionary work keeps on keeping on here in Soldati! It is a little bit hard here but I really love the ward. They were baptizing a lot in this area last year but basically none of the people are still active. So we are trying to find some hardy, gospel-ready people which is a little tough in the villa. Right now we don't have any investigators that are progressing but I know that if I do my part, it will all be just fine! 

General Conference

So I am sure the majority of you watched Conference this last week, and it was so good! I loved it. I got a lot of good notes and answers to questions. We had a pleasant surprise during the Saturday evening session, because we got to watch it with Presidente and Hermana Ayre and two of their kids! He had a baptismal interview or something and didn't leave in time, they were stuck watching it with us. =) The English room was featured on the Misión Bs As Norte facebook page, and I am seen sporting a carton of orange juice. I got to keep it fun with those conference snacks!

But in all seriousness, it was probably one of the best conferences ever. I especially loved the talks by Sister Oscarson, Elder Gong, and the General Authority who talked on humility. The general vibe I was getting this conference was that we need to put our doctrine into action, and help other people! What have I been telling you guys! ¡Tenemos que actuar ya! I love the Spirit that was felt as I was able to listen to those inspired men and women that guide our Church. 

I hope you all have a week de diez. Do some good in the world today! See you all soon enough!

Elder Hardcastle=)

Just your average trip to the hospital at almost 1 o'clock in the morning.

 Spot my fanny pack facha.

Some of the great families of Soldati.