Licenced to KILL

Greeting sports fans (I may or may not have taken that from our dear friend Holden)

Surprise! I am sorry that I haven't been writing so much these last few weeks, but I have been 

pretty on the go and we have a little bit of time left at the end of our P-day today, so I decided to 

write y'all! Yay!  Unfortunately, not much has happened this last week, as far as the work goes

in Soldati. But I have good spirits nonetheless. =)

We didn't have much time to work this week because the mission decided to put on a choir 

again, and they called me to be in it!  Again... It was super fun, I'm always up for a good gig or 

two, but we literally had less than ten days to put it on, so I put my SUBE card (public transit 

card) to the SUBE scanners, hopped on some buses, subways, and trains and made a couple

trips to the mission offices for some good clean singing fun for hours and hours. I'm pretty sure

that's not how my companion wanted to spend his last week, but he was a good sport and put 

up with it. It was a pretty cool idea of a devotional that we did. It was a lesson about the 

Restoration, and there is a missionary here that is super musically talented and rearranged 

some church songs and even made one up for the event. So yeah! It turned out pretty cool!

We got to go do my companion's final interview with Presidente Ayre this week. It was actually

kind of crazy because my companion need to be in the interview in the mission house while I 

had choir practice in the mission office. I ended up finishing before my companion, and got to 

chill with the secretaries for a few hours. It was fun because I am pretty good friends with a lot

of them, and got to see the behind-the-scenes of the mission, which consists of comfy chairs 

and computer screens. But man do they work! There is one elder that has been in the office for

seven and a half months, and when he had a few minutes to go do some personal study time, 

the poor dear fell asleep while reading! They are always in the office until laaaaaaaate and I 

really appreciate all they do to keep the mission running.

My companion is officially dead now. I got into a remis (it's like a taxi) like an hour ago, so now I

am in a trio with the other elders in the villa!  Elder Millar from California and is hijo, Elder 

Lucas from Guatemala. President told me I should be getting another companion in a few days,

but for the time being I am back to the trio life.  =)

And the saddest news of the week is that our Presidente and Hermana Ayre are going home 

this week. They have finished their three years of service and it's time to pack the bags and get 

out of here. I have grown to love them so much and really appreciate all the they did for the 

mission. I got to say goodbye to them yesterday at the devotional we did, and I made sure to 

invite them to my wedding, whenever I find my wife.  =) Hermana Ayre told me that when I get 

home we will all have to go and eat dinner together. They are really like a second pair of 

parents! I will miss them but I am also excited to get to know our new president and his wife 

this week, Presidente and Hermana Smith. And Allison and Steve, You have to promise me you

will NOT come to visit until AFTER I finish. Do you hear me????  =)

Love you all and hope you have a great week. Do something nice for a stranger!

See you all soon enough!

Elder Hardcastle =)

One year down, one more to go!

Hey guys!

So this week I will be hitting my halfway point here in the mission! Isn't that so weird? It seems like it has been sooooo looooooong but also so short. Just to let you know, I love this work so much. It is so stressful and tiring and fun and exciting and funny and frustrating and basically a whole lifetime of emotions jammed packed into a very short amount of time, but I know this is the best thing that I could be doing with my time right now. I feel really blessed to be here in the one and only BUENOS AIRES and am looking forward to another year full of fun!

Now for other business... What a week was had! Although our work time was limited this week, what with the zone conference, a stake activity, and a CRAZY Sunday, we were able to see a lot of miracles in the villa, Miracles that I have been waiting for! It was so nice to find time and time again elegidos! It was like everyone was wanting to accept the gospel! Unfortunately a lot of weeding out was done yesterday, due to the fact that out of our eight possibilities, only one investigator came to church, but we are seeing the work progress here in Soldati and I am pretty happy. We are seeing a lot of success from working with our less actives and recent converts, another testimony to me that this is how the Lord wants us to be working here. Not that we were doing anything too different before, but now we are seeing the results of our long labor. Jonatan is really great, he is 27 and just recently got out of jail, and it appears to have really shaken him. He is the son of a less active family and so we have some good activation work to do too! and then we also got a referral from the bishop´s wife, which was a married couple (which basically never is a thing in the villa). Unfortunately they slept in but we plan to keep visiting them because they show real desires and there are lots of finding to be done through them. 

We had a fun stake activity this week with the priests and laurels. They were missionaries for the day and we took the youth out and got them out doing some proseltying down the streets of Chacabuco. It was the first time I have EVER done house contacting in the mission, and it is so not fun. But the only things we could do were housing and street contacting. But I did talk to a grandma while she and her grandkids were petting a cat (obviously since there was a cat I had to talk to them), so that was pretty fun. But yeah. I don't want to sound rude or spoiled or anything, but I am SO HAPPY that for now abstract contacting is like our last resort for finding new people to teach. THE SECRET IS IN THE MEMBERS! 

I love you guys and I hope you have a great day. Also HAPPY FATHER'S DAY to Mr. Ben Hardcastle, the coolest 50 year old slalom skiing secret agent dad there is! LOVE YOU!

See you all soon enough,

Elder Hardcastle =)

Villero for liiiiife

Hey so we had transfers. Surprise! and my dear Elder Juzga left =( and so I am staying here for a little bit longer (or a lot a bit, I'll explain later) with Elder Bohn, from Texas, my first yankee companion! So that's pretty cool. But it won't last long because I am going to kill him (jokes that just means I am his last companion because he is wrapping up his mission this transfer). He is also going to leave two weeks before the end of the transfer. So I don't even know what they are going to do with me. =(  And that's like at the same time our new president, President Smith, is going to get here so I will probably go get forgotten in the Villa Soldati. Haha just kidding! I'll probably go back to the trio life, so that is just two cans of pure joy!

This transfer has gone by pretty smooth so far. Elder Bohn, like I said, is finishing up his mission and was a zone leader and everything and so I am trying to learn a lot from him. We worked a lot with our recent converts and less actives and although we didn't see the results we were wanting in the church this week (seriously I just want to be like Sister Voyles from the District 2 and scream JUST COME TO CHURCH! and then I do it), But! One investigator came! He couldn't stay for all of it but He did enjoy the first two hours, so that is great! We just need to keep up the work and keep going. We really want to see a baptism before Elder Bohn leaves. It looks like I will be staying here in Soldati for the long run, but that is just fine with me! I'm thinking about another three months here because Elder Bohn will leave and then I will have to help the next elder get to know the area after him. I WILL BE THE KING OF SOLDATI.  I already told our ward mission leader and some other members and they all seem pretty happy. It's cool because I am seeing a lot of changes here! Like now we are having a lot more help from the members, and I am the grand master of getting the YSA to come and do visits with us. =)  I am really happy!

Also, to make me even happier, this week we had a house inspection from the Anderson's, the only senior couple in the mission, and it was like one of the greatest hours of my whole life! They are this precious couple from Kansas and are a hoot. And they are super great: they are helping us missionaries update our apartments, since lot's of the stuff we have is old and not always top-notch. I was talking to them about how I cook and they let me take a whole bunch of stuff to make it all better. =) I love them.

That's about it for this week! Que sepan que les re quiero y que ¡les veré pronto!

Attm:

Elder Hardcastle