Families are the best thing.

Hello everyone! How are you doing?

So these last two weeks have been a little bit weird, but really good. We are working with an investigator pool of mostly families, which is the greatest, and the families are the ones that help us see the most results, so yay! And we are working with the members, and I just want to reiterate, OTRA VEZ, that members are the key to the work. It is hard, and even though it replaces house street contacting and stuff like that, the results are there and it gives us the opportunity to help those who are struggling within the Church. 

In an effort to help my companion see how we can work through the members to find the blessings waiting for us around them, I stopped us in a moment of doing street contacting and took him to the house of a less active lady. While my companion talked with her outside and shared a spiritual thought, I went over to knock on her neighbor's door, praying to God that this opportunity could be used to show my companion how important this type of work is for us. A young mother answered the door, who had met with the elders a while ago, and accepted my Book of Mormon with a return visit! Fast forward a few visits, and now we are working with her, her partner, her mom, her sister and her partner and one of their kids! AND THE TWO COUPLES WANT TO GET MARRIED. That is pretty much better than gold to hear, so we are pretty excited to start helping them. They are a fun bunch that ask a lot of questions and I have pretty much never worked with people like them before, but I am really excited about being able to work with them and to learn how to better teach them=) But it strengthened my testimony that God answers our righteous desires, and that This is the way we are supposed to work.

This week we did a noche de hogar (family home evening) with the bishop's family, and it was really great. They invited their neighbors (a family of four) over and we watched the the short film of Joseph Smith's first vision, and it was really good, and the dad seemed to be really touched. They accepted Books of Mormon, and even though the return visit we planned with them fell through, the bishop it going to keep working with them so that they can grow in the Gospel!

Also this week as we were walking in the street we came across a more-or-less active in the street and was with a friend so we went and invited her to learn more, and the friend came to church with us yesterday! She is the first Chilean that I have met in my area, and probably one of the smartest people there as well. We talked about genetics in agriculture and the blessing of knowledge that God has given us to improve our state of living in the world while we were waiting for the bus! Buuuut, she really wasn't a fan of church (she thought it was too long), and so she probably won't come again, but hey! We gave her a chance.

We were super happy yesterday because the bishop's sister and her two kids came to church! yay! Unlike the other investigator, they really liked it, and are doing well and want to be baptized. The bishop's family and his sister's family made us an asado (Argentine barbeque) yesterday for lunch, so you could say that we have gained their confidence.  =) The sister did tell me that she is not sure if she is prepared yet to be baptized because she wants to know more, so I left her Mosiah 18 to read. We'll see if she is hesitant because she isn't ready or if she simply doesn't think she is. I just know she is going to be baptized, but it will be in her time and not ours. Maybe it will be this next Sunday, or next week. But I am pretty sure it will be soon! So I am excited for them! 

Also, on a less spiritual thought, this last week we found a bus that takes us to our area in pretty much half the time than the other one we were taking. Who knew it took only eight months to find that out! 

Also, I completed eight months in Soldati this last week. So ¡vamos Elder Hardcastle!

That is pretty much all the excitement from this week! Now I want you all to go and read the Book of Mormon this week, because it is the base of our testimony of the Savior and it is truly one of the biggest blessings we have as members of the church. I love you all and hope you have a great week! See you all soon enough! 

Hasta Luego, 

Elder Hardcastle=)

...and just in case anyone wanted to know,  this week while we were doing 12 Semanas (the training for new missionaries), and watching and a segment from the District 2, when Sisters Voyles and Zaldivar teach about tithing (which they do REALLY WELL and in like 5 minutes), I totally noticed that THEY SWITCHED NAME TAGS. Que truchas.

Anyways, that's all. Carry on with your lives.