...did you miss me?

¡Hola mis amigos!

Well, I made it to Argentina! But first, some background to my last days at the MTC:

Leaving the MTC was rough. That place was so good to me! I recommend going there. But in all seriousness, I loved it, it is a dedicated place and you recognize that AFTER you leave. The world is a bit of a scary place!

Last Monday was travel day. The missionaries leaving for Argentina all left at 8:30 ish in the morning, so no complaints there. I got to call my parents and sister while in SLC, and it was so nice to here from them! I just wish I could go boating with them! Familes are great. Especially mine=)

We had a layover in Atlanta, and I had this really cool experience. We were in the food court, and this older black woman (not to be racist, but you have to understand her in order to get the full feeling of the story) comes up to me and Elder Holtry and is like ''Are you from the ministry?'' I say we are from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and that we were leaving for our missions. She asked us where we were going and we said Argentina, and she said ''That's what you all should be doing, going and spending some time for the Lord'' (loose quoting) BUT IT WAS SO NEAT! It's great that people of different faiths see us missionaries as ambassadors of the Lord. I love it! 

Then we had the 11ish hour airplane ride. Yum. haha Actually, it wasn't too bad. 

One thing I did enjoy on my flights was reading from Nehemiah in the Bible. Have you read it recently? If not, do it. He is a stud. A great example of diligence in our work. 

AND THEN I MADE IT TO ARGENTINA! President and Sister Ayres met us in the airport, and after took us to some sights in BA. They are a classy duo. Then we went to the mission home and ate empanadas. YUM FOR REALS. After we had some training and an interview with President Ayres. Our mission is not a finding mission; most of our work is done through and with members, which is cool. We search for the 'Eligidos' (Elect) and have specific filters (couples must be married, WoW, etc) on who we teach and have a three week plan to prepare them for baptism. 

And THEN we went to the church and got our new Compañeros and our area assignments. Mi nuevo compañero es Elder Carrasco de Chile. He is awesome! seriously. We get along pretty well, and only have lapses in communication every so often, but he does know quite a bit of English so all is good. I am currently serving in the city of Pilar. Its been kind of tough, I won't lie, but almost solely the language barrier. Every one talks SO FAST but I can usually understand what is being said, I just have a hard time if there are background noises or if they are talking too fast . Elder Carrasco thinks I'm going to be made a leader in the mission soon haha. TEACH FROM THE HEART AND KNOW YOUR STUFF. That really is the key. I'm so glad to be here! It looks like a fun 22 months!

Chau for now and see you all soon enough!

Elder Hardcastle

Last Pic in the USA

ARG-BAN newbies!

With President & Sister Ayres

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

Yo no soy italiano... o latino

Greeting all from a toasty week up at the MTC!

(seriously. it's hot.)

One week down! It's so fun up here guys! I love it. I love my teachers, my district, my zone, Just about all of it! Well minus the part about getting up at 6:30 or earlier every day, but esta bien:) Our zone is super duper cool, we get along just about all the time! Don't worry, the sass hasn't died yet, but it is getting a little bit more refined, since half of my vocabulary isn't really smiled upon here (holla, swag, lol, etc.) But it's all cool. Hermana Landon and me get along especially well. She is from Texas and is going to Rancho Cucamonga CA and matches me in the sass department. 

We had one Hermana leave yeasterday evening, which was kind of sad. I guess she has some mental adversities she tried to patch up too quickly before the mission, and so she had to leave. So last night was a bit blue, but that's life. I have been having a blast though; it's hard and overwhelming at times but I'm so glad to be here!

Spanish is weird... sometimes when I'm trying to put things into Spanish my German comes out... ooops! Mi Companero is like the best speaker in our zone, so luckily he can take most of the load during our lessons and tell me afterwards what all was said:)

Speaking of lessons, We have taught two investigators already! Jorge was our first and we've taught him a good couple of times, he's cool. Me and mi companero are both pretty tan (except I think he is naturally tan... really tan .. but still white), and during our first lesson Jorge asked us something along the line of if we are of Latino descent! hahaha! yeah no, sorry Jorge. I thought it was especially funny because a hermana we sat by the first day during dinner thought I was Italian. Who knew I was so exotic, right?

Sister Lemon appreciation moment because I am always seeing her around campus! She even came and visited one day during her study time, which was muy bien!

Also the food is pretty dang good. I limit myself though! Well I try... BUT I'm definitely not eating more than most the other elders in my district. I envy their metabolisms. 

We play volleyball here just about everyday! I love it. There are a few sand courts over in the field across from the MTC, and we like to play there more than in the ones in the gym. I feel as though the people are less judge-y that we play with on sand. Most the time we play with an Italian zone, so it's just some good clean fun!

Love you guys! Hope all is well, wherever you are! Elder H is doing good and learning some along the way.

See you all soon enough:)

Elder Hardcastle

My camera is being difficult... so pics next week! (hopefully)

HOLA HOLA HOLA

HOLA PEOPLE

Okay. So, our District Leaders are super duper awesome and letting us take 20ish minutes to email home this week, since Wednesday is our P-Day! Holllllla! 

Guys this place is SO cool. Like I'm already feeling so great. Right after we pulled in to the MTC I saw the ONE AND ONLY Sister Tiffany Lemon, and that was such a tender mercy. I was really hoping to see her so it was just so great. We gave each other a really big handshake, and then I went and talked with her again at lunch. Ahhhh  it was so good. I'd post the pic but don't have my camera on me right now. Next week:) and shortly after I saw Sister Kartchner! and Elder Fistrup! It's so cool!

My companion is Elder Sargeant, from St. Geezy and is going to Resistencia (Spell check?) in Argentina. We are kind of opposites, but are getting along really well at the moment. Our dorm room is made for 6 people, but we are the only two in there! So that's nice. The older people in our district came over and said hi.

So Spanish.... it's kind of hard. I'm pretty sure I'm the only person in my class (6 elders and 4 hermanas) that has had no Spanish classes up to this point, but it's whatevs. I'm optimistic! Some of the older folk in my district haven't had Spanish before the MTC and they, seem alright... so I'll be fine. 

This place is so cool, I'm already seeing such awesomeness here! 

Love you guys, see you all soon enough!

Elder H.

#BTBFF

(Born Together, Best Friends Forever!)