I love being a dad.

Hi.

This week I was called a Spaniard again and Paraguayan. So that's cool.

I love being a missionary! Do you all remember the other week how I said that I was trying to have more charity? Well, I have a testimony now that charity makes all the difference. I feel so full and happy and I see lot's of results in the way I think and act and what I say. We are seeing so many great things happening right now in Soldati, Elder Boccazzi and I. Here is the lowdown:

Felicia.
Felicia is a lady that I have been teaching since I got to Soldati, and she is our recent convert (yikes I almost put convert recent, silly castellano) that we always work with. She was baptized my second transfer here and I have been able to watch her conversion to the gospel. She is a peach. I have dubbed her my unofficial aunt. Felicia has a really strong testimony and a great baptismal story as well! The night before her baptism, her house flooded! and she spent hours trying to  solve the problem and almost didn't make it to her baptism, but she knew it was important so went anyways. Satan is real, but our faith in Christ is more powerful than his attempts to stop us.The other day she took us to a friend's house who was telling us about 'all the stuff that is going to happen before Christ comes again' and Felicia with all her sass cracked a joke about everyone burning up and I burst out laughing during the contact. Oops.  =)

Also a fun cool spiritual story. So Felicia has a friend, let's call her 'Maria'. Maria has a sort of ('ex') husband, that we shall call 'Juan'. So the other day we were walking down the street and we ran into Maria and her daughter. I asked her where she was headed and she said to her daughter's dad's house. I then asked if he would be the type of man that needs a gospel message, and she said yes! So we went with her to Juan's house, and then he came to church with us Sunday! Yay! I LOVE WHEN PEOPLE GO TO CHURCH. Later that afternoon we went over to his house to teach him, and he told us about how we had come in the right moment, that he was an alcoholic but wanted to change and be a better example for his daughter. He also said that before he probably would have just told  us to leave, but right now he is ready for a change. He is humble and ready to be taught. I have gained such a testimony these last days that there are people ready to receive the gospel.

So this last week my companion and I were doing visits with a sister in our area and one of her neighbors was outside and this hermana goes right up to her and is like ''Hi. What's your name? Oh. I want you to talk to the missionaries.'' Haha, we talked with the lady and arranged to do another visit with her. Well fast forward to the second meeting and we knock on the door, and another person that lives in the house told us that she was 'in the bathroom.' Hmm, like we've never heard that before. We were kind of feeling like just giving up on her, but we decided to give her one more chance, por la duda. So we went by a little later aaaaand she was there! And we taught her lesson 1! And she committed to come to church the next day! And then she came! And then after sacrament meeting she accepted a baptismal date! and then she stayed to watch a baptism! Needless to say, we were pretty happy. BUT THEN. When we were walking back to the villa, and after trying to arrange another day visit her, she tells us that she is going to Bolivia for a month. WHAAAAT. So yeah. plans shattered. But you better believe it that we will be passing by in like a month!

Elder Boccazzi and I are doing great together. He is so great and has such big desires to be the best he can be. We are seeing LOADS of changes here in Soldati, and I and kind of in shock because all of a sudden we are seeing so many fruits. THE BLESSINGS OF BEING A TRAINER ARE REAL!!! hahaha. But in all seriousness, it has been one of the greatest weeks in my mission. Maybe even the greatest. I'm trusting in God, being guided by love, and it is amazing to see the differences, I wish I could it explain it all to you guys! I KNOW that this is not my work.

I hope you all have a grand week, AND PUT A LITTLE LOVE IN YOUR HEART.

See you all soon enough!

The Start of Something New

¡Hola mis amigos! ¿Qué tal?

So I decided to follow the example of my dear friend Sister Tiffany Lemon and name my email 

after a song title. And you can't ever go wrong with High School Musical! Jokes, you can. 

Buuut I am doing some great new things here in Soldati, like training my dear child, 

Elder Boccazzi! Wooooo. He is from the Argentina Bs As South mission, and his house is 

seriously like twenty minutes away from our apartment (we live right by the mission border). 

Like today we literally took the bus that would take him to his house if we would have kept 

going. He's actually waiting for his visa to come so he can go to the Utah SLC South mission, 

but until them I shall father him! And we are having a ton of fun! This whole training thing is 

such a blessing. I always felt it was so cliche to say 'I am learning so much from my trainee,' 

but the truth is that I am learning a lot from my Elder Boccazzi. He has pretty much come 

pre-trained. Like I tell him something and then he does it perfectly. This week he was able to 

make his first invitation to be baptized, and he is always asking for referrals from the members,

THAT'S MY BOY! He also has big desires to be exactly obedient, and he reminds me a lot of 

how I was at the beginning of my mission in that respect. We are learning together and having

fun together. 

I am amazed that, when all our efforts of the week seem to have been done in vain when 

investigators don't come to Church, God finds a way to work in a blessing. Saturday we did a 

quick contact of a referral we received form a less active woman. We were able to talk to her 

and her partner, and they had actually investigated the Church about a year and a half ago, 

and they both went to Church yesterday for the last hour, which happens to be Sacrament 

meeting. Unfortunately they aren't married, but we will be talking with them this week and I 

really feel something special with them. 

I had some great moments this week where I really felt guided by the Spirit during our daily 

planning and during the course of the day. We were finding people that were put in our path, 

and then were able to do what we do, TEACH! I really love this work! and I love SOLDATI!

Hang in there everyone! I love you all and will see you all soon enough!

Con amor,

Elder Hardcastle

Elder Dote and I during our couple hours of being companions.

Puerto de Frutos, Tigre, and Anchoves do NOT taste good on a pizza.

 Me and my son.  =)

Two funerals and a baby

Wingapo! Just throwing in some daily Algonquin at you all. Not that they speak Algonquin 

here... But still. Actually they are a lot of people that speak Guarani (the old language of the 

Paraguay area) and Quechua (the old language of the Bolivia/Peru area). Poatu waope? I think 

that means Let's go to church. 

Anywho, I just got really sidetracked... Returning to the letter...

Hello! So Today is the big day! I killed my second elder! It was really sad this time, I really 

learned a lot from Elder Lawyer from these short two weeks that we had together. He's literally

one of the nicest, purest people I know. We did a lot of good work his last week to make sure 

that he died well. We were even blessed with some true miracles! WE HAD AN INVESTIGATOR 

AT CHURCH! It is the grandchild of our recent convert, Felicia. And above that, this Felicia also 

BROUGHT A FRIEND TO CHURCH! Wooohooo! We didn't have a lot of time to talk with her, 

but we are going to stop by tomorrow so pray that it all goes well. According to Felicia, her 

friend really liked the meetings, so let's all hope and pray that she is open and ready to hear 

the restored Gospel=) We also found a really great lady Sunday that we taught yesterday that 

is really interested! I love these moments in missionary work when things begin to fall into 

place. This will all be really helpful too, because I will need all the help I can get to raise my 

child.  That's right. I am pregnant. 

I have been called to be a trainer! Eeeeek. I am so excited. I am going to have so much fun. I 

also have no idea how to do this, but luckily they gave me a little book and brochure on how 

to be a good trainer, so I guess I'm prepared.  =) But in all seriousness, I am really looking 

forward  to this opportunity to work on being a more Christlike servant. This also gives me a 

great opportunity to work my charity and humility! I get to go meet him in about an hour. 

Let's get started!

In the meantime, I am just chilling with Elder Dote, from Chile, who is also wating to meet his 

hijo. Did I mention that I love Chileans?. Yeah, like 50 times. We barely know each other but 

now after spending all of pday together we are basically best friends. And he doesn't like 

soccer. And he likes to sing. That is a combination that is hard to find down here. We went to 

Porto de Frutos because we had nothing better to do today, and went to a Pizza Libre, which is

a all-you-can-eat pizza place. So yeah. Just some pday fun for you. I'll send pics... maybe. if I 

can find out how!  Yep. found out.

But that's it for this week! Send me some prayers to help out with this whole training thing! 

I love you all and will see you all soon enough!

Also shout out to big brother Holden for returning with honor from his mission. Job well done!

 

Love you all,

Elder Hardcastle

pics

1- Double banana

2- I wish we made cakes at our ward conferences

3- Bye bye Elder Lawyer 

EE.UU. te quiero a vos

Happy 4th of July my amigos! 

I just want to say that I am so glad to have been born in such a great country. I really didn't understand how well we had it until I left! I am so grateful for those who through the history of the nation have sacrificed so much for our freedom. And because of this freedom, we can enjoy the blessings of the restored gospel, and how much of a blessing that is!

Today has been a pretty dang good day. During our companion study we sang the national anthem, well most of us. Elder Lucas couldn't really read the English words so fast, but he did participate! and then we went shopping at our local Jumbo because I was in need of some new shoes. I treated myself to what I am calling my Hush Airs, because they are Hush Puppies but with these weird air bubbles in them, like the Nike Airs. I'm not going to say I am going to be walking down the street with the facha pura, but they are pretty comfy. =) I will send you all a picture later on. And then to celebrate a little bit more, we went to a meaty semi-fast food place and ate some quality hamburgers. It was also a  nice little moment to share the Gospel with the man at the register, because he asked me where we were from and I was able to give him a pass along card! It says in the mission manual to always be ready to share the gospel on pday!

So guess what. So you know that I told you that I killed my companion last week and would be getting a new one? Well I did. AND I WILL B KILLING HIM TOO next Tuesday. Yep. Six months are officially official here in Soldati. And I am so HAPPY. I love this place. But I am also Super sad because my new companion, Elder Lawyer, I super great. We get a long so well and I am learning so much from him, more than any other of my companions. He is pretty much the most loving person I have ever met. I'm so sad I will have to kill him in another week. =(

This week was kind of a weird week, and it rained a lot. We are going to have to get rid of basically all of our investigators because none of them are going to church. So that was kind of sad. But yesterday we had a small miracle. After church we went over to a less active family's house but they weren't home. I was like ''okay cool, let's go and try and talk with some of their neighbors.'' And then we did, and I met this really cool guy! He told me a lot of his family has died and I was able to testify of eternal families. We are going to meet with him again tomorrow, so pray for him! 

This week we also got to meet our new mission president and his family. They are really a great bunch, Pte and Hna Smith with their two youngest kids. You can tell that they are really excited to be here, and the whole family is already starting to work on their Castellano! I think once they get settled in a little more they will be a super great asset for us. Pte Smith has a lot of desire which could be seen when he talked. I'm really excited to get to start to work with him!

I want a little bit of help from you guys. ALL OF YOU GUYS. I really want to work on my charity. I would like to know: What do YOU do to have charity in your day-to-day doings? Any tips or scriptures that you like would be great. I will look forward to you responses next week. 

Also today I was reading in Enos, and I just want to tell you all how much I love that book. I just love the part when he gets forgiven of his sins and asks, ''Señor, ¿cómo se lleva esto a efecto?'' ''Lord, how is it done?'' From his faith in things neither heard nor seen, he was able to be touched by the hand of the Lord. What a great example for us! I want to have the faith he had to experience even more the goodness of our God. I love this Gospel. I love being a missionary. I am pretty sure I have almost never felt so far from being perfect as I do here, but I also feel such comfort in knowing that as I move forward, one step at a time, I can make big changes. 

I love you all and hope you have a great week. My challenge for you all this week is to KEEP THE SABBATH DAY HOLY. How do you sanctify your Sabbath?

Envío mucho amor de Argentina. Cuídense mucho. See you all soon enough!

Elder Hardcastle

My Hush Airs

Hamburguesas y Libertad

Elder Lawyer striking a pose

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