I SHOOK AN APOSTLE'S HAND

Hello Family and Friends! 

So today was great. Yesterday we had to leave church a little bit early to catch a bus to go to Zárate to meet up with the other leaders in the zone, then later catch a bus  and train to go to San Fernando and stay the night with the asistentes, because today bright and early we needed to be in Buenos Aires city for a special meeting with the four missions in the Buenos Aires province and Elder Stevenson from the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. And Elder Stevens gave us time to shake his hand! so that was awesome. And then we had the GREAT training. Oh, it was so good. I have a tooooon of notes. We talked a lot about how obedience is a blessing and how we gain power in promising blessings and testifying. This man is called of God. I felt it. And then afterwards we had a mini conference as leaders in la gran mision Buenos Aires norte which actually ended up being quite long, which is the reason I am writing this after 8PM.  =) But there is going to be some great things coming up in the future of the mission, we can just feel it!

Repentance is fun to teach. This last week we taught a former LDM contact. The first time I saw her, last transfer, she was yelling at one of her kids, haha. But I felt inspired to talk to her,  y ¡hay que hacerle caso al Espíritu! A person wouldn't think that she would be the typè of person that would have interest in learning about the Gospel, she has tattos all around her body, smokes, co-living, etc. Buuut she accepted that Book of Mormon and another visit. Unfortunately, the appointment fell through the first time, but in divisiones with Elder Jensen a little while back, we passed by her house And I felt like we needed to go look for her again so that we could talk again. She was there and we arranged for another visit. This last Friday we went to her house and taught her the commandments and the blessing we get when we follow them. We figured, ''well, if she still has interest in learning more after this, we are going to have to keep on visiting!'' we taught really well and with love, and even though she knows now that she has lots of thing to improve in her life, she wants to make the changes so that she  can find more peace! It was perfect! She will need of lot of miracles in order to make the changes, but I feel like she can do it. Repentance will qualify us for the divine grace, which will be our strength to carry on with the change. If she can experience the blessings of obedience, she will continue perfecting herself in Christ.

God is so good to us, and looks for every opportunity to bless us. SO KEEP THE COMMANDMENTS OKAY. okay=)

That's about it for this week! I love you guys, and I'll see you all soon enough!

Elder Hardcastle =)

San Barapedro, the land of the outcasts

Greetings everyone! 

It's a big bright beautiful world here in Baradero! A hot world. Holy cats I seriously about died on Friday. And then again on Saturday. It was hot. But I drank a lot of water so don't get too scared Mom! I haven't fainted yet! haha

God is good. He is seriously blessing us so much. Pretty much our efforts don't do anything. But God sees us and is like ''aww these poor elders'' and then throws us UN MONTONAZO of blessings. He sees our efforts! This week like ALL of our plans fell through. Buuuut do you guys remember the miracle family that went to church a few weeks ago with Hno Salas who is a temple worker? yeah well POR FIN we had a lesson with the parents, and they accepted a baptismal date!! Wooot. and we are also working with a man who is inactive and his wife who isn't a member, and they are also progressing and are amazing and just have to get married and go to church, and then she can get baptized as well! 

Also, we had transfers last week. I killed my companion (again) and am training (again)! I am also district leader! We affectionately call ourselves the outcasts because our district is so far away from the rest of the mission, they just stuck us and San Pedro together and called it good. so yeah. But San Barapedro is great and Elder Jensen and I are super great friends from the Zona Chacabuco days and are ready to call our area to repentance with our bellotas.  =)

My companion is Elder Mussin, from el Talar. He is waiting for his visa to come so he can leave to go to California. El Talar is actually a part of our mission, so until the visa comes, he's stuck with us. He already has one transfer here in the mission so I am just finishing up his training, but he pretty much knows how to do everything already, so we just power through everything and try to put up with the heat. 

I hope you are all enjoying the new year and making good goals! But I hope you biggest goal is to be a better follower of Jesus Christ. Because he knows what's best for you! So don't be scared to follow Him and do what He says!

See you all soon enough!

Elder CastilloDuro

Fotos-

Bye Elder Martínez

Hello Elder Mussin

Just your standard parrot having free reign in your sandwich shop. 

Feliz Navidad

So this week was pretty jazzy. We finished up the Zárate zone choir with our last concert in Lima. It has been so fun to sing these little villancicos in our zone. Afterwards we went to the church because the zone leader had bought us empanadas and pizza, but the delivery guy came pretttttttty late, so we had to eat quickly and get out. And then the next morning I had to get up early because we had our mission Christmas activity, and there were EIGHT of us staying in the apartment of the Zárate elders (Living far away with crazy bus schedule problems really inconveniences us and San Pedro. But I love it) 

AND I needed a haircut (In Argentina hair cutting places don't open on Mondays (o say, Pday)... don't ask me why.), so Elder Rumualdo cut my hair (I had to help a bit), and my companion's hair, but he sort of messed up and cut the sides to small, and well, as he says, it looks like an hongo. And he's going home like in two days so it's fine, jaja=). 

Sunday was FUN! We had church at 11:20 so we stayed in and I got to do some of my studies, and we wrapped some Libros de Mormón in wrapping paper to give away later. Well, it was POURING rain. just about the whole day.  So I was kind of scared I wouldn't be able to hand out my Christmas present, but then after church before our Skype call we found someone who wanted to learn more, So I got to hand out my book! It's probably one of the best Christmas presents I've ever given.  =)

Obviously, I loved talking to my family! I was so nice to be able to be all together and being, well, HARDCASTLES. It's weird to think that now I only have one more Skype with them. Oof. I'm getting old. 

Well now let's talk about The whole reason we have Christmas, Christ, for a bit. So our mission President has asked us to read Jesus The Christ every day as part of our personal studies, and So I am reading it about 30 minutes every day, and I love it. I am learning so much more about my Savior. I just finished the part where it talks about his adolescence. It amazes me. HE amazes me. Go and read chapters 9 and 10. I am so grateful for me perfect Savior. 

That's all for this week! I love you guys. See you all soon enough!

Elder Hardcastle

fotos:

1 I GOT MY HAT

2 and 3 Christmas with the Luquez family. They are the best.

Mosíah 15:15 y 16

Mosíah 15:15 y 16
15:   And O how beautiful upon the mountains were their feet!
16:   And again, how beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of those that are still publishing peace!

That is my missionary joke for the week. I'm pretty sure my feet have never looked less beautiful.  I've got some pretty beautiful blisters, I guess. But anywho... 

¡¡¡¡Feliz Navidad!!!! I really think it needs to be cold to be Christmas, but it's whatever. This week was insane! I don't think I've ever worked this much! We saw lot's of miracles as well. This week we had divisiones again, but this time Elder Rumualdo came to Baradero! For two days! There were lots of lessons learned. When Elder Rumualdo got here, we had the mindset of just talking to everyone, and we did it! He is such a great example to me, probably one of my favorite zone leaders of all time, even if he kept complaining for all the walking he had to do on the top-quality Baradero streets, haha. In those two days we gave out 14 Books of Mormon. It was miracle after miracle, seven books each day! I was so happy, and I thought, ''We can share 30 Books of Mormon this week.'' So I tried to keep up the fire with Elder Martínez and Saturday night we handed out the thirtieth book! And then Sunday was filled with miracles in church. One of our investigators came who said she wouldn't this week, and then Hermano Salas (We think he is part of the Bs As Temple Presidency) brought a FAMILY to church! We were so happy. And the ward did a really good job fellowshipping them. They don't have their schedule quite figured out yet, but we will be meeting with them either Friday or Saturday. Pray for the best!

Once again, I learned that God loves us, that He blesses us when we really try, and it's usually not in the way we were planning. Usually, what we do never turns out the way we want, but our Heavenly Father with His extensive love goes forth and brings us miracles. I love Him. I love Jesus Christ as well. 

Go and read this https://www.lds.org/liahona/2016/12/the-divine-power-of-grace?lang=eng&_r=1&cid=HP_MO_12-12-2016_dPFD_fLHNA_xLIDyL2-4_ and then Moroni 10:33 and 34. Heavenly Father And Jesus Christ love us. As we move nearer to them, they will fill us with Their grace. 

I hope you all have a very Merry Christmas. See you all soon enough (less than six months wow)! 
Atte:
Elder Hardcastle =)

The cibercafe is closed AGAIN

...So we are writing direct from the capilla (oops I mean church...)

But yeah, so this week:

This week was A LAS CORRIDAS. That means busy. Is it already el 12 de Diciembre? My mind tells me no, the heat tells me SIIIIIIIIIII. Today is especially toasty. We spent just about half the week in Zárate. 

Monday afternoon during proselyting time the zone leaders called us and were like ''hey we want to do divisiones with you guys tomorrow, come over,'' so we were like ''okay cool.''  We grabbed our things and went to the bus terminal to make the hour long trek to Zárate! Then Tuesday I was with my good new friend Elder Rumualdo, from Mexico. We are both kind of bummed because we pretty much got to know each other this last transfer, and he's going home at the end of this transfer. But he is a SUPER missionary. I learned a lot from him. He helped me work on being even more bold and talking with more people. So we talked to a lot of people and shared seven Libros de Mormón with follow-up visits! And then the next day my companion had a leadership capacitación in San Fernando, so I was left to work with Elder Coltrin from Idaho, while our companion's went to the meeting. And we were filled with fire, and we shared ANOTHER seven Libros de Mormón with follow-up visits! Woot! By this point I was filled with even more fire, So Wednesday when we went back to Baradero to work for the day before going back to Zárate that night and I was SO ready to talk! And so I really pushed myself to talk to a ton a people. I am pretty sure I have never tried talking to so many people in my mission before in one day. And we gave away zero Libros de Mormón with follow-up visits. Woooot! jaja it was a bit of a bummer, but I finished the day feeling bastante pleased with my efforts, thank you very much. 

It's actually been kind of my focus of the week. I have been thinking quite a bit about Ether 12:27

And if men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness. I give unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them.

If we are humble and do what Christ wants us to do, rather than what we want to do (which is NOT easy all the time), he will help us to be able to overcome our weaknesses. Sometimes we may be a little bit stubborn and it may take us a while, BUT WE HAVE GOT TO DO IT! It's the only way one we can improve! It's the most important thing we can do! So be humble. 

Also, the senior couple, the Anderson's to put up curtains in our house. You guys need to meet them, they are buena gente. I took pictures with them. And they are how I want to be when I am older. 

Okay, well got to go for now. Be safe. Be humble. and I'll see you all soon enough!

Bye.

Elder Hardcastle=)

1. Rule Breakers 

(it's like 10:30 and we're waiting to go home)

2. Elder Rumualdo and I

3. Elder Juzga and I

4. It's getting hot outside and the cats are getting risky

5. Apparently this little guy can burn you.

New curtains with the Anderson's

El ciber está cerrado...

So the only cibercafe was closed so we are writing from the church, which has one computer. So I'll just send pictures today! 

But just a fun fact: this week we were fasting so that our investigators would come to church. Well, those who we specifically prayed for didn't come (JUST COME TO CHURCH), but a former investigator came! with his less-active girlfriend. So yay! Not at all what we were expecting, but we'll take it!

Have fun everyone! See you all soon enough!

Elder Hardcastle

A friend of mine in San Pedro took us out last pday. It was glorious. Also, enjoy my missionary tan. =)

We Moved

Howdy ya'll

So this week perhaps wasn't the most missionary-work heavy, because we had to spend more than two days moving all of our stuff over to the new house (NOT apartment, haha), and then Saturday was loco crazy with a huge storm in the morning and there was pretty much nobody in the street in the afternoon getting wet. menos nosotros. But now everything is settled and we are ready to have a great week this week! 

We had a good experience with Abrir la Boca (open your mouth) Friday. We got a message from the zone leaders that one of the companionships of hermanas had given away seven Libros de Mormón the day before by simply opening their mouth with everyone. At first I was like ''wow that's a lot'' and then I got thinking, ''we can do that.'' Contacting is probably one of my biggest challenges in the mission that I am working through because I really, really, hate it when people don't want to read a book about our Savior, or when they're comfortable where they are, etc. and I start to lose faith in finding people. But I decided I would put forth my best effort and try to contact all the people that replied to me nicely when I said hello.  My companion caught on as well and the Lord blessed us with a TON of people willing to accept this other testament of Jesus Christ! It showed me that if we try our best to act on the impressions of the Spirit, he will not fail us, we just need to open our mouths! 

Just some fun news: 

It hailed on Saturday. And it was huge!! I'll show you in the pictures.

There are toads by our new pensión. I like them.

Sunday I caught a toad at a members house=) it was some good clean fun.

This morning there was a swarm of dragonflies outside the pensión. Not a very dense swarm, but a swarm nonetheless. 

This week we have been testing our culinary expertise and made blueberry and peach syrups. 

That's it for this week. Espero que todos tengan una semana buenísima y que puedan pensar un poco más en nuestro Salvador, ya que estamos llegando a la época navideña=) See you all soon enough!

Atentamente,

Elder Hardcastle