Monday, September 15, 2014

Such a good week. :)

Dear Family and Friends,

Happy Birthday to Grandma Ida and Hannah on Tuesday and Wednesday! Love you both so much.

Man, missionary work is the best. This week was so awesome. So many miracles.

On Tuesday morning, we got to drive to London (Ontario) for Zone Conference. The way our GPS had us go was right through Woodstock. As we were driving through the main street, I noticed the orange car that was right behind us. You will never guess who it was....ANDREA MOULTON!! My long lost sister and BFF in the entire land of Woodstock! I couldn't believe it. I was able to talk with her briefly at a stop light. What are the chances of that happening?? Definitely an answer to prayers. I love when God places us in the right place at the right time. My day couldn't have started off better. Zone Conference was incredible. I can't believe it was my last one, but it was definitely one that I will never forget. All of the missionaries going home in October and November were able to bear their testimonies, and there were quite a few of us. It went well though, and I received a nice confirmation from my Father in Heaven that all is going to be well. :) These last 9 weeks will be cherished.

After Zone Conference, we had an appointment with the less-active Borg family. As we were able to leave his home, I felt that I needed to invite him to pray and ask God if he should come back to church. His response - "I have already been doing that...and I think I will." So cool! He is great.

So we had a few more crazy rain storms, like nothing I've ever experienced before in my life. I'm pretty sure we could swim in the streets, and it was dangerous to drive at some points. However, rain storms make missionary work really fun!

Okay. So many funny things happened this week. I hope I can portray them in a way that you all will think they are funny too, and not just me. Haha. So our District Leader asked lots of us in the district if we would help some people move in their ward. So we thought why not. Well, we were helping this family and it was really gross - so many boxes and it smelt sooo nasty. We had been there for maybe 45 minutes when we get a text from our Zone Leaders that said "We need to leave ASAP." Turns out that the reason they had to move was because it was an unsafe environment and the pets got taken away because of diseases. WHAT?! It was so nasty. Hahah. So our leaders told us to go home and boil our clothes. So we immediately went and washed them. But wait, it gets better. A member of the family had passed away and they asked us to speak at the funeral. We had never met these people before and didn't even know their names. So on Saturday we spoke at a funeral for a man we'd never met. It was honestly the strangest thing I've ever done! When we were walking to our car afterwards all I could say to Sister Womack was - "What just happened?" Oh man. The day gets better. We went to the ward corn roast, and it was on a farm of one of the members. They had three pigs, and I really wanted to get in and pet them. Sister Womack wouldn't let me because she said it was too dirty, but I decided that I didn't care if I got dirty. Let me tell you....pigs are SO mean. I got in and one of them started headbutting me and nibling my legs. It was so scary! Sister Womack thought I was laughing, but I totally wasn't. I really don't think pigs are cute anymore. My heart was racing for like the next 3 hours afterwards.

So one of my best friends from Hamiton Mountain, Crystal-Lynn, is going to school in Waterloo, so she came teaching with us on Saturday night! It was so great to see her. She is so great.

I'll update you on Greg. He is doing awesome! He came to church yesterday and LOVED IT. He told us before church that he would have to leave early, but then he decided he couldn't leave because he was learning so much. He is excited for his baptism on the 28th! Keep Greg in your prayers.

We've been without a Ward Mission Leader for awhile now because the previous one got called to be in the Stake Presidency. Well, we finally got one yesterday! His name is Brother Fischer, and he is great. I am so excited to work with him and help the ward. The ward here is truly amazing.

So the Bishop is going down to General Conference and offered to take an entire suitcase of things home for me!! So Mom and Dad - you will need to meet up with him somehow. I will be giving him all of your information. Such a miracle considering I have way too many things to fit home.

Oh Landon....this one is for you. On Friday night, we had dinner with a couple from Londrina Brazil! I am not sure if I spelled that right, but they were really excited when I mentioned that you served your mission there. Brother and Sister Da Silva are their names. Then we had an appointment with some more Brazilians and another one of them was from Londrina as well! Small world.

I've been studying lately about the life of the apostles after Jesus Christ had gone to His father. The faith that they had is simply inspiring. I think that the New Testament has become my favorite thing to study right now.  :)

Love you all so much.

Love,

Sister Hardcastle

"Have Faith, Have Hope, Live Like His Son, Help Others On Their Way"


Sister Dyer & I after Zone Conference! MTC COMPS :)
Sister Anderson. Woodstock days. :) 
My favorite Chinese speaking missionary ever!
Sister Castillo! 
Yes, it is true!
Not sure what I'm holding....
Smallest stop sign ever.
Hanging out with some pigs. 
My little pony.
This is a picture of me getting attacked by pigs. Read above for details. :)

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