Monday, June 24, 2013

Week 6 Ajax

Hello my beautiful family and friends, 

Just a few things -

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY FAVORITE NIECE IN THE WHOLE ENTIRE WORLD KALLIE! I love you sweetie and miss you so much. 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY MOMMA BARB ON WEDNESDAY! I love you!

HAPPY GOLDEN BIRTHDAY TO MY HOMEBOY MATT! Hope you have a great 27th birthday on the 27th bro. Love you lots!

Also, Happy Birthday to Tiffany today! Lots of Woolstenhulme birthdays lately! Hope you have an amazing day Tiffany!

Thank you so so much to Jaclyn and Grandma Ida for the letters! I got them last Monday night and they made my day! 

This past week was pretty amazing. We had a Zone Conference last Tuesday. It was so inspired and got everyone so excited. Remember that goal that the mission has for 60 baptisms in the month of June? Well folks, as of yesterday - we had 52! So we just need 8 more next week to reach our goal. We've all been praying and working SO hard for it. It's truly a miracle. I learned a lot from the Zone Conference though, and I can't wait for the next one. The biggest thing that I learned is that, Yes our biggest message is the Restoration. But it's the Restoration of what?? The Gospel of Jesus Christ. That needs to become more of the emphasis. So that's something that we've really been working on. It makes the first lesson not seem like a history lesson. I've come to absolutely love the Doctrines in Preach my Gospel. That manual is so inspired and it's amazing. Everything about being a missionary is amazing! Everything. 

Sister Stat's got strep this week. :( Let me tell you something about Canada. Their Healthcare system is unbelievably terrible. So, every resident of Canada gets free healthcare. Which is why sales tax is 13%. Gah it's so expensive here. Anyways, we sat at the doctors office for over 3 hours. And when they finally called her back, she was in the room for 3 minutes tops. It was a joke. But now she has medicine and she's been slowly starting to feel better. As a result of all of this, this week has been quite slow. I've had so much personal study time it's insane. I'm almost done reading the Book of Mormon and I've watched The District probably 5 times this week. Haha, it's pretty lonely to be in the apartment all day while your companion sleeps. It made it go by pretty slow. But by the weekend everything picked up. 

We were able to teach a few of our investigators this week. Angela - she's so close to setting a baptismal date. We're fasting with her tomorrow that she will have the strength to quit smoking. Also, our neighbors are our newest investigators. We usually go over there and talk to them while they sit in their garage and smoke. We actually were able to teach them a lesson though and they want us to come back, so that's exciting! They're great neighbors and they take good care of us! Also, we met with this guy, I can't spell his name, and he was convinced that he was already a God. It was very interesting. He's very nice though and is going to have us over for dinner with his family soon. Hopefully his heart will be softened. 

I was able to go on my first exchange with Sister Williams. Apparently, in the past, she's made Sister's cry on the exchanges. Needless to say, I was terrified. When in fact, I learned so much and had such a good time. I had nothing to be afraid of at all. She is a very hardworking missionary and she told me that she had no concerns with me, which was comforting. The exchange was Friday night to Saturday night.

Saturday night, I realized that I was asked to speak last minute on Sunday. It was so hilarious because I honestly had nothing written down when I went up there to speak. Since they asked me last minute, I don't have to speak on the 30th anymore. The talk went well though, and I was able to simply bear my testimony about how much I love this church. I have it recorded, so I'll send it to the family :) I realized that it's not so scary to go up and speak in front of other people anymore. 

Quick story before I get into the best part of this week - We got a member referral last week and Sister Stats was able to teach her while I was on an exchange. She is a lady in her 50's named Lynn. She apparently is the coolest person ever, so I can't wait to meet her. She has a baptismal date for July 21st. 

Yesterday, miracles happened. Remember Katrina? Sister Stats and I knocked on her door, taught her the first lesson, then passed her onto YSA. Well, yesterday she was baptized. We were able to have one of our investigators, Eric and his family, come to the baptism with us yesterday. It truly was the most beautiful experience so far on my mission. I hold yesterday so near and dear to my heart. The Spirit was so strong. To simply know that I was just a little part to Katrina's conversion brings me SO much joy. This work is incredible. All of the hard days, the tears, the disappointments were made worth it to see Katrina yesterday. She was glowing with the Spirit and was so happy. She kept thanking us for finding her, and all I could say, was that is was the Lord, not us. She kept saying how happy she was and how much she loves this church. She is amazing and I was so grateful to be apart of her special day yesterday. Being a missionary rocks!

I hope ya'll watched the Missionary Meeting thingy last night. It was such an amazing meeting and the Spirit was so strong. Looks like they'll be making some changes with regards to internet use and missionaries, so we'll have to see what comes of that here in the Toronto Mission. Wasn't it so cool when President Monson talked about this mission? I love hearing his stories about when he was a mission president here. I love this mission, it truly is the best mission in the world. Let us all remember that we can all be missionaries. If that meeting last night didn't get you all excited to go share the gospel, then something is wrong with you, haha. Seriously though, find opportunities to share the gospel. Pray for those chances to share your testimony. There truly is a difference when you have the members working with the missionaries. We've seen that with the members here. Let's go out and baptize those souls who are waiting to be rescued. Let us love all of those around us enough to share this amazing truth that we have. Don't be scared to do it, but ask for the help from our Heavenly Father. He will help you and He will be so proud of you. More joy is awaiting all of you as you go out of your way to serve His children. 

I love being a missionary so much. I've never been so happy in my entire life. I simply cannot wipe this stupid smile off my face. Even when hard things happen, somehow, I laugh about it. I've been truly blessed and comforted from my Heavenly Father. Thank you so much for the prayers, emails and letters. Keep em coming! Know that I am praying for all of you daily. I hope we all realize how short of life here on earth is. Let us not waste a second of that time. "We cannot take for granted a single day. I pray that we will not wait until we are ready to die before we truly learn to live." - Pres. Uchtdorf. Make the most of every single day. Make it a great week!

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

All my love, 

Sister Hardcastle

P.S. Next Sunday is the dreaded transfer call. So next week I'll let you all know if I'm staying or going. In one week I'll no longer be a greenie :) Time flies eh? Love you all!




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