Tuesday, February 18, 2014

Iain got dunked!!

Dear Family and Friends, 

I hope that everyone had an amazing Valentine's Day! Nothing too exciting happened in the mission field on that day....but I did love receiving your package!! Thank you so so much. Love you all. 

We got our car fixed! Yay! New throttle body?? No idea what that is. 

Sister Woolf and I hit our "Hump Day" together this week!! To celebrate we both wore what we wore when we first came out. We just had to dress a little warmer by adding leggings/scarves/hats/etc. Then we went to Taco Bell!! First time I'd had Taco Bell in a LONG time. It's better in the States though, sorry Canada. 

Iain was baptized on Sunday! It was the most Spiritual Baptism Program I've ever been to on my mission. All of the talks were incredible, and Iain even bore his testimony at the very end. I'm not sure if I mentioned this in last week's email or not, but Tim Cushnie, the man who baptized Iain was in a car accident last weekend. He already has a really bad back from a previous accident in 2005. He was super sore after the hit and wasn't sure if he was going to be able to baptized Iain. We arranged for him to have a blessing last week, and miracles happen. His back felt so much better, and he baptized Iain with ease. What a remarkable experience. I still remember our first lesson with Iain back at the beginning of January. In just 6 short weeks or so, Iain has completely changed. His outlook on life is clear and positive, and it has been an honor to take part. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is centered on His Atonement. That Atonement allows us to change. How grateful we should be to our Father in Heaven for sending His Son for us. 

We had the most amazing dinner this past week. A Spanish dinner with the one and only Vieyra family!!! It was so amazing. I can't spell any of the things that we had.. but I could barely walk as we were leaving their home. Man, those Spanish people know how to cook. Dallin, Jaclyn and Josh - you should all be so proud of me! I made a Hardcastle of myself. 

Funniest and cutest story with Mary and Michael this week. But first, Mary's heart has changed yet again. When we saw her last week she mentioned how much she missed us. They even made a sacrifice to just come to Sacrament meeting on Sunday because they were going out of town. The Spirit is remarkable! But here is the funny story. Yesterday we went to see them and we showed them several Mormon Messages. There is a Mormon Message about a little boy who walked along the hot sand with just flip flips on, even though his parents have told him in the past to wear good shoes. Long story short, he steps on a scorpion and has to get rushed to the nearest hospital which was two miles away. The moral of the story is to avoid the sting of sin by doing what we know we should do. The young boy knew that he should have worn good shoes, but instead he put on flip flips. Here is where is gets so funny. After the video was over, Michael stands up, says "One second" and leaves the room. Mary started laughing and Sister Woolf and I did too once we realized what he was doing. He went and put tennis shoes on!!! SO funny. Then the conversation went something like this - 

Me: "Michael, you know there are no scorpions in here, right?"
Michael: "Yeah, but there might be poisonous spiders!"

He is the funniest thing. So he sat for the rest of the lesson with tennis shoes on. And to make it even better, he was wearing two different shoes because he wanted to put them on so fast. Love that boy!! As we were leaving Mary gave us lunch to take home. Man, being a missionary rocks. 

I've been spending a lot of time studying chapter 4 of PMG about Recognizing the Spirit. There is a quote at the very end of the chapter by Dallin H Oaks that I wanted to share with you all - 

"A person may have a strong desire to be led by the Spirit of the Lord but . . . unwisely extends that desire to the point of wanting to be led in all things. A desire to be led by the Lord is a strength, but it needs to be accompanied by an understanding that our Heavenly Father leaves many decisions for our personal choices. Personal decision making is one of the sources of the growth we are meant to experience in mortality. Persons who try to shift all decision making to the Lord and plead for revelation in every choice will soon find circumstances in which they pray for guidance and don't receive it. For example, this is likely to occur in those numerous circumstances in which the choices are trivial or either choice is acceptable. We should study things out in our minds, using the reasoning powers our Creator has placed within us. Then we should pray for guidance and act upon it if we receive it. If we do not receive guidance, we should act upon out best judgement. Persons who persist in seeking revelatory guidance on subjects on which the Lord has not chosen to direct us may concoct an answer out of their own fantasy or bias, or they may even receive an answer through the medium of false revelation." 

I don't know why this stood out to me so much, but it did. There have been times on my mission when I have simply wanted help and revelation for every little thing. The lesson that I have learned is that God gave us our minds for a reason. We have been blessed with the power of understanding/decision-making/etc. God trusts us to make decisions. 

So Family Day was yesterday which is a pretty big deal in the blessed land of Canada. Jac and I have been talking, and we are now going to celebrate Family Day on President's Day. After all, you all have a Canadian Sister now. ;) 

It's time for Sister Woolf and I to get to work and find the elect! I love you all so much. Have an amazing week!

Love, 

Sister Hardcastle

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

The whole Cushnie clan :)
Sister Woolf, Iain, and Me
Us with Tim...and mine and Iain's arms are so awkward, hahaha
Elvis Pose...hahah, best day ever! 
Spending the day with Nicole Hillman! The sister who is going to Madrid! 
Hump Day Outfit!!! I'm surprised it still fits... 
Taco Bell :) 
Vieyra's Spanish Dinner!
Valentine's Celebration with our matching scarves :)
Half-way picture...
I've been heart-attacked!!!
I love my missionary pillow case <3 

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