Goodbye, Farewell, and Amen

Good morning sports fans,

This is it. Your last e-mail from a rainy Nagoya P-Day. This is the
close to my 23 month adventure of a lifetime. It started in Provo,
Utah in the MTC for 2 months, then I was assigned to serve in 豊田
(Toyota) for the first 8 months in Japan with four different
companions. From 豊田 I was reassigned to labor in the beautiful city of
松本 (Matsumoto) for 5 months with three different companions. And then
from 松本 I was transferred to 名古屋 (Nagoya) where I served in two
different parts of the city; one being 野並 (Nonami) for 3 months and 名東
(Meito) for 6 months with one companion in 野並 and two in 名東.

I've worked/biked in cold, pouring rain of winter, the semi-cold rain
of spring, the hot rain of summer, and back to semi-cold rain of fall.
I've sweated gallons of sweat in the muggy grossness of summertime and
most of all my shirts are yellow now. I've had to work and live with
(sometimes endure) all sorts of different personalities from all walks
of life. I've had to be motivated, I've had to motivate others, and have
had to train others how to motivate others. I've had to learn how to
give counsel, guidance, and direction and conversely reprimand,
correct, and solve others' problems. I've had to do this all while
following a very specific set of rules and learned about myself as I
strived to follow them and help others follow them as well. I've seen
failure and I've seen success and everything in between. I've become
able to speak one of the most difficult languages in the world and
it took a lot of patience and trial and error.

I know I didn't serve in a third world country and my missionary problems
to some didn't ever seem that grand but by being in a first world,
highly developed country I learned the importance of spiritual things.
I feel that missionaries who serve in third world
countries/underdeveloped countries gain a huge appreciation for
material things and become ever grateful for the things that they have
back home that the people they serve don't have. Meanwhile,
missionaries in highly developed countries like Japan can feel and see
the spiritual "deadness" of the people we serve. We gain a great
appreciation for the gospel and the spiritual knowledge that we
treasure and endeavor to share.

Probably the greatest thing I have learned in my two years is the
Gospel of Jesus Christ. I've learned how to have faith and have hope for a
brighter future. I've come to learn how to repent and turn away from
the wrongs I've done and how we can all "arise from the dust...and be
men" (2 Nephi 1:21). I've seen how the ordinances of baptism and
confirmation bring joy and happiness to those who are seeking to
follow Christ and obey the will of our Father in Heaven. I have come
to learn that if we endure to the end and continue to follow God's
commandments we will be blessed and will be happy. I know that through
the Atonement of Jesus Christ we can change who we are and become
better people. God wants us to grow and develop and He rejoices when
we do so.

I've come to love this Asian island in the Pacific called Japan. The
Land of the Rising Sun is not a nation without problems, but I've come
to accept it and learn to love it. I learned to love the people and
their little quirks. The food is fantastic and the culture runs deep.
This culture is one that is hundreds of years old and is competing
against a changing world and has somewhat of an identity crisis. It's
been so much fun to learn about their history and lifestyle and I will
forever be affected because of my two years in Japan.

I come home next week on Tuesday morning. It still doesn't feel quite
real yet, but as I've been packing my bags the reality sets in. I'd be
lying if I said I wasn't excited to come home. I am super excited to
see you all again and start working on the next phase of life. It's
been so much fun to be sending e-mails to friends and family for the
past three years (including USAFA). I think when I get home I'm going
to stop doing weekly emails and start a blog. I don't know if any of
you are interested in following my story, but I'll let you all know
how to access it once it's made. Thanks for reading and all your
support through the years. I'll see you when I get back!

さようなら! また逢うまで!

Godspeed and Angels,

Elder Hardcastle
ハードキャッスル長老
(堅城長老)

Mathew 25:21

21 His lord said unto him, Well done, thou good and faithful servant:
thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over
many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord.

Last 英会話

Saying bye to Katsuki

My recycle shop friends

John Gathright and I

 Picking up Baldwin in 岡崎

X Dayz Lepht

Good morning ladies and germs,

Here we go on our final ten days! In all reality it is all drawing down to a rather unexpected 

close. I'm just as busy as I would be if I wasn't going home. That's all good, but it just feels like

the end will be like running into a brick wall halfway through transfer week (the busiest week 

there is). I have to make sure that Jones and the new AP (who we pick up on Monday) know 

everything because they can't call me with questions later. It's going to be a busy week.

This last week was pretty busy. We finished off our last two zone conferences and we had 

three exchanges. Monday we said goodbye to my past companion Elder Nakamoto. He extended

his mission for a couple of weeks so his parents could come pick him up. It was good to meet 

his family and then before you knew it he was gone. 

Tuesday was our zone conference and exchange in 岡崎 (Okazaki). It was a super good zone 

conference. The ZLs and STL did a really good job with their training and I was impacted by a 

question the focused on. The theme for this transfer's zone conferences has been developing 

missionary attributes which is essentially developing Christ-like attributes. The question that 

Elder Baldwin and Tsuru asked the zone was this, "Why do we want to become like Christ?" 

I don't know why it impacted me so much but it was a pretty deep question to me. As 

missionaries we try so hard develop Christ-like attributes, but I think we forget why we do so. 

We all are developing these attributes because we want to be more like Christ, but why do we 

want to be like the Savior? Everyone has a different answer. Everyone has a different reason. 

The important thing is that we recognize our individual reason and continue to grow and 

develop.

After the conference I went on an exchange and spent the evening with Elder Baldwin, who at 

the time didn't realize that he's going to become the next Assistant. He is one of the nicest 

guys I've met out here. He's going to be great with Jones. We spent the night streeting and 

trying to visit less actives and he's a rock star missionary and a super good example for 

everybody.

Thursday was 名東 (Meito) Zone Conference which also went really well. There are so many 

good missionaries! The majority of my really good friends in the mission are in the 岡崎 and 

名東 Zones. It's weird to think that I've said goodbye to all those people and won't be seeing 

them for a long time. After their conference we went out to 野並 (Nonami) to exchange with 

the ZLs. We tried something new which was playing guitar and holding up signs for our 

English class at one of the subway exits. I've never tried to advertise 英会話 like this before, 

but we had a couple of people get interested and we talked with some people that might 

start coming. After that, Elder Smith and I went and visited an investigator of theirs who owns 

a karate schools and he has his students ask us questions about English or God when they 

finish their lesson. These students' ages range from 10-40 and it's a really good opportunity 

to give people a good image of us and an opportunity to share our message. 

Finally to close out our week we had an exchange with the 静岡 (Shizuoka) ZLs here in 名東 

yesterday and it was nasty hot! Like, holy crap! I felt like a melting popsicle of sweat out there. 

Anytime Elder Burns and I stopped and  talked to someone we would get soaked by our own 

body juices and it we were constantly wet all day. We were successful in contacting two less 

active we wanted to find and it was a good day. In the evening the bishop called me and told 

me his back was in severe pain and he asked me if I could come over and give him a 

priesthood blessing. It was the first opportunity of my mission to give a blessing in Japanese 

and it was a neat experience and cool to see the word come as I spoke. I'm glad I got this 

opportunity at the end of my mission. 

That was the end of this week. I've got one more ahead of me and it's going to be an exciting,

fast paced week. I hope that you all have a great 4th of July! I wish I could be there to 

celebrate with you all, but we'll all celebrate soon. I still will send an email next week so 

prepare for and incoming message. I love y'all! 

スピードと天使

堅城長老

写真

Pic 1- 名東ゾーン

Pic 2,3- 野並 Guitar 英会話伝道

Pic 3-Burns and I biked up this monster hill

すべては善し