June 28, 2010

Ho la! Como Es tan? How are you all doing? My week was good, filled with excitement and really good. I have no clue where to even start...First off, I learned how to send letters from here, I got you letter mom and dad. I get letters on Tuesdays and my pdays are Monday so it should take 2 or 3 weeks to get back to you, but write me and I will do my best. Now the important stuff...We had a baptism scheduled this week for Sunday, but it fell through. Lets just say that things are different here, our investigator had all the lessons and like 10 visits from the missionaries, went to church 4 weeks in a row but he is gay....I was crushed when my companion came back from the interview, but there isn't much we can do but pray and fast for him. We are in a pretty rough area in 2 ways. We have a lot of "flitas" (Chillan gangsters) in one section so my companion won't go over there after like 6. It is tough because there are people we need to teach over there that don't get home from work until 7 or 8. The other reason our area is rough is that missionaries don't have much success here. My companion has been here 2 1/2 months with 0 baptisms...But there is hope, we have at least 1 investigator who should be getting baptized soon. The gas for our house has a leak in it or something so we had to turn it off and haven't had a warm shower for 4 days! the water is freeeezing! Pray for my house haha Chile is so different than the states, everything about here is crazy. One thing that is similar though is the music...It is actually the exact same. They listen to American music here, and I hear it all day every day. It is kind of awkward though because they don't understand the words and they will be listening to rap or something and it will be unedited and they will be singing it...It's a little funny because they have no clue what they are saying. Anyways, I have got to run but thanks for the prayers, keep praying for my investigators. I love the mission and I wouldn't be doing anything else with my life for the next 2 years. Later!!!

OK the pictures I put on here are mostly from the MTC with my zone, district, teachers, etc. (Elder Bryan Mortensen) but some are obviously from here. I will take way more from here so don't even worry about it. I was going to send more pictures of our house, but our senior missionary said I shouldn't because it would worry you, haha but I did send you a picture of our sweet kitchen! George Foreman grill baby!!! Love Elder Dastrup

June 21, 2010

Hey everyone, I hope your doing well. This week has been such a busy one! I can honestly say that I have no idea what the heck is going on here! When we arrived in Chile on Tuesday we all realized that we did not know the language, none of us, and it was humbling. So far I love the 6 days I have been here, but I would be lying if I didnt say it was difficult. I will start off with the bad or... "different" stuff. First off they do not speak Spanish here, they speak Chilean which is 50 times faster and the words are different. I literally understand like 1 out of every 50 words, but its all good, its my 1st week. The poverty here is unreal. I am in the city of Chillan which is actually pretty large maybe as big as Concepcion??? I am not sure. But the people aren't poor to the point that they can't put food on the table, but they definately struggle. If you want to know what it is like, I would suggest driving down to south Phoenix, finding the poorest part and walking around for a while, it is humbling. Our house is not very nice either. We have broken ceramic tile flooring no heated water except the shower which isn't really heated. It is always cold in our apartment, cold enough that I can see my breath. There is dogs everywhere and they poop on the sidewalks and the streets so you have to be careful haha I won't get into too much detail because I dont want to worry you all, but just be grateful for what you have. Now the good news! We have 1 investigator being baptized this upcoming Sunday and we probably have 3 or 4 that should be getting baptized in the next 3 or 4 weeks. My companion is a native from Ecuador who speaks little English. I am glad to have him, because he knows how everything works and all of the people love him, and he is perfect at the language haha It is hard having a comp who doesnt speak english though, because I have so many questions about the language but he cant answer them because I can't explain anything to him. Having a native is a blessing, but it would be nice to be able to ask more questions. The language is coming... I realized that I am picking up vocab super fast, but I am still struggling with structure. It will take some time. I am working super hard, but keep me in your prayers, because it is super hard to stay positive sometimes. I pray alot and some days are better than others, I have faith that the language will come and pray for the gift of tounges every minute of the day. Chile won again today in the world cup, they are 2-0 so far and the people here are going crazy! They love futbol here more than we as americans can imagine. Look up Alexis Sanchez... He is some amazing soccer player on Chile and everyone here talks about him haha. Well keep praying for me, and I dont know how the mail works here, so if you sent me anything I will try to get back to you as fast as possible. Love you all so much and I need you now more than ever. Pray for me and more importantly pray for the people of Chile. Choi...

Next week I will send some pictures so you all can see what it is like here. I just didnt have the time to do it this week. Have a good week!

June 14, 2010

Cody left the MTC with 15 other missionaries headed to Concepcion Chile today. We were fortunate enough to hear from him when he landed in Dallas. He only had about 15 minutes of talking time but it was great to hear his voice and his confidence. He is excited to go serve the Lord for the next 22 months down in Chile. He is nervous as he knows he isn't great at the language yet but with faith and prayers he will come to know the language in a short amount of time. He asked that we all pray for him to pick up the language quickly as he knows he has made remarkable strides so far with learning Spanish thanks to many prayers in his behalf but knows he will need to learn much more when he gets down there. He will spend the night at the mission home and will be gettting a new companion first thing Wednesday morning (we heard this morning that he has a new companion who will be training him is Elder Garcia and they will be serving in sector of Los Volcanes and located in the city of Chillan) . We also learned from one of the other missionary mom's that his p-day will be on Monday's so we hope to hear from him this coming Monday and he should have closer to an hour on the computer so we may get longer letters from him. We are excited as a family to hear all the wonderful stories about the Chilean people and watch the growth of a great young man. Adios until Monday.

June 11, 2010

This week has been amazing. Elder Reed and I were selected to teach 2 groups of 30ish missionaries their first night at the MTC. We had an investigator and we started the teaching for 15 minutes then handed it over to the missionaries to group teach. They both went really good and Brother McCall (the guy in charge of it) told us that we were the best elders that he has ever seen at doing what we did. It was really rewarding and I felt really good about it. We also had our last TRC yesterday and it went really well. My district is all leaving on Monday to Chile and I am the travel leaders so I need to make sure everyone catches their flights and whatnot. I am nervous to go but I feel comforted, like no matter what happens and how hard it is going to be, everything will be alright. The language is coming and I can teach most principles as long as I have the vocab about the subject studied. I can tell that others are praying for me because everything has picked up and I am super thankful for you all and everything you are doing for me. The computer freaked out and I lost 10 minutes of email sooo I got to go....Sorry for the short letter. I love you all soooo much! Pray for me and wish me luck! All you need to know is that I love you and I am doing well! Adios Elder Dastrup

June 4, 2010

Hola! Como estan?! Estoy feliz por que...My travel itinerary came in yesterday!!! I am leaving the MTC on June 14, 2010 for Chile. I will go from SLC to DAL TX to Santiago Chile to Concepcion! I have 23 hours of scheduled travel time and I am so excited....haha I am trying to stay focused this week and keep in mind that I will be out in the field in a little over a week. It's a little scary to think I am going to be in a place where 95% of the people don't speak a lick of English, but I am excited none the less. I will be getting a new mission president 2 weeks after I arrive down in Chile so that should be a neat experience to be able to serve almost 22 full months with the same mission president. As for here at the MTC, all is well and my companion and I are still doing awesome. We taught a lesson in Spanish yesterday in the TRC and the man we taught was actually a non member I believe. He had tattoos and huge gauges (huge earrings to make large holes in your ears) and he had a real nice beard. For me this is the perfect type of investigator, somebody who is different and has strong beliefs...just in the wrong things. The man we taught was really hard to teach (he made a companionship in our district cry last week) haha but he was really interesting and had a unique and funny sense of humor. We taught him the plan of salvation and he took it really well. He tried to throw us off or distract us a couple of times throughout the lesson but we reeled him in and taught an awesome lesson. We were teaching about the 3 kingdoms of glory at the end of the lesson and he said he would be fine with the terrestrial (sarcastic) and I called him a Mentiroso! (LIAR) We all laughed and when the lesson was over he said "Bye Brent (my companion Elder Reed), Bye Cody" I was so confused! How did he know my 1st name?! Then I looked down on my scriptures and saw it engraved on them. That teaching experience was really good for me and I felt that that was the strongest that my companion and I have ever taught in Spanish. I am doing good and loving the work. I miss you all but the truth is, I would rather be out here serving the Lord than anything else so...your gunna have to wait another 22 months to see me, haha. I've gotta run but wanted to say thanks to Gma Guthrie for the package and thanks for all the other letters and packages. Love Y'all so much and hope you know how lucky I feel to have known you.
Yours Truly,
Elder Dastrup