Contact Information

Cody's Mission Home Address in Chile:

Elder Cody K. Dastrup
Chile Concepcion Mission
O'Higgins 940,Oficina 502
Concepcion
CHILE

It costs .98 cents to mail a letter to CHILE.

Packages need to be sent via US Postal Service (send pkgs. priority mail and it runs from $12-$55 depending on size of box) DO NOT SEND VIA Fed-ex, UPS, or DHL (as it will cost him over $100 to get it in Chile)


If you would like to communicate via email, send an email to dastrup5@cox.net and your email will be forwarded to Cody as he is only allowed to email family members.

Monday, June 21, 2010

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!

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