July 26, 2010

Hey! I had an awesome week but not much crazy stuff happened. We have a baptism this week on Sunday with Stephanie and the following week scheduled with Luis. I am really excited for both of them. Luis is a very poor man with a huge family living in his little house (probably 15 people) and they are CRAZY! We only get to teach him in his home because nobody else wants to listen but he loves it and can't wait to be baptized to be an example for his family. It is amazing to see how our message can literally change peoples lives in only a few weeks (we have something special). My companion is having problems with his back so tomorrow morning we are going to the doctor, but today we mostly spent our time cleaning the house. It is super clean!!! We went downtown today to buy some stuff for the week and I knew I needed to buy a rug for the house but forgot. So when we got home I was looking for something to use as a rug, I found some blankets in the closet and decided I would use one to make some rugs for the house. I cut it into 4 rugs for our tile floored house and when my companion had seen what I did his face went pale and he said "usted tiene una pecado" which means "you have sinned" haha. I guess hmna Fischbeck doesn't like when things happen to the extra blankets so.....don't mention this to her mom! I tooka picture with Elder Fischbeck and of the Fischbeck's and they are attached to this, also a picture of the volcano's we visited 2 weeks ago. Anyways I gotta get back to work but have a good week and love everyone! Elder Dastrup

P.S. I am only getting letters like once every 3-4 weeks and packages once every 4 weeks sooo if I don't get back to you very fast sorry!!! Choi

July 19, 2010

Hey Everyone! How is it going! Chile is doing great and I have my first baptism this week, STEPHANIE! It's gunna be awesome. I also had my first baptismal commitment this past week....IN SPANISH! haha. The work is good and my companion is still really good. I am super excited for tonight because we are inviting another person to be baptized this Sunday! I think she will say yes, but I don't know. She is 10 years old and reminds me of Katie, they have quite a bit of money and she dresses just like Katie and looks 2 or 3 years older then she is. Her dad is super cool and likes the NBA! And likes the SUNS! (my favorite Chilean I have met so far) I think we should be having more success in the next month or so with baptisms but you never know here. We had 8 investigators at iglesia and it was super good, because that is usually the hardest part, getting them to church. We have church at 10 in the morning and I don't want to call the people of Chile lazy but...they are. haha We knocked a door the other day at noon and got yelled at because it was too early and the man was sleeping, and it was a weekday! So pray for our investigators to wake up a little earlier and come to church! We played soccer today because it's our p-day and I had 2 goals! We played 10 on 10 on a huge field and it was good for me, I needed to go run around. How are you all doing? I miss our ward so much and all my friends but I know what I am doing is so much better then anything else anyone could be doing. I am also currently reading Jesus the Christ, it is amazing and everyone should read it (members and non members of the church) Jesus Christ....wow, I just know with all my heart that he is our Savior and I cannot explain it but I feel so close to him right now. I've got to go but know that I always pray for you all and just want do say, enjoy life it is truly so amazing, just look around.
Love you all,
Elder Cody Dastrup

July 12, 2010

Hey everyone! This email might be a little short, because I don't really have much time. Today was pday and our zone went up to a ski resort for the day to have a BBQ and hang out. It was really fun and I got a couple of pictures, but nothing too crazy (just a bunch of snow). This week has been good and we continue to gain more investigators. We have one family that we have taught twice, they have a son and 3 daughters and they are super cool and open to everything we have to say. The father in the family had a heart attack 3 weeks ago and is doing better now but still has some complications. They are way nice and I hope they continue letting us in their house to teach. My comp and I are having a difficult time with some of the ward members and their unwillingness to serve others. We were in a meeting and brought up the fact that a member had mentioned she needed some logs split at her house because she doesn't have a husband and it is hard for her, numerous members talked about how we didn't need to serve those who could do things for themselves or could pay for others to do it. I know that this is incorrect, we need to remember to always serve others sooo we are going to her house tomorrow during our lunch to split logs (haha). Not much has happened this week in way of notable things but just remember to always serve others as Christ would. Love you all so much! Elder Dastrup

July 5, 2010

Hey everyone! This week was a busy one for me! I got to go meet the new Mission President, President Humphreys on Friday and it was super good. He is a gringo from California who served his mission in Argentina, his mission President was Richard G. Scott! Super cool...his wife doesn't speak any Spanish (I found my new best friend) so during the mission conference she has a missionary translate her words into Spanish. the conference was short, but it was good. At the conferences I get to see my friends from the MTC and it is always nice to see them but my companion and my other best friend from the MTC aren't in our area so they go to a different conference. the conferences that we have are in Concepcion and it is about a 2 hour bus ride from my zone. As we were buying our tickets for the bus in the bus station a fight broke out between a thief and 3 guys beating the crap out of him...I kind of got in their way and got hit, but only in the arm and I got out of the way haha. It was crazy, the police didn't do anything about it and the guy who stole stuff was getting pounded. "Thou Shalt Not Steal" has never been so true. After that I realized that it's important to always be safe down here and always pay attention to your surroundings. this week is going good though, this last week we received 14 new investigators! It was really good. I think we are doing a good job and we are working hard every day, but we could always work harder. I sent a picture or 2 of Concepcion, it is beautiful and the church there is amazing, it is up on a hill above the city and the view is amazing. I hope I get to serve in Concepcion before my mission is over, it is way nicer than my city Chillan! haha I don't know if I mentioned in my last letter, but the food here is good, a lot of potatoes, soups, chicken and chorizo. The toughest thing about the food is that we eat only once a day for lunch (provided by a member) at like 1:30 p.m. and we can't eat again until we get home to our apartment at 10. They have something called "once" (like the number 11) and it is like dinner, but we aren't aloud to eat it as missionaries, even though it gets offered to us all the time. It's weird. Anyways, keep praying for our investigators, I love you all and hope everyone is safe and well.
Yours Truly,
Elder Cody Dastrup