Sorry this is a late posting....we sure enjoyed the video skype with Cody on Christmas day. He looks wonderful and we each took about 15 min. or so with him and at the end he bore his testimony in Spanish and it was so awesome to hear him speak so well. He loves what he is doing and is making a difference in so many peoples lives. Thank you to all who write to him he enjoys reading your letters and gets them quicker now that he is serving near the mission office....He should be writing this week on Saturday we think....
Hey Everyone,
This was one of the hardest of the mission but I feel like it is because I am putting a lot more pressure to get this sector turned around and back on the right track. We didn't have a single investigator in church yesterday...! I am losing my patience but instead of just feeling bad for ourselves we are going out and we are working harder. We have a meeting with our bishop this week to get our (ward) mission leader released (because he is lazy) and call another one that will work harder and go out and work with us. We are also going to call like 6 ward missionaries that can be in charge of teaching the recent converts and some of our good investigators so that we can go out and find more people. I am really excited for the future of this sector and I feel like I will be able to make a noticeable difference here in the next couple of months with my companion. We are working right now with one lady Claudia that is trying to quite smoking so she can get baptized. She was smoking like 20 cigarettes a day when I got here 3 weeks ago and right now she is down to 1/2 of a cigarette a day...haha. She smoke 1/1 of a cigarette yesterday and I feel like she will quit before the new year and hopefully get baptized really soon! I really like this new sector I am just frustrated at how slow the work is going....
As everyone knows, Christmas is around the corner! I am excited and President moved our P-day from Monday to Christmas day so we will be able to spend it with members or other missionaries, depending on what we want to do. Today we got permission from the Assistants and we watched Toy Story 3 and drank homemade egg nog as a district (8 missionaries). It was really fun and it felt nice to get missionary stuff off my mind for like 2 hours. Anyways I am doing good and I am really excited to be able to call home for the holiday! I can't wait to hear everyones voices. And...we got permission to use skype!!! Well I love you guys and keep on sending the packages, I am loving it!!! I got my package from mom with my wrapped presents and stocking in it and I just got another one from the ward!!! Thanks so much for all the stuff in it we have the best ward. I love you guys and hope you have a great week! Have a very Merry Christmas!
Yours Truly,
Elder Cody Dastrup
Thursday, December 30, 2010
Tuesday, December 14, 2010
December 13, 2010
Hey Everyone!
I had a really good week this last week with my companion Elder Scott here in Concepcion in the sector Lorenzo Arenas. This week we had conference and we had a trip to Chillan yesterday. The conference was really good and president talked to us a lot about the things that we need to do to not be wasting the Lord's time. For example, after lunch share a scripture or spiritual thought with the family, planning more effectively so that we aren't walking so much between lessons and working on the language or getting to know our companions better in the street between lessons. My companion and I could definitely do better in a couple areas and we are going to work a lot harder this week. We also talked about Christmas and it felt really nice to hear a message from President and the Assistants about the purpose of Christmas. I am excited to be here in Chile for Christmas. Obviously it isn't going to be the most exciting of all Christmas' for me but it will definitely be one of the most rewarding, knowing that I am out here serving the Lord and sacrificing and I am also really excited to CALL HOME! All of the Christmas stuff is good and the conference with President was amazing bu the best thing of all was the trip to Chillan. I think I mentioned last week that I was going to go back to Chillan this week to baptize. Well if I didn't mention it...now you know haha. We got to Chillan at 3 and visited a family that lives close to the church, it was good to see them and they were excited to see me. It turns out the Elder Gil didn't tell anyone that I was coming so everyone I saw was surprised and I loved it because I got to see like 8 families before the baptismal service. When the baptismal service came I wasn't really nervous I was just kind of worried I would forget her name because her name is Malivna Paola Jeldres Sepulveda, I don't know what it is about her name but it was hard for me. Also this lady weighs about 300 lbs I think and I haven't been doing too hot with my exercises in the morning so I was praying that I would have the strength to baptize her. The baptism went really well and Elder Gil baptized the daughter after me. They are going to baptize 2 or 3 more of our investigators from my older sector this week but I won't be able to go. The trip to Chillan was really good and I got to visit a few of my favorite families. One of the young men from Volcanes (my old ward) got called to serve in the Riverside, California Mission, Spanish speaking ! I was so excited to hear from him and I am hoping I will have a chance to "bump into him" in California when I come back.
Let's see...you asked a little about the people here in Concepcion, they are not very humble from the ones that I have met and they don't want to listen to us. The people here in Chile are like 50 times more religious than back in the states and I actually had an incident with a Jehovah Witness this week that tried to bash on Joseph smith and the Book of Mormon for no reason with out any knowledge butttt lets just say I testified pretty strong to her and called her to repentance haha and invited her to pray about it (and I did it in Spanish!!!!). I have learned that bashing with other religions is not what we are here to do and it never helps...just testify and move on to someone who wants to listen to you. The food here isn't as good as it was in Chillan but there is way more places to eat at in Central, so we usually can find something good to eat. Well thats enough for this week but I hope that you guys have a good week and stay safe. I was sorry to hear about Great Gpa but he is in a better place and I have no doubts that he is more happy where he is.
Yours Truly,
Elder Cody Dastrup
Tuesday, December 7, 2010
December 6, 2010
Hey Everybody,
So I finally got transferred out of Chillan and I am now here in Concepcion. I would be lying if I said that I'm not struggling a little but for the most part I am doing good and I am really strong mentally right now. My new sector is actually called Lorenzo Arenas not Alonzo Arenas like I wrote last week and my companions name is Elder Scott. He has 15 months in the mission and is a really good guy. My companion is from Gilbert, AZ and he went to Mesquite High School. He is pretty good at speaking Spanish but this is his 1st transfer as a senior companion. I feel like we teach our lessons about 50/50 and we struggle a little bit sometimes but we get the job done and we taught some really good lessons this last week. There hasn't been baptisms in the sector for a really long time but I am determined to change things here and turn this into one of the best sectors in the mission , because I know we have a ton of potential here. I am really excited to be here in Concepcion and we get to have a lot of contact with the President, the Assistants and with the office Elders (Elder Reed and his comp). The weather here is wonderful and I haven't felt hot since I got here really, it feels exactly like San Diego right before the summer.
In other news...Christmas is around the corner and I am really excited to finally be able to call home and hear voices! We put up a little Christmas tree this week and I will have to send you a picture when I have my camera with me next week. It kind of stinks that I won't be in Chillan (my old sector) for Christmas but I am getting to know some of the members here and they seem like they are really nice. The good news though is that Elder Gil (my comp from Chillan) called me the other day and told me that they are going to have 4 baptisms next week and all of them are people that we found and taught. A few of the people that are getting baptized asked if I could come back to baptize them and I asked President today and he told me yes! So I get to go back to Chillan next week to baptize a couple people and have lunch with a family in the ward. I am excited and I hope that everything goes smooth this week with them. Well, I love you guys and hope that all is going well. Let me know what everyone is doing for Christmas and let me know how my friends and the ward are doing. I have heard from Tyler and Durfey and they are both doing good. Tyler sounds like he is having some baptisms this month so I am really excited for him! Take it easy and remember that I love you guys!!!
Yours truly,
Elder Dastrup
So I finally got transferred out of Chillan and I am now here in Concepcion. I would be lying if I said that I'm not struggling a little but for the most part I am doing good and I am really strong mentally right now. My new sector is actually called Lorenzo Arenas not Alonzo Arenas like I wrote last week and my companions name is Elder Scott. He has 15 months in the mission and is a really good guy. My companion is from Gilbert, AZ and he went to Mesquite High School. He is pretty good at speaking Spanish but this is his 1st transfer as a senior companion. I feel like we teach our lessons about 50/50 and we struggle a little bit sometimes but we get the job done and we taught some really good lessons this last week. There hasn't been baptisms in the sector for a really long time but I am determined to change things here and turn this into one of the best sectors in the mission , because I know we have a ton of potential here. I am really excited to be here in Concepcion and we get to have a lot of contact with the President, the Assistants and with the office Elders (Elder Reed and his comp). The weather here is wonderful and I haven't felt hot since I got here really, it feels exactly like San Diego right before the summer.
In other news...Christmas is around the corner and I am really excited to finally be able to call home and hear voices! We put up a little Christmas tree this week and I will have to send you a picture when I have my camera with me next week. It kind of stinks that I won't be in Chillan (my old sector) for Christmas but I am getting to know some of the members here and they seem like they are really nice. The good news though is that Elder Gil (my comp from Chillan) called me the other day and told me that they are going to have 4 baptisms next week and all of them are people that we found and taught. A few of the people that are getting baptized asked if I could come back to baptize them and I asked President today and he told me yes! So I get to go back to Chillan next week to baptize a couple people and have lunch with a family in the ward. I am excited and I hope that everything goes smooth this week with them. Well, I love you guys and hope that all is going well. Let me know what everyone is doing for Christmas and let me know how my friends and the ward are doing. I have heard from Tyler and Durfey and they are both doing good. Tyler sounds like he is having some baptisms this month so I am really excited for him! Take it easy and remember that I love you guys!!!
Yours truly,
Elder Dastrup
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