April 9, 2011

Hey, I have finished my first 5 days in the office and I am exhausted. I have had a ton of work to do and have been here in the office for the majority of the week. The Fischbecks and President haven't been in the office at all this week, so I have been in here with just my companion and a lot of times with the assistants too. My companions name is Elder Page and he has been in the office for 9 weeks and it's looking like we will be together for another 12ish. The living situation is interesting...we live in a 3 room apartment with the 3 assistants the 2 elders from Central and the 2 of us, making 7 (19-22 year olds) living in the same apartment. It's interesting to say the least! I love the assistants to the President and have really gotten to know them better this last week, this morning we actually went and played soccer with them and some other Chileans. I am enjoying my time here in the office so far but I can't wait until we finish some of the big projects we are working on and get out to work in the sector. We got out one night at like 7:30 and went to do contact in a place called Upper Conce. Upper Conce is pretty much all of the richest people that live here and...they are most definitely rich! Their houses are gigantic and we can't wait to go back and try to get into one of them! My week has been pretty uneventful except for what happened today. I had the opportunity to go back to my old sector and baptize another woman named Sara. She is the mom of Alejandra and she is really special. She asked me if I would baptize her like 3 weeks ago (when we invited her to get baptized) so we drove out to Lorenzo Arenas - I drove:) and we did the baptism. I am really grateful for all of the amazing people that I have met and all of the opportunities I have had to baptize people and help them progress in the gospel. I love what I am doing and even though I am in the office, I know that I will still have success here in this sector. Love you guys so much and can't wait to see you in a year! (I hit a year in the mission on the 14th!!!) It is flying by way to fast and wish it would slow down! Hope all is well back home. Yours Truly, Elder Cody Dastrup