July 2, 2011

HEY!
This week, as always has been full of ups and downs but I feel like once again I have grown from the trials that I have faced and I am looking forward to this next week. This week we had transfers in the mission but I am staying put. For those of you who don't know, I am working here in the mission office and also in a sector and I am over a small district of missionaries. I have a lot to do everyday and for that I am thankful but on the other hand sometimes the heavy workload gets to me and I crash the second we get home at night. Also this last week I lost a lot of good friends who ended their missions and went home and Elder Keller (one of the other assistants) went to a sector far far away and more than likely I won't see him again until we are back in the states. I feel like all of the changes that we made were...necessary, but none the less they have made the situation that I am in a little more difficult.

I was helping Elder Keller pack his bags last night here and we had an interesting conversation. He told me of an Elder who is also a good friend of mine and had a rough patch in his mission. This Elder went about 5 or 6 months with 0 maybe 1 baptism in a ward where he didn't have a lot of support. He struggled and struggled, did his part and at the end he just couldn't get things going the way that he wanted in the sector. After a while he was transferred to a new sector as a zone leader with a really good companion. They baptized a ton in his first transfer there and continue baptizing. Elder Keller told me that in those cambios where he had struggled, he learned how to be a celestial missionary and that those tough times where his "Personal Gethsemane" (where Christ suffered for the sins of the world) I don't want to sound like a whiner or a drama queen or in any way compare my suffering to the suffering of Christs, but I feel like I am in my personal Gethsemane and that when I get out of it I will be such a better missionary and if I can just learn from it now I have the potential of being great when I leave this place. We are still struggling and with my companions health problems it continues to be hard to get out and work but...I am ready for a pedal to the metal kind of week and hope to see some real miracles in the sector!
How is everyone else doing? I got a few letters from some good friends this week and that was really nice. It is always good to hear that everyone is doing well and that nobody is getting married still! Have to have some options when I get back haha It was also nice to here that dad made it home safely from Israel.
Yours Truly,
Elder Cody Dastrup