August 15, 2011

Hey,
Another week under my belt and I have to say, I haven't felt this good in a long time. I am so glad for the opportunity that I had to work in the office with the Clawsons and to work alongside with President and Hermana Humphrey but I am even more happy to be out in the field working my butt off. First things first, our house is awesome. I live in a house of 4 missionaries about 3 blocks outside of our sector. The house is really nice and it has the best shower that I have had the opportunity to use in my mission. I live with Elder Rapalo (Honduras), Elder Weston (California) and my companion Elder Zarco (California). My companion Elder Zarco is a mexican kid from California that speaks the language really well and is always happy. I knew him before coming here but have gotten to know him a lot better this last week and from what I have seen of him he is a really good missionary and we are going to have a lot of success together.

The name of my sector is La Pradera and we are in the city of Chiguayante. We have 12 in our Zone and for the 1st time in my mission I have sister missionaries in my zone! They are awesome and are really good hard workers. My companion and I have been blessed with the opportunity to serve in leadership positions in the zone and we are having a lot of success right off the bat (which feels really good haha) In our ward 133 people came to church last week and they all seem to be really nice. We worked really really hard this week and were able to find and get investigators to church this week as well and we had a baptism of a 21 year old named Eduardo. My companion and I have set the goal to have a "perfect cambio". A perfect cambio is when you baptize at least 1 person every week of the transfer and I have heard of 1 companionship doing it a long time ago in this mission but it is very rare that it happens in this mission. We are being blessed like crazy with people to teach and I already have grown to love a ton of people in my new area. I feel really good about this new assignment and feel like this will be the area where I have the most success in terms of baptism and personal growth.
How is everyone doing back home? I hardly ever get letters from friends and stuff but from what I have heard everyone is doing well and nothing too major has happened. It is crazy to think that Katie is now in high school and that she will be starting to drive by the time I get back! CRAZY! As for me I am doing well. Sooooo happy and really enjoying the mission.
Yours Truly,
Elder Cody Dastrup