August 29, 2011

Hey hey hey,
Another great week down here in Chile. I am 100% convinced that these 2 years of the mission are and will come to be the best of my life and I am sooo grateful to be here. We had another great week with a lot of ups and downs but I feel really happy about my situation and all of the blessings that we have received. I am in a city called Chiguayante and it is very green. There are mountains on one side of the sector and on the other side we have the Bio-Bio River, which is huge. Our area has a lot of middle class people and a section of really ghetto houses where it isn't very safe after about 7 in the afternoon, haha. The ward has about 120 active members, but they don't help us out a ton, so we have been going around to every members house and sharing a 15 minute message with them and then inviting them to do a family home evening with a non member friend. Last night we had a FHE with a member and her friend who is atheist and it went well. We shared about the restoration of the gospel and we talked to them about how we have evidence that God Exists! We told him about the first vision and about the restoration of the gospel and then about the Book of Mormon. I have really grown a strong testimony of that book! It is amazing because if that book is true it means that Joseph Smith saw God and Jesus and the he really was a prophet and not just some guy who claims to have seen angels. It is evidence!! haha.
I have been doing really well and my companion as well. We had another good week in the Zone and we reached our goal officially! We ended the month with 12 baptisms in the Zone!!! I was really proud of everyone and I think that we will reach our goals again this next month! It was a rough week for us because we had to drop a ton of people that we really love that just aren't progressing. we are kind of starting from ground 0 again but it is ok. I feel like we will be blessed in this week and I am sure we will find more new people.
It is always good to hear that all is well back home! I heard from David Hall and Devin Needs this week. They both seem to be doing really well and I told Dev to keep an eye out for David. I miss you all a ton and hope that you have amazing weeks.
Yours Truly,
Elder Cody Dastrup