October 31, 2011

Hey!
Happy Halloween! you mentioned the trunk or treat in the church this week and I wish I could say that there was a cool activity like that here but...there are a very few members that have cars here and Chileans don't really do Halloween very big here. Anyways, another week en la obra del senor and it was a good one. We had a great week and although we weren't able to baptize this week we had some really good possibilities coming up and I feel like we could be seeing some people getting baptized in the month of November. We are working with a family in the month of November. We are working with family that the 2 daughters are baptized but the rest of the family (3 more) aren't. I went over this week with Elder Weston and we had a really good lesson with the parents where we shared 1 Nephi 8 and we related it to them and their desire or lack of desire to follow Christ. The full family showed up to church and then afterwards we had lunch at their house. They are such a cool family and I am going to do everything humanly possible to get them to the waters of baptism so that they can always be together as a family. I feel like I am the first missionary to really gain a relationship with both parents and the dad of the family has progressed sooo much since I got here. Last night we had a visit set up with them and he wasn't there, so at about midnight he got home and felt really bad for not showing up to the visit and apologized. The family is moving forward for the 1st time since I have got to the sector and I talked to President Humphrey and he said that he would come visit them with us this week with his wife. I am sooo excited and I hope that we can teach them a powerful lesson on Wednesday. If everything goes as planned they will be getting baptized in 2 weeks and they will be some of the coolest converts that I have had the opportunity to help over the last year and half.
Everything else in the sector is doing pretty well. My companion is taking physical therapy for his knee but I feel like everything has gotten a lot better and that we will be back to 100% in no time. Me on the other hand...I am suffering, from ALLERGIES! It is spring here and I am soo miserable. It is destroying me and I have medicine but nothing is really working. I have about a month more of spring and then we will be in summer, so I guess the best solution will be just to stop complaining and keep working through it haha. Mom had mentioned how she doesn't want me getting any skinnier and that I need to eat more healthy food and keep doing exercises. Well I am doing pretty good on the exercising but he food has been a little harder. We have these 3 liter bottles for water that we filled up with cement and stuck a thick piece of re-bar in the middle and so we have a "barbell" to do curls with (it's just really ghetto haha) Other news...Elder Weston and his companion are moving in the same sector as us. We are changing houses today in the afternoon and we are going to be living in a house that is a little smaller but it is in a really good part of our sector sooo I am really excited.
Also, I got Josh's package and I will write him a letter this week to thank him and stuff, that was really nice of him and it was good to hear from him again.
Love you guys and hope you have an amazing Halloween and I hope that Grandpas party goes as planned. I love you guys and think about you every now and again and hope that you are all really happy and enjoying your lives. Thanks for everything. Love you guys a ton.
Con mucho Carino,
Elder Cody Dastrup

October 24, 2011

Another week in the books and my companion and I feel good about all that we did. The truth is that this week was a little rough and we tried our hardest to find new people, but for some reason or another we weren't able to have much success with anyone. We have a family that we are teaching that is progressing slowly...and as much as we love them we don't know if we are wasting our time on them or not. We have been teaching them as a family for over 2 months now and the progression has been slow, but noticeable nonetheless. We got the husband to attend church with all of the daughters and we have taught some very powerful lessons to them. We have reminded them of our purpose as missionaries and how we are here to help people progress and not only reach the waters of baptism but to be exhalted and live together forever. They love the idea of having an eternal family and the mother (who isn't baptized) has even told the daughters that she is going to get baptized. The problem is...we are getting them to church and they are now sooo close but they fault something and I feel like it might be a powerful lesson with a firm commitment to be baptized.(not sure what that sentence really meant from him) I was thinking President and the hermanas could help us a ton if they have time one night to come out with us and teach them or if they aren't able to I could just do a mini cambio with Elder Weston (the other ZL here). I love my companion and and know that it is all a process, but the process is going by pretty slow and it would be nice to have a little help with this family so we can make a decision whether or not we will continue working with them. And also, we are going to get my companions radiography that he took last week (he has a bad knee and we think it might be because he is a little overweight) and we will be seeing a specialist sometime this week. We will let you guys know how it goes. We are also doing a diet together as a companionship and it seems to me like Elder Ford has lost about 10 pounds already (we will keep you updated on that as well). I also have lost between 5 and 10...Unfortunately I wasn't overweight so...I am not a little underweight haha. I am eating a can of tuna and 2 eggs for breakfast every morning though to combat the lack of junk food. I feel really good about the diet and it got me to thinking...If I am having to diet, you guys (the family) should do it with us. To support my companion and I, you guys could do the diet with us! We are not eating any sweets, no cookies, candies NOTHING! Also, we aren't eating bread or drinking soda. We aren't eating chips and we are drinking skim milk and low fat yogurts. The only food we eat in the house is fruit, oatmeal, eggs, tuna and yogurt. It is working too! Try it for a week or 2, see how you like it.

I am feeling really good about everything. I am stressed and the diet is probably not helping, but one thing that I noticed is that I am pushing myself to grow now more then ever. It is stressful to be in the position I am in right now and if I wasn't a little bit stressed I think it would mean that I was taking my calling and responsibilities a little to lightly. Nonetheless...we are having a good time. We are also changing houses this week (forgot to mention that). The President is giving more missionaries to work with out here and for that we are super thankful, but...they are taking the house so we are moving into a smaller one that is in a better location of our sector. By the way, I still haven't taken any pictures of the sector, but hope to be able to do it today or sometime this week. (It's a little hard because the sector is really ghetto and I don't want to get my stuff stolen). Love you guys and hope you have an awesome week! Happy B-day Katie!
Yours truly,
Elder Cody Dastrup

October 17, 2011

Hola hola,
We are in October! Wow...How time flies when you are busy. This week was another busy one and we topped it off with a baptism. It was a kind of rough week because we found out that one of our investigators doesn't have permission from her mom to be baptized (she was suppose to be baptized on Sunday...) We are praying for her and for her mom to allow her to do it but I feel like it would be a long shot if she could get baptized in the next couple of weeks. Jose is the name of the person that got baptized this week and it was a really neat experience. We have been working with the family a ton but they are inactive members of the church who hadn't been to church in the last 10 years. This Saturday we went over to their house and promised them if they attended church and went to their sons baptism that they would feel better and that they would receive many blessings from doing it. They went and they loved it. Our bishop cornered them and pulled the parents in for an interview. Afterwards at the baptismal service the parents thanked me for sticking with them and promised that they would be at church again the next week to see their sons confirmation. I feel like we will be able to get them assisting church on a consistent basis and we are going to be putting goals with them so that they can make it to the temple in the next year. We also had another inactive family that we are working with show up to church. The husbands name is Miguel and he is not a member. He shared with the missionaries 3 years ago and wanted to get baptized but couldn't give up the Cigarrets...I was over there the other night and the family told us that they feel like we are missionaries that are going to be able to "change their lives". I felt really honored that she thought of us with such high esteem. He has a son named Miguel who is 8 and wants to get baptized, so we are also using that to our advantage so that he has incentive to be prepared before his son so that he can baptize him. I will keep you guys updated on how that all goes, but I am hoping for the best!
I have felt really good lately though. I have been thinking, or looking at things in more of an eternal perspective lately. I feel a need to find families. I want one of the families that we are teaching to get sealed in the temple in the next year or so, so that I can have a legitimate excuse to come back here and visit all my converts and stuff! Over these next 6 months I am determined to baptize a family and get them on the path to the temple. I actually had the opportunity to visit a family from another sector yesterday and see a family that I interviewed for their baptisms. They are soooo cool! They invited me and my companion over to celebrate their 2 months as members and they gave us a ton of food. I loved it and I feel like they will stay strong in the church and continue progressing towards bigger goals. I love being around families and I would be lying if I said I didn't miss mine right now. A year and a half is a long time to be away from anyone but it is harder when its the family. Its incredible though to think that I have been gone for so long but I haven't forgotten about any of you. Thanks for the support, the love, the....everything. I have the best family and the best friends in the world and I will be with you soon enough! Pray for me and my companion to keep having success!

Love always,
Elder Cody Dastrup

October 10, 2011

How are we doing? It's been another incredible week full of adventures. On Monday we had a leadership conference that I talked about a little bit in my last letter that I really enjoyed and I learned a ton. On Tuesday we had our Zone meeting and Elder Weston and I went over the need to have more urgency and taught the zone how to help their investigators progress more rapidly and helping them become more converted to the gospel. After we finished teaching our section, President (who showed up by surprise) taught the zone about 1 Nephi 8, 11 (Lehi's dream) and he showed us how we can apply it to our investigators. Elder Bednar gave an awesome talk on Lehi's dream in the October Ensign that you all should read! On Wednesday and Thursday my companion and all of the new missionaries went to a capacitation with President and they were there almost all day. I ended up working with Elder West (one of my best friends here) and we worked half the time in my sector and the other half in his sector. We had a good time and taught a ton of good lessons. My companion Elder Ford seems to be progressing more and more every day and I feel like in another 9 weeks or so he will be able to understand everyone and communicate himself.
In terms of my sector (mom wanted to know more about it), I work in a sector called La Pradera (The Prairie). It is gigantic and I have been pushing really hard to get 4 missionaries into the sector to help us work a little bit more efficiently. Our sector has a reputation for being extremely dangerous in certain parts, but I feel like its just got a lot of poor parts. The people definitely seem to be more humble here though and I can see the hand of God blessing these people that have so little materialistic things. I hope that we can continue finding good people. Our sector is like 30 in. in bus from the office of the mission and we come into Concepcion to do our internet and get our cards and stuff every week. The sector is beautiful but...I haven't taken a ton of pictures, I will try to take a few this week.
I think the biggest thing that I learned or that I felt this past week was just how lucky that I am to be here serving these people. We are having a ton of success in our Zone and I feel like it has come from our ability to be obedient and diligent in all that we do. My companion and I are determined to have a good week and I know that this next week will be better than the last. We are working with an in active family and are planning on baptizing their son this weekend. We are also teaching a girl named Loreto and we feel like she will be getting baptized as well, but she didn't come to church on Sunday so I am not really sure what will happen there.
Thanks for the support and all of the letters. I am coming down the homestretch and although I am not looking forward to leaving all of this behind, I am glad to know that I have amazing friends and family to go home to. I love you guys a ton!
Yours truly,
Elder Cody Dastrup