November 28, 2011

First off...letter to his dad (explains some of the pictures)

Hey,

It sounds like your thanksgiving was way more eventful than mine. We tried to buy a chicken right before going home but...there were none left by the time we got to the store haha so we ate something called chori panes. Kind of like bratwursts haha. Oh yea and something I forgot to put in the big email that I will put in the next week is that we had an activity in the church that we were in charge of. We had a culture night! We assigned a country to every active family in the ward and some of the investigators that we are teaching as well. What you had to do was give a brief resumen of your country: population, number of members, temples, etc and prepare a typical food from that country (a national food?) we had the US and we made chili cheese fries with 2 of our investigators. It went really well and we ended up with 5 investigators there and all of them but 1 participated.

We have challenged ourselves to baptized more then we have before so I am really looking forward to the challenge and the best part of all is that I absolutely love the people that we have that we are teaching. It has been a crazy couple of weeks and we are looking to do things that have never happened before in the sector.

Now for the group letter:

Hey!

How is it going!? Another week in paradise and honestly I have no complaints this week. I don't have a ton to write about this week because the truth is...everything went pretty much as planned. This week we are looking to have 2 baptisms and I am pretty excited about that. We are baptizing a girl named Darling and a boy name Bastian. Bastian is the little brother of Marcela (the girl that we baptized in September) and Darling is like my little sister. We have been working with Darlings family and as you can remember we taught her family with the President like 4 weeks ago and she is looking really good for this Saturday (I will send a lot of pictures next week)! We are getting closer to Christmas and it seems like every day I am being reminded by other missionaries and members that I don't have very much time left! (April) I have mixed feelings, but for the most part I just look at it for what it is. I still have plenty of time to find, teach and baptize and that is what is keeping me focused. We had a lot of people in church again this week and we have put some pretty high goals for ourselves in the sector and as a zone. I am confident in the people we have and know that if we do our part we are going to be able to help these people make covenants with God and make the important decision to get baptized in the Church of Jesus Christ.

Sorry it is just one of those weeks where nothing is coming to my mind that would be exciting to tell you about. But...something kind of cool that we get to do because we live close to Concepcion is that we get to go to the leadership conferences that we have once a month with President Humphrey and talk to him and Hermana Humphrey for like 1 and 1/2 hours about he mission and about normal stuff too. Today while we were talking to them President mentioned how he lived in Venezuela for a while and how he has traveled to China many times as well for business. I think it is really cool that he has had the opportunity to do a lot of international business and I think he might be slowly convincing me to get into the same field some day haha.

It is amazing the vision that the President has for the missionaries though, and the confidence and faith that he has in us as 19-21 year old young men and the sister missionaries to go out and get a job done. He is a really good leader and he knows how to run things in the mission and I have taken a lot of notes on his leadership qualities and hope to one day be in his same shoes. Also, before I forget...Elder Keller emailed me and said he is doing well. He had some really nice things to say and some good encouraging words for me. He is a really good guy and if he ever comes over to AZ, make sure that you invite him over to the house for dinner and hook him up with someone to go on a date with (he tells me he is still waiting on that first date...haha)

I am doing really well though and hope that you guys aren't getting too trunkie. I need your support until the very last day and I know that I will have it. I am so grateful for the support that I have from you guys. I got the Christmas package you sent and I am super thankful to have the family that has the means to be able to support me and provide for me. I love you guys so much and hope that this is one of the best weeks of your lives.

Yours Truly,

Elder Cody Dastrup

November 21, 2011

Chiguayante Zone Nov 2011

Spider

Roberts, Dastrup, Keller

Dastrup & Ford

Hey,
Another week in the books. I really enjoyed the week and I felt like we really picked up the pace and got a lot of good things done. This week we decided that we needed to buckle down and find some good people to teach so...we did just that. We took a list of all of the inactive members in the ward and we set a goal with the other 2 missionaries that share the sector with us to visit every single inactive person in the next 4 weeks. There are 700 inactive members in our ward but a lot of them are families so I am thinking that we will have about 150 households each to visit. This week we found a ton of inactive members that hadn't attended church in years and we got 13 to come to church. It is amazing that sometimes people just need the invitation and they are more than willing to come back. We also had a few investigators in church including that whole family that went to church last week I really don't have any huge regrets.
My companion and I are also doing really well. This week as a mission we had the privilege to hear from Elder Quentin L. Cook from the quorum of the 12 Apostles and all I can say is....WOW. He came and talked to all of the missionaries in our mission. He told us that contrary to what many missionaries think, our purpose is not to baptize. Our purpose as missionaries is to invite all to come unto Christ. Our job is to strengthen all of the wards and branches here in Chile, to baptize, reactivate, prepare future missionaries to serve and do everything in our power to leave our wards better than we found them. We are branch builders. It was a very interesting talk and I felt like it was a nice breath of fresh air that our mission really needed. At this very moment there are about 130 people who assist church every Sunday and we have put a goal with the other missionaries to get that number as close to 200 before we leave the sector. I am really excited for the chance we will have to not only teach to baptized, but also help those that have fallen from the path.
Mom asked that I would share the funniest thing that happened to us this week and I can't really think of anything. In the new house that we have, we still don't have a stove or anything to cook on, so we have been having to cook everything in the microwave. Well, I bought like 100 eggs the other day to start the diet back up (haha) and I wanted to east some so...I cooked them in the microwave (like grandpa Guthrie does for his dog, haha)and they came out fine, and then the Bolivian that lives with us wanted some, but he wanted them hard boiled. I walked out of the kitchen and apparently he stuck a bowl of water with 2 eggs in the microwave and left it for 5 minutes. About 2 minutes into the experiment I felt and heard a loud bang! The eggs exploded, the microwave door flew open and we lost power in the entire house! I ran into the other room and saw Elder Arana walk out of the kitchen saying that he couldn't hear anything. Well, we fixed the microwave and taught him that you can't stick anything in the microwave especially not eggs and metal haha.
Anyways, I hope all is well and that you are all doing well. I miss you all, but like always I wouldn't trad this experience for anything.
Yours Truly,
Elder Cody Dastrup

November 14, 2011

Hey,
Another week in the books. I really enjoyed the week and I felt like we really picked up the pace and got a lot of good things done. This week we decided that we needed to buckle down and find some good people to teach so....we did just that. We took a list of all the inactive members in the ward and we set a goal with the other 2 missionaries that share the sector with us to visit every single inactive person in the next 4 week. There are 700 inactive members in our ward but a lot of them are families so I am thinking that we will have about 150 households each to visit. This week we found a ton of inactive members that hadn't attended the church in years and we got 13 to come to church! It is amazing that sometimes people just need the invitation and they are more than willing to come back. We also had a few investigators in church including that whole family that went to church last week. Sunday went very well and looking back on the week I really don't have any huge regrets.
My companion and I are also doing really well. This week as a mission we had the privilege to hear from Elder Quentin L. Cook from the quorum of the 12 Apostles and all i can say is...WOW. He came and talked to all of us missionaries in our mission. He told us that contrary to what many missionaries think, our purpose is not to baptize. Our purpose as missionaries is to invite all to come unto Christ. Our job is to strengthen all of the wards and branches here in Chile, to baptize, reactivate, prepare future missionaries to serve and to do everything in our power to leave our wards better than we found them. We are branch builders. It was a very interesting talk and I felt like it was a nice breath of fresh air that our mission really needed. At this very moment there are about 130 people who assist church every Sunday and we have put a goal with the other missionaries to get that number as close to 200 before we leave the sector. I am really excited for the chance we will have to not only teach and baptize but also help those that have fallen from the path.
Mom asked that I would share the funniest thing that happened to us this week and I can't really think of anything. In the new house that we have, we still don't have a stove or anything to cook on, so we have been having to cook everything in the microwave. Well, I bought like 100 eggs the other day to start the diet back up (haha) and I wanted to eat some so...I cooked them in the microwave (like grandpa Guthrie does for his dog, haha) and they came out fine, and then the Bolivian that lives with us wanted some, but he wanted them hard boiled. I walked out of the kitchen and apparently he stuck a bowl of water with 2 eggs in the microwave and left it for 5 minutes. About 2 minutes into the experiment I felt and heard a loud bang! The eggs exploded, the microwave door flew open and we lost power in the entire house! I didn't know what had happened so I ran into the other room and saw Elder Arana walk out of the kitchen saying that he couldn't hear anything. Well, we fixed the microwave and taught him that you can't stick everything in the microwave especially not eggs and metal haha.
Anyways, I hope all is well and that you are all doing well. I miss you all, but like always I wouldn't trade this experience for anything.
Yours Truly,
Elder Cody Dastrup

November 7, 2011

Hey Everyone,
Due to time this letter might be a little short but...I think I will manage to get mostly everything in. Update on the companionship: Elder Ford is doing really well and his knee seems to be doing a lot better as well. He is progressing and I am so proud of all that he has done to get to the point where he is at right now. He still struggles a lot with the language and with the gospel knowledge, but we are working on it and I feel like he is putting in his part. We had a really good week of work and for the 1st time in a long time I feel like we met our potential. We had a few investigators in church and we actually have 3 that are progressing towards baptism. We also had a ton of members attend church this week, we normally have an average of 130 people a week and this week 166 people showed up. Elder Ford and I and the other companionship in our sector came up with a good idea to find new investigators. We took the ward list and basically have been passing by every inactive member to see if they have any kids or spouses who aren't baptized and we are also getting a lot of references from them. We found 12 new investigators this week! It was a really good week.
Big story of the week...On Thursday afternoon we set up a visit to go see the family that we are working with and we invited President to come meet them and help us get things moving. It was incredible how well the lesson went. President basically went in there and just took over. In 20 minutes he got to know them, gained their confidence and then we started teaching basic doctrinal principle of the gospel. We talked about many things but the main focus was on the eternal family. The father really liked the idea and he is really putting in his part so that he can receive the blessings that come through obeying the commandments and making covenants with God. Anyway, the lesson went great and on Saturday morning I went over, invited them to be baptized on the 26th of this month and we shared our testimonies with them. They accepted the goal that we put with them and we are really hoping that they can get there. Well...the climax of the story, Sunday afternoon rolled around (they all went to church in the morning) and I get a call that something had happened and the father was leaving the house (packing his bags and moving out)! I met up with Elder Weston and ran over there. We walked into a really difficult situation. He was getting his stuff ready to go and there had been some kind of argument that led him to want to take off. We sat them down and began to talk to them and the flood gates opened. The husband, who I am very close to really opened up to us. I testified pretty boldly that Gods plan is that the family can live together forever, in no part of Gods plan does it say that we can just quit. Nowhere in his plan does it say that we can just leave the family or that we can find happiness doing something else. We testified that God loved them and that his plan was that they could work through this problem, enter into the waters of baptism and step out of the water as pure as when they were born. We testified of many things and for the first time in my mission I cried in a lesson, 1 year and 7 months without a single tear, but I just couldn't hold it in...lol I told them I loved them and it came from my heart. I felt the love of God, I felt what I have been trying to feel my entire mission in the moment that I told a struggling father that I loved him, and that I loved his family and that I wanted to see them happy, and I wanted to see them in white. (Baptism, temple, celestial kingdom) I was very in tune with the spirit at that moment and I invited the family to get on their knees with us, grab one anothers hands and asked the father to give a prayer to bless his family through this tough time. He gave an amazing prayer and with a ton of conviction he promised God that as the head of the house he would do better in leading his family to salvation. After the prayer we gave the wife and him blessings of strength and help for their trials.
I have a testimony of what I am doing out here. God is real, he lives and loves each and every one of us. I know all of this not because I have seen him or had a dream, not because he has talked to me or sent an angel to visit me and convince me of his existences, but I know that God exists because I have felt ht power of his son Jesus Christs atonement in my life. I know that he exists because I have seen how the gospel of Jesus Christ has changed the lives of so many people that I have contact with the last year and a half. I know Joseph Smith was a prophet and that he saw God the father and his son Jesus Christ. God lives and loves you and me and each and every one of us. Thanks for all of the support that I have from all of you who are reading this. I love each and every one of you and would do anything to be with you, except leave Chile. This is the Lords work, and I will work until the very last day.
Con Carino,
Elder Cody Dastrup