Email from December 20, 2010

Family...

Yo what up!

This week is the week. Five days and counting. I can't wait. Mainly because it will be the last Christmas I ever Have out here! That is a weird idea eh? I think this will go a lot faster then I am expecting as of right now. Christmas is going to be very interesting this year. A very busy day, and potentially even busier than expected..

We are having brunch with the stone family, which they are soooooooo cool. We talk a lot of football with them haha. They are sweet. And they are actually related to one of my Arizona friends. Small world.. So we will be with them for a bit starting at 11. Then Elder Hansen makes his call home at 1. And you guys call me at 3.. Not a second late! remember... So Don't be forgetting it. Then We are having our Christmas dinner at 5 or 530. Busy Busy Day.. Then to top that all off. We have had some investigators coming to church the last couple weeks and we taught them yesterday after church. The husband is a member already. But the wife wants to be baptized. But not till the new year, but their nephew, Craig Anderson, which is like 35-40. Decided he wants to be baptized on Christmas Day!!!!!!! So we are praying for him so hard that he can keep all his commitments. We honestly have hardly taught him at all. He committed to not smoke yesterday. So that is our biggest issue. If he smokes at all this week he can't be baptized. This morning we were supposed to have a lesson at 10, but he bailed for some reason. So we hope that he keeps the rest of his commitments. PRAY PRAY PRAY. How awesome it would be to have a WHITE Christmas :) We hope it will happen but we definitely aren't a 100% sure it will. But if it happens, it will be at 9 am Saturday morning.

But for the members wife, She is thinking she wants to be baptized on January 1st. But she has to quit smoking as well.. They also bring a 86 year old friend, which her name is Edith. She as well wants to be baptized on Jan. 1st. But she goes out of town today for a week or so. So we aren't sure that we can get all the lessons in.. But we are going to try.

They are all awesome people and are just looking for a better life style. They feel the spirit so well at church it is amazing. I am so excited to see what happens. Even if Craig isn't baptized on Saturday, it will be soon. I am sure you guys are all surprised about that.... So am I. Are you kidding me.? The lord is blessing us so much. It is amazing. I love it...

So yeah, my letters have been dwindling so bad... haha. I get less and less. It is sad. That is when you have been out for a while. Because EVERYBODY forgets about you! I keep telling myself this is the week I will get a lot. Ha nope, oh well I guess I will just not have to write anybody back!

4 New trucks just came into the mission, And we have one the the older, and when i say older i mean like a 2008 truck... So hopefully we will be getting one of the brand new ones. They are sweet. way nice. Chevy Colorado's. They are pretty cool.. It is weird how the oldest cars in the mission are 2008 and 2007's.. The church definitely keeps everything really nice and new. We only put on about 60 thousand kilometers, which i think is about 40000 miles. ? I dont know.

It is so sad that the tabernacle burned down. I got a call from sister Vellinga (Dads clients) The morning that it happened at like 7 o clock. It is crazy that that happened. Do you guys know if they will be rebuilding it or what? monument?

Well i am out of time and i am starving. I love you guys and miss you a ton. Your prayers are appreciated. Talk to you in HOURS.... :) Love you

Love Elder Dastrup

Email from December 13, 2010

What is up...

Calgary would be the answer to that. Wow that is when you know i have been on a mission for such a long time. My jokes get more and more like Dads jokes! hahah OK that one was kind of funny.

So this week has definitely been a fun week! Full of good things happening.. Miracles. There will be miracles happening every single week from now on. It is the Lords will and I just have to recognize and follow the promptings of the spirit..

First of all, me and Elder Hansen get along.. We can joke around a lot which is good. Most of the jokes are me making fun of some of the things he does, cause he is pretty ditsy. but he can laugh at himself. and we still get along great. So it is awesome... haha his Friends did the same thing to him at home, so it works out perfect! haha plus he can remember his good ol times.

We had some potential investigators come to church this week which was awesome. They are still just potential because we haven't taught them yet. But this is the story..

Last Monday night we got a call from the bishop and he told us to come over. So we go over and he tells us how the Burtons had gotten a hold of him and wanted to be taught and come to church... We weren't able to meet with them that week but this week should work. The husband is a member and the wife and nephew aren't. but they are both really interested.. So they came to church and actually brought a neighbor with them as well! It was awesome. Definitely a miracle when non members are doing missionary work.. Legit!!!

It sounds like you guys had an awesome time up in park city without me. Luckily I didn't think about it all weekend long. So I didn't get home sick or anything. Which is always good! To bad I don't think I have been home sick yet on my mission.. I was actually thinking about it the other day, how Dusty and Devin told me I would have called home by the second or third week, And i still haven't... I would say that is pretty good! The only thing I really get homesick for is the Jazz. I will admit. I can't stand not being updated immediately after everything.

Speaking of basketball. I still haven't gotten a update of the T-Birds yet. I would like to hear about that! That would be good! :) I heard from a source that they were ranked pretty high in the state as of right now! Dang I miss that!

So all is well up here. We are hanging in there in the cold. It is on and off when it gets really cold, some days it will be +2 or 3, then the next it is - 30. honestly it is the worst thing ever. the zero days feel like summertime.. what is that all about?? I really don't have that much more to say other than i love you guys and miss you. Keep on Keepin on..

Love Elder Dastrup

p.s. No The mission doesn't give out our packages until like the 22nd or 23rd. That is probably a good thing because I guarantee that I would have opened it by now..... :)

p.s.s. There was a homecoming in our stake this week, his name is Brian Rea, I went to high school with him, But his family moved up here when he went on his mission. Small world. I didn't get to see him and now he is already in Provo. But I thought that was pretty cool!

Email from December 6, 2010

Familyyyyyyyyyyy

Monday once again. It has been an exciting week. With being transfers and all types of new things. I went from a very very young area in Airdrie. To about the exact opposite. Very Very Old area. Big change. But changes can be good sometimes.... Hopefully. So now I am serving in the Willow Park area, which is the area around our mission home. In this area, the missionaries have formerly been the office missionaries. President Archibald changed that this transfer. Thank goodness. Even though my companion has been in there and will still need to go help every once in a while when the senior couples get lost. But it won't be to bad. I am excited for the change. We have our work cut out for us. Since it has been an office missionary area, things are really slow right now. But we will be finding good effective things to do. We are excited for the changes to happen in the area. mos def! My new companions name is Elder Hansen. He has been about 5 months and been in the office 3 of the 5. So it was a big change for him coming out of the office. But he is excited. So that is good. We get along really good, So all should be very well. He is from Fresno California and is like 6 foot 5. Freak. Why am I so short? Oh well all is well...

So mom and dad I forgot to ask you... You said you went to Sam Rosens mission farewell.. He got out?????????????????????? That is so awesome. He wrote me and told me he was making his efforts in like February, but I never heard more from him..... Where is he going? I need to find his address or something... That is so awesome he got out.. And it was good to hear Max's farewell was really good to. I need to write him!

So this week, since my companion hasn't been to the temple yet, he really wants to go. So we might go on Saturday. Quite honestly I would rather just have pday. It makes for such a long day to go all the way down there and I only went like a month or so ago. But oh well I will try to be positive.

In this area we don't have any solid investigators right now. We have a couple of potential investigators. But nothing real solid. There is one lady that is less active and has three kids who want to get baptized. So that might go somewhere. I haven't met them yet though. Our other potential investigator, had a son get married in the temple recently so that may go somewhere good!

Guess what?? Only 19 days until you guys are lucky enough to talk to me on the phone.... Yeah I know you guys are probably pretty stoked about that right now...... So me and Elder Hansen figured out how it all will go down... So we have a brunch thing with a family in the morning. So by the time we get done with that, Elder Hansen's family is going to call at 1...ish. So we wanted to give it a little time, in between in case he goes over some. So The time we figured would be best for you guys to call me, would be at 300 o clock sharp! Not a minute after. Is Holly coming up, or what will be the deal for that?? It should all work out well.. Is 3 OK for you guys? And just so you will for sure know I can start giving my number now!

403-617-2686

So mother I was just curious and thinking about it the other day, do you keep one of those triangle count down things for me? Cause if you do, yep, I am on the down slide!!!!!!! ha So crazy how time works. I am one of the older missionaries in the mission.. "What what?" In Dana terms..So legit.

I am reading like crazy in personal study right now. I have read like 100 pages in the new testiment in the last, like 3-4 days. I am going to truck through the new testiment, then the old. I figured I gotta do it sometime. I have read the book of mormon 5 times so far out here. Could you imagine the damage that could be done if Mom was out here reading to me.... Oh man. Now I realize why Devin had to call home, So mom could read to him!!!!!!! I never though about that until right now... Hmm..

My zone is sweet. Elder Gulbrandsen is one of our zone leaders and he went to school with me. He was in our group of friends. But he is a few years older. But it is pretty sweet, he goes home on January 5th, so i was excited to serve around him at least a little. That is pretty cool..

Well that is about all I have to say. I don't know much else besides the church is true!

I love you guys and miss you a ton.

Love Elder Dastrup

Email from November from November 30th, 2010

Hey family!

Transfer emails come.... Me and Elder Dana are both getting transferred. yeah kind of weird. I dont know why... But he is senior companion and I am still District Leader so is wasnt because of disobedience. Cause we have been obedient. So I guess that is just what the Lord needed... ? But I am going to do my best to be positive!

I am going to the Calgary South zone.. I might even be in the office.. I am not sure. So it will mix things up a little bit i guess.. I am excited. My zone leaders are way cool.. One of them actually went to high school with me and was in my group of friends. So that will be really exciting.

This week has been a good one. We once again met many goals. And worked really hard. It was nice. I was so excited to hear from the martins when they got home. I was very surprised you sent a whole freakin suit case. hhaha now i have three i guess. Oh well.. Thank you for the grape juice. I was sooooooo excited when i got it. We got out goblets and everything. It was realllllllly good. We are going to go to dinner tonight with the martins since we are both getting transferred. So we are going to chilis. :) I honestly dont know what to say this week. I am still just so astonished that we are both getting transferred.. i am kind of at a loss of words. I called Nathan and told him, yup he was pretty upset. No one wanted this to happen.. But the lord needed it.. so I guess it is going to be what has to happen right?

At least i am going to a good area. I am excited for that. But the office will be a new experience for me. I will be around Elder And sister Vellinga a lot! Did i tell you that I met them. haha you could tell that they had been watching for me. It was funny.

The cougs blew it i heard???????? oh man how great would that have been if they would have beat them. seeing that the cougs werent that good this year and the utes were supposed to be amazing. The holy war doesnt seem as much like a holy war anymore.... weird.

Man. I still cant believe We are both getting transferred. Crazy.

And Dusty thanks for the wanting mom to send me an ipad. But yes umm definitely can not have one of those hahahha .

welp we are finishing up. But i love you guys and miss you a ton. I will talk to you next week!

Email from November 22nd, 2010

Family!

Hot dang! Another week down and now it is only a week until I turn 13 months. As Dana would say Woot woot! haha who knows why? but that is about how I am feeling about right now...

Drum roll please....................... Baptism this last Saturday! Finally got one. Ha It was awesome. His name is Tyler Morrison. It was a really good baptism. Really short. But it was the bomb. We had an instant conection because Both of our names were Tyler. He is actually only a nine year old. But he is still a little stud. Parents are members, but for whatever reason didn't get baptized until he was nine. We taught all the lessons in one week. So not your typical baptism but it worked! It was awesome. Now I don't have to worry about that first one anymore. Now I can move on and quit worrying about it..

So it was definitely a good week between having a baptism and being able to ordain Hans. Which was a neat experience. I learned how to do it Sunday morning. And just took my time, and didnt mess up at all! The spirit was really strong and was definitely a testimony/Faith builder for myself to be able to do that!

This week Me and Elder Dana Met more goals than we ever have before!

1. Get 20+ Lessons.....

We got 22 lessons.

2. Get 6 non member lessons.

We got 6 non member lessons.

3. Get 5 less active lessons.

We got 6 Less active lessons

4. Get 10 member lessons.

We got 10 member lessons.

5. Get 3 7-day challenges.

we got it.

6. GET 1 BAPTISM.......

GOT 1 BAPTISM.....

Such a good week. I was so excited about it!

I love being able to set goals. But when you actually meet the goal it means so much more. it is soooooooooo awesome. I love it... This last week we decided to expect miracles.... So we did. And a baptism landed in our laps. We were able to get in with an old investigator. The Lord loves to bless us. We just have to be willing to look for the miracle. And expect it!

Transfers are next week. So i will be emailing tuesday.. Just so you know. Me and Elder Dana have been together for 4 1/2 months. so this will probably be it. but I have loved serving with him. It has been awesome. We think i am going to be moving. but it could be him as well.

Mom i dont know when the martins will be coming. Just when they have time. So Just have your phone by you. And i will draw out a map, give the address. your cell and dads and the house phone. They will get ahold of you. They are awesome.

So we came a little earlier today. sorry about that. but My computer is about to shut down. So i got to be finishing up pretty soon. Only 5 weeks till the phone call!

oh yeah and it snowed like all week long. HUGE storms. We have like 2 + feet on the ground right now. I jynxed last week when i said we had none.. It has been -25 all week long. So rediculous.....

I love you guys and miss you a ton.

Love Elder Dastrup

Email from November 15th, 2010

Yo what is up??

Another week here from the polar express. Surprising enough, I am pretty sure that you guys have had more snow then us. We have only really had like 1 snow fall.. A month ago. While we were putting in a sprinkler system. But that is about it. Today it was actually raining pretty hard this morning. So much for being the coldest winter in along time up here like all the farmers were saying. Definitely a blessing for having a mild winter so far. I have put my winter coat on, only like twice. So not bad at all. Now that I say this, It is probably going to get really bad, really fast.

So this week has been really good. I went on several different splits, saw Calgary, worked wonders. It was a good spiritual week.

Tuesday We basically did service all day long. worked my butt off. Not to surprising. Just a good solid day!

Wednesday. I was on splits with a companionship in my district. Me and Elder Henrie. It was so fun. We just took a ton of pictures, messed around, and taught a ton of lessons. It is always good to be able to get a little break from your comp. Even though me and Dana get along great, it is still good for a break every once in a while. It was fun.

Thursday Was service again, putting up Christmas lights, helping build a garage, man are we going to be talented by the time that we get done with our missions. So much service and so many talents gained :) It was definitely a fun day, even though we didn't teach a ton.

Friday we were on splits again. I was with the zone leaders in their area, Elder Truman.He is a cool kid. His area is all of Calgary, because he covers the single adult ward, or as they call them up here, ysa ward. So we got to go down to Calgary so that was fun .We taught a wack of lessons and set some goals on what we could do better. Mos Def! (Most Definitely) We also had a training from the zone leaders. It really made me think about all the little things i could fine tune and do better. It was good. I seem to have a refocus and can work on little things to do as the lord would want me to do. The lord expects a lot out of me so I better be ready and already doing those things.

Saturday was a good service day as well.. We helped with the Airdrie food drive and got everything in line at the food bank. It was good, just peivious. If that is a word. Then we got up on a roof and put up Christmas lights again. Then we GOT to move a ton of wood for a ward member. No big deal. Just making me work out a little bit..

Sunday was awesome. Church was good, Our investigator didn't come but she did send us a text saying that something came up so she wouldn't be able to make it. So it is really showing us that she does want to be there. Very exciting. After church we went to a recent converts house and made ginger bread houses and had a competition... The two girls against Elder Dana and The dad, against me. Yeah they made me be alone. I dominated Though. Theirs kept falling down. I will send some pictures of mine. Super Bueno. It was good. Sunday night we had a stake priesthood meeting that was really good. The stake president is awesome up here. He knows whats up. Afterwards one of the recent converts, Hans, 79 year old German guy asked me to ordain him to the office of Elder And confer the Melchizedek priesthood. So I am really really excited about that. That will be next Sunday. Who knows why he chose me??????? But I am excited anyways.. And on our way home, we were with Nate, the member we live with and his dad Gary. Gary got a text from one of the ladies that works for him, she needed his help, Priesthood blessing. She is the relief society president in her ward in Calgary, so we went over and gave her a blessing. She has lots of times where the adversary works reallllly hard on her and suppresses her. It was amazing to go over and see her countenance changed completely. From down in the dumps to upidy and bright! The Priesthood is definitely a blessing in our life. I love it. It is amazing.

It is all going so well. I love it.

Nate and Kina are planning on coming down to the house the Saturday after thanksgiving. So i will give them all the directions and the phone numbers and everything. Mom I am sure they will be more than happy to bring some cookies back or something. they are Flying though. They are awesome. I challenged them to a ginger bread house making contest this morning. So I will probably win that competition too..

It sounds like all is well and cold in provo. To bad timpview lost in football. I guess it had to happen sometime though right? To bad that covey got a concussion. I love that kid.

I love you guys so much and miss you a ton..... Go JAZZ!! They beat the Heat :)

Love Elder Dastrup

Email from November 8th, 2010

Hey guys...

Once again, a week come and gone. Truckin through these weeks like they are nothing!

It is awesome. And this week esspecially was a good week.. Lots of good things happened. The Lord definitely blessed us this week.

First and foremost. We got a new investigator!!!!!!! Her name is Li Yang. She moved here from china 2 years ago. But has pretty good english. She has two little kids and her husband works 10 am to 11pm EVERYDAY.... So i dont know how we are going to teach him at all.. But she Has not really any knowledge of who god even is. She shows a strong faith in what we are teaching her, but obviously it doesnt come just like that...... But she is awesome. She came to church with her two little boys. It was a weird day at church :) of course. The first kid to get up and bear his testimony admitted to an addiction to chocolate.. AND the nintendo wii.... The next ladie got up and went off about how she is really pore. I got up after that to just bear my testimony and get things on track, right after me, the branch president did the same thing hahahaha. it was great. But she loved it. and the third hour we did a combined arp meeting thing. it was crazy.. but she still said she would come next week! so we are excited.

So i just got the email and pictures from Katie. Might i say that was awesome. Mason looked ompa loompa status.. that was awesome! But kate your waldo glasses dont touch my real persription glasses...

So other miracles from this week. We also should be picking up a new investigator this week. We made contact. Now we just need to follow up. he said we can until he lets us in so... I am pretty excited about that.

We also had zone conference this week. It was legit. So rad We had tons of good insights and the spirit taught us new things! it was good. We also only have them every three months now instead of every six weeks. So it means a lot more each time as well.

So what are you guys doing for thanksgiving weekend. The awesome member that we live with are going down to utah and will be staying in heber. So they really want to come visit with you. They were thinking the best that would work for them would be that saturday, two days after thanksgiving. So i think that is the 27th? i dont know, But you guys better be home. Because I want you to meet them. I will be giving them the phone number and address to the house + directions. So they will be stopping by.. The only other thing i thought about giving them was the gate code so that if it is closed they could still come up. but I cant remember the code hahaha.

Mom I would rather you just pick some parts of my letter and send them instead of me writign a different email. that takes to much effort :) I was reading that last letter you sent me. The missionary times or whatever with all my friends stuff. Wow they are to blessed with baptisms. They seem to come so easy everywhere else in the world. What is wrong with our area!!! spphhhhhhhhhhhhhhh so lame haha I guess i will just have to get over it..

Me and Elder Dana are still getting along great. Still working hard. Focusing on the goals... We are working hard together. Some of the other missionaries in our district arent getting along at all right now, so it is nice being compatible with Elder Dana. We went down for his last test today. Finally. And then his credit card didnt work hahaha. So luckily i always carry some cash. I lent him it, so i am thinking about charging interest when he pays me back :) hahaha we will see.

That is to bad to hear about that guy that was supposed to bless his baby yesterday. I guess it just makes us count our blessings even that much more...

Chirstmas is getting closer and closer. only 6 or 7 more weeks. That is crazy to think about. It will be my last one! Oh yeah I also finally burned my shirt last night. It was awesome.. I got some good pictures. It is about time for me again to get some pics printed off and sent home! haha sorry i am not very good at that. But we pored gas all over the shirt and torched it! It was awesome. It burned for way longer than i thought it was going to go pretty fast. but hey. it was sweet. At first i dropped it too, because i think it sinched my eyebrows. it went up in a hurry...

Welp i am hungry and want to play basketball so we are going to take off. I love you guys and miss ya aton...

Love Elder Dastrup

Email from November 1, 2010

Hey guys....

GREAT WEEK!!!!!!!!!

First of all.. Duh, got over the hump. On the down slide. That is weird.... I am still trying to comprehend it all. It is definitely true what everyone says though, "minutes are slow, days are fast, days are slow years are fast....." Fast now that I am looking back on it :)

So i haven't gotten to burn my shirt for my one year mark... yet. I think We might have a little bit of time tonight. We don't know yet. I colored all over the shirt with a sharpie, so i will take some pictures and fill ya in ... I suck at taking pictures. Dana wore me out of it when I was at home. Now I am done with it...

This week has been such a good one...

Tuesday we were really busy, got a referral that we hopefully will be teaching tomorrow... and had a way good dinner and dessert....

Wednesday we were way busy. Taught several less actives that continue to improve.. did a ton of service..

Thursday Was our slower day.. But still good..

Friday. Awesome. I got to do a baptismal interview with an investigator of a companionship in my district to be baptized on Saturday. It was so spiritual. This girl was more than ready.. It was awesome.

Saturday. We had a way full day. Two ward parties and the baptism for the other companionship..

For the ward party, We were doing a "trunk r treat" There was a ton of non members invited and came to both. It was awesome. The first one was at 1. We were going to buy sheets and turn our Chevy malibu into the chevy maliboo... a ghost. I know, it was legit. We didnt dress up, because our ideas were terrible.... hahah.

But the baptism was soooooooooo awesome. It was a foster girl and her real mom came and was crying and basically bore testimony. The missionaries are now teaching her down in calgary!!!

The second trunk r treat was just as fun. WAY more people. Cause it was three wards combined. I was giving out the candy, we put pass along cards on suckers. yeah like ten kids came up to us at church as said they were going to give them to their friends. great idea! I was giving each kid like 10+ pieces of candy. The other three missionaries kept getting mad at me cause they said we werent goign to run out! hahahahahah yeah i gave out a lot anyways. Then we ran out.. oh welll hahahaha we probably gave out like 700+ suckers. We bought 4 huge bags and they were definitely gone...

Sunday to was legit.

At church nothing was extraordinary. just a great day. After we decided to go stop by a couple of referrals... Set one up with a new person that we have only talked to on the phone. Li Yang. We set up the appointment for saturday! Pray for us. I am so excited about it. The other was a guy that has wanted us to stop by. We did. He couldn't meet with us then, but he was a wayyyyyy nice guy and wanted us to come back this week. We are going to get a time set up! It was definitely a good week...

So mom you asked me to make a christmas list. hahahah missionaries dont need anything. seriously. can you just make my christmas twice as good next year :) hahahah no but really.. the only thing i can think of is like a couple of nice ties. maybe an orange one, purple one .. i dont know. I really like plaid ties and stripes. Thats about it though. hahah all i can think of sorry :)

Also the next package you send up, i need you to throw something in there. I have some NIKEPRO tights that are white. I wore them in basketball practices sometimes. haha i dont want them to stay warm, i ahve the warm ones. i just want them to play basketball in. i should have them somewhere in my room. But i havent been in there for 370 days, so who knows ?? hahah thanks :)

everything else to well in canada... i love you guys and miss you a ton. i will talk to you all again very soon! \

Next monday!

Love Elder Dastrup

A recent picture of the Elders & Sisters

Email from October 25, 2010

Yo Family

How is it going?? Another Week down, hmm they just seem to be going by faster and faster..... Most of the time at least!

This week was a wonderful week. The first one of the transfer is normally really slow and dragged out. Not this one. Me and Elder Dana lit it up this week! We taught 23 lessons and 8 of them or so, were with Less Active people. So I am pretty excited about it! We stayed busy a majority of the day. So that was good! We just strive to stay busy doing the things we should be doing, and we seem to continuely be blessed. Funny how that works eh? My Canadian lingo is coming along just fantastic...

So I was doing the math like yesterday, and we have 2 months until christmas! So crazy... I can't believe it. I will only have one more call home after that. So pumped. haha Who knows, I still could even be in the same area I am now by christmas. That would put me here in this one area 6 months. Could happen, just unlikely. Christmas would be really fun in this area though. We live with awesome members, so that would be nice and there are tons of cool members in the ward. But the next transfer is December 1st so I could be long gone.

So this week we had so much service we were doing. It was sweet. The more I do service, the more I like it. Yes I just said that. It is fantastic. Most of the time. It kind of gets annoying when people aren't grateful for what we do. But the only way to get over it, is to just keep serving. got to love it!

I hear the Jazz are 8-0 in the preseason!!!!!!! Finally, they are good and of course I am not there for it. This kills me. Last pday we were at the mall for lunch, and i saw on a tv thhey were playing the lakers. Their new jerseys are sooooooooo sick! Like good/cool/neat... To bad BYU football isnt any good, or else we would have a good year all the way around. It is good i dont have to watch it. I would just get frustrated.

Thanks mom for sending that suit out. I just need some switch ups out here. Man it gets boring wearing the same suit over and over and over and over again. Rediculous...Nothin a good suit wont spice it up a bit. The only things i get to change are ties watch .... thats it...

So my ten minute shut off thing just popped up so i am going to try and hurry!

This morning it snowed. yup i was upset with seeing that. I am going to have a long winter. It is supposed to be the worst one yet.... We do have a ward activiity coming up on the 30th... trunk r treat. We are doing it in the churhc parking lot. and we are supposed to dress up our car. We drive a chevy malibu so we thunkdid up an idea to put a bit sheet on it and make it a ghost and call it the maliboooooo! so creative i know :) I think we are going to try and find somebig boxs to put over us and one of us will be the holy bible and one of up a book of mormon! or mario and luigi. We cant decide! We have to be in our aaprtment and 600 on halloween. So that will be nice to catch up on sleep!

We play horse, with a mini basketball hoop at night in our apartment. I am totally dominating. I havewon 12 i think and he has won 4. And around the worl i am up 6-0.. domination station..

Drum roll please, at the year mark i weigh in at.......................

180 pounds. Makes me plus 8 lbs right now...... rediculous. It will be gone by the time i come home. I am eating healthier than i ever have before.... i am pretty impressed...

Mother I will get back to you next week what my christmas list can be :)

I love you all so much and miss you a ton. Work hard, read your scriptures and serve people around you constantly... i love you all..

Love Elder Dastrup

Email from Oct 19, 2010

Yo doggs!

Whats up. Another Week come and gone. Still just loving it! Transfer emails came, and once again I am just staying in my area with Elder Dana. This will make 4 1/2 months together by the end. I am excited. We get along well so might as well keep it this way right??

I was kind of surprised to see that I was staying. But Definitely excited.

This week was such a good one.

We got to go to the temple on saturday. It was AMAZING .... So awesome. Such an intense day. First of all, we were going down so that we could see a couple go through for the first time and get sealed. We found in the morning that Sister Anderson Hill (mom the person you sent that package to) Was really really sick and they were supposed to be the temple at like 10. They definitely were not going to make that. We were praying like all the way down. As soon as we got there, We got word that they were coming, and going to make the 230 session. So we went through two sessions, yep and i stayed awake, wide awake it was so awesome. The temple up here is so cool. So it made for a really cool day.

We also got a couple leads on some potential investigators. We will have to see what happens. One of them bailed out on us last night, but we arent even close to giving up on him.

Here is the scoop.

So one of our members, brother matthews, moved in about 6 months ago. The elders Helped them move in. After the elders left, their neighbor came over and said, hey are you guys jehovas witnesses? Can i get some literature on that?? The member then said, well we do have litterature but we aren't j dubs. So he gave him a book of mormon. 2 weeks ago, the member was building his fence outside and that same neighbor came over and gave him a saw to borrow, and said something like the price is to send your elders over to my house!!!!!!

We had the member try and set up a lesson and that didnt go so well so we are just going to try and stop by his house on thursday. So we will see what happens.

We also had this scottish ladie jump out of her car and chase down up to a door step to talk to us. She is already a member but she has gone pretty less active. So she got the info of when church is and where it is and everything. She actually called me this morning so that wwill be good to reactivate maybe!

I am really hoping to see this area boom this transfer. It has so much potential. We just need things to click!

So how is timpview football doing?>

Dad you will have to get back on track here sending me the timpview basketball stuff. They should be pretty good! I dont know about down low though. We have some really good basketball in our zone right now. And A couple good guys are coming in. So it will be good.

BYU SUCKS!!! whats going on. I am so upset. This is killing me. I cant handle seeing the cougs not winning. I heard they got smoked by tcu. Hey at least they scored on them right??

What else is going on???

I got dev and rachs package. Thanks :) more candy :) the sad part is, i eat like all of it..... haha

Mom can you get that gray suit. Get the pants taken out just a hair :) and send the suit on up? thanks!

Send some return labels with it so that i dont have to right my address on every letter i send.

So i dont know what else to say. But I love you guys and miss ya a ton. Cant wait until next monday to here from you again!

Love Elder Dastrup

ps mom do you want me to write a specific letter for my friends thing or what?

Email from October 4, 2010

Family

Yeah, sad to say this week I saw my last teenage days die before my eyes... Well I guess I will start having to grow up now??

But it definitely was a good birthday. I was Able to be doing exactly what I wanted and knew I should be doing..

First of All, Conference was a great start to the day. Every session was so good. It is amazing the things that you can get out of conference when you pay attention :) I am on two in a row now! All those men are such inspired men and they truly are called of God to lead and guide us..

Right before the sunday sessions started, our zone leaders brought us up the mail.. And Yep, I got some of that!

Package from Dana, thank you! You would make a trunky calendar at my year mark! Now i just get to look at how many more days left I have on my mission! haha jk jk I enjoyed it along with the ties. That one is very skinny. But I did wear it for the remainder of the day yesterday!

And of course Kate! Thank you so much for your package.It was wonderful! I always love getting vampire teeth and Pictures! All the little kids look so different. It is so weird. I saw one of the pictures that all the little boys were sitting next to eachother on the boat. yep, I had to do a double take with Chance... I was so confused. He looks so much older. plus he has long crazy hair..... So weird. I am sure everyone will be a lot different by the time I get home.. Plus me. I am going to be ripped by then. I plan to start working out. That is right!

So dusty I have been meaning to ask you. Or mom or dad incase dusty doesnt get back to me! Did you play ball with one of the balderson kids. I keep thinking that you did play on a team with them, but i cant remember for the life of me.Alot of people talk about them as idols up here.. Just curious..

Mom, when I sent home that package of white shirts did i send a GPS box with it?? yeah I cant find mine anywhere. I think that i sent it home and i sure hope so. because it has a 1 year warrenty but i need the box. the stupid thing wont turn on. so if you find that you should send it up to me asap!!! thanks :) that would be awesome! :)

Also that gray suit that i had before my mission.. take a look at it. If you think it would be a good missionary suit. you can send that up too. haha it might not be!

It sounds like you guys (mom and dad) had a wonderful trip to nyc and bermuda. Dad i was like crying laughing when i opened up that picture of you and your "homies" in nyc. that was awesome...

We are not having tons of success with our investigators going forward... we are just working hard to continue to meet with them and do everything we can.

Me and Elder Dana are getting along great and continue to press forward with the work.

I got to get going, but I love you guys and miss ya a ton.. Keep it real and I am now 20!

Love Your favorite brother/son.

Love Elder Dastrup

Email from Sept 27, 2010

Hey Guys!

How is it going? So this was definitely a quick week, you guys must have thought so as well, being that I didn't get any emails! haha You guys must not have realized that it was PDAY today! It is all good in the hood. No worries.

So this week was so awesome.. So spiritual! I had trainings like all week that I really learned a ton from. All the missionaries that are either District Leaders or Zone Leaders got together every single day this week from 10 am to about 4 pm. It was awesome. A lot of sitting.. But it was worth it.

We now have to give the exact same trainings to everyone here are the lessons we will give!

1. Revelation through The Holy ghost.

2. Revelation through Prayer

3.Revelation through the book of Mormon.

4. Revelation through church attendance.

5. How to begin teaching.

6. crap i cant remember the last three.. but they are good as well..

7.

8.

We go into so much depth on each one and they help us with our teaching skills so much. Such better teachers.... :)

So we have a new investigator lesson tonight. We are teaching at our stake presidents home. Which is way sweet. He just met this guy like last week and President Thomas, Which is like the smartest and most spiritual man i have ever met, invited him to take the lessons! President Thomas Said that there is a lot of potential in the man and he thinks that he will accept a baptismal invitation on the first lesson... which is soooooo sweet! So we are prepared for that. To bad he doesn't even live in our stake right now. but he might move up soon. If not, we will have to transfer him over to the Elders on the west side of Calgary!

Our other investigators this week were once again somewhat difficult to get hold of. We do have a lesson with Tina tonight. She is so awesome. I love being able to teach her. She is progressing so much.. She hasn't accepted a baptismal date, but I truly think it will happen on her time table. She recognizes the spirit so well. It is sooooooo awesome!

So we teach her again tonight. We will see what happens!

That is about it for investigators right now..

Me and Elder Dana are doing great. Our comp studies have really been helping us learn how to teach with each other which is awesome. Like this morning, we role played our lesson, and critiqued the things that needed to be. and now they are good! We get along really well it is good. This week we were basically on splits all week because of the training but now it is all good and back to normal!

So mother, I got your package!!! :) At first I didn't know it was the birthday package because it just said shirts on the outside, so i thought it was just the shirts I sent home, Even though if it said bday present, i probably would have opened it anyways :) I was sooooooooooooooooooooooooo Stoked to find that watch in there. It is so sick, aka amazing. i think I even cried a little bit... Well maybe not but I was so happy! Thank you so much.. I don't really understand the Chrystal light though? haha Maybe I am just slow? I don't know. But thank you :)

The shirts are amazing to, they fit so much better now. I am waiting to my year mark to wear them though.. Right now I am just rotating between two old white shirts to wear them out, then I can just leave them behind since I have way better fitting ones now! So excited..

Well today is supposed to be 25 degrees, which is like 80 I think? I don't know, I only understand Celcius now. Oh well. It is supposed to be warm for the next few days. Pretty legit. But we are still just going to play basketball..

Well I love you guys so much and miss ya a ton... I don't really have anything else to say :)

Love you,

Love Elder Dastrup

Email from September 20, 2010

How is it going this fine p-day morning....

I have had a pretty good week. Not to many complaints... Just a few :) no no, not to much than any other week. Sometimes it just feels a bit like groundhog day by the week. But good thing I like what is going on. Or else it would be wicked tough..


So this week sounded very eventful for you guys, lots of good things happening. Sorry about your truck dad! Should have given the fifty! ha ha Just kidding. But man, mom and dad you guys are traveling all over the world. I have never known you two like this... New York on Thursday, man save some trips for when I get home will ya? Alaska Definitely sounded like a blast, even though not much work on the cabin got done. Good news we still got another year and some before I will even have a chance to go up.. No worries... I am about a month and 8 days to the year mark!!!!!! So crazy... Time goes by fast, yet not really. We still have lots of work up here for me to do before I am done, so I better quit talking about it!

So this week Me and Elder Dana had a pretty stagnant week. We Have several, actually all of our investigators aren't really progressing right now. It makes it sooooo hard to think about. We just think about how we could help them more every single day. But it isn't getting easier. So we will just have to work through this trial right now. Look at the bright side I guess.

We are teaching a lot though. Mostly all member lessons, but we are teaching about 20-25 lessons a week normally. So that is good. The members up here are really good about missionary work. They are very focused on finding people we can teach, we just need to continue to challenge the members and they will come through. I am in a ward and a branch that have had tons of baptisms in the last year, so they are all really positive right now, we are just kind of in a lull with actually investigators.. We will get over it.

We taught Tina this week. She is awesome. She totally has a testimony of the gospel and knows everything we are saying to be true. We keep inviting her to be baptized October 23rd, but she feels that is to soon. We did commit her to set a date in her mind she can try to progress towards, which is good, because if she isn't quite ready by that date, no one has to know she didn't quite meet the goal right? We will just continue to meet with her and try to help her with her concerns..

We can't even get a hold of Sean, I have no idea where he has gone, maybe he is screening our calls??? I really don't know..

Nancy is back in town now so that is good. She is just really busy.. We are trying to set up appointments but, she is pretty busy. We just need to get her at the right time, maybe we will take your advice Devin and just go over and weed her garden, Well maybe if it wasn't freezing outside...


It snowed for the first time a couple of days ago.. Are you kidding me? It is September 20th. It is supposed to be 0 degrees yet. I guess in Canada it is simple...... My comp, Elder Dana is from Arizona, so he gets pretty cold, especially since he just came from there. hahah

We are getting along good though and are striving to continue to be better missionaries..

This upcoming week I have leadership training all week long starting tomorrow. All the District and Zone leaders are getting together and there will be training from like 10-330 every single day. Which will be very good, but long. I am excited. So Elder Dana will go with one of the other district leader companions. But after that, everything will go back to normal.

I am excited to get new insight and learn to be better!

Today for pday we are going to go get groceries, get sushi!!! then probably play basketball just like every other pday. Hey i am ok with that. I love you guys so much and miss ya a ton. Keep on keepin on!

Love Elder Dastrup

TYLER'S BIRTHDAY IS ON OCTOBER 3RD!!

HE WOULD LOVE TO HEAR FROM FAMILY & FRIENDS!!
SO PLEASE SEND AN EMAIL, LETTER OR EVEN A PACKAGE!!

HIS CONTACT INFORMATION:
email address:
tyler.dastrup@myldsmail.net

Calgary Mission Address:
Elder Tyler Dastrup
Canada Calgary Mission
7044 Farrell Rd SE
Calgary, Alberta T2H OT2 Canada

Email from September 7, 2010

What is up fam.

So this week was definitely a pretty good one. It is always a slower week being it was the last one of the transfer! But we worked hard and stayed super busy for our last week. So transfers come and go, and i am still staying in my same area. but i am not in a three leg anymore, elder graham is getting transferred. he is actually going with my old companion, elder estupinan... hah he will be fine with him. he is close to my old area. but i am just glad i dont have to pack up tonight.

So me and elder dana are staying together for atleast another six weeks. i am excited. We have not had any progress on our investigators this week. which is very annoying. But we are definitely striving, and we WILL have a baptism. I am so sick and have not tons of success haha. It will happen. i am really excited. It will be a fast transfer, i have a feeling.. As long as we stay busy, they we are all good.

today for pday we are going to play capture the flag or something gay than we convinced the others to play ball and we are now. so yeah.

so for some reason i dont have anything to say. so sorry. but i love you guys and miss ya a ton. next week will be regular pday monday!

love you guys.

love elder dastrup

Email from August 30th, 2010

How is it going guys???

First and foremost, it is starting to get cold up here..... It is the pits. We only have today and tomorrow before we have to put our suit coats back on. yesterday after church it was like 5-10 degrees celcius. so whatever that is, and we refused to put on our jackets cause we have limited time left without them... so I was frozen. But it was worth it.

So I Got an email from Max today....He is going to Spain on his mission! He doesn't leave until jan. 12th. which is kind of far but only like 20 days longer than I waited. But it definitely gives him time to prepare and stuff. So that is way cool. I am so stoked for him. He said he has tried calling you mom, but your phone wasn't working or something. I told him to try again. Also, you should try calling him. you should have his number, but i THINK it is 801 836 2538. But I am not 100% haha. But I am way excited for him..

This week has definitely had good and bad things... Lots of trials of Faith. Good news is that I still have a strong faith, so I am not lacking! We are working hard to get in with Sean and set a new date with him. We finally got ahold of him and he told us to come to his home. That was a first. Then when we went over, his parents were in the drive way and we stopped and talked to them. They had no idea that we were meeting with Sean... It didn't Sound like they were to upset besides the fact that Sean didnt say to much about it. Sean called us 10 minutes later and told us that we could just teach him kind of quitely... So that is unfortunate. We told him that it would be much better to work with the parents and not go behind their backs. It would just make it a lot better. So we will have to see how that works. We are going to invite Sean to invite his parents... But still no date. So we will just continue to work with him and work through all the little things. We will be over it in no time. No worries. I love being able to work with them. It is such a blessing being on a mission sharing the Gospel with others..

So our three leg is working out pretty good. Me and Elder Dana and Graham are getting along pretty good still. Which is good. Transfers are next week so we will be emailing on tuesday. Who knows what will happen at transfers. Most likely one of us will get transferred..

So once again Lake Powell Sounds like it was a blast. But there is no way that it couldn't be. You guys are taking lots of good trips here. I have never known you guys to be like that! hahah Of course you wait until i am on my mission. haha

So dbone has got the mini up and goin.. that is sweet. Good thing you only had to drive two blocks to work!

So i am running out of time here on the computer but i love you guys and miss ya so much.

Love Elder Dastrup

Email from August 23, 2010

Hey family...

Sounds like the first week back from Powell was good! Best news is, is that Dad must be craving lake Powell or something. Cause He is already back.. Wow. I Can't picture this. haha That is awesome though.

Things here have been really up and down which can be frustrating sometimes... Our baptism on Saturday didn't end up going through. Seans parents wouldn't sign the permission form So we couldn't end up baptizing him. We also are having a hard time setting up lessons, meeting with him and getting ahold of him. So frustrating. But all we can do is keep trying and keep working hard and think of the positive, blessings that have been happening in my (our) lives. Sean Has been so good to work with and we have just hit some bumps in the road, so as long as we keep working hard with him and help him to have us talk to his parents, it will all be fine!

Our three leg is doing good and we are learning a lot from eachother. Elder Dana is from Arizona, so like my 4th comp from there and elder Graham just from springville.. first comp from Utah. It is very different teaching in a three leg. We teach a lot less and we are trying to figure out how to teach with eachother. But it is coming along good. Our biggest concern is that I talk to much, and they talk to little. I like talking, what can I say? We have just decided that I know how to talk to people a little more. People Person? I don't know. But I am working on being able to let them have some more time.. hahahah whoops. My bad. But we are definitely learning a lot from eachother! Good news from that.

Wow, Thank you so much for the package, I was so excited. Brother Lee Came up to me at church and was like, hmmm i have a package for you. I was so confused. He tried explaining to me what had happened but I didnt really know what was going on. So to see three containers from you guys, I was extemely excited. Lots of treats!!! And really good ties. Thank you for those. Where did you get them, they are sweet.. And of course the best part. Letters from the whole family. That is always amazing. Got to love that. I was so dang excited. It definitely made my weekend a lot better after the baptism not going through, it must have been inspired or something!?

And It is to bad that I missed the pattens, we had to go down to the mission office. We are going down Like once a week now for Elder Dana. He has to go take some tests in South Calgary once and week then go fax them back home from the mission office. So that is where we were on friday. We also went down this morning to take care of it. It is always random so we don't know exactly what day we are doing it and whatever. It is about a 30 minute drive so it ends up taking a hour and a half or so. So that is where we must have been when brother patten was here.

So last night guess what i got to do. The GALLON CHALLENGE..... For those of you that aren't with it, I will explain what it is. So you get a group of people and you all get 1 gallon of milk... You start the timer and you drink the milk. you have 1 hour to drink the whole gallon and keep it down... No throwing up....... So I have done this before and I probably got like 3/4 of the way done before i threw up.. This time, we used Chocolate milk, Because that is what they had, and it was way harder. I drank about half of it and I was dying. Maybe because it was because I had just come from a huge roast beef dinner, I don't know.. hahah but it was wicked hard. I ended up throwing up like 4 times! hahah it was so fun though. Neither of my companions would do it. There was about 6 people that did do it. And only one person drank the whole thing, with out throwing up half way through it. There was definitely a lot of throw up in the ally way. Made things interesting. We definitely had a crowd. I did that with The members we live with's little brother that just got home from his mission and all of his friends.. It was so fun. I probably won't drink any milk for a while but ya never know. If they challenge me again, I just might be willing to try it.......

So today for pday we are going to the mall to eat, then to the stake center (Centre in Canada) and play basketball.. So typical pday. Nothing to special. But still a good day..

Thank you guys for everything that you guys do for me. I love you all so much and miss you so much.... You guys are the best.

Love, Elder Dastrup.

p.s. This week I hit my 10 month mark!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! yeah dog no more single digit crap.

Email from August 16th, 2010

Hey Family...

So this week was good, yet I did think about Powell all week which was tough. I did everything I could not to, but I still did.. Oh well now it is over with!

I have had a wonderful week topped off with a awesome surprize.. I got a call last night from one of the assistants (which is one of my friends from home) and he told me that I am now training! It isn't the start of a new transfer but, this Elder is coming out half way through so I am training him.. So for the next several weeks we will be in a three leg. Me, Elder Graham, and my new companion, Elder Dana. He is from Arizona.. So this will be my fourth comp from AZ, 1 from Idaho, 1 from minnesota, 1 from texas, and surprizingly only 1 from Utah... So that is kind of cool. I am way excited for that. President Archibald will drop off our new comp at 4 or so while we are playing basketball. I am wayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy stoked!

So Mom that is way sweet that you got a letter from the Hamiltons, you didn't tell me what family it was, but i am guessing it is them.... They are awesome. Definitely one of my favorites... It was an awesome experience to serve around them and getting to know them. You will have to save that letter. I plan on visiting them all once i am all done... They are way cool!

Lake Powell seemed like a success (for the first time ever ) That is so cool, I don't think I have ever gone down and not have something go wrong.. I could imagine Dad just sitting in in "fish n' chips" or whatever the name is! Wanting to stay out of the son... Then i could totally imagine Chance going over and fishing, then getting it all tangled.. Good times, Well good news is that I only have to miss one more trip to lake powell... I am still surprized nothing else bad happened.. Dustys boat didnt sink or run into another boat or anything. Stunning.

Our baptism is still on for Saturday so far. I am excited. I hope everything goes good with it. I am just counting down the hours until then. Sean has been really good to work with and is making a good effort to learn for himself everything he needs to know. I will take some good pictures and get them your way after the baptism!

So I am thinking that some people are starting to forget about me because I am getting less and less letters... I haven't gotten one in a few weeks... And So much for Dana being the best package sender ever.. that was all a lie. Mom is wayyyyy better. I don't know where she got the idea where she was the best...

Oh yeah, this week I chipped my tooth. so lame. So I have to got get that fixxed on thursday. All Dentistry comes from home money. So I apoligize! Stupid teeth.. I think I also might have a cavity. Good news is that the dentist I am going to is a member of the church so maybe he will give a discount price or maybe free or something. hey Missionaries work wonders up here...

I love you guys and miss you so much. Dont forget about your favorite brother!

Love Elder Dastrup

Email from August 8th, 2010

To the whole fam damily, as devin would say it..

How is it going? Sorry to worry you last week mother about not having an email on monday, but if you look back to the week before that I did say that I wasn't going to be emailing the following monday :)

So this week has been a good one! We have been working wicked hard! We had 20 lessons and stayed busy a majority of the time but still no baptisms. We do have a date set, for the 21st of August. But we haven't been able to get ahold of him for the last several days. I believe he went out of town but he should hae been back by now so I don't know why he isn't answering..... But yeah we are supposed to have a lesson with him on wednesday so we will have to see if he shows up. Me and my comp are getting along good. teach well together so that is always good. We are still wanting to get some more investigators and we are so close to getting some more potential investigators to actually being investigators but........... who knows when closer is.

So dad you finally gave in and got qauds? that is sweet! you arent allowed to take them up to alaska until after i get home. seriously! That is rad though. i am stoked. any more updates on the zip line or anything?? improvements?

The member we live with, Nate and Kina Martin, they are way sweet! but they had a brother get home from his mission this last week. He is a cool kid, He is going to play basketball down at the college in Lethbridge. we are going to ball with him in two weeks. I am excited, i want to see what it takes to play college ball up here.

Speaking of college sports, dad are you gettin football or basketball tickets this year? byu football might not be quite as good, but i still think they will be descent. but what do i know. The scriptures say nothing about football or basketball. so i dont really know..

I still cant believe you guys are going to lake powell with out me. if that doesnt make you forget about me, i dont know what will...... I think that might be the one thing that will make me trunky! but i can get over it.

So i dont have much to say today... i am short on words i guess. so have a wonderful week. i love you all so much and miss ya!

Love Elder Dastrup

Email from August 3rd, 2010

Yo wasssupp family??

How is it going? Another fantastic warm week here in Canada, Maybe one of the last! It is probably going to start cooling down here before to long! This week was definitely a good one! I am enjoying my new area, even though I miss my old area so much. The west side of lethbridge is awesome! but Airdrie is awesome to. I like it. The work here is good. We had an awesome experience at church this week. We had a random kid come out of no where because he felt like he should be at that church. He was atheist before he came, he loved it, recognized the spirit and trusted everything we said.. He told us he has never been a trusting guy, ever. But there was something different about us.... SOOOOOOOOOOOOO Awesome!! We set a date with him for the 21st of august, but he is 16 and he said his parents will be upset with him for even going, so we are going to be praying hard to soften their hearts! I got to teach him a lesson all by myself. It was a way good experience. He is an awesome kid so Everything will hopefully work out good. I Cant wait for august 21st, We are going to teach another investigator right after we leave here and we are going to try to set a date with her for the 21st as well. I haven't met her yet though so I don't know to many details about her.

So like I said, I am now serving in Airdrie, It is about as far north in the mission you can get. It is only about a 20-30 minute drive to down town Calgary though.. Hmmmm I wonder if it gets colder up here than where I was serving last winter.. Hopefully not!!! There is a mall in my area, it is called the Balzac mall! It is huge. So crazy. We walked around like half of it yesterday and it took wayy to long..

My new comps name is Elder Graham. He is from Springville Utah. He is a pretty good guy. We get along ok so we will have to see how it goes,. Hopefully we can get some baptisms in thiis area, There have been a ton rescently so it better not be all dried up now!

So Dad it sounds like you are getting soooooooooooooo excited about Alaska That is awesome! Can't wait to go up.. You guys are taking like a million trips this month. Kind of jealous. I thought you guys were going to cancel Lake Powell since I wasn't going to be there.... Now instead mom and dad are going twice! I thought that dad didnt even like powell??? So are you going to like times square for the convention in New York or what? What ever you do just don't try and walk 30 + blocks again dad. Especially when your feet are swollen up! I just remember how much pain you were in when we went to go to church the next morning.

So me and my comp were talking this morning about how much the mission changes you.. Like how when we were growing up before the missions, we would always dread going to church and it was sooo hard to go. Now it is like the best day of the week ( minus P day ) and my comp, elder lee, that has just been with us for a week because he goes home tonight, was saying that he cant wait to go home teaching... We must of changed alotttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttt.

Once again i live with some sweet members! The martins. They are a younger family but they are rad. We have our own kitchen and entrance, washer and drier, everything. but having three people stay there is tough, but like i said elder lee goes home tonight so it will become a lot easier.

I love you guys so much and miss ya a ton. I will talk to you guys next monday!

Love Elder Dastrup

Email from 07/27/10 - 9 month Mark

Hello Family how is it going?

This has been a wonderful week here in Lethbridge.... I love my area so much, to bad it was my last week here. I am now on my way to Calgary. I willl be just about as far north in Calgary as I can. A town called Airdrie, I cover part of a place called Ballsak!!!!!!!!!! pronounced Ball zack.... but i dont know who named that place!

I do love the area I am in, but I am always excited for changes. My new companions name is Elder Graham. I never have met the guy. But we will have to see how it is. I am staying District Leader and I enjoy the position so I am excited about that!

As for this week, it has been awesome, We have worked pretty dang hard and we have more positive things that have come from it!

1. We taught 20 lessons this week ( our weekly goal was met )

2. We gave 4 7 Day Challenges ( our goal is 2 a week )

3. We kept Daily Contact with our investigators with baptismal dates (met the goal)

4. We had two investigators come to church.

5. I got to play basketball with Corey Gleave and Kurt Maccleanen (Next door neighbor to Austin)

6. I walked probably like 20 + miles this week. Way to much. ( my goal is to never walk.)

7. Now i am being transferred and I am leaving 2 people with dates, and several more Solid investigators. good news is that my new area i am going has had like 10+ baptisms in the last two months. Hopefully there will still be someone there for me to baptize!

I have really enjoyed serving with elder Green. It has been a good experience for me and i have learned quite a bit from him. I am sad i cant live with the pitchers any more. They are the coolest people in the world but i am way excited because i hear the new family i live with is like everybodys favorite! But i dont know if they can match the pitchers, probably not!

I almost started packing a couple days ago because i felt like i was going to be transferred today, but i decided i would just wait, it will probably only take like a half hour anyways.

Mother Congrats on being released as the president. When ever i tell people about my fam, i always bring up how you are a RS pres and how you are the best one in the world. I bet you are glad to be moving on though. Having seen you doing something with it every single day for like 4 years, I know that you definitely worked hard. Good news is that i dont EVER have to be a RS president. I am positive everyone is so sad to see you not be the president anymore. But life goes on and now you get to swim whenever you want!

DBoney! you the man, the mini is finally done! 3 years? not to shabby. I plan on taking it for a test drive in 15 months so dont sell it. Send some pics of it! I bet you crapped your pants when you turned the key and it started..... I am excited for you though. So cool.

Mom i havent gotten mail yet but i should get it all tomorrow at transfers so i should get it then. hopefully the mold hasnt started. I love banana bread.. Did you guys recieve my package yet? there wasnt really anything good in it sorry. But i promise i will get one out soon with pictures and everything. I just need to start taking pictures, that is all. :) I will get it done!

So just an update on how much weight i am gaining! not much actually. I am doing descent. i could do better and i hope that my new comp likes to work out so it gets me goin again. As of this mornign i weight 178. So about 5 pounds since i have been out. Not to bad but not good either. lately members havent been giving dessert like every night so that is a good thing!

You guys are the best family in the whole world. I love everyone of you so much. Thank you for everything you do for me. I Love you...

Love Elder Dastrup

Email from July 5th, 2010

How be it?

Another week come and gone. This was a good one. We have lots of positive stuff goin on now! It was really a week of blessings. It was very nice to be apart of that and have very few things go wrong. The Lord always blesses as long as we are doing what we should, it might just take a little time sometimes...

This week we have picked up several new investigators. Set a SOLID baptismal date for august 20th, he is going to be out of town for 3 1/2 weeks until then, so that is why it is so far away. His name is dominique. I am so stoked. Only bad this is that the next transfer is july 28th so i might be gone. But regaurdless i am so excited. His dad is way against it. And I definitely had to push him to ask (tell) his dad he is going to be baptized. but he finally did it and he has no regrets. he is so excited. He has three younger brothers and sisters that want to be baptized as well. But we will see what happens with them.

We are still working with lori and shawn. We cant set a specific date right now , it is a very long process and i can almost garuntee that it wont happen while i am here so we just continue to teach and wait until the bishop oks everything.

We have been giving challenges around the ward that are 7 day challenges.. It is a very spiritual lesson that gets them really excited about missionary work (or scared) but the ultimate goal from it is to find somebody for us to teach in the following seven days. our goal as a mission is to do 2 a week and eventually do like 10 a week. the most i have ever gotten is 6 and it was the hardest week yet. But that is where almost all our contacts come from and all our refferrals. So it is definitely something that needs to be done. Just if we could get people to have appointments with us............I just need Dana to come up here and schedule appointments for me and keep me busy! \

The latest family we have done a 7 day challenge with is the Varty's. it is day six today and they will have somebody for us to teach tomorrow. They are pretty cool! they got me a tie from china! yeah dog..

So it sounds like you guys are all having a wonderful 4th of july week. Good news is that me and my comp got the hamiltons (another sweet family in the ward) to sing the star spangled banner on the first of july. they were so mad. but hey it made me happy.

Mother i would also like to take this oppertunnity to wish you a happy birthday this week! a couple days ago. I know for a fact by the time that i get home i wont be thinking you have aged a lot. you probably will look younger! you tend to do that mother.. but happy birthday and i love you. you are the best mom ever!!!!

And Kaatttttttie! Happy birthday to you as well on the 8th.. I think you said you were turning 30 this year?? milestone!!!!!!!!! good work! Love you Kate!

So today for pday me and elder green have convinced everybody to play baseball. and the weather is wonderful. so good! so we are going to have some fun. i will probably hit a couple home runs. i dont really know yet. but it will be fun regaurdless.

the familly i live with, their son came home from his mission this week so it has been way cool seein him. he is totally still a missionary which is cool. so now there three missionaries living there!

Everything up here is doing really good acrossed the border! Still havent seen a mountie so i am bugged with that... but time will come and eventually i will seee one!

well i am hungry and want to play baseball so i love you guys so much and miss ya. but not to much!

Stay Classy

love Elder Dastrup

ps.. mother can i send home my white long sleeve shirts so that you can have nancy austin hemn them and take them in on the sides? ya neva answered me! And i will look up that contact. it might not be in my area but we will get somebody on it! Love you

Email from June 28th, 2010

Today is my 8 month mark.... but who is counting?? just to let all of you guys know :) I have been having a wonderful time this week. it went by fast. I didnt know how i was going to like the whole monday pday thing, but this week has gone by way faster so obviously i am going to like it. We did a lot of work this week. We moved two families and taught 17 lessons. Still just working our hardest to find as many investigators and people to teach as possible. We have so many goals to reach every week it makes it hard, butttttttttttt we are doing our best and thank goodness for a father that pounded goal setting into my brain! it makes it a lot easier!

our investigators, Lori and Shawn Patterson. Wont be baptized this month.. they will be baptized, it will just take a little bit of time. They have some things to work through before they are baptized. but i still like teaching them hahah..

we have a ton of lessons set up this week. every night actually, except july first. That is CANADA DAY.. so like july 4th in the states. no one will invite us over so i dont know what we will be doing. maybe street contacting, when they are lighting fireworks??? they might not be to happy with that..

so yesterday at church was awesome, both bishops were asked by the stake president to give about a five minute talk about missionary work.. the spirit was so strong, both bishops cried and so did half the congregation... Both bishops also invited us up to the stand and had us recite one of our missionary scriptures... It is called my mission commission... Maybe that is what got people crying??? i dont know... :)but it was awesome. The longer i have been out the longer i am comfortable speaking in front of the whole group.. after the meeting. we had quite a few people come up and ask us when they could have us over. normally NO ONE asks us, we normally have to pin them down. so that was pretty cool!

The family we live with.... the Pitchers.... Havve a son coming home from a mission on tuesday night. So that will definitely be weird living there at the house with a return missionary. i will be pretty cool though i think.We will have somebody right there that will always be able to go on splits! He was serving in The Sydney australia South mission.. Everybody in the ward talks about him and really likes him so he seems like a pretty cool kid..

So we have another girl in our ward that has been coming to church for several years now and still isnt baptized. Her mom and dad are members but they wont let her get baptized... weird? but just barely her mom just gave her the ok to get baptized this summer so the bishop is going to meet with her asap then hopefully we can start teaching her! We will see what happeneds.

So me and my comp are getting along pretty good. He just tells me all the time about the people he hates and why.. funny, the people he hates in arizona are the people i hang out with.. so im guessing me might not like me either... i dont know! no but we do get along pretty good. He thinks about home quite often and how long he has... It just makes me happy that i am not homesick at all and that it doesnt effect me like it does some people..

This has been a wonderful week and i love you guys and miss ya! but we are going to get heading out to go do our pday stuff! which for me and elder green, we got invited to go golfing on a nice course so i need to go to the thrift store to get a 2 dollar collard shirt!

love you guys

love elder dastrup

Email from June 21, 2010

How be it family??

First of all i want to say happy fathers day yesterday! I gave a little note to elder owens you write you dad but i dont know if he did. i hope so. it was a good one! i hope you had the best fathers day ever, even though i couldnt be there to spend it with you!

I am doing great this week.. It has been a different week that is for sure and the week of transfers is always really slow! But it has been fun and lots of new stuff going on!

I have a new companion, as you guys know, elder green... we are getting along descently. He is a pretty cool kid he just doesnt like some of the rules.. Dont worry i have taken care of them for the most part. He recognizes that i am not going to let him get away with little things haha. dont worry dad i am doing it in a loving way! and by example...

We have several solid investigators now! they willl be baptized in july sometime.... hopefully... they came to church yesterday.

It has been exciting being a district leader for this week so far. I have already done two baptismal interviews which are way fun.. and also i just finished my first lesson for our district development meeting tomorrow.. I have to teach about a 90 minute lesson so it was kind of hetic but... i got done! hopefully it takes all 90 minutes haha. who knows it is my first one.

i am so ticked the lakers won.. i hate the lakers. our members we live with were telling us about it and we may have seen the last minute or so :)..... it was a joke. i hear the celtics were winning the whole game and choked.. ahhh but i do hear that lebron is going to be a bull possibly... i think he would look better in a jazz uniform but that is just my opinion..as long as he doesnt go to the spurs or the lakers then i am ok..

I have had so much fun doing baptismal interviews this week. it is awesome to sit in the person wanting to be baptized and hear their conversion story and what has been the greatest thing that has happened to hthem as they have decided to be baptized. it is fun finally being involved with a baptism even though it isnt mine.

We are still getting more and more trust from the members and we will be doing a lot more seven day challenges with the members to help them find somebody for us to teach..

we have had to give up several more refferals this week because they dont live in our area, i cant wait until somebody gives us a refferal! that will be the day!! I dont know if i ever told you but last week at church. like 8 days ago, you guys missed a good talk. dang it was good, i got up and spoke even longer than i was supposed to and i didnt even have time to email mom before i got asked to speak so you know i actually wrote it.. pretty impressive huh?

Well today we are going to go eat crepes for lunch then play some basketball! I love you guys so much and miss you tons!

love elder dastrup

ps, sorry my emails are weak.. the only other thing i can think of is...... GET MY SCOOTER ON KSL!!! :)

Email from June 15th, 2010

Hey family!!!

So another week come and gone. It always seems like the last week of the transfer takes the longest. Everyday was a drag. It was killing me..

The good news is that Transfers have come and i am now almost out 8 months! this transfer i will be hitting the 8 and 9 month mark. so stoked!!! More news, elder moore is getting transferred to Calgary and i am staying right where i am at... At least for one more. My new companions name is elder Green... And I am now the district Leader... hmm we will see how that goes.. haha i would rather just skip right to zone leader. district leader has to do a bunch of tedius things... oh well i am excited for the new challenge and new things i am going to have to take care of. We will just have to see how it goes!!! I havent heard anything about my new comp but hey if he hasnt been obedient, he will be now :)

This week has been a very productive week. We had 16 lessons and a whole lot of service. I was writing in my journal this week and realzied how much i really do enjoy service now.. its weird coming from me i know. haha but still, i have definitely changed a lot in the last 7 months and i plan on only getting more devoted to the work. The great things missions do to ya!

We have two new investigators this week! We taught them on sundays. they already have their own quads, gospel principles manual and preach my gospel..... talk about a golden investigator. we set the date for july 16th or 17th. but we need to work very closely with the bishop with everything...

We also have had several other good lessons this week and have new investigators from that. but they dont live in our area so we will have to have other elders teaching them that cover the area they live in. oh well the lord is blessing us in so many different ways it is unreal!

Mother i have not recieved a package yet but i will be getting mail tomorrow when the transfers happen so i will hopefully get it then! hopefully i have a ton of mail! probably wont happen.

Rumor on the street is that my scooter still isnt up.. hmm funny how that works...

the family i live with has a son coming home from his mission in like two weeks from australia.. so that will be pretty cool getting to meet him..

Boston celtics are going to win tonight!!!!!! they better. i hear that rondo is the man and ray allen is doing nothing. my goodness. lots has changed since i have been gone..

worst news of the day, i hear that harvey unga isnt playing this year. he screwed up! what the heck i heard that and i almost started crying. any word on where he is going to play? that upsets me. i love unga. why do people have to be stupid!!!!!

Well i am starving so i guess we are going to go eat. i love you guys so much and miss ya a ton..Stay classy and get that scooter on the net!!!!!!!

love elder dastrup

Hows it hangin??

This week in the mission field has been a good one. We got lots done and still more to improve on. There is always something or another to work on! So it sounds like it is still pretty cold down there??? That confuses me.. It is warm up here and i guess that is all i need to worry about right now.. haha my jacket is finally off and willl stay off (besides sundays) until october! and by then, woah the year mark will be right around the corner.. Who am I kidding.. I still have a very long time! haha.

We taught lots of lessons and asked lots of people for referrals. nothin to new! but what was different about this week was :. We did splits one day.. that was ballin.. mos definitely showed up our district leader.. I got a pretty good day planned and he was just like, wow this is the most effective english missionary day i have ever seen ( he is a spanish elder) but then again he is kind of loopy. IIt was an ok day. not the best ever but hey whatever..

Stake conference was this week so that was fun.. We had a broadcast coming from vancouver.. President Uchtdorf was there along with elder Ballard and Elder Pace (of the 70) So that was cool. Elder pace's talk was the best, oddly enough.. All three talked about gaining, or regaining your testimony. then to share it with others. so basically missionary work. It was a good stake conference. I thought i was getting the day off for stake conference.. It was news to me that we had to go!

Everything else is pretty good around here. I dont know really what to type this week haaha.. just all is well in zion..

oh yeah i got a new hobby!! carving golf balls.. it is pretty fun.. We take a hack saw and cut through the first layer of golf ball, and pry half of it off. then we carve the rubber on the inside of the golf ball. i have picked up this habbit just in the last week or so and it is pretty fun. i am carving Hulk Hogan right now.. it is a blast!!

that is all about that is new with me..

I love you all so much and miss you dearly. sorry i am a short writer this week!

love elder dastrup

ps dev you sell my scooter or what?

Email from 05/26/2010

Yo fam what up!!

This week seemed like it went by much faster then the last few. It was a fast week. That makes it nice. This week was a very good week. That must be why it went by so dang fast! Lets see what happened this week...

We Taught about 20 lessons..

Last pday we played basketball for like three hours, i got elbowed in the chin, chest and groin, all by the same "thick" Elder..

We had lots of lessons with less actives and that seems to be our focus right now.

We found out about another part member family in our area that we are going to work really hard on.

We had an amazing sacrament meeting, ALL on missionary work.. Elder moore had to speak. somehow i got out of it.

We had Zone Conference, and interviews, President Archibald is amazing. He could tell i was kind of struggling and he flipped it all around

I got my comp running almost*** everyday..

I got him to go to the "cooley" HUGE revine in lethbridge. We ran stairs in it. By far the hardest work out since i have been here.

My calves still hurt from it.

Today I want to play basketball though so i am just going to stretch them a ton.

My hair looks like a mop. It is sooooo long. i cant find anyone to cut it. i might buzz it today. but i want just a regular cut. so we will see..

i smell like bacon today, we had breakfast at a members house because they couldnt feed us tonight and he fried the bacon.

I have gained a little wait. lethbridge is killing me, everysingle night they force dessert down our moouths.. about 7 pounds now. but i am working out hard again so hopefully that helps.. I weigh a grand total of 177 ughhhhh

We did a TON of service this week, so that was fun.

So all in all in was a really busy week. But I enjoyed that. It sounds like you guys are having fun in the snow down there! ha! It has been pretty warm up here. no snow, but it might on saturday, we will have to see.

I cant believe mack conquerred the undies... that is tight! The "Sky fort" sounds sweet. It better be sterdy enough to last 17 more months. because i need to see it! the zip line still goin at it??

Big cole got had his recital huh? that is sweet. Did he play Joy to the world or what? I know how to play a simple version on count your many blessings. i am pretty stoked about that.

It is tons of peoples birthdays this week!!! i want to write happy birthday before i forget... drewski, dev Today!!!dang you are like what, 28? sphh and coleMAN! Im sorry if i forgot anyone hahaha. forgive me, my excuse that i am focused on the work.

But happy birthday!

So it sounds like this is a pretty exciting week for dad, you made it out to the lake exactly ONE time and the boat hasnt broken down! new record. i am pretty excited for ya! the boat have a name?? drift wood, noahs ark, what is it?

Dad you getting used to the i pad? they should give missionaries those things and we could do an amazing lesson... i think that would be fantastic..

Mother transfers arent next week the nexxt transfer day is june 16th, so i will be emailing the 15th... haha come on.

The last thing i am going to say is, devin since its your birthday today, can you get my scooter on ksl tomorrow?

I love you guys so much and miss you a ton..

Love Elder Dastrup

Email from April 28th 2010

So I don't know if any of you have noticed, but today was my six month mark! I am a fourth of the way day.. Wow I have along ways to go :) haha Since it was my mark today, last night I burned some ties to celebrate! It was very fun realizing that I don't ever have to go through that celebration again... And today we have celebrated it wonderfully, we went to the temple as a zone.. To bad it wasn't just for my six month mark or else I would feel pretty special.

This week has been a pretty good week. I guess good and bad. We lost an investigator. a 13 year old girl, It was more her mother that said she couldn't listen to us anymore. I guess she didn't want us to baptize her eh?? (I make fun of all the members I am close with all the time up here on how they speak) But we do plan on picking up a few more pretty soon so that will be cool..

We had a pretty cool teaching experience the other day.. It all started from a referal from a member. So we went over to this guys house to teach him. It was the craziest lesson I have ever had. He was a former addict with drugs alcohol, everything, you name it. He basically told his life story and what liqour stores he has robbed at gun point. It was insane. He was talking faster than anyone I have ever heard and he would get distracted way to easy.. It was very fun, let me tell ya... But since he talks fast, I started talking faster and faster and before I knew it I committed him to read the book of mormon, come to church, recognize how the church is going to help him, and to be baptized all in like 30 seconds. He kind of just sat there and said "woah bro, your kind of scaring me." I wanted to say back, dont you think you are scaring me, that is why I tried committing you as fast as possible so we could get out of here. haha it was a very fun experience. I actually wasn't scared at all. In the end he did want to work towards baptism and have the gospel in his life. We are going to have to hand the new investigator over to some other missionaries but that is fine with me. As long as he is being taught the gospel.

Mother I got your package with the shirts and slacks in it. Did you send another besides that? I couldn't tell from your email.. But thank you so much for the stuff. It is perfect. the shirts fit so good and the slacks do as well. I just have way to many white shirts now...I have like 15 or something. So don't worry about sending anymore of them :) I am set for my mission and for the next five years after my mission. The slacks are perfect colors. I like them a lot. I am so excited to not have to wear a suit coat for a while. It is definitely going to be nice.

Dad! It's your birthday this week, how do you feel? Like a million bucks? Are you going to throw a bigger and better party than the new years eve party? You could go even all more out! Do a Disco dance party or a canadian themed party.. That would be a riot.. You could just fill the basement with fake snow and fake polar bears and you would feel just like you were in Canada!.. So your turning the big 63 right? I have a feeling this will be a good year... It already has been.. I mean you did buy playoff tickets for the jazz! ( of course the one year i am gone) I think that when you get home, you should plan on getting season tickets, we could go to all the games and it would be sweet.. Dont worry if you dont think you would be up for ALL the games then dont you worry because I am still more than happy to go to the game. That could be your birthday present to yourself next year! I think that would be a pretty good gift! :) I am planning on sending you a gift in the package i send. I just dont know when I am sending it... Probably farely quick..

Speaking of the Jazz they better win it all this year and not choke like every year. There is a kid in our ward (Same one that gets the sweet jerseys for me) that gives us like instant updates on basketball games... It is sweet. I basically only have one more basketball season to miss... I think for the first few nights of being home i just want to watch basketball games...

It sure does seem like you guys are all going on a ton of vacations as soon as I leave home! What is that all about.... Too bad none of them are quite the same without me.............................

Well we have about 2 hours of pday left so i am going to go ahead and get going to get some groceries and some other stuff. i love you guys so much and sure do miss ya.

Love Elder Dastrup