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

Email from April 21st, 2010

Yo hows it hangin.. I am doing fantastic up here in canada. The weather is awesome. It is so hit or miss. last wednesday we got a foot or two of snow. and now it is about 75-80 degrees. like are you kidding me? its real nice. Mother you got to get those short sleeve shirts up here asap oh and before i forget, i wouldnt mind a few boxs of fruity pebbles... you can not get them up here and i have been craving them so bad.. I cant really take my suit coat off until may though so i am basically still sweating everytime we go outside. its fun.

As for missionary work this week has been amazing. For the first time on my mission I got 20+ lessons.. actually 23 to be exact.. it made me so freakin happy you have no idea.. We worked so hard and we actually picked up 2 new investigators as well... Both teenage girls 13 and 16 both named kristan.. We kind of scared of the older one by giving a baptismal invitation.. oh well that is what we are supposed to do :) The 13 year old actually came to church as well. it was awesome. We continue to feel like our area is going to pick up... haha we just dont know when..But soon! i hope. we are working as hard as we can that is for sure. i am so tired everysingle night. i fall asleep really fast. So that is definitely good. just if elder moore would quite snoring than i would be fine with sleeping through the whole night. i finally have ear plugs so those are helping somewhat. i am going to start keeping a football next to my bed and throwing it at him from acrossed the room when he snores. That will teach him...

So mom you wanted to know a little bit about our members. They are like the nicest people alive.. we have the whole basement to ourselves.. which isnt very big but we do have it to ourselves. It has a big brand new bathroom that is way nice. then we just have a little study area with desks. and our bedroom. we share a kitchen with them and they are really good to let us use whatever. they basically do all the dishes. we just have to put them in the machine. we get one shelf in the closet and one shelf in the fridge. i honestly keep like nothing in there. elder moore hogs like the whole thing. all i have in the fridge is milk and in the pantry is cold cereal. that is basically all i need i guess. i do have bagel bites in the freezer though :) they let us use their washer and dryer and give us detergent and stuff so that is way better than it was in brooks. Lethbridge is way better than that place. i was just being positive hahah

Dad I cant believe you are getting an Ipad! that is awesome. We saw a guy using one in church last sunday.. he didnt have to use the hymn book or anything. so hi tech. before you know it, it will just sing for you :) wouldnt that be great. it is pretty cool to see you start to get technilogical (however you spell that word) though. i never would have thought it in a million years.. everytime i think about you and technology i just think about when you get text messages and how it makes you mad!

So today for pday we are going to go look for a new suit for elder moore. he has like two huge rips in his pants and i have no idea why. so then we are going to get some groceries and play soccer or something since it is way nice outside.. We have continued to run in the mornings on monday wednesday friday.. it is pretty fun :)

Well i am sick of typing so i love you guys so much and i will talk to you later :)

Love, Elder Dastrup

Email from April 7th, 2010

What up fam.

I am doing good here in lethbridge. I will start out my email with praising mom, i dont know how you do it. i dont understand how you have been able to stand dad snoring for years. The last few days have been a joke. last night i layed in bed for 2 + hours trying to find a way to cover my ears. not possible. i finally just went and slept on the floor next to my study space in the other room. i am making him buy the things to go on his nose today and i am buying some ear plugs.it is rediculous.. but everything else is good. we had zone conference yesterday and it was really good. the messages we got were all really good i learned a ton. It was all about teaching skills. (even though mine are already emaculate :) ) if that is even how you spell it. We still dont have any investigators in our area but we will.. soon.. i hope we are working as hard as we can and we got 15 lessons last week and have already taught 9 this week after tonight. So once members will give us some trust and refferals then we will be good to go.... the mission president told me yesterday that he put me here to jump start it cause he knnows i can get it going. i was pretty excited to here that and see that he recognizes my hard work. Maybe i will get made a District leader or zone leader before to long. i dont know! So now i better make something happen or else i might look bad hahaha. but yeah i am excited no matter where i am at.

so i have a package i am going to send home soon. it involves some shirts i dont even use but that i want to keep, same with basketball shorts. ( i brought to many) and a canada hockey jersey. it is sooooooooo sweet. it is like a 230$ jersey (dont ask me who would pay that much for a jersey) but i got it for 40 $ cause this kid in my ward can get all jerseys soooo cheap. so i am taking advantage of it. dont worry i am only getting two more as of right now but both basketball. those are all only 30 $ and they are even nicer then the ones i have.... i am just getting old school stuff now cause it is pretty sweet :) but i dont know if i can come up with any pictures i havent really taken any since last time i sent pictures but there might be a few if your lucky. i will probbaly get that sent off in the next couple weeks. i still havent gotten the package from you mom, and i dont know if i will be getting mail until aabout the first week of may (next transfer) but that is ok. i will just have a tonnnnnnnnnnnnn... hopefully.. hopefully lots of girls will write me or something. Well i think i have typed enough to get carple tunnel. i hate typing. so i love you guys and miss you so much!

love elder dastrup