Email from October 24, 2011

Well....

Another week come and gone. And dang it was a good one. I am loving it right now.. So our zone set a goal for 12 baptisms for the month of October. This is a goal, that President said he expected from us and we thought about that number, and were determined to get it...

As of October 9th, which we figured most of the dates would need to be set by then, we had 1 baptism, and 4 set. We were looking at having just five for the month... Dang.. But not so fast. We started seeing a few miracles that week, but nothing to big. But this last week we had several more baptisms, 4 total for the month so far. And as a zone, the Lord has truly blessed us. We have 8 baptisms now on date for the 29th and 30th. Our zone is very very blessed. We will be having two this weekend. And other areas will be having two as well..

Therese's baptism, on Saturday, was great. Yes it took several tries to get her completely under water :) But she is a champ and just kept going until she got it.. It was a fun day. We have a baptismal date with Tamika this Saturday and she is awesome. She knows exactly what the Lord wants her to do.. Her family does not want her to do it at all. They actually told her no. We will be meeting with her on Tuesday. Keep that in your prayers!

Then on Friday, We met with a new investigator named Munsamy.... We felt like the Lord had prepared him to be baptized in the month of October. So we invited him to be baptized on October 30th. He accepted, so we taught the Word of wisdom, because he had a coffee in his hands... He poured it out immediately and said, whatever the Lord wants me to do, I will do.... We were stoked out of our minds... But come Sunday, for some reason he didn't come and his phone is shut off. So we have to delay the baptism. That was number 12 and we were kind of down about that but we knew that it would be provided with faith. So last night, The assistants call us and connect us with some Sisters.... They have been teaching someone that lives in our area and has a baptismal date for the 30th.. BACK TO TWELVE.. I know for a fact that we are being watched over.. What a blessing..

I have been able to call some of my converts and people I got close with this last couple days. I got to talk to Edith (the 86 year old convert from Willow Park ward) if you remember her. I made both of our days. She is doing so good. It was fun to get to talk to her.. She is figuring out a day to go through the temple. Either the first or second of February, and I was given two Flames (hockey) tickets for the 3rd. So It looks like we are coming back up that week! Mom you will get to experience some real cold weather. Good stuff...

So I am truly loving it up here.. I can't believe I come home in a week and a half.. To soon....

I am supposed to give you my Flight info...

I fly from Calgary to PHX on US Airways flight #248 I arrive there at 856

Then I fly to SLC on US Airways flight #457 And I arrive there at 1238...

Oh good stuff... Now just remember that is on THURSDAY NOV. 3RD.. Don't screw that one up..... :)

Welll I love you all. Have a wonderful week. And I will see you next week!

--

Elder T. Dastrup

Email from October 17, 2011

Familyyyyyyy.....

Well isn't this weird...Time just keeps getting less and less and less... I don't know what I think about that. As much as I can't wait to see you all, It is getting harder and harder for me to realize that I won't ever be doing what I am doing again out here.... Kind of hard to swallow.

But as for this week, our zone saw miracle after miracle after miracle. As a zone we set a goal of 12 baptisms for the month of October, which is pretty high. Even a week ago, we were projecting just 5.. This week we have set several more dates for the month, and if all goes through we are looking at 10 now. Just two more very possible miracles. And it WILL happen.It is so fun to be apart of.

We have two dates set as of right now. 1 is for this Saturday, with Therese. She will be baptized at 11. She has chosen everything for her program and seems to be good to go. Pray for her, and for us to be able to do the things necessary to help her!

The other date set is for the following Saturday, the 29th.. With Tamika. She is doing really well as well and has a very strong testimony of the Gospel. It is so fun to be apart of. It will be a good way to lead out of my mission... Being the last two weekends. I have been so blessed out here, it is amazing. I see some of the trials that the family is going through, and I still know that the Lord is watching over all of us. NOTHING will hinder his great work..

Then the last person we are working quite a bit with is Daniel, He is sweet. We have been meeting with him more and more, and truly is looking. It is neat to see the spirit work with him. I think he is enjoying it, I guess he wouldn't keep coming back if he weren't...

It is all good on the East side of Calgary..

So mom, you didn't really answer the question I had about what I should bring home, So I guess should I just decide on my own. There is a lot of stuff that is definitely worn to shreads that I won't be bringing...

I can't believe Brett gets home this week... So weird. Then I get home two weeks after that, then Nick leaves quickly after that. There is a lot going on in a short amount of time....

Well I guess, once again I have run out of things to say, I love all of you..

Shawn be strong my brotha, you will be in my Prayers!

--

Elder T. Dastrup

Email from October 11, 2011

Hey everybody, sorry this email was so late.

Yesterday was Canadian thanksgiving so everything was closed. And today we are running around like chickens with our heads cut off. We are so busy and barely even found time to come email. Luckily we found some.

Our week has been great. We set two baptismal dates! One for the 22nd. Her name is Therese. She is solid. She accepts everything and understands the gospel of Jesus Christ so well.

The other, we just came from the lesson actually, is Tamika. She is awesome as well. She has lots of trials, but is facing them straight on, we have helped her recognize how important it is to be baptized now rather than wait, she has started to recognize that. It is fun to watch.

Well, i really have no time at all.

but I do have a couple questions..

Mom, can you get a dentist appointment set up for me the week after I get home.?

What time is our ward, so I can tell some friends that want to come?

And as well, it is about time for me to pack, mom do you have a preference of what I bring home, or leave here? I just want to weed out the things I don't want, but I don't know what you want?

Well I have to send a bunch of pictures to the assistants, for our farewell Fireside. So I love you all and miss you. I will write you more next week!

--

Elder T. Dastrup

Email from October 3, 2011

Well it is a wonderful day here in Canada...

Only because I am 21. Other than that it is a pretty regular p-day..

My whole mission I have thought, when I have my 21st birthday, I am basically done with my mission... Ummm I don't quite feel like that anymore. I still feel like I have a while left. I think I will feel like that until I am actually home though, so no worries. I am just going to love what I am doing now. No worries in the world! (Except trying to get our investigators to church....)

Life is good in Canada though. We had a wonderful week will finding new investigators, which was our goal of the week, and having some really good lessons! Nobody accepted the invitation to be baptized. But almost everybody we are teaching is right there and ready. Just a few more spiritual experiences and chances to read the Book of Mormon and all is well.

Elder Stephan wanted to go knock on a door this week and so we were walking there, and we street contacted a lady from Burma, By China I think, and she invited us back to teach her family that night. They have three children and two of baptizing age. There is definitely a language barrier, but we will break it and the family will be baptized!

We also taught some amazing individuals. Daniel being one of them. He is the man. He came to conference this weekend and enjoyed what was said. I really like teaching him. He takes in everything we say, and really wants to know if it is true.. He continues wanting to meet with us to learn more. We are inviting him to be baptized on the 22nd and know he can be ready for that day. He would be a really good solid member. I enjoy teaching him...

This week we started teaching a lady named Theresa. She is from central Africa. Speaks Swahili? But we have taught her twice so far and she came to conference as well. We are making a lot of progress with all these individuals..

Oh yeah, and Tamika. She is sweet. She basically already has a testimony and is just trying to help her mom meet with us. She is sweet as well!

We have such amazing investigators everywhere. All of them are so close. Just need to get over the hump... Then it is all down hill from there unto their eternal happiness!

Wasn't conference amazing? I went with three solid questions... And all three questions, were said back to me word for word by several different apostles, then answered by them. It was so sweet. I love seeking and receiving revelation.. It has got to be the coolest things about being a missionary... Receiving revelation.

I love it... Being a missionary is great. No better work.

Mom and Dad I got your package.. Thank you so much. I love you both. The popcorn is amazing. I got one of my companions hooked on it.. Now hopefully I just don't lose the gift card. That would be bad news...

So Holly, you mentioned me coming down to St. George pretty soon after I get home. I wouldn't mind that at all. I want to see the boys play some ball, whether it is basketball or football. And I can visit some friends from the mission! But Real quick so I can write drew back, what is your address again, I think I have it, but just incase.....

Mom, I know it is still over a month away, but can you see what my topic for my homecoming will be.. I like having a bit of notice so I can think about it, and come up with some good experiences.... Thanks!

Well we are going to do lots of running around today for my birthday then go to dennies, cause they give free meals on birthday... So I am going to take advantage of that.. Well

I am going to get, I love all of you. Miss you. Have a wonderful week, and more importantly day, just cause since I can't celebrate it, you all can!
--

Elder T. Dastrup

Email from September 26, 2011

Yo what up!

First of all, Happy birthday Holly! I hope you had a wonderful week.. You deserve it. Then this next week better be good, cause I better deserve it, my last birthday on the mission!

So it sounds like everyone had a pretty good week. Mom, you got to find out which General Authorities are coming to our stake conference. That is so cool you are in charge of the food. Don't give them food poisoning! :) No pressure though... hahah

This week for me was very bitter-sweet. Very bitter at moments and very Sweet at moments... Got to love the mission eh?

Start with the bad. They four baptismal dates we had for this upcoming weekend (October 1st) all dropped. Shawn and Nicole had a bunch of things fall right at the wrong time. They are going through a tough time. We are praying for them and hoping that all will end well. I have loved going over and teaching them. Shawn has been amazing at recognizing the spirit. We have a good connection with them. It is really neat to have and see the gospel work in their lives.

Dusty, had a trial come up. Tithing. The circumstances that came up are very difficult. He only gets money from the govt. That is it. The program he is on, he actually isn't even allowed to pay tithing. We didn't know about that until after the lesson. So we are going to try and get him going again for this Saturday. We will see what happens. Keep them all in your prayers.

So this week I may have made the newspaper, and for sure I made the article on the Internet. Find where they do the "Calgary Sun" News on the Internet and you might find me..

We helped out a ton with a Food Drive on Saturday and the newspaper was taking pictures and I am in one of them.. You will have to go find me on the Internet! hahah except it says nothing about my name, just the other missionary, but I am definitely in the picture!

Me and my new companions are doing great. Elder Hawkins and Elder Stephon. Elder Hawkins is from Ogden and I think I have played against him in basketball in a summer league (of course we beat them though) hahah and Elder Stephon is the brand new missionary from Alpine. So he went to Lone Peak. He knew Travis VanLeuwan ( I don't know how to spell that at all) pretty well. So it is always fun trying to figure out who we both know. We know quite a few of the same people, just mostly people from Alpine though.. Us two get along really good.But I am just going to make a really strong effort to include both and never get annoyed! haha Because that would not be a good way to finish.. It is interesting having a companion that is brand new just as I am about to finish up. It really helps me not talk about home because it would make him a lot more home sick. I don't want that to happen. So I just won't think about going home!
That will be easier.

Oh yeah, I forgot what I was going to say about the SWEET part about this week. Fil's baptism!!!!!!! It was so good. It happened last night. Their wedding was on Saturday and that was great as well. Elder Newman, Elder Langi (My last two comps.) and me sang at it... I know that you are all laughing right now, but it actually went pretty good. It was definitely really good. I was so stoked the whole night.. Last night, I was able to just sit and think about how much I love it out here. So many cool things happen. The spirit just overwhelms at baptisms. You HAVE to love it!

Elder Newman's parents are coming up today, so him, his parents, Elder Langi and I are going to go teach one more lesson together at Fil's house tonight. It is going to be awesome. Definitely going to love it.

Well I am out of things to say, but I love you all. and Miss you.
--

Elder T. Dastrup

Email from September 20, 2011

Wow, another week come and gone... Crazy.

So it is transfers this week, and something definitely interesting happened. So last Thursday I got a call from the assistants to the president finding out that I was going to be training. I was excited, yet confused. They don't ever have zone leaders training so I thought that I was going to be transferred for my last one. I came into email this morning and found out that I am staying here for my last transfer and me and another zone leader (Elder Hawkins) will be training a new missionary together. Definitely was not expected. But the lord does was he wants and we do what he tells us. So I will finish my missionary work on a 3-leg. Always interesting eh? good stuff...

So for this transfer being a very difficult one, it sure finished on a great note. We had a sweet week. We set 4 more baptismal dates for October 1st. So now, we have one this next Sunday with Fil.. He is the man. It has been so fun teaching him and his soon to be wife (Saturday is the wedding) It has been really fun. I have enjoyed it.

Then Shawn and Nicole and Liona have a date for the 1st of October. It has been so awesome going over and teaching them. i have loved it. They are really coming around and love having us over. They recognize the gospel and how good they feel when we are over.... It is good stuff..

Then Dusty is the other one on the first. He came to church this week and really recognizes the importance of the gospel.

Gotta love the missionary work. It is so sweet. Weird that I am finishing up soon. But I still have a few weeks before I need to worry about that..

But according to Shawn's email I am already the RM... haha not quite though. My comp right now is Elder Newman.. His parents are coming up this week so obviously it has been hard for him to focus. I just hope I don't dwell on it to much this transfer... I am going to try and keep it a secret from my new missionary how long I have been out. I don't know how long I will be able to hide it. But I am going to try....

Oh by the way, Rachel I got your package.. THANK YOU. as of right now I am not receiving much mail haha. But it was good to get that. So none of you forget. My birthday is in a couple of weeks. Keep that in mind eh? That would be much enjoyed by me! hahah

So for my last transfer I have made it a goal to take the Christ like attributes from preach my gospel... There is enough for about one each week.. and study that one in depth. This week I chose FAITH.. I have been doing it for two days and I have learned so much. I love it. I am going to try and apply each attribute a lot stronger that week..

So I don't want to bring this up... But BYU got killed. what the heck.. That was the saddest thing I have ever heard of.. I can say one thing, I am just glad I didn't have to watch it.

Well I love you all. I will talk to you next week...

Again my b-day is in 2 weeks :)
--

Elder T. Dastrup

Email from September 12, 2011

Yo Family

Another Week come and gone. Too bad in this one the Cougs had a loss. Both my companion and I are big BYU fans, so people let us know. It sounds like they had a pretty frustrating loss. Lame... But my companions time is winding down fast. He has just a little over a week left. I am lucky to not have had any companions be in there last transfer while I was serving with them. This is my first... And I am glad it is my last. It makes me think about going home way to much, And I really don't want that. I am doing my best though. I will be glad to move on to next transfer. We will just leave it at that.

It is good to hear that Bishops son is doing so well. Prayers bring miracles. We see that as missionaries time after time after time... It is one of the greatest parts about being a missionary. Seeing people get answers to their prayers. If not them, it sure builds my testimony. Because without fail, every single prayer is answered..

For example ( I actually just thought of this). This week, I started out the week (Sept. 5th) asking That we would be able to see some body have a baptismal date by the end of the week.. We worked hard all week, but I kind of forgot what I had asked for... Sunday night came and we hadn't set a date with anybody. Still hadn't thought of the prayer I started the week out with. At 10:25 I was laying in bed and we got a call from the Assistants to the president... They had somebody on the phone ready to talk to us.. The sisters in another part of the city had asked us if we had been praying... I immediately thought of the prayer I said at the beginning of the week... They had taught somebody that day, and he accepted a baptismal date for October 1st.... And he lives in our area. The Lord Definitely answers prayers. I definitely should have thought about it more thoroughly through out the week, but the Lord knew that we did our best this week and he rewarded us!

So we now have baptisms two weeks in a row. The 25th, With Fil.. and the 1st with a man named Dusty. But we haven't met him yet.

Fil is so awesome. Him and his wife are so neat. We have a really good time going over and teaching them. The other day we actually had Vietnamese sub sandwiches at their house. Who would have known those were any good? Well they are. We even went the next day for lunch. Good stuff. We should be doing Family home evening with them tonight. That will be fun.

It sounds like the Atwoods will be at the house tomorrow. That is exciting. I love the Atwoods. They are one of my favorite families since I have been out. Their son Brady will be a baller missionary. He came out with us to lessons every once in a while and he did a great job. He always gives himself a hard time, but he will do really good.. Brother Atwood was our Branch mission leader. And he backed us up big time. He was a really good help in that branch. There was lots of leadership that wasn't behind the mission programs that we have, but Bro. Atwood stuck with us. Sister Atwood had to put up with us coming over all the time to have Lunch and Dinner haha. Whoops! But they are all great. I am excited for you to meet them.

As far as what ward I will go to when I get home. Well I may go to our home ward for the first two weeks (Fast sunday and My homecoming talk) but then I will probably go to the YSA ward (Young single adult) But that is still plenty of time until I get there. I still have a full transfer ahead of me so no worries.

The last couple weeks have been a bit rough, but I really believe this area is about to take off again. There is too much potential for it not to take off.. I am excited to see what will happen!

So last night we had a new member fireside and it was on testimony... There was a portion on actually giving testimonies.. And I realized how important Testimony really is. That short declaration of what you know to be true leads us to do everything we do in the church. Of course there was some that included LONG stories that didn't apply. But a testimony can be 20 seconds and one of the strongest...

I finished the Book of Mormon the other day, and it was fun to be able to take moroni's promise once again. Every single time, prayers are answered. It is fun to be able to do so. If you are not, I suggest you read the Book of mormon every single day. It makes a difference in our every day lives. I love it.

Well I have once again run out of things to talk about, but I love all of you. And miss you. I will continue to keep you in my prayers and hope that you all pray for me!
--

Elder T. Dastrup

Email from September 6, 2011

Wow, what a week. I can't believe it has already been a week since I was in here. Crazy to me.. Weeks just keep going faster and faster...

But I am loving it up here. The weather has stayed warm, (surprisingly) and we have had a much better week than the last few.. Our numbers still look like we are in a rut, but fortunately that is not all that matters. We have seen many miracles happen this week...

An awesome investigator, named Fil, decided to get baptized on the 25th. I am so excited for him. We have had some really intense lessons where the spirit has been so strong. He is a really good man, and hopefully in a year from now I will be back up to see them get sealed in the temple!

We also were able to pick up several more investigators. An unwed couple and there daughter. We had a couple good lessons, and if we are resistant with them, it looks as if they will get baptized on the 24th. We still have a long ways to go to help them, but their hearts have already been softened a huge amount. I love being a missionary and seeing the spirit work on people. There is nothing better.

Elder Langi, Newman and I are doing good. Elder Newman is going home in two weeks, so it makes it really hard for me not to think of home, but I am trying my best to finish strong. I can't believe that this is going to be my last transfer... It is probably getting pretty hard for Elder Langi, He still has a year left. But he is a trooper and will hang in there well..

We are all going through what is called 'The Purification Process' which is helping us all be a lot more spiritual. We stop each other from doing anything that isn't alligned with the spirit. It is a 40 day thing and I am on day 19.. We push ourselves. And there are many times that I get so annoyed with it all but realize that it is just to help me. Nothing like getting pushed out of our comfort zone. Us as missionaries are good at doing that to others, so we though we would change it up by us being the uncomfortable ones...

This last week we had another zone leader council. It was amazing. The spirit was really strong and we all received revelation what needs to take place in our zones.. It always pushes us to do better, but many times we forget about it the following week, so we just need to keep it in our minds. It was fun being able to see Elder Gelwix, plus he took in all the cans and bottles we had collected and we both got 30 bucks each. So that was nice. Nothing like a little extra cash as a missionary to buy more food!

Oh yeah, I got my flight plans and everything set out. I can't believe how fast that is all coming.. Just right around the corner. I am sure they emailed them to you as well mom. I don't know.. If they didn't then I will bring them in next week to tell you. All I remember is that I have to fly to PHX before SLC.. Lame eh? Oh well it is all good.

Well, I am going to get back to work, but I love you all and will talk to you next p-day (Monday next week)
--

Elder T. Dastrup

Email from August 29, 2011

Hey family...

So another week has flown by, and now I have hit the 22 month mark. I can not believe it. Not to long ago I feel like I was out, 2 or 3 months. They just keep passing bye.. It makes it kind of difficult cause my companion goes home in 3 weeks. So obviously it is going to be on his mind. I just don't like it on mine. We are both trying really hard not to mention anything about it.

But, as for this week, we definitely had a trying one. It gets pretty frustrating, but obviously we need to learn something, or have certain trials, so we are just putting our faith in the Lord that everything WILL work out for the best. We are setting up appointments with new investigators all over the place. The problem is, when we go to teach the specific person, we have a hard time ever finding them where they say they will be. LIFE OF A MISSIONARY.... We had 19 lessons cancel on us this week. That is a few more then normal. haha. But the positive side we are getting out and working hard. Nothing better then going home at the end of the night knowing you did absolutely everything you could to help someone get to church, or feel the spirit, or whatever it may have been..

So good news this week, we got in a car accident. It wasn't to bad though. I was sitting in the back seat when it happened. And my eyes were closed. but all the sudden we hit the car in front of us. No one was injured. I did hit the seat in front of me pretty good. That was kind of funny. It was a head ache getting all the paper work to Elder Vellinga. We had to do that all today. We actually aren't even taking a p-day today, cause on Saturday we are going down to the Cardston Temple. I am so stoked. It will be good stuff. I love going down there. We are going with a member of the YSA ward he. He is sweet.

On Thursday our suit coats are back on. Unless it is 22 Degrees or hotter three days in a row. Once it hits the criteria, the jackets are back off. But knowing Canada, it won't get there. My days with just a white short sleeve shirt are veryyyyyyyy limited.

Mom I am glad you got everything set up with the Atwoods. They are awesome. I loved that family. It sounds like they will just be staying at the house for one night?

I hope all is going well with the Heaps. I have kept them in my prayers. It was sad to read about his accident last week. It is never fun to read those.

But, Terra congradulations!!!!!! That is awesome. I didn't find out until Tuesday when we put numbers in. That is exciting. When will you actually find out what it is? Before or after I get home?? Or I should ask, when COULD you, seeing that you may not find out? haha Wait, when is rachel due? I kind of forget these things when I don't really think about it until monday comes around..

I am sooooooooooo stoked to hear about Nick's mission call. I will get to see him for a week before He goes out. How cool is that?? Mom tell him to write me a letter, or get his address so I can write him one. That is so awesome. Nick and Max will be exactly a year apart. That is cool.. Good for them...

Well, We have four investigator lessons set up for this afternoon, so, we need to get back to work. Hopefully our faith is more sufficient this week and more or them happen. (We already had one cancel on us this morning....) I will be emailing on TUESDAY next week seeing that it is Labour day. So I will talk to Yall then... Love all of you...

--

Elder T. Dastrup

Email from August 22, 2011

Yo what is up....

Wow there seems to have had a lot of things going on at home this week, and I really only heard it from mom.

Hopefully all goes well with Abe, I will keep him and the Heaps family in my Prayers. It is always so sad to hear tragedies such as that. As a missionary we hear of stories often that are horrific and you never want to hear. But that is why the gospel is so comforting. We need to do our best to live its teachings, and the outcome won't nearly be as sad because of the gospel. We are very blessed to have the teachings in our life.

I am so stoked to hear about Nick!!! that is so awesome. I am stoked for him. Mom give him a call and let me know where exactly he is going and when he leaves! I have been thinking about him quite a bit lately actually and what he is up to. Wow look at my memory. That was impressive. I will be back into my email on Wednesday to put in numbers. So I would love to hear about it mom! Tell him he needs to write me too so I have his address and stuff. I am so stoked about that.

We are really putting an push on finding new investigators. EVERYTHING is canceling on us. But excitingly enough. This week coming up will be super solid. We have 11 new investigator lessons. We will be meeting our goals! It is always fun to be able to have a good solid week ahead of you. Tomorrow we get to hear Elder Baxter Speak. He is from the quorum of the 70. That will be exciting. It will give the mission a much welcomed boost to help us get going! This week I also got what is called my Truny call. Where the mission office calls and asks where I am flying home to and everything. Good thing I am not to trunky, cause that could be bad. But I am excited to keep on going in the work.

On Saturday me and my companions made a bad decision.... We went to a resturaunt with a member of the ward. And we got the hottest wings the chef could make. Not on the menu at all. We all ate one and it was bad. Hahaha all my reaction was right there. I downed a glass of milk and about 15 glasses of water. one of my companions Elder Langi, the Tongan, accidentally touched his eyes and was tearing up pretty bad, well all of us had tears flowing. And Elder Newman Ended up not being able to sleep that night. And he LOVES the hot stuff. It was pretty funny. But I need a break from hot stuff for a bit. Totally worth the memory of it.

So this week we have been thinking about prayers and how specific they need to be.... They need to be reallllllllly specific.

For example. On Saturday night I prayed to have a new investigator at church that wants to be taught and will be able to progress towards being baptized and have the gospel in there life...

Not specific enough.....

Since We are covering two wards right now. Two of the wards are at the same time, we went to one called Sunridge. The non member that I prayed for went to Elliston park.... No one there got her info or anything so we have no way to contact her. Bummer eh? I know my prayer was answered. But even more importantly my testimony was built on how specific it needs to be. I needed to pray for her to be at the ward we were going to so we could get her information!!!!! hopefully she will come back next week.

Mom I got the Atwoods number so you can give them a call to invite them to stay at the house in September.

Here are a couple pictures. The last one is us being smart enough to not read the label to the soap for the dish washer.... I thought only Katie did that??? It said right on the back "Only use for hand wash. Do not use in dish washer." Whoops. Well it was fun to clean up.

Well I have once again run out of things to talk about. But I love you all and miss you.. I will be back again next week with better news about the missionary work..
--

Elder T. Dastrup

Yo family....

So in my new area with my new companions. It is awesome here. I love it. It is good stuff.. There are some pretty rough area's around here.It is sweet. I'll be safe though mom, don't worry about it. The Lord is protecting us.. There is a lot of... lets say international influence here... Mostly from India, Africa, Israel... Anywhere you can think of. It is here.

Oh I don't know if I told you but I have two companions right now. Elder Newman and Elder Langi. Elder Langi's comp never came out from the MTC. So it is all three of us. Elder Langi is from Tonga. I love it. I have been learning all kinds of Tongan.. Like Koficia...MEans I am hungry.. It is good stuff. We hope to get him for the whole transfer. We live in an apartment so we just have to squeeze everything in a little tighter and it is good stuff. We stay soooooooooo busy because our area is really busy right now and We are covering Elder Langi's Area right now as well. We don't have enough time to breathe...A good way not to focus on home! So this area I am in has just been off the charts with how good it has been doing. Right when I got here, We set high goals, and all the sudden our investigators started droping us like crazy. It is definitely a trial. But we will be a whole lot more solid in our faith after this transfer. It will be good stuff.

We do have a new investigator lesson tonight with a man named Chris. We don't much about him. But we are positive that it is someone the lord is preparing. We have several new investigator lessons set up this week. So it will be good. We are going to perservere through the trials..

So my new companions are making me run every morning again. It sucks. But is really good for me. I am still doing my pull up program and My companion said that I am looking way stronger than I did a few months ago! haha yeah! that is good news eh?

There is this kid in our ward that looked really familiar, and he served his mission in provo. We figured out that he was the little skinny elder that had dinner at our house from calgary right before I left on my Mission. Crazy huh? Small mormon world. I thought that was pretty cool. He is in Franklin park YSA ward.

It is weird to think that this will be the last area of my mission. I feel like I have had just perfect spread across the mission. I have never served in the same zone twice and I have been to some pretty AWESOME areas, and I am finishing where I have wanted to serve my whole mission...

Oh by the way, mom and Dad or anyone are you going to be around the first week of October? There is a family coming down and I am going to try to convince them to take home a bag for me and get all the heavy stuff that I wont need for the last month of my mission...That would be sweet eh? They are going to be staying in Lehi so we will see if they can take something down for me.

Well we got a late start on p-day due to cleaning a disgusting apartment that is now spotless. So we are going to take off. I love you all and Will talk to you later..

--

Elder T. Dastrup

Email from August 9, 2011

Family...

Drum roll.... Transfer emails came. And Elder Gelwix and I are unfortunately getting split. I am going back up to Calgary. To the east zone. I have wanted to serve there my entire mission. I am really excited for it. I am going with Elder Newman. They have been tearing it up.. They have been baptizing people like crazy. So I will be going in there, and watch it will all stop. Haha hopefully I can do as good and continue to help them. But I am really excited.

This week was AWESOME... Park's baptism went so good. Everything went just right. I was blessed to baptize him and Elder Gelwix Confirmed him in church. He is a baller. Unfortunatly I won't be able to say Bye to him because he doesn't have a phone.. But it is all good. I will be back here soon. Mom and Dad I plan on coming back up in February when Edith Goes through the temple, and then we can just do a tour of the mission. (I want to ski in B.C. in Fernie) Close to Cranbrook. :)

Mom and Dad, I asked you before but I never really got an answer.. Are you going to be home on the 11th 12th 13th of September? Some of my favorite members from the Jaffray branch are droping their son off at the mtc. I don't know how long they are staying, only a couple days. But that would be awesome if they could stay at the house. I am going to give them your numbers and stuff then they can just call you. They are the Atwoods. They are awesome. He is our branch mission leader out there and he gets work done.

So this week Elder Gelwix and I worked really hard. We had a lot cancel and all but we were able to get 20 lessons. Hopefully I leave this area better then I when I came. I loved it. And i really did work my hardest out here...

so I have still been on my pull up program and it is doing wonders. I love it. I can do way more then I have ever been able to do in my entire life. It is good stuff. I am still doing good with it. Longest I have ever been able to stay doing a single work out hahahah..

But I have run out things to say and I love you all. I will talk to you next week!

--

Elder T. Dastrup

Email from August 2, 2011

Another Month gone. What in the world. That is so weird.

So yesterday was a holiday up here, that is why we couldn't email. I only had a few minutes to put our zone numbers in. I have no clue what holiday it was, but it was enough for the school to be shut down!

So first and foremost, the baptism on Saturday with Elizabeth went perfect. Elder Gelwix baptized her and I gave a presentation and a talk at the baptism. It was a lot of talking from me. But it went really good. The confirmation went good as well. Elizabeth will be a strong member. I mean it did take her 3 and a half years to decide to get baptized. So she was definitely more than ready.

As for short notice, Park is still getting baptized this weekend. Which will be 3 weeks from the time that we met him. Interesting how some people just are a little quicker in being ready. I am excited for that though. I will be baptizing him and Elder Gelwix will be confirming him. That will will be cool. I will try and send some pictures next week! We are actually going to teach him as soon as we are done here.

So we have been super busy. We taught a bunch last week and we barely have a minute to spare this week. We have been doing quite a bit of service for some people. One man in the ward, is like the funniest man I have ever met. He gave me a pretty crappy nick name though... hahhaa it is Jock-strap. Oh well. I can handle it. He is a funny brother. It is always a good time when we do service at his house.

We have been having lots of good things happen. After this weekend we are going to have to kind of refresh our teaching pool. Since Elizabeth and Park are getting baptized. But that is more important. My guess is that I get transferred next week. Yes mom, transfers are then, so I will be emailing on Tuesday instead of Monday. I can't believe I only have two more transfers. That is so weird to me.... Even more so, I can't believe Lincoln is home... What in the world. I remember the day he left. Felt like a month ago. I think I will realize how long I have been gone when I finally come home and see everything that has changed.

This weekend in Jaffray was kind of cool. I got to see one of my favorite members from Lethbridge (over a year ago I was there) Troy Leavitt. Him and his whole family was out camping. They had us over to the camp grounds for lunch after church. That was pretty cool. It is always fun to see the people that you get close with later on.

So yesterday for p-day, a member from the Jaffray branch took us way back into the mountains into the middle of no where. That was so awesome. It was definitely a different P-day. But so sweet. I feel like the landscape was probably similar to Alaska. So you all could imagine that a little bit. Good stuff. I got some cool pictures, Mom you would be surprized. I take more pictures then you think I do! I am on to my third camera card now. I just never send any of them home because I want it to all be just such a fun experience when you look at them all at once!!!!!!!! That will definitely be pretty cool.

We have had some trials with some of the Leadership in this area. As you all know, we invite all of our investigators to be baptized in every lesson. Lots of the leadership does not like that. It has been kind of a trial. We do our best to explain the doctrine behind it, but we never have enough time. It is hard to understand without knowing the doctrine and being taught that. But once that is done, It makes more sense than absolutely anything else... I have never heard one missionary complain about it after they have had the training. President Archibald may be doing a training on it all when he comes out. But sometimes we just have to have faith in that the Lord called a specific person (President Archibald) to lead this area in the missionary work and to be the KEY HOLDER. Really that is all it is. But we still need to work in unison with the leaders. They are all wonderful men. Awesome to work with, that is just our one hard issue. We are doing a training in Jaffray branch next week. But honestly, it might not make much of a difference from just two young elders that have been set apart as representatives of Christ. We will see what happens.

So I was talking to a member of the Ward this week, and he served around Rachel a little bit in Tennessee. He was telling me that he served in one of her areas, Old Hickory? maybe? He just remembers how she used purple and pink pens and all that jazz haha. He said on one the potential investigator forms, she detailed him as working outside, sweaty and hott! hahah Good one Rach, I thought that was pretty funny! It was a good way for the Elders to make some fun!

Well I am gonna get going so I love you all. I miss you all. I will talk to you next week!

--

Elder T. Dastrup

Email from July 18, 2011

Another good week come and gone. This was definitely better than last week!

First off to answer your question mom, no I haven't gotten the package yet. But we have meetings tomorrow in Lethbridge and I will be getting Mail then. So If they are stale, they are stale! haha

This week was really good for us to just get to work in our own area though... We didn't have to go anywhere. We had some really good things happen too ..

We met with Alex, a recent convert from this area, and he brought his friend Park.. Park is here going to school from South Korea. He has been here 10 days. His english is going ok, that is what he is here for. We met with him one time, on saturday, invite him to be baptized on the 30th of this month, 2 weeks from the time we met him. He came to church yesterday and we taught him there as well. It all went really good. It was exciting to see. He is loving it. As for the bad news, Elizabeth pushed her date back to the 30th. She is just super busy with everything. So hopefully all goes well. We haven't been able to teach her in about a week and a half, and that is not a good sign. But we have faith that she is doing good. She has lots of unneeded stress in her life. Definitely all of you can pray for her. That would be really appreciated.

This week we will not have much time to work in our area. Tonight we are going into Lethbridge for Leadership training meetings, we will be there all day tuesday then on Wednesday we are going to come back and go on Splits in Sparwood with those Elders. So we will have from thursday on. But I think this will be the last time this transfer that it will be like this. Gotta love the road trips.

Mom and Dad are you in Alaska right now? When are you all going to Lake Powell? I haven't heard anything about that. And I keep seeing boats up here and that is like all I can think about. I miss that place, but still another year before I will be there. We should all go like 5 times next year. To make up for the 2 years that I missed.

Elder Gelwix and I are still doing really good. We kind of have a hard time helping 1 of the companionships in our zone. Most are doing pretty well. luckily we have some other really good elders in the zone and we don't have to babysit. One of the District Leaders in the zone (Elder Harris) actually played basketball at Timpanogas... We didn't like eachother on the court. But I love the kid out here. He is a really good missionary too. It makes it a lot easier to have those types of missionaries around you. I give him a hard time lots that we beat him our senior year. He is a good kid.

There is another Elder In our zone that is brand new. Elder Northrup, he is a good kid. He is about 4 foot 7 and weighs probably like 75-80 pounds. But he has a testimony of a giant. He has already grown spiritually and mentally a ton since he has been out here.

Well today for p-day we are going to go play some dodgeball and then go to a tumbling gym. mainly just cause the people that invited us are going to buy us pizza.

oh yeah before I leave, other good news.... yesterday I weighed myself and I weigh about 169, which by the way, is 3 pounds less than what I came out at... I will be coming home at 160. Just you all watch! Especially you Sommer which said I would weigh 205......

Love you all

--

Elder T. Dastrup

Email from July 11, 2011

Yo Family

] This week was a week that Elder Gelwix and I had to work most of the week outside of our rea. We only spent Tuesday Saturday and Sunday in our areas. So not as much happened as we would have liked. But 2 of the 6 weeks are normally like that for us. Fortunately we got most everything we need to do this transfer accomplished. We did a lot of driving.. It was good stuff. We had several good things happpen this week. We had an awesome Lesson with Elizabeth. She is still doing good. She is awesome to teach. She is very very sincere. I like being able to teach people like that. She is having tons of trials in her life. Satan is working really hard on her because he knows how solid she will be. She didn't come to church yesterday, something happened with her family. Not exactly sure what. The baptism is still on schedule for the 23rd.. But with the trials she is having may hold her back to the 30th. We just keep doing our best to help her. Please, all of you, keep her in your prayers...

As well, This week we were able to set up a lesson with Mike and Chrystal (Investigators).. We haven't been able to teach them in a few weeks due to them being quite busy. We went over and no cars were home and it looked dead inside. Elder Gelwix was quick to say, well lets go knock anyways. We went up and sure enough Chrystal was home, and Mike pulled in shortly after. We were also finally able to have Justice (Their 9 year old son) Sit in on the lesson. We focused a lot of the lesson around him and helping him understand. Towards the end of the lesson we invited them to meet us at the church next Thursday for our next lesson, they always have a struggle to come to the church. Mike and Chrystal still weren't sure, Justice piped up and started telling the mom that he hasn't gone to church in a while. He said "yeah, we should go... I want to go. We NEED to go.. We are going, I have made my decision." It was so powerful. The spirit was really strong.The parents were still holding back a little bit but finally set up the lesson. We as well were finally able to get some of them praying. Justice was the example. Justice just said, yep I haven't done it before, but I will do it. The mom followed. Mike once again saw opposition and didn't want to this time. We ended on a really solid note. They may not have committed to being baptized, but it is a whole lot closer now than it was... They are doing really good and I really enjoy teaching them. They are awesome.

This week should be good. We have set a goal to pick up 4 new investigators. Our goals this week are all kind of lofty, but we definitely have to be the example for the zone. Because of all the opposition we saw in the zone this week, we need a really really good week.

Well I have ran out of time. But I love you all a ton. Miss you. All of you should write me this next week!
--

Elder T. Dastrup

Email from July 4, 2011

So we don't really get to celebrate much of the holiday up here today since it doesn't apply at all to Canada... But we got to celebrate the very much toned down "Canada Day" on the 1st of July...
They are patiotic as well... Just not near as much. We just did service the whole day for it..

This week was a pretty good week, minus the fact that we are officially in "Half click month".... Which means that we only get half the kilometers to use as we normally do. We normally are alloted 3000 a month, which we barely stay under. But this month we get 1500.. It is terrible. Because we have so much land to cover, if we stay in Cranbrook this month, we have to ride bikes. I remember bikes,as a kid, being enjoyable..... Yeah not anymore. I wake up every morning with a sore butt.... It isn't good news. But oh well we have to get around some how...

By the way..... I weighed myself... Yup I have lost 10 pounds from the highest point that I have been at. so I am almost at what I came out at... That is pretty good eh?

Happy Birthday MOM!!! and KATIE (This week...)........... Both just a little bit older and a whole lot wiser... I hope that you both had wonderful weeks.

So I heard the Jazz didn't get Jimmer. That is terrible news. The Kings blow!!!! Are the players that the Jazz got any good? I am sure that none of you probably even know. But I would be really excited if one of you looked it up for me and researched it for me or something :) That would be real cool..

So as far as our area goes. We had a trying week with investigators. We didn't get in with anybody.. But Elizabeth is still doing really good and progressing towards her date of July 23rd... We meet with her tonight. So that will be good. We hopefully will be teaching another new investigator tonight. So wish us luck!

Mom and Dad are you going to be around in provo the week of Sep. 12-14th? The branch mission leader and his wife here in Jaffray are taking their son to the MTC... I told them that they could most likely stay at the house. They would really appreciate that. So let me know... Then I will give them your number. And I will probably give them package of stuff to bring home for me... That would be much appreciated eh? :)

This week will be yet another super busy week for us. Wednesday we a couple hours away to do splits with some other elders. Then thursday up to calgary for ZLC on Friday. So we basically have tuesday saturday and Sunday to work fully in our area. Should be good.. We will see.

I attached some pictures. Don't get excited though, cause I dont want to do it that often. It is super annoying..

1 is of us going to BANFF on the way to Calgary..
1 is of our baptism with Kirby Burk..
and I forgot what the last one is. So just have it be a surprise...

Well My fingers hurt and I am sick of typing. But I love you all... Next week I wouldn't be mad if you ALL emailed me :)

--

Elder T. Dastrup

Email from June 28, 2011

Today is our transfer week!

......But no worries, I am staying here for another one. I am excited. Elder Gelwix and I are staying together for another one.

This is what I was guessing would happen, but It could have gone both ways. So now I know, my last area will be next transfer. That is weird. I was looking at some pictures this morning of when I was serving with Elder Dana, I realized that was 11 months ago... So weird. It seems like just a couple months...

This week was definitely a good week, Kirby's baptism went really well. Minus the part that the warm water in the font wasn't working..At the beginning. We got it some what figured out to where they weren't like freezing or anything. But still not the warmest water I have ever felt! But the baptism still went through and went very well. Elder Gelwix and I gave a 10 minute first lesson while they were changing, and it went really good. The spirit was super strong, and both of Kirby's parents were there. They are Jehovah's witnesses. They were really nice and very respectful. It went really well.
Her confirmation on Sunday went well as well. It was just a nice day to top it all off.

We set a baptismal date with Elizabeth last week as well. Her date is for the 23rd of July. She came to church on Sunday and is really progressing. It is pretty awesome to see. I am excited to stay and watch her be baptized. That will be good.

Mike and Chrystal had some family things to attend to, so they weren't able to meet with us. So we are going to try and get over there as soon as we can to see what else we can do to help them progress.

That is about it for the investigators that we are consistantly working with...

Elder Gelwix and I are doing really good. Still working hard together. His parents left to their mission this week so that is kind of cool. We are going to get work done this transfer. We at least will have one baptism but hopefully several. Good things will happen!

I have been working out everyday! I am doing a pull up program for three weeks now. It is way hard. You normally only do it once a day, but this week I up'd it to twice a day, plus I am doing bench press every other day to. So at least I will get a little muscle back and not be so weak. We got a bunch of work out stuff from some other Elders that didn't use it and it has really got us going. It is good stuff. I really enjoy it.

The mail strike/lock-out is finally over!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Thank goodness. Now we might finally get some mail up here. It was not going for like 3 weeks I think. It was super annoying. But it is all good now. Maybe I will get something finally! :)

Well..... I don't really know what else to say other then I love you all... Have a great week..
--

Elder T. Dastrup

Email from June 20, 2011

June is about over.. That is weird!

This was a really good week. We finally were able to stay in our area for almost the whole week. As a result, we were finally were able to teach 20 lessons! With that being our goal every week, it has been frustrating in BC for it, there was never enough time for it. But no worries, now we are over the hump and will be able to keep that up!

We taught a lot of investigators this week. That was awesome. It is always good to get in with them. Our baptism this Saturday, the 25th, Is still good to go. We taught her the rest of everything yesterday, and now we just have the baptismal Interview on Thursday then the baptism.. We are going to just try to stay over night up there so we don't have to drive back and forth so many times. We are going to start hitching rides up there as well! It will save a lot of money on the gas card.

We had some awesome lessons with another investigator (Elizabeth) We taught her twice and she is closer and closer to being baptized. We teach her again tomorrow and we are still going to focus on this Saturday to be baptized. So that would be two this weekend hopefully. We continue to invite her to be baptized but she just really wants to pray about it and make sure. So we continue to commit her to do that but she keeps not doing that... She said, herself on Saturday night, that she would pray to know that night. So we haven't heard from her because she went to church in a branch more west. But we will talk to her tonight, then teach her tomorrow. So we are praying that she prayed. Because if she did, she received her answer. She knows she will. She has such strong faith. It is awesome..

This weeks weather has been terrible. Rain, Rain, and More Rain.. Today is the first day that the sun has been shining. It has been ridiculous. It should be a little warmer this week, supposed to hit 27 degrees Celsius. Which is hot. Probably like 80 something F. So definitely getting up there. But I am going to guess that it won't last.... It is Canada, anything is possible. I wouldn't be surprised to see snow this week.

So The Canadian Post Office is on Strike. So we can't send any letters or receive any. It has been like this for two weeks, and will continue for hopefully just this week. The govt. is stepping in so hopefully some action will take place. It is ok though, cause we never get any mail in BC anyways. We have to wait for like three weeks before we get it. So it isn't like it even effected us. By the time that we get our mail, it will for sure be done, and I probably still won't have anything! haha

Well I decided that I don't have anything else to say.. So I will talk to you once again next week. Which will be, by the way, my 20 month mark.....

--

Elder T. Dastrup

Email from June 13, 2011

Yo famalia...

This week was a really up and down week. We taught the most since I have been in this area, which is awesome. We taught 15 lessons... But on the flip side of that, we had a total of 15 lessons cancel on us this week. Super frustrating. But it is all good. We have a week now to just strickly work in our area and get some work done. The bad part is, we may be out of a car. Since we have to drive so much, we are kind of out of gas money. Which means that we may be walking for a little bit and saving our car for the super far trips. Oh well...

We did have some really positive things happen this week. Kirby, our investigator up in the Columbia Valley Branch, is still good to go for her baptism on the 25th. We haven't been able to have much contact with her, but we are really going to make a stronger effort this week to have daily contact..

This week we also taught an investigator named Elizabeth. It is the second lesson that I have taught her. Both lessons went really good, but there was a gap of about a month in between the lessons. So we are trying to meet with her more often. We meet with her again tomorrow. She has really really good comments and concerns. She didn't accept a baptismal date, the next step she wants to take is prayer, then after that when she recieves her answer she said the next step she wants to take is to be baptized.

We have had some trainings recently from our mission president and his assistants, that I feel have really helped our teaching ability. Instead of having to ask people to be baptized, they recognize that is exactly what they need to do...

Elder Gelwix and I are doing really good together. There has been a lot of goals that we have set that we are doing really well with. Plus we get along really good which is a bonus. He actually reminds me exactly of Brett Welker. It is pretty funny. I tell Elder Gelwix that all the time and it bugs him. But whatever, they are really similar! So if you want to imagine who my companion is, imagine Brett, except he has blonde hair... But very similar people

His Dad is getting Set apart as a mission President sometime this week which is kind of cool. He will be Zach Slater's mission president! haha In Fresno California....

B.C. is getting so much rain right now it is rediculous. All the rivers are way higher and even flooding at places. We went for a bike ride the other day for our morning work out, and we were riding basically through straight water where the path was supposed to be. Everyone out here says this year and last year is way more than they normally get. But who knows. It is kind of nice though, it isn't to hot, and we get to take off our jackets!

Katie, that is awesome that you ran a marathon, good for you! I am definitely not ever going to do one, so I am glad that one of us did! 4 hours and 30 minutes. That is about how long it takes for me to run 1 mile. So we are both on a good pace...

Mom and Dad, it sounds like your trip was pretty awesome. That is weird that the food wasn't any good. I thought that is what cruises are good for?? maybe not. hmm weird. That is good that Holly is able to stay in that ward. Is the house that she is moving into brand new? Because I don't remember one that was right next door to her? Maybe I am just wrong. Who knows...

But yeah, I don't know if there is much more for me to say, but I love you all and miss you.
--

Elder T. Dastrup

Email from June 6, 2011

Into the month of June yo. It is finally Summer time and it is nice.

Our suit coats were able to come off as of June 1st. It is nice. Even though it has been super wet and a little chilly.

We had a really good week. Once again super busy. But really good. We actually set a baptismal date yesterday with a girl named Kirby. We went up to this little branch that we cover called Columbia Valley. It is about an hour and a half away. So we don't get to get up there very often. But we went up because we heard about her, we taught her after church and set a baptismal date for the 25th of June. It will be sweet.. She actually was introduced to the gospel by a kid that lives in Jaffray Branch, he gets home from his mission on the 16 of June. So he will probably be the one baptizing her if I guess right.. We will for sure be going up there a lot more often then we have been, which was never...

We also did another sweet thing this week. We had to go to Calgary, so guess what way we decided to drive up there... Dad, don't get to jealous, We drove there and back through Banff. And we stopped to eat in the actual city of Banff. To bad there is 2 fast food restaurants, and no parking. But it was awesome. I have never seen so much wild life in my life. It was awesome. The whole way the deer just sit on side of the road and eat the grass. And the coolest thing we saw was a giant Bear.. We have now seen three in the last 10 days. The first two were just smaller bears. 1 black bear and 1 grizzly. I got some good pics. We tried luring them in with cookies. But they wouldn't come! Go figure. But the last bear we saw was probably bigger than Devin's mini cooper. So crazy.. It was awesome. It was a Grizzly bear. So it probably would have eatin us if we would gotten out of the car. The only things we haven't seen are a moose, Badger. Then we will be good to go. Wild life in BC is way cooler than Alberta. But Dad you would have loved the drive through Banff. It was awesome. We didn't get to go to Lake Louise because it was to far out of the way. Maybe after the mission. But If any of you remember, Dad sent us a email with a bunch of Mountain Goats on top of a tunnel in Banff. I saw the tunnel, but no mountain goats. They must have photo shopped it....

We had a pretty good week teaching. This week we will have a little more time to focus on our area which is good. The only other non member that we taught this week was Mike and Chrystal. The missionaries taught them about a year ago, but eventually stopped going over some reason. We went back and set something up and have taught two good lessons over there. They are really looking for something. We are just doing our best to try and help them find that. They are awesome though. I really enjoy teaching them.

Tonight we have a training from our mission president and his assistants, that will be the last one of the transfer.

I am sorry to hear about Lincoln Dastrup. I have never felt comfortable with those little air planes. I will definitely keep Jarom and others in my prayers. That is always tough to hear about, but comforting to know about the plan of Salvation. I guess as a missionary that is where my first thought immediately go to...

Life in the mission is good. I am doing my best to enjoy every minute of it. Elder Gelwix and I are doing really well together, we hope to stay another transfer together in the Lone B.C. Zone. It is good stuff. Dad and Mom I hope you enjoy that cruise or trip or whatever it is that you are on. I will expect some of those when I get home! haha

But I love you all, miss you all. Have a wonderful week and I will talk to you next Monday..

--

Elder T. Dastrup

Email from May 9th, 2011

Family.

It was so good to hear every body's voice yesterday. Even if it was all at the same time. Once again mom, happy Mothers day yesterday! You are the best mom ever. Definitely. I can't believe that, that was my last call home. Next time I will be hearing any of you, it will be in the Salt Lake Air Port... Weird. But now it is my goal to not think about home. I still have a lot of work to do while I am here. I don't want to go home regretting anything so I might as well work hard while I am still here eh?

Elder Spurlock and I are working well together. This is our last week of the transfer, and he has a suspicion that he is getting transferred. So we have set some goals to really work hard and find some new investigators, We set a goal for 4. So that we can be running by the time next transfer starts. So next week I will be emailing on TUESDAY so don't forget.

BC is starting to warm up.. It is going to be about 20 degrees celcius all week which is probably in the high 60's and low 70's.. So hopefully we will be able to take our coats off. It has to be 22 in the forcast for 3 consecutive days. At that point, we are good to go. Starting in June it doesn't matter the temperature, we can just wear short sleeves everyday. I can not wait for that. It is turning super green out here. It is awesome. Today we are going golfing. A member of our branch owns a course and he lets us play for free. Gonna be soakin up the sun in Canada. So not much sun..

This last weekend was awesome. The mandarin Elders came down and baptized a man named Alex. They have been teaching him over Skype for a couple weeks now. The whole program was in Mandarin and English. It was a cool experience. All the sudden my companion and I notice a whole lot more asians. We are definitely going to start looking for more oppertunnities to have people taught over skype. Get their work going down here!

We were also supposed to have three new investigators this weekend. 1 lesson, with 2 of the new investigators got rushed, and they ended up just telling us that they just weren't ready to meet with us. We feel like they have so much potential, so we are just going to keep working with their fellow shippers to soften their hearts. And then our other new investigator lesson that was supposed to be last night, got moved to thursday, she had some work stuff come up. So we just keep praying that things will work out. It is definitely a trying area, but the Lord has people for us to teach. We just have to find them...

Well since I guess I told you everything over the phone yesterday. I love you all and miss you all a ton. I will talk to you next week after we pick up a handful of new investigators!! Love you all

Love Elder Dastrup

Email from May 3, 2011

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD!

The big 6-4.. Now just if that was your height!! I bet you are already feeling wiser as well.. I was going to get a card out to you, but I forgot last p-day, now it is to late. But I was thinking about you! I heard a rumor that once you hit 60, you actually don't get wiser anymore, you just hit your peak at 60. right?? hmmm

Well 6 months from today, I will be walking off the plane. So you better start getting the party planned. Haha just kidding. I still got plenty of time to do work up here. I am loving it in BC. It is so sweet. Lots of driving. Every day. But we are still working hard.

Joyce, one of our investigators called us on Wednesday, and told us she isn't interested in meeting with us any more. It was kind of frustrating, because we had a lesson with her just a couple nights before, and everything she is looking for, is the church. She was asking Golden questions and we were able to help her answer those and she was feeling good about everything. We think that she possibly told her church that she was meeting with us, and just anti came from that. That was annoying.. But hopefully we were able to water that seed a little bit more for the future contacts...

We had another lesson with Jimmy this week. It was a good lesson but very frustrating. His friend sat in on the lesson and she is super anti. She didn't say much while we were there, but you could just feel the tension that she had for the church. He still didn't commit to church. But he will read. We are going to give him a call today, but he has family in that will be pretty difficult to meet with him. We do have a promising referral for this Saturday. We are really excited to teach them .They are just a young couple. But we have heard nothing but good things about them.. I am excited for it. I will let you know how it goes. We were supposed to teach them before I got here, but unfortunately the Elders crashed the car on the way to the lesson. So lame... But now we are able to press on.

We had zone conference yesterday, it was really good. We focused a lot on using and applying the tools that we have to plan effectively. The mission has every thing it needs to reach the goals that we have set. Now it is just applying what we know and having the faith to do so..

Well since I am going to talk to you in a few days, I am going to get going. but I love all of you and miss you a ton. Can't wait to talk to you all..

Love Elder Dastrup

Email from April 25, 2011

Family.

Hey I don't have a lot of time today, sorry! But my week has been pretty good.

BC is awesome. We are driving for multiple hours a day. Every thing is really spread out. It is kind of annoying but it is fun. The last couple drives we have had, we have almost hit Elk of the road. The animals here are so stupid. You can walk right up to one, and they just look at you and do nothing. They are like extremely domesticated. It is pretty funny.

Before I forget, next week I will be emailing on tuesday because Zone conference is on monday..And then I get to talk to all of you for Mothers day! Umm by the way, for that, the three way call, or conference call is the only thing that we will be able to do.. I just called the mission president to get permission to call Holly seperately and he just said, because it is mothers day, the only call should be to the mother. But if it is a three way call, it would be fine. So that is what we will have to do.

Our phone number is 250-581-0800

Me and my companion, have figured out times. My phone call, which will be YOU calling me, will be at 5:15 pm. Will that work ok?? His is going at 4. so we have about 45 minutes. I want to do my best to keep it close to that! haha

But this week was good. We were able to help our investigators really move forward. Which was awesome. No baptismal dates set. But next week when I have a little bit more time I will tell you about each of them.

Mom, there is another elder in my zone that went to Timpanogas High school. I actually played basketball with him. And he wants to know who Abi Heaps is marrying. Can you let me know?? haha

Our dinner calendar doesn't fill out here near as good as my other areas. I don't know why. We cover two areas. And Jaffray, which is 30 minutes away, is way good at feeding us but we can't get out there every day. But cranbrook is a little slow with the dinner calendar, So I run out of money on my mission money quicker than normal hahah.

My and Elder Spurlock are getting along good. We are working on refilling our teaching pool. which is super slow right now. But it will go up soon. Oh crap. Our investigator that we had a lesson with tonight, just called and cancelled. She had a migrane. Bummer. Hopefully we can reschedule soon.

But one of the elders is getting chapped that I am not done yet. So i love you all. Only two weeks until the phone call! And then the next time I will be talking to all of you will be in SLC!

Love you all..

Love Elder Dastrup

Email from April 19, 2011

Sorry I didn't email yesterday, I am sure that Mom may be the only one that noticed But we kind of had a miraculous thing take place in the mission this week that pushed P-Day until today, Tuesday...

We found out just last Friday that Elder Scott of the quorum of the 12 had a plane cancel Sunday night (He was up here for a stake conference) and He called President Archibald asking if he could meet with the mission Monday morning. So things got changed around a bit. We have been so blessed. Normally it is rare if missions are lucky enough to get 1 apostle in their whole mission. We have had two in the last month and 3 since I have been out. The Lord is obviously trying to tell us something. It is our job to figure out what that is!

It was awesome though. He bears one of the strongest testimonies I have ever seen in my life. It was awesome. He talked to us a lot about going home and looking to get married. That should be first on our priorities list... Sphh what that, I am pretty sure that is what every one sounds like they are telling us to do. It is kind of scary that, that thought is so close..

I Hit my 18 month mark in a week or so, and I just can't imagine how fast this last six months will go.. Mom it is weird to start thinking about what I am going to do when I get home.. I honestly haven't really thought about what is going to happen with school and whatever else. I probably plan on going to UVU but I don't know. The only other places that I would really consider to go, is probably Dixie cause that is where Holly and the boys are, I don't really want to go any where else as of right now though.. How early would registration have to be for Spring Semester? That is going to suck, haha I don't want to go back.. But oh well I still have about a year to worry about it! But what other info do you need to know mom? hah I don't really know what else there is..

This week in BC was awesome.. Even though we drove to Calgary twice, 5 hours, and didn't have much time to work in our own area. But it was still all good. The weather here is really good, yet still not as good as normal. So hopefully it will be getting warmer. We heard we were supposed to have another cold week. It will get going soon. We had to go to Calgary once to see Elder Scott, and the other time, Elder Spurlock and I went to Zone Leader Council up at the mission home on Friday. It was was good. A spiritually boosting week! But my butt hurts from driving so much! Oh well, that is what happens in this zone. Gotta love it.

We did find a new investigator. His name is Jimmy.. We invited a member of the ward to invite a friend to hear us as missionaries, and he did. Jimmy accepted. We taught him twice this week and teach him again tomorrow. He didn't accept a baptismal date either lesson. He wants to talk to his family about it.. We are praying that they are OK with it all. We will see tomorrow I guess. It is frustrating being in an area that doesn't have many investigators and is kind of slow. I guess it is time for a big boost to happen. We just don't have enough time in a day to get everything done that we need to!

Dad I saw the pictures of your 'Toilet room' I am so glad that you are keeping such close tabs on me! hha that is awesome. I never realized how close it was to the Alaska cabin. To bad the Canadian provinces are deceivingly big. So it really isn't that close. When is the next trip that you are going up there?

Mom to answer your question, I will get mail probably every other week now. Not to much worse. I will get it again on May 2nd. That is the day we have zone conference. So we are good to go. Next weeks Pday is Monday again just for the record! But Rachel I did get your letter! That talk from Elder Holland was way good. I never got a letter from your young womens group! sorry! But i did get your valentines package with the Valentines in it.. haha

For the mothers day call, mom what if we were able to link in Holly and the boys for the call. That would be pretty easy wouldn't it?? Just do a 3 way call!

Oh yeah I am still definitely working out every day. It is a killer to run at 630 in the morning but it has to be done! By the way, my service shoes/running shoes kind of wore down. The whole back is completely destroyed. So mom is it ok if I snag some runnin shoes?

Umm other than that, I don't really have anything else. All is well here in Zion. I am loving life and wouldn't rather be any where else. I love you all an miss you all a ton. Talk to you next monday..

Love Elder Dastrup

Email from April 11, 2011

It is totally different here in BC... Good, just different. Everyone is so layed back. It is awesome. I am serving in a city named Cranbrook. Which is about a 5-6 hour drive South West from Calgary.. But I also cover two little towns, Jaffray, and Kimberley. Kimberley is so sick, as in sweet. It is just a little old fashioned ski bum town. It is definitely baller. Gotta love it.. I cover 1 ward, a pretty small ward, that consists of part of Cranbrook and Kimberley, and a branch out in Jaffray. We are expecting a lot of good things to come from the little branch. But wow, it is so beautiful here in BC. The mountains remind me so much of home. And every thing else is super green. I am here just at the perfect season. In Kimberley there is still like 3-4 of snow on the roof's and on the front yard, but it is slowly melting. I here it just gets unreal how awesome it is once all the snow is melted. I am excited. I will be using my camera lots..

In this area, we don't have any solid investigators or any baptismal dates. But we will soon! As long as our faith doesn't waver.. We will be doing lots of personal contacting (street contacting, tracting so forth) which my companion I don't think is to happy with that. But it is going to have to happen if we want things to get going in this area. We do rely on the members normally in our mission, but when absolutely nothing is happening. We need to get investigators to church and members will follow. Our stake is doing a "invite your friend to church week for Easter Sunday. So we are hoping for that to pan out big time.

My companions name is Elder Spurlock, He is from Kentucky. I am still on a roll for only having 1 companion from Utah my whole mission. That is pretty impressive if you ask me... He has been out 1 transfer longer than me. So 19 months I think.. Can you believe I hit 18 months in two weeks. What the heck.

We got here, and our apartment was disgusting. I took forever this morning cleaning up the bathroom.. It was disgusting. But now I think we will be good. Our zone is spread out over about a five hour drive. The biggest in the mission, but we only have about 10-12 Elders. Everyone has super big areas. There is one more set of Elders In cranbrook. Elder Caldwell and Elder Weaver, Elder Caldwell was in my last district for 4 1/2 months. So that was odd that we are around each other again, but it will be good. He is a way funny kid.

Yep, we are officially working out every morning. We go to the church with the other elders, which the church is about a two minute walk but for some reason we drive??- Elder Caldwell and I have been running 20 ladders every day. It is good. I am really working on eating better as well. It is going to be a lot easier to not have to have dessert here because we don't eat with members a lot. Not a lot of people sign up for some reason. Which kind of sucks.... And EVERYTHING is more expensive here in BC. So my money is going to run out a lot faster. I guess I will just be fasting a lot more .. So hopefully I can lose some weight before I come home. currently I am at 180 which is only a gain of 8 pounds since I have been out.. Not to bad, but I plan on coming home less than what I came out at... so I have some work Cut out for me.. It will happen. I am also trying to convince my companion to start riding a bike with me instead of Driving, at least when we are in Cranbrook, Given that Jaffray and Kimberley are 30 minutes away. But I am willing and hopefully able.

I guess next week I will be more prepared to tell you about our investigators and what is happening in the area. We do have some special trainings from the mission president tonight that will be really good, and tomorrow we have interviews with him. Those are always a joy. They happen every 3 months now. So It hasn't happened for a while.

Well I don't have much else to say.. I love you all and miss you..

oh yeah, we will figure out times for Mothers day call this week. What time would work best for you? What time is church and Everything?

And Holly is there anyway that you could visit up north that week?? :) That would make it a lot easier, seeing that I only have 45 minutes...

Love you..

Love Elder Dastrup

Email from April 5,2011

FAMILY

So this week, which is typically a good long week went really good. Today we got our transfer emails........... And I am getting transferred to British Columbia. We cover a small part of the east side of BC. I am going to be a Zone Leader out there. My new companions name is Elder Spurlock. We will see how it goes... I am excited to be able to go to BC. It is a lot warmer on that side of the Border...

This will be a good opportunity to get running every morning and lose a little bit of weight that I put on! hahah Good to go. I have also started a diet. No Candy nor dessert.. Done with that..

Hey before I forget, I was going to say for the mothers day call. Holly is there any chance that you will be going up to Provo for that? It would be a lot easier for the Phone call home. Which is supposed to be kept to 45 minutes.. So if everyone is there it is just a lot easier to keep it as close to 45 minutes as I can! You know?? Let me know what is going to happen...

This week has been a good one. Lots of people cancelling on us but it was good to push us to the next level.. It was a good week to finish off strong in the area...

How sweet was General Conference? It was like the sweetest thing ever. I loved it. So awesome. Every session was a spiritual feast. My favorite was Priesthood session though. I don't ever remember feeling the spirit that strong for that long. It was amazing. I loved it. I learned so many new things it was awesome.. I went with 6 questions and every single one of them got answered super clearly.. It was good to have that. Instead of going to conference to listen, I went to conference searching. Hence searching the scriptures instead of reading them.. But it was really exciting to have those answers..

I am going to get off so that another missionary can get on and email his family. But I love you all and

miss you..

Love Elder Dastrup

ps Mom and Dad I am thinking about your Hawaiian Vacation like every day.... Have fun!

Stay Classy

Email from March 28, 2011

Yo what is up...

Good week, yet sad week (Hearing that the cougs could have done a lot better...)

But the good part was the baptism! It went way good. Naomi is awesome. Everything just as planned besides the fact that the microphone didn't work int he chapel. But other than that... Perfect.

chapel was completely full. So many of her family members (Mostly non-members) were really really supportive of her. Which is awesome. Plus tons of the ward members came as well! I might as well just start from when I got there.

So I actually went to a baptism that was right before ours, but a different ward, and different missionaries. The cool thing about this baptism, was that it all started with me telling the missionaries to go by her house, (the lady getting baptized, her mother in law lived in our ward) So They did and several months later, she is getting baptized by her husband, which was very less active. But now doing really good. It was way awesome to be able to see!

Then Naomi's baptism.. The chapel was completely full. It was the most people I have seen at a baptism since I have been out. It was awesome. Two girls gave some talks then She got baptized by her uncle that lives in Edmonton (way farther north) Then as she was changing me and Elder Hendershot gave a lesson to everyone else about the Book of Mormon going hand in hand with the bible. It went great. Then Naomi came back and her and her sister, and some cousins sang. It was sweet. Then it was ended by her getting confirmed by her other Uncle that is from Utah. It was awesome. Me and my companions got to stand in the circle. It was awesome. Way good experience.

The mission miracles are crazy. They have been happening like crazy and so many cool things just pop up. We are having a hard time getting our other investigators to meet with us regularly though. They totally progress when we do meet with them. They have just been super busy lately! But hopefully we will be able to meet with them tomorrow...

Being in a three leg is funny. We can joke around a lot more and seem to have a lot more fun. It is a lot harder to teach. But it seems now that I am getting used to it, I will probably go back to a regular companionship next transfer (Which is next week by the way, so I will be emailing on TUESDAY) But we all seem to get along really good. me being a clean freak, doesn't work out that well seeing that it gets dirty way to fast, but I guess it is teaching me a lot of patience! But it is good! I think I am going to get transferred next week. I love this time. Leaving area's is hard. But it is fun to see something new at the same time. There is going to be lots of changes in the mission this time around.. We will see what happens eh?

Wait, mom and dad you are going to Hawaii on Saturday? What the heck, It is still freezing up here! That is a rip off! We should go on a cruise when I get home to make up for all these trips I am missing. I think that is a great idea.. :) A member of our ward just went down to Hawaii yesterday, maybe you will meet them! the Jonson's. Hahah. probably not. But they were a huge part in Naomi getting baptized. Have fun, but dad I am sorry to here about your Kidney stones again, This better not be Hereditary!.....That would be the worst news ever...

Well I am running out of time, but I miss you all and love you tons. Still can't believe that I only have 7 months left! Love you all...

Love Elder Dastrup