Email from January 24th, 2011

It's a great day in the Kingdom.

Even though I don't feel like writing out a long email, I will anyways :)

Mom to answer your question, I got one letter from dad last week, and I got 1 from rach a while ago, but nothing weird! hahah We will be getting mail from the zone leaders today. We get it every Monday, so I don't see it until after I email. But hopefully I have some stuff. I haven't gotten anything yet! Sorry bout that one eh! Canada is wearing off on me. I have a goal to come home saying "eh, or aye" how ever you spell it. It is going to be ballin...

Wow Dad, your schedule for this upcoming year is grueling. Lots of long flights that will really take a toll on your sleeping schedule. It looks like it will be a lot of fun though.

This week has been soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo solid! We set two solid baptismal dates for the 29th. Edith and Jefferson. We originally had four. But two are avoiding us and haven't been able to quit smoking.

But Edith and Jefferson are definitely Solid.

Edith... She is a 86 year old lady that loves everything about the church. She stays up until three in the morning reading her scriptures. She recently had a eye surgery so she has a hard time reading the regular size, so we went and got her a HUGE book of Mormon and bible. We brought them over and she was loving life. She is awesome. She is always cracking jokes with me. It is fun!

Jefferson is from the Philippines. He is sweet. We have been teaching him for a couple weeks. Way fun. He wasn't accepting the baptismal date at first, but as we continued to teach him, we worked through concerns and he will be baptized on the 29th! It is going to be a good day..

Me and Elder Oliver are doing pretty good. Sometimes we have little glitches (if that is a word) in getting along, but we work through them, or get over them eventually. I have to make a big effort to just laugh at his jokes and smile! Because they definitely aren't that funny. But it just goes to show me that I have a lot of work to do to be more Christ-like. But it is all good!

We as a mission are working our hardest to invite members and push them along in doing missionary work. It is hard, I hate having to be pushy, but as we invite, we see more success so there is no reason not to do it. It is ballin.

Oh yeah I forgot, Edith, her baptism this saturday, she can't bend backwards because of her knees. So both me and Elder Oliver will be in the water helping her. It is going to be sooooooo sweet. She hasn't decided who will confirm her though. we will probably find out tomorrow. Which will be exciting..

Well I am super sick of typing, So I love all of you. Have a wonderful day and don't miss me to much! :)

Love Elder Dastrup

Email from January 10, 2011

FAMily.

I am so glad to hear that it is a little chilly down there... Just cold enough to put your coats on! :) It is ridiculous up here. Yesterday it was only like -15 degrees but it was really really windy. So with windchill it got down to about -35 degrees. Are you kidding me? That was definitely fun. The part I did like though is that it snowed a ton. So there are a ton of wind drifts. So of course I am having fun with those.

So my new companions name is Elder Oliver. He is from Pincher Creek, Just two hours south of Calgary. He is waiting for his VISA to go to South Carolina. So he hasn't gone to the MTC or anything. But For how long he has been out. He is a pretty good teacher. Not bad eh? We get along pretty good.

So this week we picked up another investigator!

His name is Jefferson. He is from the Philippines. He moved here in December and lives with his uncle and Aunt. Which they are members of our ward. He has been to church the last three or four weeks and we just barely found out he wasn't a member. So we went over and invited him to take the lessons. He accepted. We taught the lesson and at the end invited him to be baptized. He didn't technically accept. But He did realize how big of a blessing it would be to get baptized. We are teaching him again on Saturday and I think he will accept the invitation to be baptized on the 29th. He is a stud..

We had another guy come to church with one of our members yesterday. His name is Patrick. He is a black guy from Montreal. He is sweet. He was way into church answering questions and loving it. After church we invited him to take the lessons, but he is just to busy for it right now. So we are going to continue to work with his fellow shipper on getting him to church and trying to set up lessons.

Our investigator Danielle, with a baptismal date on the 29th has been realllllllllllllly hard to get hold of this week. I don't know if she is avoiding us or what. But since Wednesday (When she cancelled our appointment because she had family stuff come up) She hasn't answered anything... So we will see what happens.

Our other investigators that were supposed to be baptized Christmas day, Tammy Craig and Edith, we finally got back in contact with. They moved and numbers changed and all kinds of stuff. So they want to start meeting again which is exciting.

All else is well here. I am lovin it. What a glory it is to be in the Lords kingdom here on earth. Love everyone of you guys and miss you a ton!

Love Elder Dastrup

ps

Mom did you ever get a call from our bishop dropping off that suit case? hope so. He isn't quite back yet so I haven't heard anything. Let me know eh?

pss mom you can use this email for the missionary times. you dont have to edit it! the last one i read that was edited made me look like a weirdo! love you

Email from January 1, 2011

So another week come and gone... this time it is transfer week though! Nope I didn't get transferred but my companion did. Drum roll............ I am actually training again. So this will be my third time. Maybe third time will be a charm?? We will have to see. I am also going to be in a three leg. Which means that there is me, the new Elder And a third elder that is already been out. I am still the District Leader. Nothing changing there. But All is well I am excited..It will be weird training with two companions. The new elder Coming in is actually just from southern alberta. He is going somewhere else in the states and doesnt have his visa yet. So He hasnt even been to the mtc yet.. So I will probably only be with him for 1 transfer until he gets his visa. My companion Elder Hansen is actually training as well. But in a new area, So us two are training 2 out of the 3 new elders. Kind of cool! This week was a good week. We saw really good things happen. First of all. Sister Archibald got a hold of one of our former investigators, and invited her to church and dinner. She came to both. We went to dinner as well and taught a little lesson about the book of mormon. About half way through the lesson President Archibald took over and went all out. It was sweet. We invited her to be baptized on the 29th of january. She accepted! But.... She may have a smoking problem. So there are definitely obsticles. But nothing we can't work through. We are really excited though. Our next lesson with her is on Wednesday! Next, our investigators, Tammy Burton, craig Anderson and Edith Jalso just moved into our building that we live in. So we should be seeing them a lot more and a lot easier contact. Hopefully we can get something rolling there. I am excited for it though.. There is also one other person that is a nephew of a couple members of our ward. ( Philippino) And we just found out on sunday that he is a non member. He has been at church a couple weeks in a row. A member asked him if he was a member. and the kid just said, not yet... so we have high hopes there! ballin. So Need to get something set up there, KAMUSTA KA, right d bone?
All Else is well Just loving it out here. I cant believe i have been out 14 months, but on the other hand. I sometimes feel like i have been out here for five years. . but i love it. I miss you guys and love ya! Keep it fresh! Love Elder Dastrup ps mom why didnt you email me! what the! haha it is ok, i expect it from everyone else!

Email from December 27th 2010

Wow, Christmas comes and goes, And now I will never have another one on a mission.. Isn't that crazy? It just keeps going faster and faster.. I have now been out for 14 months. Unbelievable... Christmas week was so awesome. We definitely had a lot of cancellations.. But we still hit out 20 lessons mark. We kind of just started showing up at peoples house ready to give them a lesson. It was sweet. Christmas eve was awesome. We went to the Merell's and Had dinner with them. They had a sweet set up going. They invited a homeless guy. Jim. He was funny. He had all kinds of stories. Dad he could have topped your stories! But then again, he was also addicted to very heavy drugs. He was a nice guy though. They brought him to church yesterday! It was sweet. I was blessing the sacrament and he was trying to get my attention and he just had a huge grin on his face, and i don't think he has many teeth! It was enjoyable... Sister Merell made sticky buns for us as well.. She did two sets. The first set kind of fell apart for some reason, but the second set was great, they tasted fantastic. Now i am going to be wanting them for a while! Christmas day was awesome as well. We got to have brunch with the Stones, which are a way sweet family in the ward. They gave us quite a few gifts. it was really nice of them.. Then I got to do a baptismal interview for our zone leaders. So that was pretty cool We stayed for the baptism then raced home and Elder Hansen made his phone call. I opened all the letters from the dastrup festivus. It was great. It sounded like you guys were having a blast up there in Park City! Then You guys called! That was definitely fun. It is really weird talking to everyone. For not hearing your voices for 7 1/2 months, then talking to you and everyone sounds the exact same. Who woulda guessed? Good times. I can't believe we only have one more call on mothers Day. That is going to be a blast saying it is our last call together... But hey who am i kidding, That is still 5 months away.. Our investigators have been really hard to get a hold of and yesterday I guess they were sick, cause they weren't at church. But we will hopefully be making good contact this week. The Nielsen's came to my ward yesterday. I have never met them before. But they said they live in the wicks cabins right below our house. Small world! they asked for an update to send home, but I had only talked to you the day before so I didn't have much of one to give! hahah Sorry! I also met a family that their last name was Smith. Dad you insure them. They are living in England right now for work but their house is out by Utah lake. It definitely is a small world After all... I don't really know what else to say since i just talked to you not to long ago... I guess i will let ya go aye? Love you guys and miss you a ton! Love Elder Dastrup