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