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..

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Elder T. Dastrup