Email from June 15th, 2010

Hey family!!!

So another week come and gone. It always seems like the last week of the transfer takes the longest. Everyday was a drag. It was killing me..

The good news is that Transfers have come and i am now almost out 8 months! this transfer i will be hitting the 8 and 9 month mark. so stoked!!! More news, elder moore is getting transferred to Calgary and i am staying right where i am at... At least for one more. My new companions name is elder Green... And I am now the district Leader... hmm we will see how that goes.. haha i would rather just skip right to zone leader. district leader has to do a bunch of tedius things... oh well i am excited for the new challenge and new things i am going to have to take care of. We will just have to see how it goes!!! I havent heard anything about my new comp but hey if he hasnt been obedient, he will be now :)

This week has been a very productive week. We had 16 lessons and a whole lot of service. I was writing in my journal this week and realzied how much i really do enjoy service now.. its weird coming from me i know. haha but still, i have definitely changed a lot in the last 7 months and i plan on only getting more devoted to the work. The great things missions do to ya!

We have two new investigators this week! We taught them on sundays. they already have their own quads, gospel principles manual and preach my gospel..... talk about a golden investigator. we set the date for july 16th or 17th. but we need to work very closely with the bishop with everything...

We also have had several other good lessons this week and have new investigators from that. but they dont live in our area so we will have to have other elders teaching them that cover the area they live in. oh well the lord is blessing us in so many different ways it is unreal!

Mother i have not recieved a package yet but i will be getting mail tomorrow when the transfers happen so i will hopefully get it then! hopefully i have a ton of mail! probably wont happen.

Rumor on the street is that my scooter still isnt up.. hmm funny how that works...

the family i live with has a son coming home from his mission in like two weeks from australia.. so that will be pretty cool getting to meet him..

Boston celtics are going to win tonight!!!!!! they better. i hear that rondo is the man and ray allen is doing nothing. my goodness. lots has changed since i have been gone..

worst news of the day, i hear that harvey unga isnt playing this year. he screwed up! what the heck i heard that and i almost started crying. any word on where he is going to play? that upsets me. i love unga. why do people have to be stupid!!!!!

Well i am starving so i guess we are going to go eat. i love you guys so much and miss ya a ton..Stay classy and get that scooter on the net!!!!!!!

love elder dastrup

Hows it hangin??

This week in the mission field has been a good one. We got lots done and still more to improve on. There is always something or another to work on! So it sounds like it is still pretty cold down there??? That confuses me.. It is warm up here and i guess that is all i need to worry about right now.. haha my jacket is finally off and willl stay off (besides sundays) until october! and by then, woah the year mark will be right around the corner.. Who am I kidding.. I still have a very long time! haha.

We taught lots of lessons and asked lots of people for referrals. nothin to new! but what was different about this week was :. We did splits one day.. that was ballin.. mos definitely showed up our district leader.. I got a pretty good day planned and he was just like, wow this is the most effective english missionary day i have ever seen ( he is a spanish elder) but then again he is kind of loopy. IIt was an ok day. not the best ever but hey whatever..

Stake conference was this week so that was fun.. We had a broadcast coming from vancouver.. President Uchtdorf was there along with elder Ballard and Elder Pace (of the 70) So that was cool. Elder pace's talk was the best, oddly enough.. All three talked about gaining, or regaining your testimony. then to share it with others. so basically missionary work. It was a good stake conference. I thought i was getting the day off for stake conference.. It was news to me that we had to go!

Everything else is pretty good around here. I dont know really what to type this week haaha.. just all is well in zion..

oh yeah i got a new hobby!! carving golf balls.. it is pretty fun.. We take a hack saw and cut through the first layer of golf ball, and pry half of it off. then we carve the rubber on the inside of the golf ball. i have picked up this habbit just in the last week or so and it is pretty fun. i am carving Hulk Hogan right now.. it is a blast!!

that is all about that is new with me..

I love you all so much and miss you dearly. sorry i am a short writer this week!

love elder dastrup

ps dev you sell my scooter or what?

Email from 05/26/2010

Yo fam what up!!

This week seemed like it went by much faster then the last few. It was a fast week. That makes it nice. This week was a very good week. That must be why it went by so dang fast! Lets see what happened this week...

We Taught about 20 lessons..

Last pday we played basketball for like three hours, i got elbowed in the chin, chest and groin, all by the same "thick" Elder..

We had lots of lessons with less actives and that seems to be our focus right now.

We found out about another part member family in our area that we are going to work really hard on.

We had an amazing sacrament meeting, ALL on missionary work.. Elder moore had to speak. somehow i got out of it.

We had Zone Conference, and interviews, President Archibald is amazing. He could tell i was kind of struggling and he flipped it all around

I got my comp running almost*** everyday..

I got him to go to the "cooley" HUGE revine in lethbridge. We ran stairs in it. By far the hardest work out since i have been here.

My calves still hurt from it.

Today I want to play basketball though so i am just going to stretch them a ton.

My hair looks like a mop. It is sooooo long. i cant find anyone to cut it. i might buzz it today. but i want just a regular cut. so we will see..

i smell like bacon today, we had breakfast at a members house because they couldnt feed us tonight and he fried the bacon.

I have gained a little wait. lethbridge is killing me, everysingle night they force dessert down our moouths.. about 7 pounds now. but i am working out hard again so hopefully that helps.. I weigh a grand total of 177 ughhhhh

We did a TON of service this week, so that was fun.

So all in all in was a really busy week. But I enjoyed that. It sounds like you guys are having fun in the snow down there! ha! It has been pretty warm up here. no snow, but it might on saturday, we will have to see.

I cant believe mack conquerred the undies... that is tight! The "Sky fort" sounds sweet. It better be sterdy enough to last 17 more months. because i need to see it! the zip line still goin at it??

Big cole got had his recital huh? that is sweet. Did he play Joy to the world or what? I know how to play a simple version on count your many blessings. i am pretty stoked about that.

It is tons of peoples birthdays this week!!! i want to write happy birthday before i forget... drewski, dev Today!!!dang you are like what, 28? sphh and coleMAN! Im sorry if i forgot anyone hahaha. forgive me, my excuse that i am focused on the work.

But happy birthday!

So it sounds like this is a pretty exciting week for dad, you made it out to the lake exactly ONE time and the boat hasnt broken down! new record. i am pretty excited for ya! the boat have a name?? drift wood, noahs ark, what is it?

Dad you getting used to the i pad? they should give missionaries those things and we could do an amazing lesson... i think that would be fantastic..

Mother transfers arent next week the nexxt transfer day is june 16th, so i will be emailing the 15th... haha come on.

The last thing i am going to say is, devin since its your birthday today, can you get my scooter on ksl tomorrow?

I love you guys so much and miss you a ton..

Love Elder Dastrup

Email from April 28th 2010

So I don't know if any of you have noticed, but today was my six month mark! I am a fourth of the way day.. Wow I have along ways to go :) haha Since it was my mark today, last night I burned some ties to celebrate! It was very fun realizing that I don't ever have to go through that celebration again... And today we have celebrated it wonderfully, we went to the temple as a zone.. To bad it wasn't just for my six month mark or else I would feel pretty special.

This week has been a pretty good week. I guess good and bad. We lost an investigator. a 13 year old girl, It was more her mother that said she couldn't listen to us anymore. I guess she didn't want us to baptize her eh?? (I make fun of all the members I am close with all the time up here on how they speak) But we do plan on picking up a few more pretty soon so that will be cool..

We had a pretty cool teaching experience the other day.. It all started from a referal from a member. So we went over to this guys house to teach him. It was the craziest lesson I have ever had. He was a former addict with drugs alcohol, everything, you name it. He basically told his life story and what liqour stores he has robbed at gun point. It was insane. He was talking faster than anyone I have ever heard and he would get distracted way to easy.. It was very fun, let me tell ya... But since he talks fast, I started talking faster and faster and before I knew it I committed him to read the book of mormon, come to church, recognize how the church is going to help him, and to be baptized all in like 30 seconds. He kind of just sat there and said "woah bro, your kind of scaring me." I wanted to say back, dont you think you are scaring me, that is why I tried committing you as fast as possible so we could get out of here. haha it was a very fun experience. I actually wasn't scared at all. In the end he did want to work towards baptism and have the gospel in his life. We are going to have to hand the new investigator over to some other missionaries but that is fine with me. As long as he is being taught the gospel.

Mother I got your package with the shirts and slacks in it. Did you send another besides that? I couldn't tell from your email.. But thank you so much for the stuff. It is perfect. the shirts fit so good and the slacks do as well. I just have way to many white shirts now...I have like 15 or something. So don't worry about sending anymore of them :) I am set for my mission and for the next five years after my mission. The slacks are perfect colors. I like them a lot. I am so excited to not have to wear a suit coat for a while. It is definitely going to be nice.

Dad! It's your birthday this week, how do you feel? Like a million bucks? Are you going to throw a bigger and better party than the new years eve party? You could go even all more out! Do a Disco dance party or a canadian themed party.. That would be a riot.. You could just fill the basement with fake snow and fake polar bears and you would feel just like you were in Canada!.. So your turning the big 63 right? I have a feeling this will be a good year... It already has been.. I mean you did buy playoff tickets for the jazz! ( of course the one year i am gone) I think that when you get home, you should plan on getting season tickets, we could go to all the games and it would be sweet.. Dont worry if you dont think you would be up for ALL the games then dont you worry because I am still more than happy to go to the game. That could be your birthday present to yourself next year! I think that would be a pretty good gift! :) I am planning on sending you a gift in the package i send. I just dont know when I am sending it... Probably farely quick..

Speaking of the Jazz they better win it all this year and not choke like every year. There is a kid in our ward (Same one that gets the sweet jerseys for me) that gives us like instant updates on basketball games... It is sweet. I basically only have one more basketball season to miss... I think for the first few nights of being home i just want to watch basketball games...

It sure does seem like you guys are all going on a ton of vacations as soon as I leave home! What is that all about.... Too bad none of them are quite the same without me.............................

Well we have about 2 hours of pday left so i am going to go ahead and get going to get some groceries and some other stuff. i love you guys so much and sure do miss ya.

Love Elder Dastrup

Email from April 21st, 2010

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

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

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

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

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

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

Love, Elder Dastrup

Email from April 7th, 2010

What up fam.

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

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

love elder dastrup

Email from 03/31/10

Hey guys how is it going. Thank you for all your emails this week. Sorry i dont have more time to write everybody back individually! It sounds like you guys had an awesome trip! i am jealous, kinda, not as much as i thought i would be. Guess i am liking my new area :) actually i know i love my new area, we dont have any solid investigators right now but it is about to blow up. we just had a new ward mission leader called and he is amazing. So both ward mission leaders are good and they want to get stuff done. i am very excited. We should have a for sure baptism in april since there is a kid that turns 18 and has been wanting to be baptized for so long but his dad hasnt let him. he is basically like a member and same with 3 younger siblings. There mom is a member and they all come to church every single week.

I ran into a few connections to home in this ward which is awesome.. bro stonehocker served with dusty on his mission! i was just asking him if dusty was a wuss on his mission and he would laugh! hahaha he was way cool. he is feading us on friday i think. then i ran into a english family and they were ranting about jerom dastrup. They loved him! She like wasnt even breathing she was talking so fast. It was pretty funny!

I am serving in two wards now so we should hopefully be getting about 20 lessons a week. When i got here, my comp and his last companion seemed like they did nothing, it was kind of a joke. there was absolutely nothing set up and they were only teaching 5 lessons a week. so we are deffinitely changing that around.

Dusty, might you know, i can garuntee you cant hear me gaining pounds, cause i havent gained a pound. i am actully going to start losing weight, every monday wednesday and friday we go work out at elder and sister owens (senior couple) house and we actually work hard. I havent workeed out this hard since basketball. and on tuesday thursday saturday i still work out on my own. so im good! plus i am in a car share area so we only get the car monday tuesday wednesday thursday and we have to walk on friday saturday sunday. we are going to try and find bikes to borrow in the next couple weeks!Katie your fam sounds way busy! I got one of the pictures of mason, i think it was from terra, and it is the funniest thing i have ever seen. it is awesome! he just has a huge ol grin and i wouldnt be surprized if i go back and look at it that he will have food in his hand! Terr, Thank you so much for the package i always love getting them and new ties :)

Mother i havent gotten the st patricks day package yet but we should get mail next monday and our zone conference. i am excited for it!

my new apartment is WAY better then in brooks. hahah brooks was such a pile. lethbridge is way nicer and nicer home. we live with some members. The pitchers. They are like the nicest people i have every met. they have a son serving in austraila and he gets home in june. so that will be cool to see the families excitement. They are always watching the march madness stuff so we are staying updated on it! Sounds like byu did ok. they should have beat kansas st. though. typical byu choking when it comes down to it.Well todays pday is going to be awesome. i will actually be in civilation! yes! haha basketball! i am stoked. but yeah i guess that is all i have about i love all of you guys and miss ya so much!

love elder dastrup

ps Dusty, i believe i have been out longer than 2 months. 5 actually and i am going to burn a tie at the end of april when i turn 6!!! 19 more months to go!