Email from August 23, 2010

Hey family...

Sounds like the first week back from Powell was good! Best news is, is that Dad must be craving lake Powell or something. Cause He is already back.. Wow. I Can't picture this. haha That is awesome though.

Things here have been really up and down which can be frustrating sometimes... Our baptism on Saturday didn't end up going through. Seans parents wouldn't sign the permission form So we couldn't end up baptizing him. We also are having a hard time setting up lessons, meeting with him and getting ahold of him. So frustrating. But all we can do is keep trying and keep working hard and think of the positive, blessings that have been happening in my (our) lives. Sean Has been so good to work with and we have just hit some bumps in the road, so as long as we keep working hard with him and help him to have us talk to his parents, it will all be fine!

Our three leg is doing good and we are learning a lot from eachother. Elder Dana is from Arizona, so like my 4th comp from there and elder Graham just from springville.. first comp from Utah. It is very different teaching in a three leg. We teach a lot less and we are trying to figure out how to teach with eachother. But it is coming along good. Our biggest concern is that I talk to much, and they talk to little. I like talking, what can I say? We have just decided that I know how to talk to people a little more. People Person? I don't know. But I am working on being able to let them have some more time.. hahahah whoops. My bad. But we are definitely learning a lot from eachother! Good news from that.

Wow, Thank you so much for the package, I was so excited. Brother Lee Came up to me at church and was like, hmmm i have a package for you. I was so confused. He tried explaining to me what had happened but I didnt really know what was going on. So to see three containers from you guys, I was extemely excited. Lots of treats!!! And really good ties. Thank you for those. Where did you get them, they are sweet.. And of course the best part. Letters from the whole family. That is always amazing. Got to love that. I was so dang excited. It definitely made my weekend a lot better after the baptism not going through, it must have been inspired or something!?

And It is to bad that I missed the pattens, we had to go down to the mission office. We are going down Like once a week now for Elder Dana. He has to go take some tests in South Calgary once and week then go fax them back home from the mission office. So that is where we were on friday. We also went down this morning to take care of it. It is always random so we don't know exactly what day we are doing it and whatever. It is about a 30 minute drive so it ends up taking a hour and a half or so. So that is where we must have been when brother patten was here.

So last night guess what i got to do. The GALLON CHALLENGE..... For those of you that aren't with it, I will explain what it is. So you get a group of people and you all get 1 gallon of milk... You start the timer and you drink the milk. you have 1 hour to drink the whole gallon and keep it down... No throwing up....... So I have done this before and I probably got like 3/4 of the way done before i threw up.. This time, we used Chocolate milk, Because that is what they had, and it was way harder. I drank about half of it and I was dying. Maybe because it was because I had just come from a huge roast beef dinner, I don't know.. hahah but it was wicked hard. I ended up throwing up like 4 times! hahah it was so fun though. Neither of my companions would do it. There was about 6 people that did do it. And only one person drank the whole thing, with out throwing up half way through it. There was definitely a lot of throw up in the ally way. Made things interesting. We definitely had a crowd. I did that with The members we live with's little brother that just got home from his mission and all of his friends.. It was so fun. I probably won't drink any milk for a while but ya never know. If they challenge me again, I just might be willing to try it.......

So today for pday we are going to the mall to eat, then to the stake center (Centre in Canada) and play basketball.. So typical pday. Nothing to special. But still a good day..

Thank you guys for everything that you guys do for me. I love you all so much and miss you so much.... You guys are the best.

Love, Elder Dastrup.

p.s. This week I hit my 10 month mark!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! yeah dog no more single digit crap.

Email from August 16th, 2010

Hey Family...

So this week was good, yet I did think about Powell all week which was tough. I did everything I could not to, but I still did.. Oh well now it is over with!

I have had a wonderful week topped off with a awesome surprize.. I got a call last night from one of the assistants (which is one of my friends from home) and he told me that I am now training! It isn't the start of a new transfer but, this Elder is coming out half way through so I am training him.. So for the next several weeks we will be in a three leg. Me, Elder Graham, and my new companion, Elder Dana. He is from Arizona.. So this will be my fourth comp from AZ, 1 from Idaho, 1 from minnesota, 1 from texas, and surprizingly only 1 from Utah... So that is kind of cool. I am way excited for that. President Archibald will drop off our new comp at 4 or so while we are playing basketball. I am wayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy stoked!

So Mom that is way sweet that you got a letter from the Hamiltons, you didn't tell me what family it was, but i am guessing it is them.... They are awesome. Definitely one of my favorites... It was an awesome experience to serve around them and getting to know them. You will have to save that letter. I plan on visiting them all once i am all done... They are way cool!

Lake Powell seemed like a success (for the first time ever ) That is so cool, I don't think I have ever gone down and not have something go wrong.. I could imagine Dad just sitting in in "fish n' chips" or whatever the name is! Wanting to stay out of the son... Then i could totally imagine Chance going over and fishing, then getting it all tangled.. Good times, Well good news is that I only have to miss one more trip to lake powell... I am still surprized nothing else bad happened.. Dustys boat didnt sink or run into another boat or anything. Stunning.

Our baptism is still on for Saturday so far. I am excited. I hope everything goes good with it. I am just counting down the hours until then. Sean has been really good to work with and is making a good effort to learn for himself everything he needs to know. I will take some good pictures and get them your way after the baptism!

So I am thinking that some people are starting to forget about me because I am getting less and less letters... I haven't gotten one in a few weeks... And So much for Dana being the best package sender ever.. that was all a lie. Mom is wayyyyy better. I don't know where she got the idea where she was the best...

Oh yeah, this week I chipped my tooth. so lame. So I have to got get that fixxed on thursday. All Dentistry comes from home money. So I apoligize! Stupid teeth.. I think I also might have a cavity. Good news is that the dentist I am going to is a member of the church so maybe he will give a discount price or maybe free or something. hey Missionaries work wonders up here...

I love you guys and miss you so much. Dont forget about your favorite brother!

Love Elder Dastrup

Email from August 8th, 2010

To the whole fam damily, as devin would say it..

How is it going? Sorry to worry you last week mother about not having an email on monday, but if you look back to the week before that I did say that I wasn't going to be emailing the following monday :)

So this week has been a good one! We have been working wicked hard! We had 20 lessons and stayed busy a majority of the time but still no baptisms. We do have a date set, for the 21st of August. But we haven't been able to get ahold of him for the last several days. I believe he went out of town but he should hae been back by now so I don't know why he isn't answering..... But yeah we are supposed to have a lesson with him on wednesday so we will have to see if he shows up. Me and my comp are getting along good. teach well together so that is always good. We are still wanting to get some more investigators and we are so close to getting some more potential investigators to actually being investigators but........... who knows when closer is.

So dad you finally gave in and got qauds? that is sweet! you arent allowed to take them up to alaska until after i get home. seriously! That is rad though. i am stoked. any more updates on the zip line or anything?? improvements?

The member we live with, Nate and Kina Martin, they are way sweet! but they had a brother get home from his mission this last week. He is a cool kid, He is going to play basketball down at the college in Lethbridge. we are going to ball with him in two weeks. I am excited, i want to see what it takes to play college ball up here.

Speaking of college sports, dad are you gettin football or basketball tickets this year? byu football might not be quite as good, but i still think they will be descent. but what do i know. The scriptures say nothing about football or basketball. so i dont really know..

I still cant believe you guys are going to lake powell with out me. if that doesnt make you forget about me, i dont know what will...... I think that might be the one thing that will make me trunky! but i can get over it.

So i dont have much to say today... i am short on words i guess. so have a wonderful week. i love you all so much and miss ya!

Love Elder Dastrup

Email from August 3rd, 2010

Yo wasssupp family??

How is it going? Another fantastic warm week here in Canada, Maybe one of the last! It is probably going to start cooling down here before to long! This week was definitely a good one! I am enjoying my new area, even though I miss my old area so much. The west side of lethbridge is awesome! but Airdrie is awesome to. I like it. The work here is good. We had an awesome experience at church this week. We had a random kid come out of no where because he felt like he should be at that church. He was atheist before he came, he loved it, recognized the spirit and trusted everything we said.. He told us he has never been a trusting guy, ever. But there was something different about us.... SOOOOOOOOOOOOO Awesome!! We set a date with him for the 21st of august, but he is 16 and he said his parents will be upset with him for even going, so we are going to be praying hard to soften their hearts! I got to teach him a lesson all by myself. It was a way good experience. He is an awesome kid so Everything will hopefully work out good. I Cant wait for august 21st, We are going to teach another investigator right after we leave here and we are going to try to set a date with her for the 21st as well. I haven't met her yet though so I don't know to many details about her.

So like I said, I am now serving in Airdrie, It is about as far north in the mission you can get. It is only about a 20-30 minute drive to down town Calgary though.. Hmmmm I wonder if it gets colder up here than where I was serving last winter.. Hopefully not!!! There is a mall in my area, it is called the Balzac mall! It is huge. So crazy. We walked around like half of it yesterday and it took wayy to long..

My new comps name is Elder Graham. He is from Springville Utah. He is a pretty good guy. We get along ok so we will have to see how it goes,. Hopefully we can get some baptisms in thiis area, There have been a ton rescently so it better not be all dried up now!

So Dad it sounds like you are getting soooooooooooooo excited about Alaska That is awesome! Can't wait to go up.. You guys are taking like a million trips this month. Kind of jealous. I thought you guys were going to cancel Lake Powell since I wasn't going to be there.... Now instead mom and dad are going twice! I thought that dad didnt even like powell??? So are you going to like times square for the convention in New York or what? What ever you do just don't try and walk 30 + blocks again dad. Especially when your feet are swollen up! I just remember how much pain you were in when we went to go to church the next morning.

So me and my comp were talking this morning about how much the mission changes you.. Like how when we were growing up before the missions, we would always dread going to church and it was sooo hard to go. Now it is like the best day of the week ( minus P day ) and my comp, elder lee, that has just been with us for a week because he goes home tonight, was saying that he cant wait to go home teaching... We must of changed alotttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttt.

Once again i live with some sweet members! The martins. They are a younger family but they are rad. We have our own kitchen and entrance, washer and drier, everything. but having three people stay there is tough, but like i said elder lee goes home tonight so it will become a lot easier.

I love you guys so much and miss ya a ton. I will talk to you guys next monday!

Love Elder Dastrup

Email from 07/27/10 - 9 month Mark

Hello Family how is it going?

This has been a wonderful week here in Lethbridge.... I love my area so much, to bad it was my last week here. I am now on my way to Calgary. I willl be just about as far north in Calgary as I can. A town called Airdrie, I cover part of a place called Ballsak!!!!!!!!!! pronounced Ball zack.... but i dont know who named that place!

I do love the area I am in, but I am always excited for changes. My new companions name is Elder Graham. I never have met the guy. But we will have to see how it is. I am staying District Leader and I enjoy the position so I am excited about that!

As for this week, it has been awesome, We have worked pretty dang hard and we have more positive things that have come from it!

1. We taught 20 lessons this week ( our weekly goal was met )

2. We gave 4 7 Day Challenges ( our goal is 2 a week )

3. We kept Daily Contact with our investigators with baptismal dates (met the goal)

4. We had two investigators come to church.

5. I got to play basketball with Corey Gleave and Kurt Maccleanen (Next door neighbor to Austin)

6. I walked probably like 20 + miles this week. Way to much. ( my goal is to never walk.)

7. Now i am being transferred and I am leaving 2 people with dates, and several more Solid investigators. good news is that my new area i am going has had like 10+ baptisms in the last two months. Hopefully there will still be someone there for me to baptize!

I have really enjoyed serving with elder Green. It has been a good experience for me and i have learned quite a bit from him. I am sad i cant live with the pitchers any more. They are the coolest people in the world but i am way excited because i hear the new family i live with is like everybodys favorite! But i dont know if they can match the pitchers, probably not!

I almost started packing a couple days ago because i felt like i was going to be transferred today, but i decided i would just wait, it will probably only take like a half hour anyways.

Mother Congrats on being released as the president. When ever i tell people about my fam, i always bring up how you are a RS pres and how you are the best one in the world. I bet you are glad to be moving on though. Having seen you doing something with it every single day for like 4 years, I know that you definitely worked hard. Good news is that i dont EVER have to be a RS president. I am positive everyone is so sad to see you not be the president anymore. But life goes on and now you get to swim whenever you want!

DBoney! you the man, the mini is finally done! 3 years? not to shabby. I plan on taking it for a test drive in 15 months so dont sell it. Send some pics of it! I bet you crapped your pants when you turned the key and it started..... I am excited for you though. So cool.

Mom i havent gotten mail yet but i should get it all tomorrow at transfers so i should get it then. hopefully the mold hasnt started. I love banana bread.. Did you guys recieve my package yet? there wasnt really anything good in it sorry. But i promise i will get one out soon with pictures and everything. I just need to start taking pictures, that is all. :) I will get it done!

So just an update on how much weight i am gaining! not much actually. I am doing descent. i could do better and i hope that my new comp likes to work out so it gets me goin again. As of this mornign i weight 178. So about 5 pounds since i have been out. Not to bad but not good either. lately members havent been giving dessert like every night so that is a good thing!

You guys are the best family in the whole world. I love everyone of you so much. Thank you for everything you do for me. I Love you...

Love Elder Dastrup

Email from July 5th, 2010

How be it?

Another week come and gone. This was a good one. We have lots of positive stuff goin on now! It was really a week of blessings. It was very nice to be apart of that and have very few things go wrong. The Lord always blesses as long as we are doing what we should, it might just take a little time sometimes...

This week we have picked up several new investigators. Set a SOLID baptismal date for august 20th, he is going to be out of town for 3 1/2 weeks until then, so that is why it is so far away. His name is dominique. I am so stoked. Only bad this is that the next transfer is july 28th so i might be gone. But regaurdless i am so excited. His dad is way against it. And I definitely had to push him to ask (tell) his dad he is going to be baptized. but he finally did it and he has no regrets. he is so excited. He has three younger brothers and sisters that want to be baptized as well. But we will see what happens with them.

We are still working with lori and shawn. We cant set a specific date right now , it is a very long process and i can almost garuntee that it wont happen while i am here so we just continue to teach and wait until the bishop oks everything.

We have been giving challenges around the ward that are 7 day challenges.. It is a very spiritual lesson that gets them really excited about missionary work (or scared) but the ultimate goal from it is to find somebody for us to teach in the following seven days. our goal as a mission is to do 2 a week and eventually do like 10 a week. the most i have ever gotten is 6 and it was the hardest week yet. But that is where almost all our contacts come from and all our refferrals. So it is definitely something that needs to be done. Just if we could get people to have appointments with us............I just need Dana to come up here and schedule appointments for me and keep me busy! \

The latest family we have done a 7 day challenge with is the Varty's. it is day six today and they will have somebody for us to teach tomorrow. They are pretty cool! they got me a tie from china! yeah dog..

So it sounds like you guys are all having a wonderful 4th of july week. Good news is that me and my comp got the hamiltons (another sweet family in the ward) to sing the star spangled banner on the first of july. they were so mad. but hey it made me happy.

Mother i would also like to take this oppertunnity to wish you a happy birthday this week! a couple days ago. I know for a fact by the time that i get home i wont be thinking you have aged a lot. you probably will look younger! you tend to do that mother.. but happy birthday and i love you. you are the best mom ever!!!!

And Kaatttttttie! Happy birthday to you as well on the 8th.. I think you said you were turning 30 this year?? milestone!!!!!!!!! good work! Love you Kate!

So today for pday me and elder green have convinced everybody to play baseball. and the weather is wonderful. so good! so we are going to have some fun. i will probably hit a couple home runs. i dont really know yet. but it will be fun regaurdless.

the familly i live with, their son came home from his mission this week so it has been way cool seein him. he is totally still a missionary which is cool. so now there three missionaries living there!

Everything up here is doing really good acrossed the border! Still havent seen a mountie so i am bugged with that... but time will come and eventually i will seee one!

well i am hungry and want to play baseball so i love you guys so much and miss ya. but not to much!

Stay Classy

love Elder Dastrup

ps.. mother can i send home my white long sleeve shirts so that you can have nancy austin hemn them and take them in on the sides? ya neva answered me! And i will look up that contact. it might not be in my area but we will get somebody on it! Love you

Email from June 28th, 2010

Today is my 8 month mark.... but who is counting?? just to let all of you guys know :) I have been having a wonderful time this week. it went by fast. I didnt know how i was going to like the whole monday pday thing, but this week has gone by way faster so obviously i am going to like it. We did a lot of work this week. We moved two families and taught 17 lessons. Still just working our hardest to find as many investigators and people to teach as possible. We have so many goals to reach every week it makes it hard, butttttttttttt we are doing our best and thank goodness for a father that pounded goal setting into my brain! it makes it a lot easier!

our investigators, Lori and Shawn Patterson. Wont be baptized this month.. they will be baptized, it will just take a little bit of time. They have some things to work through before they are baptized. but i still like teaching them hahah..

we have a ton of lessons set up this week. every night actually, except july first. That is CANADA DAY.. so like july 4th in the states. no one will invite us over so i dont know what we will be doing. maybe street contacting, when they are lighting fireworks??? they might not be to happy with that..

so yesterday at church was awesome, both bishops were asked by the stake president to give about a five minute talk about missionary work.. the spirit was so strong, both bishops cried and so did half the congregation... Both bishops also invited us up to the stand and had us recite one of our missionary scriptures... It is called my mission commission... Maybe that is what got people crying??? i dont know... :)but it was awesome. The longer i have been out the longer i am comfortable speaking in front of the whole group.. after the meeting. we had quite a few people come up and ask us when they could have us over. normally NO ONE asks us, we normally have to pin them down. so that was pretty cool!

The family we live with.... the Pitchers.... Havve a son coming home from a mission on tuesday night. So that will definitely be weird living there at the house with a return missionary. i will be pretty cool though i think.We will have somebody right there that will always be able to go on splits! He was serving in The Sydney australia South mission.. Everybody in the ward talks about him and really likes him so he seems like a pretty cool kid..

So we have another girl in our ward that has been coming to church for several years now and still isnt baptized. Her mom and dad are members but they wont let her get baptized... weird? but just barely her mom just gave her the ok to get baptized this summer so the bishop is going to meet with her asap then hopefully we can start teaching her! We will see what happeneds.

So me and my comp are getting along pretty good. He just tells me all the time about the people he hates and why.. funny, the people he hates in arizona are the people i hang out with.. so im guessing me might not like me either... i dont know! no but we do get along pretty good. He thinks about home quite often and how long he has... It just makes me happy that i am not homesick at all and that it doesnt effect me like it does some people..

This has been a wonderful week and i love you guys and miss ya! but we are going to get heading out to go do our pday stuff! which for me and elder green, we got invited to go golfing on a nice course so i need to go to the thrift store to get a 2 dollar collard shirt!

love you guys

love elder dastrup