WEEK 22

 Hello Mom!!!


How are you doing?? Trev is gone that's so awesome, Can't believe we are serving at the same time now! He left in style tho haha jeez he's lookin good tho. Hope he doesn't get robbed haha;) I'm kidding he won't. That was a great move on the Taco Bell part. That sure makes me jealous! It sounds so good right now! and that sting ray didn't have much of a different taste haha but it was good! The weather has been super hot lately but now it's raining and raining which I like cuz it cools the place down a bit haha. But yea that's our Chevy Cruze we drive around. pretty ent? ent means right btw in trini slang haha.


But with Trev gone now what are you going to do? haha since Brit's in Oregon now?!?!? that's crazy I haven't got an email about that yet haha and that's awesome with Dad's  promotion! That's awesome to hear how everyone is doing! Send pics of Trev when he sends some cuz idk if he will send me any haha. That's awesome with the MV football! I'm missing football so much right now! I wish Doug coached our team!


But that's awesome to hear how everyone is doing! And have you started the challenge yet? haha you could finish real easy! And how long have I been out? I thought it was only 5 months? haha

**Mom wrote: If you count the weeks it's 22 weeks which is 5 months 2 weeks cuz some months have an extra week in them!!!!!!**

But I hope you two have a great week and I love ya both and I can't wait to hear from you next week!

Now about my week! So a new transfer has begun! So Couva for 6 more weeks! I'm excited cuz it's a great area! It's bigger now cuz some missionaries left here so we have to cover three areas now so a lot more work and trying to see everyone. It'll be good tho! But had some fun experiences this week. I played some Muslims in basketball which was a blast! We kicked butt of course;) but Muslims are pretty nice and cool down here tho haha. Also in a lesson we were having these little kids that go crazy and they are usually loud every time we go there but this time we went they were more settled down this time and at the end of the lesson I got the two kids to pray at the end! It was way cool cuz they usually would never. One was 7 and the other 4. It was cool to see the spirit work with them!

We are also in a lesson with some progressing investigators they threw out anti Mormon stuff at us. Which was a bummer cuz before we were having great lessons but we answered their questions and they understood they can't just believe everything they see. And of course Tia got baptized!! It was awesome..she is awesome and is excited about the gospel. It's great to see a person change and gain that closeness with them!! so that was a highlight of the week!

Until Next week..

Love Elder Colton Bastian

WEEK 21

Hey Mom!

I bet you guys are freaking out with Trev leaving! Cuz I know I am! That was fast, I can't believe he heads to the MTC tomorrow! That's awesome....look at all the money you'll be saving now hahaha

But a little about my week.. this week was pretty good! We did service which was great, cuz I love doing service and working! This week we just painted somebody's cement wall in front of their house. It was hot tho! I got a lot of sun where I was still white at. Also this week was our transfer call. So Wednesday is when we start a new transfer... luckily I'm still staying in Couva! Which I'm happy about cuz Couva is soo awesome! Elder Hanks and I will be crushing it again! It's been pretty fun working with him. We have tons of fun and always joking around... but serious when we need to be of course. But it's been a blast being with him! And also we are preparing for our baptism this Saturday for Tia. We are pretty excited for that and will let you know how it goes. We went to a small waterfall thing today as a zone activity too. It was fun and will send pics!

So I know you'll be focused on Trev this week and busy so I'll make it short;) but yea thanks for sending the scripture..... but have fun this week even tho Trev will be gone. Maybe that will make it a lot less stressful now haha but I do have a challenge for you and Dad... I've been reading the Book of Mormon a lot lately and seeing how great it is to read with other people so I challenge you and Dad to read the whole Book of Mormon before I come home! Will you accept or decline the challenge? Are you up for it? haha but the Book of Mormon is really great and it's awesome once you get into the story line of it.

Have fun this week! I'll talk to you next week!

Love and miss ya! Good luck with everything with Trev!

Love Elder Colton Bastian

Can't get more breathtaking!

The best way to cool down!

This is cool!

Found Protein!

Kinda feels like home up in the mountains

My prayers are answered!!!

Good thing I sleep with my mouth shut...hahaha

Adding another to the collection!

Part of the crew at our Zone Activity

Awesome

New Book!

How awesome is this??

Holy...in our kitchen?? REALLY

Feeling Blessed

Service...helping paint

Hey found Aviators...YES!!!!

Feeling on top of the world

BEAUTIFUL

WEEK 20

Hey Mom!

     This last week was pretty good! We had some pretty good lessons with some people! It's definitely a learning experience every week! Which is pretty cool. Dwain is still working so it's really hard to see him! Hopefully he will figure that out. He is so ready for baptism , he just needs to be dunked already hahaha. We also have been teaching this younger girl named Tia. She is awesome! She understands so well and reads all the time and is progressing like a champ. She is planned to get baptized August 27th so that's coming up pretty soon! I'm pretty excited about that! We have some other people progressing as well but no baptism dates yet! Every week is a learning experience and a fun experience so hopefully I'll be able to share them all with you in the future! We went to Gran Couva which is pretty much the bush in Trinidad, meaning the jungle. And it was so sweet. There's hills and we went adventuring through it to see waterfalls and all sorts of stuff! I'll send a bunch of pics of that! Also we have been doing service a lot lately it seems like, which has been fun. A less active member gave us curried sting ray which was good! 

     Thanks for the info of the stuff haha! I'm glad to hear of the week you guys had! And is that really how you spell Sesame St.? hahaha and I can't believe Trev leaves next week!!!!! I bet you are freaking out haha that's so crazy and that has came so fast! That's awesome his talk went good and Costa Vida for lunch wow luckys!!! He's gonna do awesome out here. I wonder how his mission is gonna be I heard the Trinidad mission is one of the hardest on the earth! So no wonder it's been tough hahah

     But I have a favor for you. I sent a scripture home to you like the first few emails when I was in Guyana. it's in D&C but I can't remember the verses. Could you send that to me? Also if you do ever send a package and if u send pics with that, could you send that one of me playing football. Like the one with me running the ball, shoving the guy to the ground haha 

     Have a great week tho! It's awesome when I get to email home so I can't wait to hear from u next week! and I miss all ya and love all ya too! Have a great week and stay strong! love you mom! -elder colton bastian


2 years- carly barlow
That is a song, also the computer is being really annoying so I'll have to send pics next week!!

WEEK 19

hey mom!!

So first I'll  tell you about my week! It was pretty boring as well. It was kinda a tougher week, not a whole lot of people wanted to listen and our lessons were kinda low, at least low enough where I don't want them to be. But the only thing that I have to is work harder and keep pushing through, this week will be good I can already tell! We did service this week. We went to a member's home and she wanted us to move some dirt, so we were like oh yea easy, so we went on a nice day and it turned out the dirt pile was as tall as me and we had to spread it out over a big area. Annnnddd the dirt was mud and clay so it was pretty fun as you can image. It was soo hot I had to have sweat off 10 lbs haha and blisters all over my hand but we got her done. And it turned out to be pretty fun! We of course find service where ever we go, that's what I like to do, just helping brighten somebody's day by helping them.

Also we have a really cool investigator, she really wants to be baptized and knows that the Book of Mormon is true. So that's really neat. We are teaching her a lot and trying to help her come closer to this gospel. that's about it for the week that I can remember!

But I'm sorry to hear it's been a quiet week! that's awesome you got to go to Keith Urban tho! I bet that was fun! I'm sorry to hear about your gma. I hope and pray everything is alright. Just keep staying strong mom! just keep having that faith that everything will workout to the best. cuz I know it will! Just always have trust in our heavenly father!

But I got an email about the skype thing? don't know whats that about? Also how much does a prosthetic leg cost in the US? An investigator wants to know. Also how's the Olympics going? 

I've been trying to workout more and more cuz I think I'm getting chub and I don't want that so we've been running everyday and taking protein. So I had a thought of making protein pancakes which was pretty good haha I figured you could tell trev that.

Also I was thinking, when you were baptized did you see missionaries? And if so were you pretty hard on them or easy? And why did you get baptized? Just something to think about, haha I was just wondering about it.

But I love and miss you a ton! Keep being the best Mom there is! I'm grateful to have a Mom like you in my life! you da best! I'll talk to ya next week!

love ya! -elder colton bastian

Trinidad City

WEEK 18

Hey Mom!!

    It was a holiday yesterday so I couldn't email! They have holidays like crazy down here. but anyway it was a pretty good week! Dwain didn't get baptized this week cuz of work again.. but we are still working hard for it, hopefully he can get off. Nothing too exciting happened this week. We had zone conference, I think McKay sent pics home of it. 

    We learned about love and charity. It was a really good meeting and how we can show more and charity in our lives and towards others. Moroni 7:45-48  As we show charity and love to everyone we can really feel more love as we learn the love that Christ and heavenly father has for us. cuz love is the greatest commandment there is. Matthew 22: 36-40. 

    It's been 4 months too!!! I almost forgot about that! It's crazy it's speeding up faster and faster. I really want to make the best of it here. But Saturday rained like crazy!!! It was flooding and couldn't even see cuz there was so much rain. But it flooded in some areas and we decided to help people cuz they were getting stuck in the water. So we got outside with water up to our knees and started pushing cars haha. It was pretty fun. I'll send pics of it. Other than that it was pretty quiet here

but yes I do have a/c in my apartment haha without that I would die. I'm glad to hear everyone is doing good! Trev will be gone soon. I can't believe Ammon and Styrling will be gone, they will do great. I'm happy I got to here from you and I hope you still are doing great!

    I love you mom and keep doing great! I can't wait till next week to hear more from you. 

miss and love ya

Elder Colton Bastian

This is gonna hurt

Good thing he is driving more now and not having to bike it!

sorry this was so short