Dear Elder

I heard from two Elders this past week!!
I emailed an Elder wishing him a "Happy Birthday!!!" and he replied wishing me a 'Happy Birthday!' I can't believe he remembered! And that our birthdays are 6 days apart. Impressive! I love reading his letters. He always seems so happy! I hope to be just like that. Happy 20th Birthday Elder Lyons!
Elder number two. I emailed him Monday morning and he replied 12 hours later. Made me laugh...and very happy! Thanks for the heads up on missionary work Elder Smith.
Elder numero tres. I still have to email you back. I promise I haven't forgotten about you! I hope Peru is treating you well! Love ya Elder Dresen!
I love writing Elders. They are awesome.

Last Week (4th-7th) in a Nut Shell

Sunday: Spiritually high. Best testimony meeting ever! Monday: Woke up to MISSIONARY MAIL!! I received a letter from one of the best missionaries out there. The best part was that the majority of his letter was in Spanish! So proud of him :) Work was awesome! Lots of laughs and happiness. Awesome customers. Tuesday: I voted!! Played Just Dance 4. Tiffany locked her keys in her car (we laughed). Remember to stay positive.  Wednesday: I got a phone call at 7:38 AM that my mission call was here and to go pick it up at the post office.  Canada Montreal Mission. French speaking, March 20th, 2012. Thanks for all the love and support. Thank you again!!! I know I haven't been posting as much as I would like, but I kinda have a mission to (continue to) prepare for :)

*Miracles*

The Lord creates miracles. Today, was one of them. I called my doctor to get my mission evaluation.  One hour later I was sitting in the doctors office. It went great! Afterwards, I go visit my dentist. She said they could fit me in on Thursday at 9AM. When I get home... They call me an hour later saying that they had an opening. I was in the dentists office 30 minutes later. I did both my doctor and dentist evaluation in one day. It was awesome!!! I was feeling very tired and loopy all day. I'm not sure if it is the TB Test or something else. But I survived. We went to the BYU country, swing and Latin dancing. It was so much fun. And there were tons of cute boys. They asked me to dance. BEST. DANCE. EVER! Why? Because it was a country/swing dance. I've always wanted to swing dance. The guy had to pick up the girl so her back is on his thigh and she was in a 90 degree angle. This boy picked me up like I was a feather. He was strong. Other boys came up to talk to me. If I were to go to BYU i'm sure i'd be married by now. I am way excited to attend BYU when I get home from my mission. It was the best feeling being there :) P.S. I can submit my mission papers now :)

Pinky Promise

Last April, one of my best friends and I made a promise. I promised him I would write him on his mission. Then when we are both on our missions we promised to write each other. By the time he got home, I would still have about a year or so left (less then that now). So, he said, "You better still write me when you are on your mission." I laughed, "No my friend, that is when you write me." He laughed and agreed. We pinky promised.

Yes, we are 19 and still do pinky promises. I'm not embarrassed about it. I'm excited :) In a few months I will be on my mission. Can we keep that promise? There is only one way to find out.

I Love General Conference

General Conference has been incredible! It always is. Always. But for some reason it was 10x's better. I'm not quite sure why. I'm just very glad it was. What a great blessing.    ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

As you all know the missionary age has changed. Boys-18 (and graduated)...Previous age was 19. Girls- 19...Previous age was 21

I honestly thought that I had a couple more years. But I know my time has come and the time is now.


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I am going to serve a mission .       ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
I'm a Mormon, I know it, I live it and lets be honest we all know I LOVE it! I love the Gospel. I love the Church. I love our leaders. I love the temples. I love my Heavenly Father. I'm grateful for the atonement, for missionaries, for families. But I am especially, truly grateful for my Savior and all he has done for me.



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It's because of Him I can become clean and return to live with my Father in Heaven. Same goes for you.  You and I are incredibly blessed.  He loves me more than I can ever imagine. ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
I have been thinking about going on a mission ever since I was 14. I remember sitting in Mia Maids. The teacher asks us, "Where do you see yourself in let's say, 7 years?" Most girls answered, "College"..."Married"..."Married and Pregnant"..."Married and with at least one child." Then came my turn to answer, "On a mission." Most of the girls turned to look at me. They gave me a gentle smile. I was only 14 I still wasn't sure. As the class went on I got a warm, happy, peaceful feeling that I was going. I only thought to myself, "Could it really be? Am I really going?" A soft voice answered, "Yes."
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Four years ago I got a special blessing. It tells me what is to come. It helps me in my life. It guides me to where I am supposed to go. Ever since I got this incredible blessing, I knew I was supposed to go on a mission. Most doubted me. Okay, everyone doubted me. But I stood strong and kept believing. Whenever General Conference came around that is when I felt strongly that I am going to serve. It brought tears to my eyes. It brought excitement to my soul. And It brought blessings to my life. Never have I doubted my Savior that I wasn't going. ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~   I've been writing my lovely missionary friends. Every time I receive a letter I get 10x's more excited for my mission. They tell me how tired they are, how challenging it can be. But not only do they tell me that, they add on...but it is worth it. I can't wait to feel tired, to study the gospel every day and every night. I can't wait to receive the blessings that come from it. I can't wait to share my testimony. I can't wait to serve my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ I am blessed. ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ Thank you for the love and support! You guys are awesome! :)

Lindsey Del Castillo

Saturday near Salt Lake City

Mission? YES PLEASE!!!

Like · 

• Michelle Reid, Abraham Del Castillo, Bryan Del Castillo and 49 others like this.
• 

  Martha Del Castillo I'm so HAPPY FOR YOU!! Mi NENITA I'm proud of you.

  Saturday at 12:15pm · Like
• 

  Laura Ward I thought you'd be excited with that announcement:)

  Saturday at 12:32pm · Like
• 

  Arturo Del Castillo Nice!! I'm so Happy for you Princes, We love you.

  Saturday at 12:50pm · Like
• 

  Irasema Campbell i texted you as soon as he announced it! did you get a new number?

  Saturday at 12:55pm via mobile · Like
• 

  Teresa Tavares I am so happy for you and for the family. The first girl missionary in the family. I can't wait. Love you Lindsey. Let me know how I can help:-) you are more than ready.

  Saturday at 2:13pm · Like
• 

  Cesar Tavares We will support you we love you!

  Saturday at 4:00pm · Like
• 

  Tammy Dodge Dresen That's awesome!

  Saturday at 10:42pm · Like

 

Stamps

Yup, I just bought stamps to write my awesome missionary friends :)

I'm excited!!

Mass Chaos

Last Monday, (The 24th to be specific), it was Bradyrian's 20th birthday. That morning, Lindsey (me), called Tiffany (the one sitting next to me) at 12:40 PM to ask her what day it was. Tiffany then answered (with a grin on her face) Brady's birthday!!  Correct! We talked about some ideas to surprise Brady. Toilet paper his house Spooning/Forking/Knifing his house. Egg his house. Make a poster. Send the Mariachi to serenade him. Put a dead skunk on his porch. Blindfold him and put him on the corner (and leave) Okay, okay. Just kidding we didn't think those things. We thought of something that was 10x's better. We hang up the phone and Tiff goes to work. I then start making our next project. I made a poster saying "HAPPY 20TH BIRTHDAY BRADY!!!!!" Here it is...

Okay, let's back track 2 hours or so.

Yes, I made this. Not my best but good enough for me. (Side note: Yes I got a sharpie and drew the "Y" on the "birthday" cause we lost it throughout our adventure) Keep reading.

Tiff came to pick me up and then we headed to the gas station to buy Brady's drugs. OKAY, DON'T THINK THAT! NOT THOSE DRUGS! Crazies, they are these...

Like I said, they are Brady's drugs.

Moving on.

We then headed to our so called "Brady's house" or so Tiff thought.

I thought his house was blue. But anyway.

We started taping the letters individually on the garage. I whisper over to Tiff and say, "Watch this be the wrong house." Tiff says, "haha that would be funny." We were getting to the end and as we taped the exclamation points one by one I said... "exclamation point, exclamation point, exclamation point, exclamation point, exclamation point..."

Uh oh.

Tiff and I looked at each other and panic.

Someone was opening the garage. Shoot!!! Ruuun!!!

We then hid behind 3 trees and got our pants and shoes muddy. We booked it around the corner and Tiffany said, "I really want my shoe." I looked down and said, "where did your shoe go!?" Tiff replies, "back there..."

ay ay ay

We walked two cul-de-sacs and turned back around.

We get back to the house and the garage was back down. Phew.

We started fixing the letters and taped up the last exclamation point.

We then go back to the car to get Brady's present aka "drugs"

A lady comes out and says, "Are you looking for Brady?"

We both reply, "Yes."

She then says, "He lives one more block that way."

I bust out laughing!

We go take the letters down and drive to Brady's house.

I then have a feeling that if we start taping the letters at that moment they would catch us. Tiffany says, "what do you want to do then cause your feelings are always right?"

Let's go to Kohlers.

We go buy 8 poster boards and a BIG cake balloon.

Told you it was big.

We put the balloon in the trunk after we taped all the letters to the poster (as shown in the first picture) outside on the trunk. Not to mention, it was freeeezing!

Then we went to Brady's house and taped it to his garage. (Yes, this was the real house this time)

We finished our master piece and walk to the car to get the present. We knock on the door and it turns out he was not home. We handed his brother his drugs and left.

big. sigh.

He was at the movies with his buddies.

fun!

We headed home. With a smile on our face and laughing at the chaos.

We were icicles by this time. So we called our buddy Calvino to make us hot chocolate. No answer. Tiff called 4 times and I texted him once. We then decided to get hot chocolate at Harts. (The gas station) Where they have thee best hot chocolate. When we went to check out. We met the cashier, his name was Kameron. We were crazy and tired and we decided to tell him our adventures thus far. Just a side note, he looked EXACTLY like Brady's brother. Sorry, I didn't get a picture of him ladies. Anyways... We continued off to our mass chaos adventure. We decided to go to Calvinos house. While we were on our way we get a phone call from him.  He said, "What are you guys up to" We answered, "well we aren't heading to your house if that's what you mean." "Jk, we are going to your house." Calvin replies, "Wait, really?" "Yup!" Tiff needed to go potty REALLY bad. I don't blame her.  We couldn't stop laughing. (Yes, throughout this whole adventure we are laughing hysterically) We then talked to Calvin for about 45 minutes. We told him about our adventure. We get to the part when we are at Kohlers and I mention that we bought him a huge balloon... SHOOT!! WE DIDN'T GIVE HIM THE BALLOON! So we show Calvin. He liked it. Calvin, as usual, changes the topic. Which is a-okay with us :) He says, "does this white shirt look good?" We both reply, "yes!" Then we noticed we were all wearing white shirts! Here is proof...

First of all, I love this picture! Like alot. alot. We went back to Highland to drop off the balloon. Brady was there. We sat down and talked. His mom gave us hugs and gave us delicious cake. (She made it!) Brady told us about his day and how he and his friends got gummy wasted. We gave Brady one last hug and headed home. Even though for some people this may have been an epic fail of a day. It was a success for us. We laughed at our mistakes and made the best of them. & Tiffany

Missionaries

Can I just say I love missionaries AND Missionary Mail? I can't wait to be a missionary.10 MONTHS!!!Till I can start my papers.Yeah, I'm a little excited.OKAY, MAYBE A LOT!!
Writing missionaries is the best thing. When you see that letter in the mail with your name on it. You get all giddy and just can't wait to open it. Then you get upset cause you kinda ripped the envelope and it didn't open the way you wanted it to. But then you have the letter in your hand and you could care less about the envelope. Then you start reading the letter and you are reading it so fast that not everything registers in your head. Then you have to go to FHE and the letter is sitting on your bed. And you are thinking, I just wanna go home and write him back. But you don't, you stay at FHE. Then a day or two later you find the time to write him back. When you finally click "send letter" you hope you didn't forget anything.Then the following Monday the process continues.
This will be more entertaining when I'm on my mission. I'M EXCITED :) 
Here are SOME of my missionary friends.Elder Rickey Callister-Ukraine Ukrainian SpeakingElder Jordan Black-Johannesburg, Africa English SpeakingElder Jeremy Jensen-Philadelphia, Pennsylvania English SpeakingElder Mark Lyons- Nairobi, Kenya Swahili SpeakingElder Luke Fitzgerald-Ghana, AccrakElder Jordan Dresen-Arequipa, Peru Spanish SpeakingElder Ben Reid- Boston, MassachusettsElder Brian Hansen- Baltic (Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania) Russian SpeakingElder Spencer Chappell-Minneapolis, Minnesota English SpeakingElder Zach McKenzie-Des Moines, Iowa English Speaking
I am so proud of these boys! 

I have letters set for some of these boys. I just need to send them :P

Elder Dresen

Called to Serve: July 25, 2012 in Arequipa, Peru. Spanish Speaking.


Elder Dresen,
I can't believe it's actually here. I feel like I just met you two months ago in ward prayer. Where does the time go? I'm really excited for you! As I watch my friends leave on their mission, it gets me 10x's more excited for mine. Thank you for being such a great example, not only to me, but to those you come in contact with. Thank you for sharing your testimony! Thank you for being a great friend. You are such an amazing person, which makes you an amazing missionary. The people in Peru are very lucky. We are all going to miss you, but we are incredibly happy for you! If you ever have a hard time, just remember the Lord is on your side and same with your friends here in Utah (and California). We are cheering you on. We are beyond proud of you. Thank you for all you've done. Keep up the great work and always give 100%.
Return with Honor, Elder Dresen.

City Creek :)

Jordan, Mike & I at City Creek.

One heck of an adventure.

Two hyper boys.

One entertained girl.

Okay, let me start off by saying it was late. I was driving, Jordan was in the passenger seat and Mike was in the back. Somehow, when you put these two boys together you get hyper mayhem.

After a 45 minute drive and them criticizing my driving we made it to City Creek. 

Side Note: None of us knew exactly where it was. It said "South Temple" so we figured it was south from the temple?? 

Luckily, it was. We got there and it was AWESOME! We went from store to store. Not to mention they were all GUY stores. Which is completely fine with me. I grew up with four older brothers. 

As we were walking from store to store these boys would make the funniest faces and talk in a very entertaining accents. 

We got the funniest looks from different people. I don't think the boys noticed cause they were distracted. But me being the observer saw all the people's reactions.

I was happy to have great friends and be entertained all night.

It was like a comedy show. 

Going to City Creek for my first time with these two boys was the best :)

P.S. Did I mention Jordan drove on the way home? Yup, from SLC to PG.

My Bucket List

One Day I Will...