Hey

So I've been here for about 5ish days in the new area with the new comp.  The area is way cool.  It's about 30 mins outside of Cali. It has way more of a open air kind of feel which is nice after being crammed in Cali for 3 months.  There are a lot of huge sugar cane fields.  The one thing that sucks though is that there are a lot of bugs in the house.  They're not small either.  Oh well. 

My comp is Elder L from Perú.  He's pretty cool.  We've got the exact same time in the mission.  He has some problems being obedient and is a little prideful sometimes, but were working on staying obedient and stuff.  He's good at talking with people and stuff which is nice.

Our area actually includes more than one pueblo.  Every Thursday we take a bus to some other town nearby.  It's pretty cool

My comp doesn't like soccer at all which kinda sucks for me now that I've caught the fútbol fever.

Todo está tranquilo en el momento.  Solamente tratando de conocer el área y todo eso.  Voy a dar todo lo que tengo éste año

Élder Chase

Ok, so first thing, something is wrong with the camera.  For now I can't take pics.   Sorry, that sucks.

We received the transfers yesterday.  I'm getting changes.  This Wednesday I'm going to a small city called Villagorgona.  It's about 15 mins outside of Cali.  The missionaries have only been there for 6 weeks.  It's even newer than Buenaventura when I went there.  They don't have a chapel or even a house chapel.  The people have to take a bus every Sunday down to a ward in Cali.  It should be sick!  I don't know if its gonna be easy, but it's definitely another cool opportunity President Prince has given me to go to a place where missionaries have basically never been.  I don't know too much yet, but just what pres has told me makes me pretty stoked!

Last Saturday we finally had a baptism.  Her name is Elizabeth S. M.  We were gonna have two, but one fell out the day before.  Anyways, I don't have pics due to the problem with my camera, but when we did the family night activity in presidents house, I think Hermana Prince put pics from it.  Elizabeth is the one in the red shirt.  It was pretty cool.  I got to baptize her too! 

Pero, sí hice todo lo posible para ayudar éste barrio y ahora estoy listo para las experiencias que la misión tenga para mi.

Élder Chase   

Hey

So last Tuesday President Prince invited us to do a family home evening type of activity in his house.  It's a pretty cool chance.  He told us that it isn't worth doing it if we were only gonna bring 3 people, though.  It was a lot of pressure and craziness, but we were able to get 8 investigators there and the sisters brought 3.  It was pretty cool.  

If everything works out, we should have 2 baptisms.  One is pretty set and the other is like maybe.  It could go either way.  We're doing everything we can to get these poeple in the water.  We had 7 investigators from us come to church and the sisters had 4.  That's the most investigators this ward has had in a while. The ward was in danger of becoming a branch,  but this last Sunday, there were so many people that some had to sit on the stage in the back.

Oh yeah, another cool thing;  There's a gringo visiting his wife's family here in the ward and he came with them on Sunday.  He's from Provo and doesn't speak hardly any Spanish.  So guess who got to be his translator all day?    I'm not gonna lie, it was way harder than I thought it would be.  It's one thing when your brain is in Spanish mode and your just listening, but when your listening in Spanish then switching to English in a way that makes sense for the guy, it's hard.  Especially if you miss one sentence and you lose the topic. it's just impossible. It was cool though.

Esperamos que tengamos bautismos por la primera vez aquí este sábado.  Vamos a ver.  Sé que esta obra cambia vidas y estoy agradecido por la oportunidad de ser una herramienta en las manos del señor.

Élder Chase

Dressed for futbol on Pday

View from my house in Ciudad Modelo, Cali, Colombia

Another view from my house in Ciudad Modelo, Cali, Colombia

Hey!

This Saturday we might have baptisms.  Should be sick.  President Prince invited us to do a family home evening type activity in his house tomorrow.  Should be sweet.  There's a lot of pressure on us to make sure we get a lot of people there.  Should be nuts.  

We played more soccer today. I've gotten a lot better, but still have a ways to go to catch up with these guys.

I'm still the only gringo in the zone.

Elder D. and I have the same time in the mish and usually have pretty good ideas, so we've been doing pretty well lately.  Elder T. is kinda just there, although we try to get him more involved.

I'm still teaching English every Thursday.  It's pretty funny.  At this point, I end up correcting the Spanish grammar of my comps more than they correct mine.  Although, I'm still trying to lose the gringo accent.  It doesn't help that I already have a weird voice to start with...  oh well.

Esperamos que las persona se bauticen este sábado.  Hemos trabajado mucho y esperamos poder ver los frutos del trabajo para que estas personas puedan tener las bendiciones que el Señor tiene para ellas.  Vamos bien.

Élder Chase

Hey.

Things are going alright.  

There are sisters in the ward now.  Now we're 4 elders and 2 sisters all sharing this little ward.  The area isn't very big and it's got a good amount of "red zones" (off limits - too dangerous).

My comp is pretty reserved and doesn't talk much.  I basically take the lead in everything.  But it's okay because, at this point, I have enough basic knowledge of how to be a missionary, ha!

Sorry not too much time.  I was too worried about the pics.  Later

Elder Chase

We finally get to see how Elder Chase is living.  Here are some pictures of his house in Cuidad Modelo:

Hey!

Here with my new comp Elder T..  Hes' from Veracruz, Mexico.  He has about 6 months in the mish.  He's pretty quiet, which is the opposite of Elder C.

We found a pretty legit family that we helped to move and now we are teaching them.  They came to church on Sunday and we are gonna try to get them to commit to baptism tonight.  Wish us luck, haha.

Mostly we're trying to get the ward to do things like family nights where they invite us and their friends over to their house and we all get to know each other and then we play some games and do some magic tricks to try to get them to laugh a bit.  Then we have a spiritual thought and usually a video.

Pero sí vamos adelante aquí .  Hemos encontrado algunas personas buenas y estamos trabajando para que se bauticen.  Nos vemos.

Élder Chase

Another week here in (Ciudad Modelo) model city.  We recieved the transfer info yesterday. Elder C. is leaving for Jamundi, a city about 30 mins outside of Cali.  The only thing I know about my new comp is his name is Elder T., he's from Mexico and I think he's got a little less time in the mission than I do.  

They're  also sending two sister missionaries to the ward.

We're really having a hard time getting people to come to church. The whole world here is asleep on Sundays until like 11:00.  The only investigator we have is a 9 year old kid named Andrés.  He wants to get baptized, but his mom thinks its too fast.  She's never been able to come to the church because she works and we're trying to get here to let him be baptized.

Just trying to stay obedient. The mission is having a real problem with disobedience right now.  Some pretty crazy stuff has happened, even up to the office.  But I'm just trying to work hard and stay busy.  Because when you do that, there's really no time to be disobedient.

This Wednesday I should meet my comp.  I'm just trying to help spark some activity in the missionary work here. It hasn't been easy, but were trying.  

Realmente no ha sido muy fácil en estosdías pero nos estamos esforsando por ayudar a la gente aquí.  Sigamos adelante

Elder Chase