Hey everyone

Last week went well. We had five investigators come to church and four of those for the first time. We really worked hard with the members getting them to call the investigators and get involved and it paid off. Also, Janni, who was baptized last week, was able to get confirmed this Sunday.

Last week I saw something that kind of gave me a reality check. This one girl we know named Faisuri showed me a letter she got from a girl in the US. I looked at it and it was called "Releasing children from poverty in Jesus name." It was basically where some girl in school in the US participated in a program to write to a girl living somewhere in the world in poverty. If I were in high school and we did something like that, I probably wouldn't have thought twice about it. But reading that letter and seeing the pics of the 10 year old girl, it just hit me that I'm on the other side . The girl in her letter was talking about how she went to her grandmas and stuff, and drank apple cider. And I am now for the first time seeing the other side. Faisuri will probably never have the kind of life a girl has in the US. She lives in a wood house. They all get there water from these pipes that spit out water only every two days. They have to save up plastic bottles and fill them up there to have water for the day. It was just kinda crazy to think about where I am and all that

Other than that, things are going well here. 2 new missionaries arrived here and we're 8 now in Buenaventura...all in the same ward. Elder E. from my group is here now, which is pretty cool.

Todo va bien todavía estamos trabajando duro. Cada día puedo aprender y crecer y más importante, puedo ayudar a las otras personas a hacer lo mismo. Que estén bien

*From his personal email to his Dad regarding the recent death of a close friend of ours:

"I remember Bro Billings was always happy and always made people feel good when he was around them. And, that he was the only "old guy" I knew who still had six-pack abs...ha-ha. The loss of life doesn't seem to make sense sometimes. Someone told me once that sometimes life just throws you a "poop-ball." Just know that he is in paradise and still the same guy and will still be around when we all get there someday. I'm sure he's happy there hanging out and I'm sure he's doing the same thing up there...making other people happy and feel good. It's alright to be sad, but just know we'll all see each other someday. Use it as motivation to stay strong in the gospel so we can all reunite up there."

Elder Chase