Hey everyone

Aight, so we had the Noche Blanca on Saturday. It was sick (awesome). Elder I. and I had 2 baptisms. With the whole zone it was like 12. So yeah, I got to baptize one of them. His name is Juan G. I'll send a couple pics. It was pretty legit. President Prince was there.

So yeah, president Prince is awesome. Just thought I'd throw that out there.

Fun fact, turns out I have A+ blood type.

Oh yeah, also on Saturday, I taught an English class. It was pretty cool. It was all little kids, moms, and a few teenage girls. I am gonna be teaching an English class Every Saturday now. Pretty legit!

Also...I tried Cuy for the first time on Sunday at the house of the people we baptized. Cuy is the roasted guinea pig. It was really disturbing to see them impale the dead guinea pig on a stick and slowly roast it over coals and then slice it up. I didn't really like the taste very much, it’s kinda like fish.

Anyways, still working hard. Oh and to answer the question about where we live, it is an apartment I sent some pics of it I think. It’s pretty small and my head almost touches the ceiling. It was kind of nasty at the beginning but I've done some cleaning and its better.

Entonces las cosas estàn mejorando poco a poco. Todavía es difícil entender pero sè que la idioma vendrá con tiempo y trabajo duro. He aprendido mucho y sè que aprenderè mas. Nos vemos.

 Elder Chase

La familia Guacales with Elders Chase and I.

Brandon's first baptism while serving in Colombia. Juan G. y su esposa

Hey everyone,

Aight, so first things first. This week I had my first experiences with gross food. I just ate at some chicken and fries restaurant with Elder I. and they gave us soup and it had chicken foot and chicken heart with valves and everything. I just took out the stuff and drank the broth. At least that was in a restaurant so I'm not obligated to eat it all.

Also, a few days ago someone served us fish. It wasn't a “staring at me” fish but it was like the front half looked like fried meat and the back half looked like dead fish with tail and everything...I couldn't do it. Luckily no one was watching us eat and luckily I followed the advice of Bishop Smith and put a plastic bag in my backpack to secretly discard the fish. Elder I. doesn't understand and I think it bothered him a bit. Oh well. I think I'd prefer that than to have to actually eat it.

So, as far as the packages go, in Pasto we only get them every transfer. So I won’t get any until October, but it's okay because I know chances are for sure I'll be here a minimum of at least another month and a half after that, so it’s all good.

So they always told us in the MTC that we need to be ready at any moment to give talks in church because the people who are supposed to give them often don't show up. I thought I was safe because they didn't even ask me to share my testimony the first week. Of course yesterday, they asked me and Elder I. to give talks. I've never even winged a talk in English and I had to make up a talk on the spot in Spanish...yeah, it went okay, I think. Oh yeah, I thought I might mention that the people down here are not the best singers. I am a terrible singer and they make me sound like an angel.

So this Saturday we are having the "noche blanca" where the whole zone is having a combined baptism. We had five dates set, but one didn't show up to church yesterday so she will have to wait until she commits to attend church more regularly. Two others told us to never go back to their house. I`m pretty sure they had been talking to the Jehovahs Witnesses. They make our life the biggest pain, I swear. We had to spend one lesson with our investigator Maria explaining everything that the Jehovah’s Witnesses had told her that was incorrect about our Church. I honestly think they are following us and talking to everyone we talk with...it's frustrating. They just go talk to people and talk smack about us and the church. I don't get it because we have never talked bad about any other church. Oh well, we have to remember that people have their agency.

On the good side, our two baptisms this Saturday are Juan and Betty. They are probably in their fifty's and are for sure, as long as they can give up their coffee. I think we have taught word of wisdom like 8 times in the past 2 days. No one here understands why coffee is bad for you.

Our other baptismal date is for the 29th. A girl named Gabriella. I think she's thirteen and she’s great! We are trying to get her cousins to commit, but they are a bit stubborn. Another big reason people don't get baptized is because they are living together and aren't married, or haven't divorced someone legally. It's a pain because these people want to be baptized but they have to wait for papers and stuff.

Also, I haven't tried cuy yet, which is the grilled guinea pig thing. I don't know, it's just nasty to eat something that is dead and has a facial expression which looks like it’s being tortured.

Entonces, estamos trabajando duro y estoy estudiando mucho. Sé que algun día entenderé estas personas. Siempre me gusta recibir cartas de ustedes. Es bueno que toda esté bien allí en los estados. Estoy tratando hacer ejercisios cada mañana para que no regrese a ustedes un gordito. Todas las personas nos da comida y siempre es pan y chocolate. Nos vemos.

Elder Chase

Hey everyone

Okay, so I'm here in Pasto. It's not that cold but cold enough to the point where I have a nice blue sweater to wear around haha. I would have bought a black or a grey one but the only colors they had even close to my size are blue, orange, and pink.

My companion is Elder I. He's from Peru. He's way chill. He's exactly how President described him- not in your face annoying but he does like to talk.

Oh yeah, they say for packages, you should send them in like one of those bubble envelopes cause then it won’t cost anything for me to go pick it up. Also they say just to send all packages to the main mission home and then they will ship them to me. 

Anyways, it's pretty nice not being all cooped up in the MTC. The people here speak slower but I still have a pretty hard time understanding people. I haven't had any weird food yet but apparently I'm gonna have to try the roasted hamster soon. Oh well. They mostly just eat potatoes and rice here. It's weird cause they always give you soup before your meal so entonces the food is cold by the time you get to it. The only thing I've had to choke down was my first meal they gave me this tomato water stuff. It was gross. Oh yeah, somehow I lost all my soap in between here and the MTC so I'm just gonna have to buy some face soap and stuff here.

The people here love it when I teach them English. Apparently I am teaching an English class this Saturday. Should be interesting seeing how I don't even speak Spanish completely yet. But it's all good and should be fun.

Everyone here thinks I am some sort of martial arts expert because when they ask what sport I do, there's no equivalent word to college type wrestling here. So when I say luchar. They think I mean like lucha libre. So because of this, I get to teach a self-defense class too...that should be interesting.

Night time is still sketchy around here, although Pasto is one of the safer areas. President Prince kept telling us to be prepared not for "if" you get robbed, but "when" you get robbed haha. Nah, but for real, I feel like as long as you’re not dumb, and you pay attention to everything around you, we should be fine.

Oh yeah, if you send anything, make sure to include pictures. The people here love to look at pictures of me and my family. The one the other Chases sent me... everyone has seen and they all love it haha.

If you wanted to send me like a dark sweater or jacket that'd be cool cause as much as I love looking like a blueberry... Besides, I'm pretty sure if we can help it, we are supposed to wear dark colors. Like a black jacket from t-shirts plus would be cool or something like that. They don't make you wear your suit coat over the sweaters and stuff so people wear jackets.. It doesn't really matter as long as its big enough haha like XL probably.

Entonces, creo que el campo es mucho mejor que el CCM haha pero esta bien. Espero que todo esté bien allí si alguien tenga alguna pregunta de cualquier cosa me gustaría contestarlo. Sé que este es la obra del señor y trabajo cada día a ayudar las personas a venir a Cristo. Chao

Elder Chase at Cristo Rey look-out

Cristo Rey

View of Cali from Cristo Rey

Elder Chase and Elder I.

Hey everyone,

So we just arrived in Cali and we learned where we are going and stuff. I am going south to a place called Pasto. Apparently it’s up in the mountains and it's really cold and it has a lot of native-American people. My first comp is going to be Elder I., I think.  Apparently he's easy to get along with and President said he's not the kind of person to be obnoxious or in your face, which is good. According to President the Pasto area is on fire right now as far as baptisms and stuff so that should be cool. I'm a little bummed because I was looking forward to some heat after the cold in Bogota, but they say Pasto is pretty cool so well see. I'm pretty stoked to get out there.  I'll meet my comp tomorrow and then it will be only Spanish from then on. Also, I just got handed 5 dearelders from Jordan that were waiting for me here... haha. Anyways, I need to go get my 200 bucks worth of pesos now. Later.

Elder Chase

All the new missionaries with President and Sis. Prince

Elder Chase with President and Sis. Prince

Elder Chase with Elder I.

Hey everyone,

Elder Christofferson {I think that is how you spell it} came and gave a devotional in Spanish last Saturday. It was pretty sick (awesome). I got to shake his hand...yeah

I also went to temple today. Possibly for the last time for two years. Good stuff happening.

So we had to go to some immigration office the other day. After being driven through the "mario kart" streets of Bogota the guy was like "allí esta, buena suerte" and dropped us off in the middle of the city. It was pretty nuts trying to figure everything out on our own. Luckily, we all made it out alive though.

This food is finally starting to get to my stomach. Let's just say for the past 4 days it hasn't been fun.

Oh, I just got the package from the other Chases like 30 mins ago. That was pretty cool. It was fun to show everyone all the pictures and it was much appreciated.

Spanish is slowly getting better. The Latinos are getting sorta easier to understand but they still speak so fast and are merciless and never speak slower when we ask them to.

I have a new companion, Elder L. He is really chill. He's from Boise, Idaho.

There are six guys in my room. One of the guys is elder M. who you said you were talking with his mom.

I really like the city of Bogotá. It's really crowded and pretty ghetto, but in a cool way. There's a lot of graffiti and stuff but it’s still a pretty sick place. I'm looking forward to getting to Cali though. I'm ready for some heat after having been in the cold for a while. It's nuts to think that in a week I will have a companion and be talking to people in the street...in Spanish too. Geez!. I'm nervous but I'm stoked anyway.

Oh yeah, they're gonna give us a CD with all the pictures they've taken of us because they don't let us use our cameras here.

Oh yeah, it turns out it wasn't a good idea to bring all my sunflower seeds into the country. Something about it being illegal to bring large amounts of certain things and apparently 15 bags of sunflower seeds would have fallen under that category. So turns out if they had noticed, I may have gotten detained in the Bogotá airport. That would have been a fun first experience. Luckily I'm here.

We leave for Cali on Tuesday, I think. Pretty stoked.

Geez!, ok so I don't really have much time left. The timer is blinking red at me in the corner. Next time I email you guys, I should be out in the field. Pretty legit!

Cada día trato de estudiar mas sobre español y el evangelio. Es dificíl, y siempre tengo un dolor de cabeza, pero se que será mejor en el campo. Tal vez no será mas facíl pero hace mucho tiempo que yo he estoy en el CCM. Se que si yo hiciera mi mejor, Dios me ayudaría. Es bueno que tengamos el don de langues porque sé que sería imposible si Dios no nos ayudara.

See you in 2

Elder Brandon Chase

Hey everyone,

So the dearelders don't work here and by the time any letters get here I will probably already be in Cali so I guess email would be the best way to talk to me. I don't know if you guys have been doing that but I wouldn't have gotten any since the day I left Provo.

I went to the Bogotá temple today. It was pretty sick (cool). It was hard in Spanish though, but it was still cool.

I feel really tired all the time. We go to bed at 1030, but I usually don't fall asleep until 1100 or 1130. It doesn't help that some of the Latinos wake up at like 530. So I maybe get 5 or six solid hours of sleep every night. Hopefully it will be better when I get out to the field. I like being here in Bogota and it was cool seeing some of the city. Sometimes the MTC life here is repetitive. It's only like 20 feet from our room to classroom and then just downstairs for the food. The scenery doesn't change much. But it's all good. Sometimes I feel cranky just due to lack of sleep combined with the monotony.

I'm still just learning Spanish one little part at a time. The Latinos are still really hard to understand but I feel like I can at least say what I need too.

A new district of white guys showed up yesterday. It made me at least a bit more confident about my Spanish when I saw them trying to understand the Latinos haha.

Entonces a veces me siento que español sea el idioma mas complicado en todo el mundo pero se que si yo confiara en el Señor el me ayudaría

Well, they are kicking me off the laptop now.

Later,

Elder Brandon Chase

Hey everyone!

I actually get 30 mins to write today. Things are going pretty well. It's different having a companion who doesn't speak Spanish as well as me so sometimes I have to take the lead when we are teaching. But he's gotten better now and we both contribute in the lesson. It makes me really grateful that I studied some Spanish before I got here.

Most of the days have been basically the same. We spend a lot of time in the classroom. We have gym time in the morning, so the only break we get in the middle of the day is for 45 mins of lunch.

It's really hard to understand the natives sometime. The ones from the Dominican Republic are the worst. There have been plenty of awkward moments where someone tries to say something funny to me and I have no idea what they said so I can't laugh at their joke and it's just weird.. But it is cool when I actually understand them and talk to them.

I'm really anxious to go exploring around here. We feel kinda trapped cause we’re in this new cool country and we haven't seen any of it besides the MTC basically. We get to go to the Bogota temple on Wednesday so I'm excited for that cause we will actually see some of the city. Also on our last Saturday, before we leave, we get to out with a native missionary and proselyte.

Oh yeah, and Elder M. is sitting next to me and he is upset he didn't get an email from his family so tell his mom to make sure she writes him haha.

Entonces, espero que toda esté bien alli en los Estados. Me gusta los partes de la cuidad de Bogotá que he visto y quiero ver la cuidad de Cali tambien. No me siento listo pero sé que mediante el espíritu puedo hacer cualquier cosa. he aprendido much y sé que aprederé mas. estoy poquito preocupado porque mi español no es bueno y muchas veces no entiendo los latinos aqui pero tenemos el don de lenguas y tenemos el espíritu. sé que el Libro de Mormon es verdadero y puede cambiar las vidas. estoy agradecido por los maestros y presidente Hall y mi distrito. Escribiré otra vez el viernes. vayan con Dios