Hey,

A couple interesting things.  First our investigators Magali and Bryan I. got baptized.  Was sick.  I baptized Bryan.  He's 10.  I also confirmed him.  Was sick, I had never confirmed anyone before, was cool.

Another interesting thing, about an hour ago I saw the presidents of Colombia and Ecuador.  The one from Colombia is president Santos.  They were doing something with a bridge between Ecuador and Colombia.  When he was leaving, he got really close.  Was way sick..  Elder A.almost shook his hand.  

We are about to go sell arroz con leche so the couple we teach can get married and baptized.  Nice!

Haven't had cuy (guinea pig) yet.  It's been over a year.  I want to try it again.

We're teaching this one lady, Fernanda.  She always goes to church and is the only person in her family who's not baptized.  We can't figure out whats holding her back.

We're getting hyped up for what is supposed to be the best month in the history of the mission.

Oh yeah,  forgot I was sick in bed with fever from Monday to Thursday.  When I finally went to the hospital,  they just gave me some medication.  Finally better.

We're all collecting these little stickers you get from buying a little chocolate call "jet."  There's an album you can buy and fill it up.  Theyre all like plants and animals and stuff with the world. There's 300 all together.

Things are going pretty well.  It was cool to see president Santos in person. I've seen the presidents of 2 other countries in person but never my own.  Wack

Not gonna be able to respond to other letters for lack of time,  but thanks.

Vamos a romperla este mes (we're gonna kill it this month)

élder chase

Hey

Things are going well.  Good news.  Elder H. just got transferred here as the other new zone leader.  Now it's him and Elder F., 2 ex comps hah!  Cool to have him around.

We're doing a couples activity tonight with couples who are sealed and the people who are living together and need to get married to get baptized.  We're hoping these people will be ready for baptism in December.

We're going to Pasto for some training tomorrow.

Played soccer and basketball today for pday.

elder chase

Hey

Well, I've been in the new area for almost a week.  Ipiales is awesome.  It's the farthest away from Cali we can get, right on the border with Ecuador.  My area is called Frontera 2.  It's sick because one of the families we teach is literally a couple minutes walking distance from the river that separates Colombia and Ecuador.  There's a big slope where we can see some city in Ecuador.  It's legit.

My comp is Elder R. from Mexico.  He's cool.  He's really scared of dogs.  It's pretty funny.  He loves to cook too.  He has about 13 months in the mish.

The cool thing about Ipiales is it is always one of the best zones.  Elder R. and I had a great week in spite of transfers.  We had 15 investigators at church, 2nd place in the mish last week.  It was legit.

We played a lot of soccer today.  All together at least 3 to 4 hours.  I'm dead.

Even though I started my mish in Nariño, I had forgotten how funny the accent is.  Everyone in Valle del Cauca makes fun of the people from Nariño for their accent, and i was laughing hard the whole day my first day here.  It's kind of hard to describe.  It's sort of like an Italian accent.  They sing or their voice goes up and down a lot.  I'm sure I'm gonna end up eating cuy again (guinea pig).

Vamos bien,

Elder Chase

Hey

So we got transfers.  I am now leaving Villa Gorgona after 4 1/2 months.  My new area is in Ipiales.  I'm super stoked.  It's been over a year now that I've been in Valle del Cauca and I'm finally going back to Nariño.  My area I called frontera.  I think I'm gonna be right on the border of Ecuador.  I'm still gonna be district leader. I don't know my new companion.  Elder A. is gonna be in my district again

It's sad leaving Gorgona but I did my best and left 10 converts.  Oh yeah, Junior, one of the sons of Juan C. and Alba, got baptized on Friday and his dad gave him the Aaronic priesthood on Sunday.  It was sick.  I've never seen a progress like the family Rendon has.

Ipiales is 2 hours away from Pasto and is part of the district of Pasto, but they are trying to be strong enough to break away.  We're gonna have to work hard but it should be cool.  Ipiales is always towards the top as far as the zones go.

Hey

So, first thing, the other week Elders D. and E. found Dr Pepper.  Probably one of the greatest moments of the mission, ha!

My 2 adult male converts here in Villa Gorgona both received the Melchizedek priesthood yesterday!  That should help a lot with the casa capilla cause.

So we're kinda in that awkward moment where we've baptized almost everyone we've been teaching and now we don't have many left who are interested.  This week is the kickoff week because in December we are going to try to break the record of baptisms in a month for the whole history of the mission.  September we came close with like 272 or something like that.  We got first in the whole South America Northeast Area which was sick, but in December we've gotta break 302, which they got in like 1980-something.  Gonna be nuts

Elder Musselman brought a football today.  It was legit.

Shout out to bish.  He was legit! (in reference to Bishop Smith from our ward, who is finishing his assignment this week).

Baptism of Geraldine and Libia

Hey

On Friday we had the baptisms of G. Obeso and L. Obeso.  It was sick.  I baptized Libia.  My camera wasn't working but the other elders took pics.   I'll try to get some.  and I didn't have a chance to grab my memory again.  I'll try to send pics next week.

So, today we had a big inter-zone microsoccer tournament.  It was sick.  We won the first game then lost the second and then won the 3rd against the best team 3 to 1.  They advanced due to the fact that they had scored more goals overall.  They won the whole thing too.  Oh well, at least we know we could beat the champions.  I did make one goal with my head.  It was sick. I made another one but they didn't count it.

Other than that, things are all good.  Transfers are coming up at the beginning of next month.  Chances are I'm leaving Gorgona. 

On the way back from the tournament, we still had our soccer  jerseys on.  Some cop stopped us and told us to be careful because we were entering the territory of another team from Colombia and that it might be kind of dangerous...nice.

One of our recent converts, Juan Carlos,  got the Aaronic Priesthood the other day.  Awesome.

Quiero disfrutar de lo que a lo mejor serán mis ultimas semanas aquí.  Espero que se pueda obtener la casa capilla para los santos de aquí.  La merecen.

élder chase

Hey,

So last Saturday was Kelly's baptism.  She is the litter sister of Lina and I got to baptize her.  I didn't have time to get the memory, but I'll send pics next week.

Happy birthday dad.  

We went to the centro today and picked out soccer jerseys for the upcoming inter-zone tournament.  They're florescent green.  Pretty stoked.  

Well, I most likely have 2 more baptisms this Saturday.  They are Gerladín, 17 and her grandma Libia.  Her mom and aunt want to get baptized too, but they have to work some things out first.

I'll likely be getting transferred in a few weeks so I'm just trying to enjoy Gorgona while I'm here.  This is the longest time I've been working in one area.  Pretty sick.

vamos bien

élder chase