Mom,
The conference with Elder Nelson was so awesome. The first four talks were in Spanish and from people I didn't know, so I didn't care too much for it. But Elder Nelson's wife gave her talk in English and it was about the premortal life and how we all have a premortal checklist of things we need to do in this life, and how "Serve a worthy mission in Chile" is one of the things on the list. Elder Nelson also gave his talk in English, with a translator, but it was about the Abrahamic Covenant and I seriously learned so much from it. It was one of the best talks I have ever heard. At the end of his talk though, he started to bear his testimony in English, he got about three words in, when he decided to do it in Spanish. I am 90% sure that he doesn't speak Spanish. I seriously think that it was just the straight spirit speaking through him. He wasn't using easy Spanish either. It was one of the most spiritual testimonies I have ever heard and I think that it is going to be one of my most spiritual experiences in my mission, it was that powerful. Just keep reading the Bible. You'll get through it. There's some good stuff in the Bible too.
Yes, absolutely no air conditioning. I'm used to the sun, but I'm not used to walking around in it all day, in a shirt and tie. It's so terrible. And to think that summer is only just getting started. I think I'm really going to like winter here haha. I don't know if they play soccer year round, and we haven't gotten to watch any. The president didn't even let the missionaries watch it during the World Cup. But soccer here is huge, as to be expected. They have a rivalry that is really really similar to BYU and the U of U. It's between two teams called Colo Colo and la U. I've decided that I'm a Colo Colo fan. They're just better. But whenever those two teams play each other, it's dangerous to go outside. Everyone just parties and drinks and it's super dangerous. I almost wish that I kept playing soccer now though haha. We play soccer most P Days. For exercises I usually just do a bunch of ab work outs, then arm work outs, then I ride a stationary bike that we have at the house. It's not much but it's better than nothing. We do walk like 6 or 7 miles every day, so that's good too. Other than that we don't really get to do anything more.
The teaching is going really good. We are teaching a lot of lessons, but also a lot of new people. It's pretty rare to teach someone more than once to be honest. They let us in once, but they don't answer the door the second time. We're teaching this guy named Fabian, who started out as an atheist, but he is slowing gaining a testimony. He is our only progressing investigator. He has a lot of potential. People here have a really bad problem with the word of wisdom and the law of chastity, so it's pretty hard to get a baptism because of those things. We are also teaching this couple who are doing pretty good, but we have only taught them once. It's pretty tough but I think it will be a lot better when I don't start out in a white wash area. The Spanish this week made a huge leap though! It pretty much just clicked. It's not perfect, but definitely a lot better. It will be a while before I really get the Spanish down. I think once I hit the 18 month mark, I'm gonna start studying Portuguese. It would be cool coming back knowing three languages. Do you think that I can send a zip drive in a letter? If not, how could I send it?
There is only one other missionary in the mission that played water polo, and I can't remember his name. Elder Babbitt and I just have really similar personalities. I don't remember where he's from but if I remember right he is going to go to school somewhere in Utah. I'm not just gonna forget about the Xbox. I talk with a lot of missionaries about video games. I made really good friends with a missionary named Elder Raine. He's probably my best friend in the mission so far. He's a super awesome person. He's gonna go to school at Utah State, and he is also a video game junkie. So I have a lot of conversations with him about video games, but that's alright. It's just a little sacrifice I have to make to go on a mission. A mission is definitely life changing, and I think that it has already changed my life somewhat.
If you send the package now I'm gonna get it almost a month before Christmas haha. I don't think that I need anything else right now, but I am probably going to need more socks at my birthday. We walk a lot and I think that I am just going to shred through my socks haha.
The people's yards aren't big enough to have a garden. They really don't have much room for anything at all. The houses here are really weird. Their yards are like 10 feet by 20 feet, and that's their entire yard. Most people don't have a garage either. They can't park their car in their yard because every house has gates completely surrounding it. It's really hard to explain. You will just have to see when we come to Chile. I think it's gonna be a little dangerous coming to Chile too. You never ever see a gringo here unless it's a missionary, and we get made fun of pretty bad for being gringo. It's just getting hotter and hotter. It feels a little hotter here now than it ever got in Utah at the moment. It's hard being out in the sun almost all day. We were told not to touch the dogs. There's a crazy amount of dogs here. I counted 88 dogs in three hours one day. It's pretty sad, and you even see a dead dog every once in a while.
You should do the lunch money thing haha. I have been eating pretty good. We usually have really big lunches, so I'm doing just fine. I have lost about 5 pounds, which is good because I weighed too much. Our day.. we wake up at 7:30 (don't forget we have a different schedule than the other missionaries), do exercises til 8, get ready and eat til 9, personal study til 10, companion study til 12, language study til 1, lunch, then work, meaning tracking, teaching, contacting, until 10:30. Then we plan until 11, then after that get ready for bed, write in our journals, and lights out at 11:30. That's a typical day. On P Day it depends. We sometimes just play soccer and relax, other times we go downtown or to a mall or museum. It just depends if we have money and if other missionaries want to do stuff. The living conditions are pretty nice. We have our own house, and four missionaries live there together. We have three bedrooms, one bathroom, and a living room in the house. We have to air dry our clothes though hah. And the food here has still been incredible. I want to find a Chilean cookbook.
I think that a lot of people carry a knife or a gun or something, but I don't really know. It's pretty sketchy here, but the people don't really touch the missionaries at all. They know why we're here and what we're doing, so they don't really bother us too much. They just make fun of the white skin and they love to yell things in English which make absolutely no sense but it's funny. Sometimes I just want to talk really fast to them in English and just watch how stupid they feel after. Most of the people here are really nice. There's only a few people that are the exact opposite.
Tell me how the Madrigals sound this year too and if you can go talk to Mr. Scott! I think that we might be going to the temple on the 22 of November. Elder Leon and I are going to have a reactivation in a week or two, and I think that we are going to go to the temple with her. It's funny, all we had to do was just mention the temple and she started going to church again. I don't know for sure if we are going to the temple though. It would be really cool if we did. I want to do a session in Spanish.
Love,
Elder Stam
No comments:
Post a Comment