Elder Stam is from Murray, Utah. He has been here in Chile for only 1 month. He likes playing sports. He has played water polo. He loves music and video games. He has played piano for 13 years and has sung for 7 years. He is very interested in astronomy, and in two years he will be interested in women. His favorite scripture is found in 2 Nephi 31:20- Wherefore, ye must press forward with a steadfastness in Christ, having a perfect brightness of hope, and a love of God and of all men. Wherefore, if ye shall press forward, feasting upon the word of Christ, and endure to the end, behold, thus saith the Father: Ye shall have eternal life.
Elder Leon is from Colombia, on the North Coast. He as been in the
missionary field for 9 months. He loves telling funny stories. He
likes swimming, baseball and soccer. He loves the outdoor barbecue. He
loves music. He loves to learn other languages. He writes poems and
loves talking to anyone. His favorite scripture is found in Alma 29:9- I
know that which the Lord hath commanded me, and I glory in it. I do
not glory of myself, but I glory in that which the Lord commanded
me;yea, and this is my glory, that perhaps I may be an instrument in the
hands of God to bring some soul to repentance; and this is my joy.
November 5, 2014
Mom,
Well I have survived the first transfer in the mission field. It´s pretty weird to think that I´m already starting my third transfer in the mission. It´s been going really fast. I´m not enjoying the weather. I´m doing whatever I can to get out of the sun. It´s so ridiculously hot. And summer hasn´t even really started. One thing I´m going to miss for sure is snow. It definitely doesn´t feel like November. I have been writing in my journal every day, writing everything that happened that day, so i don´t think I´ll forget anything. The days seem to be going incredibly fast though. It´s like I wake up, we leave for a half an hour, and the day is over.
Halloween here was pretty similar as in the states. The only difference was everyone was drunk and partying, and there was a ton more kids in the streets. It was crazy how many kids there were. Other than that it was pretty much the same. My teacher in the MTC has a pretty freaky story kind of like that, except the girl was actually posessed by the devil and her voice was super low and creepy. The devil is real. It´s pretty freaky.
No we haven´t been able to teach him (Jairo). He´s actually been ignoring us, so I think he´s a lost cause now. We just found him doing street contacts. We´re teaching English lessons to four families. I´m absolutely terrible at remembering names, so I can´t really tell you who. He´s (Elder Leon) practically fluent at English. He lived a pretty good life in Columbia. He had money, and he lived pretty close to the beach. I feel like the Spanish has stopped improving completely. I´m getting pretty frustrated too. I can understand almost everything if it is church related. Anything not church related, I can´t understand it at all. All the other Elders say that I am just going to wake up one day knowing Spanish, but I´m not so sure. It´s crazy. My companion is a little bit better. Not much though. I´m pretty sick of him. I´m gonna love getting a new one.
Yeah the MTC gave us spanish scriptures. Elder Dufour, our old district leader, said that our area is the nicest he´s seen, and he has 19 months in his mission. I assume that our mission is one of the poorest, but I don´t really know. For photos, I have a 1GB zip drive that I will put a bunch of pictures on then send it to you guys.
Once you get to Job in the Old Testament, it gets a lot better. I mean a lot better. I have Jesus the Christ in Spanish, but the book is an extremely hard read, and I don´t know how I´m ever going to read it in Spanish. It´s going to be weird having a niece or nephew coming home. It´ll be cool, but really weird too.
Elder Babbitt just really reminded me a lot of me. He was very, very similar to me, like we just liked all the same things, we did all the same things before our mission, so it was really cool. We had some cool spiritual lessons, like this one lesson we were teaching a girl that knew quite a bit of English, so I got to bear my testimony to her in English, and it was awesome. Teaching in English would seriously be so much easier. But after when we (Caleb and Elder Babbitt) were at the home, we just had a really awesome conversation about the mission and stuff and he gave me a lot of good advice. He´s the missionary I want to become because he has literally just forgotten everything back at home and he has completely dedicated himself to the mission. Which is what I want to do, but it´s pretty tough when every house I go into has an Xbox and Halo haha. I have some pretty good strategies with contacting. Contacting isn´t hard. It´s just the stuff after contacting. My patriarchal blessing says that I´m going to hold leadership positions, and I think it would be really fun to be a leader. I really like going on splits so I´m looking forward to that.
We didn´t get a choir Cd from the year before, which is a bummer. I seriously think that Spanish music is so cool. It´s absolutely impossible to understand though. Elder Leon said that I would maybe be able to understand Spanish music on the plane ride home. We don´t really have any opportunity to give things to kids haha. Food. Just food would be awesome. We don´t really have time to do much, but food we always have time for.
We seriously missed from a missed field goal?? Ugh that is so frustrating. I wish I could watch the games. The soccer here has been crazy. They play a ton. There are two teams here called Colo Colo, and the U. I´m a Colo Colo fan haha.
Yes, we get a meeting this Saturday with Elder Nelson. We are all way excited, it´s going to be an awesome opportunity. Thanks for putting that in the missionary portal. It´s crazy how much my testimony has strengthened since I´ve left. Especially about the Book of Mormon. The Book of Mormon is seriously so awesome, and it´s key to conversion.
Just a suggestion, you should put like $25 on my card every month, kind of like my lunch money, and whatever money I don´t spend by the end of my mission, I can use it to buy music haha.
Con mucho amor,
Elder Stam
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