Thursday, January 29, 2015

I feel like I have answers now and understand the gospel better

January 28, 2015



Mom,

I am doing great, thanks. How are you doing? Elder TecĂșn said that we were going to do more contacts, buuut we still haven't done any. So I don't know what's going to happen. We are teaching a lot of people so I don't know who you are referring to. The Word of Wisdom is probably only the third biggest stumbling block. The second is tithing. Everyone here hates the idea of tithing, and nobody wants to pay it. But the biggest stumbling block for sure is the law of chastity. The people here are just ridiculous and they have no shame for anything. I don't really know how to explain it, but everyone here just does what they want. I would say that most teenagers here already have a kid and are pregnant for the second time. That is the majority of the people here.  One of the other key things is when you teach you have to be friends with them for sure. You have to find a balance between being their friend and having a good time with them, and teaching the stuff and still being professional. In this ward, we definitely are a lot better friends with the people we are teaching and it is just a lot better than before. They like having us over so it's definitely true that they listen to us more.

 I agree, the latinos just have a lazy culture. One thing that I have realized being in the two wards that I have been, is the people here are really lazy. In my first ward, nobody did anything. The bishop in this ward moved away with like a one week notice so we went almost a month in that ward without a bishop. Here in the Portezuelo ward it's a lot better though. They work a lot better but they still are pretty lazy. I don't know if it's just a Chile thing or a wide world thing, but they always ask the missionaries to do everything. We do more for the ward than anyone except the bishop and his counselors. But yeah, nothing happened with the transfers. My house is the exact same, we just have a new sister missionary, but she was already in the zone so it's really like nothing happened. Elder Raine finished his mission, so he's home now. I think he's from American Fork.

We are still doing our exercises and eating healthy, so I think that it is something that will stick for a while. I'm gonna be buff when I come back haha no not really. We make a fruit smoothie every night, and we put a little plain oatmeal and spinach in it to make it even more healthy. And we all love it.  Don't forget to play Clash of Clans on your phone for me lol.  We made sushi today that was really good. It was the second time that I've had sushi on the mission and I have liked it both times.

Wow, the new missionary in your area is straight from South Africa? They speak English in South Africa right? The missionaries always leave with a spiritual though, maybe that's something we should do every once and a while when we eat at home. I'm sure they only teach people from out of Utah, because everyone in Utah already knows everything about the church haha.

Wow your uncle has made a book about family history? That is one of the things that we teach quite a bit, family history. How many generations does he have? You should make sure that the temple work is done for all of them haha. Family history is one of the things that we teach to the less actives, because it involves the temple and they almost always want to return to the temple after we talk about it all.

Perfect,  the coins would be awesome. Okay a few more gift ideas. I don't need music, I have plenty I realized. But a new watch would be awesome. There is also two books that would be awesome. The first is Jesus the Christ, but in English. Both times that I have gone to the temple they haven't had it at the store, which is the only place here that you can buy it. So that would be awesome if you could send me that. The other book is The Miracle of Forgiveness. President Cook approved this book so we can read it in the mission. The problem is we can't get it here. That book was written by Spencer W. Cook and I have heard great things about it. Those three things are all I can think of right now, but I'll think of more ideas.


I'm really grateful for all the time that I have to study, I feel like I understand the gospel a million times better. I feel like I have an answer for everything now and it's just awesome haha. But I want to start studying more deeply now and I really want to study about Christ more, so Jesus the Christ would be so awesome to have. That is the number one thing on the list. :)

On Saturday we had divisions again, and I went with Elder Purnell this time to his sector. So I got to ride bikes again. The problem with the bikes and the heat, you enter someone's house, and you just start pouring sweat. It's horrible. But we had a really good day, we taught five lessons in the one day. I get along with him pretty well too.

Well thanks for writing me, and have a great week! Love you guys!

Love,
Elder Stam          

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