It's better to just work

Feb 17, 2016

Dear Mom and Dad,                 

The awesome Zone

Well, there's always that time of the year where everyone always seems to get sick. I was also feeling a little sick on Monday and Tuesday but I got over it really quick. It's a real pain in the butt being sick on the mission because you either have to stay inside all day with nothing to do or you go out to work and suffer just as much haha, so it's better to just work. Wow, I definitely haven't heard of that virus at all, hopefully it doesn't get down here to Chile. Well I'll never be a pregnant woman so maybe it wouldn't affect me that much haha.

My week has been good. It's still hot, with no changes whatsoever. If this year goes the same as last year, it will probably be pretty hot until like April or May. Which sucks but there literally is nothing I can do about it so why complain? Yup, the world definitely doesn't believe as much. It's kind of dumb, because there are so many signs that He exists all around us. Yeah we are still working with the Haitians. I don't think that they are understanding that much though, it's been really hard to communicate with them. Yes I have also been playing the piano here haha. I don't think French will be extremely hard, it's pretty similar to Spanish, it's just the pronunciation that seems hard. We are the only Elders but there are two Sister missionaries.

We eat ice cream most days. There is dessert for pretty much every lunch, it's amazing. Recently, I don't know if it's a summer thing, but if we don't eat watermelon or honey dew melon, we eat ice cream, and I definitely won't argue with that at all.  I was thinking about working a whole bunch in the summer anyways. I don't think that I will get married that fast to be honest. It would be fun, just remember that I am definitely going to want time to play my new Xbox One that you are going to buy me haha. ;D (you promised)

There are so many things that people don't understand about life and getting mad at God will not solve absolutely anything, the only thing that it could really ever do is make things worse.

We're living in these apartments on the street Goycolea. I couldn't really tell you what building because there are a lot of them. The only thing that I could tell you is it's a few blocks away from Gran Avenida and they're pink haha. We moved because President Cook doesn't want any houses with only two missionaries in them. He wants four in every house. So we moved for that. We live with two other missionaries now, Elder Maser and Elder de León.

Haha that's how most babies are right?  Who knows Jackson could be a better piano player than me someday. Maybe I'll teach him when he's a little older, I think he'd have a hard time right now haha. I'm gonna expect him to cry. It's normal. You're going to have to teach me how to hold babies cause honestly I have no idea.

Well thanks for the email once again. If there is anything that you need from met, just let me know. Talk to you next week!

Love,
Elder Stam

Stay strong and faithful

Feb 10, 2016

Mom,         

A little goodbye party that they threw for me and Elder Palacios

The last week was pretty well, still hot and most people are still on vacations, so not much has changed haha. We had changes yesterday but nothing got changed, I'm still with Elder Baker so it looks like I'm going to kill him, as we say haha. This next transfer is the 29th of March. Yeah Dad told me that you guys were feeling sick, so hopefully you start feeling better soon. Haha Tootsie is a pretty awesome dog.

The work is going well. It seems to me that the people here are really starting to not believe in God and Christ. It's sad to see but the scriptures definitely say that it was going to happen. We have been contacting a lot of Haitains, they are really strong believers. It's actually encourages me to start learning a little bit of French haha. It's a hard language, sorta. The pronunciation is definitely the hardest part. We've been looking for new people, it's been hard. You're totally right about the world though, it's declining really fast. I think that the Second Coming is a lot closer than the people think. I definitely feel like I never dream, I don't know why. At least I wake up in the morning without the memory of a dream. The activity was fun. A member gave a class and then we played a few games and had some food. They do it every couple of weeks here in this ward.

We were talking about ice cream this week and I totally remember that Cold Stone exists, so Papa Murphy's and Cold Stone sounds like the best thing ever haha. Health problems seem to be growing a lot also. There are a lot of people here also that are getting sick. In this ward there have been a few people that have gotten some pretty bad diseases or sicknesses. The good thing is that they are staying strong and faithful in the church, and that's the important thing. A lot of people get mad at God for giving them sicknesses, but it's definitely necessary, like you said if you're never sick, you don't appreciate being healthy.

Our mission is very small, the smallest in South America. It has a few cool areas. I think that Portezuelo is one of the prettiest areas, the second ward that I was in. Right now we live on the street called Blas Vial, with American Vespucio, but tonight we are actually moving houses, so we won't be living there anymore.  Well thanks for the email. I hope that you guys have a wonderful week and that you get better. Talk to you next week!

Love,
Elder Stam

Trust in the Lord and everything is Okay.

February 3, 2016
                                     

Having fun with the O'Higgins Zone

Yup, about six months left now. My week was good. My comp has been a little sick so it was a little slower and easier week. The teaching is going alright, despite it being the hard time of the year. The Haitians are good also. We went and saw them yesterday, and apparently there are a few new Haitians living with them, that just got here to Chile about a week ago. The first thing they asked when we saw them was if we were Christians haha. They also don't speak Spanish though. The ones that we were teaching earlier are cousins and we do teach them together. We will see what happens with the new ones that got here. It's pretty hard to find people at this time, but we are definitely trying. I feel like recently there has just been a lot more people against us. People that say we aren't even Christians and that we're here wasting our time and should go home. It's getting annoying. I'm losing my patience with them. But there's not much we can do. They don't even listen to us, they just say we are wrong and if we try to say something, they cut us off and say we're wrong then tell us to leave. I guess it makes us feel even more like Christ, and more understanding of what he went through. We have an activity tonight, a family home evening with the ward, it should be really good.

Oh that food sounds amazing. I think that one of the first things I want to eat when I'm home is a Papa Murphy's pizza. I don't know if the oil dressing is healthier than ranch, they use a ton of oil haha. Haha Jackson sounds like a funny baby. Maybe he will be a swimmer also, that would be amazing. I'm glad you liked you trip, it sounds really fun.

 From what I have understood, he has problems with his kidneys, and they aren't working correctly. His potassium level is too high and it is making him weak and dizzy all the time and his feel are always really swollen. So it's kind of a lame disease thing but just trust in the Lord and everything is okay. The other Elders are good, they're obedient. I have divisions with them tomorrow, so I will know more tomorrow. 300 people? Wow that's a lot, that's awesome.

Haha he has also been talking to me about it. It doesn't sound like a bad idea, I think it would be a fun project to build a cabin. Good scriptures? Hmm, there's not a specific one that comes to mind, but I recently read the sermon that King Benjamin gave to the people before he died in Mosiah 2-4 that I really liked, you could read that if you want. Thanks for the letter mom, I hope that you and the family have a great week, we will talk more the next one.




Love, Elder Stam

If we work hard now, the blessings will be great

January 27, 2016
                                

                                              

Elder Stam with the Cadiz family.  They served missions in New Zealand and Argentina

You act like it's a curse to have snow but to me it sounds like a blessing. Our week was good, a little stranger. The people are doing good, as well as the sector, despite it being the hardest time of the year. The Haitians are doing well also. They got to speak with an Elder that speaks French so they could understand a lot better. They speak French and Haitian, very little English, and they are learning Spanish. They have been here for 6 months or so. For the time that they have here, they know a lot of Spanish, it's almost like a missionary haha. They are both single, well I think that one of them might have a girlfriend back the Haiti that is trying to save money to come to Chile, but I don't know.  The area is a little stiff right now. It's also the hardest time of the year. Everyone goes on vacation. And I mean everyone. The entire church attendance in our mission has dropped about 30%. It's just a rough time, but if we work hard right now, the blessings will be really great when everyone comes back.

It's hard to stay in shape while you're on the mission. Haha the battle to stay in shape is like the gospel battle. Hard to do but worth it. The clams were wonderful. I love seafood haha. And of course so many trials have to do with the physical body, Satan doesn't have a body and he is jealous that we do have one, so he does everything that he can do destroy our body.  I think that it is going to be interesting coming back home and eating American food again. For example, here for their salads, they use oil, salt, and lemon. There they use ranch dressing. I'm really used to the lemon on the salads and I actually like it a lot. It will be strange trying to make the chilean food again.

I'm doing well with Elder Baker. After him I am only going to have three transfer cycles left, and there are definitely Elders that have been together for three transfers. So it's possible that my next is my last, or not, it could go either way. Being a trainer depends on the mission president, he chooses them. Haha I knew that you were going to bring this up at some point.  I don't think that it would be too much of a problem, and it would definitely relieve me of a little stress of coming home then going straight to school.   I will pray about it and talk to President. 

I haven't really been taking the allergy pills anymore. I probably won't bring home many pants either. I think that my suitcases might actually be kind of empty. Right, the handle on the big suitcase broke, or the pull up thing that you pull the suitcase with, it broke. So that's gonna suck a little bit.  It would be pretty cool to have Oma live close to us. I think that she would like Utah more than she thinks. I'm pretty sure that everyone would like Utah if they really knew how it was.

We leave the house at 11ish, depending on the day. Days that we have district meeting, weekly planning, Sundays, we don't leave at that time. Well being a missionary you meet a lot of people. Here in this ward I am really good friends with the Poblette family. They are going through a little bit of health problems at the moment, but they get along with me really well. The dad served a mission, and he's the one that wanted to see pictures of the guns haha. Yeah, I didn't want to leave my last area, but what can you do? Move on, that's it. You should try to make friends everywhere you go, like the apostles. Read the scriptures mom haha. Well, thanks for the weekly email. I hope that you all have a wonderful week and that you guys enjoy your little vacation.

Love,
Elder Stam