I guess it feels like it's all over, lots of meetings this week and then I come home!

July 27, 2016



Mom and Dad,  
           

 Well today we had an activity as a group, like everyone that goes home with me, and we all were talking about home and stuff like that so I guess now it kind of feels like it's all over. The past week has been pretty normal. Just normal missionary work. This week is the weird week though, with all the final meetings and what not. Friday we go to the temple with the mission president and then it's pretty much over. Yeah that sounds fine, I don't know where to go for lunch though. I'll think about it. Well definitely that first day we are going to have to go buy the Xbox and iPhone. That's a necessity haha. Other than that I don't care what we go do.

From what I've heard I'll still have this email for about two weeks. I'm going to have to go through everything because there are several emails and other stuff that I am going to want to save.  Oh Bryson Walker (Elder Walker) has his homecoming on the 21st of August, so I definitely have to go to it!

 I've been trying to think about some of the foods that I haven't eaten in two years and I really can't think of anything. I think that being home will help me remember a lot of things that I've forgotten haha.

The teaching is going well, we've been having a lot of success lately. We're not going to have a baptism this week but we are going to have one the week after. So I'm not going to be here for it. That's okay though, the important thing is that she is baptized.

Haha yeah the card worked. Yesterday I took out about $60-70. I don't really know how much money it is in dollars so it's approximate.

I think it would be fun to go backpacking. Where would we go?

Well there isn't really much to say this week. I've got a bunch of meetings these next few days, tomorrow I have a self sufficiency thing and Friday we are going to the temple.   Saturday we have several activities as a ward, Sunday is ward conference and Monday is the day I leave. So that's my schedule the next few days. I'll see you guys on Tuesday though! Have a great week!  Love you!

Love,
Elder Stam

Just count your many blessings.

June 8, 2016

Mom,                           

              
Haha, you're welcome mom. God tests people just to see how they respond, so it makes a world of difference to respond well to afflictions instead of responding bad. So yeah, I'll keep praying for you, you have nothing to worry about. I'm glad that you have been feeling well, don't let Satan's designs get to you, he just wants you to be miserable.

Oh wow, you'll be in the hospsital a long time. Hey at least they will treat you better because you are a nurse. Haha if they do something wrong you can reprend them. Haha well that's almost a blessing that you get two months off work. Add that blessing to the list of many.  Haha oh gosh mom you're getting so old. You'll definitely have to send me a picture of you using a walker, I'll get a great kick out of it ;) It's also a big blessing all of the medical knowledge that the world has now. If this kind of thing would have happened a hundred years ago, there would have been a lot more problems. So just count your many blessings.

Things are going well in the mission. A little surprise happened this week, and one of the investigators that I taught in Los Cristales got baptized and she wanted me to baptize her!  So I got to go back to the sector to baptize her. It was really nice to see the people there, they're amazing. In this area things have been alright, a little slow. This week though we did find a whole bunch of new people to teach, so it's picking up a little bit. We have been talking a lot about the new mission president, who will be here in about two weeks. I think that he is also going to be a great president. I don't really know him yet so I couldn't tell you much, but for a reason he is coming here. Our church building isn't in the best of places so not a whole lot of people went to the open house, but we did end up getting about 20 references from it. I think that the next time they do it, they should do it a Saturday afternoon instead of Sunday night when it's already dark. So we have also been talking about doing another one in a couple of months. We live on the corner of El Refugio and La Montaña, in San Bernardo, if you want to look it up on Google maps. It's a house. Not the best place in the whole world to live but I'm not going to complain. I've seen worse haha. Yes, I got my package yesterday, so don't worry haha. Thanks for all the stuff haha, I'm definitely going to use the air horns to wake up my companion if he doesn't get up haha. 20 years old, that seems so old to me. And Josh is turning 30 haha. We're all getting old.

Well I said that I would eat unhealthy for like a month, just to enjoy all the food that I haven't had for the last two years, and then I'll start eating healthy again. So what exactly could I do for work there at college? I definitely don't want a minimum wage job, that's not even worth it. Maybe summers I could just keep lifeguarding, or maybe find a job where I can earn a little bit more money. I guess we will see.

My mind absolutely blows every time you tell me that someone else got a mission call. Luke seemed so young to me haha and he's already going on a mission?? Family is pretty great isn't it? Our church is definitely the only church that has the full perspective of eternal families. Well thanks for the email again mom, I hope that you have a great week and that everything goes well in your surgery.

Love,
Elder Stam

**Email to Darren

Dear Dad,

God is usually nice like that, helping when it's needed.  Just make sure that you give him the thanks for it haha.

Wow, the tomatoes are already three feet tall? They did really take off. Haha perfect, I'll be home for the potatoes. The peanuts take a lot longer to grow than I thought.

So they're doing trek again huh? It was a pretty fun experience for me, definitely not what I expected it to be. So is that the actual trail that they came on? Mom would definitely like it, she likes things like that. So you take care of all the money stuff in the stake right?

Haha that soulds like typical mom. Everytime something happens, she always searches everything she can about it. And she spends several hours doing it. It kind of amazed me haha. There's a guy in our ward here that also just started doing chemotherapy and he seems to be doing really well. He's been doing it for about a month now and he hasn't had any physical difference or energy loss at all. And he hasn't lost any hair yet haha. So I don't think mom really has a whole lot to worry about if she has to do it. 

These last couple months have actually been pretty hard. I can definitely tell a difference in the people here from my training and now. It almost seems like everyone now knows the missionaries and doesn't really want to talk to them. So things have been getting harder in the whole mission. But I guess that the only thing we can do is keep working, even though it's a little harder now. This week though we did find quite a few new people, which is good. Hopefully things start picking up a little bit before I go home.

Completely true what you just said about trials helping us to grow. Well thanks for the support and the email, I hope that you have a great week!

Love,
Elder Stam

Trust in the Lord and He will deliver us from all trial and affliction.

June 1, 2016


Mom and Dad,   
             

Well mom, you don't have anything to worry about. Everything that is happening is the will of the Lord. It's understandable to be a scared, but please don't doubt. I think that one thing that I have learned most in my mission is what faith really is. It's a pretty complicated subject, but the best way that we can show our faith in the Lord is being obedient to His commandments. Like Christ and the other prophets have said several times in the scriptures, If ye love me, keep my commandments. It also reminds me of what Elder Jeffrey R Holland taught. Our first big commandment is to love God with all our heart, might, mind, and strength, but the first big truth of the gospel is that God loves us with all of His heart, might, mind, and strength. One of my favorite scriptures that has really impacted me recently is in 1 John 4:7-10. I was also reading in Doctrine and Covenants yesterday morning and I came across a scripture in section 63, I don't remember what verse exactly, but it was talking about the last days when God will send plagues, sicknesses, there will be wars and rumors of wars and all of that stuff. The scriptures said that the saints of God would barely escape all of that stuff. Then I read a quote from Joseph Smith that talked about that scripture. He said that there will be sicknesses and plagues and all of that stuff that will also affect the saints. But then he said that they have to reason to worry, because God will deliver them and exalt them. So all that you can do mom and the rest of the family is trust in the Lord, sacrifice our lives to His cause, and then without doubt he will deliver us from all trial and affliction that we have. God loves us, that is the first simple truth, and the absolute best way that we can show our love to God is to obey Him, and keep the covenants that we have made with Him in the temple. I am currently reading in Genesis, and I also really liked the story about where God commanded him to sacrifice his son. Imagine that. God had already promised Abraham that through his son Isaac, he would have a posterity as numberless and the grains of sand, that every family of the earth would be blessed through him, and several other blessings through him. Then he command Abraham to sacrifice him, nulling and voiding the covenant that God made with him. And not to mention that he is his son. Imagine the feelings that he had as he had to go up the mountain to sacrifice his son, his beating heart as his son asked him where the lamb was that they were going to sacrifice, and the tears going down his face as he tied down his son and most likely kissed him for the last time. He raised the knife and then the angel came down and stopped him. Abraham proved himself to the Lord with a faith so big, that he would be obedient in all things, and the blessings that Abraham were practically infinite. And now he's been exalted and is living with God. So I think that we all need to try and find the same faith that Abraham had, and there's no room to doubt that everything will be fine.

So just trust in the Lord. It's in His hands. There's practically nothing we can do about it except pray and show our faith to the Lord. You'll learn some great story from all this though, we all know that. If there is anything that you need to me know, just send an email to President Cook and I know that he will let me know.

Things are going pretty good in this area. We've been doing a few contacts and looking for a bunch of references, because there was just recently an open house at the church here and we received a lot of references, and we've found quite a few new people that are interested. That's one thing that we're focusing a lot on, finding the inactive members, if they still live in the sector or if they have moved away. It's a pretty important thing to take care of the Lord's fold, because if we can't take care of what we have, he will never add to it. I'm assuming that the package will be here in another week or two. It usually takes almost a month to get here. Haha, I couldn't have said that better myself. It is a pretty stupid quest for the possessions of the world. I have a few ideas about my homecoming talk, so don't worry about that :) I'm looking forward to that jam.

I also want to plan to eat healthy after the mission. I think that I might take like a month and eat pretty bad but after I want to try and eat nice and try and get my swimmer body back haha. I was talking about the Church using technology yesterday with my companion a little. I said that I think the church should start doing things a little big differently for general conference, it gets pretty hard to just sit there and watch a guy speak for 10 hours. I think that they should start using more videos or other stuff like that and really take advantage of the technology that the world has now. I think that it would be a pretty big possibility to come home every other weekend or something like that. I guess we will see how things are when I'm actually there, I don't know what it will be like yet. The best thing might have been my studies. I'm really trying to take advantage of the gospel studies from now until the end of my mission because I realize that after the mission I'm probably never going to have the same amount of time to study the gospel. I've been reading a lot out of D.&C. and the Old Testament.

I'm not really too worried about anything. God has a purpose behind everything and it is most likely that he won't tell us what it is in this life. Cancer is something that you can't really do anything about. All you can do is have a lot of faith in God and lots of prayers. The rest is in his hands. My patriarchal blessing also says that I need to take care of you guys when you are old, so for that to happen you'll have to live to be pretty old if you need my help. President Cook just told me that it's another reason to give 100% dedication until the end. With sacrifice comes blessing. I don't really have any questions though. If there's anything that you guys think that I should know, just send an email to President Cook and I know that he will let me know. But thanks for all the love, I'll obviously be praying for mom and for the rest of the family. Just stay positive :) When there's doubt, there's no faith. Well I hope that everything goes well with you mom. Just keep your head up. If there's anything you need from me, just let me know. I love you!

Love,
Elder Stam

God, family, then work, those are the prioritites.

May 11, 2016
                                        

Mom,

Haha it was nice talking to everyone!  Maybe I won't shave from the time I come home until the time that I go to college to see how much my beard actually grows. I think that it will be an easy transition, I've never really had much of a problem with change in my life. Yeah, is he a pretty good guy, Elder Keck.

Haha what Mexican restaurant did you go to? What book are you reading now? I don't think plant is that much work, just a lot of work once. After you plant them and everything, you really only have to water them, which isn't that hard haha. Maybe Joshua will find a house that's a little bit closer.  You'll have plenty more grandkids to play with one day.  Don't overwork yourself. I remember learning a lot about stress in that health class that I took, it was such a fun class haha. I feel like there are three main focus points in people's lives. God, family, and work, in that respective order. God should always come first in everything, then family should be the #2 thing in our lives, then work. So we should always please God first, then the family, then work. Don't let work impede your relationship with your family or with God.

So with transfers, I actually did leave, even though I was sure that I wasn't going to. I'm pretty close to one of my old sectors. I'm in San Bernardo, and my sector is called Lo Blanco. I'm also with an Elder that got to Chile with me, and we are going to go home together and then President is going to close the sector. Our group is a big group, more than 20+, so President is going to have to close a few sectors. It'll be fun here.  I think we will both kill each other, as we say.  I'll do what I can while I'm still here in the mission. It doesn't make sense to give up now, right now is the time that I am most prepared to be a missionary. I have experience now so I am definitely better at teaching now than I was when I first got here. I forgot to think about a miracle, so I'll think of one for next week, sorry.

The three things that we should make should be empanadas, sopaipillas, and pebre, which is like a salsa.  There was this kid in my last ward, Andrés, who was also looking at buying an Xbox One, and I told him that I was also going to get one, and he told me of the Xbox One Elite, which definitely sounds like I need. I think that it's pretty expensive though, if I need to pay for a little bit of it, I will. I think I'm going to try and work a little bit more than you said, I'm thinking about 15 hours a week. I really don't need anything for my birthday, just a new debit card haha. I was thinking about that a little also, I kind of want to go to Lagoon, but that would be more of a thing to do with my friends. We could also go and do something in Salt Lake, I kind of want to get to know better the city. We could probably go to the This is the Place memorial, that would be kind of fun.

So yeah, thanks for the email, I hope that you have a very wonderful week and if you need anything, just let me know.

Love,
Elder Stam

Our mission is one of the most obedient

April 20, 2016
                         

Elders Keck and Stam with investigators from Haiti

 So like I said to dad, I don't have a lot of time to write today. The cyber that we normally go to was closed and we didn't know of any other cyber that we could write in. Haha yeah, that's been happening a little bit, lots of rain here. There wasn't a whole lot of flooding in our mission, that I have heard of. It rained during the entire weekend, without stopping, but most of the flooding happened in downtown Santiago. It was fun though, there was a huge drop in attendance at church, which is kind of sad, the rain is no excuse to not go to church. I also got a little sick right before it started raining, so it didn't help me get better very fast, and also yesterday we got the flu shot and that made me even worse. But you can never stop working. I really like the rain though, I prefer it way over a hot sunny day. Alright, I would like to hear that story from her.

Yeah I also think that the Book of Mormon is easier. I also really like the New Testament. It has some harder parts, but there are a lot of really clear parts also. Haha yes, I'll send a few photos.  That sounds like it's going to be a pretty fun stake conference, it's nice sometimes to have a change every once in a while. I'm sure that it will all turn out great. He sounds like an awesome person (Elder Becerra), I would say try to get to know him pretty well because the church leaders are all super amazing.  I've done almost the exact same thing. On the little book about the restoration that we give to the people, it has that picture on the front, and I always ask people how they would feel if they were the lamb and what they need to do to become the lamb.

Well I'll start looking at the majors when I get it, but I'm not really going to think about it a whole lot until I'm home. I have other things to be thinking about now haha. It will be summer but I'm only going to have three weeks of summer haha.

Haha I think that it's so funny that he needs to wear a helmet, it cracks me up. We are teaching a family that has a baby that's 9 months old, just barely older than Jackson, so it's kind of like a preview I guess. The baby laughs and smiles an incredible amount also.

Elias was a reference, I don't know who it was from. Yeah it went well with him. He started seeing things on the internet, including anti mormon stuff, but he knows that there are enemies for everything so he didn't believe a lot of the stuff haha. He's like the golden investigator like that say. It will be a giant change if he does accept the gospel, because all of his family are evangelicos, and his brother is even a pastor. Oh wow, so it sounds like they caused some pretty big problems. I think that our mission is one of the most obedient, I really haven't heard of like any missionary who does any super bad thing. Yes, there are missionaries that aren't completely obedient, but I've heard some stories from other missions where the missionaries have done some terrible things. Our mission no though. I'm sure that a lot of it has to do the President Cook, everyone here loves and respects him. He always works with them, he doesn't send a missionary home unless it's absolutely necessary.


When were you normally getting tomatoes before? I'll have to compare the tomatoes from home to the tomatoes here. It's kind of funny, before the mission I would always take the tomatoes off the sandwiches, but now whevener I make a sandwich, I put tomatoes on it, it's weird to see how things change.


That's kind of the same thing that I am saying. This next change that comes around will most likely determine where I finish the mission. If I get changed, I'll finish in the new sector, and if I don't get changed, then I will probably finish where I am right now.

Haha it's true, it is nice to be with an American. There's always that slight difference of culture with a latin, but that also makes things a little more interesting, for better or for worse. Thanks for the email, I hope that you also have an amazing week. Haha you'll meet a few people when we come to Chile, don't worry.

Love,
Elder Stam

Let's have faith that they accept it now

April 13, 2016 
                                             

Mom,           

Right, I forgot last week to tell Heather Happy Birthday, so wish her a happy late birthday from me please :D Haha so people are learning to paint now huh? There are some weird trends in the world. So how do you think they turned out? They look pretty good to me. That's definitely one of the first things that I am going to want when I come home, eat burgers. They have burgers here but it's still different.

This last week was good, there were some hard days. It's always hard when you have appointments with people and then they aren't home and they don't tell you anything. That always happens. It happened a lot this last week, but it's fine because we also found a few new people to teach. Our ward has been very blessed lately with four new families moving into the ward. Haha yeah I can share with you guys my favorite LDS videos. It'll be a little weird watching them in English, I think that they will be better. We've been looking mainly for less active members to teach, but it's been strange and looking for them we've actually found more investigators. Haha, I had no idea what Oma's conversion story is. I actually didn't know who were the first converts in the family. And what about dad's side?

I think that the biggest problem that I have when I read the scriptures is it's hard for me to focus enough to understand them fully. Right now I'm reading in the New Testament and there are parts that have been really hard for me to understand. It might also be that I am reading them in Spanish. Elder Utchdorf uses a lot of like parables or similes when he speaks, it's pretty cool.

Well hopefully everything goes well with the move, I know for sure that Oma will like Utah. Ah you guys never played in the water, you just always wanted to sort of float there. Swimming isn't just laps, swimming laps is exercise. You can swim to have fun. That just sounds like a normal papa thing almost haha. He'll be fine though, it's rough for everyone when they're old, but I don't know of anyone that's stopped existing because it was too hard for them and the next life will be wonderful for him.

It's crazy to think that what I decide to major in could really make an influence on my whole life. I guess with a lot of prayer and faith everything will turn out fine.

Oh no, another Josh. Haha not like it's a bad thing but Josh is a character. I think that it will be funny to see a little Josh running around everywhere. I think also that he will be a lot like Josh. The weather here has also been nice. It's been cold, I'm wearing a sweater right now. I love it. Hmm we had a really awesome lesson with this kid names Elias. He's 21 years old, and kind of like a punk kid. He was a really strong and faithful member of the Evangelic church, but he stopped going for a while. We made really good friends with him and then we taught him the Restoration. He accepted it really well and said that it makes more sense than all of the other churches haha. We have another lesson with him today and we are going to teach him about the Book of Mormon. Yesterday we also brought a Book of Mormon in French to the Haitians, and finally they understood better. They actually had a few doubts, which is a good thing because if they don't have doubts, they don't learn. But they had doubts about the Book of Mormon being "the most correct of any other book on the earth". So now that they are finally understanding, let's have faith that they accept it now. Anyways, thanks for the email again, have a great week!

Love,
Elder Stam

Being exactly obedient really helps the Spirit stay with us

April 6, 2016


                                 

Mom,

My first week with him was good. We get along pretty well, I think that our personalities are pretty similar. One of the things that I like most about him is he's obedient. I cannot stress to you how important that it. Most missionaries are very obedient, but not exactly obedient. He actually tries to be exactly obedient and it really helps the Spirit stay with us a lot more. I had all the intentions of grabbing my camera before we left, but I forgot again. I'm sorry, I'll definitely try my best to remember next week. The teaching has been going well. We've been focusing mostly on finding new people. Yeah, the Haitians are still progressing, slowly. I think that they are starting to actually understand more. Right now we are reteaching the plan of salvation, but really slowly. They speak French so we read the scriptures with the in French, and it helps them understand a lot more. You have to help the people understand the importance of the change they need to make in their life, and that change can be a good thing, and it can make you happier. I plan on waking up early, reading the scriptures, then going to exercise. That'll be my mornings. Piano playing is going fine, not a lot recently because we have had a lot of meetings recently on Sunday.


Well every week seems to go just a little bit faster. It's true when they say that the last year goes the fastest. I got my trunky papers today from the mission office, you know the papers that I have to fill out so they can buy my plane ticket haha

I did enjoy conference, it's always good. I didn't pay a whole ton of attention because it looses a lot of meaning when you want to watch it in your first language. I have the whole conference downloaded in English though so I am going to listen to it a lot more carefully at our house. President Monson hardly spoke at all. He also gave a talk in Priesthood session and it was only like 4 minutes long. I think that he is getting really tired. I liked Holland's talk, he's always an amazing talker, and I think it was the perfect talk to end conference. I also liked Elder Nelson and Elder Utchdorf from the Priesthood session. I didn't know that Kaitlyn and Savannah sang in the choir,  that's cool. It was a really fun experience when I sang in it.

Haha Oma probably hasn't even touched or looked at some of the stuff she would have to get rid of. She'll get over it. We can't take possessions with us when we die. It would be nice to have a pool, if you guys would even swim though. It's so lame going to a pool with the family because you guys never even swim.

Wow I had to do some math problems a little while ago and it was really hard. I think that I have forgotten a lot of my math skills. It'll be pretty tough for me at first. I guess with just a little bit of studying I will be fine. Yeah that class schedule all sounds fine to me. I just don't want it to take up a whole bunch of time. I'm gonna want some time off. And on top of all of that I know that I am going to have to find a job and work. Maybe the swimming class won't be too much of a necesity, but we will see. Yeah I prefer 830 with a small break. Goodness, college sounds like a riot.

Haha that's funny, Jackson has to wear a helmet. He sounds like a pretty typical baby. Do you think that he is going to be like Joshua when he grows up?

I guess that I will have to try the tomatoes from the garden when I'm home. I've eaten so many tomatoes here and I honestly think that the tomatoes in the United States would be better. I was just stubborn before haha. Now I'll eat just about anything.  Yes, it's finally starting to get cold. It actually rained yesterday, it was fantastic. Yeah, of course I love the people here, I wouldn't have any success if I didn't love them. Well I hope that you have a great week, 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

Apostles really know what they're doing.

January 20, 2016     

Clams and he liked them?!

Things are good with me, the same I guess haha. The broadcast was good it was a conference for all of the missionaries in the world, different than I thought but awesome. I learned a lot, the apostles really know what they're doing, which is to be expected. Yeah, I'll write a little bit about every picture when I send them. Haha yeah I liked the clams! I think that when we went to Seattle for choir tour is when I decided that I like sea food. Even the clams were really good. I don't know, but we eat less here haha. That's okay, because I don't want to come home with a belly, I'm gonna be skinny and in shape, sort of. I'm definitely swimming a lot when I get back to get back in swimming shape. I don't know what religion they are(Haitians), but they definitely are strong believers. Their names are Odesán and Toussaint. (pronounced Oadley and Tusant) It's been good with them. We went to them with and Elder in the mission that speaks French, and they're doing really well. The communication is a hard thing though.

I totally didn't have an accent and I don't accept that haha. It probaby won't be that much stronger if I'm not with another latino. My next companion might be my last. Well you've heard the exact opposite. Chilean spanish is unlike all other kinds of Spanish.

I also feel like I have more energy when I eat better, so that's why I'm eating better haha. I can pet the cats and all, I just can't touch my eyes after petting them or else they itch really bad. I think my allergy has gotten a little better, because my eyes used to swell up if I did that. And I mean the people, it's not just here in Chile, but the whole world. In just ten years everything has gotten way worse.

I will most definitely need some new clothes. Honestly I'm thinking about only taking two or three white shirts home, the rest are going to be pretty yellow and kinda gross. It will be good to have shoes though. The most interesting thing? I don´t know, I met a Chilean from Easter Island on Tuesday, the first one that I've met from there. We also had that devotional thing which was pretty cool, gotta love devotionals with the apostles. Well I hope that you have a wonderful week as well.

Love,
Elder Stam     

More Clams

Surprised I was transferred, but life is good.

December 30, 2015


Mom,          

Transfer day, Elder Stam was sad to leave this area. 

So President Cook told us yesterday that we would be writing today. So the letter is going to be a little shorter because I don't have anything to respond to. But it was nice talking to you guys and seeing you all last week! I hope that you all had a wonderful Christmas, and that you have an amazing new year. It's crazy that we are already starting 2016. I come home this year!!!

So the big news of this week is that I was transferred again. :( sad, I really liked that sector. I think that it was the hardest area for me to say goodbye to. I had a lot of friends there. I didn't think that I was going to leave either, Presidente told me in our interview that I would most likely be there another change. But it looks like God wanted something else. Now I'm in the area El Parrón. It's in the zone la cisterna sur. My companions name is Elder Baker, he's from New Mexico, and we are serving as district leaders. So that's that. He has been out on his mission about 21 months, so it looks like I am going to be his last companion. I'm thinking that this might be my last area, but I really have no idea. When he goes home, I'll have about 4 months left. I hope that this is my last area, because it's my sixth and I think that if I get changed it would be like a month before I came home, and I wouldn't be too happy about having to learn a new area right before going home. But we will just see what God's will is.

Well there isn't much more to tell you, life's good, it's still really hot outside, probably will be for a few more months. I just hope that you guys have a fun new years, and that you send me pictures!!

Love,
Elder Stam

Jan 1, 2016

Dear Mom,

Alright, so I don't have a lot of time, but I'll answer your questions. I thought Jackson was a little cutie pie, it's gonna be crazy to meet him in person when he almost has a year, but that's okay, I should have more nephews and nieces to come. I am pretty sure the members were sad. They were a little shocked because it was really unexpected. Another Elder and I were both transferred and we both thought that we were going to stay one more change there. I don't know a ton about the new area, but so far it seems pretty awesome. It's a ton different than my last sector or than any other sector I've really had. It's limits are Gran Avenida, Vispucio, El Parrón, and la Granja. I live with just my companion, and we live in a little shack I'm going to say behind the house of a member. It's not a bad house though, it's pretty big for just two people. My new companion is pretty cool, he's really funny, I am sure that we will get along really well. From what they have told me, there are about 50 people at church every week, but to me it seems that there are a lot of members, so we will see on Sunday. I wouldn't say that it is upper class, but the people here are more economically stable here. It's normal for a missionary to be in an area for 6 months. And if you really want me to come home like two weeks early, I'm sure I could talk to president and he would let me stay here until I go home. We don't do much, we need to be an example for the other missionaries, we pass numbers to the zone leaders, and we give the district meeting classes. The teaching here is good, but you always need to be finding new people. Well that's all that I have time for, have a wonderful day and happy new year also!

Love,
Elder Stam

Forget yourself, do what He wants and success comes.

December 16, 2015

                                  

The week was good. Quite interesting. We did a lot of contacts this week and we found a large number of less actives. It was really strange how many we found. I have no idea how to take care of a baby. You are going to have to show me one day.  Jackson does look like a really big baby! From the pictures that I've seen he looks big. There is a family in this sector that has a baby that is like 5 months old and he is a tiny little thing. He's gonna be a little chunky kid haha.  I like those shoes as well, the brown ones I got here. They were really cheap haha. I got the Christmas package yesterday! I won't open it though haha. I also got a little package from Jay and Lynette, so tell them thanks for me, and that I really appreciate it! Yeah, I can call at 5. Elder Rivera is going to call at 3 so it would be perfect. Speaking of next week, we had to change P day to Friday, and that is the day that we are calling you, so I don't think that I will get to write you guys next week. Also the week after, for New Years, we are going to have P Day Friday as well. So the next two weeks I have P day on Friday, just so you know. But I will call at 5, so don't worry. It should be a lot better if we don't have three connected. Haha I don't plan on getting married soon, so I will still have a few years to just be with you guys.

Her name is Maria, what an unusual name huh? Haha there are so many Marias here it's kind of funny. She is still progressing. We haven't had an opportunity to see her this week. She is doing great though. She has had problems with her kids. All the kids here are really rebellious. So she has been struggling with that a little. The best thing this week was probably finding all of the new people to teach. Yesterday we had two lessons with new people, this week we have probably found 6 or 7 new people to teach. The people in this sector are incredibly humble. I am pretty sure that I will speak like a gringo my whole life. There are very few, and I mean very few elders who go home speaking like a latino. I'll try to work on it though. Yeah, photos, will do.

Happy anniversary! 32 years is a long time, but the eternity is a lot longer, you're just getting started haha. Oh man that is going to be a good game. I'm sure that Utah will win, I have faith in them. They haven't lost a bowl game in several years, I doubt that they will lose one against BYU. Tell me how it goes.

President is an awesome guy, for real. He is obviously called of God. It was so awesome that he bought me peanut butter, I freaking love the stuff. Hah, I think that I have learned a lot about trials on my mission. The mission is just a trial in itself. It's really hard to wake up every day knowing that you have to walk all day, trying to talk to people, being rejected all the time, every single day for TWO YEARS. But, if you just forget yourself and just do what He wants you to do, it's not even a problem. For example, yesterday I really didn't want to go out and do contacts again, because we have done them a lot this week. I didn't have the best attitude about it. But I just went out and worked my best anyways. And what did God do? He about smacked me in the face. Yesterday was probably one of the most successful days of my mission. We found like 5 future investigators, and we have two lessons with new people that we found that day. It's funny how God works, but if we just give up our will and do the Lord's will, he will totally bless us. Yesterday also helped me be more humble, and made me realize that I just need to trust that God will lead us to the people that are prepared. Long story short, we have trials to knock the rough edges off of us, and the trials that we have can help perfect us.

 We went near the temple today and we went in an LDS store and I saw one of the Joseph Smith Papers books. It was gigantic haha, a lot bigger than I thought it was going to be. It looks like an amazing series though, with a ton a revelations and doctrine. I would love to know more about Joseph Smith, the guys is really mysterious.  I won't think about it too much about decisions when I come home yet, it's still pretty far away. If I think about it a lot, it's going to take longer to get here haha.

Funny how you ask that,  I do remember at my setting apart I was told that things would not be just mere coincidences but acts of God.  I think that little story I just wrote answers that question.  It changed from week to week but I would say that we are teaching an average of 18 lessons a week. We are improving though, little by little. A typical day is waking up, exercising, showering, studying, doing the work, eating lunch, working again, coming home, planning for the next day, sleeping, and repeating. That's a typical day haha, I can explain it more in detail when we talk. I feel like we just talked on Skype, it definitely wasn't 7 months ago. Time goes way too fast, that's all I can say.

I hope that you have a great week as all. Maybe we will have a little time to write before I call you on Christmas, but we will see. Have a wonderful Christmas, and enjoy the snow for me!!

Love,
Elder Stam

The work is progressing!

December 9, 2015

                    

Mom,

Don't open it til Christmas? Mom I don't think you realize how hard that it. You get home and you just have a package of stuff there staring at you, tempting you. But I'll try to not open it. I feel like I just talked to you all, it's strange that it's already time to call again. I am pretty sure that we are going to be with the Inostroza family, so that you guys can meet them. Things have been going good this last week, it's been really hot. I got really burnt today because we went and played soccer outside for a few hours. Yes we have found a few new people. The are mostly less actives, and they're all really nice, they just have a few problems and doubts, the usual. There are always a few that progress. We have an investigator that came to church for the first time this week, and she really liked it.

Wow how incredible, a clean room. My Spanish is pretty good, the only problem is pronunciation. They all say that I talk gringo. I just don't understand how to not speak with an accent. I've tried so hard to fix it but this gringo accent is a curse. Yes he got baptized, it was really awesome! We have our own house, we live with four missionaries. It's two floors but it's still pretty small. We do have members next door, they were recently reactivated by the Elders in the other sector. Yeah, yeah, photos. It's just that I haven't really taken that many photos.

College will be weird, but we will see. I think that the allergies are getting better, but I don't really know. They aren't going to go away permanently, but I think that they are better. My eyes don't really itch that much anymore. I want to go to the South of Chile also, it looks awesome down there. I don't think that Elder is going to have the money, and I don't really care, I've just gotta rub it in his face a little bit ;) haha.

President Cook is really awesome. He is pretty relaxed, he's not super strict, but he does expect us to keep all of the rules. He does it in a good way. Recently for P Day we went to Buin Zoo again. It's cool down there, it's just like any other zoo though, so it's not super special. They do have some awesome animals though. This P Day all we did was play soccer, and now I'm red as a tomato. It's usually just wake up and go do something, the activity or whatever, then go to the feria and buy fruit and food and whatever we need, then relax for a couple hours, and come and write, then go work. That's the typical schedule. Our mission was big before with about 250 missionaries, but it has dropped and we only have about 200 now. The interview went really well. He read that I wanted peanut butter on the blog that you do for me and he went out and bought me peanut butter. It was pretty funny. He's a great man though, I always learn a lot from him. He just asks about everything and I just tell him the truth about it all, I feel comfortable with him.  Haha Pres Hutchison is a pretty inspired man, I think that he is doing a great job as stake president. I don't really know much of what he has done but I could tell that he would be a good one.

Ohhh Cafe Rio, I miss that place. No there is nothing specific that I would like to know.  Also it would be awesome if you only bought me one more videogame. Call of Duty Black Ops 3. After that I would like you to buy other things. I have heard recently of a book series that is called the Joseph Smith Papers. I looked at the books and they are pretty expensive and there are a lot of them, but it would be cool if you could buy me one or two of them, I would really appreciate it. Love you mom!

Love,
Elder Stam             

Trying my best always

December 2, 2015

                                    

Elders Stam and Rivera

Yay for packages haha. Dad told me that you cleaned out my room. How messy was it? It was pretty disastrous when I left. But that's okay, it's your problem, not mine. ;) I'm sure that anything that you guys did it would still feel like home.

Things were good this last week. It was pretty hot this week, and I could swear that there were more drunk people than normal. We have been trying to find new people to teach. We are going through all of the old people in our area book, looking for them to see if they are now interested in listening. We teach quite a few people, it would take quite a while to write about all of them. But it was just a normal dinner appointment with the Inostroza. They didn't even know that it was Thanksgiving. Nobody knew haha. But that's okay. We sacrifice some holidays to have a few new Chilean holidays here. That's good that you went with Mike and his family, they are good friends of us. I'm sure that he will stay in Utah also, it's pretty hard to leave that place.

Yes both of Elder Rivera's parents speak Spanish. He couldn't speak very much when he got here. The advantage that he has is that he could understand it, and he already knew a lot of vocabulary, which is the thing that is hardest for me. I have had 7 companions now, not including Elder Walker and Elder Johnson from the MTC. If we count them, then I have had 9. The number of investigators that go to church changes, they don't really go every week, but if everyone were to go, we would have like 10 or so in church. The baptism should happen this week, he is going to have his interview tomorrow and if it all goes well he will get baptized. I think that is how most kids are. We are all just stubborn, and don't like to be told what to do. But we all just need to humble ourselves a little bit and listen to other people. I really don't like school studies though. I like to learn, but I think that schools just need to teach in a completely different way. It's really boring listening to a lecture. That's a pretty neat story though that you told me about how you were helped in college to have your mind opened.  The Lord blesses.  Visiting teaching is a pretty big problem here too, no one really wants to do it. It's really bad sometimes how lazy the people are, but I know that it's a little bit the same everywhere.

 I would never cook for Thanksgiving. That's one thing that my future wife has to have, cooking skills. If not, we are eating macaroni and cheese and cereal for the rest of our lives. So it's your fault that I have these allergies. Thanks mom. Haha we need to go to a place hidden from everything if you buy property. I wonder what it will be like right before He comes.

I like having emails though, it's a pretty lame p day when you don't have very many emails.   Haha I have a bet with another elder what I won't get married for at least a year after coming home for $1000. So I'm gonna be $1000 richer. It's just what missionaries talk about haha. If we were to go anywhere else in Chile, it would be to the South. The South is much better here, from what I have heard.

Handsome guy, no not the dog!

 Well, just take the little push with him in sharing the gospel. You never know unless you try. I am trying my best to keep all of the mission rules. Everyone in the zone has interviews with President Cook tomorrow. We always have an interview with him every 3 months. We meet with him every once in a while, when he wants to teach us something, for zone conference, for interviews, things like that. My district leader is Elder Kamoe. My zone leaders are Elder Thompson and Elder Alfaro. Our district is 8 missionaries and our zone is like 24 or so missionaries. Nope, they don't really put up lights here, a few people, but not a lot.

We went to a zoo today for P day, so we saw a lot of animals. But it's still different in a zoo. They are always sleeping and not doing anything, and there's glass in the way. I would like to see animals out in the wild. They don't sleep that much when they are in the wild it seems.  Thanks for the email, I hope that you have a wonderful week with the cold weather!

Love,
Elder Stam

Hard work has made the difference

November 25, 2015
                                   

Alonso and Elder Caleb Stam

Things are good! We're (Caleb and his companion) both from Utah, so we get along pretty well haha. Nope, we're not doing anything for Thanksgiving. It's just a normal day here in Chile, but we are going to the Inostroza's house so maybe they will do something for us, who knows? You need to eat pie for me. So what is little Jackson's personality? What can you see in him? Elder Rivera has been out about 6 months. He speaks Spanish incredibly well though. He has listened to Spanish his whole life, so he can understand it perfectly, but he is learning to speak it here. He struggles a little when he reads, but he's learning really quickly. He was only 18 when he was baptized! A girl introduced him to the Church hahah. Haha I haven't been taking a lot of pictures lately, but I'll take one of us! I don't know, hard work has made the difference in this area? The Lord just leads us to the people that are prepared. We have more investigators attending church than less actives, but I would say that it is pretty equally balanced.  I feel like people here are afraid of giving referrals. We hardly receive any referrals at all. I think that people are afraid of what the person would think of them, it's kind of stupid. I hope that I stay here for six months, and then my last area for six months. That would be the rest of my mission. I'm already in my fifth area, I don't want to have too many. I think six would be okay. I am pretty sure that member references are the most successful. The Inastroza family was a referral. I'm been having fun though, that's the important thing.

We all just need to learn how to listen to the Spirit and discern what it tells us, which is the hard part. The Church has three little videos about it, called Patterns of Light. Check them out, they're pretty good! They are by Elder Bednar. Yeah, we talked with Alonso and with his mom. We have a baptismal date though, December 6th. I am 90% sure that it will happen. His mom just said that he has a bad attitude with her and with his brothers and sisters. She could probably be a little bit more understanding at his age, but it's okay, it's good to teach your kids good values when they're young. I am sure that she will go to his baptism for sure, and most likely his confirmation.

Snow College is where I want to go but I don't want to study mom haha. But I know that I have to. One thing that I like about the mission is that there are no tests. It's all like a big test of your own personal conversion, but there's not like As and Bs and stuff like that. I study a whole lot more here than I did before though. I like the studies here though. I didn't like the studies before haha. Christmas gifts.  There isn't much that a missionary needs, just food haha.

Haha, just tell Oma to live with you guys! You have three empty bedrooms at the moment. And then she wouldn't have to pay for living. I find it really hard to believe that we are in December almost. The last two months have gone by ridiculously fast. I feel like we are still in September sometimes. Cooking is a pain. I don't like it anymore. It takes me ten minutes or more to cook something, and two minutes to eat it. That's why I like cereal so much, it only takes like 30 seconds to make. $400 a month?? Jeez that's a lot you will save for insurance. Keep getting better though with your arthritis. Allergies here have been killing me. We are in Spring now, and my eyes have been so itchy. My nose hurts a little too. I started taking those allergy pills that you gave me though. I don't know if they are doing anything, but it's worth a try.

Haha that picture of snow would be awesome to have. It's been pretty hot here lately, almost too hot again. but that's okay. Like I said, most people here don't even know how the snow is. They are missing out on a lot of fun. I think that snow is awesome, I miss it. Hopefully it snows though. They need it there. It hardly snowed at all last year right?

We expanded the house while Josh was on his mission right? Or was that before? I just remember that we bought the big screen TV and Josh about had a heart attack when he saw it. No big surprises please. How is my room coming along though? Knowing mom, you will probably be working on it until I come home.

Haha Connor and I have totally experienced completely different things here in Chile. He was in the beautiful south of Chile and I'm in the city of Santiago. I would love to come back here and get to know better the south of Chile, it looks spectacular. 

I hope that you also have a great week and a wonderful Thanksgiving! The best thing was probably setting a baptism date for Alonso, it's awesome to see the fruits of your labors. Love you mom!

Love,
Elder Stam

There are two commandments concerning the Sabbath Day

October 28, 2015

Mom and Dad,                    

Wonderful family that are now part of the Gospel of Jesus Christ!

         
Yes, I have more time this week to write, so don't worry. That's good that the baby shower went well! I don't really know what happens in those, but it's still good haha. It's going to be weird not having a Thanksgiving here again. They should really make that a holiday here. Halloween is pretty awesome here though! It's going to be my second Halloween, I could swear that the first one wasn't that long ago, definitely not a year ago.

The Lord works in strange ways so maybe her passing is a way that people will make the necessary changes in their life to become closer to God.  Let me know how that funeral goes. Hopefully everyone is doing fine. It really is just a short period that everyone is going to be apart.   It's a time or trial, but hopefully the family keeps doing well. You can always find comfort in the plan of salvation.

I'll try to attach the photos to this email. We will see how the computer is. The family we baptized have been doing really well though! They're a really strong family with lots of desire to follow the Lord. They were a little skeptical at first but the more that we taught the more comfortable they felt. They feel like the Mormon Church uses their tithings better than all of the other churches, and that is one thing that they really liked. Also the kids that we baptized were 9 and 11. Their mom is a member but inactive, and their dad just an investigator. He's not too interested either, but we are working with him. And really? Mr. Wilson passed away? What was the cause? That's strange, he was also pretty young. The family had been listening to missionaries for quite a while, but they were finally ready when I got here, so I sealed the deal haha. The past week has been good. We had zone conference with President Cook yesterday, it was good, like always with him. We found a new kid that wants to learn piano, so I am going to take advantage of the opportunity to teach him. Elder Sosa has been doing good as well. He is from Peru.

People tend to forget that there are two commandments concerning the Sabbath Day. The first is the Sacrament. And the second is keeping it holy. Two separate commandments. That's good that Pres Hutchison talked about that though, it is something that the world needs to fix.

That would be kind of frustrating that Joshua can't start working until Dec. At least he has time to rest. Tell him to read the Book of Mormon or something. I started it again recently. I'm in 2 Nephi right now, in the Isaiah chapters. I'm surprised how much I'm understanding those chapters, they were so hard for me before. At least Josh has a little bit of free time, there are times that I would really like a break. Just tell him to take advantage of the time and get as many things done as he can during this time. Well I'm still a teenager but I won't be when I come home, so we will see how interested I will be haha.  They sent me a short video of Jackson that was pretty cute. A baby would be a lot of work, I'm glad I don't have one haha. Has everything been going good with him though? How are Josh and Shelly doing with the baby? It's kind of crazy to think that he is going to be almost a year old when I come home. Haha that would be kind of cool to have a little writing device. I could write a little bit every day, the things that happened every day so you could know a little bit more of what I do every week. Only if you want to send that though. I don't want a big package. I want you to save money so that you can spend it on me when I'm home hahaha.

Who did the Utes lose against?? Darn, they needed to have another perfect season. That's okay though. That new Halo game looks dope mom, for real. Keep that game safe, it's sacred to me haha.

Keep a good list for me, I know that there has been some pretty great movies lately. Have you seen the second Maze Runner movie?? I hope that you are still playing Clash of Clans for me as well. Love you mom! I hope that you have a great week!

Love,
Elder Stam              

Father, Mother and Daughter that Caleb helped bring into the Gospel!

The Temple allows us to be together forever

October 14, 2015

Mom and Dad,  
  

Things have been great with the family! We took them to the temple on Friday. The stake organized a trip to the temple and the missionaries really took advantage of it. A lot of the missionaries from the stake took people to the temple. So we took them there and taught them about temples, and they said that they want to go in someday to get sealed. It was quite the experience. They actually are going to get baptized this Saturday! And then on Sunday we have two more baptisms with two other kids that we have been teaching. So this week we should have 5 baptisms. The Lord blesses us haha. I've given quite a few blessings for health, other blessings no. The highlight was going to the temple for sure. Other than that, maybe when there were like 10 gunshots right next to us. That was pretty thrilling. Yes, I still like the food. I'm getting kind of sick of chicken though, I have to admit. There's a soup here called Cazuela that's pretty good. You need to learn how to make Chilean empanadas also. Also see if she knows what mote con huesillo is.

Yeah, I think that everyone noticed that Pres Monson had to rest on the podium.  I think that he still has a little while though. Who knows, maybe some kids actually saw two angels holding him. He been a great prophet though, one with lots of love. Which talk from conference was your favorite and why? I liked Monson's talk in the Priesthood Session, he was really direct with us and I think that it is what we needed.


That's a pretty cool story with Grandpa going to the Temple for a sealing. I was looking at my family tree a little while back and I was pretty surprised how filled it was. That's good that Grandpa could go to the temple and have a good experience there. So did you guys end up giving a name to the baby? I've realized that our church is really the only church that really has the correct perspective of forever. The other churches don't really think about the future at all, only the present. That would be super awesome if the family we are teaching got sealed. The temple is awesome, brings people closer to God and allows them to be together forever.

I think that I will have like four kids, but we will see. So did you actually go out on the lakes with the kayaks? How did you like it? I would actually really like to go to a lake with the kayaks. I think that a little bit before I left I started to really like lakes. We should take the kayaks to a river with rapids and do some white water kayaking, that would be a lot of fun.  If we go to a lake, I'm definitely putting sun screen on, it was absolutely horrible when we went to St George. Definitely the worst sun burn that I've ever had. The weather has been really bipolar here though. One day hot, the next day cold and rainy. Right now it's raining. Yesterday it was really hot.  Jackson is already smiling huh? Try to take a picture of his smiling!

Go Utes :D it would be amazing if they could have another undefeated year. Remember when you guys were BYU fans? Yeah, you're welcome for me converting you.  Time does fly, I have 14 months now. The weather has been a little nuts and it's been affecting my health a little bit. Not a ton but I have headaches every once in a while. So yeah, we should have 5 baptisms this week. It should be a great week. I'll send you pictures of the baptism next week! Thanks for writing me and I hope that you have a wonderful week!

Love,
Elder Stam    

True happiness comes from obedience to the commandments

Sept 30, 2015



Mom and Dad, 
     

I'm glad that you had a good week with Shelly and baby Jackson. So what do you think about him now that you know him? Haha I think that he's gonna be a pretty big kid. Wow there really isn't any more that have the last name Stam?? We have to make this name famous. From what it sounds like they didn't have very many problems with the trip.  I've helped people move here twice, we helped them pack the truck and it takes absolutely forever. It was tiring as well because one of them lived on the third floor of an apartment building so we had to continually climbing stairs for several hours packing the truck. It was fun though, a little bit of a break from preaching. Nauvoo would be a pretty fun place to go see one day. Hopefully you didn't have too many problems with the trip, at least you're done with it already haha. During the special training that we had from President Cook he told us of a building that was in New York where one of the first sacrament meetings was help. President and Sister Cook owned the building. It was cool learning a little bit more about New York and everything that happened there.  It will be pretty fun to have Josh close again, we gotta have more family reunions or something like that haha. So you watched a lot of movies huh? Hopefully you are still keeping up on the list of movies that I have to see when I come home. We see a lot of those panels or whatever they're called that have the new movies, there are a few pretty cool looking ones. I'm excited to have two of the Maze Runner movies, I really liked those books.

This week has been good, it's been pretty hot. I got burned last P Day, and I think I got a little bit more burnt today. We've played soccer the last two days, Mom I'm really bad at soccer. It's pretty fun to watch the latinos truthfully, there are a few that play really well. That family we are teaching is doing good. The mom has her birthday tomorrow. They learn really fast and always have a ton of questions. They are really like the perfect family. They accept everything that we teach without any doubts or anything. Remember that latinos have two last names and two first names, so one name could fill a book. The other families in our ward have been good with them, they feel really welcome and already have friends. Time has been flying lately, I don't know how we are pretty much already in October. October means conference though and I'm pretty excited to get to see it again.  It is going to be really good though. Even though we have to watch it in Spanish it will still be good. I can just download it in English after anyways. It's going to be a good conference because they are going to call three new apostles!

I think that the best gift would be to buy me those games that I want and send me a small package, I really don't need anything here. I would like American peanut butter though, I miss that. Yes mom, I understand, you'll always be my mom, and that is what you are supposed to do with your mom- be close and talk.

That's a big Chilean Hot dog. 

A lot of people here are saying that there is going to be another earthquake, but that isn't something that you can predict, unless you are a prophet haha. I don't think there will be another one. At least I have the experience to say that I was here when there was an earthquake. There really wasn't any damage at all, at least where we are.  Dad told me that he bought kayaks, that is going to be a lot of fun, we need to go to lakes a lot more often, that is one thing that I learned to love right before I came out here, lakes. It was really fun going to the lake with Nanette's choir group, even though I got severely burned and my feet swelled and I couldn't even walk for like two days after. We should definitely go more.

Haha you're right Dad, I've always been a really fast typer, it's not too big of a problem if they're long, I can type fast. There are a few elders that type really slow and can barely write anything in the time we have haha. It's fine though, I like the emails, thanks for always sending me one. I hope that you guys have a great week as well, that you guys learn a lot in conference as well! It should be a good one, they are going to call three new apostles! It will be interesting to see who it will be. Thanks once again for the email, they are always one of the best parts of my week. Just like you said, the true happiness comes from obedience to the commandments.

Love,
Elder Stam

The big earthquake was fun.

Sept 23, 2015

Dear Mom and Dad,

Haha, you sound pretty excited to meet your grandson. I think that you are going to like this next week a lot. Hopefully their trip goes well, without problems haha. This conference is going to be quite different, they have to call 3 new apostles now. Kind of sad that Elder Richard G Scott died too, but it's life. Jackson is gonna be a little trooper when I come home. Almost a year old, but not quite. Wish Shelly and Josh luck in the move. 

This photo is a kid that we are teaching. His name is Alonso. It's kind of strange, in the schools here the kids are required to dance the national dance, which is called la cueca. So in school they all dress up and dance. We saw him in the street and decided to take photos with him haha. I bought that Chilean shirt at Santa Lucía, that hill that has a big store area at the bottom. I actually arrived in Chile the 23rd of September, just after all of that stuff. It was kind of lame but I still had a 18 party last year. Things are still going well with that family. Their last name is Inastroza Jorquera, there are four of them, but they have a son of like 3 years, so he can't get baptized obviously. The other three though really like the church and they participate in everything. This week the branch had an activity and they went and had an amazing time. They're practically members already.

Haha yes I felt the earthquake. I actually thought it was pretty cool. The big earthquake was fun, we were on the second floor of an apartment building when it started to shake. We went outside and there were a few people that went absolutely nuts, it was like they thought the world was coming to an end. It's understandable though. We recorded a little bit of it. You can't see anything though. It lasted like two minutes. Nothing happened, there was no damage or anything here, but there was quite of bit of damage up north. I don't even know how many little quakes there have been though, I've seriously felt like 20. It's kind of cool, makes things different. Yes we had a conference with President yesterday. It was about a few different things. The first part we learned about self defense. They got some Chinese guy to come and teach us how to fight haha, we talked about some other things as well. President game us some instruction on the First Vision and how to teach better about Joseph Smith. It was good, I learned a lot. Haha you have been talking with Elder Melander's mom?

 Kayaks, that would be fun haha. So we could take them out on the river as well? I would actually really enjoy that, I liked the other river trips that we have done before. What river could we take them out on that is by our house?

Christmas gifts? Goodness mom, we're only in September. Nooo I don't want more hot weather for reals it's killer here. It's okay, suffer with joy, a saying that the missionaries have here. At least the summers in Utah aren't going to be so bad after.  The part that I'm in right now is called Los Cristales. It's the streets Condell, Balmaceda, Sta. Mercedes, and Los Morros or Ave. Padre Hurtado. Inbetween those streets in my sector, it's really small. Keep doing exercises as well, I need to start doing them better as well, even though I haven't put on any weight hah.

Yeah, we lost another apostle, but we all saw this one coming. He was sick for quite a while. At least now he's not sick anymore. No the world is definitely getting worse. In my opinion the people are just getting stupider and more ignorant, we just have to be different than everyone else. Lucifer is dumb. President Cook once said that everyone will have a chance to accept or reject the gospel, and that they can't really reject it if they don't know what it is. So everyone will have an equal chance to get to know it.

Thanks for the email, hope that you have a great week this week with your new grandson and Shelly, love you.

Love,
Elder Stam