I know that I have to give the better example.

Sept 9, 2015

Mom and Dad,       

Elder Stam busy teaching and making friends.

Haha I was going to say that you could probably just have formatted your computer and it would have been fine. But it's okay, now I have another option ;)

Still no baby. Lame. It's coming though. I expect photos next week. If you don't send me photos, I will never send you a photo here in the mission again haha, yes, that is a threat.

Things have continued to be great in this new area, I really like it a lot. It's been fun here, the people here really are super awesome. I hope that I stay here longer as well. I'm going to be a little frustrated if I have changes again, I don't like changes very much. It'll be okay though, the Lord knows better than me, right?  Technically I was senior companion with Elder Calvillo, but he was older than me and was leading the sector, I'm also senior companion with Elder Sosa. I find it really weird to be the oldest here. In el pino, I was the youngest. I've been one of the youngest almost my whole mission, and now I'm the oldest, it was a pretty strange change. I like it though, I know that I have to give the better example.

 Where do you guys want to serve your mission? And what places would you go visit? That sounds like a pretty good retirement. Traveling would be really fun to do someday. It costs a lot though. Haha I would love if you gave us (me and my future wife, kids) the house for a few years, that would be pretty awesome. and truthfully it would probably help us a ton. Haha I'm not going to stay out here a couple more years. Two years is enough, I will have paid my 10% tithing of life by the end. Maybe one day I will serve another mission when I'm older as well, I would enjoy it.

Finally putting up the greenhouse up huh? How big is it? How many plants would be able to fit inside? I think that you will like it, you can have your tomatoes the entire year! You should make homemade salsa again. What else are you going to put in it? I don't know if I told you this or no, but when I was in Portezuelo with Elder Henderson, we pretty much build an entire house. Not a house like in the United States, just a really small one, but still. We had to level the floor, put the floor in, put up the walls, frames, the roof, everything. It was actually pretty fun.

 That's a pretty awesome story dad, for real. I've never met another Stam before. I remember looking at my family tree a few months ago and it was actually really filled. I found my way all the way to Adam and Eve twice. It was pretty cool. I don't know if half the people were legit people, they were some crazy names and the dates were way off, but maybe.

You think Heather will be next to have a baby? Maybe, it's possible. I've also never really been a big fan of running. In our house we are doing T25 and P90X Insanity every morning. It's time to lose that little stomach that I got before I came out here. I think that when I get back into swimming, I just might die. I'm so out of shape here. I'm working on that though. The weather here has been so bipolar lately. Last week it was super hot, pretty much summer, and this week, rain and cold. I don't understand the weather here. I like the rain more. It's so much easier than heat. Everything floods though. The streets turn into lakes and rivers.

Flooding in the streets from normal rain fall. 

Yeah, I got a list of Chilean sayings. They speak in pretty much only sayings here, and if you don't understand the sayings, you won't understand what they are saying. I think that when we come back, if Josh and Cody come with us, they might have a pretty hard time understanding the people. They speak really fast and don't pronounce well at all. It's Chilean culture. I'm used to it now though. Thanks for the emails and the stories, they are pretty entertaining!

The black guys in the photo are Willy and his friend. Willy is on the right. I don't know how things have been for him lately, hopefully good. There are actually quite a few dogs here like that. We call them zombie dogs. They're really gross. It's pretty unfortunate, I want to start a list of books that I want to read. Today for P Day we went to downtown Santiago and there was a poster for the second Maze Runner movie. The Scorch Trails I think it is in English. I'm going to miss two freaking movies from that trilogy. Frustrations. At least I'll have two movies to watch when I come back haha. Thanks for all your love and support like always, have a great week!

Love,
Elder Stam

I'm going to be a worn out person by time I come home .....

June 10, 2015

Mom and Dad,  

Man I'm only going to be a teenager for one more year, what the heck?? There are like three people every day that ask how old I am and I always tell them that I am going to turn 19 this Friday, so my companion definitely won't forget haha. We are going to have a "party" with a family that we are teaching. It will be pretty fun I think. They're a crazy family. Things are good back here in La Bandera, it almost feels like home. It's weird to be here though. I'm not in the same ward, but I'm in the ward right next to it. I saw the first counselor of my first ward the other day. We are living in apartments, bigger than my last house haha. I live with Elder Facal, Elder Rupe, and Elder Panduro. My new companion is alright. I'm pretty sure that he doesn't like gringos, he's a little bitter with me. I've also never seen him talk with a gringo before. I'm also his first gringo companion. He just sort of likes to do his own things without asking me anything. He told me today that we were only going to write our familys for half an hour. I was like heck no haha. Hopefully he opens up a little bit more though. He's been out for about 16 months. The new area is nice, it's really small compared to Portezuelo. There are a lot of recent converts here, and we have a few investigators, but not many. We're in a more dead sector. The ward only has an attendance of about 50. We're going to be working a lot of that though.

Hah yeah I've had quite a few empanadas. There was a family in Portezuelo that always made empanadas and they were so incredible. I asked her for the recipe and she didn't have it. She just said that she has it memorized. I'll have to find another good recipe though. Well the people here say that the tomatoes in Chile are different, so I don't know if I'll like them in America.

The investigators that I left are still going really well and hopefully I will get to go back soon for a baptism or two. We should have two on the 20th. My companion has been here in this sector for three months, or two transfers. I am sure that we will be together for two more changes or three months.

That picture of the bathroom looks really nice, a little different than I thought it was going to look. It looks like a rich person bathroom to be honest haha. You're going to have to lend me that bathroom for the three weeks that I have home. And I don't think there is a bathroom in Chile that has been finished ha ha. There have been a ton of strikes here lately, people fighting with their employer about their job. The kids here haven't gone to school for two weeks because all of the teachers are striking. Most members here don't fulfill their calling.  Wow life is crazy. So many things have happened back home haha. Life goes on with or without you.

We had a pretty cool week though. One of the seventy came and spoke to our mission. Elder Gonzalez. He was really cool, spoke with an Argentinian accent. It's cool how I can pick apart the different Spanish accents now. Spanish isn't even a problem now. Apparently the most recent revelation that the church has gotten is about the Sabbath day, and how the missionaries need to start working more with members and less actives to start keeping the Sabbath day holy. It's one of the biggest problems here in Chile. It's rough work, I'm going to be a worn out person when I come home.  Honestly the mission has gone by really fast. And they say that the first year is the slow year. So I think that I am going to be home before I know it, it's really weird. I still remember going to the airport perfectly. The mission almost feels like just a dream sometimes.

After that conference with him, we got to watch the funeral service of L. Tom Perry. It was a pretty spiritual experience. It looks like there are going to be a lot of changes coming up soon, the last change was Thomas S. Monson being called as the prophet.

Also this week starts the Copa America (I think it's called the American Cup in English but I have no idea) and it's in Chile. Every time that Chile plays we have to stay in the house during the game and all day after the game. It goes until July 4th. We are going to have a crazy month here. There are a ton of foreigners and Copa America things all over Chile, it's pretty cool to see it all. It gets really dangerous though. It's good that we have to stay in the house. Well have a wonderful week again, I'll try to send photos next week!

Love,
Elder Stam

This past week was rough, it definitely tested our patience and diligence.

May 20, 2015

Alejandro and Elder Stam

Mom,

I hope the trip is going good, I would love to see some rain too. It seems that you are having fun. :) It would be pretty awesome to see those things, make sure you take photos! I'll send you more photos haha I send you almost all the photos I take.

The week was rough, it definitely tested our patience and diligence. There was a lot of time that we didn't have anything to do and we were sick of doing contacts, but we just had to keep doing them. It just about killed me and Elder Henderson. Our legs were killing us. I don't think I've ever walked that much in my entire life. We got the 100 hours, it was rough, but we did it. The morning were the hard part, we had nothing to do. The people in the street are in such a rush in the morning and don't want to talk to us, and we couldn't do house contacts yet either. It was tiring. We met a ton of people though and have quite of bit of new investigators. We survived though, and found some awesome people last week too. It was pretty fun haha. It was really nice sleeping the next day though. Definitely worth it, even though it just about killed us.

Alejandro (Caleb's friend who just left for his mission to Argentina) and Elder Caleb Stam

My package is already here in Chile?? That was fast. I think that the setting apart is going to be awesome. I don't remember much of it at all. Haha food, I guess that it's your turn to go on about food from Paris and London haha. Crepes, they are delicious. They actually make crepes quite often here. They fill them with manjar and it is just incredibly delicious.

I think you guys would really like Chile. Not where we are, but like downtown Santiago. I really want to go to the beach here, so we have to do that. Every time that we go down to Santiago it is really just a new country it feels like. The downtown area is so much different than where we serve.

Just making sure that you're keeping up on the video games. Have you preordered Halo 5: Guardians yet? If not, you need to do it. Please haha. Also, this week in the ward, one of the youth left for his mission. This morning actually. His name is Alejandro and he is one of my best friends that I have met here so far. He's an amazing person and I'm going to send a photo of me and him. He's going to Argentina on his mission. He's gonna be amazing haha.

This week we also got to go to the temple with a recently reactivated member. Her name is Giselle, and she's only 15 years old, but it was a really good experience. I think that she learned a lot from it.

Well thanks for writing me like always, you're a great mom, and I'll talk to you again next week :D

Love,
Elder Stam          

Giselle, Elder Stam, Alejandro and Elder Henderson

Super awesome news...

March 4, 2015

Mom,

This past week has been great. A lot of awesome things have happened. But still the usual heat. Still isn't really getting any colder, only a little bit in the nights. Wow I would to anything to see snow haha. It is starting to get a little colder now, but only at night.  I would love the cold weather. My Partriarchal Blessing says that I need to stay close to you guys, so if you move, I'm going with you haha. I've been getting the photos, I love the one of Mike and his kids haha. I'm sleeping pretty well, I'm still tired all the time though. For transfers, it is most likely that I will stay in the same sector, but I will have a new companion. But we don't know for sure. Well we received some super awesome news this week! The missionaries of the Church have now entered every country in the world. So that's another sign of the Second Coming. It's a lot closer than people think. Today we went to the temple again, and it's always an awesome experience. After we went,  we saw the biggest building in South America, and then another gigantic mall. The malls here are incredible. It was a fun P Day, but I'm just exhausted from it again.

If you really want to study the Old Testament, I would suggest buying the study guides on the lds store. They really help, and I think that I might buy them. The Bible has a lot of good stuff, but the Book of Mormon is just a lot easier to understand.


Josh is going to be a dad haha. That is a little weird. That's good though. We really aren't going to have any missionaries in our area? That's really weird. That almost doesn't seem right. Every part should have at least two missionaries, there is always someone that you can find to teach.

Spanish is going pretty good. My grammar is at about 95%, so it really is just vocabulary. My understanding is still a little rough at times, but I really only have almost 7 months out, I still have a long time to perfect it.  It will be weird to have different accents than Cody and Josh. Please buy that house in Mexico, that would seriously be so awesome. Spanish is going to be hard to learn, especially outside of a Spanish speaking country, but I can try to help you. If you have a question about Real Estate, ask me, I will try to remember everything haha. That would be super awesome though, I would definitely go down there a lot to spend time.

I'm sorry about the photos, the things we have been doing for P Day have been taking all day, so I never have the stuff to upload pictures. And we don't have the best computers neither, because the only good computers are at the mall, and they're always full.

Caleb's mission scripture on new cover.

Well this week Elder León has a baptism, with one of the investigators that we contacted. It's on Friday, so we are going to go to it. His name is Santiago haha. I wasn't sure if he would get baptized or not, but I'm glad that he did.

Also if you do get me a Rubix Cube, you should send a 4x4, because I already know how to do a 3x3. It might be a little more expensive, but I would really appreciate it :D

Thanks for all your love and support, if there is anything that you want to know, just ask me and I will tell you haha. I love you and thanks for paying for my mission haha and my iPhone 8 and Xbox One when I get back ;)

Love,
Elder Stam

I have learned a lot about life, why we're here and I relate everything to gospel things now.

Feb 25, 2015

I had a pretty good week, pretty normal. Sorry we are writing so late this week, we have a pretty late day today.  I know the feeling of always being tired. Missionaries are always worn out. Things are going great, as well as the lessons. We are at the time of the year where almost everyone in Chile goes on vacations, so almost all of our investigators are on vacation, so we aren't having a lot of lessons. It's okay though, they will come back haha. The next transfer is March 8th, and I should be getting a new companion, but I'm not completely sure.

Tootsie is a good dog haha. Especially compared to the dogs here. But even the dogs here are pretty loving, even though they are all abused by the people. It's crazy to think that she's turning two this week though!

Our mission is a really low baptizing mission. I think that last year, there were only 50 or so baptisms the entire year. Our mission focuses mostly on reactivation. The truth, is that the less actives hardly know anything about the gospel. They were baptized without knowing hardly anything, and that is the problem here in Chile. They don't even understand the basic principles. Some haven't even heard of the plan of salvation. The members help a little bit, but not much. We are supposed to have six divisions every week with members, so we get to know a lot of different members.

I got the books yesterday!  I want to start reading Jesus the Christ soon. I think that I want to read the New Testament before I read that though, it will help me understand a little better.

Josh and Shelly already know if it's a boy or girl?? This early?? Heather and I also think that it is going to be a boy. We will see though. I think that being an uncle is going to be awesome :D  I'm super excited for them, hopefully everything goes well. Haha it would be funny if the baby recognized me from photos.  Are they capable of an actual thought process at 11 months? I don't know anything about babies haha. Why are you so sure that they are going to have a boy? I have the same feeling that they are going to have a boy too.


That really sucks that Cody has had kidney stones, I couldn't even imagine pain like that. It's funny how I start relating everything to gospel things now. Just remember that Jesus has felt the same pain and suffered it for every person, and when we are resurrected we aren't going to have pain any more :) I think I'm gonna be super weird when I come home.

We study the plan of salvation a lot because we teach it a lot. I have learned a lot about life and why we're here and all that stuff. When we teach the plan of salvation, we teach a lot. We teach about Adam and Eve, Pre-earth life, earth life, and all the stuff that happens after death. I feel like I understand the gospel way more now, and I'm super grateful to know more.

Being a mission president would be super fun, it would probably be pretty hard too. Are you guys going to have missionaries in the house at some point? It would be super awesome. I love the members that we live with, they are super awesome.

I want to cook more too. I have just had a feeling to cook more haha. We haven't had a lot of new food. Our ward mission leader is from Colombia, and his wife always cooks this stuff called arepa. I don't know if it's from Chile or Colombia, but it's really good.

Also, this week I was reading in the Book of Mormon in 2 Nephi 28-33. I was really touched by it. It's all prophecies and it is all coming true. I challenge you to read those six chapters and really think about life and the importance you can make in the world.

Well the mission has been awesome so far, super hard as well, especially with all this heat. It's alright though, summer's almost over.  Thanks for writing me and for all of your love and support! I will talk to you again next week. Love you!

Love,
Elder Stam         

Earthquake, Members have a huge impact on the work!

February 18, 2015

Dear Mom and Family,

I think that it would be super fun to live in California. It would be a totally different lifestyle, but I think that it would be fun. I've seen pictures of Chilean beaches and people tell us about it. It sounds really nice, and they say that the ocean is pretty warm. It would be super nice to go there some day haha. (Caleb's mission does not include any areas along the ocean)

My week was pretty good! We burnt the stuff a few days ago. I took a video of it, so I don't really have pictures, but I will try to find a way to send the video to you. The one guy didn't come to church, he had to go on a business trip. We have a few of our less actives coming which is good. We should have two more reactivations soon. We don't teach a lot of lessons, about 12 each week. We should have more, but there are a lot of things that we have to do. We have a two hour meeting with our ward mission leader every week, we have mutual every Friday for two hours, and we just have a lot of things like that which take time out of our week. We have a list of all the 1200 people in our ward, and when we don't have a set lesson we usually go to the houses and try to find the people. That is one of the reasons why we don't have very many investigators, only less actives.

Tie, shirt and pants burned for each 6 months in the mission.  

I look forward to getting those books! haha. My birthday isn't for five months haha, but it will probably come and go before I know it. Murray Swim took 2nd in state?? Where the heck did that come from?? I guess Dale really knows what he's doing. That's good for them! Jared is going to Sweden huh? That should be really fun for him!

The other churches are just so dumb and they don't understand. Elder Purnell in my house has a Jehovah's Witness Bible and the stuff it says is just so dumb. We have learned how to deal with the other religions pretty well. In the Jehovah's Witness Bible, there are a few scriptures that they just decided to take out, because they didn't like them. So for them, we just ask them to read those scriptures. And they can't. Then we read the scripture that says that God is the same today, yesterday, and forever, and that shuts them up pretty quick. We didn't go to the Evangelico church because we had to go do something else, but we might go tomorrow. President said that we should take off our nametags before we go in.

Yeah Joshua and Shelly told me about the baby! I'm super excited for them! How does it feel that you are going to be a grandma?? That's super good though, I'm super excited. I was pretty much sure that I was going to give mom the first grand child ;)  S/he is going to be 11 months old when I get home, that's crazy. That feels like such a long time haha. I will be sure to pray that everything goes well.

Nothing specific to pray for, maybe just that they will all progress!

Wow, that's a really cool story about tithing. I want to have a story like that haha. Tithing really is something that can give you a lot of blessing, just read Malachai 3:10. I think that that scripture is the best way to teach tithing.

 Dad, what do you guys do in the meetings? It sounds like some of the meetings that we have here with the wards, but here they don't actually do anything. They talk about doing all this stuff, but then it never ends up being done. Only the missionaries actually do stuff, it's kind of bad.

President Hutchison is awesome haha. I think that he is a really good president. As a missionary, I have learned a lot that the missionary work is not going to be very effective without the help from the members. We are supposed to get 6 divisions with the members every week. If we get an investigator to come to church, and they feel excluded and no one wanted to talk to them, then the lessons with them stop and they don't want to investigate anymore. The members don't realize how crucial and how much of an impact they have on others.

This has been a pretty good week though. On Friday, we had interviews with President. He's such a good guy and he knows exactly what the missionaries are going through. I love talking to him, I think that we are getting along wonderfully. We talked a little bit about the Evangelical church and he told me some things that we should do if we do go to their church. I have two little stores from this week. Yesterday at the district meeting, there was a mini earthquake. It was super short and not powerful at all, but the earth was definitely moving haha. It was the first time that I had felt something like that. Apparently there have been a lot the last little while, I just haven't felt any of them. The other story is we were walking to a house after lunch, next to the freeway, and a call pulled over on the freeway, and just burst into flames. The guy that was driving got out and just started screaming for help. We couldn't do anything because there was a huge fence in the way. But a ton of people pulled over and helped put the fire out. It took about 10 minutes to put it out, and then the cops and everyone else came. It was pretty weird haha.

Well thanks for writing me once again, I hope that you have a good week!

Love,
Elder Stam

We have to learn to not react...

Feb 11, 2015

Elders Tecun and Stam washing the dog of the people they live with. 

Mom and Dad,

The beach. I'm so jealous. There are a lot of people here that are on "vacations". That is where the work gives them like a month off so they can go on vacations. There are a lot of people that go to the beach. I'm so sick of hot weather. It's weird that it has not been cold there.

These six months have gone super fast, and super slow. I feel like I just got here and at the same time, I think that everything I have done I have to do three times again, and that just feels like forever. Time is just a funny game. I am going to try to take of video of the burning of the tie. The other elders in my house are completing 18 months and a year, so we are burning pants, a shirt, and a tie. We want to burn them all together, so I want to take a video of it. Our investigator didn't come to church, but neither did his daughter, so I think that they had to do something. We will find out though. He's not home very much because of his work. Tithing can be hard, and it is a weird idea, but the people just don't realize why it's necessary. It's okay though, he'll understand someday.

Wow you already sent those books? Awesome haha. I love the Book of Mormon and the Bible but they are all that I've read for the last six months, I want to read something new now haha.

I really want to be a trainer, I think that it would be really fun. I think that I am only going to have a new president for the last 3 weeks of my mission. They are probably going to be the strangest three weeks of my mission haha. There aren't really a lot of stories with our investigators. Our mission is a really low baptizing mission. It's almost all reactivations.  I don't really have any stories with really cool stuff to be honest haha.

 The members that we live with have a pretty funny conversion story. They were Catholics and they just walked past a Mormon church one day and the dad said, "Let's go there" so they went to that church and they just stayed. Then they got baptized and here we are about 35 years later. I think that it's a pretty funny story.

The Spanish is going good. It's just the vocabulary. There are just way too many words to learn and I feel like there's no way I'm going to learn them all. But I'm trying haha. Chilean Spanish is just all idioms, so it's pretty hard to understand because they don't make any sense normally. Our house is good.  I live with Elder Purnell and Elder Melander. We had more divisions yesterday and I went with Elder Melander in our sector. We had 5 lessons and 2 divisions with members. I just realized that Elder Tecun doesn't really know how to lead a sector. We usually only have 10 lessons a week, and yesterday, when I was leading, we had 5. He just needs to recognize the opportunities that there are to teach.

We are teaching quite a few people, but we only have like 3 investigators. The rest are less actives. Our ward list is like 1,200 people. Almost everyone here already knows the missionaries, it's a little bit like Utah. I really like the photos by the way. It looks like Papa is doing really well. Oma too.

Well this week I want to talk a little bit more about the other religions. Here in Chile there are Evangelicos (Protestants), Catholics, and Jehovah's Witnesses. They are all very different religions. They all like to preach in the street. We had a few encounters with Evangelicos this week. One of them came up to us and asked a little about our religion, then he just started talking all this crap about modern day prophets, the Book of Mormon, and even America. It's sad how little they actually know. Then the same day we were walking past a few evangelicos preaching in the street and they just started yelling about false prophets and telling us to repent. It's so tempting to read Mathew 6:5 to them. But we have to learn to not react. I'll explain a little more about them later. We might be going to a Evangelico church tomorrow, because we were invited to go, and President Cook said that we could go to other churches if we were invited. It is going to be interesting.

Have a good week and I will talk to you again next week! :) Thanks for all your love and support, and for your emails.

Love,
Elder Stam

When you work really hard, time goes fast!

February 4, 2015

Elder Stam at the Buin Zoo in Santiago, Chile

Dear Mom,

Yup six months in just over a week! I think back to the day that you drove me to the airport and that seriously feels like it was two weeks ago. I really think that the mission is going to be over before I know it. I can testify that when you work, time goes fast. That happens all the time in the mission field. If there is a day that we do nothing, it is a slow day. But if there is a day that we work really hard, the day goes by incredibly quick. Languages are a really weird thing. I have learned that Chilean Spanish is a lot different than traditional Spanish, so Cody and Josh might not to able to understand me perfectly when I get back. At 6 months we burn a tie. A year is a shirt. 18 months is pants. And the two years is a suit, but I am just going to buy a $5 suit in the ferria. You already talk to your mom for hours, I have no idea what you can possibly talk about for that long. I hope you have fun on the trip though!

My week was good, and the investigators are good too. We have too many investigators to tell you about all their lives, mainly because I can't remember every one and it would take too long to write every one too. A lot of them have been keeping their commitments though. We are teaching a family and they all were inactive, and we have gotten the daughter to come the last two weeks and we got the dad to promise to go this week. The people here just really hate paying money. This week we lost an investigator because of tithing. He was blind, and he doesn't feel much support from the church. He brought up tithing and he was really steemed about it and he told us not to come back. So we have to respect what he wants and we won't go back for a while.

Missionaries are always a little home sick. I like being away from home though. It's a new experience. And I can deal with change really easy. So it hasn't really been a problem for me. My patriarchal blessing talks a little about temple work too, so the temple is something I want to do a lot of when I get home.

I have read a little bit of Jesus the Christ here and there, and it's pretty hard to understand, but it is still really awesome and I want to study it a lot. Oh another awesome gift would be a Rubix Cube. Elder Purnell has one and he taught us how to solve it, so I want one of my own now haha. Lindsey posted a video of her singing?? Wow I wouldn't expect her to do that haha, and at least she is admitting that she can sing now haha. I have been thinking a lot about swimming and water polo lately, especially since it's a million degrees outside and there are a ton of houses with a portable swimming pool haha.

The Superbowl happened?? Man we don't hear anything here. I didn't want the Seahawks to win again haha.

This week I had divisions again with our new zone leader, Elder Peck. Another great guy, I am pretty sure that President Cook makes the best choices possible when he picks leaders haha. We had a really good day though. He came here with me in our sector, so I lead the sector and we had the most lessons that I have had in one day here. We had four lessons in one day, and we did a lot of contacts and got a few new people to teach. It was overall a good day, and he's another really good leader.

Today for P Day we went to the Buin Zoo, and that is definitely something that we have to do when we come here. It's pretty expensive, about 8,000 chilean pesos, ($15) but it was totally worth it. It was just a little bigger than the Hogle Zoo. It was awesome though, so I have three things that we should do now.

Well thanks for emailing me again, and have a great time in California. Tell the family that I say hi.

Love,
Elder Stam         

Elders Tecun and Stam at the Buin Zoo in Santiago, Chile

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 Tecún 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          

Motivated to be a better missionary!

December 10, 2014

Elder Caleb Stam in Santiago, Chile

Mom,

Don't listen to Jon Schmidt then haha (Caleb's mom told him it makes her cry to listen to the songs he used to play). I have been listening to Jon Schmidt here a little too, and I have been missing playing piano. I sent you the letter with a zip drive that has like 150ish photos. I haven't really had much opportunity to take very many photos. I have like 250 total. The dog bite has healed completely now, but it scarred, which is annoying. It's a good memory though haha. Heather would definitely have a hard time with the dogs. There are a ton of dogs. I have seen a ton a dead dogs, and a bunch of stray puppies, and just a whole bunch of suffering with the dogs, so I know that she would really struggle.

Fabian is 29..i think. He is single, but living with his girlfriend. He works for this company called Movistar, which is just like Comcast. He's improving, but sooo slow. I have been studying Spanish like crazy, and I finally understand how Spanish works. I just need to work on my vocabulary. I still have a little bit of a barrier when I teach because of the language, but it's going away fast. I still just can't understand well enough to teach according to their needs. Things have been very rough with Elder León. This week we got in a fight, and Elder Ware told us that we shouldn't sleep in the same room that night. So I slept in the same room as Elder Ware, and we had an awesome time together. Elder Leon was Elder Ware's old companion, and Elder Ware also had a ton of problems with him. Elder León has a very dominating personality, and he has had troubles with most of his companions because of it. León doesn't let me teach because he wants to do all the teaching. He wants it all for himself. Well yeah, transfers are next week, so I get a new companion next week. The sad part is I am probably going to leave the sector and have to say goodbye to the friends I've made here. We'll see what happens though. I would love to stay.

It's hard for me to wake up because every time one of us moves in the night, our bunk bed squeaks extremely loud, so I wake up like 8 times every night. And right after we wake up we do exercises, and I feel like I can't do any effective exercises without weights or a swimming pool. I was always so tired after school. Nope, we don't get any nap time at all. It was tough when Elder Richards left, especially for Elder Ware. But Elder Ware has a baptism this Saturday, and Elder Richards is going to go to it. Oh and I am also playing the piano at the baptism hah.

The pilot program is where we just made goals for divisions, baptisms, and total lessons, instead of all the other stuff. It's objective was to get missionaries focused on working with the members and teaching as much as possible. I've heard that the church is making a Preach My Gospel 2, which could be involving this pilot program, but I don't know. It would be awesome to get a new Preach My Gospel, because the old one came out when Gordon B. Hinckley was the prophet.


Manjar is just like dulce de leche, and it's so good. I need to learn how to make all the food here, becuase that have some really awesome food. Okay, at the one year mark. I'll make a list of the things that we need to go do for sure. And I'm super excited that I am going to be fluent at the end of my mission. There will be a lot of opportunities after my mission to speak it. And I can speak with Cody, Josh, and Andrew in Spanish too.

I've had a cold for like four weeks. Every morning I wake up and have to blow my nose a million times. It's so frustrating. Have fun at their concert! (Murray High Choirs that Caleb used to be a part of) Tell me how they sound! Just tell him that I said hi!  And that I have been singing a lot here in Chile too haha.

So I just have a random question, how many missionaries are there in our stake? In the stake La Bandera, there are 28 missionaries. I think that there are that many in our stake haha.

I also went on divisions again with Elder Babbitt. The guy is awesome. He is such a spiritually focused missionary and I really have not met a missionary like him. He is definitely the most powerful teacher that I have seen so far, and it's really funny because he teaches things so simply. He's a great guy and he definitely has motivated me to be a better missionary. A bunch of people want to see a picture of our house, so you should sent me a picture of it haha. I love you too mom. Have a good week.

Love,
Elder Stam

2 Nephi 2:6-8     

Elders Raine and Stam

Our mission has changed missionary work for the whole world in our pilot program.

Dec 3, 2014

Mom,

Thanksgiving here was nothing special. Apparently they don't celebrate here, so it was just a normal day for the missionaries. We were going to do something as a house, but by the end of the day we were all too tired to do anything. So it was just a normal day. I didn't even know it was Thanksgiving until like 3 in the afternoon. The dog bite wasn't that bad. The shots aren't that bad either. My arm is just a little sore afterwards. I need five shots in total, and I have already had three. I still need to return to the hospital two more times for more shots. I was bitten on my legs just a little above my knee in the back. The AP told me that every missionary gets bitten, so I just can cross it off my list now. They don't do anything for the dogs here, and there's a ton of them. I have never seen so many dead dogs in my life either. They're all dying and it's super sad.

Last week really wasn't that bad. Just a lot of walking and the dog bite. Fabian is going good. He doesn't really have a story. So I can't tell you a story haha. The members have started helping a little more, we have had a few more divisions, but that's about it. And at this moment, the ward doesn't have a bishop. Yes I am in La Bandera. Going on divisions with members is just going with a member to teach investigators. Divisions with another missionary is when two companionship's split and go teach. It's pretty much just getting a new companion for a day.  Here, every building is surrounded by gates, including the church buildings. Well, the stake presidency thought it would be smart to have an open house of the churches. All the missionaries were involved. We were just walking around and inviting people to come to the open house, where they had the sister missionaries give a short presentation about a few of our beliefs. It was a pretty smart idea.

Yup pride and likes to be in control are exactly his problems (Elder Leon). He doesn't give me any opportunity at all to teach. I hardly talk at all when we teach. Only when we teach the Restoration do I talk a lot. I am almost sure that my next companion will be better. We all had interviews with the president this week, and he said that I will most likely leave this sector, and that I will most likely have a gringo companion, but you never know. This week with Leon has just been rough. He likes to make fake rules, and enforce them on me. One of his fake rules is, you can only write letters on P Day, and not during your free time on the week days. Problem, he always chooses P Day activities that are all day activities, so I have no time on P Days. So he's screwing me over with the letters. I was going to try and write letters to everyone and send them today, but I didn't have any of them done. None. I am going to send your letter on Friday though, with the zip drive.  He is so strict on teaching the lessons, that he doesn't build a relationship with the people, so they don't really like having us over. I have learned that having a good relationship with the investigators is crucial in the missionary work.

If I get a package, I am not waiting to open it haha. I will most likely get it this Monday, or the next Monday. Yeah I will most likely be transferred, but I have no idea where I will be transferred to. Or when I can call or anything like that. So you will have to wait for that information.

Everything has been great. Just pray so that I can learn the language, that's probably my biggest challenge right now, other than my companion.  I find it easier every time I teach. The language has improved a lot, and I'm starting to understand a little bit better. Getting up in the morning has been pretty hard too, but that's not something that really needs to be prayed about haha. Well something a little interesting happened this week. President called Elder Ware and Elder Richards on Saturday night. And there was a special transfer. Elder Richards was told that in two days, he was going to be in a different sector, and that Elder Ware was going to be training. It was super tough for them because they were practically best friends. Elder Richards has helped me get adjusted to the mission life the most too. Well he's gone now, and now there is a new missionary named Elder Diaz in our house now. He's gringo, and my Spanish is a little better than his, and I can not tell you how great of a feeling that is. He is from Lehi, Utah. He's super chill. It's been nice having really cool missionaries to live with, giving me a break from Elder León.

So our mission has changed missionary work for the whole world too. We were in the pilot program, and when Elder Nelson came down to talk to us, he also came to evaluate our work in the pilot program. They were so pleased with the results, that they are going to change all of the missions in South America to the same thing. Eventually possibly the whole mission world. Which is awesome because it started in the Santiago South Mission.

Oh and the food/candy here called manjar. Learn to make it. It's amazing.

I am going to try and find a bunch of cool things that we can do here when we come back to visit. Today we went to the Cerro Santo Luisa, which was awesome. I am going to try to send you some pictures of it. It's just a big hill with a bunch of old awesome buildings. It's a super huge hill and you can climb it all the way to the top. At the top, you can see most of Santiago. It's something that we definitely have to do. Right next to it, there's a crazy Chile store too with a bunch of Chile things. We need to go there too. I will make a list of things to do here.

Love,
Elder Stam

Elder Caleb Stam

Chile, Santiago

Always having fun, handsome guy!

The missionary experience is really awesome!

Nov 19, 2014

Elders Leon and Stam in Santiago, Chile

Mom,

Fabian is doing awesome. He's progressing a lot. We have gotten him to pray and he is also building in his faith. It's crazy to think that he started as an atheist. He is living with his girlfriend though, so that's gonna be a huge trial for him to overcome and if he's willing to get married. The Word of Wisdom and the Law of Chastity are probably the biggest challenges here. Everyone smokes and everyone lives with their girlfriend. I would say that only about 1 in every 4 couples with kids are actually married.

The missionary experience is really awesome. That's good that you are doing your own missionary work. We have actually had a problem with our ward not doing anything to help. So we got together as a district and we sat down with the ward and told them what needs to happen. It was good that we took charge. We are meeting with 1 member a week now and teaching them how to do their own missionary work. There are about 6 members that are moving at the end of this month, and that's a huge loss to the ward, considering there are only 55 that go to church. One of them that is moving is the bishop too.

I miss air conditioning so much. It is so hot and they don't have air conditioning anywhere! It's been almost 100 degrees every day. I'm really looking forward to the Winter, only because it's so hot here. And to think that the actual summer doesn't start for another two months. I think that they do celebrate thanksgiving, but it's not super big here. Depending on the thing you are buying most things are cheaper here. There are a few things that are a ton more expensive. But overall, I would say that things are just a little bit cheaper. It's weird going grocery shopping and having it cost $10,000.

We don't have any rats, but we have spiders and we found maggots in our garbage the other day. We do have hot water but it's super weird how we heat it. I'll have to explain it another time, with a picture.

I feel like I can speak Spanish really well now. I can say what I want to say now, but I still can't understand a freaking thing. They speak so bad here. Lol you need to send me a copy of my setting apart talk thing or whatever it's called. I think that Elder Raine is going to be one of my lifelong friends. A big box for Christmas huh? Transfers are on the 16th of December, and it's pretty much guaranteed that I am going to leave, so I'm gonna have to pack all the stuff that you send me haha. That's okay though. I am almost positive that I am going to need to socks.

I am enjoying studying the scriptures a lot. The mission has been reading the Book of Mormon together, and I wasn't reading it. So I stopped reading the Bible to read the Book of Mormon real quick and I'm already on Alma 26. The Book of Mormon is so much easier to read than the Bible. We have a washing machine at the house, so we can do laundry whenever we need it. Remind me to write that email to those choir kids next week because I am almost out of time this week.

So it turns out that I am actually going to the temple this Saturday, with a less active member that we reactivated. So that's pretty cool. I am going to get to do my first session in Spanish, and I'm a little worried, but it will be alright. It's an absolutely tiny temple. The weeks have been going way fast though. I've already been in Chile 9 weeks now.

So Elder León hurt his finger, and we had to go to a clinic in downtown Santiago. It was sooo crazy. All the people in downtown Santiago look white. And it's so much nicer and richer than all of our mission. It was crazy. It was like I was in a totally different country. But it was really cool too. I also had divisions with Elder Richards yesterday, and that went really good too. I feel like all my spiritual experiences are when I'm doing divisions and when I'm with a different Elder. But I am getting a new companion in 3 weeks, and it's about time. I have humbled myself so much these last 9 weeks, but I'm about ready to go insane if I don't get a new companion soon. He just treats me like I'm a nothing because I'm new. But it's okay I'm almost done with him.

Love,
Elder Stam

One of the most spiritual experiences of my mission, it was that powerful!

Nov 12, 2014

Mom,

The conference with Elder Nelson was so awesome. The first four talks were in Spanish and from people I didn't know, so I didn't care too much for it. But Elder Nelson's wife gave her talk in English and it was about the premortal life and how we all have a premortal checklist of things we need to do in this life, and how "Serve a worthy mission in Chile" is one of the things on the list. Elder Nelson also gave his talk in English, with a translator, but it was about the Abrahamic Covenant and I seriously learned so much from it. It was one of the best talks I have ever heard. At the end of his talk though, he started to bear his testimony in English, he got about three words in, when he decided to do it in Spanish. I am 90% sure that he doesn't speak Spanish. I seriously think that it was just the straight spirit speaking through him. He wasn't using easy Spanish either. It was one of the most spiritual testimonies I have ever heard and I think that it is going to be one of my most spiritual experiences in my mission, it was that powerful.   Just keep reading the Bible. You'll get through it. There's some good stuff in the Bible too.

Yes, absolutely no air conditioning. I'm used to the sun, but I'm not used to walking around in it all day, in a shirt and tie. It's so terrible. And to think that summer is only just getting started. I think I'm really going to like winter here haha. I don't know if they play soccer year round, and we haven't gotten to watch any. The president didn't even let the missionaries watch it during the World Cup. But soccer here is huge, as to be expected. They have a rivalry that is really really similar to BYU and the U of U. It's between two teams called Colo Colo and la U.  I've decided that I'm a Colo Colo fan. They're just better. But whenever those two teams play each other, it's dangerous to go outside. Everyone just parties and drinks and it's super dangerous. I almost wish that I kept playing soccer now though haha. We play soccer most P Days.  For exercises I usually just do a bunch of ab work outs, then arm work outs, then I ride a stationary bike that we have at the house. It's not much but it's better than nothing. We do walk like 6 or 7 miles every day, so that's good too. Other than that we don't really get to do anything more.

The teaching is going really good. We are teaching a lot of lessons, but also a lot of new people. It's pretty rare to teach someone more than once to be honest. They let us in once, but they don't answer the door the second time. We're teaching this guy named Fabian, who started out as an atheist, but he is slowing gaining a testimony. He is our only progressing investigator. He has a lot of potential. People here have a really bad problem with the word of wisdom and the law of chastity, so it's pretty hard to get a baptism because of those things. We are also teaching this couple who are doing pretty good, but we have only taught them once. It's pretty tough but I think it will be a lot better when I don't start out in a white wash area. The Spanish this week made a huge leap though!   It pretty much just clicked. It's not perfect, but definitely a lot better. It will be a while before I really get the Spanish down. I think once I hit the 18 month mark, I'm gonna start studying Portuguese. It would be cool coming back knowing three languages. Do you think that I can send a zip drive in a letter? If not,  how could I send it?

There is only one other missionary in the mission that played water polo, and I can't remember his name. Elder Babbitt and I just have really similar personalities. I don't remember where he's from but if I remember right he is going to go to school somewhere in Utah. I'm not just gonna forget about the Xbox. I talk with a lot of missionaries about video games. I made really good friends with a missionary named Elder Raine. He's probably my best friend in the mission so far. He's a super awesome person. He's gonna go to school at Utah State, and he is also a video game junkie. So I have a lot of conversations with him about video games, but that's alright. It's just a little sacrifice I have to make to go on a mission. A mission is definitely life changing, and I think that it has already changed my life somewhat.

If you send the package now I'm gonna get it almost a month before Christmas haha.  I don't think that I need anything else right now, but I am probably going to need more socks at my birthday. We walk a lot and I think that I am just going to shred through my socks haha.

The people's yards aren't big enough to have a garden. They really don't have much room for anything at all. The houses here are really weird. Their yards are like 10 feet by 20 feet, and that's their entire yard. Most people don't have a garage either. They can't park their car in their yard because every house has gates completely surrounding it. It's really hard to explain. You will just have to see when we come to Chile. I think it's gonna be a little dangerous coming to Chile too. You never ever see a gringo here unless it's a missionary, and we get made fun of pretty bad for being gringo. It's just getting hotter and hotter. It feels a little hotter here now than it ever got in Utah at the moment. It's hard being out in the sun almost all day.  We were told not to touch the dogs. There's a crazy amount of dogs here. I counted 88 dogs in three hours one day. It's pretty sad, and you even see a dead dog every once in a while.

You should do the lunch money thing haha. I have been eating pretty good. We usually have really big lunches, so I'm doing just fine. I have lost about 5 pounds, which is good because I weighed too much. Our day.. we wake up at 7:30 (don't forget we have a different schedule than the other missionaries), do exercises til 8, get ready and eat til 9, personal study til 10, companion study til 12, language study til 1, lunch, then work, meaning tracking, teaching, contacting, until 10:30. Then we plan until 11, then after that get ready for bed, write in our journals, and lights out at 11:30. That's a typical day. On P Day it depends. We sometimes just play soccer and relax, other times we go downtown or to a mall or museum. It just depends if we have money and if other missionaries want to do stuff. The living conditions are pretty nice. We have our own house, and four missionaries live there together. We have three bedrooms, one bathroom, and a living room in the house. We have to air dry our clothes though hah. And the food here has still been incredible. I want to find a Chilean cookbook.

 I think that a lot of people carry a knife or a gun or something, but I don't really know. It's pretty sketchy here, but the people don't really touch the missionaries at all. They know why we're here and what we're doing, so they don't really bother us too much. They just make fun of the white skin and they love to yell things in English which make absolutely no sense but it's funny. Sometimes I just want to talk really fast to them in English and just watch how stupid they feel after. Most of the people here are really nice. There's only a few people that are the exact opposite.

 Tell me how the Madrigals sound this year too and if you can go talk to Mr. Scott!  I think that we might be going to the temple on the 22 of November. Elder Leon and I are going to have a reactivation in a week or two, and I think that we are going to go to the temple with her. It's funny, all we had to do was just mention the temple and she started going to church again. I don't know for sure if we are going to the temple though. It would be really cool if we did. I want to do a session in Spanish.

Love,
Elder Stam

Wonderful email, made me laugh. Elders Stam and Leon highlighed in mission newsletter.

Elder Stam is from Murray, Utah.  He has been here in Chile for only 1 month.  He likes playing sports.   He has played water polo.  He loves music and video games.  He has played piano for 13 years and has sung for 7 years.  He is very interested in astronomy, and in two years he will be interested in women.  His favorite scripture is found in 2 Nephi 31:20- Wherefore, ye must press forward with a steadfastness in Christ, having a perfect brightness of hope, and a love of God and of all men.  Wherefore, if ye shall press forward, feasting upon the word of Christ, and endure to the end, behold, thus saith the Father:  Ye shall have eternal life.

Elder Leon is from Colombia, on the North Coast.  He as been in the missionary field for 9 months.  He loves telling funny stories.  He likes swimming, baseball and soccer.  He loves the outdoor barbecue.  He loves music.  He loves to learn other languages.  He writes poems and loves talking to anyone.  His favorite scripture is found in Alma 29:9- I know that which the Lord hath commanded me, and I glory in it.  I do not glory of myself, but I glory in that which the Lord commanded me;yea, and this is my glory, that perhaps I may be an instrument in the hands of God to bring some soul to repentance; and this is my joy.

November 5, 2014

Mom,



Well I have survived the first transfer in the mission field. It´s pretty weird to think that I´m already starting my third transfer in the mission. It´s been going really fast. I´m not enjoying the weather. I´m doing whatever I can to get out of the sun. It´s so ridiculously hot. And summer hasn´t even really started. One thing I´m going to miss for sure is snow.  It definitely doesn´t feel like November. I have been writing in my journal every day, writing everything that happened that day, so i don´t think I´ll forget anything. The days seem to be going incredibly fast though. It´s like I wake up, we leave for a half an hour, and the day is over.

 Halloween here was pretty similar as in the states. The only difference was everyone was drunk and partying, and there was a ton more kids in the streets. It was crazy how many kids there were. Other than that it was pretty much the same.  My teacher in the MTC has a pretty freaky story kind of like that, except the girl was actually posessed by the devil and her voice was super low and creepy. The devil is real. It´s pretty freaky.


No we haven´t been able to teach him (Jairo). He´s actually been ignoring us, so I think he´s a lost cause now. We just found him doing street contacts. We´re teaching English lessons to four families. I´m absolutely terrible at remembering names, so I can´t really tell you who. He´s (Elder Leon) practically fluent at English. He lived a pretty good life in Columbia. He had money, and he lived pretty close to the beach. I feel like the Spanish has stopped improving completely. I´m getting pretty frustrated too. I can understand almost everything if it is church related. Anything not church related, I can´t understand it at all. All the other Elders say that I am just going to wake up one day knowing Spanish, but I´m not so sure. It´s crazy. My companion is a little bit better. Not much though. I´m pretty sick of him. I´m gonna love getting a new one.

Yeah the MTC gave us spanish scriptures. Elder Dufour, our old district leader, said that our area is the nicest he´s seen, and he has 19 months in his mission. I assume that our mission is one of the poorest, but I don´t really know. For photos, I have a 1GB zip drive that I will put a bunch of pictures on then send it to you guys.

Once you get to Job in the Old Testament, it gets a lot better. I mean a lot better. I have Jesus the Christ in Spanish, but the book is an extremely hard read, and I don´t know how I´m ever going to read it in Spanish. It´s going to be weird having a niece or nephew coming home. It´ll be cool, but really weird too.


Elder Babbitt just really reminded me a lot of me. He was very, very similar to me, like we just liked all the same things, we did all the same things before our mission, so it was really cool. We had some cool spiritual lessons, like this one lesson we were teaching a girl that knew quite a bit of English, so I got to bear my testimony to her in English, and it was awesome. Teaching in English would seriously be so much easier. But after when we (Caleb and Elder Babbitt) were at the home, we just had a really awesome conversation about the mission and stuff and he gave me a lot of good advice. He´s the missionary I want to become because he has literally just forgotten everything back at home and he has completely dedicated himself to the mission. Which is what I want to do, but it´s pretty tough when every house I go into has an Xbox and Halo haha.  I have some pretty good strategies with contacting. Contacting isn´t hard. It´s just the stuff after contacting. My patriarchal blessing says that I´m going to hold leadership positions, and I think it would be really fun to be a leader. I really like going on splits so I´m looking forward to that.


We didn´t get a choir Cd from the year before, which is a bummer. I seriously think that Spanish music is so cool. It´s absolutely impossible to understand though. Elder Leon said that I would maybe be able to understand Spanish music on the plane ride home. We don´t really have any opportunity to give things to kids haha. Food. Just food would be awesome. We don´t really have time to do much, but food we always have time for.

We seriously missed from a missed field goal?? Ugh that is so frustrating. I wish I could watch the games. The soccer here has been crazy. They play a ton. There are two teams here called Colo Colo, and the U. I´m a Colo Colo fan haha.


Yes, we get a meeting this Saturday with Elder Nelson. We are all way excited, it´s going to be an awesome opportunity. Thanks for putting that in the missionary portal. It´s crazy how much my testimony has strengthened since I´ve left. Especially about the Book of Mormon. The Book of Mormon is seriously so awesome, and it´s key to conversion.


Just a suggestion, you should put like $25 on my card every month, kind of like my lunch money, and whatever money I don´t spend by the end of my mission, I can use it to buy music haha.


Con mucho amor,

Elder Stam

Caleb says the food is seriously so good he could talk about it all day!

October 29, 2014

Elder Stam and his district the day they left the Mexico MTC

Mom,

I´ve had a pretty good week this week. It´s actually not humid here at all. It´s a dry heat. It feels like Arizona, like when Riley and I went there. It´s gotten so ridiculously hot though. I have a neck tanline from the collars on the shirts, and also a pretty awesome watch tanline.  It´s gonna be blazing hot when it´s Christmas! It´s gonna be a little weird, but it´ll be a different experience haha. It´s the opposite here, it never really gets too cold. It won´t ever snow, so I´m gonna miss snow.

 I think that the missionaries here are having a special thanksgiving dinner with the mission president, so that will be fun! It´s apparently going to be a turkey dinner, just like in the States. We´re not doing anything for Halloween though. I don´t know what we´re doing for Christmas yet. We get one of the Apostles to come and talk to us some time next month though!

Things are about the same with him (Elder Leon). All of his family were Catholic, but they all got converted about four years ago, along with Elder León. I did get my package as well. I didn´t think that you would be sending food for a year, but thanks! I´ll make good use of the food for sure haha. So it turns out his name is Jairo. Just pronounced like Heido. I´ve found that the names here are the absolutely hardest thing to understand. He´s good though. We haven´t had a lesson with him in a while, but I think we have a lesson with him soon. He is really interested and I really think that we´re going to baptize him.  We are teaching two families that I really like, but we might have to dump one of them because they´re not making any progress. It´s a sad thing, but it´s necessary.  Most of the inactives don´t let us in, which is what makes it pretty hard. There are a few families that do though. So it´s not a completely lost cause. We do have like three baptismal dates though, so that´s a little encouraging. We do just about everything that we can to find people to teach though.

I feel like the Spanish is pretty much the same every week. I don´t really know how to improve it. I try to work on vocabulary words, but I just end up forgetting the words. It´s so hard. There are so many freaking words. Everyone says that it just comes, but I feel like there´s more to it than that. Elder León teaches the lessons with me. He´s practically fluent in English. It´s been pretty fun though.

I bought some music, and the thing that holds oil for blessings. I don´t know what they´re called haha. I might want to buy some scripture cases for my Spanish scriptures before the end of my mission, so I might need a little bit more money. I´ll let you know though. Each companionship gets a DVD player.

When we had the gun pointed at us there was just a guy in a car that pointed a gun and drove by slowly. Talking with the other missionaries, it happens a lot. Every missionary I´ve talked to has had it happen a few times with them. The truth is, I´m actually in one of the best sectors in the mission, so I´m pretty lucky where I am.

I´m trying to read the Old Testament still. We don´t have very much time to read. I´m in Psalms though, so I´m more than halfway done. I really like the scriptures, there´s some really awesome things in there. The Old Testament is really hard to read though. It´s pretty boring. I´m excited to read the New Testament though. I also have Jesus the Christ that I want to read. I would suggest reading that book.

Have fun on that trip (back East to see Joshua and Shelly)! It should be fun. After all this package food is gone, I´m gonna eat better and start actually exercising during our exercise time haha. I want to come back from my mission buff ;)

This last week I had two divisions. I went with the Zone Leader, Elder Babbitt on Thursday, and the District Leader, Elder Dufour, on Monday. I had some awesome spiritual experiences with them. They´re really awesome missionaries. Elder Babbitt is the missionary that I want to become though. He reminds me a lot of me. Every missionary has that one missionary that they want to become.

Oh I also had two CDs from when I did Honor Choir and All State Choir! If you can find those two I would really appreciate if you sent those too.

So I could talk about the food here all day. It´s seriously so good. Find the recipe for how to make a food called Churrascos. They also have this thing here called aji. Aji is like a kind of salsa, and it is amazing. You should find the recipe for that too haha. There´s this one lady that sometimes makes us lunch, and she told the Elders that every time she makes us food, she´s going to make us something we´ve never had before. She´s the lady that make us the wata. Well this time she made us hígalo, which is liver. Definitely one of the worst things I have ever had. So I´ve had liver and stomach now, and barely been here a month.

There is a lot of different music that I want to buy, so you should start saving me some iTunes money too. That would be awesome. I´m totally gonna get into Spanish music. I think it´s awesome haha.

Alma 26:35-37

con amor,
Elder Stam