Caleb is doing well his first week in Chile! Played the piano hymns in Church!

October 1, 2014-
 No new photos again!  He has to figure it out!  UGH!! But so grateful to know he is doing well and positive.   I am so glad he has been playing the piano, he had to play the hymns in church already!  If you know Caleb, you know how much he LOVES to play the piano and how talented he is.  It's great having a missionary serving the Lord!!  We miss him a ton but we are so blessed this is what he wants to be doing. 

Elder Andrew Rietveld and Elder Caleb Stam at the Mexico MTC.  They are brother in laws (kind of), their siblings married each other. 

Mom,

I am adjusting really well to Chile. I´ve realized that I do well with change, because this hasn´t really had too much of an affect on me. The weather here has been phenomenal. It was a little cloudy the first few days, but the last few days have been hot and sunny. It gets pretty chilly at night though, considering we don´t go back to the house until 10:30. That coat you got me from Missionary Mall has been my best friend during the night. It´s actually warmed up a lot the last few days too. We got a heater for our room, and we don´t even use it anymore. It´s been nice. They also gave us two warm blankets.

Yeah the mission president is very on top of things. He is really good at what he does. Elder Leòn is an awesome guy. I´m starting to get a little annoyed though. He´s making up rules. He got mad at me for reading the Bible during personal study. And he also wakes up an hour early every day and wakes me up and it´s so annoying because sleep is precious. Other than that he has been pretty easy to get along with. He´s 19 years old. And the Spanish is alright. I still can´t understand the latinos, but I can understand the gringos pretty well. Elder Leòn has a pretty bad accent and he is very hard to understand. He actually knows a good amount of English. We are teaching each other the languages. It´s really pretty here in Chile, but it´s a different kind of pretty. Santiago reminds me a lot of Cabo. It looks pretty similar. Except there are a ton more stray dogs here. They are always passed out on the side of the road in the morning, and it´s pretty funny. There are mountains on the east side that look a lot like Utah.

We have a pretty decent house. We have a kitchen, bathroom, living room, and three bedrooms. They´re all extremely small, but it´s bigger than what other missionaries have haha. The food here has been awesome. I´m a little disappointed that they haven´t had avocados as much as I would like, but it´s been awesome otherwise. They have a few different things. They really really like Coca Cola and Fanta here, and they have two other drinks called Ecco and Mate (pronounced Mah Tay). Ecco is a coffee substitute, it smells exactly like coffee, tastes exactly like coffee, but it isn´t coffee. All the missionaries here drink it. And mate is weird. It´s just a plant that they put in a little cup, then they add hot water and sugar and drink it through a straw. It tastes a lot like grass, but it´s pretty good. The other two Elders in our house are Elder Ware and Elder Richards. They are both from Utah. Elder Richards is from South Jordan and I can´t remember the other one. They´re really cool peope as well. Super super easy to get along with. La Bandera is the stake I´m in and La Pensamientos is the ward I´m in. There are six missionaries in this one ward.  There is missionary work going on everywhere and it´s awesome! When ye are in the service of your fellow beings, ye are only in the service of your God.

White washed means that both of the missionaries are new to the area, and we have to start from scratch. Most of what we have done has been contacting. Proselyting and street contacting. It´s super tiring because we are just walking around all day. We wake up and do exercises for half an hour, have an hour to shower and get ready, personal study for an hour, companion study for two hours, language study for an hour, then contacting all day. We have taught a few lessons, and we have one person with a baptismal date already haha. November 1st. We have like 6 other possible baptisms, but I shouldn´t be too confident. We don´t have a cell phone yet but we do have a DVD player.

 I don´t have my camera on me so I can´t upload pictures right now, but I´ll try to upload some next week. I have absolutely no idea how the wifi thing is supposed to work here, it doesn´t make sense to me. But I´ll try to upload pictures for sure.  They are a little bit behind in technology in Chile. The iPhone 5s just came out, as long as the Xbox One.

We get to watch conference, but we have to watch it in Spanish, which is a little annoying because I don´t understand Spanish yet. We just attend the ward here, and only about 40 people go. Hardly anyone. Oh and yeah, I actually had to play the hymns in sacrament haha. Kinda funny.  In the October Liahona magazine, there is an article about Chile that´s pretty cool, so you should read it.

Love,

Elder Stam

Caleb's first Day in Chile!

Sept 24, 2013

This photo is after Caleb was in Chile for just a few hours with only 2 hours of sleep.  He says he doesn't understand a word of the Chilean Spanish!  We got this wonderful photo and a very nice email from Pres Cook letting us know he arrived safely, what he did the first day, where he is serving and information about his new companion.  We also get the weekly mission newsletter which is so nice to stay informed and feel a little part of what is happening in the mission.  So glad he is having this opportunity to serve the Lord!

Elder Caleb Stam with President and Sister Cook

Mom,

I really really like my mission president. He's a really cool person. I didn't get to talk to him a ton, but he does seem really cool, and all the other missionaries here love him. There were 21 new missionaries in this mission. 17 of them from the Mexico MTC, and 4 from the Chilean MTC, but surprisingly, none of them are latinos.

 Things in Chile are actually pretty nice. To me at least. It's a little bit like Cabo, just with only houses. Our house is tiny. It's like the size of a one car garage, and there's no hot water for showers. They heat their water super weird too. I don't really know how to explain it and I'm not going to try. Ask Chad Maughn, he probably knows. The flight went well. We were on a gigantic airplane. It was huge. We got two meals on it, but I only got about two hours of sleep. My new companion is a really awesome person. He knows a little bit of English, he's trying to learn English, but he doesn't know very much right now. I don't know how fast I'm going to learn Spanish. I do not understand one word people are saying. I could understand almost everything in Mexico, but here, it's completely different. It doesn't even sound like Spanish. They add the word po randomly at the end of words. So when they say yes, they said sipo. I don't understand a word, and I don't understand Elder León hardly at all either haha. I should learn fast though. There are four missionaries in our house, and they all learned fairly quickly. One of them said that they could speak well after just four months.  It seriously looks a lot like Mexico though.

 None of the houses have any form of heating, and it's cold until noon, and it gets cold again at like six.  My companion says that it's always really cold in the morning, even in the summer.

 Yup, my companion is my papa haha. And I was born in la bandera, which is the place I'm serving right now. We should totally come here some day. I think you would like it here. It's way different. Me and my companion were white washed into the area, so we had to start from scratch. Our first day we did contacting the entire time. Oh and the schedule here is different. We wake up at 7:30, and we go to bed at 11:30. Apparently Chileans stay up late.

Love,
Elder Stam

Elder Andrew Rietveld and Elder Stam at the Mexico MTC before Caleb left.  They are related now cuz Andrew's sister Shelly married Caleb's brother Joshua.  Cool huh!

Last Day in the Mexico MTC!

Sept 22, 2014   
                  

Mom,

So we got some time today to email. I leave the MTC in about two hours and 17 minutes from right now. If I remember right, there are 43 different missionaries going to the Chilean missions today with me.

Yeah we just barely missed the Chilean Independence Day, but that's okay. There's always next year.  I'm pretty sure my entire mission is in Santiago, but most of it is country stuff. The Chile Santiago South Mission is tiny though. One of the smallest.  It's weird that you're going into winter haha because I'll be going into summer. Lucky me.

I'm sorry that you got sick. You should've kept the Pepto Bismal haha. It seems like everyone in my district got sick again, but I still haven't felt anything. I'm really lucky I guess. They all have really bad symptoms and really bad diarrhea, but I haven't had anything.

It sounds like you guys went on your own little mission. Like in D&C 4, the field is white and ready to harvest. We all made a goal to memorize that entire section in Spanish before we left, and it's been really hard, but I think I almost have it. It's going to be awesome teaching the people in Chile. I'm really nervous about the language though because our Mexican teachers said that the Chileans talk so fast that they can't even understand them. So it's gonna be really hard, but at the end of the two years, I'm going to be better than the Mexicans at Spanish haha.  A mission is definitely going to teach me patience for sure.

Yes I want my mission scripture to be 2 Nephi 31:20. It's a great scripture. One that I can definitely use on my mission a lot. I want to go to that temple too. It looks really cool. I'm not sure how far away it is from my mission, but I'm sure that it's pretty close. I know that it's in the Chile Santiago North Mission, so it couldn't possibly be that far away.

 That's a really good letter from Daren (Caleb's EFY counselor). He's such a cool person. I'm glad you guys went to his reception. I'm sure he's happy with his wife, I remember talking to him about his future wife at EFY with Riley haha. It's crazy how fast time flies. I'm officially 1/17 done my mission now. 16 more transfers to go.

When I get to Chile, it's going to be a totally new experience. It'll be crazy, but it'll also be a lot of fun. I think I'm ready for it. I adapt pretty well to change, so I'm not that nervous.

Thanks for the emails though, I really appreciate it and I love hearing how things are going back at home.

Love,
Elder Stam
                       

Mexican Independence Day was awesome and Temple was amazing!!

Sept 16, 2014

Mexico City Temple

Mom,

It's seriously so crazy to think that I'm leaving in a week! This last week for me so far has been awesome! I should be leaving next Monday or Tuesday. I should get my flight plans tomorrow. The Mexican Independence Day was awesome! We didn't get to go outside the MTC walls unfortunately, but the MTC hired Mexican dancers to come and dance for us. After they did their performance, President Pratt (the MTC President) conducted the Mexican National Anthem and the yelling of ¡Viva México! thingy. It was really cool and fun. And all the Mexicans in the city have huge parties all night. There was music playing until about 5 AM, and fireworks all night long. According to one of our teachers, Mexicans shoot pistols straight into the sky, and there was 83 deaths last year from falling bullets.

Outside the dorms at the CCM (MTC)

I've been writing in my journal every day.  Yeah, the spirit has been pretty great here. There have been times that it hasn't been super strong, mostly because of Elder Colvin, but other than that, it's been pretty strong.

The Spanish learning has slowed down a lot. I could pray in Spanish like the third day I got here haha. I think I'm at the point where I can't really learn more until I have to start talking to people that don't know English. It's so easy to me though. At least so far. I know that once I get to Chile I gonna feel like Elder Calhoon from the Best Two Years. "That's not the language they taught me in the MTC". But over time it will be okay.

 Earlier today, we had the chance to go to the Mexico City Temple. It's about 45 minutes away from the MTC, so we got to see a lot of the city as we were driving to it. It's crazy how much different it is than America. It's even a lot different than Cabo San Lucas. It's waaay more crowded, and the building are packed super tight. There are 22 million people in Mexico City. It's huge. But when we got to the temple, we had a tour of the visitor's center. The actual temple is closed, but we could still go to the visitor's center. It's an amazing temple, and it's gigantic.  It's was really cool. It's a really pretty temple.

Mexico City Temple

Elders Stam, Johnson and Walker

 They've had a lot of food here that was completely new to me. Some of it is good, and some of it is gross. They've also had a bunch of Mexican candy. I don't like Mexican candy. I don't know what's wrong with these people. They had a sucker made of spices. That's not okay.

 My companions aren't bugging me yet, so that's a good thing. It's only a matter of time until I get a companion that I don't like. HAHA.




Love, Elder Stam

Got this email from him a few hours later!

Mom,

We got our flight plans, and we leave the MTC Monday at 4:00 PM!  Our flight leaves at 8:25 PM and we arrive in Chile at 6:50 AM. The flight is about 8 1/2 hours. I don't know what's gonna happen after that.   
         Love, Elder Stam

Anxious to go to Chile!

Sept 9, 2014

Elder Stam, Elder Johnson and Elder ?

My week has been alright. It's all starting to be the same now. We do the exact same thing almost every day, so it's getting pretty boring. I'm supposed to leave the MTC on September 23rd. Which is two weeks from today. I'm so stoked to get out of this place. I'm so ready for Chile now.  I'm still feeling great. Not sick at all still. Which is good.

I got the package of goodies. Thank you haha. And yes I did share with them. And the cream soda was awesome.  Thanks for the note as well. I'll try to send more pictures later today. I don't have very many pictures though because we can only take them on P Day.

Yes I eat chips and salsa almost every day at lunch. They have the most amazing salsa you could ever imagine here. It's crazy. One of our teachers is also going to bring habanero peppers on the last day for anyone that wants to eat them. I'm up for the challenge. It might kill be but it will be memorable haha.  I've heard that the food in Chile is really good, but it's not spicy unfortunately. I love spicy. It'll still be good though.

 There's been a huge debate in our district over BYU and Utah. Of course, me being the district leader, made it final that Utah was better. I love that they're having a good season so far. I can use that against the BYU fans now too.

 In the MTC, we have the same companion. I'm pretty sure I'm companions with him until we get to the mission home in Chile. I have two companions now, because his other companion went home, so we were put in a trio. It's strange, but not too bad.

I was able to say a prayer in Spanish after like three days haha, so prayers are easy to me. It's just the every day talk now that I can't do very well. We've only learned gospel Spanish, so just talking normally is pretty hard. We don't have the vocab yet. I can say "Through the Gospel of Jesus Christ you can be cleaned of your sin and be worthy to enter the kingdom of God", but I can't say fork or spoon in Spanish.

Having fun with his companions!

Love, Elder Stam

District in Mexico City

Elders Stam, Walker and Johnson

Week 3- MTC Hump Day!

Sept 2, 2014- Still no photos of Elder Stam, UGH we need to figure that out asap!

Mother,

The time has absolutely just flown by. It's crazy. Yeah every day all day is study time haha. They haven't taught any culture classes at all. In fact, we haven't heard anything about Chile really. That's okay though. It'll make it more of an adventure when we get there. It should be a lot of fun.

I am doing pretty good. I'm starting to get bored though. We do the exact same thing every day. And we pretty much eat the exact same thing every day too, so I'm starting to get sick of the food. But I still haven't gotten sick, so that's good. Time is a weird game, I could swear we just got here like three days ago, but it feels like I've been here for an extremely long time. And I'm already starting my fourth week in the MTC tomorrow. I have definitely learned a lot, but I'm ready for something new. Chile will be a lot more fun I think. I've been watching the weather too. We get on the computers every night here to do this thing called TALL, which is a language learning thing, and we already check the weather for Santiago. It's been pretty cool there actually. Well, colder than here. It feels a lot like home here though. Elder Johnson is from Kaisville, Utah. Being a district leader has been pretty hard. There's this one kid named Elder Colvin that just doesn't respect me or any of the other missionaries and he's been a real struggle. I'm about ready to punch him. He has major anger issues. But it's alright.

Yes, I have been wearing my retainer. I can't send any more than two pictures an email. I don't have my camera with me, but I'll try and send some pictures later today. I haven't had the opportunity to take very many though, because of the rules here. Maybe you should learn how to play the piano then. It's not that hard. ( I told him I HATE the silent piano)

We don't know when we get to go to the temple until like two days before, so I have no idea when I'll get to go. It'll probably be next P Day though. That'd be really cool! I want to go to as many different temples as I can before I die haha. I am pretty sure that I am still going to be the first one to give you a grandkid.

I started reading the Bible, and it's extremely hard to read. After I finish it, I'm gonna read the Book of Mormon, and after I finish that, I want to read Jesus the Christ.

Wow my fish is still alive?? That's a miracle. Keep him alive as long as possible haha. And I agree, it was nice spending a lot of time with you. I miss the Office haha we have been talking about it a lot here. Well I'll email you again later today possibly.

Love,
Elder Stam

Week Two- Elder Stam is doing great!

Week Two- Aug 26, 2014- Still doing great!

This picture is a road in the MTC that leads to the food place. When it rains the road turns into a river.

Things are going really well at the CCM! It's been another pretty eventful week. My throat started hurting a little bit a few days ago, but other than that I haven't really gotten sick at all! The food just keeps getting better as well. And yes I got my surprise haha thank you very much. I'm pretty sure the donuts are what gave me the sore throat though. As District Leader, I just have to make sure everybody stays on task, and focused. I have to check the mail for everyone because we all share one mail box and only the district leader has the key to it. I also have to conduct all the little meetings we have as a leader and I have to assign people to pray and stuff. And every third week I am in charge of the sacrament preparation. There were 12 missionaries in our district, but one had to go home. So now we only have 11. The one that went home was in our room so I only have two roommates now, and I also have two companions now. My other new companion is Elder Johnson. Both my companions are really nerdy, but that's okay. The Spanish is still going really well, but the learning has slowed down a lot. We get rain here almost every night. In the morning, it is super sunny, but at about afternoon, it gets cloudy and it rains. And it rains super hard. A lot harder than it ever rained in Utah. And the thunder is like someone is shooting a gun in your ear. I've only seen a few missionaries from Murray. I've seen Chris Green, Blake Brockbank, Hayden Mann, and that girl that was in my mission prep class. I don't remember her name though.

That ice bucket thing sounds really weird. Maybe if my companions are up to it, we will find a bucket of ice water and do it ourselves and take photos of it. That'd be really fun.

 A normal day would be waking up at 6:30, getting ready and being at our classroom at 7 to study til 7:45. Then we go to breakfast til 8:25 when gym starts. Gym goes til 9:15. We have half an hour to get ready for class then class starts at 9:45. Class is different every day. We teach an investigator for an hour during class in the morning and in the afternoon. That class goes til 12:45, then we have lunch. After lunch we have two hours of study time, and then class starts again at 3:15. It goes til 6:15 when we go to dinner. After dinner we study the language from 7-8, then we do a technology assisted language learning system on the computer for an hour. After that we have a district discussion about anything til 9:30, where we go to back to our house and study and write in our journals or something like that til 10:30, when we go to bed. That's an average day.

I totally expect my mission to be hard. It's going to be exhausted. In fact, I'm already super exhausted. I'm tired every day. But they really enforce this thing here called exact obedience, where we just obey the rules exactly. It's pretty hard at times but it definitely makes things better and have the spirit more. Everything here is starting to be the exact same though. It's gonna start getting pretty boring. But I will try to keep my head up so I can make the best out of it. I think the language is going to be really hard when we get to Chile because we were talking with one of our teachers, Hermano Sánchez, who is from Mexico City, about the language in Chile and he said that they talk so fast that sometimes he doesn't even understand them. But that's okay. It'll take a lot of work. It will take me several months to get the language down, but it will be worth it. I'll be better an Spanish than Josh or Cody so I'm okay with that. I'll email you again next week.

The house that we stay in while at the MTC. There are only 50 houses, but each house fits 20 people. And the rest have to be in apartments.

Love, Elder Stam