Crazy I got transferred back to my first sector, La Bandera.

June 3, 2015

First day in the Chile Santiago South Mission

Mom,

First of all, yes I got transferred. The crazy thing is I got transferred back to La Bandera. My sector is literally right next to the sector that I was in with Elder Leon. I actually live in that sector, Los Pensamientos. I'm in the ward La Bandera now, just right on the other side of the big street Santa Rosa. But I am writing in the exact same internet cyber that I wrote in my first P Day in Chile. I almost can't believe that President sent me back here haha.  President must think he's funny.  I was in Portezuelo for almost 6 months. I should be going back for a few baptisms though for sure. My new companion is Elder Facal, and he's from Uruguay. He's pretty cool, I am sure that he's going to be a professional soccer player. I've told you about Gabriel and Belen. They attended the church for years but were never baptised. Their baptisms are June 20th. They are both young, 13 and 11.   I think that going to church in English now would almost be a little bit weird. How many people are in that ward that will now be in our Stake? I think that missionary work is picking up everywhere! Europe also has been getting a lot more baptisms as well.

That would be incredible to see Alejandro haha. I don't remember what mission. It starts with a C and it's in the south of Argentina, that's all I remember. Ooh that food sounds amazing haha. I didn't like cauliflower a lot before, but they eat it quite often here and I think that it is pretty good now haha as well as tomatoes. Wow that food really does sound really good haha. Most of the food here is pretty much the same now. There are a few members that are starting to learn how to make american food. This morning I had waffles haha that would be the first time in my mission.  They make crepes pretty much the same, they are just a little bit more thick. They put different things on top too, like manjar. They roll them here. My favorite food is probably Chaquicán. I think that's how you spell it haha. Everyday we usually eat chicken, rice, mashed potatoes, or pasta.

The strangest thing that happened was being transferred to where I am, I really find it too weird to be back here. I can't think of anything else happening though. I need to start remembering more the things that happen hah. Thanks mom you really are the best :D Just a small flat screen TV would be nice for college. Something that I could hook up to a laptop if I wanted.

My patriarchal blessing says that I have to stay close to you guys, so it's most likely that I am living in Utah for the rest of my life haha. What jobs has Josh applied for? I am sure that Tootsie loves to have the dogs over, it's probably a thrill. That sounds fun though, maybe I will take care of dogs one day too.

The weather here is kind of changing. It's still pretty warm during the day, but pretty cold during the night. It's getting there. It kind of sucks having to carry a jacket around all day, because it gets cold enough that you need a jacket, but during the day it's too hot for a jacket. Read Jesus the Christ, it's an amazing book. I've also had my birthday package for about a week, president didn't hold it haha. I have been healthy though, without any problems. The most rewarding thing, being alive haha. Thanks for writing me and have a wonderful week!

Love,
Elder Stam

We will always fail alone and that is why we have a Redeemer..

May 27, 2015

Elder Stam and Elder Henderson

Mom and Dad,

Hah they have a plane that reduces jet lag? Man technology is weird. I would love to visit other places at some point. And try the food from other places too. I hope that I get to travel when I'm older, I would love to go see more of the world. It sounds and looks like you guys had an amazing trip, but I think that the trip to Chile is going to be way better, for sure. I love crepes, they eat them pretty often here. Manjar is like the dulce de leche stuff, I don't know how to explain it, but it's pretty good. Just look it up haha.  I wish Chile had more variety, i feel like I eat the same thing almost every day haha. We don't hardly ever get to see Santiago, it's too far away. I realized that we really don't get to experience Chile at all, so we better come back here.

Things are going well with the missionary work. We should have three baptisms in June. It's too bad that I am probably being transferred next week, but I can still return to see them. We have a ridiculous amount of people that we are teaching, almost too many people. It's good to always have something to do though. I don't like doing contacts that much anyways. I would say that the most rewarding thing this week was setting two baptism dates in June with Gabriel and Belen again, and I'm sure that they are going to get baptised this time. We even have approval from the parents to do it.  Alejandro went to the MTC here in Chile, but he leaves next Tuesday for Argentina. He's 25 years old, just barely made the limit for missionaries. If we do come back here in May 2017, we should be here right when we gets home, which would be so awesome haha :D  We just had a new bishopric member put in, and he's going to be amazing for the ward.


Haha the stories of a mission. I have heard some absolutely crazy stories before, but nothing crazy like happened to dad has happened to me yet. I'm sure I already have some great stories, I just don't know how to tell them through email, so sorry. This week with one of our investigators, his wife came out and started screaming at us because shes a super crazy catholic and feels like shes losing her husband. So we can't go visit him anymore. If I think of a great story I will try to tell it to you.

Downtown Santiago is just a lot nicer, richer, and I kid you not the people look more gringo. It's kind of funny. And there are a ton of people that speak English. Our sectors are the "armpit of Chile" according to a missionary a while ago. The funniest thing? Well the elder that we live with, Elder Gularte, went to kick an orange on the ground and his shoe flew off and went on the roof of a house, and it was a struggle getting it back. It was super funny, we all about died of laughter. Things with Elder Henderson are great as well, he's still awesome haha.

Only Best Buy has the $5 down, so you will have to do it at Best Buy. Thanks though mom, you're the best.

Yes we did baptisms with Giselle. It is a small world. When we went to the temple with Giselle, one of my friends that I met at EFY several years ago was at the MTC there. His name was Kyle Quinn. I barely recognized him, and it really surprised me. He is going to the Concepcion mission. If I remember right, he lived in Orem.

Time flies, three months and I'll be an uncle :D They plan on moving back right after the baby is born? The "new age" thing is ridiculous. People don't know anything. I started reading Jesus the Christ this week, and I think that it might be one of the most incredible books I've ever read. It has really made me think really in depth about the gospel. I definitely recommend reading that book, with all of the scripture references that it gives. But there is a part where it talks about the agency of man, and how humanity alone will always fall. We will always fail alone. That is why we have a redeemer and savior, to save us from this fall. It's super in depth, just read that book haha.

Well thanks for all your love and support, and for you emails, they're the best. Have a wonderful week full of spiritual experiences and we will talk more next week.

Love,
Elder Stam

Catching the Sun

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

Consecrated Week Challenge

May 13, 2015

Mom,

The week has been rough with our Consecrated week challenge from our Mission President.  It's to do 100 hours of work.   We don't have anything to do in the morning so we just do like 7 hours of straight contacts. It's hard and my legs hurt a lot. It's been good though. We have found some awesome people. That's all that really matters haha.

I want to go to London one day, so we need to go back. It sounds really cool. The ward also sounds like the first ward I had here. Super small with about 50 people. It wasn't bad though, they had some pretty good people.

Don't worry about the Skype, it really isn't that big of a deal. At least we all still got to talk and see each other a little bit, that's all that really matters. Next time hopefully you will all be in the same place so it will be easier.

There's always some amazing conversion stories. This week one of the elders in the mission found the guy that baptized him. Apparently he lives in our mission. I don't know the details but that would be really cool.

Well I don't have any more time. Thanks for writing me and I'll talk to you again next week.

Love,
Elder Stam

We should pray to see miracles

May 6, 2015

Mom,

The weather has been a bit cooler, not a ton. Mostly just at night. During the day it is still pretty hot though. Today is May 6th, which is the equivalent of November 6th. I can never remember a November that was this hot. Things have been good still, we are still getting quite a bit of lessons. We have a few that are progressing, but not quite to the point of baptism yet. I would say that we teach a pretty equal balance of investigators and less actives. They all receive it pretty well, there are a few people that try to fight, but it really isn't hard at all to show and testify why we are right.

I don't know who in Pres Cook's family were apostles, he just said that he has had grandparents and great grandparents or something like that that were apostles. President Cook is a goofball. We had interviews with him this week. From all of the things that he said to me, it sounds like this next transfer I will be put in a new sector and with a companion that has less time than me. I'm looking forward to it though, it will be a great learning experience for me. Haha if I get the package before my birthday it is going to be torture not being able to open it, but I will try my best haha.

Haha I was planning on calling you about that time, so that's perfect. I will try to call no later than 3. Another list of questions haha. I'm not a huge talkative person, but I wouldn't say that I'm a really quiet person either.

Speaking of shoes, the other shoe in that pair also has a hole now. I think I am just going to wear these shoes until they are completely destroyed. It will be a good reminder of my mission haha. I haven't really seen many missionaries here that have been picky, but it seems that there are a lot of missionaries that are allergic to a lot of things. I had divisions again yesterday and I went with a Peruvian named Elder Estevez. He an awesome guy, but he's allergic to tomatoes. Every meal here and in almost all foods here, they put tomatoes in it. I don't know how he has survived until now.

 That photo is really funny, everyone laughs pretty hard when they see it. I just tell everyone that I am the third wheel of the family. Mexican food, I miss the stuff. It's different here, there aren't any refried beans or spicy salsas. What other movies are on the list?

I didn't have a ton of jet lag, it was still pretty hard though. The night that we were on the plane we all only got maybe two hours of sleep tops. Then the first day in Chile we had meetings with the president all day, and then we went straight to work in our sectors. And we never had any time to catch up on the sleep. I couldn't stay awake for the first week of studies, but now it's fine. I want to start waking up an hour early to get more study time. Have a wonderful time in London though, I'm definitely jealous that you are going without me haha.

Little prayers like that definitely work and are answered. I remember when I went on divisions with Elder Hermosilla, he said that when we say a prayer to leave and work, because we always pray before leaving the house, he said that we should pray to see miracles. Well the next day I tried it and it was the most successful day in my mission so far, with 6 lessons in one day. That was also the day that the one girl came up to us and told us to go to her house. So that day was definitely a miracle for us.

Are you still reading the bible?? I am supposed to finish the triple in a couple of days, and then I am going to read Jesus the Christ. I'm pretty excited to read the book and learn more about him. There seems to be quite a few books lately that I have been wanting to read. I want to read the book by Jeffrey R. Holland, but president said that we can read that book after the mission.

Well thanks for writing me once again, have a wonderful trip to London and stay safe, also have a wonderful mother's day and I will see you on Sunday :)

Love,
Elder Stam

Every knee will bend, the language has "clicked"...

April 29, 2015


Mom and Dad,

Must be an activity? 

 Things are still going wonderful. We had the most lessons last week that I have had in my mission so far, we had 21 lessons. The average of the mission is just about 10 lessons a week. Elder Henderson really knows what he's doing. We actually haven't been able to find the lady that asked us to teach her, she has sort of disappeared. We are still trying to find her though. She just told us that she wanted to get baptized though, which is pretty amazing.

Really though the weeks just seem to fly by. Sometimes I feel like I don't know what to write you guys because it feels like I just wrote you. It's nice though. One week is about 1% of my mission haha. We as missionaries kind of do the same thing as what you are doing dad. We have a ward list of all the members that live in our area. Well our job is to go and find the people, find out if they moved, if they're receptive, and anything else. It keeps the ward list updated and we find a lot more less active members to teach that way. Rain huh, no snow? We still have just been having pure heat, pretty annoying. It's okay though.

We saw a little bit about the volcano at an investigators house. Pretty cool, but we haven't had any ashes here in Santiago. They said that the wind took all the smoke and smog a different direction. Haha don't worry about that stuff, it most likely won't happen. And if it does we will be protected and it will just be an opportunity to do a bunch of service. I want to lose just a little bit of weight still. And yeah we are still riding bikes. We went one day without bikes and we were late to everything. It takes 30 to walk what it takes 5 minutes to bike.

 That's good that you are doing well with plenty of work, the people here in Chile need to learn how to handle money. Most of the people live off of the money they earn that day to pay for their food. A lot of people declare bankruptcy just to get money from the government. I don't know how they live like that.

 Haha we had zone conference this week and President Cook came up to me and said that he was friends with you(mom) on Facebook, and that he'll know if I say anything about him now haha. He is an incredibly amazing guy. His knowledge about the gospel is ridiculous. I am sure that he is going to be an apostle one day, without a doubt. He has had a bunch of family members be apostles. He's one of a kind haha.

We have church at 10 here, so it ends at 1 and the earliest that I could call would probably be 2. We will see though. I'll have to talk to the family whose house we are going to do it at, and when my companion wants to call. It would be cool to have the books with cello also, just to see it I guess haha. The clothing is holding up pretty well. The pants are probably in the worst shape. I've had to sew a bunch of seams and the tan ones have a grease stain from the bikes haha, but other than that, everything is fine.

 I haven't been picky at all about eating, I have eaten everything that the people have given me every time. Every single time. I love the food here haha. It's all the same now, but it's still good. I am almost sure that we teach the lessons in a different style than the missionaries there. I don't know though.

You will be grateful when the bathroom is done.  You guys are complaining about the bathroom now but you both know that when it's finished you are going to be super grateful. The more that we suffer, the more capable we are to feel joy. Something I've learned here. It would be pretty sweet to have a bathroom like that, you are really going to enjoy it. We don't even have hot water that much, so it could be worse.

The difference between good and evil is getting worse, and that is something that we are going to see throughout our entire lives. It talks about it a lot in the scriptures I've realized. Just remember that it says that every knee will bend in worship of our Lord. I have been thinking about that a lot lately and it is kind of going to be like a smack in the face to the people that reject us. We just can't succumb to the devil and his temptations like every one else in the world now.

 I could say that I've had the "click" with the language, but I don't remember a specific time when it happened. I remember coming into this ward not being able to speak hardly at all, and now I'm going to be leaving soon speaking like one of them. There are still a few things that I can't understand, mostly because of the vocabulary and because Chileans speak really bad, but it's fine, I don't have any problems now. I have also just found it a lot easier to go straight to Spanish without translating it too, it takes a little out of the message to translate it. I really noticed that a lot with General Conference talks, it just wasn't the same in Spanish.

 Oh hey by the way, I got the family pictures, they look really nice. I completely forgot about the picture with all of you couples kissing and then me kissing the dog. Everyone thinks it's a hilarious picture.

Well thanks for writing me once again, have a great week, don't forget to read the scriptures, we can learn a lot from them. Love you!

Love,
Elder Stam

Fun with Hair!  Ha ha

No, silly.

We have a unique mesage to the world...

April 22, 2015

Mom and Dad,

Things are still going good. I would say the reason that most people start taking the lessons is just plain curiosity. It's probably weird to see two gringos walking around in dress clothes, so they are just curious. We also have such a unique message to the world that it makes it a little different too. I didn't get changed this change, but it is most likely that I will be changed the next transfer. Yes that lady is still taking lessons, she actually told us she wanted to get baptized in the first lesson. All the Elders in our house get along great. Elder Melander got transferred and now we live with Elder Gularte, from Uruguay. He only have 6 months in the mission, but he's latino so it doesn't really feel like it. We all get along great though.


I guess we're going through kind of the same weather patterns. It actually started to get pretty cold, especially in the night a little before we had to go to the house. But the last couple of days it has just been hot again. I was seriously hoping it would have stayed cold.  I've lost about 15 pounds, which is good because I gained about 15 pounds right before I came out. A job, I don't want to think about working, I'm already working all day every day. Dad told me a little about the water polo game too, it seems like the exact same thing as last year. That really doesn't surprise me at all.  Tyler scores half the points, Kim puts in the "better" players, we almost lose. I wish I could yell at her haha.  She doesn't understand coaching at all, no offense. I remember watching her play water polo and she really wasn't good at all to be honest.  Haha Connor went 20 minutes over on his talk?? That's wonderful. He's the kind of person that would do that.

I'll bring them back, don't worry (he is referring to books he wants me to send him). I want a cookbook because I want to cook a little bit here in the mission. We cook every night when we get back. Just a little one though, with simple ingredients, we don't get a ton of money. We can wear a pretty nice watch, you don't have to send a nice one though, any watch will do. American chocolate candy, and skittles. I love skittles. Any other candy that you think I would like. I am looking forward to hearing my setting apart. It should be cool.

Dad served a mission so you know that to get someone to start taking the lessons only takes patience. The Lord always provides a way for the people to hear the gospel, we just have to wait until it's the right time. Just keep doing what you are doing.  I wonder if your missionaries are teaching in the same way that we teach. It's probably a little different. I will teach you the lessons when I get home if you want as well. Who is the new missionary?

A scriptures for this week? Hmm I like D+C 6.. like last 5 or 6 verses. I can't remember what numbers they are. It's talking about reaping what you sow though, It's good. Not a lot happened this week, so I don't really have any stories or anything to tell you this week. Thanks for writing me though like always, have a wonderful week and we will talk again next week. :)

Love,
Elder Stam