Probably one of the fastest years of my life, one left- I have to make the most out of it!

August 12, 2015

Mom,                  

Elder Calvillo and Caleb (Elder Stam) and beautiful mountains!  Looks a little like Utah mountains.  

Okay, so, yup. A year ago I was set apart and tomorrow is my one year mark. I don't know how that happened, but here I am, a year later. That was probably one of the fastest years of my life, even though it's been so eventful. I only have one left though, so I have to make the most out of it. Get to burn a shirt tomorrow. The teaching was alright this last week, the rain made things a little harder, but we still worked hard. The rain has been awesome though, I have been waiting a year for rain. I love the rain. There have been a lot of floods lately though, up north has been affected quite bad. We also had a member's house flood last week, and we went there to help try and fix everything. We ended up being there for several hours, trying to fix the problem. We made our own little drainage system out of these metal plates. We were in mud up to our knees. It was quite the experience. It hasn't been too cold with the rain though, only at night. It's actually colder when it's not raining. I definitely like winter more than summer. I was dying in the summer. I'm not looking forward to this next one, but I don't have a choice haha, just have to keep working through it. Hopefully you start feeling better mom!  Don't forget that you have a Priesthood holder in the house.

Those are some pretty interesting sounding jobs for Joshua.  It will be nice they will live closer. My patriarchal blessing counsels me to stay close to you guys, so you probably won't have that problem with me in the future. The medical world is nuts, maybe that's something I will do in the future, it's something that every human needs, health. Well at least for now, in this life. Isn't is going to be awesome having a perfect body that never gets sick? I think it's going to be amazing. Twice this week I ate something that my body didn't agree with. I didn't get sick, just had pretty bad stomach pain for a couple hours. It was strange. Three weeks until he is due to be born, how crazy. I feel like you guys just barely told me that she was pregnant. I'm glad I'm going to be home for his first birthday, I don't want to miss too much of my first nephew's baby years. I'm jealous that you went to that concert, I remember going to the Pentatonix concert like two years ago, and it was so amazing.

It would be cool if you learned Spanish, but I think I would rather just talk about you with Josh and Cody in Spanish, so that you can't understand us ;) My Spanish is fine though, I'm still trying to learn a few words every day, it's getting hard learning new vocabulary now, because it's just words that aren't very common now, so I forget the words. I still have a year to improve though. My goal is to not have a gringo accent when I come home.  Haha you have to give a little report on me? I don't know, you can say what you want. I'm doing fine, working hard in the incredible rainy weather we've had.Well I hope that you start feeling better, being sick isn't any fun.

Have fun at the family reunion! It should be fun, like always. Transfers are coming up soon. We had interviews with the President today, and he made it sound like he might change me again, but I doubt it, that would mean I have five different sectors in about a year. He did say that he would try his best to put me with a companion with less time than me, so that I'm looking forward to. We'll see though. Have a great week though!

Love,
Elder Stam              

They walk and walk and walk. 

I left almost a year ago, crazy!

August 5, 2015

BBQ time for the missionaries!

Mom,      
I do find it pretty crazy that it's already August. I left almost a year ago. Crazy. My actual hump day should be the 13th of August, that's when I finish a year, even though it's a little bit more than half my mission. I'm pretty sure I was in Arizona with Riley a year ago haha. Yup, tradition is to burn a shirt for a year. I wouldn't mind another package, but it's your choice haha. I might need some new socks soon, all the ones from Missionary Mall are starting to get holes. The baptism went well, the awesome thing is that el pino actually had 7 baptisms this last Sunday. It was crazy. Josselyn's parents are supportive. Her mom at least, her dad is in jail. She had challenges that everyone has, just commandments and going to church. She met the church 3 years ago, in another place, but started attending here not too long ago. Things with other investigators are good, we don't have one too close to baptism, but they are getting there.  When I was in La bandera, we did a lot of service to this place for people with disabilities. We cleaned the area and did a few other things. I was in the pictures like three weeks in a row haha.
    
You seem pretty excited that Joshua is moving back home. Where do you think that he will be working?  Elders quorum president! That's awesome for Cody! I think he will do good! In Portezuelo, there was a kid that came home from his mission and the very next week they called him as elders quorum president, that would be a pretty fun calling in my opinion.

He doesn't send you the Mensajero in English?? He always sends it to us in Spanish and English. If you want I could send you the English one every week. Remember when you said you would learn Spanish? I think you're failing that goal. Elder Calvillo says that my Spanish is actually really good, I don't really have to think about it much, it just sort of comes out in Spanish now. There are a few things that I still don't know how to say, but it's just vocabulary now. I don't think that I will ever be able to say absolutely everything, but I can express everything I want to say.

You're going to see Pentatonix?? Oh you're killing me. They are so awesome. I remember when I went to their concert, it was amazing. I'm jealous. If Christian wants to learn Spanish, he needs to speak it, that's the best way to learn. You have to study a little bit too, but you learn more speaking.

Well have a great week mom, I am going to have to retake pictures of the shoes. I don't know why but every time I send you photos, all of my other photos disappear. I am going to have to figure out what is going on with this stupid technology. Oh hey, you're still playing Clash of Clans for me right? Have a great week!

Love,
Elder Stam

We are going to have a baptism this Sunday!

Mom,   

The new sector is awesome, I like it a lot. It has a little bit of everything, rich area, poor area, but children of God for sure in all parts. Elder Calvillo is awesome, he's a good hardworking missionary. We are going to have a baptism this Sunday with a 17 year old girl named Joscelyn. I haven't taught her much, but she's awesome and definitely has changed a lot. She has a pretty strong testimony, and she's definitely making the right decision getting baptised. He's been out about 20 months, another older companion haha. That's okay though. No you don't know the people I taught via email, it was someone I taught here in the mission. We are teaching a few other people, they aren't progressing a lot, but they are progressing. Our church starts at 11 so they have no excuse for not going to church. We live in a house. I don't know the address, it's some street that's like four words long.. but it's close to the hospital El Pino, if you want to look that up.

Haha that would be crazy if you moved, so don't do that. My expected return date is July 26th, so if that's true, I have less than a year left. It might be extended though, when we get a new mission president. I don't know though, the older missionaries said that the change when President Cook got here was 8 weeks instead of 6. Dad told me a lot of people that got their mission calls and where they're going.  Wow all those friends are really already coming home?? That definitely was not two years.  I was going to say the same thing before I read what you wrote . It's better to serve God than man.

They're paying for Joshua's flight to come interview? That's awesome, flying is too expensive. I think that the family just needs to stop and really think about things for a minute. I don't want to be rude but some of it is really stupid. I'm old enough now to realize that. Hopefully they fix things though, I would hate to see any of my family in the big and spacious building.

Zone conferences are awesome, I love hearing from president. He's a genius. In the weekly letter that he sends to all of us every week, he's been answering questions about the sacrament and going pretty in depth, I've learned a lot. There's a lot to study about the gospel, I wish I had more time haha. Yes I bought a few things, so don't worry. Stories? I don't know, I'm so bad at remembering stories. But that's why I have a journal. Sorry.

Well thanks for writing me mom, have a great week!

Love,
Elder Stam

Santiago, Chile Temple

Dad,

Wow that's a lot more missionaries than I thought! That's awesome though, hopefully they all have an amazing mission.  President told us a few months ago that they were going to put fewer missionaries in our ward. We were at about 250 missionaries, and he said that we will have about 180-200 at the end of the summer. At the end of this change there are like 29 missionaries going home, and again only like 10 or 11 arriving.

Well my expected return date was July 26th, so if that's true, I have less than a year left.  I already have a little less than three weeks before I would start school, so hopefully it won't be extended. I would like a little bit of time before I have to start studying again. When Alma finished his mission, he had time to rest too.

Mom is always crazy about those pictures, she needs to learn more patience haha. Have a great week!

Love,
Elder Stam

I am now in El Bosque and have another new companion...

July 15, 2015

 Mom and Dad,


This last week has been quite interesting. First of all, there were transfers. Haha you´re a prophet dad. I did get transferred. Both me and my companion. And there were 22 missionaries that went home and only 9 that came. So president had to close some sectors. Our sector was one of the sectors that he closed. So me and my companion got transferred. Now I'm in a stake called El Bosque and the ward is called El Pino. I got a new companion too. His name is Elder Calvillo. He's full Mexican, but he speaks perfect English. He actually was raised in California. His parents moved to California before he was born. So he speaks English and Spanish perfectly. He pulled a prank on me, making me think he only spoke Spanish. It went on for about two hours, then he said something to me in English and completely blew my mind. It was pretty funny haha. Yes it has also rained more, quite abundantly. I just don't like how people were fasting for rain, and then they complain when the rain comes. But on Sunday it rained all day, and we got soaked. It was pretty fun though, and wasn't that cold.

President Cook trusts us a lot, he lets us do what we want for the most part. Well the time ran out really fast this week, I don't know what happened. This is going to be a short letter. I will definitely send pictures next week, without fail. I will reply to the rest of this letter next week! I love you mom and Dad, have a wonderful week. Sorry I couldn't finish this letter, :P

Love,
Elder Stam

As soon as we ended our fast, it started to rain. Pretty Miraculous.

July 8, 2015


Mom, 

Haha that night of the America Cup games was seriously insane. President Cook let us watch the game, and we watched it as a zone. It was super crazy. The people were super insane, they were partying all night. I have a really funny video in the church where we watched it. It couldn't have been a better game, double overtime and then penalty shots. It was awesome. Haha there's a girls team?? Strange.

The week was pretty good. I went and saw the Donoso family, they're doing alright. They committed to start things over and go back to church. They hadn't gone in a couple months, and Franco stopped believing in God, but I was just straight forward with them and told them what they needed to do and they agreed. We were going to go with the stake leaders, but they bailed on us the last minute, so we didn't go with them. It's things like that because our ward is suffering. The best part of my week was seeing the Donoso family, they're awesome people.

In the Doctrine and Covenants it talks a little about that Christ prepared the hearts of our leaders to establish a Constitution that would prepare a way for the Restoration, pretty cool stuff. But now we are just destroying the Constitution, and destroying what God established.

 Haha president Hutchison is going to be an apostle, I'm sure of it. Also president Cook. In a couple of years we are going to have a whole bunch of new, young apostles. I am pretty sure that Elder Nelson will be the next prophet, he seems like he would be a great prophet. Things are changing for sure though.

Hah things are alright with Elder Facal, he's pretty angry that Chile won. He just needs to get over it though, it's just a game. Other than that it's been pretty much the same, he's still quiet and doesn't want to talk to me much. I think that it's getting a little bit better though. He's completely against Chile though, I honestly don't know why he stays here if he hates it as much as he says he does.

Okay well the computer that I am at is incredible slow and the photos won't load, so you are going to have to wait more, I'm sorry, the computers here really suck a lot. It's not my fault. These computers really frustrate me a lot.

About the rain, the first Presidency asked us to do a fast right? Well Sunday we fasted, and when we broke our fast at lunch, it started to rain. It was pretty miraculous. It wasn't a heavy rain, but it was sufficient. They say that it is going to rain this entire weekend too, so that'll be cool, I haven't really seen rain since the CCM in Mexico. I didn't have allergies with the bad air, but I did get a lot of headaches. I think that if it wouldn't have rained, I would have gotten sick.

Haha that's it?? That's such little money that I will earn. What do you think that my monthly expenses would be (in college)?? IHOP haha the restaurants in America are so amazing. I am sure that Josh will get the job, without a doubt. Another cool thing, yesterday there was a pretty big temblor. We were studying and the earth started shaking... it was a 5.2 on the scale thing. It only lasted a few seconds, but it was still pretty awesome. Hey it would also be awesome if you would send me a recipe for pancakes :D that'd be awesome, thanks mom. Have a wonderful week, enjoy life.

Love,
Elder Stam

Chile needs rain and playing in the American cup finals!

July 1, 2015

This week has been a little different than the others. A lot of things have been going on, I'll talk about them in a sec. Tomorrow I am going on divisions in my old sector to go teach one of my old investigators, the Donoso family. They have been doing alright, but have stopped going to church, so I'm going to go talk to them a little bit. The Protestants here are crazy, they like to attack us with the Bible. They don't know anything about the Bible. I made the brownies on Monday, we had to go to the house early for the Chile game. By the way, Chile is playing in the final against Argentina this Saturday! You should watch the game, it's should be good. Hopefully they win, they've never won an American Cup before. They beat Uruguay and my companion is pretty ticked about it. He pretty much hates Chile and says that they don't deserve to win. He just needs to be more humble. I'll send photos next week, I don't have my converter with me right now, but I will next week.

Yes I've pretty much learned how to do the Rubix cube, there's one part that's really hard for me still. They're just really complicated haha. Not to be racist or anything. Latinos think the most ridiculous things about America. They all think that America is the most corrupted country that there is. They don't understand anything about America, but oh well, they can think what they want. That's pretty much what the Chileans do too- just sit around, and when you visit them they say that they didn't have any time to read in the Book of Mormon, it's pretty hypocritical.  I've had a little bit of time to use the new piano music you got me, but not a lot. They're fun.

This week we are going on divisions with the stake leaders to go teach the ward leaders about fulfilling their calling and repentance. It should be good, hopefully they will understand that they need to fulfill their calling. Take the missionaries out of our ward and it will fall in less than a month, I'm sure of it. We were in a members house and we saw that news about Gay Marriage on their TV, it started one of the fights about America being corrupted. You should see the news they have here in Chile, it's all horrible stuff. The scriptures say that the mightiest nations will fall, and we're definitely seeing that. Just remember that every time something horrible happens, we are one step closer to the second coming, when all the people will be proven wrong and they will suffer.  Hopefully it happens soon, I don't really want to live in a world with such wickedness haha. I feel like I talk like a prophet sometimes. It's weird. Not keeping the Sabbath Day holy was punishable by death in Christ's time. In the Old Testament, being gay was punishable by death. Hebrews 13:8 says that Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever, so why would his gospel change making these things acceptable in God's eyes today? It doesn't change, and it's not acceptable in God's eyes. And all who commit these sins will suffer if they don't repent. End of story, it doesn't need more explanation than that.

Soccer is fun, but honestly being with Elder Facal makes it not fun. He's so prideful of his own country and just gives excuses about everything, it's just ridiculous. I would also like playing soccer more with just gringos, because we can all suck together. The last two games that Chile has won he's been all pissy. But Chile has gone absolutely nuts, it's pretty cool. I can't even imagine what it will be like if they win the American Cup, it will be insane.

Chile has been having quite a few problems lately. They are suffering with a drought right now. It hasn't rained in several months. There are people living in the fields of Chile that are suffering a little bit because they don't have water. The First Presidency announced that all the members in Chile are going to do a special fast this Sunday asking the Lord for rain. Another downside to not having rain is the air. Santiago has one of the worst air qualities, worse than Salt Lake. It's so bad that we aren't allowed to do exercises outside for right now. Many people aren't allowed to even drive their cars. The rain clears the air out, and well it hasn't rained for a long time, so the air is super bad. Hopefully it rains soon, they need it here really bad.

July 4th, we are going to be inside all day because it's the day Chile plays. I hope that you have a great time though! Eat a nutella crepe for me. Oh by the way, Gabriel and Belen got baptized on Saturday, I will send you a picture of it next week. I'm proud of them haha :) Have a great week mom!

Love,
Elder Stam

Really working on activating and getting them to Church!

June 24, 2015

Mom,

Yeah, this was a pretty good week. We went on divisions three days in a row, so I was with three different missionaries this week haha. I was with Elder Marshall, Elder Bushman, and Elder Elder Tafur, all great missionaries. Hah I appreciate all the things you sent, even though my suitcases were about to burst when I just had to shove everything in. My big suitcase weighed like 75 pounds! I haven't made the brownies yet, we still don't have a pan to make them. Once we get one though, I'll make them haha. Right, about the photos, I'm pretty sure that the card got a virus, even though I use an adapter and put it in the little "lock" mode, and the pictures aren't showing up. The data is still filled so I know we can save all of the photos, I'm just going to start using a new card and not touch that one until I come home. I don't want to risk losing the photos, there were like 800 of them. I'll send you new photos though when I take them. It just goes to show that all of the computers here have viruses. Our Pres tells us that we shouldn't carry our camaras with us, but I usually just do anyways. I'm really careful with it.

Elder Facal has been a little bit better, still prideful, but better hah. I taught him how to solve a Rubix Cube so he always is asking me how to do a step that he forgot haha. It makes him talk to me though. I think that he just has an idea about gringos stuck in his mind that won't change. The latinos here are just really annoying sometimes hah. They see a gringo in the street and they yell "Hello how are you!! One, two, three, four." I think how much different it would be if we yelled "Hola cómo estás? Uno, dos, tres, cuatro" to the latinos in America. It's alright though haha. Elder Rupe is from Morgan, Utah. Pretty close. We found another family, but they're evangelicos (I really don't know what that is in English) so they're going to be pretty touch ones. That religion is really strong here. And yes I still play piano for sacrament every week.

Dad told me a little about the funeral, sounds like it went well. I have to admit that from everything that I saw from the Ukranian kids before, they were definitely the biggest trouble makers, more than anyone else. Hopefully they all learned a little bit, they can't keep acting the way that they did before and maybe his death will help them realize what's really important in life.  KSL really is awesome, Riley always bought a lot of stuff on KSL and I went with him all the time to go get it haha. I also sold my Nintendo DS on KSL. I still can't believe I got $200 out of it, that guy was crazy haha. That would be a stressful calling to be over the Women's prison, it almost sounds like the bishop callings here haha. He is a good man though.  Jared will be a good missionary.  Everybody has the potential to be a good missionary, it really just all depends on your own consecration and efforts.  Hopefully grandpa keeps getting better, he was doing not too well when grandma died.

I think that we need to focus mostly on just reactivation here. A lot of the leaders in this ward are inactive, and we have to get them to come to church, they cannot be missing like this. I think that the Sabbath Day is a completely different commandment here in Chile. It was a lot easier to keep it holy in the United States, but here it really is just like any other day. There are a lot of religious people here, they just don't have a clue what the fourth commandment actually means. When Elder Gonzalez (our area 70) came and spoke to all of the missionaries a few weeks ago, he told us that the most recent revelation that the church has received was about the Sabbath Day, and that we need to start focusing on that a little bit more as missionaries. According to him it was a revelation, but who knows, maybe something will happen on a Sunday and we will be protected if we keep the Sabbath Day holy. Garments are a pain in the butt sometimes, but you just have to suffer with it. You should really only take them off to shower, swim, or do heavy exercise. The Mormon channel really is awesome, it has everything imaginable. The most rewarding thing...what do you mean by that? I learned a lot more from Jesus the Christ, I read a lot about his baptism and when Satan tempted him, and also about his childhood, read the book mom haha.

I'm actually really starting to enjoy soccer a lot. It's not an obsession, but I think that I will probably watch all of the Chile games when they play. Here in Santiago there are two main soccer teams, Colo Colo and La Universidad de Chile. There are just a lot of things on the iPhone that I know a backup won't save, like the notes I have. I have a note with all of my passwords for everything, and it's not something that I can't have when I come back lol. I'm pretty sure that Utah sends out more missionaries than all the other states combined.

Yeah I read a little bit more of my setting apart, it really is awesome. I think I might read a paragraph a day, it would give me a lot of motivation la verdad. Sorry there are just a few things in Spanish that make a lot more sense in Spanish than English so there might be a few things in Spanish here and there. It's already over 100 degress? Wow. It's been pretty cold here at nights, but not horrible. I've used that coat a lot, I think it's saved my life a couple of times haha. Those shoes are perfect size.

I hope that you have a great week as well. There's nothing that I can think of right now, but the same goes for you! Thanks for writing me again, have a great time in Wolf Creek this weekend!

Love,

Elder Stam

Family photos taken two days before Caleb left on his mission.