Busy missionary

March 30, 2016

 Mom,                             

                                       Things went well with transfers. We actually had them on Monday because yesterday was one of the crazy days in Chile where we have to stay home all day. It was really nice having a day off, definitely needed. It was probably my last one, unless my comp or I are really sick and can't work. My new companion is Elder Keck, from California. I knew him a little bit before, so it'll be fun being with him. My companion has 14 months in the mission, he's a great guy, always trying to be a better person. He is really tall, like 6'7". I am still district leader.  We've been working with a few new people, the problem is we usually teach them like once, and then they either disappear or don't answer the door, they're stubborn. I guess that it's supposed to be a fight though right, looking for new people that will progress? The best thing was definitely the day off, got a lot of studying done. I've really been enjoying my studies recently. I've been reading in Romans in the new testament. Last Wednesday was a pretty cool day. We had a family home evening as a ward, and Elder Baker and I gave the class and we talked about Christ and his Atonement, then we talked about what the members need to do to invite people to come to church. We had a pretty good turnout at church, lots of people came for Easter. I love when members do some work, it makes everything go so much smoother.  I feel like the time that I was with Elder Baker just absolutely flew by. It's also a little strange to think that he's home now, I know he's happy.  He did talk a lot about home, what he was going to do when he was home. I don't think that it helped that every house we went to they asked him if he was trunkey and when he was going to do. I think that he just rode the wave. I know that the first week of the last transfer the president has a meeting the all the missionaries going home and he gives them motivation to keep working to the end.

It wasn't like a special sacrament meeting, but it was still good. Elder Baker gave his going away talk, and also a sister missionary. And finally a kid here that is preparing to go on a mission. They all gave great talks. Yeah I read it, I try to read President's messages every week. He sent out part 2 to that today. President definitely gives out those messages by inspiration.You should try to read them every week, they're pretty much like scripture I swear haha. Aw that's sad, I didn't know Lucky died. Well we all know that he's still happy. I'm sure Oma was sad, he was the perfect dog for her. She'll love Tootsie too. Haha Tootsie was insane when I left. I'm sure that she still loves chasing the light. Is her hair still getting lighter?

I wouldn't mind starting classes at like 8ish. I'm going to wake up early to study the scriptures and exercise, so I think that would be like the perfect time. I just don't want to be studying any later than like four. That's the limit for me. I'm going to be going to bed early, and I'll get mad if they make a lot of noise. One thing that I've learned on my mission is how to put fire behind my words haha, by not yelling. How much money do you think that I am going to need to help pay a year for schooling?

Haha I honestly don't know anything with babies. Has he mumbled his first word yet? And I'm assuming that he has a few teeth now. I think that I will learn a lot about babies with him. 

Ben is already going on a mission? Jeez everyone is so old. Vegas huh? A little close, he'll like it though, he's going there for a reason. I'll send photos for sure next week, I forgot my camera again. Sorry. Well thanks for always writing me, I hope that you and the family have a spectacular week!

Love,
Elder Stam

No time this week!

March 23, 2016


Alright so I only have like 10 minutes to write, I'm a little frustrated, so I'll just skim through your email and answer the more important questions and things, sorry.

It's most likely that I will stay here in this sector, or president would have to do a white wash here. President and Sister Cook are from New York, so you probably won't be able to go, they said that they were going to go to Utah at the end of August and have a mini mission reunion, so that will be fun.

 Oh that's awesome there is a pool at Snow College, I'm looking forward to being able to swim. I think that I will swim like three days a week in the morning, and the other days go running or something like that. I want to stay in shape.

That's good that Oma is moving to Utah, she'll love it for sure. Well fine I'll buy my own TV haha, I don't think they're that expensive. Speaking of Oma, how's Lucky doing?

Haha it will be fun to talk to Connor in Chilean Spanish, because believe me, it's not like other Spanish. Even some latinos have a hard time understanding Chileans.  This week we also had stake conference and the elder Teixeira came and he gave a great talk. We are really going to focus a lot this week on getting people to come to church, and he talked a lot about that.

Thanks mom, I hope that you have a great week, if you need anything, tell me and I'll respond next week!  Elder Baker will be gone next week, so I'll have more time haha.

From,
Elder Stam 😁

The teaching is going well

March 16, 2016


                                          

Mom,


Alright so we are writing a little later this week because Elder Baker had to go to his old sectors to say goodbye and it took most of the day. I'm doing good though, a little tired. The week also was pretty good. The teaching is going well and the members do help us pretty well. This is a good ward, the ward council does their work well. The focus isn't really changing in the mission, but we have a new way of taking dats. There isn't a big change at all though. I don't know when the new president comes, I just know that President Cook is going home like the 28th of July or somewhere near that time. The Haitians know Spanish pretty well now. We just speak in Spanish, really slow and simple words and if there is a word that they don't know, we explain it to them.  I think that every area has it's own problems. Like for example the people here also believe that it's true, but they don't understand the importance of it at all, so they don't apply it. They ask for help and we tell them what to do, and they don't do it, then get mad for us not helping them. It's a little frustrating sometimes but there will always be problems. You just have to learn how to deal with the problems.

I think that I'll have to send photos when I get a new comp, we won't have a lot of time next week either. You guys would definitely have a great time serving a mission, here everyone loves the couple missionaries. There was actually a couple missionary here that went home yesterday, so we should be getting a new couple soon.

Well, coming home August 2 would still give me three weeks so I think that it would be fine. It won't be any later, that's for sure. I think that it would just be a waste of time to wait until January for school, so I think it would be best to go straight to study. It's not that I want to go straight to college, but it's what's best and what I feel I should do. Yeah, I liked the apartments, I don't think that the apartments are going to matter too much for me, I've been living in houses and apartments much smaller than the ones I would have there, so I'm used to it. A piano would be nice to have, gotta keep developing my talent, or the Lord will take it away from me hah. I'm okay rooming with anyone, I'm also used to rooming with strangers haha. So we would be six in one apartment? Okay in a few weeks try to be on your email when I'm on mine and we can talk. Next week will be a bad week for it though because it's Elder Baker's last p day and he is going to be saying goodbye again. Computer engineering sounds really fun, but I'm going to want a list of all possible choices.

Oma would definitely like Utah, I hope she knows that.

Yes I want you to see if there is a pool in Ephraim and tell me please. Yeah being a district leader is fun, you get to know the missionaries a little bit better. Haha it's different in so many ways. I think that is a question for home though because I could write a book on that. Yes mom, the government of the USA is going to crap, we all know that it would happen. The church is in a time of acceleration, they are obviously speeding up all the church work for a reason. It's almost time for the angels to come and to separate the wheat from the snares. Thanks for the email, talk to you next week!

Love,
Elder Stam

The mission has been pretty awesome!

March 9, 2016


                                     

Mom and Dad,

Your missionary son is doing good. HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD!! Kinda lame that I can only really write you a letter but I hope that you have a great birthday, and that you eat a lot of meat because I'm almost sure that you are going to eat meat today ha ha. It's crazy how old Jackson already is, he's gonna be huge when I meet him hah. Our past week was good, there wasn't that much different. I haven't really heard about any Chilean news, so I think that everything is going well here. As for the mission, it's also good. We are getting ready for a new mission president and we also have a new way to pass dats now, or in other words we are changing the focus in the mission a little bit. He did come to church. The other Haitian's mom unfortunately passed away this week and he has been having a rough time, being that he is so far away from his country and family, but we've been helping him and it has been a great opportunity for him to learn more and pay a little more attention.

So was it summer there in Cancun? Dad said that he got pretty burnt. Did you get burnt? Dad does have that gift, finding things that are lost. He has always been able to find everything even if it's like invisible. We also swam with sting rays right on that cruise? Heather's email made me remember that this week. So the Mayan calendar only started over? I don't know how that works but I'll accept it. Well it almost sounds like a nephite city haha. Like when the nephites and the lamanites were in battle, Mormon had them build fortifications around the city and he armed the people with bows and arrows to protect them from the lamanites. And the Book of Mormon also talks about one of the nephite cities being next to the sea. You never know, and it would probably be almost impossible to know for sure, but that is a possibility.  Haha mom is funny. You know what the word trunkey is right? I think that mom is more trunkey than me that I'm coming home in a few months.

It's kind of crazy how many different country and races of people that I have taught. It's been quite an adventure. Well I can sure try to swim every day, it's going to be really hard for the first bit, but it is definitely something that I want to do.  I think that I'm going to be really white when I come home, my back hasn't seen sun since I've left almost. Aw kind of lame that there is no Worldmark here, Santiago is a pretty large place, they should have one here. Well I guess if only us three come it is better than nothing. It will be fun here for sure, Santiago is a pretty awesome city.

Our house is a little small, but it's fine because we're not home that much. The other missionaries are cool. One was a cheerleader for BYU and the other is from Guatamala, and we all get along pretty well. Wow the Goddards are already coming home? Well that's cool, tell them that I say hi. Oh jeez Elder Nelson really went to the Highland ward?? That's pretty awesome. Too bad you missed it. He came here quite a while ago and I met him in Chile. He is a pretty awesome guy. You have to tell me what he said and how it went.

Well I think that I am going to have to print off a list of things that I could study and maybe have a few ideas, but for now I really don't know what to study. I was thinking that it might be pretty fun to be a computer programmer, being that I love video games and I'm good at math and technology. You said that Snow College changed their start date so I wasn't stressing too much about it. But I would like to know for sure if it's been changed. So if you could find out that would be great.

Yeah, the mission has been pretty awesome. I got an email today from Brayden Stock, it sounds like he is doing great. He already speaks Spanish like a champ. Well thanks for the email, this one is a little shorter but my companion goes home in just over two weeks so there isn't many people that are writing him and I don't want him waiting too long. Have a great week!

Love,
Elder Stam

Never thought I'd meet a Russian in Chile

March 2, 2016

                            

I'm doing well, the week was pretty good also. How hot is it down there? Of course, you guys have the pool and AC but we don't have anything.. the only thing that we have are fans. And we are never even home to use them haha. Yes we are still teaching the Haitians. There is one of them progressing more than the others. And surprisingly enough, he actually has Sundays this month free from work so he can go to church. I think that he is finally starting to understand a little bit more what we teach. Contacting is pretty much the same. Yesterday we actually contacted someone from Russia, didn't think I would ever meet one of them here in Chile. Yeah I play in church, there are also a few members asking me to teach them a little bit haha, so I'll probably do that.

Haha Mexican food is pretty amazing. I think that you will have to go outside of the city to experience real Mexican food though. That was the same cruise that every day I just asked for macaroni and nothing else right? I don't remember that much about that trip, I think the thing that I do remember most was going up that waterfall in Jamaica. Apparently the Mayan calendar ended in 2012 right, and that's why everyone was saying that the world was going to get destroyed? That's what I heard at least.  I would love to go to Cancun, especially since I speak spanish now. There is a lot of evidence that Christ came to the Americas. From what I heard, the church found a drawing on a rock or something like that of Lehi's dream, and scientists said that it was drawn more like 2000 years ago.

We also have code words that we use for evacuation but I never really thought that it would be months before a disaster haha.  If we get the word, we are supposed to pack one suitcase, bring our emergency backpacks, and go to either the stake center or the airport, depending on what they tell us. I doubt that anything like that will happen though, at least not yet.  It was a pretty good movie. There were a few things that they got wrong. Like for example the empanada that the guy had, that's totally not what the empanadas look like haha. The mine disaster happened in 2010. It was like the only thing that I had ever heard about Chile so I guess I just sort of remembered it haha. Is it called semola in English? Well I really like it so I am going to make it.

Take is slow swimming? Mom I need to get in shape and skinny again. I'm not saying I'm fat, but I need to get back in shape and healthy again for sure. Yeah I'm definitely going to try to keep up that habit, it's a good habit. I want to keep swimming early morning, I think that really helped a lot.

Well have a great week and really enjoy your time there in Cancun, I'll talk to you next week!

Love,
Elder Stam

We need to prepare ourselves

February 24, 2016
                                   

                                    

Girls from a far lol

The last week was pretty good, with lots of heat haha. The teaching is also going well, it was a little better last week then the others. We aren't really teaching a large amount of lessons but still teaching obviously. We are mostly busy with contacts, or references, or working with the member list in the ward. Well apparently everyone has said that it is going to be pretty hot even through fall here so it'll probably be hot for a little while longer. I hope that you guys have an amazing time there at Cancun. Isn't that where we went forever ago when we went on that cruise? I play the piano at the church and usually on like Wednesdays or whenever we have an activity there, I sit down and play.

Funny you mention that movie, The 33. Our zone actually got permission (at least the zone leaders said they got it) to watch that movie, and we watched it, today haha. It was a pretty good movie. I actually remember when that happened. It was a good movie, but I feel like it wasn't very Chilean. It missed a lot of things, but it was still good.

They have good ice cream here but they don't have the best flavor, cookie dough. They have a few other flavors that we don't have though. They have this one dessert which is milk with sémola. Sorry I don't know how to say sémola in English. I like it a lot though. It's really easy to make too. College? Weird thought. Didn't think I'd ever go to college. Dates are expensive mom. I think I'm just going to abstain from all girls for a year or two more. They have cooties.

Today we had a special conference with Elder Bednar and if I get to choose my homecoming topic I think that I will talk about a few of the things he talked about. He talked a lot about doing things with faith and faith leads to action. Prayer is really good but it doesn't mean anything if we don't act afterwards.  He's actually a really funny guy, but I really learned a ton today and he didn't give us a talk, but he taught us in a totally different way.

Holy crap Brock is a junior?? Wow. Everyone is so old now. Tell me how polo goes though, I think that it is going to absolutely kill me to get home and try to swim again.  How many wards are in our stake? Yeah what you said is pretty much what our president told us. That's also what we have been teaching to the people, that the Sacrament is like getting baptized all over again and we need to prepare ourselves every week for it. A lot of the other churches here have also been saying that all of the disasters are going to happen this year. I don't think so though. There are still quite a few signs that need to happen before the Second Coming. I read Doctrine and Covenants 45 today and it talked a lot about some of the things that we are going to see before he comes. For all that we know maybe something will happen this year.

Ah 6 AM that's nothing. Well just keep working hard, the Lord blesses for hard work! Something little that I have learned here in the mission haha. I think I will probably keep waking up super early like I did before, It makes the day seem longer and better. Well one of the things that Elder Bednar said today is that you guys are being more blessed with me away than you would be if I was with you, so you're welcome haha. Have a great time there at Cancun!

Love,
Elder Stam

It's better to just work

Feb 17, 2016

Dear Mom and Dad,                 

The awesome Zone

Well, there's always that time of the year where everyone always seems to get sick. I was also feeling a little sick on Monday and Tuesday but I got over it really quick. It's a real pain in the butt being sick on the mission because you either have to stay inside all day with nothing to do or you go out to work and suffer just as much haha, so it's better to just work. Wow, I definitely haven't heard of that virus at all, hopefully it doesn't get down here to Chile. Well I'll never be a pregnant woman so maybe it wouldn't affect me that much haha.

My week has been good. It's still hot, with no changes whatsoever. If this year goes the same as last year, it will probably be pretty hot until like April or May. Which sucks but there literally is nothing I can do about it so why complain? Yup, the world definitely doesn't believe as much. It's kind of dumb, because there are so many signs that He exists all around us. Yeah we are still working with the Haitians. I don't think that they are understanding that much though, it's been really hard to communicate with them. Yes I have also been playing the piano here haha. I don't think French will be extremely hard, it's pretty similar to Spanish, it's just the pronunciation that seems hard. We are the only Elders but there are two Sister missionaries.

We eat ice cream most days. There is dessert for pretty much every lunch, it's amazing. Recently, I don't know if it's a summer thing, but if we don't eat watermelon or honey dew melon, we eat ice cream, and I definitely won't argue with that at all.  I was thinking about working a whole bunch in the summer anyways. I don't think that I will get married that fast to be honest. It would be fun, just remember that I am definitely going to want time to play my new Xbox One that you are going to buy me haha. ;D (you promised)

There are so many things that people don't understand about life and getting mad at God will not solve absolutely anything, the only thing that it could really ever do is make things worse.

We're living in these apartments on the street Goycolea. I couldn't really tell you what building because there are a lot of them. The only thing that I could tell you is it's a few blocks away from Gran Avenida and they're pink haha. We moved because President Cook doesn't want any houses with only two missionaries in them. He wants four in every house. So we moved for that. We live with two other missionaries now, Elder Maser and Elder de León.

Haha that's how most babies are right?  Who knows Jackson could be a better piano player than me someday. Maybe I'll teach him when he's a little older, I think he'd have a hard time right now haha. I'm gonna expect him to cry. It's normal. You're going to have to teach me how to hold babies cause honestly I have no idea.

Well thanks for the email once again. If there is anything that you need from met, just let me know. Talk to you next week!

Love,
Elder Stam