Just count your many blessings.

June 8, 2016

Mom,                           

              
Haha, you're welcome mom. God tests people just to see how they respond, so it makes a world of difference to respond well to afflictions instead of responding bad. So yeah, I'll keep praying for you, you have nothing to worry about. I'm glad that you have been feeling well, don't let Satan's designs get to you, he just wants you to be miserable.

Oh wow, you'll be in the hospsital a long time. Hey at least they will treat you better because you are a nurse. Haha if they do something wrong you can reprend them. Haha well that's almost a blessing that you get two months off work. Add that blessing to the list of many.  Haha oh gosh mom you're getting so old. You'll definitely have to send me a picture of you using a walker, I'll get a great kick out of it ;) It's also a big blessing all of the medical knowledge that the world has now. If this kind of thing would have happened a hundred years ago, there would have been a lot more problems. So just count your many blessings.

Things are going well in the mission. A little surprise happened this week, and one of the investigators that I taught in Los Cristales got baptized and she wanted me to baptize her!  So I got to go back to the sector to baptize her. It was really nice to see the people there, they're amazing. In this area things have been alright, a little slow. This week though we did find a whole bunch of new people to teach, so it's picking up a little bit. We have been talking a lot about the new mission president, who will be here in about two weeks. I think that he is also going to be a great president. I don't really know him yet so I couldn't tell you much, but for a reason he is coming here. Our church building isn't in the best of places so not a whole lot of people went to the open house, but we did end up getting about 20 references from it. I think that the next time they do it, they should do it a Saturday afternoon instead of Sunday night when it's already dark. So we have also been talking about doing another one in a couple of months. We live on the corner of El Refugio and La Montaña, in San Bernardo, if you want to look it up on Google maps. It's a house. Not the best place in the whole world to live but I'm not going to complain. I've seen worse haha. Yes, I got my package yesterday, so don't worry haha. Thanks for all the stuff haha, I'm definitely going to use the air horns to wake up my companion if he doesn't get up haha. 20 years old, that seems so old to me. And Josh is turning 30 haha. We're all getting old.

Well I said that I would eat unhealthy for like a month, just to enjoy all the food that I haven't had for the last two years, and then I'll start eating healthy again. So what exactly could I do for work there at college? I definitely don't want a minimum wage job, that's not even worth it. Maybe summers I could just keep lifeguarding, or maybe find a job where I can earn a little bit more money. I guess we will see.

My mind absolutely blows every time you tell me that someone else got a mission call. Luke seemed so young to me haha and he's already going on a mission?? Family is pretty great isn't it? Our church is definitely the only church that has the full perspective of eternal families. Well thanks for the email again mom, I hope that you have a great week and that everything goes well in your surgery.

Love,
Elder Stam

**Email to Darren

Dear Dad,

God is usually nice like that, helping when it's needed.  Just make sure that you give him the thanks for it haha.

Wow, the tomatoes are already three feet tall? They did really take off. Haha perfect, I'll be home for the potatoes. The peanuts take a lot longer to grow than I thought.

So they're doing trek again huh? It was a pretty fun experience for me, definitely not what I expected it to be. So is that the actual trail that they came on? Mom would definitely like it, she likes things like that. So you take care of all the money stuff in the stake right?

Haha that soulds like typical mom. Everytime something happens, she always searches everything she can about it. And she spends several hours doing it. It kind of amazed me haha. There's a guy in our ward here that also just started doing chemotherapy and he seems to be doing really well. He's been doing it for about a month now and he hasn't had any physical difference or energy loss at all. And he hasn't lost any hair yet haha. So I don't think mom really has a whole lot to worry about if she has to do it. 

These last couple months have actually been pretty hard. I can definitely tell a difference in the people here from my training and now. It almost seems like everyone now knows the missionaries and doesn't really want to talk to them. So things have been getting harder in the whole mission. But I guess that the only thing we can do is keep working, even though it's a little harder now. This week though we did find quite a few new people, which is good. Hopefully things start picking up a little bit before I go home.

Completely true what you just said about trials helping us to grow. Well thanks for the support and the email, I hope that you have a great week!

Love,
Elder Stam

Trust in the Lord and He will deliver us from all trial and affliction.

June 1, 2016


Mom and Dad,   
             

Well mom, you don't have anything to worry about. Everything that is happening is the will of the Lord. It's understandable to be a scared, but please don't doubt. I think that one thing that I have learned most in my mission is what faith really is. It's a pretty complicated subject, but the best way that we can show our faith in the Lord is being obedient to His commandments. Like Christ and the other prophets have said several times in the scriptures, If ye love me, keep my commandments. It also reminds me of what Elder Jeffrey R Holland taught. Our first big commandment is to love God with all our heart, might, mind, and strength, but the first big truth of the gospel is that God loves us with all of His heart, might, mind, and strength. One of my favorite scriptures that has really impacted me recently is in 1 John 4:7-10. I was also reading in Doctrine and Covenants yesterday morning and I came across a scripture in section 63, I don't remember what verse exactly, but it was talking about the last days when God will send plagues, sicknesses, there will be wars and rumors of wars and all of that stuff. The scriptures said that the saints of God would barely escape all of that stuff. Then I read a quote from Joseph Smith that talked about that scripture. He said that there will be sicknesses and plagues and all of that stuff that will also affect the saints. But then he said that they have to reason to worry, because God will deliver them and exalt them. So all that you can do mom and the rest of the family is trust in the Lord, sacrifice our lives to His cause, and then without doubt he will deliver us from all trial and affliction that we have. God loves us, that is the first simple truth, and the absolute best way that we can show our love to God is to obey Him, and keep the covenants that we have made with Him in the temple. I am currently reading in Genesis, and I also really liked the story about where God commanded him to sacrifice his son. Imagine that. God had already promised Abraham that through his son Isaac, he would have a posterity as numberless and the grains of sand, that every family of the earth would be blessed through him, and several other blessings through him. Then he command Abraham to sacrifice him, nulling and voiding the covenant that God made with him. And not to mention that he is his son. Imagine the feelings that he had as he had to go up the mountain to sacrifice his son, his beating heart as his son asked him where the lamb was that they were going to sacrifice, and the tears going down his face as he tied down his son and most likely kissed him for the last time. He raised the knife and then the angel came down and stopped him. Abraham proved himself to the Lord with a faith so big, that he would be obedient in all things, and the blessings that Abraham were practically infinite. And now he's been exalted and is living with God. So I think that we all need to try and find the same faith that Abraham had, and there's no room to doubt that everything will be fine.

So just trust in the Lord. It's in His hands. There's practically nothing we can do about it except pray and show our faith to the Lord. You'll learn some great story from all this though, we all know that. If there is anything that you need to me know, just send an email to President Cook and I know that he will let me know.

Things are going pretty good in this area. We've been doing a few contacts and looking for a bunch of references, because there was just recently an open house at the church here and we received a lot of references, and we've found quite a few new people that are interested. That's one thing that we're focusing a lot on, finding the inactive members, if they still live in the sector or if they have moved away. It's a pretty important thing to take care of the Lord's fold, because if we can't take care of what we have, he will never add to it. I'm assuming that the package will be here in another week or two. It usually takes almost a month to get here. Haha, I couldn't have said that better myself. It is a pretty stupid quest for the possessions of the world. I have a few ideas about my homecoming talk, so don't worry about that :) I'm looking forward to that jam.

I also want to plan to eat healthy after the mission. I think that I might take like a month and eat pretty bad but after I want to try and eat nice and try and get my swimmer body back haha. I was talking about the Church using technology yesterday with my companion a little. I said that I think the church should start doing things a little big differently for general conference, it gets pretty hard to just sit there and watch a guy speak for 10 hours. I think that they should start using more videos or other stuff like that and really take advantage of the technology that the world has now. I think that it would be a pretty big possibility to come home every other weekend or something like that. I guess we will see how things are when I'm actually there, I don't know what it will be like yet. The best thing might have been my studies. I'm really trying to take advantage of the gospel studies from now until the end of my mission because I realize that after the mission I'm probably never going to have the same amount of time to study the gospel. I've been reading a lot out of D.&C. and the Old Testament.

I'm not really too worried about anything. God has a purpose behind everything and it is most likely that he won't tell us what it is in this life. Cancer is something that you can't really do anything about. All you can do is have a lot of faith in God and lots of prayers. The rest is in his hands. My patriarchal blessing also says that I need to take care of you guys when you are old, so for that to happen you'll have to live to be pretty old if you need my help. President Cook just told me that it's another reason to give 100% dedication until the end. With sacrifice comes blessing. I don't really have any questions though. If there's anything that you guys think that I should know, just send an email to President Cook and I know that he will let me know. But thanks for all the love, I'll obviously be praying for mom and for the rest of the family. Just stay positive :) When there's doubt, there's no faith. Well I hope that everything goes well with you mom. Just keep your head up. If there's anything you need from me, just let me know. I love you!

Love,
Elder Stam

Ton of work to do

May 26, 2016

Mom,  
                       

                
Things are going well here, I don't have any complaints. Things are going well with my comp also, we get along pretty well. Like I said, a 10:1 ratio actually isn't that bad here. I mean obviously there is still a ton of work to do, that's 630 people that aren't going to church, but there are still a whole bunch that don't live here anymore, but their records are still here. Our mission has focused a lot on finding the people and trying to bring them back, as well as baptising converts. Yeah there are a few people that are progressing, it's been a hard few weeks though, for a big majority of the mission it looks like. People have just like given up. But it's okay, we should never stop working. We're still in the city, the entire mission is in the city, but it's not like city city, with big building and everything. There's no big main roads in our sector so it's pretty tranquil here. The weather has been cooler, it's so much better. I literally don't have to run from shade to shade to protect myself, now I can just walk normally down the street haha. We live in a house now, right next to a small park. I'll send a photo when I have one, I've been bad taking photos lately. It's fun being in a gringo house but we never speak Spanish so it's not the best thing in the whole world. I'll finish strong, don't worry.  I'm going to like this sector for sure, but I don't think that I'm going to learn it very well either. I'm almost positive that me and my companion are going to go home together, or kill each other as we say, so I'm not very motivated to memorize all the street names because my companion already knows all of them haha. I'll be here for just under three months.

Lots of mission stories? haha okay. I don't even know what is usually said in a homecoming talk so you will have to give me a few ideas. I can explain a little more when I'm home, but what they do here is they work to save enough money to go on vacations in the summer, and then they go, quit their jobs, blow all of their money, come back, and find another job and repeat. It's kind of strange. They are more of a live in the moment people. Not like it's a bad thing or anything, it seems to work for them.

The more I think about it the more sense it makes to me to study computers. I'm a fast typer, I'm good with math and science, computers are going to be even more used in the future, and it's such a broad subject that I'm not limited to one option. So we will see. And you're right, I could definitely get the technology for a discount, that would be a blessing haha.

What part of Chile is she from, and does she have any kids? It's funny because I know of some other Chileans that live in Utah. How long has she been there? Ohh you're definitely going to have to same some of the strawberry jam for me. I think that I definitely get to take the most of them ;) haha.

So Oma will probably be moved in a few weeks. I'm positive she will like Utah, it has just a different feeling there. Still no teeth for Jackson, huh? Haha how long does he have to wear that helmet thing?

I hope that you have a great week as well, thanks again for the email.

Love,
Elder Stam

Life is really simple, just go and do!

May 18, 2016
                                     

Haha mom you're so trunky. Haha a party?? Alright. Just don't buy the Xbox One until I come home. We can go buy it together, I want to make sure it's the right one haha. Kind of weird to think that I am almost 20, it seems unreal.

Things are good in the new area, I like it here. My companions name is Elder Asplund, he's from Canada. He's pretty funny, we've been getting along pretty well. We both have 21 months in the mission, and we're going home together, so we are pretty used to the mission and there haven't really been any difficulties.  There are about 700 members on the list here, so it's a large ward, and about 70 that go to church, so a tenth. That's better than other wards haha. Our teaching pool is really big, with lots of investigators and lots of less actives, so the teaching is going great here. This last week has been a little tough though, it seems like they just aren't home. This area is a lot different. You can really tell the difference between the north and the south of the mission. Here, at night, the streets are full of people. It's easier to teach people here, but the people are a little slower to understand. Up north it's harder to teach but the people understand better. The sector is pretty nice though.  I'm living with Elder Brown, and he is training Elder Smith, so I live in another gringo house, I am not going to have an accent when I come home haha.

35 minutes seems like such a long talk haha. You should ask him if he wants me to talk about a certain subject or if I can just talk about whatever. I guess that I could just start preparing my talk now and not have to worry about it much when I'm home. It seems like a long time but I could probably speak for that long.

America has pretty good Mexican food though, it's just better in Mexico. With reason. Yeah, that's one of the biggest problems here. The people put their work before everything, before God, and even before their own families. They just work work work and never spend any time with their families, don't go to church, and don't even pray. We are have been trying to focus on that more. The first commandment is to love God with all your heart, might, mind and strength, not to love your work before all things.

The Lord will never command something that we can't do. Just remember the famous saying of Nephi (1 Nephi 3:7). So if we are humble and we just do what God asks, everything will work out without problem, and we will end up with even more blessings. Life is literally so simple, I'm amazed at how simple it is. Just go and do. I'm glad that you learned from that experience.

There are several foods here that I want to learn how to make, so maybe she can help me learn most of them. That's the majority of the reasons that people stop going to church here, being offended by something or someone. Does she speak Spanish? I also just heard about these three girls from Sandy that are Chilean and that sing and have videos on Youtube. I think that if you look on If You Could Hie to Kolob on Youtube it's like the third or fourth video, I don't know.

Well I'm sure that they will find a house when the Lord wants them to have a house haha. They should't stress about it too much, it'll all work out. Well I guess that I will talk to you next week, I hope that you have a great one!

Love,
Elder Stam

God, family, then work, those are the prioritites.

May 11, 2016
                                        

Mom,

Haha it was nice talking to everyone!  Maybe I won't shave from the time I come home until the time that I go to college to see how much my beard actually grows. I think that it will be an easy transition, I've never really had much of a problem with change in my life. Yeah, is he a pretty good guy, Elder Keck.

Haha what Mexican restaurant did you go to? What book are you reading now? I don't think plant is that much work, just a lot of work once. After you plant them and everything, you really only have to water them, which isn't that hard haha. Maybe Joshua will find a house that's a little bit closer.  You'll have plenty more grandkids to play with one day.  Don't overwork yourself. I remember learning a lot about stress in that health class that I took, it was such a fun class haha. I feel like there are three main focus points in people's lives. God, family, and work, in that respective order. God should always come first in everything, then family should be the #2 thing in our lives, then work. So we should always please God first, then the family, then work. Don't let work impede your relationship with your family or with God.

So with transfers, I actually did leave, even though I was sure that I wasn't going to. I'm pretty close to one of my old sectors. I'm in San Bernardo, and my sector is called Lo Blanco. I'm also with an Elder that got to Chile with me, and we are going to go home together and then President is going to close the sector. Our group is a big group, more than 20+, so President is going to have to close a few sectors. It'll be fun here.  I think we will both kill each other, as we say.  I'll do what I can while I'm still here in the mission. It doesn't make sense to give up now, right now is the time that I am most prepared to be a missionary. I have experience now so I am definitely better at teaching now than I was when I first got here. I forgot to think about a miracle, so I'll think of one for next week, sorry.

The three things that we should make should be empanadas, sopaipillas, and pebre, which is like a salsa.  There was this kid in my last ward, Andrés, who was also looking at buying an Xbox One, and I told him that I was also going to get one, and he told me of the Xbox One Elite, which definitely sounds like I need. I think that it's pretty expensive though, if I need to pay for a little bit of it, I will. I think I'm going to try and work a little bit more than you said, I'm thinking about 15 hours a week. I really don't need anything for my birthday, just a new debit card haha. I was thinking about that a little also, I kind of want to go to Lagoon, but that would be more of a thing to do with my friends. We could also go and do something in Salt Lake, I kind of want to get to know better the city. We could probably go to the This is the Place memorial, that would be kind of fun.

So yeah, thanks for the email, I hope that you have a very wonderful week and if you need anything, just let me know.

Love,
Elder Stam

Last call to home!

May 4, 2016

Mom,   
                                                    

                       
Well the P Day activity went long again so I'm going to make it short, we're going to talk this Sunday anyways.

Yup it's the last call, a little strange to think about, I also feel like I just barely called you. I don't complain though. Yes mom, I'll keep working until I'm released haha.

They're doing well, Elias has been really hard to teach lately, he's been really busy. Yeah, I'm pretty much all better. I don't know if it was from being sick or from the change or weather but my lips have been super chapped and terrible, I hate that. Haha yeah we have a gringo house. Cameron comes home before me?? That's weird, I left before him. It'll be strange to see how much he has changed. Me too, and Nate and everyone else that went on a mission.

 Sorry you're going to have to spend so much on me haha. I thought you could vote for neither, right? Or no? Like you could put the name of someone else. The good thing about Trump is he says the things how they really are, Clinton is just sorta the same as Obama, but in girl form haha. And white. But I don't know, they would both be pretty bad presidents, personally. No I don't remember if we went to Draper Temple or not.

I don't want a big package. Save money because you're going to have to spend a lot on me. Just send little things that I can give to the people with I leave Chile. And maybe a few candies haha. I've been thinking about souvenirs but I really have no idea what to bring home haha. I don't think that I will need a whole bunch, it will just be little things that I buy.

The church works really well in Utah, there's very few problems. It struggles out of the United States though, there are too many different influences here that make things a lot more difficult, but one day everything will be tranquil everywhere. Have a great week and I will talk to you on Sunday.

Love,
Elder Stam

The harder you work, the more converted to the gospel you become

April 27, 2016
                               

Elders Stam, Keck, Hellbusch, and Maser having pizza in their apartment.

Yeah we had a pretty good week, it was fun. Yes, we have a few investigators that are progressing. And yes, Elder Keck and I are working well together haha. Yeah that was our apartment and my roommates, they're a bunch of goofs. We have a pretty nice apartment, it's definitely the cleanest one that I have been in my whole mission. No, the pizza in the United States is way better, that's one of the reasons that I want to go to Papa Murphy's when I come home haha. I live with Elder Keck, Elder Maser (the blonde), and Elder Hellbusch. It is a pretty silly excuse to not go to church because it rains but whatever, they have their agency. Yeah, I'm feeling better, I still have a stuffy nose every morning though, I'm getting pretty sick of it.

Are you talking about that Chinese kid, wow that's awesome to hear that he is out on a mission, I know that he's out there kicking some butt. Satan's butt at least haha. Have you heard anything about Nate? I've actually been thinking about him a little bit lately. That kid's a stud haha. I haven't really had a lot of opportunity to sing here in the mission. I would like to sing more but it's kind of hard when I haven't had a companion since the MTC that knew how to sing.

Elias is doing fine, we have an appointment with him tonight. Yeah, he pretty much just ignored all the anti mormon stuff, which is good. He lives with his mom and his brother. At this moment he is working two jobs and studying, so he's pretty busy. He's been working really hard. It's been nice with President Cook. It's kind of weird to think that when the new president arrives, my group and I are going to be the oldest missionaries in the mission. I'm sure that I will have the chance to participate in stake conference when I am home.  Haha so you can imagine how much work the apostles and prophet have to do, it must be really hard on them. The harder any leader in the church works though, the more converted to the gospel they are. It sounds like Pres. Hutchison is doing a really good job as stake president, I remember that everyone was excited that he was going to be the stake president.

It seems like all the general authorities have been saying that, take notes on things that are not said. When we had that little special conference a couple months ago with Elder Bednard, he told us the same thing. It's true what he said though, we shouldn't really consider them as meetings. It must be a lot different being a leader over the church in Utah than in any other place haha.

Right, I like the way you think. If someone really truly understands the gospel, then death isn't that bad of a thing. It can be sad to see someone suffering, but it's not forever and when it ends, they rest. And we definitely will see them again, so it's not a bad thing at all, it happens to everyone.

A babies life must be pretty funny haha they just get amazed by almost anything. His helmet looks funny, I didn't expect it to be clear. How long did he have to have that? Jackson could play both sports, why not? Then let him when he's older decide which one he wants to follow. Baseball's not a very vigorous sport, it's fun but it's not as exhausting as water polo. I guess I've always just had a really high stamina. There were a few days after swim or water polo that I would come home and just crash though.  I'm sure that Oma's house will sell fast also. So yeah, I think you might need to take me on a little shopping trip when I get home, I think that mostly I am going to need pants and shoes.

My sector is called El Parrón. It's in the community La Cisterna. Haha if your friend at work has a lot of questions about Chile you can just give her my email, I'd be happy to answer her questions. My advice would be to have her son take like three pairs of shoes, boots, and a big winter sweater, because it gets pretty cold during winter, and it's really hard to get away from the cold. Haha, just keep taking advantage of these missionary opportunities you are getting mom.

Well thanks for the emails every week, hope that your week is fantastic. Also don't forget that I'm going to call you guys on the 8th of May, so next week you need to tell me when you want me to call. Chao!

Love,
Elder Stam