A mission is a life changing experience.

August 26,  2015

Mom,                           

                    
Man those kids are getting old, they're not even going to be the same people next time I see them! It sounds like it was a good family reunion though, I'm glad that the family is doing well, especially that papa could enjoy himself playing golf. You went to an organ concert?? Who played the organ? Dad told me that he went today fishing with Jim, he seemed pretty excited to go, especially since he hasn't been able to do that for years.  It's nice to have a day off every once in a while.  If we didn't have p days I would probably go crazy, they are definitely something that we need.

Things have been pretty good the last week. The big news of this week, I got changed once again. I don't know why I was changed again, that's three transfers in the last three changes, but it's okay. I'm right next to where I was before, so it's pretty similar. The only difference is that where I am now, it's a branch, not a ward, so it's a lot smaller. I've already met a lot of new people that are super awesome. I gave a sort of have piano lesson to a kid yesterday haha. The branch that I am in though is called los cristales, it's in the stake O'Higgens.  It has been pretty hot though, during the day. The temperature has been changing a lot from the day and the night. Everyone says that the second year goes by faster, we'll see what happens in the next year haha. Dad asked me a bunch of questions that I answered already. From what I know, things have been going pretty well with Willy. The last Sunday I was there, he showed up with another Haitian friend that knew Spanish, because he lived in the Dominican Republic for 7 years, so we could finally communicate with him. He's good though, still looking for a job. My new companion is Elder Sosa, he's from Peru. I actually live in a house with only latinos now, two from Chile and my companion. I think that it will be a good experience living with just latinos, it will improve my Spanish a lot, and I already get along with the others really well. I haven't been able to play piano though, el pino and los cristales don't have pianos in the church.

 So Josh got the job huh? That's good, I know that he'll be happy and that you guys will be happier with him living closer. So what is his job going to be then? So is that going to be Josh's permanent job in his life? Hopefully he doesn't move too far away,  I would like to live close to the entire family as well.

Uganda, that would be the most insane mission. I got an email from Connor Holt this week that had a picture of him, Jayden, and Chris Ruben. It was crazy, I can't believe that they are all home already. The time flies. Josh is coming home as well, man there is no way that was two years ago that they left. I'm sure that they were all great missionaries, they were all amazing people before the mission, and the mission is a life changing experience.

 I don't get the opportunity to play except in church because no one here has a piano, only the churches. And of all the churches, I have only seen one real piano, the rest have been keyboards. If I were to say anything to the youth, I would tell them to just keep choosing the right, they might not know why we have certain commandments, but God does, and he knows how to protect us better than we do. To the adults, you can never have a testimony too big, keep growing it every day. Things that they should know, Chile just won the American Football cup and the entire country went nuts and partied for a week straight haha. Well there's not a lot more to write, I feel like this was a short letter this week but I don't know what more to say. I hope that you have a great week and that you keep growing your testimony!

Love,
Elder Stam

What the world needs to more "mean" moms.

August 19, 2015
                            

       
I'm glad that you are enjoying your time at the family reunion!  That really does just sound like the typical family reunion, especially with the squirrels. I remember that there were always a bunch of squirrels. But for real though, our family is really loud, almost too much haha. So don't forget to send me pictures, it's my turn to ask for pictures haha. I think papa will be fine. It's a part of life, it's going to happen to all of us. It's only a short time that we are saying goodbye anyways.

Things in Chile. Um, hot, once again. Today has been really hot. I'm wearing a short sleeve shirt, and it's the middle of winter. I miss Utah winters, and cold weather. The shirt burning went well, I have a video of it, hopefully it won't get deleted. According to everyone, now is when the time starts really flying, but I feel like it's already been flying. No, we didn't have any idea what we were doing with the drainage system, but what matters is that we tried haha. The teaching has been going good this week though. We found a guy from Haiti. The only problem with him, is he doesn't speak Spanish. Or English. But French and Haitian yes. So it's been really complicated trying to communicate with him, but it's been quite an experience as well. We are trying to help him find a job so that he can get enough money to stay in Chile. His name is Willy. I have been feeling better though, I stopped eating that darn yogurt haha.

The baby is due soon, that's crazy. I'm excited to see him! Yup, Josh has got a lot of changes coming up, now life is going to start getting crazy for him, but I think he's ready.

Haha that's a good quote ("What the world needs is more "mean" Moms).  Moms are the best right? It's pretty true. Although I still don't really see what the sugary cereal has to do with anything in the future. I don't think that I would be that much fatter... But who knows!

I hope that you guys also have a great week, all together. Thanks for all of your love and support!

Love,
Elder Stam

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