Letter dated 26Dec2013

Dear Family and Friends: What a great Christmas we just had! We went to the Karlsson family in the morning for the traditional breakfast of rice pudding (LOTS of rice pudding) and smörgåsar (sandwiches). That was really fun, and I got a few extra stickers on the back of my name tag from their energetic daughters. Then we went to the Lundkvist family and enjoyed board games, Kalle Anka (Donald Duck shows, which is a huge Christmas tradition here!!), a huge 'Christmas table' of food with them. And guess who came to us at the Lundkvists!! It was Jul Tomten!!! He's the version of Santa here, and everyone got to meet him except, remarkably, President Lundkvist, who unfortunately was taking a nap. That was all on Christmas Eve. Then it was great to talk to the family on Christmas Day! It felt like I hadn't been gone from you and it was fantastic to see and hear everyone :) It made me happy to realize that I can now bring the happiness of the gospel to the families in Sweden. The work is going forward here in Eskilstuna. A great tender mercy this week was that our branch mission leader, Sa'ad, just became the missionaries' home teaching companion. In talking about how he wanted to do things, he said "President Lundkvist just said to visit all of our homes once a month, but I was thinking it would be really good to just go every week instead." He is such a great guy and it's exciting to see his excitement for going out and visiting the members of the church. Oh, and we got Turkish Delight from the Karlssons, so it's not just something that you see Edmund eat in "The Lion, Witch, and Wardrobe" nor just something that dad always says he's making, but it's a real thing! It's quite good. It's a thick jelly with a nut flavor and is surrounded by powdered sugar. The pictures are of us four elders and our investigator Marie doing some good work in the Karlssons' kitchen, us playing "Sindbad" with the Lundkvists, and the magical coming of Jul Tomten!! I love you all so much! Hope you're having a wonderful Christmas-and-New-Year season. Next week, my preparation day is on Thursday, so talk to you then! Love, -- Äldste Daniel Schindler