Letter dated 27Jan2014

[Dear friends, here is the latest letter from Daniel. I hope you enjoy it! I hope everyone is staying warm and safe. If you want to send Daniel a note, simply reply and I will forward your note to Daniel! Have a great week! Daniel's editor - BWS] Dear Family and Friends! This week was a good one! To cap it off, we finished Sunday night by knocking on some choice doors. At two of those doors, we met Robert and Jenny, two people in high school. They both said no, they weren't interested in learning about God, but Äldste Hewitt still asked if we could come over over this week to share a message about God with them, and they both said yes! I'm not sure why either said we could come back, but it's exciting in any case. Yesterday in Sacrament Meeting, the branch's good pianists were all absent, which left me the responsibility over the ivories. I've learned to play "Come Follow Me" and "A Poor Wayfaring Man of Grief." Kind of well. And it turns out it's much harder to play when lots of people are singing. So it wasn't the best musical experience of my life. But it was still fun :) On Thursday right after we were said good-bye to a woman we had stopped and talked to, an outgoing man came from behind us with lots of exuberance and embraced both me and Äldste Hewitt. Then he started singing a song from some musical. He was drunk and actually wanted to share with us some "deep philosophy." Unfortunately, he could speak English pretty well so we couldn't get away very quickly. At one point though, to validate his philosophies, he asked "Do you know what I was?" After a dramatic pause he said "I... was a therasim." (We're pretty sure he meant therapist.) It was such a funny conversation! The branch just got two new Stake Missionaries, Gunnar and Gulre, which is super sweet! A family whose dad is from Sweden and mom from Peru just had Matthew, who's the scholarly baby in the picture. They are getting ready to get sealed in the temple in May! I hope you each have a wonderful week! I love you all and thanks for keeping me updated with things from home. Love, -- Äldste Daniel Schindler

Daniel in Swedish snow!

Daniel's companion in the snow

Winter transportation

Joining ABBA

Unusual winter wear!

Swedish snow!

Letter dated 13Jan2014

[Dear friends, here is the letter we received from Daniel today! I hope you enjoy it. I'll be posting the pictures on his blog later today. If you have a message for Daniel, you can simply reply to this message and I will forward your message along to him. I hope that you are all staying warm, dry, safe and cool! Daniel's editor - BWS] Dear Family and Friends: Things are going really well for Elder Hewitt and me in Eskilstuna! The weather just got a bit colder here, but luckily there were a couple of björnmössor ("bear hats," or really warm hats) in the apartment that we can be using. This week we met a new investigator named Luise from Ghana. She is really nice and has a 6-year-old son who's got loads of energy and is really funny. And another investigator, Lahja, wants us to try to start teaching a couple of her friends, which is super! We just arranged teaching an English class for an organization for Somalian refugees. We're really excited! Yesterday we were with the group when the mayor came to the group to see what he can do to help out their situations. It was a really interesting meeting -- there were about 30 Somalian men there, the mayor, and we (no women interestingly). I thought this was pretty funny: the mayor, talking about one of his policies, said "Eskilstuna is one of the 14 most populous cities in Sweden." I'm not sure, but I would guess that means it's the 14th most populated :D It is super good to hear from everyone this week! I'm really glad Weston got back safely and is having a good time in Michigan! In the pictures: I was the fifth member of ABBA for a second. It was pretty nice, but just wasn't for me. So I'm a missionary again. [I will include the pictures in the blog!] It snowed! There's a Swedish phrase "Det finns inget dåligt väder, bara dåliga kläder" which means "There's no bad weather, just bad clothes!" I think Elder Hewitt's handkerchief (sp?) face mask is what that bad clothes part is talking about :) Love you all, have a wonderful week! -- Äldste Daniel Schindler

Daniel and companion!

Swedish Christmas!

Daniel and companion

Daniel and Santa

Letter from President Newell dated 5Jan2014

Dear Brother and Sister Schindler, What a pleasure it is to have your son, Äldste Daniel Schindler, in the Sweden Stockholm Mission. He has recently been assigned to serve as a Senior Companion in the Eskilstuna I area. He is a strong example of gospel living and of devoted, selfless service to the Lord, the members, fellow missionaries and the people of Sweden. Thank you for your sacrifice in supporting your son in this sacred service. With respect and kind regards, Gregory J. Newell Gregory J. Newell, President SWEDEN STOCKHOLM MISSION

Letter dated 6Jan2014

Dear Family and Friends: It is so crazy that Weston is coming home this Wednesday!! I can't believe how quickly that's come up! Weston, it's been great to hear about everything you've done in Spain and it's been super cool to be missionaries at the same time. I'll really miss your missionary e-mails! I hope you have a great last couple of days and a safe trip to Michigan! It's great to hear that dad, Joey, and Sarah had a good time in Michigan and had good roads to ride back on. Not too much has happened since I last wrote, but being a missionary is still great! Later today, we are going to fix a member's car. Äldste Hewitt is a trained mechanic, so I'll probably just hold a flashlight. I asked him earlier "Do you reckon European cars are the same as American cars?", but then I remembered that he's English!! The pictures here are of Jul Tometen, my present, and me; Äldste Cahill and me on Christmas; the Christmas lights of a posh apartment complex with Klosters Kyrka in the background, and Äldste Hewitt and me. I love you all and hope that you have a great week! Love, -- Äldste Daniel Schindler

Letter dated 2Jan2014

[Dear family and friends, Happy New Years! I hope that all of you have had a wonderful Christmas season - and that your New Year (2014) is grand! Here is the letter we received from Daniel today. It is so wonderful to hear of the great experiences he is having. Thank you for your support and prayers on his behalf. I will forward any notes that you send (simply reply to this note). Have a wonderful week! Daniel's editor - BWS] Dear Family and Friends: I now have a new companion, Äldste Hewitt! He is from West Sussex, England and has been in Eskilstuna for a few months now, just in the southern area. But now he's up in the northern area with me! He is a really fun guy and it's great to be his companion. I am also learning lots of English English words, like doovey (a word for blanket) and trousers (always used in place of pants). It was sad to say good-bye to Äldste Cahill, who left to Karlsstad on Monday. He's an extremely nice guy and we had lots of fun together. A couple of weeks ago, we helped Sister Lundkvist's mom move, and later on Sister Lundkvist told us that she was quite thankful for our help and grew to be pretty fond of us; also that we probably would be able to meet with her mom (who's not a member) and teach her about the church! This was really great because before she'd been pretty anti-religion and was disinterested in all previous invitations to see the missionaries. So we're really excited to meet with her some more! Another plus is that she gave us her exercise bike, so that's always in our apartment if we get ambitious :p We spent New Year's Eve with the Mead family, who come from Oregon. It was loads of fun. We had spaghetti and launched lots of fireworks. The fireworks were really big (I hear that in the US, they're only legal in Wyoming). It was a really fun night! On Tuesday, when we were calling a list of potential investigators, I got a hold of a guy named Simon. He was really worried and explained that his girlfriend had threatened suicide, and that he was looking for her in a forest. He had been looking for her for several hours, and asked pretty desperately that I help him. The forest was a couple hours away from me, and I felt sad that there was nothing I could do to help him; but then I thought that I should just ask him to pray to find her. He hung up with a low battery, and then called back a few minutes later saying that he found her! And by then I had a map and told him how to get to the nearest city. It was super sweet that even though I couldn't do anything to help him, Heavenly Father was there to answer his prayer and enable him to help his friend! I love you all and hope you have a wonderful New Year! Thanks to everyone who's written me e-mails and post letters, they're always so great to get! I know that Thomas S. Monson is a prophet called of God and that Jesus Christ leads this church. It's so great to be a missionary! Love, -- Äldste Daniel Schindler