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