Letter dated 31Mar2014

Dear friends, I hope you are all doing well! Here is the letter we received from Daniel today. I hope you are enjoying your Spring! We returned from Spring Break to find a foot of new snow! Weston and I will need to go and dig the car out of the snow bank where it decided to stop. If you have a response for Daniel, simply reply and I will forward all replies to him. Thank you for your love and support! Daniel's editor - BWS Dear Family and Friends: Another great good-weather, action-packed week here in the Big Tuna :) It is so good to hear from each of you. Glad that Spring Break went well for dad and that's sweet that Weston's starting school soon! I've had loads of edifying moments this week. The most recent was when I learned that it's not good to hem pants based off an estimation of the length. But I've also learned some more significant things also! We taught Veronica (she's in the picture with her daughter), who's Ukrainian, Swedish on Saturday, and she is a wonderful example of faithfulness. She was baptized in Ukraine and afterwards married a Turkish man who doesn't believe in God. She has a hard time coming to church because of some ridicule from him, but she still is an active member with her young daughter here (also despite the fact that she doesn't understand the speakers in church). And in the midst of being really stressed by going to Swedish school, she asked us how she could sign up to clean the church. Her testimony is so strong and uplifting to hear! Yesterday we taught Mahmoud and Zohreh about tithing. I was a little bit nervous about the lesson, but was helped as I found much money on the street before the lesson, which reminded me how earthly things all come from God and that paying 10% of one's income is a step of faith that pleases Heavenly Father and lets Him bless us more. Using that good perspective in the lesson helped a lot, as well as showing them an example of how I will pay tithing on the 100-crown note I found. And the lesson went well! It was a tender mercy that I could find that money and be reminded in that way that everything comes from God. As we were walking along the river near the city center yesterday, we contacted an elderly Arabic couple. They looked like very nice people, but also that they'd been through a lot. The husband's face had been burned by acid so that his nose and one eye were gone. He had a rosary in his hand, and so I assume that in their vicissitudes they've turned to God, and that they've been able to grow from their trials. When we stopped them there to talk about the Church, neither could speak Swedish, but they were still gracious and polite. It was really quite tender because even though the language barrier made it awkward I could feel that they were loving people and it was good to be by them. Following that, the next two contacts were two well-to-do men. They were probably ordinarily nice, but both of them rudely said "No." to our message. It showed me so clearly the truth of the doctrine that trials can make us better people. It was a super cool thing to observe. But with that, trials only make us better as we become more humble ourselves and rely on the Lord in a yet better way than we have previously done. So I'd encourage each of us to be sure to pray and exercise faith when given a trial... Remember that it comes from God in order to eventually help you! Well, I love you all! It's great to be here :) The other pictures are of a sweet bug we passed on the bus, Klosters kyrka (church), a cabbage that looked a lot like a Muppet, and a secure walker (no one gets a free walker in our apartment building!) [I will post the pictures on the blog!] Love, -- Äldste Daniel Schindler