Letter dated 18Aug2014

Dear Family and Friends: This week began as usual -- on Monday. On Monday evening we had family home evening at the institute center. The topic was Luke 2:52 (the spiritual, physical, mental, and social aspects of life) and we played charades :) On Tuesday we met our new friend Ofelia, the physicist from Iran. She is very similar to Zohreh! Iranian people are among the most respectful and kind people I know. They are also rather educated people, excelling especially in Middle-eastern geography. She has a hard time being separated from her family. We talked about how we can get strength and find answers through prayer. On Wednesday we had a zone training in a cool park in Malmö (see the picture with the tall trees). We put on blind folds and led our companions to accomplish a list of tasks. Very fun! Then we went to scrape gum from tables in "Hund stund." And we saw Eskil later! This coming Saturday we are really excited to go to the temple with him :D Äldste Downing and I went on exchanges Wednesday evening. Carl had us and Szilvia over for a huge dinner. He said it was the dinner of his leftovers he needed to get rid of before flying to Florida, but it ended up being really high quality! 1st course = bacon soup. 2nd course = SO MANY CRAWFISH!, cheese pie, and salad. 3rd course (dessert) = crembrulé, chocolate cookies, and home made ice cream. It was so good! Carl is terrific :D Thursday was also with Äldste Downing. We did nice things including extending my residency in Sweden. We played soccer that evening with the young single adults, and met another new friend, Mohammad, afterward. He's from Syria, and is miraculously able to be in Lund due to a scholarship in his Master's program. On Friday we met Jens and his friends from Gothenburg! One was a teacher of religion, one an engineer, one was a fun-lover and Jens is a dad. They all have a really high level of Swedish! We taught them about the restoration and they loved it. It was so fun! Church was good; Martin who's visiting from England, brought his dad to church again. His mom and he had joined the church 30 years ago, but his dad has not yet. Martin wants us to start meeting with him, we are really excited! It is a very humbling, uplifting feeling when a member wants you to contact his loved ones! Some things I love about Sweden: these pictured candies: official name is damsugare (vacuum cleaners). Made by taking cake crumbs and mashing them in a tube shape, covering them with marzipan or something of the like. Everything is always green here! When it rains, it sprinkles all day. So we get lots of water. A member has these gas masks and bee bee gun. Have a terrific week! Love, -- Äldste Daniel Schindler