Letter dated 25Aug2014

Käre familj och vänner: This week's pictures feature a put-your-face-in-a-board picture with me as a fish, Syster Morris as a live penguin, and Äldste Lambsson as a penguin photograph; zone trip to the Malmö fair last Monday! The Lund Chapel, me and Äldste Cahill at a multi-zone conference in Gothenburg, and the sky. On Monday we did had family home evening with the Forró family. On Tuesday we went to Syster Carlsson to help weed her garden, and were given fish and chips! I think this was the first time I had these together. Then we went to Broder Klang and taught about the Spirit. On Wednesday we had open church. While there, the Björklunds came by. We were talking to them about how no one ever comes to open church. We were thus regretting the suburban location of the chapel when we saw a woman walking past. We decided to invite her in, and said good-bye to the Björklunds. Turns out, she had been there before, wasn't aware it was open, and wanted to come in! Goes to show that ya gotta change the situation in stead of just talking about it! We went to Gothenburg on Thursday to learn from the Beckstrands, the Olssons (President Olsson is an area seventy), and the Teixeiras (President Texeira is the area president). It was a good and inspiring conference. We focused on finding those prepared to accept the gospel -- you gotta talk to everyone! And you need to meet those friends to those you're working with already! We've been applying this and it's going well. President and Sister Teixeira say hello, as well as that they are concerned and praying for all the missionaries' families. An important thing I took away from that conference was to always be ready to testify of that which I know -- the gospel of Christ. I got to have an interview with President Teixeira that was recorded. I was expecting for him to ask me how our missionary work was going, how well we were keeping the missionary rules, and so forth. But instead he just asked me to bear my testimony. It was a big surprise, so I wasn't ready for it. I was nervous at first, and then it got better in the end. Testifying is quite key for a missionary, so it helped me realize to always have my testimony on the front of my mind, to never forget it :) On Friday we met Patrik, helped the Schanners at Hund stund, went to a museum where Syster Aarenstrup works, and stopped by someone who had been referred to us. He was very nice, but not interested to meet with us. Luckily, though, it started pouring rain as we left, so we went back and invited ourselves in for shelter. It was a go, and we got to talk to get to know him for about an hour. On Saturday we went to the temple with Eskil. It was great! Yesterday, we had a terrific day of church, met a new investigator named Said (pronounced Sigh-eed), and also met Sara, for the first time in a few months! The Spirit was there for both lessons, so it was great. With Said, we were teaching about Christ. I thought of the scripture which says that Christ will go and experience all kinds of sickness and afflictions and even death so that he will be able to comfort His children when those things happen to them. I couldn't remember where the scripture was, but I opened the Book of Mormon and... BAM! It opened to Alma 7:11-13, that scripture! That was fun :D Another cool scripture experience: I was thinking about why it's the case that there is opposition and hardship in all things. As I was doing this, the Spirit whispered to me that I ought to read 1 Nephi 1:1. I was quite surprised by that thought, because I didn't know beforehand that that verse deals with why we have hardship, but then I read it and it provided a lot of light to the topic. In it, Nephi says that he has seen many afflictions, but that he had also been well favored of the Lord. As well, he had become acquainted with the goodness and mysteries of God. What I get from this is that he did not grudge his hardships, rather he just "saw" them. That's also evident in how he reacts to the tough things that happen to him, like when his brothers try to kill him: he's not angry and forgives them as soon as they stop being evil. So it's good to just "see" our hardships, instead of treating them like the end of the world. His hardships helped him appreciate the goodness of the Lord, thus he says he had been highly favored of the Lord. And they also taught him a lot about God, thus he was able to be better acquainted with God. That was a lot! I hope the move to Idaho goes without incident. Thank you to everyone who's helping pack\throw away all of our things! That's very nice of you :) Much love, -- Äldste Daniel Schindler