Letter dated 15Sept2014

Dear Family and Friends: It is good to hear all your stories every week. It is brilliant how spread out we are across the earth, in Finland, Scotland, Sweden, Michigan, Idaho, Utah, etc. We had no idea about all this a couple years ago! I think my favorite stories are of the moose and bear by our new Idaho house. Unfortunately, I have not seen a bear yet. Usually the polar bears hunt the Swedish streets by night, which is past our curfew. This week I learned that Amrita, from Eskilstuna, wants to be baptized! It was so good to hear that. When Äldste Bybee and I knocked on her door, she said "No" 5 times, but the 6th time we asked, she said we could come back. There was just a feeling that we needed to keep pressing her. It is wonderful and strengthening to see how the Lord guides His children to the truth of the gospel. Another such experience was as we were in open church on Wednesday. We staffed open church for four hours, and after studying for two, doing family history for one and eating, we were pretty eager for it to be done. But a few minutes before we left a man came in wanting help with family history. He had to be in a meeting soon, but said he'd come back in an hour. It's not every week that someone actually comes in to the church, so we wanted to stay an extra hour. Well, he did not come, but as we were about to leave the second time, a second man, Sam, came inside the church! Sam introduced himself as someone open and who loves learning. We taught him the restoration of the gospel and he eagerly took a Book of Mormon. He also came to church yesterday! It is wonderful that the first man came so that we were there for Sam. Another cool thing this week was that Tomas told us that he is very interested in throat singing! That means that we are meeting with him soon with our throat-singing friend, Lucio with the dread locks. We hope when this happens, Tomas's tenacity to read the Book of Mormon will rub off on Lucio. We hope. There will be some pretty cool pictures of Sweden's wildlife as well as Swedish cathedrals next week. One thing I love about Sweden: we saw a "nature bridge today", which is a bridge covered with trees so animals can cross the freeway. I remember in an episode of "West Wing" such an idea was pretty comical. But here it's a reality! Cause everyone loves the hedgehogs and polar bears! Hope you have a great week! I think and pray for you all the time. Love, -- Äldste Daniel Schindler