Letter dated 29Sept2014

Dear Family and Friends: We had a really rewarding week. On Tuesday Äldste Barnes turned 20 (or, in Swedish, "filled 20"). We went to Sister Carlsson's house and celebrated with sandwiches (smörgåsar) and a cake (tårta), and we then met Kevin. Kevin (Kenyan) brought his friend, Adventino (Ugandan), and we sang "Happy birthday" like they do in Africa. To do this, you sing the first verse with lots of clapping, then sing a "How old are you now" verse, more clapping and add a fermata, then sing a "May God bless you now" verse, with more clapping and a dramatized fermata. We then taught the restoration. It was such a good lesson! I loved teaching them because they already loved praying, and they were very knowledgeable about most of the lesson. Kevin and Adventino are in the same master's program (studying developmental science), and we also met their classmate Douglas on the street. So the other 30 people in that class should hide, cause the missionaries are gonna find them! On Wednesday we happened to be in the YSA center when a high school teacher called. She wants us to come teach her class about faith next Wednesday! On Thursday we visited Eskil, and then helped the Schanners build a ramp and deck at Hund Stund. For some reason I had always wanted to build a deck before. But now that I've done that I have checked that to-do item off and do not want to do it again. On Friday we taught Kevin again, this time with Malena and Viktor, two returned missionaries. It's a little intimidating to teach with returned missionaries, but it went really swell. We invited Kevin to be baptized and he asked "I haven't seen any rivers around here; where's the river?" That was not what I was expecting, to be honest. It was such a bolstering response! We then ran to the train station, caught a train, and ate turkish delight at the Aarenstrups. Then we ate turkish delight with Äldste and Syster Niebuhr. I love food! Saturday was sweet too! Brother Schanner came to help us teach Sam. That was excellent! It seems like everyone we are teaching right now, including Sam, is super smart. This is cool. Then we went to hear Tomas's orchestra. As it would happen, this is a marching orchestra, and we joined it for a few minutes. I was on base drum. We then went to the other side of Sweden to a place called Skillinge, and visited the Kanolds. On the way back, we met two delightful sisters who had just been to an apple festival! They were incredibly talkative, and so we shared some apple sentiment with each other. Next week Elder Barnes and I are playing a trombone duet, and one of the sisters is going to see us then! I like Ether 12:27, where Christ says "If men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness. I give unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them." Perhaps the best way to come unto Christ is through prayer in His name. I love that we can recognize our weaknesses in prayer, have the chance to be humble, and I love that Christ's grace then enables our flaws and shortcomings to be made into strengths. I hope each of you has a fantastic week. :) Love, -- Äldste Daniel Schindler