Letter dated 20Oct2014

Käre Familj och Kompisar: On Monday and Tuesday we mostly said good-bye to many good friends in Lund. On Wednesday I took the speedy train up to Stockholm! It was very quick. I am with Äldste Mott, who's from Vernal, Utah. He is one of my very favorite companions already. He's really down to earth and hard working. In Stockholm, because there are so many people on the streets, we get to talk to loads of people, and just the pace of missionary work is higher. It's really fun. Also nice is that we have been praying more frequently and sincerely together and individually and in the companionship, a direction from President Beckstrand, and that has been making it much more fun and miracle ridden! Through talking to loads of people on the streets and subway we met four new friends this week interested in learning more about the restored gospel! An interesting phenomena in Stockholm is that everyone is very busy, which makes talking to people on the street hard because 80% of the time the person will not talk with us. (Subways are an exception, because they are stuck with us there :P.) But I think a solution will be based off of what Benjamin Franklin said, that you should do everything you can to receive a favor, because if someone gives you a favor they automatically like you. So hopefully asking people for directions\Swedish help will improve these conversations. We met a beggar on the street who didn't know English or Swedish. But he said "Jesus, Jesus." Luckily we had pictures of Jesus in our bags, and gave one to him. This made him remarkably glad, and he motioned that we should give his wife, down the street, one as well. It made her really happy too! It was so neat to make these two friends! On Wednesday as I was eating dinner, I saw Äldste Mott put all the dishes in the cupboard under the sink. I thought it was an interesting technique to store the dirty dishes there so as to procrastinate the day of dishes. But to my joy I found out quickly that we have a small dishwasher there! It is so nice! Our apartment is pretty posh, which is fun. On Friday, Amrita was baptized! She is a friend from Eskilstuna. I and Äldste Bybee knocked on her door, and even though she did not get a testimony very quickly, it was always nice teaching her when we could. Äldste Barnes and I also met her once in Lund when she visited with her boy friend. She is SO happy now! It makes me really glad to see this. Yesterday I met a wonderful Stockholm ward. The Gueras are in this ward. It was so good to talk with Syster Guera, who lost her son a year ago when he was on a mission in Provo. She talked about how she knows they will be together again. Such a strengthening testimony, and it made my understanding of it grow so much because it was so dear and strong. I love you! Love -- Äldste Daniel Schindler