Wednesday, August 5, 2015
Letter dated 3Aug2015
Dear Family and Friends,
It was such a good final full week in Sweden last week :)
I am so grateful for my call to serve in Sweden. It was my call for a reason, I know that.
In church yesterday, I had such a good feeling as I said good-bye to many of the wonderful friends. I am so blessed and happy to have met them :)
I know that Christ lives and leads this Church. I am so thankful for that knowledge :)
Love,
--
Äldste Daniel Schindler
Letter dated 27Jul2015
Dear Family and Friends,
This week was so good!
We have been praying and hoping very much lately to find a home in Södertälje so we can stop commuting from Jordbro. At first it seemed unrelated, but last week, the day before we taught Andreas and Maria, I felt that I should fast to get ready for that lesson. So I did that. The lesson was good, and at the end, we found out that they want to rent out their basement. Then, on Friday, they signed the contract to us! And we will move in tomorrow! She said that they have wanted for a while to rent it out, and now that they can rent it to "Guds budbärare" (God's messengers), they feel comfortable to do it! It is a very nice basement. It has a heated floor, a sauna, a great yard, and it's right by a river! They are such a nice family too, and are so excited for us to move in. I reckon it will help both us and them very much. It is so satisfying to see the Lord's plan in action; I believe we could not find an apartment earlier for a couple reasons: so that they would be able to host and grow closer to missionaries, and so we would see the effect of prayer and fasting.
We have recently med Claudia and Guiseppe, who are Italians who live with Andras, a Hungarian member. They are so good! We taught the restoration on Saturday and the Holy Ghost was totally there. I called it once, and Claudia said "Yeah, I actually did feel something different; I can't explain it." A very good lesson with them! They are very humble and very nice.
Pictures:
1) Comp selfie in front of the temple
2) Dinner at the Schiazzanos
3) Cookies at the Schiazzanos!
4) Andy Ward and Jon Moe (both returned missionaries) on a visit back to the best area!
5) Classic Swedish pad
Love,
--
Äldste Daniel Schindler
Sunday, July 26, 2015
Letter dated 20July2015
Dear Family and Friends,
Wow! What a week! It is so good to be here :)
The two of the best things were teaching Maria and Andrés and teaching Kashif. Maria is a member of the Swedish (Lutheran) church, and Andrés a member of our church. We prepared a lot for this, the first real visit, and it was such a good time. They are very friendly, good people. They even have a a spare basement that they would like us to rent from them. That would be ideal for us, so I am hoping we can move in!
We talked to our main man about baptism before he moves back to Pakistan -- soon -- and it felt good to him. In addition, he had been a missionary before for 8 years and so he would change by proselytizing for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints! He said that it would be hard, and that he would need a lot of copies of the Book of Mormon and of Gospel Principles, and that he would need to organize a team so as to introduce the church in that part of the world. But today, we found out that there is a district of the church in the city he comes from! (One of only three districts in the whole country.) So it will be relatively easy for him to get involved! It is so amazing how the Lord prepares ways like this :)
I love you lots! Have another terrific week!
In the pictures, we've got me and a nice river we found on the way to Karlstad last week, me and a crew working on felling a tree (Äldste Rasmussen came back that day for exchanges), and of me re-enacting an epic fall from many moons ago.
Love,
Äldste Schindler
Thursday, July 16, 2015
Letter dated 13July2015
Dear Family and Friends,
These pictures are of a sign which means "Great moose danger" and of a rainbow. Enjoy!
This week was very good. Äldste Allen is hilarious. A lot of fun to be with. And we have been busy! I can't remember a time on my mission where I've had so much to do!
One highlight of this week was going on splits with some new members. I went with Mathias, and Äldste Allen with Akil. Mathias and I went to visit a member who is very ill with cancer. He said somberly and gratefully, "If it were not for me getting sick this second time, I do not think I would be in contact with the church." That struck me very hard. The Lord gives us what we can handle so that we are brought closer to him.
Love you lots!
--
Äldste Daniel Schindler
Letter dated 6July2015
Dear Family and Friends,
We moved to Jordbro this week! It means earth bridge, and is a good place. We've been packing up and moving a lot lately! In Handen, we are living with Elder Barnes (whom I was with in Lund after Elder Dahle) and Elder Archibald, both good guys. We live really close to the temple, and even park our car there. So we get to see the temple a couple of times each day :) The Gubbängen apartment was very fun as well, especially its accessible roof. I'm sending a few pictures of that apartment. On is me leaning out of the bedroom window, one is of us praying before planning, one is of the view we had while planning, and one is our Viking fire place.
The walk between our current apartment and the temple takes us through very nice woods featuring a viking graveyard. We did our weekly planning here (weekly planning is a three-hour ordeal), on a large boulder. It was neat to think that vikings had been on that boulder before. And I am pretty sure the corner in which we were sitting had been chiseled out in order to produce a tomb stone.
We had exchanges on Friday. I was with a great guy, Elder Bradley. We helped a member couple around their house and then found some new investigators.
We also had a mission leadership council and a zone training. These were focused on the Book of Mormon. They were good.
We, the mission, have started reading Enos and 2 Nephi 9 every day, to enrich our testimonies of the Book of Mormon. We will do this until my group goes home. So far it has been very helpful and edifying for me.
I love you all!
Love,
--
Äldste Daniel Schindler
Wednesday, July 1, 2015
Letter dated 29Jun2015
Dear family and friends,
This week has been packed like a can of surströmming. On Wednesday I went to the temple with Äldste Ward and my MTC group, then had dinner with them at the mission home, had a wonderful testimony meeting with them, and then said good-bye, as they went home the next morning. Äldste Allen came in from the north, and we moved into our new apartment in Gubbängen with Äldster Smith and Dahle (I was in Eskilstuna the same time as Äldste Smith and I served with Äldste Dahle in Lund. They are both lots of fun!). Our apartment has many cool features: a mega bed composed of our four beds taking up the entire bedroom (we call this Gubbsängen, as we live in Gubbängen, and "sängen" means "the bed." "Gubb," by the way, means "old guy"), many skylights, a washing machine that may work, a mega desk (four desks put together), a shakeweight (this is my shakeweight), and, the best part, a safe roof easily accessable from our apartment. It has a nice veiw of Gamla Enskede (the area in which we live) and is an ideal location to plan and study.
Anyway, we moved in, and then we got to work. We started and have been going at a good pace that will leave me nice and tired by August 5th. Äldste Allen is from a long beech in California, and he is really fun and super funny. He is also Äldste Sargent's son, which mades us half brothers on the mission.
Notably this week, we met Xiadong, a former investigator. He is easily one of the funniest guys out there. His nicknames for the first missionaries he met were "Hunky," "Petite," and "Slime" (probably meaning "Slim"). I am interested to know what my nickname is.
My favorite part of this week was when Akil (who was baptized three months ago) came to me and said that it's a shame that so many members do not come to church. He will be working with us to invite our brothers and sisters back!
These pictures are of Akil making us pizza; Kashif, Anam, Elder Ward, me, Akil, and Arifa (from left to right if I remember it right); Elder Allen's and my weekly plannin' time on our new roof; and of me and some potent peppers at the Schiazzanos.
I love you! I hope and pray you have a good week.
Love,
--
Äldste Daniel Schindler
Letter dated 22Jun2015
Dear Family and Friends:
This week has been Äldste Ward's last full one on the mission, and it's also been an adventurous one! It was the midsommar (midsummer) holiday, so we took a day off on Friday and celebrated in the rain with things like creating and putting up a maypole, dancing around it, tug-of-war, and eating.
On Tuesday I was on exchanges here in Södertälje with a British elder, äldste Falkner. He is a good-humored guy and it was fun to be with him. I learned a lot about diligence from him.
On Wednesday I was on exchanges in Västerås with äldste Heiner. He is a great street contacter and cookie baker, so it was obviously a great day.
On Thursday, we picked something up about Swedish culture. We had a regular meeting that was canceled because it was the day before the day before midsummer's day. And we hadn't known about it because they didn't realize it would not be clear to Americans to cancel a meeting on such a day :) They take holidays seriously here!
We got a call from a kind member who hadn't been to church in a while. He wants to come back to church now and wanted us to visit him. It was such a good time we shared at his home and in church. He is a very humble man and because of that, the Spirit was there with us more strongly than usual. I find it incredible how much of a difference humility makes in our lives.
We've had some misfortune with the car lately. Last week, we got two surprising parking tickets. And our windshield got cracked by a pebble. So as I was driving, I was contemplating (perhaps I was doing a little more of simmering) of how we would take care of those three things. And then, our side-view mirror suddenly fell off in the street! I guess it was pretty good timing, and it luckily lightened the mood a lot. God has a sense of humor :)
In a couple days, I will get äldste Allen as my new companion. He is a really nice elder from California. And we will be moving that day to live with some missionaries in Stockholm, älsdte Dahle (who I was companions with in Lund) and äldste Smith. Both of them are great, and we live in the mission's best apartment! It's called the "tree house apartment" because it's on the top floor, it was a small tree as the coat hanger, and it has lots of corners to climb on! I will send some pictures!
Love,
--
Äldste Daniel Schindler
Letter dated 15Jun2015
Dear family and friends,
This week was excellent!
On Thursday I was in Norrköping on companion exchanges with Äldste Olsen. That was fun :) Then on Friday I was in Täby with Äldste Sahlin, who's a Swede. It was a great day there, as well. Äldste Taggart, my companion in the MTC, lives in the office (rather, the apartment above the office) with Äldste Sahlin, and because they have tennis stuff in the office, we played tennis Friday morning. It was really fun to play tennis after not playing a good game in 2 years :)
Later that day, we visited a member family with three small childrens. I read a story poem for them, where the last word of most couplets were removed, so as to allow kids the chance to complete the rhymes. But these kids were too young and I too American to always know what words belonged, so it was a pretty patchy story. Luckily, the kids were young enough that they didn't mention anything. Phew!
On Saturday we met a new friend, Kashif, who's friends with Akil. He is quite open, and such a great guy!
Yesterday was Äldste Ward's birthday. We the Schiazzanos threw him a surprise party!
I hope you have a good week.
Love,
--
Äldste Daniel Schindler
Letter dated 8Jun2015
Dear family and friends,
Last week, Äldste Ward's was recovering from his surgery the week before. It was fun to be able to do more and more each day.
Half-way thru the week, I was feeling somewhat unsatisfied\down. At first I thought it would be solved by going on a long run, but that did not help very much. I even did some meditating, but to little avail. Then we went to an area called Fornhöjden, and I contacted people (talked to strangers on the sidewalk about the Book of Mormon) while Äldste Ward was calling folks on a bench, and then all that "down-ness" dissipated! It always feels good to share my testimony, but I didn't realize how much sharing it gives to me until doing it after not being able to do it very much for a while. I guess it's due to the promise Jesus gives "whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it."
Well, next week should be great! Äldste Ward is now strong and healthy. I can't wait to get back at it in a few minutes!!
Love you all,
--
Äldste Daniel Schindler
Monday, June 1, 2015
Letter dated 1June2015
Dear family and friends,
On Monday after sending an e-mail to some of the world's most awesome people, we went to Beauty and Camsin's house. We read the Book of Mormon and watched a movie about John Tanner. An excellent film about seeking heavenly riches.
On Thursday, we treked to the Enköping hospital so that the doctor could remove a hernia of Elder Ward's. That went quite well. They have an impressive library in the hernia waiting room. It consists of one book called "Understanding Your Horse's Lameness." I know you're not supposed to judge a book by its cover, but I did not learn anything about my horse's lameness that day.
Since then we have been staying in the apartment. But we got BBQ and triple-layered chocolate cheese cake as a care package from the Schiazzanos. That was very nice :)
Äldste Ward is doing better, and we have gotten out today. It's wonderful that the body recovers itself so nicely!
As Elder Perry passed away on Saturday, I remembered how we once ran into him 3 times one day when we visited Salt Lake. He was a good, nice man :)
I hope you have an excellent week, finishing school and everything!
Love,
--
Äldste Daniel Schindler
Letter dated 25May2015
Dear Family and Friends,
I have been reading the New Testament recently, and have been gaining so much! I would suggest checking Luke 2:52 out. Then check out Proverbs 3:3-4. If you're really ambitious, peruse all of Proverbs 3. 2 Nephi 7:4-7 is on the same topic and is also top-notch.
This week I thought I would mix the letter up a little bit. So I made a journal just to send to you, so you can know more what it is like to be a missionary in Södertälje, Sweden in mid-May.
Enjoy :)
Tuesday: today we visited Johan, Lennart, and Akil (all three are members). Lennart lives two apartments under us, and was baptized in Jakobsberg a couple weeks before I arrived there. He is such a good guy. He was telling us today about how a few years ago he was working lots and had two houses and a lot of property. Now he lives more humbly. He said he's very grateful for that transition, that he learned to be grateful for that which he has. He said that the transition also humbled him toward God and allowed him to accept the gospel. #learningfrommyelders
Wednesday: we had a zone council in Eskilstuna this morning. The goal here was to become better at extending commitments. We got good instruction from each other. It is very invigorating to meet in a group of 30 missionaries and feel everyone's energy. One of the best places to be!
I went on splits with elder Hemmingsen. While with him, we visited an old friend of mine, Lahje, whom I hadn't seen in over a year. A year ago, she stopped investigating the church because she would not stop smoking. When I saw her this time, I couldn't recognize her at all because of how much she had aged. I felt so sorry that we hadn't done a better job to help her stop smoking a year ago, for had we done a better job she would currently look and be so much better off. I just wish there were more power in me to help people receive the light of the gospel! Notwithstanding, it was so good to see and visit with her for a little bit today. It was a visit that I could tell made a big difference. There is not much better than making someone happy :)
Thursday: we helped a sweet couple in the ward to build their outdoor banister this afternoon in exchange for some help with Swedish. Their names are Gunnar and Erika, and they are so great. Gunnar is 93 and until last year, would always shovel off the snow from the church's roof!
We met Akil thereafter and began watching the Bible Videos with him.
And then we went to Stockholm where we had a stake report meeting with the Stake President, Pres. Karlsson.
Friday: today had a lower-than-usual pace to it. We got a call in the early afternoon from Sister Ågren that she had made a lunch for us! That was a nice surprise. So we headed there, helped in the yard a bit, and had a great lunch. There was even a delicious rhubarb pie!
We also went with Brother Nyman to teach a Swedish friend, Kent. Kent said he will be baptized in three months!
The rest of the day was unremarkable.
Saturday: this morning we went for brunch to Rasit, a Turkish member. We then played soccer with the ward and others who joined. This week, despite many people my age playing, most of the goals were scored by two Egyptian brothers who were about 11. I guess it's like the scriptures say, "by small things are great things brought to pass."
Then we went with Enzo, a recently returned missionary, to Akil's home. We had a very good time there.
We also visited Stefan and Andras, from India (but raised in Sweden) and Hungary respectively. They are both great new members.
We have lately been photographing the international license plates we find. Today we got clear shots of both Germany and the elusive Belgium. Unfortunately a Swiss car sped past us before we could get her. So we were 2 for 3.
Today was good!
Sunday: sacrament meeting was wonderful. However a couple talks were really hard to translate. That was actually pretty funny :)
Afterward we administered the sacrament to Sister Axelsson, whom I met for the first time today. She's very pleasant, and unfortunately bed-ridden.
Then we went to the Jensens' house and ate the world's biggest cinnamon rolls. The little kids there, who know some English, have given me the nickname "Shildren," which is how they believe "children" is pronounced :)
We tried a new thing where we go to a park and one of us goes around contacting folks and the other calls people on a bench (we always have an endless list of people to call!), and it worked really well! I was contacting. I had offered help to a gardening couple who didn't know Swedish or English, and a little later when I was sitting on a bench with two Iraqi women reading 2 Nephi 32, the gardening man came and gave me a handful of long onions! It was one of those wonderful moments of a mission that I would have never supposed to happen two years ago. The mission's the best!
I love you all!
Love,
--
Äldste Daniel Schindler
Friday, May 22, 2015
Letter dated 18May2015
Dear everyone!
This week was excellent!
Alen moved to Croatia, his homeland, today. It was great that we could introduce him to the gospel here. :)
We have started playing soccer here on Saturdays (did I mention that I picked up a pair of cleats and Ugandan jersey for free?? Pretty cool, right :D), and this Saturday we had 20 people play! Some of the best players were these two 11-year-olds from Iraq. They were brilliant!
We started going on exchanges with members here so we can divide and conquer. With my bro Enzo, I met a new friend from Uganda and met a less-active member who came to church yesterday!
This coming up week will be terrific! We've got lots of appointments lined up and we have a zone council on Wednesday in Eskilstuna!
I love you all, and I hope you have an excellent week.
Love,
--
Äldste Daniel Schindler
Sunday, May 17, 2015
Letter dated 12May2015
[Dear friends, we had a blast talking to Daniel on Sunday! Here is the letter we received from him yesterday! Daniel's editor - BWS]
Dear Family and Friends,
This week was so good! Highlight number one was, of course, skyping! It was great to talk with each of you and to see that each of you are doing so well!
Highlight number two was the wedding of Johan and Amrita (see the Picture). I got to go to Eskilstuna for the day! Äldste Bybee and I started teaching them a year ago, and now they're a happy married couple!
There are also Pictures of me uprooting a tree we found while Walking in the Woods with Stefan, of us with Stefan, of our district (the Södertälje, Eskilstuna, and Katrineholm missionaries), and of Äldste Ward and me at Italo's and Claudia's home, right Before skyping.
I love you all, and hope you have a terrific week!
Love,
--
Äldste Daniel Schindler
Tuesday, May 5, 2015
Monday, May 4, 2015
Letter dated 4May2015
Dear Family and Friends,
The fourth of May be with you... Wait. So I heard a good joke today. But I forgot how it went.
We had such a good week! We played soccer on Saturday with a bunch of friends. I tried out some soccer shoes which I recently found, and they made it way fun!
This morning we taught Manuel tithing, for which lesson I'm always a little nervous. But when we started talking about it, he already knew what it was and said it was "no weird news" :) That was a great start to today!
Yesterday was great as well. We had Stake Conference broadcast to our chapel here. It was terrific! Afterward we went to Andras's home so that I could get help with a bad back I've been having. Andras is Hungarian, the nicest guy ever, and a pro at accupressure, an ancient Chinese medicine. As I was getting accupressured, Äldste Ward was getting to know Andras's friend, Alan, with whom he's currently living. When I was lying on the couch with a bunch of vacuumed glass bulbs attached to my back, just relaxing, Äldste Ward set a baptismal date up with Alan! It was so cool to just listen to that conversation, lying on a couch with Chinese vacuum bulbs all over myself. It went something like this: "Do you want to be baptized?"
"No. I have already been baptized in another church."
"Our church has the authority of God. Would you like to be baptized with God's authority?"
"Yes."
!! Alan had been disinterested in religion from his past experiences, but when he came to stake conference earlier that day, he had felt something new and now really wants to pursue it!
The pictures are of:
1) Downtown Södertälje!
2) "I didn't start the fire"
3) The fire, which I didn't start (lighting this is a large fire pile is a tradition done every April 30! It's called Vallborg. We celebrated with the Andersons and Birgirssons.)
4) Vallborg cakes!
Love,
--
Äldste Daniel Schindler
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