Swedish snow!

Snow fun!

Dinner time!

Swedish explosion!

Letter dated 26Jan2015

Dear family and friends: I don't have much time, but the week went really well. We tried surströmming on Monday. It is rotten Baltic herring, a delicacy. One must open it under water to avoid most of the smell. It was quite bad. Here's a picture of it. A man, Jin, whom we had contacted a while ago came to church yesterday! He enjoyed it. It is nice that passing out so many cards paid off here! It was good to hear about everyone's week. Hope this one is good as well :) Love, -- Äldste Daniel Schindler

Stockholm

Letter dated 19Jan2015

Dear Family and Friends: We saw loads of miracles this week. Perhaps roughly 17. First, a small miracle: I unplugged our freezer so I could use the iron, and noticed two days later that the freezer was unplugged. The miracle was that our freezer is so good, no food was damaged. And we learned a moral, to not iron clothes. Second, yesterday, none of our friends came to church, and then we were canceled upon, so we were perhaps a tad down. But we were walking with our good friend Brother Ramel (who would have been our translator), and saw Narchisa in her old spot at the corner of Stockholm Central Station; she returned here from Romania a week early! It was so good to see her again! Then, later yesterday, we were cancelled on again, and there was a sadder-looking elderly lady across from us in Stockholm Central. We went up and talked to her, and spoke for about 45 minutes. She talked about her very hard past, and that she had started praying for help and realizing she needs to go to church yesterday. It was such a good meet! At the end, after praying with her, we hugged, and it felt so good to have made a good friend. When talking with her (Sussy), one of the highschoolers who was in the class we taught on Tuesday came up and talked to us. Also a good meet! Speaking of that class, it was really funny. We took questions for half the time, and here dispelled the apparent rumor that the church does "blood atonement," specifically human sacrifice. Other than that, the class was very fun :) We gave 6 copies of the Book of Mormon away, and were 2 short! We have started going on splits with church members to swing by and visit the less-active members. This has proven very successful and good :) The only picture that may need explaining is the dog one. It takes place near the institute center, not far from Stockholm Central Station. It is a person walking a husky pulling a sled carrying a clothed mini-dog. Everyone and his dog is walking a dog in Stockholm! I hope you each have a terrific week! Love you all so much. Love, -- Äldste Daniel Schindler

Walking dogs!

Car friends!

Being healthy in Sweden!

Swedish apartment buildings

Train station - non-rush hour!

Daniel with friends and fun art!

Swedish poster

Stockholm at night!

Letter dated 12Jan2015

Dear Family and Friends: God is good! It is so good to be a missionary. I love the gospel, and it's such a priveledge to be here and to have so much time to share it! This week was great. The last night with Äldste Mott, we taught Arona. We were picking him up from a libarary to go to the institute center, and his friend decided to come a long too. His friend's name is Ali, and they both want to be baptized! We always teach with Brother Ramel, who speaks French (Arona and Ali are from Mali). He is a great, boisterous man. So as we teach, and Arona says, for example, "I believe it's true," Brother Ramel says often "WOW!" quite loudly. It is great to teach with him! Äldste Sweat is great. He is from San Francisco, but has lived in Detroit, Rexburg, and Provo. So we have those four cities in common. His mom's name was Rebecka Gallup, maybe related to Doug? These pictures are of Stockholm from the tallest building I have discovered. An apartment company poster that reminds me of the kind of art in mom's calendars. Äldste Mott, me, and the Marquez family. A typical subway station here at a low-point of people. And a typical apartment building! Things are terrific! Sorry I must run. Love, -- Äldste Daniel Schindler

Letter dated 5Jan2015

Favorite family and friends: This week was great! We got to go the the temple on Thursday with the Guerras (a really friendly, supportive family in the ward). We were part of the first endowment session of the year! What a great way to start 2015! We also started running with Brother Guerra in the morning. We run in a forest called Stockby, and it's really fun! Near that Stockby forest, we helped a friend's family renovate his house on Saturday. On the subway, we met a man who shortens his name Christian to Christ (pronounced like Christopher minus the opher). I started talking about faith, and he gave about 6 Biblical references on faith. He is excited to meet, and we can't wait to meet him again! New Year's Eve was really great. We went to another family close to Stockby, the Stenkronas, and watched fireworks across an inlet of the sea. In Sweden, all can buy large fireworks. So unlike healthcare, Swedes don't rely on their government to give a firework show. They do it themselves! Elder Mott will be transferring this Wednesday. It is sad that it's a good-bye coming up. It's been really great to be with Elder Mott. He's always willing to go the extra mile, and even occasionally the extra Swedish mil, which is 6.2 miles, to talk to people about the gospel. It's been good to be with him. My next companion will be Elder Sweat, whom I have met once before. I am looking forward to serving with him! Much love, -- Äldste Daniel Schindler