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
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