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