Letter dated 8Oct2012

[Dear friends and family, here is the letter that we received from Weston this morning. I hope you enjoy it. As you can tell, he loves hearing from you - and he enjoys your questions. Send your questions and message via "reply" and I will make sure he receives them. We are humbled to think that next year we will have two sons out on missions! Thank you for your love and support! Weston's editor - BWS] Dear Family, I know that you already know all about the announcement made in this past General Conference, but here is some of what came to my mind when I heard it. ´´WHOA!!!!´´ [At General Conference it was announced that Young Men could leave on their missions starting at age 18 (down from age 19) and the Young Women could leave at age 19 (down from age 21)!] That summed it all up right there. I was a little surprised (especially by the new age for women serving missions), very awed, and very excited to hear that news. Daniel, you were the first person who came into my mind when I heard that. I thought about how long that is going to be without seeing you but at the same time it is an exciting opportunity for you and I fully support your decision to leave whenever you find is the best time. You´re ready to take on Argentina, France, Australia, or wherever you're planning on going! Keep me updated on what your plans are so that I can keep my prayers focused on specific things that you are seeking. Also, try to stay around for Christmas, because it´d be nice to at least say good-bye for your mission via Skype! I´m also very happy for the timing of this announcement. For me, personally, I was able to develop myself before my mission and I could not and would not take back any of the friendships that I made during that time. [The year before Weston left on his mission.] My time spent with you and with my friends is sacred to me and also for things that are playing out in my life right now during my mission. Had I had this opportunity two years ago, I could be home now, but I´m glad I´m where I am right now. I can´t wait to be able to look back at what I´ve done and have a big smile on my face for the sacrifices I had to make day after day. The world is about to change because of this as well; that´s a fact. We went to Palma, Mallorca to watch conference in the main chapel and you would not believe, but the family I have been teaching came to the first session of conference! They had time that day and we went with them on the train and we were able to share feelings about what we heard and learned from the speakers. It was a great night for me (since I´m in the future, so the first session came on at 6:00pm)! The only session I have not seen yet is the Sunday Afternoon session, so I missed out on Elder Bednar's talk, but I´ll get a hold of it somehow. Of my favorite talks were President Uchtdorf´s and Elder Nelson´s talks for the morning session of Saturday, Elder Perkin´s and President Eyring´s talks for the Priesthood session, and Elder Holland´s talk about Jesus´ question to Peter, ´´Do you love me?´´. It was the first time that I took real, hard notes on the talks given and I enjoyed it so much. With some other opinions of the announcement for missionaries was that one of the senior missionaries thinks that within 2-5 years, the world-wide-mission program will be split to half men, half women with this new announcement. Everyone is excited to receive the younger missionaries in the coming months and I will without a doubt, be serving with one of these 18 year old Elders. Someone asked where Elder Batanero is from. In reply, he hails from the coastal city of Cádiz, Epsaña in the Andalucia province. He speaks, so, fast. He was in my first district and he can remember when I was so new that it was hard to understand what I was saying, but since then he has seen a dramatic change in my communication skills. He stated that for such a short time in Spain, 7 months or whatever, I have come a very long ways. He told me that my grammar is really good but that now I need to work on speaking faster and just speaking more (easy for him to say, since he has a knack for that himself!). We speak only in Spanish, only with some English to fill in gaps or to clarify certain things, but I´ve already gained a huge leap in my progress within the past 6 days. A little bit more about my mission, since I saw some more questions asked. We do tend to find more people ready to hear the gospel who are from other countries other than Spain. We do, however, have a dominating percent of Spaniards who are members here in Inca. Our Branch President, Second Counselor, Elder´s Quorum President and Counselor, all their families and several recent converts are all from Spain. Back in Manacor we started teaching a girl who is from Spain and now Elder Swenson and his companion have a baptismal date with her! I have finally been able to recharge my camera so now I´ll have lots more photos to be sending you. [Wonderful!] Hope they´ll turn out to be good ones! Oh, and please post them on Facebook and tag me in them. I decided that it would be a great sharing opportunity to have used more with my Facebook to keep some of my friends updated with what I´m doing now. Also so that people I´m meeting here will become my friends faster, but that is besides the point! I can´t wait to hear again from you and see if any new things develop in our family's future. Let´s also just remember that ´´..it´s not a race, it´s a journey, enjoy life!´´ Love, your son, your brother, Élder Xander Weston Schindler P.S. Remember by nice BASS shoes that I brought on my mission? Well, the right shoe is falling apart, which is super exciting! That means that I´ve been doing a lot of walking and I hope to run them into the ground before I´m finished serving here! [I love this goal!] P.P.S. That´s exciting news about the first debate. We only progress as a nation and people (or individually) when we get some good competition going!

Letter dated 2Oct2012

[Dear family and friends, here is the letter we received from Weston earlier today. He is back in Inca! As you can tell, he loves your letters and your notes. Reply to this letter with a response and I will forward it to Weston. Thank you EVERYONE for your support and prayers! Weston's editor - BWS] Dear Family, What a great last week! Not to mention what a great last transfer this has been. I can´t believe how fast the time is going by, but it definitely is moving and moving fast. Today I said good-bye to Elder Swenson once we both recieved our new companions and I feel like we are moving into the new chapter here on the island. Now that we have more Elders here in the island I´m excited to see what the new progress will be here in our areas; his in Manacor and mine back here in little Inca! My companion, Elder Batanero, is from Spain and he loves photography and many other thing that I enjoy as well. I´ll be getting to know him better and better during the next few weeks but I am especially excited to be learning all the Spanish during our time together! (Also, he is a magician, nicknamed The Magician´s Nephew by my ex-companion Elder Carlson. He´s rather quite tricky sometimes! I´ll basically be going up 100 notches higher, improving and critiquing my skills. He and I served in the Gerona district in our separate areas earlier in my mission, during my beginning months in the field. I feel like we´ll be able to have a new kind of experience here in the city different than what I´ve seen here before. He has been saying only positive things and is ready to help me work in the area, improve my speaking ability, and serve the Lord. I know that this will be a time to remember. I will also always remember the time I had with Elder Swenson. We really were able to connect and I honestly can say that he is one of the most humble people I have ever met. He brings a spirit with him that I would love to have everyone feel and his love for the people with kindness and understanding is incredible. He´s going to have a great time working in Manacor and both areas will become even better in the coming month, I know this for a fact. One miracle I was blessed to see happened after our district meeting last week. That night we had a visit with our friend Ema from Brazil and we were wrapping up the lesson but then finally I had to ask what was troubling her. She told us and basically said that for the past month she had no intention to be baptized in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints because she was getting ready for her communion in the Catholic church.. that was hard news, because she made no mention of this previously and it caught us by surprise. At first we basically thought that we had thrown out all of our time spent with her and we took some precious moments to talk to her, address doubts, and make sure we knew exactly where she was coming from. It was sad when we left that lesson and for the rest of the day I felt heavy.. but then finally the next day we went to introduce ourselves and meet a boy whom we had contacted a week before. We arrived and sat down with him, Alex, and his girlfriend, Shela. As the lesson progressed, every heavy feeling I felt left me from the previous night. The simple lesson and the two new kids we were teaching reminded me how powerful our message is and why we´re here on the Earth. I then realized that even if some of these people don´t want to progress with us at this moment, we have already laid an incredible foundation and that they will never forget us in the future. By the end of the week, knowing that I would be leaving the area, we had a visit with Ema and I was able to say farewell and there were no negative feelings and we had a great chance to say farewell. I´m grateful for Jesus and His message and I know that everyone that we meet has an impact from us, one way or another, and that it´s important for us to not get carried down into the pits of woe, so to say. But yes, that was a lot I just wrote you; now stop reading and get on with it! Oh, and I should be sending some pictures in the upcoming week or two! YA! Os quiero, Élder Xander Weston Schindler P.S. I sent the application, and I´ll send it fast when I get it again. [Application for absentee ballot!] Just be sure to give the people the appropriate amount of stamps for the return send off! P.P.S. That´s really weird what happened on my Facebook... I know my leg´s broken but they didn´t let me go home.. They actually told me that I had to stay a few more years in Spain and wait for it to recover! (^_____^) [Weston is talking about a prank one of his friends pulled on Facebook. Weston's leg is NOT really broken!] P.P.P.S. I will be here in Inca for at least 6 more weeks, maybe more. My mailing address is still the same one, and I did get some really awesome letters from friends, so if you read this message, you know that I got it!

Letter dated 24Sept2012

[Dear friends and family, I hope that Fall is treating you well! Here is our latest letter from Weston. He loves hearing from you -- so send a reply and I will pass it along to him! It is so good to hear him sounding so positive! Best wishes! Weston's editor - BWS] Dear Family, Oh, what a good week. For the past while, we´ve been hitting some walls with people but I feel like we finally jumped over quite a few. We had an invitation from our Zone Leaders as a district for every compaionship to get over 20 lessons during the week. Now, I´m not a numbers guy, but Manacor/Inca are quite a bit harder than other areas. But we made a plan that we would meet that goal and guess what? We were able to teach 22 lessons this week! A huge improvement to what the area really ever sees. We also had the great chance to spend time with President Pace for a day, since he came out for our Branch Conference. It was a great pleasure to have a moment to work with our president. It was a fantastic opportunity for me to learn and gain better insight for the work we´re doing here on the island and I feel that I learned a tremendous amount from him. It was especially great while we were visiting a less active member of the Church, Jorge. I was able to see, personally, a great change from him during our visit with our president. He really does want to improve and get back onto the right path and his entire family is special beyond description. We´ll be continuing to visit him and I know for a fact that he wants to see President Pace again as soon as he can. A little bit about Jorge, he has been all around the world, is from Colombia, has been to Japan, all of Europe, Canada, and is learning about 5 different languages, including English from us. He´s fantastic! Most Colombians I know are great people, including a family in Inca that we visit every week. They are just full of love and are just so caring. Let Adam Jensen know that, please! The biggest miracle that we were able to experience happened directly after our time with President Pace. We were walking down the street on the narrow sidewalks and we saw a family coming towards us in the opposite direction. Elder Swenson quickly and quietly said, ´´Let´s talk to them´´ and as soon as we approched them we stopped them. We told them who were were, that we are missionaries of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and that we have a message, one that families can live together forever. The family consisted of the mother and father and 5 children, the oldest being a 9 year old girl and all the rest just running around in every direction. We asked them if it would be possible to visit them in their home. They looked at each other, then said ´´Of course!´´ and gave us their address. We then asked when would it be possible to see them again and the following Sunday worked for them so we set up a time and went on our way. That Sunday we went to the visit, shared the Book of Mormon and the Proclamation to the Family and were able to establish a great friendship with them. They are a little bit rougher around the edges, but all the kids running around reminded me so much of my childhood that I loved every distraction that was going on during the lesson. We saw a blessing and we have plans to see them tomorrow evening. I love you all a ton, I miss you all a bunch, I pray for you all the time, Élder Xander Weston Schindler P.S. During a lesson with a new member we were reading 1 Nephi 2 and at the part where it describes Nephi as being youthful yet large in stature, President Pace took that opportunity to say that Elder Swenson and I personify that description; me being youthful (for real, like a little 10 year old sometimes..) and Elder Swenson since he is a pretty big guy! I thought I´d share that funny experience I had. It´s going into my journal!