Elder Alexander Weston Schindler: 2013

Thursday, December 26, 2013

Weston's zone - Christmas - 2013

Dear Family, Just to begin, I was hesitant to let Oliver call you, mom. BUT then I remembered that it was Dad´s, Nicolas´, and Christopher´s birthday so I let him do it! I´m glad you enjoyed that little call. In preparations for the holidays, we had a White Elephant today and it was very fun, then we played scatter-ball... so for that I am exhausted.. here are some pictures of the zone together! We are also all very excited for the holidays and for our Google Hangouts that we´ll be able to do! But enough of that, since we´ll talk in two days, here´s what´s big that's happened in my neck of the woods. Elder Gomez and I have been visiting a less active, part member family for the past several weeks and have been diligently been inviting them to the church and other activities. As part of our ´´rescue´´ in the ward we have been working very hard with the nine year old son, who has been hard to teach seeing as it´s hard to keep him focused. Two weeks ago, as part of our work as missionaries, we left him with a baptismal calender, though he had expressed no interest in being baptized. It wasn´t an official date, but we had faith that he could recieve his answer before the 28th of December. As the weeks continued to come by, we saw the light but it wasn´t exactly promising and it really frustrated us quite a bit. Then on Thursday of last week, on the 19th of December, I was at a breaking point with him. I knew that he didn´t like the idea of being obligated to do anything and decided that if he continued to act like he was, I would rip up the calender in front of his face and teach him that he would not be obligated to anyone but himself and to the Lord. ¡Super fuerte! If you know me, this was definitely the extremity that does not come out of me often and a lot of it had to do with my work that I´ve put into helping the family and how this is my very last area.. I had so much desire to see him baptized while I was here, because I knew that one day he would get baptized and I knew that this time would be better than never. After a spiritual message from the Book of Mormon, I took his calender from off of the wall and had him look at it and I asked him what did he see. He told me that he saw that he was praying every day but that it was hard to read in the Book of Mormon every day. I told him to look again and to tell me what he saw. He told me that he saw the day we marked for his baptismal date and he said that he had his answer. ´´Yes, I want to get baptized.´´ I was floored! He had been showing absolutely no interest before and then, in the moment I was about to give up hope for him, he does makes a complete 180º turn around and his sisters also looked at him and were as surprised as I was! In that moment, I once again realized why I stayed in the mission those extra three weeks. I realized that Dylan and his family needed that help and all the work and effort we had put in is paying off. I then shared my personal experience that I wanted to be there for his baptism before leaving and the whole family started saying that they wanted to say good-bye to me at the airport! I then realized later that night that had I went home on the 18th, I would not have seen his progress, nor been able to see his baptism. The church is true guys. That´s all there is to it! Happy Christmas! I can´t wait to talk in two days. I´ve checked my profile now, so I should be okay! Here´s hoping! -- Élder Xander Weston Schindler PS We have to go back, Kate... PPS We also went to a cool site in Barcelona the other week, thought you´d like to see Barcelona ^_^

Letter dated 16Dec2013

Dear Family, The wait is over family, Fernando is getting baptized on the 21st of December! I got a call from the elders in Valencia last Friday and after much thought and consideration, he has finally decided to move out of the apartment until he gets married so that he can get baptized. So while the new Hobbit movie came out this last Friday, I think I had the better Friday hearing this news! Also, I wish you all, dad, Chris, and Nick, a wonderfully happy birthday for this Saturday as well! It´s going to be a special day for all of us! On Thursday we had our visit with Enrique and we invited him to be baptized on the 4th of January. He has been making incredible progress and now the next step for him is to come to church. We talked about our area in our Ward Council on Sunday and the president of the young women was excited to hear that he is a Tai Chi instructor and asked if he could come to teach people in the church for activities and that could be very helpful for him coming and getting to know more members of the church and feel that welcoming spirit that we all need! We are hoping the best for him and that he will come to know of these things! We also had companion exchanges this week after Zone Conference, which will be my last Zone Conference. It felt strange and this whole week has been filled with that weird feeling when you don´t feel nervous, excited, worried, but rather just normal. But is that normal? Either way, I´m sure that it´s mainly due to my stuffy nose that I´ve had for the past week, which is getting better now. I just really hope it doesn´t get worse for the next few weeks! I love you so much, -- Élder Xander Weston Schindler PS We have to go back, Kate...

Monday, December 9, 2013

Letter dated 9Dec2013

Dear Family, What a fantastic time to be in Spain as a missionary! This December is as wonderful as my last winter and the Christmas buzz is everywhere you go. I can hardly believe that it´s already Christmas time again! Once again, we don´t have snow but oh well, we are working on having our own White Christmas this year as a mission! Something that is very excting is that we all recieved permission to have all the missionaries in the wards eat in the same houses during the Christmas season (Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, New Years Eve, New Years Day, and Los Reyes) so we are preparing for the craziness that comes with the holidays in regards to missionary work. We already have plans with our zone to go caroling together, and then later we´re going as a district to go around and talk to people this way. During our work, we´ve come across Enrique, who is a good friend of Joaquin and Juan Antonio and we have high hopes for him. He is also from Barcelona and studies Tai Chi (spl?) and is very interested to learn more spiritual things. To describe him, just imagine Inigo Montoya from The Princess Bride and you got him! Oh, and to me it was a Christmas Miracle and a half, but there is Taco Bell in Barcelona now! It opened this past Friday and we went earlier today and I a delicious Crunchwrap Supreme! Made my day! Love you all so very, very much, -- Élder Xander Weston Schindler PS We have to go back, Kate...

Friday, December 6, 2013

Weston - glad to be in picture!

Weston and friends!

Weston with friends!

Letter dated 4Dec2013

[Dear friends and family, here is the letter that we received from Weston on Monday. I'll forward any replies that you send to him! I hope you are staying warm and enjoying the SEASON! Love, Weston's editor!] Dear Family, Even though I am not in the United States, that didn't stop me from getting stuffed this last Thursday. For a zone party, we stayed at the church and everyone had assignments to bring foods and drinks and we enjoyed an all American/Spanish feast! I thought I was going to gain 20 pounds, but I didn't gain even one! Can´t complain! We had kind of a weird week, the two of us as well as the rest of the district and we've actually set a goal for this week that we´re now in to have each companionship teach 20 lessons and continue to focus on finding new investigators. (NOTE- THE FOLLOWING IS NOT TRUNKY) I´m also determined to make the next few weeks the best last weeks of my mission. It´s all about staying focused and not making excuses. After serving the mission I know all the tools and things that I need to do to make it a successful time. I don´t think it´s fully hit me quite yet, which is good, and I´m praying that I´ll stay in good spirits right down to the last day. The hermanas (sister missionaries) had a baptism this week, who is a man from Pakistan named Arshad and after his baptismal interview he had asked if I could baptized and confirm him. He is one of the nicest people I've met on my mission and I´ll be sure to share photos with you in the following next weeks. We´re working hard in our area to help the people that we are teaching though it´s been difficult that last several weeks. We hope to keep ourselves in high spirits and in our plans we want to visit ALL the members we can who live in our area. I wish you all a very merry December and hope that you are all getting enough snow for the whole family! I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you,

Letter dated 26Nov2013

[Dear family and friends, Merry Thanksgiving! We hope this note finds you healthy, safe and well. Here is Weston's letter that we received today. I hope you like it! I will forward any replies you send along to Weston! Love, Weston's editor - BWS] Dear Family, Seasons greetings, one and all, to el día de acción de gracias here in Spain, where you won´t find too many turkeys in the ovens, nor many people celebrating their Native American and Pilgram heritage. What you will find is me, hoping the best for everyone in the United States to enjoy their mashed and sweet potatoes, stuffing, turkey, cranberry juice and american football. ^_^ This week was transfer week and all the elders will be staying together but Hermana Hagland is now leaving to Logroño, to celebrate a white Christmas, while we´ll be stuck in the land of Cataluña with our slightly less chilly weather. This week actually got pretty cold, though when I say cold, it´s only around 46 degrees, but after being here for so long it feels very cold to me. I hope I can get used to it in the next few weeks, because you know, I never know when they´ll send me to a snowy area in my mission ;) GREAT NEWS THOUGH, we passed by Joaquin and Juan Antonio again and they are doing a lot better. From what we learned the last time around, we are going to make sure they get the support they need from the ward and that they can continue learning from us and on their own. So yeah, that´s awesome! We were also in Sant Boi (our awesome city where we actually spend most of our time) and had plans to visit a recent convert, Romi, but she invited us to go visit her friend who lived pretty close by. Her name is Alexandra and is from Romania (what´s up with me and teaching Romanians?!?) and she has lots of studies for pharmacy but we are looking forward to seeing her next time. She has lots of faith, but lacks that certain drive to attend church and sadly canceled on Romi this Sunday to go with her, but hey, this sort of thing happens.. all.. the.. time... ^_^ We also help our first Family Home Evening with a family from the Dominican Republic and we ate some great macaroni-s with beef but they kept telling us to eat more. They problem is that we also had a lunch visit that we filled up on so I just started shoveling the food down and Elder Gomez looked at his plate and then asked to use the rest room. He didn't come back for a few minutes and out waited them when we started up Finding Faith in Christ and shared our message. Don´t worry, I´ll teach him how to eat more ¡^__^! With much love and enough besos to smutha ya, -- Élder Xander Weston Schindler PS We have to go back, Kate...

Wednesday, November 20, 2013

Visit to Narnia!

Eaten by an alien!

Christopher Columbus

Weston with friends!

Handicapped friend paints pictures with mouth!

What was the question?

Paying tribute to our Canadian friends!

District fun!

Weston's District

Letter dated 18Nov2013

Dear Family, It´s wonderful to hear from you all today and hear that all is well. All things are well here in Barcelona and it seems that someone has turned on the rain (finally) here in Spain. It´s been raining almost non-stop for the past 3 days, which I love, but my feet are getting kind of cold since it´s also kind of chilly outside =/ though, I imagine, nowhere near as cold as Michigan or Idaho right now :D! [Weston always has loved the rain!] Things continue to progress in Cornellà, but ever since we've arrived here the outset has been a challenging one. I want to have a successful last transfer, so I'm going to dedicate my time to finding those people who are preparing and are ready to hear our message. It won´t be easy but it will be ever so worth it. I just have to remind myself about those three weeks that I turned down to stay out here. I know that God will be at my side at all time if I focus my time and energy on the right things and that this will become my favorite part of the mission! This last week we had an intercombio (exchange) and it was a good switch up and a good new boost of energy to go and work! I´m pumped for this week too, because we do have tons of great leads and people that we are finally going to visit! I was also looking at the calender yesterday and then I realized ´´TODAY´S DANIEL´S BIRTHDAY!!!!´´ so that got me really excited and I hope that you had a great Sweedish-Day! Mission birthday´s can be so fun so I hope that you got a good one! Now to end my words, I would like to quote what Amulek tells us in Alma 13, who said ´´...and now, my brethren, I wish from the inmost part of my heart, yea, with great anxiety even unto pain, that ye would hearken unto my words..´´ and know that I love you! Here's a link to that chapter! http://www.lds.org/scriptures/bofm/alma/13?lang=eng -- Élder Xander Weston Schindler PS We have to go back, Kate...

Letter dated 11Nov2013

Dear Family, It´s great to hear from you all today! I can´t believe it´s already Monday again, that´s crazy! Well, like I told you last week, I´ll do my best today to update you on what life has been like here in Cornellà and what sorts of adventures I've been having. I do have photos ready to send this week so you´re probably just going to look at those than read this, but hey, I hope you enjoy both the photos and the e-mail! For the past few weeks we have been whitewashing the area from the previous Elders and we have been getting into contact with most of the old investigators and members who live in our area, which mainly consists of local towns outside of the actual Barcelona area. Our main hot-pocket of work takes place in Sant Boi, which is the closest town next to Cornellà. That´s where Juan Antonio and Joaquin live, but like I mentioned last week, they did not get baptized. We did go over to their house and they told us what happened on Saturday and it was kind of a strange story, but I have to take their word for it, thought I do warn you that it´s a bit of a strange story. Joaquin got married to a lady from Morocco a few months ago and that is why they were not able to get baptized with the last set of elders, because he was busy with the wedding and then went on his honeymoon. He told us a lot about her and even had plans that the Saturday of the baptism she would be able to drive them to the church (she works in Barcelona all week and they only see her on weekends) but that´s where the problem came up. They asked her to take them to the church but she told them that they could not get baptized because she, being Muslim, already crossed into sketchy territory getting married to a Spaniard and was having some family issues with her cousins who also live in Sant Boi. In the end, they told us they couldn't get baptized, but they do love the church, reading from the Book of Mormon, and they love our company, but we´re going to drop them for a little while in this whole situation, sadly, because they really are two great guys that I´m so glad that I've met. We've also been working a lot with two families who have gone a bit inactive over the past year and we are trying to get them to come to more activities in the Young Women and adult groups. There were a lot of baptisms in the area 1-2 years ago, but they are all mostly less-active and it´s been making the work a little bit more of a struggle, but it´s not all without its ungratifying moments! In my personal study I've been reading recently in Preach My Gospel in working with members more effectively to speed up the work and find more success. I know that this is where the most effective use of time is, and I hope to have a successful last few weeks here in Cornellà! With so much love I couldn't even begin to tell you how much I have for you all, -- Élder Xander Weston Schindler PS We have to go back, Kate...

Letter dated 4Nov2013

Dear Family, Now who said that people would ever get used to the roller coaster weeks that missionaries have to go through? This week was another one of those and sadly Juan Antonio and Joaquin did not get baptized this weekend. Everything was green for go but then the hour before the service we called them and they told us that a problem came up but they didn't tell us what the problem was. Sketch, eh? Anyways, we tried going to their house later that day and then Sunday as well, but they were not there. We´re still confused as to what happened and we hope that it wasn't anything too serious though. I was able to make this into a great learning experience however. We were fasting together as a mission this past weekend as well and I just knew that things were happening so that I could recognize what I needed to change in my life and in the work here. I hope that everything will work out for them, but we also need to be on the scout for other people, so we´re going to keep at it and keep our heads up! Way better than getting all sad about things, but rather learning and then continuing down the path! I´m currently out of time right now, but next week, I´ll tell you more about the people here, what the areas like and send photos. Just know that I´m almost done with Alma and I really liked Chapter 26 about repentance and forgiveness! [Here is a link to Alma 26!] http://www.lds.org/scriptures/bofm/alma/26?lang=eng And as Dori said in Finding Nemo, just keep loving, just keep loving you all! -- Élder Xander Weston Schindler PS We have to go back, Kate..

Monday, October 28, 2013

Letter dated 28Oct2013

Dear Family, This past week turned out even better than what we had planned for originally. Most of our plans consisted of visiting old investigators from the previous missionaries and see what would happen. This week we met Juan Antonio and Joaquin, two Spanish brothers who received all of the previous lessons months before our arrival. Juan Antonio travels in a wheel chair and receives much help from his brother. After meeting them and learning more about them we started talking about baptism. We had already made plans to invite them for a date in the following next three weeks but Juan Antonio said ´´Why don´t we do it next week?´´ They had been to church a number of times before whenever they could get help with his wheelchair but it was still flooring that they were both asking ´´You know, why not do it sooner than later?!?´´ I am grateful to meet and know people like this and it helps me know that God is watching over our little corner of Barcelona! With that miracle in my mind the entire week was just the best! We´re continuing to meet more and more of the members of the ward and we´re also meeting more investigators to start to teach, all with their own special story and we´re in high hopes. I am doing what I can to help my companion and adjust to these new things that are passing around, but I know he has good concerns about what it takes to be a good missionary. I hope that I can show him that example and be better in my everyday behavior to teach him, but overall I have to just love him! He´s such an honest Elder and I love his love for his Savior and for the work! The district is such a great group of missionaries and when I can I´ll send a few photos of all of us. These are going to be a couple incredible months ahead of me! I´m also reading in Mosiah and I just read the parts about Zeniff and I´m pumped to read the rest of Mosiah about Abinadi. As a mission we have a goal to read the entire Book of Mormon before the end of the year, so I hope I can catch up! http://www.lds.org/scriptures/bofm/mosiah/9?lang=eng I love you more than the distance that´s in between us all right now, -- Élder Xander Weston Schindler PS We have to go back, Kate...