Weston enjoying birthday party!

Destroyed cake

Head in cake!

Three new members!

New member!

Birthday party

Birthday party for friend!

Dinner - Pique Macho

Weston standing cool!

Weston at birthday party

Weston with companion

Weston at baptism

Letter dated 11Feb2013

[Dear family and friends, I am hoping this note finds you happy, safe and well. Here is the letter we received from Weston this week. I hope you enjoy it as much as we did! If you have a note you would like me to pass along to Weston, merely copy this note and I will get it to him! Thank you for your prayers of support! Weston's editor - BWS] Dear Family, I wish I could have seen all that snow you got! I think that´s the one thing that I´m missing here in Terrassa. Sure, it´s cold, but you need a bit of snow to brighten up your day! Besides, a snow day sound delightful! Besides that, we had a great week. We've been making progress with many people and it´s going to be a great next few weeks coming up in the very soon future. Right now Joan is making a ton of progress, it´s insane! Yesterday, on Sunday, we were sitting in church and they were just starting and Joan walked in and sat by us. As the program was going Joan took his phone out of his back-pack and it was receiving a call from Andres, the Ward Mission Leader´s son, who thought he was still at home and asleep. He turned to me and said ´´Pero estoy aquí´´ and I laughed! I was so impressed by his motivation to come to church all by himself and at the end of our Gospel Principles class our teacher asked him when his baptism would be and Joan replied ´´muy pronto!´´. Then, finally in the final hour, Andres told us about what happened in the Young Men´s class. They were talking about the temple and the temple trip that they would be having in March to go to Madrid and Joan said that he was excited to go. Andres told him that a person has to be baptized in order to go to the temple and Joan told him that he knew that! ^_^ Tight! For the mission we recently received many new sister missionaries and we´re still expecting tons of Elders as well. It´s going to be exciting around June because there is going to be about 35 new missionaries coming in at once! WHOA!! Now I've got some good news and some bad news... the bad news is that my companion got a really bad case of the flu at the end of this week so we had to take a moment to recharge. The good news is that I´m not sick! It´s crazy because every single family has been hit by the flu and the Spaniards are saying that it´s a bit of an epidemic going on. So here´s what I think: 1) I´m the most immune person in the world and I´m basically going to be like Will Smith in ´´I Am Legend´´ and I have nothing to worry about, or 2) All the diseases and sickness of all the people are going to catch up to me and I´m going to die of the black plague within the next week.... I like option 1 the most ;) So they also have a tight holiday here in Spain (and other Hispanic countries) called the Carnaval. It´s like Halloween but way tighter. We walked by the main street on Saturday night and the street was filled by people and nearly everybody was in some kind of costume. Sure, there wasn't much candy, but it was just a great excuses to put on some face paint and costumes and have fun with the city. Oh, and I´m doing a lot better in writing in my journal. I´m going to try to get every day from now on but we´ll see how that goes! I love you all so, so very much, it makes me sick (in a good way!) Élder Xander Weston Schindler P.S. We have to go back, Kate...

Letter dated 5Feb2013

[Dear friends and family, here is the latest letter we received from Weston. It's fun to hear where our missionaries are going! My nephew just received his call - he'll be going to the Ohio Cleveland Mission! Daniel should be receiving his call within a couple of weeks. As always, let me know if you have a message for Weston - and I will send it to him. I will be posting the pictures that he sent on his blog -- soon! I will let you know when you can find these pictures! Take care; stay warm and safe! Weston's editor - BWS] Dear Family, What´s going on?! We had transfers this past weekend and guess what- I´ll be staying with Elder Wiggins for yet another transfer! We actually weren't very surprised because we get along so well but the weird thing was that the other four missionaries in our district are also staying the same. Elder Wiggins and I feel like he´ll leave for sure at the end of March, since that´ll be his 6 month mark in Terrassa. In other news, as you might tell from some of these sick [meaning "cool"] photos I sent, David got baptized this Saturday which was incredible. I hope all the photos send well! He´s so great and totally honest; it was kind of like I was teaching one of my friends the whole time. He´s 20 and he´s obsessed with video games (I mean, not that my friends are obsessed or anything like that!) but it´s just kind of part of his personality. You should share this with Andrew, Christopher, and Nicholas. David´s favorite video game is is Pokémon. At school, since there are a million Davids; he is nick-named ´´David el Pokémon´´! How tight is that! He has also competed at tournaments in Pokémon and he´s won money from it. I thought that was the funniest thing I've heard in a while! It was also amazing to hear that at home you had 11 investigators in class. It´s weird because this week we only had 4 people come, but it was fine. A family that we are teaching was really sick [meaning "sick"] and that´s why they said they couldn't come. On the plus side, the father has been in Madrid for a week and he went to church while he was out there! He said it was a lot different because he didn't know anyone who was there, but it was awesome to hear that he was still interested, even without us inviting him every minute! A kid that was going to be baptized but had to put it off finally got out of the hospital! He´s still getting back into life but we visited him and we´re 100% positive that he still has a testimony and that he just needs to restart reading and praying. He has depression but whenever he´s with us he is one of the best people I've ever taught. He wants to learn more and he knows that he´s felt the spirit before in his life. Also, if you know what it is, he does parkour as a hobby. I thought that was sick [I am guessing that here, the word "sick" means "cool"] when he mentioned that to us the other day ;) So here´s a funny story. We went and visited a lady in the ward, named Rosario, and he has some macaroni with meat and then a treat afterwards of strawberries and bananas with whipped cream. Normal, huh? The funny thing happened on Sunday in our Testimony Meeting when she got up and was just talking about stuff and she started testifying that the Elders (us ^_^) came over and ate a ton of strawberries and bananas with whipped cream! Everyone around us turned and kind of chuckled because it was just funny how she was telling everyone about this dumb story! Haha, I loved it! I love you all oh so very, very much! True Story! ^_^ Élder Xander Weston Schindler P.S. We have to go back, Kate...

Letter dated 28Jan2013

[Dear friends and family, Here is Weston's letter that we received this morning. I appreciate all of your prayers for Weston and for all of our other wonderful missionaries. If you have a note you want me to pass along to Weston, simply reply to this note and I will make sure that Weston receives it. I hope everyone is safe and sound. We are enjoying our first snow day of the year! Weston's editor - BWS] Dear Family, We had a bit of a slower week compared to the previous one, but it was still a good week in total. We weren't able to have quite as many lessons, but the ones we did have were really good and I´m sure that we´ll be able to have a good week this week. Elder Wiggins was sick most of the week so we had to take it a bit easier but now he´s doing a lot better. We are also going to be having another Zone Enfoque [I think this is a zone conference - which would be a meeting of all of the missionaries in Weston's zone - which would be about 20 missionaries. BWS] this Wednesday so that should be really exciting. We are also excited for this Thursday, in which David will have his baptismal interview and everything looks good for this Saturday! He is actually a really funny kid. When we were explaining the Word of Wisdom [This is the health code of our church] he asked if it was against the Word of Wisdom to eat fruit. We were a bit confused, but he said it was because he never saw our ward mission leader´s family eat fruit before and we all laughed at it. He also participates in the discussions very well and very much. It´s so great and exciting, you can´t even believe! This last Saturday we had a Priesthood session in the Sabadell chapel but the meeting was a video conference and the audio was really, really bad. We had one investigator come with us and he fell asleep from time to time. I was tempted to do the same, but I stayed strong! It was good, just hard, to hear and pay attention. Also this past week, so that you know, I got the second Christmas package! I´m currently wearing my new socks and they feel so comfortable! I love them. The calender is incredible but I was disappointed that it had to get folded in order to get sent.. but it´s still great! I love you all too much to be able to express just how much that is! Élder Xander Weston Schindler P.S. In answer to Paulo at BYU, our mission ended up with a total of 487 baptisms in the year 2012. :) P.P.S. We have to go back, Kate...

Letter dated 21Jan2013

[Dear family and friends, yesterday we received this very WARM letter from Spain as we bundled down preparing for our Arctic blast here in Michigan. It's great to hear Weston's enthusiasm through his letters! We hope that this note finds all of you WARM and HAPPY! If you want to send Weston a note, simply reply to this note and I will forward it to Weston! Stay warm! Weston's editor - BWS] Dear Family, I say there, what a wonderful time we´re all having now! I´m so excited to tell you all the things that have been happening in this Spain-Land-Place! Elder Wiggins and I had a legit week of miracles and blessings which is making me very excited for the upcoming weeks. Now I´ll shut up and keep talking, alrighty?! To begin, we had a fantastic day on Wednesday in which we seemed to end up in places that were being guided by someone else besides us (I´d say it was the Spirit, just so you know). By the end of the day we had 5 new investgators just from two visits, one of which was not even expected or planned. We had a visit cancel on us (which was the worst, but turned out to be super great!) and we went over to drop by our ward mission leader to have our weekly meeting. When we got there we met two friends of the family that we had never met before, one of which is David who is from here. Just to give you and image since I don´t have a camera yet to share pictures, he looks like a mix between Colin Ferrel and the Iron Giant man. He´s 20 years old and he told us that while he did not have much faith, he was willing and interested to learn more and experience for himself the things we can teach him. So far, we´ve taught him the lesson of the restoration and we´ve read Alma 32 and he came to church with the ward mission leader´s family and he loved the things he learned, and yes, he´s still progressing, but he´s working with us to gain his testimony and we´re working for the 2nd of February to be baptized. But that´s not the only great thing that happened! A boy friend of a less active lady is also growing his faith and it´s amazing to see that he´s changed already within the span of 2 weeks. He had been taught by some elders about 3-4 years ago but didn´t feel the spirit at the church, but he came and just loved everything that we learned and felt. Right now we are going to work and help him overcome and quit drinking but he has felt the spirit and we´re here to help him make this first step! We´re also working with Martí still and all three are working to gain more knowledge of the things of the gospel and we are so pumped to help them on the way! We had interviews last Friday as well, which was tight, and I got some great counsel from President Pace. He told me so much things that just got me excited for the future of the mission and, just so you all know, our baptismal goal for this year is 1000! A part of that goal is 20 baptisms every week! We are going to bless this country and bring so many blessings to so many people, it´s insane! I love it! He also invited to come to Terrassa to take us and some of our investigators to a baptism in Barcelona but the family we are teaching had other plans come up and we´re able to see that... but it´s so great that I have a president who loves to get in on the work and do what ever he can to help us reach our potential! Oh, and we ate at the Johnson's home again this Saturday and they made empanadas which were divine! Brother Johnson made a joke about how we have only baptized teenage girls recently and he challenged us to get some good priesthood holders for the ward, and now we have three who are progressing! Elder Wiggins thought that it was really funny that the very next day we saw things turn around! Oh, and the family that had three of the daughters who were baptized earlier in November, yeah, the family opened an Ecuatorian Bar, which means that they have better work now! We played pool with the older brother one day and it was really fun ^_^! Well, that was the week! Hope you didn´t die of boredom! I love you all ever so much more than ever before! Élder Xander Weston Schindler P.S. We have to go back, Kate... P.P.S. Just to reply to some of my friend´s comments, I´m still in Terrassa, but I was in Sabadell for intercambios (splits or changes or whatever it´s called in English). Also, I am back logged on letters now. I have so many people that I have to write and I´ve just been slacking, but I´ll get them to them all hopefully during February. Dad, let the people that asked me about that know that they are on the top of my list of people to write back! ;)

Letter dated 14Jan2013

Dear friends and family, I hope the new year is treating you well! Here is the letter we received this morning from Weston. We appreciate your prayers and your support of Weston! If you have a message you would like me to forward to Weston, simply respond to this email and I will make sure that Weston receives your note. Best wishes! Weston's editor - BWS] Dear Family, How are you all? You sound good and I hope that you all keep it up this week. Honestly, I can´t really think of much to talk about this week. We did have a great chance to do some service at a giant estate over in the Sabadell area. The house is so huge and old but that´s the sad thing. The place is just falling apart because it´s only three girls who live there, the grandma, mother, and daughter so there are not too many working hands to keep everything going well. It was nice to get outside and do some raking and just quality service work. Afterwards they treated us to some fantastic homemade Spanish pizza. We have been having some good success with a family that we have been teaching for a while. They came to church 3 times in a row and I hope to see them progress in the next few weeks as well. They are such a great family and I´m sure that they are sincere in their desire to learn more from the scriptures. They are from Peru, by the way. ^_^ I´m drawing blanks right now... What did we do this week? Oh, my pants are finally fixed so now I can wear my other suit! I need to take a bunch of my clothes to the dry cleaners though. That with some new shoes in a few weeks would just be dapper, if I ever saw it! Well, I love ya´ll! Élder Xander Weston Schindler P.S. We have to go back, Kate...

Letter dated 7Jan2013

[Dear family and friends, HAPPY NEW YEAR! I hope that your holidays were good and that you enjoy a wonderful new year. This is the letter we received from Weston this morning. If you want to send a quick note, just respond to this email and I will forward the note to Weston! Best regards - Weston's editor - BWS] Dear Family, I´m not sure how I´m supposed to begin this e-mail because I´m still giddy from my present I got today! The mail came today and I saw the lady carrying a GIANT package up to our door and she asked, ´´Is there an Elder Weston here?´´ My companion was disappointed because he´s waiting for a package as well, but I was jumping up and down when I got it into the other room! I definitely wasn't expecting such a great holiday treat such as what you sent to me. I´m not sure if it was the Kool-Aid, Reeses, Cheez-Its, Starburst, Pictures, Dark Knight, DRADLE!!!, pop corn, Michigan momentos, or sick ties that made it so great but I think it was the love that came with it! It made my year! Thank you all so much! I also got all the Christmas letters on the same day and I loved the poems! Such a great family memory gift! Thanks mom! In all honesty, we had a really great week to start of the New Year. We had a bunch of lessons in total even though we had a day that we went to a Zone Meeting for most of the day but the week turned out really good. The highlight was on Sunday when we were blessed to have 11 investigators come to church! It seemed like everyone we've been inviting this past week found time to get up in the morning and come over to church and it was a really special testimony meeting. Many of the members shared their testimonies and I was amazed to listen to many of them talk about their first experiences with the missionaries when they got baptized. It was special for me to realize that we are here to serve the members and help them in our calling we have as elders. It was a great spiritual experience for me in sacrament meeting. We´re also working with Andrea, a 22 year old girl who is living with a family that recently got baptized when I got here, and she wants to be baptized this year, but she needs help to stop doing some things. We´re looking at this as a great opportunity for her to take this chance and take the next step as we work with her. She is the one in the family that helps all the girls get ready for church and she gets involved in our discussions when we visit them. I hope the best for her progress in the upcoming weeks. There is also a family that have come to church 2 weeks in a row, which they haven´t done since this past summer. They look like they are also preparing to take their next steps, which is super exciting for me to have the chance to see this happen for them. Great things are happening in Terrassasourus Rex right now! We finally finished the holidays too! YES! It´s been hard with all the parties that people go to and I hope the we can get back into a solid routine with people getting back to work and school. The last holiday was actually yesterday, named Los Tres Reyes, or The Three Kings. It´s actually a bigger day than Christmas here in Spain and it´s about the three kings coming and giving the gifts to Jesus when he was a baby. There was a big parade and it seemed like it was a blast for the people here. As part of the new year, the mission is starting to get ready to receive all the new incoming missionaries from the new wave that´s coming in. We are now all, as a mission, re-doing the 12 week program for missionaries to learn how to train and also be a better missionary. Also, as a companionship, Elder Wiggins and I are starting to keep a routine for working out in the morning and at night. It includes push ups, P90X, and running when we wake up and our goal is to see how we change in the next 3 weeks. We started it today and we´ll see how it goes! I also have my goals set up and still choosing some other ones that I want for 2013. I just know that this will be a great year. I love you all, more and more each day! Élder Xander Weston Schindler P.S. We have to go back, Kate.... P.P.S. Since I got the super incredible package just now, you can take your time if you need to before you send the next one. I have one other request, which would be to send one or two of my v-neck shirts that I left in my box. Some of the photos reminded me of them and I kind of want them again! =P