Mission friends

Batman

Valencia friends

New family!

Baptism at Valencia

Single Adults

Valencia Single Adults

Valencia Single Adults

Weston with Single Adult friends

Single Adults

Letter dated 20May2013

[Dear family and friends, Here is the latest letter from Weston. I hope this letter finds you well and happy. Enjoy Spring! Send me any notes that you would like me to forward to Weston! Yours, Weston's editor - BWS] Dear Family, Hey hey!! Long time, no write, right?! Pfft, that was dumb... I just couldn´t think of another way to start this e-mail... ANYWAYS, I had a wonderful week in good old Valencia! It´s been such a great adventure so far and I´m excited to keep seeing tons of miracles and blessings here in this town. Here´s what happened this week: Elder Teixeira, from the Area Presidency of Europe, came to talk to the entire mission in three conferences and give us some insight and inspiration. He shared some incredible things with us all and of all the special zone conferences that I've had in my mission, it was a special privilege to hear from a member of the 70 while serving in my mission. He focused a lot on Finding When We Teach and it really touched us all. I think I have some of my best notes as a missionary on the things that he shared with us. Following his words we had a huge, gigantic, monstrous paella [I take it this must be something to eat!] that was to die for! I've had paella before in Catalunya, but it was just alright, nothing too special, but Valencian paella- MMMMMM!! It´s a must eat if you ever visit Spain! A lot of people were actually surprised that during my first 2 weeks in Valencia I hadn't had any paella up to that point. I didn't mind too much, because my first real paella was a knock-out! Okay, continuing! Right after the conference we had lesson with a Nigerian lady who had a baptismal date for last week but we had to change it, due to some mis-communication about the law of tithing. We brought our Ward Mission Leader with us and we all had a very spiritual and very powerful lesson about priesthood authority and baptism and to finish the lesson she asked us when she could be baptized! It was a witness to me that she really is ready and isn't just doing it to be born again (for the 5th time or something like that) but she is really searching for a testimony of the true church! We´re working for the 1st of June, and we hope that her brother will be able to baptize her on that day! YAYA!! Just so that you know, I´m currently in 1 Nephi 19. I started reading the Book of Mormon entirely in Spanish (finally) and I hope to finish while I´m still here in Valencia! It´s already been helping me out a lot with several blessings! ¡Bueno, quiero deciros que os quiero mas y mas cada momento en mi vida! Élder Xander Weston Schindler P.S. We have to go back, Kate... P.P.S. So I hate to be a bother or be a needy beggar .. but if by chance you are planning on sending me anything for any future birthday that I might be having on a day like the 6th of July, right now I only ask that you send Reese's Peanut Butter Cups! Oh, and teeth whitener if that´s possible as well.

Letter dated 13May2013

[Dear friends and family, here is the letter we received from Weston this week! It was great talking with him on Monday. He truly sounds happy! We are enjoying having Daniel home -- until he leaves for his mission in Sweden in July! Simply reply to this note and I will forward your note along to Weston. Enjoy Spring! Weston's editor - BWS] Dear Family, Ohhh yeah! I had a great time talking to all of you and I´m glad that you all had a great time talking with me. It was such a blessing to hear your voices and just talk for a bit, though it felt weird that now I only have one more time to talk to you all. [We will have the chance to talk with Weston on Christmas!] It also feels like a month ago when I talked to you on Christmas. Oh man, how the time flies! I don´t have much else to say this week, but for the rest of the world to know, we had our two baptisms this Saturday, of Michael and Istokem, and it was such a wonderful time for all of us. Once I get the photos from my companion I´ll send them to you all! Here are also some photos of Elder Glenn and me with a bunch of the Young Single Adults in Terrassa! ¡Os quiero un montón! Élder Xander Weston Schindler P.S. We have to go back, Kate... (this is a quote from my favorite TV show, Lost, about going back to an island. I served on the island Mallorca last summer and so now I have fun thinking about how I´m living my own little Lost adventure... para que sepáis estas cosas... [Someone asked why Weston ends his letters this way -- this is his explanation!]

Letter dated 6May2013

[Dear friends and family, here is the latest letter we received today from Weston! We love hearing from him! Spring has finally found us in Michigan - and it's beautiful. I took the Scouts camping this past weekend - and we had a great time (no mosquitoes!). Daniel is back home with us after a successful year at BYU. It will be wonderful having him with us for the next 2 months - at which point he will leave for the Missionary Training Center to start learning Swedish! If you have a message for Weston, send it as a reply to this note and I will forward it to him. Wishing all of you a beautiful Spring! Weston's editor - BWS] Dear Family, ¡Bienvenidos a Valencia! Like I told you last week and as you might know now from the internet if you bothered searching for it, this city is amazing! It´s the biggest city I´ve served in yet, so big that there are 3 wards [a ward is a congregation] in the city itself. The only downside to Valencia is that you have to watch where you´re looking because they have tons of advertisements of women who can´t afford to buy enough clothes.. but you can´t just stare at the ground either because they have cards all over as well. [It sounds like we may need to do a clothes drive for the impoverished women of Valencia!] It´s a lot different than the Barcelona and Mallorca areas, but I´m doing good at avoiding it! Now I am also, for the first time, in a 4-elder apartment and it´s a a lot of fun to have the interaction with more missionaries every single day of the week! My companion, Elder Coombs, has been an excellent guide for me the past few days. He´s newer in the mission but he´s an ace when it come to speaking Spanish and also, he´s super tall! He makes me feel short, but then when we are in the streets I realize that he´s like a walking tower. It´s made a few interesting contacts as people have commented on his height! But he´s also really funny and loves tons of the same things as I do. Now just so you all know, there is a lot of diversity here in Valencia, especially with all the people whom we teach. Many of the people we teach are from Nigeria and speak both English and Spanish. I honestly have to say that I love the Africans that I've come into contact with on the mission! They are all so hilarious but also have great desires to learn more about God and strengthen their relationship with him. That´s a hard thing to find among many people these days. Here are some of stories from some of my favorite African friends. Let me start with Clemxymn and Joy. Clemxymn (pronounced Clemson) is married to Joy and they were baptized a few years ago but then stopped coming to church because they went back to the Catholic church. After years of saying no to their friend Victor, our ward mission leader and winner of the Micheal Jordan look-alike competition, they finally decided to come back to our church after their children just weren't learning much at the Catholic church, and there questions were too deep for their parents to answer. After coming back and asking the other Elders about some of these things, they were re-animated to come back to church and the weekend before I got here, two of the children were baptized! From this family they shared the gospel with their friend Isokin and her son Micheal who are both preparing for baptism on this upcoming Saturday. It´s amazing to see what kind of differences we can make in people lives when we share this incredible message of faith! On a bit of a lighter note, I hope that I won´t get fatter here... the members feed us so much in Valencia and I´ll have to make sure I do all of my morning workouts to keep in shape! For example, last night we ate so much of the best food at a member´s house, who feeds the missionaries every single Sunday night. At least you can know that I won´t be going hungry any time soon! On an even lighter note, here are some funny stories that happened this week. We were in a special conference and during the meeting I was talking to my companion under hushed words so that we wouldn't bother the speaker and I jokingly said that today was my birthday. At the end of the conference, one of the sister missionaries sitting in front of us handed me a piece of paper that said Happy Birthday because she only heard that part of our conversation! It wasn't until later that night that her district leader, with whom I share the apartment, told her and she got mad! Then another night we were going home on the bus and this man, completely disoriented, came walking down the aisle with a cart and in English asked me if I believed in God. I said yes, of course, and then he told me that I didn't look like I did. Bewildered, I looked at him for a second but then he toppled over his things and quickly got back up as the bus was making a turn. I asked him why he felt that way and he said ´´Because you´re a Nazi boy.´´ Almost laughing at this point I replied ´´You´re only saying that because you read my name tag´´ as I pointed to my name. He stood there and stared at it for a few seconds, then finally looked up at me and said ´´Nice! Have a good one!´´ Oh, I just love you all to death, what more can I say?! Élder Xander Weston Schindler P.S. This is what I´ll ask of you but if there are any changes I let you know ASAP. Have Skype ready to go right after church, preferably at 1:30pm. The only change would be if we have to do it earlier, then you guys will have to just do it super early.