Letter dated 16Jun2013

[Dear family and friends, here is Weston's most recent letter. I hope you enjoy it! If you would like me to forward him a note, simply reply to this note. I hope you are all enjoying a pleasant June! Weston's editor - BWS] Dear Family, I hope that it isn't horrible, but I didn't realize that yesterday was father´s day.. sorry dad, but at least now I know that we had it, so just imagine that today is yesterday and that I´m saying- HAPPY FATHER´S DAY!!! Great! I´m also glad you had a fun day ^_^ So in completely non-fatherliness, today we went to Bioparc here in Valencia, which is a really great zoo that hosts tons and tons of African animals! They heavily lacked any Dinosaur exhibits, but some of my favorites were the elephants, hippos, leopards, and especially the lemurs! They were so friendly and we were told not to pet them, but they were just climbing all over the sidewalks and looking at us with their adorable Zaboomafaboo [I think this is a Weston word!] eyes! I´ll send pictures some day :) Early this week we had a rather wonderful Zone Conference and got some new information and inspiration for where we need to take the mission during these weeks. Right now we just received a ton of new missionaries and we are in the middle of opening tons of new areas and splitting them as well. In our zone here in Valencia we are full of missionaries with less than a year in the field. One point of interest is that one of my zone leaders and I are the oldest in our entire zone and we still have quite a bit of time left in the mission! Another point of interest is that my other zone leader is Elder Roney, if Danny remembers him. He asked me how you were doing and if you were in the MTC yet and he was excited to hear about you. He also asked how grandpa was doing, which reminds me of something, that at the beginning of the Zone Conference, while President Pace was beginning his presentation, he mentioned something about me and then shared with the whole zone the story of how my grandpa saved his life when he was 17. GO GRANDPA! Another exciting thing happened this week was we set a baptismal date with a man from Ghana this past weekend. His name is Desmond and he was really excited to hear our message and we are going to invite him to some of the baptismal services this weekend and we´re going to help him get to church. We know that if he comes to these that he´ll feel the spirit so strongly and will be able to gain a testimony and be baptized! I love you all so much! Why are you all just so amazing?!? :D Élder Xander Weston Schindler P.S. We have to go back, Kate.. P.P.S. I´m also impressed that (almost) everyone wrote me this week. Sorry Chris, but you broke the almost perfect week! Maybe one of these days you´ll want to write me but we´ll see now ;) love you!

Letter dated 11Jun2013

[Dear family and friends, here is Weston's letter that we received today. I hope all of you are enjoying summer! Drop a line - and I'll forward it to Weston! Take care -- Weston's editor - BWS] Dear Family, I´m glad to hear what everyone is up to and what is going on! I can´t believe that summer has hit us already this soon. I tell you what, it´s been getting really hot recently, but today is a killer! We walked out of our nice air conditioned apartment and I thought that my skin was going to catch on fire! AHH!! Naw, it´s not that bad, but seriously, it almost did. Caroline had her confirmation on Sunday and this week we had transfer week. Fortunately, nothing happened to us so I´m still with Elder Coombs and we´ll be wrecking the town for yet another little while! We´re excited and I can´t wait to see what´s in store for us this transfer. Interestingly enough, this transfer is both his and my birthday, so we´ll be sure to have tons of fun but at the same time do tons of work! I want this last quarter to be my brightest hour of my mission and I´m positive that it´ll be! I´m praying and hoping that next transfer, if it´s meant to be, I´ll be training. I sure hope so! This past week we had Zone Enfoque [Conference?] and the big focus for all of us is that as a mission we are going to try and find 1000 new investigators during the month of June. Sounds crazy? Sounds ridiculous?! Sounds like a job for... CONTACT MAN!!! Yeah, that´s right, I´m currently in the process of becoming my alter ego, Contact Man, by turning my own fear into my personal weapon and helping the mission achieve the extraordinary! Haha, this is what I do to get myself pumped up, if you didn't know me ^_^ This week we have Zone Conference with President and Hermana Pace and it´s going to be a good time. He´s probably the greatest mission president that has ever existed and I´m not even exaggerating a little bit! He´s the best! Next week we are planning to go to the zoo so maybe I´ll have some great animal stories for you all then! Nick, I´ll see what I can do to get a picture with a baby bull ^_^ HEY, I LOVE YOU LIKE A TON!! LIKE, YEAH!!! Élder Xander Weston Schindler P.S. We have to go back, Kate..

Letter dated 4Jun2013

[Dear family and friends, here is the letter we received from Weston today! I hope you enjoy it as much as we did. He would love to hear from you! Simply reply to this note - and I will forward to note to him. We hope you are all enjoying the warmer weather! Best regards - Weston's editor - BWS] Dear Family, We had one heaven of a week! First and for most, the baptism went great and when I can, I´ll hook you all up with some photos. Actually, I´ll set you up with tons of photos because today we went to a CASTLE! Since I´m short of a camera still I have to wait for my companion to give them to me, then you can see it´s splendor! But yeah, the baptism service went great, with some interesting pips and pops along the road, as we waited half an hour for our ward mission leader and then were blessed during the opening prayer by a wonderful Nigerian sister that God would ´´cover us with the precious blood of Jesus´´! But then Akim Bigdaddy, who´s ripped beyond measure, easily preformed the baptismal ordinance with much help from his massive biceps! And yes, his last name is really Bigdaddy ^_^ We also had Stake Conference and it was a wonderful time and I don´t think that I ever liked Stake Conference as much. We had two members of the Seventy come and speak and Elder Reina from the Canary Islands had the perfect mix of being a great comedian and an inspired man of God. Ever member that went to the conference loved his talks and were motivated to do better in their lives and I as well! I am currently freaking out that it´s already June... I mean, really? How is it already June?!?! I´m looking forward to summer though and from what I´m feeling, I´ll be with Elder Coombs for another transfer, but I´ll find out this Saturday what´s happening with that. That being said, I´ll have preparation day on Tuesday next week as well, so heads up. ^_^ I love you all and I hope that this finds you all with a bunch of smiles and good feelings!! Élder Xander Weston Schindler P.S. We have to go back, Kate.... P.P.S. GREAT JOB ANDREW, FOR WRITING ME TWICE(!) these past two weeks!!! I´m sorry but I´ll respond to more of your awe-inspiring words next week! I hope... ^_^

Letter dated 27May2013

[Dear family and friends, I hope this note finds everyone enjoying a safe and memorable Memorial Day! This is the letter we received from Weston this morning. If you want to send him a note, simply reply to this email and I will make sure he gets your note! Thank you for your love, friendship and support! Weston's editor - BWS] Dear Family, I had an interesting week, mostly because I was out of my area for 2 days doing some fun document stuff [I am assuming this was something to do with his visa.] up in Barcelona. It was great because I got to go visit Terrassa to go do it and it didn't feel like I was gone from that city at all. Everything felt nice and familiar which was nice! It was even nicer to come back to Valencia because it´s not as dirty of a city! But the week was good, though a bit harder than the other weeks. We´re looking forward to a baptism this Friday and also Stake Conference [Stake Conference is when several congregations meet for combined meetings on Saturday and Sunday.] so I´ll let you know how both of those go. Just like I told you on Mother´s Day, the biggest thing that I´m working on is finding new investigators. In order to do this I need to start talking to more and more people and sharing our message with people in the streets. It´s been something that´s been harder for me since day one, but I've gotten to that point where I feel bad by the end of the day if I don´t do what I set out intending to do. So I want you to keep tabs on me and check my progress from week to week. We´re almost at the end of May and we need to hit summer hard and I´m going to need all the help and support I can get! I love you all, Élder Xander Weston Schindler P.S. We have to go back, Kate...