Weston overlooking Barcelona

Weston's zone and hoola-hoop!

Weston's zone - Christmas - 2013

Christmas party - 2013

Letter dated 23Dec2013

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...

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...

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...