Letter dated 14May2012

[Dear family and friends, yesterday we were able to Skype with Weston! He looked GREAT! He was happy and it was a delight seeing him so happy. We hope everyone is enjoying their May. It's going to be a beautiful week here in Michigan! Weston loves hearing from you. Send me a note and I'll make sure he gets it! Love, Weston's editor - BWS] Dear Family, Thank you all so much for the wonderful skype call we had yesterday! I´m thankful that we had that opportunity and that there wasn´t any technical difficulty. [This was my very first Skype call! It was cool!! BWS] You all looked and sounded (minus the fact you all have colds) fantastic! I am so excited for all of you in everything new going on in your lives. Dad, with your new calling as the Ward Mission Leader. Mom, with directing the Beauty and the Beast AND Chicago this summer and getting paid for them as well. Joseph, for finally getting a job and participating in the YSA activities. Daniel, making bank with all of your scholarships and getting ready for graduation. Andrew, with your new super deep voice. Christopher, with your very awesome Green Power Ranger Costume. And Nicholas, for reading The Hobbit and not letting me ignore you! I will also take to heart that you would all like to hear more of my experiences throughout the week, so I´ll try to do that a little bit more for you all. Like I told you all already, we had another baptism this past Saturday. Her name is Gloria and we´ve been teaching her for the past month or so. She was having a lot of troubles with work and where she was living so she gave us a call. She had been contacted a few months ago by the previous missionaries but then she fell out of contact. When we met with her she told us her situation and we took it upon ourselves to introduce her to a family here in the ward who had previously gone through a lot of hardship as well. The family welcomed her in and ever since then she has been living with them and looking for work. It´s great to see the power one family can have and they have been a blessing to us as missionaries and to other people that they help whenever possible. This past week I did have another intercombio in Mataro (the area that Rick Russell served in many years ago) and that was where I got that Star Wars spoon. Also we contacted a man who is from Ghana or Giena and he came to church yesterday. I´ll be interested to see where our progress goes with Jean since he´s shown interest in reading the Book of Mormon, came to the baptism service, church, and is planning to come to a Noche de Hogar [Family Home Evening] tonight at a member's house. This past week has also been a good week for me in the kitchen. I´m trying to start learning how to cook better; it is a skill that I´m continuing to try and develop. I´ll continue working on that this month but more importantly I´m going to make the rest of this month a time of focus for myself. The end of this month is transfers and it´s most likely that Elder Call with be leaving Gerona so I have to make sure that I´m ever focused on the work and also focused on learning and applying the language whenever possible. I want to turn 20 this July and be able to say that I´m at least a little fluent. I don´t know if there will be a time when I´ll say I´m completely fluent since I could see myself always wanting to improve, no matter how much I learn and know. I´m excited for this summer and what it´s going to bring. Tomorrow will be my two month mark in the mission field and I am excited for what the future has in store for me. I will be writing letters throughout this month (I have a few completed) but I´m going to send them out hopefully next week if all goes well. I´ll also be sure to get that urgent letter sent, but keep reminding me just in case. If there is anything you want from me or anything that anyone else would want from me, let me know. This could include pictures, specific stories, certain thoughts about the mission, etc. Les quiero, Élder Weston Schindler P.S. Hmmm, I´m out of things to say. Love you!