Letter dated 23Feb2012

[Dear family and friends, Here is the letter we received from Weston today! I hope you enjoy it as much as we did! I hope your February is going well! If you want to send a response to Weston, merely respond to this note -- and I'll forward your note along to Weston! Weston's editor - BWS] Dear Family, I don't know if I'm alone when I'm saying this, but these past 7 weeks have flown by faster than any other 7 weeks! No offence to any other set of 7 weeks, I'm just saying in general. I actually have an important meeting tomorrow with the Consul of Spain. All of the missionaries, elders and sisters, will be there and I'm interested to find out what will go on during it. But anyways, it's the Consul of Spain! I was actually very thankful for all the messages I recieved over the weekend. It was President's Day on Monday and here at the MTC mailroom, they were closed on President's day! So all my DearElder letters [this is how I communicate with Weston while he's at the Missionary Training Center] from Saturday, Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday came to me on Tuesday night and I loved every message I recieved! First and foremost (don't quote my spelling), congratulations to Daniel for being accepted to the BYU School of Music! I think I was only told 5 times from Daniel and dad but each time I was proud because I know that I taught you (Daniel) everything you know about music. Oh, and when I say that, I mean I let you play your trombone 24/7 without throwing it out the window. So you're welcome and congratulations! But earlier, from Joseph, I loved reading the Man from Snowy River poem! As I finished it, I thought to myself "Should I be reading this as a missionary?" but then I thought "Joseph was a missionary and he wouldn't send something to me I COULDN'T read" so I felt good about it. It was a great story too. Reminds me of a movie we've seen before.. I think it's called The Man from Snowy River or something like that. I dunno, you should check me on that one. And speaking of movies, I love that scene in the Beauty and the Beast when Belle tells the Beast "I can't carry it for you, but I can carry you!" after the wolves attack him. [I jokingly find this quote from Lord of the Rings in every movie I watch!] Too bad she was just kidding and made the horse carry him. And to finish off to Joseph, I pray for the best for you every night and it's my sincere hope you are doing well! You're awesome! Can't wait to hear from you (and everyone else) soon! But to Nicholas, great job with that fantastic letter you wrote to me! I was smilling the entire time I read it! Do you wanna know how I know you are my brother by the way? Because you're reading The Hobbit like a champ! I read the Hobbit in the fourth grade too and I love that part when Bilbo is with the creepy frog guy [my description of Gollum]. You should definitely update me on your progress in the book and keep me up to date with other things going on at home. I'm sure dad would love to help you out! And to every participant in the play, may the force be with you, always! I know you'll do fantastic jobs and why worry, right? I know it'll be amazing and you all will learn so much from this! And Daniel, best of luck with that (fake) kiss or whatever happens at the end. Yeah! [Daniel is the prince at the end - after the beast converts to the prince!] Well I'll be highly anticipating to find out where I'll be assigned in the meantime before my visa arrives. The district in my zone that came in a week before us were all called to Mexico, but Mexico and Spain are like the Gestapo (don't mind my spelling) of visas, though I've heard it's hard to get a US visa too... Anyways, they are mostly going to Calfornia, San Jose and San Fransisco and one elder is heading up to Seattle, Washington. Hopefully I will know where I am going by the time next Thursday rolls around but you should all guess in the US (haha, I rhymed) where I'll be going. My money's still on Nebraska (just kidding, my money's on Cali or Chicago!) But in a side message, I try not to complain about much, and I'm sorry if I do, but there was something that really disturbed me here at the MTC. I came to find out that one of my roommates, Elder Rockwood, hates Batman. I know, it's pretty serious and I hope he'll change his ways, but he went on and on to say that anyone could beat Batman, even a Bellsprout or a Magicarp. I'll try to come to terms with his opinion, even if it's wrong, but I hope he finds the light. True story. Now that I'm done talking about that, I'll be sending a package next week with lots and lots of photos both hard copies and on one of my SD cards. I hope you can find a place for the digital copies but be sure to send it back with every photo still on it. Please and thank you! I will also send some random things if I feel like it! Can't wait to get my triple combination either! I've been marking up the one I grabbed that's an old seminary one and I found out that it's so fun to make the pages really colorful. For future reference in my scriptures, the yellow markings are my most favorite scriptures and consist of lots of inspiring and awesome scriptures. Ether 15 comes to mind, if you know what I mean. I'm glad to be reading the Book of Mormon with you all as a family too! I'm super excited for Ether and I'm sure you'll all be ready to get confused about who's the king and who's son is taking over the kingdom. Good times! I've come to find out that I do truly miss and love you all but I love what I'm doing so I hope you don't miss me too much! 23 months is only a blink of an eye in reality. Or 16,000 hours, if you want to get down to hours. Or 58,000,000 seconds, but who's counting, right?! I love you all, TTFN, Elder Weston Schindler