Letter dated 8Oct2012

[Dear friends and family, here is the letter that we received from Weston this morning. I hope you enjoy it. As you can tell, he loves hearing from you - and he enjoys your questions. Send your questions and message via "reply" and I will make sure he receives them. We are humbled to think that next year we will have two sons out on missions! Thank you for your love and support! Weston's editor - BWS] Dear Family, I know that you already know all about the announcement made in this past General Conference, but here is some of what came to my mind when I heard it. ´´WHOA!!!!´´ [At General Conference it was announced that Young Men could leave on their missions starting at age 18 (down from age 19) and the Young Women could leave at age 19 (down from age 21)!] That summed it all up right there. I was a little surprised (especially by the new age for women serving missions), very awed, and very excited to hear that news. Daniel, you were the first person who came into my mind when I heard that. I thought about how long that is going to be without seeing you but at the same time it is an exciting opportunity for you and I fully support your decision to leave whenever you find is the best time. You´re ready to take on Argentina, France, Australia, or wherever you're planning on going! Keep me updated on what your plans are so that I can keep my prayers focused on specific things that you are seeking. Also, try to stay around for Christmas, because it´d be nice to at least say good-bye for your mission via Skype! I´m also very happy for the timing of this announcement. For me, personally, I was able to develop myself before my mission and I could not and would not take back any of the friendships that I made during that time. [The year before Weston left on his mission.] My time spent with you and with my friends is sacred to me and also for things that are playing out in my life right now during my mission. Had I had this opportunity two years ago, I could be home now, but I´m glad I´m where I am right now. I can´t wait to be able to look back at what I´ve done and have a big smile on my face for the sacrifices I had to make day after day. The world is about to change because of this as well; that´s a fact. We went to Palma, Mallorca to watch conference in the main chapel and you would not believe, but the family I have been teaching came to the first session of conference! They had time that day and we went with them on the train and we were able to share feelings about what we heard and learned from the speakers. It was a great night for me (since I´m in the future, so the first session came on at 6:00pm)! The only session I have not seen yet is the Sunday Afternoon session, so I missed out on Elder Bednar's talk, but I´ll get a hold of it somehow. Of my favorite talks were President Uchtdorf´s and Elder Nelson´s talks for the morning session of Saturday, Elder Perkin´s and President Eyring´s talks for the Priesthood session, and Elder Holland´s talk about Jesus´ question to Peter, ´´Do you love me?´´. It was the first time that I took real, hard notes on the talks given and I enjoyed it so much. With some other opinions of the announcement for missionaries was that one of the senior missionaries thinks that within 2-5 years, the world-wide-mission program will be split to half men, half women with this new announcement. Everyone is excited to receive the younger missionaries in the coming months and I will without a doubt, be serving with one of these 18 year old Elders. Someone asked where Elder Batanero is from. In reply, he hails from the coastal city of Cádiz, Epsaña in the Andalucia province. He speaks, so, fast. He was in my first district and he can remember when I was so new that it was hard to understand what I was saying, but since then he has seen a dramatic change in my communication skills. He stated that for such a short time in Spain, 7 months or whatever, I have come a very long ways. He told me that my grammar is really good but that now I need to work on speaking faster and just speaking more (easy for him to say, since he has a knack for that himself!). We speak only in Spanish, only with some English to fill in gaps or to clarify certain things, but I´ve already gained a huge leap in my progress within the past 6 days. A little bit more about my mission, since I saw some more questions asked. We do tend to find more people ready to hear the gospel who are from other countries other than Spain. We do, however, have a dominating percent of Spaniards who are members here in Inca. Our Branch President, Second Counselor, Elder´s Quorum President and Counselor, all their families and several recent converts are all from Spain. Back in Manacor we started teaching a girl who is from Spain and now Elder Swenson and his companion have a baptismal date with her! I have finally been able to recharge my camera so now I´ll have lots more photos to be sending you. [Wonderful!] Hope they´ll turn out to be good ones! Oh, and please post them on Facebook and tag me in them. I decided that it would be a great sharing opportunity to have used more with my Facebook to keep some of my friends updated with what I´m doing now. Also so that people I´m meeting here will become my friends faster, but that is besides the point! I can´t wait to hear again from you and see if any new things develop in our family's future. Let´s also just remember that ´´..it´s not a race, it´s a journey, enjoy life!´´ Love, your son, your brother, Élder Xander Weston Schindler P.S. Remember by nice BASS shoes that I brought on my mission? Well, the right shoe is falling apart, which is super exciting! That means that I´ve been doing a lot of walking and I hope to run them into the ground before I´m finished serving here! [I love this goal!] P.P.S. That´s exciting news about the first debate. We only progress as a nation and people (or individually) when we get some good competition going!