Letter dated 18Dec2012

[Dear family and friends, I hope this letter finds you healthy and well. I like Weston's word: "Fantastically!" I hope you are all doing fantastically well! May you have a safe and wonderful, Merry Christmas! Love, Weston's editor - BWS] Dear Family, How about that? Would you believe me if I told you all that it´s almost Christmas?! Seriously, it´s literally one week from today in case you didn't know! I´m doing fantastically right now. It sounds so great that everyone (but me) will be home for the holidays. I hope that Daniel is having a great time in San Diego and stays safe while he´s down there. [Daniel is with the BYU Marching Band in San Diego. They will be marching in the Poinsettia Bowl!] Maybe you´ll be able to brush up a little on your Spanish while you´re there. Maybe not, you´ll just have to let me know how it is next week! We´ve been having a great Holiday season here in Terrassasourus-Rex. Last Friday we had a ward Christmas dinner and tons of people showed up. It was different than any church dinner I've seen and we had rows of rows of people at tables and we all got served bread, soup, and turkey during the course of the dinner. Unfortunately, the dinner started a bit later than it was supposed to and as soon as Elder Wiggins and I got our last plate we had to eat fast and leave to get home on time. Lots of people asked us why we had to leave and we had to explain that we have a curfew, which even some strong members seemed a bit surprised. It was possible that it was because we were at a ward activity but had we stayed the whole time, we would have been back home past midnight! But rest assured, we got home on time! We also sang after church in the Christmas Choir practice but it seriously took the longest time in the world. I was having a good time, but my companion didn´t enjoy himself one bit. I thanked him for giving it a try but I don´t think we´ll be going back anytime soon during this transfer. I thought it was funny though! Mom, is the Catalan song, by chance, called Fum Fum Fum? The ward sang that song at the dinner and it was super fun and cute! Let me know which on it is and I´ll ask some of the families if they can sing it for me. That´d be tight! It´s no big deal that no package has been sent yet, I´ll just be happy to get one! So if I could choose things that I´d like to get, here´s a short list of ideas for what I´d enjoy: Black socks, Cheez-Its, Reeses, Starbursts, Kool-Aid, Advil (maybe), a sick tie, money for new shoes or a functionable camera, or anything else that would be awesome for me to get (notably any gift that has to do with The Hobbit or with Batman)! I´ll know more about the Skype call next week and I´ll let you know on Monday what time you should be waiting for me to sign on for Christmas. [We are able to Skype with Weston on Christmas day!] I think the most likely will be that I´ll get on around 4:00 pm and I hope you´ll all be awake by then in Michigan time. I´ll let you know for sure next week! I e-mailed late this week because they moved transfers a week early but luckily I´ll be with my companion for another 7 weeks. Can´t wait to hear and see you all next week! Hope you get a Happy-White-Christmas! Best of wishes to Adam tomorrow as well! I love you all so much, Élder Xander Weston Schindler P.S. We have to go back, Kate...