Letter dated 9Sept2013

[Dear family and friends, I hope you are enjoying a beautiful September! Here is our latest letter from Weston. He also sent some pictures which I will post on his blog! If you have a message for Weston, you can simply reply to this note - and I will forward your note to him! Take care! Weston's editor - BWS] Dear Family and Friends, This week was quite the adventure to remember! This week the other elders arrived in our area so we welcomed them into our ward and into our apartment and it´s been a blast since! Every day is just so fun and it´s given us even more drive to get at ´em! We successfully divided our area between the four of us and the Hermanas, [the sister missionaries] which didn't affect us too terribly, seeing as how the Hermanas have been hogging most of the ward boundary anyways! [I think there is a story here!] Today we had a very relaxing, very chill Preparation Day and went out with the zone to travel around parts of the center of Valencia and the park, ending the day over by Oceanografic. Time is passing by super well here in the area and I´m continuing to love my time serving in this great city! The crazy moment of the week happened Saturday night as we were running very late to get to the church! We left the house of a lady that we are teaching and I thought quickly as to which direction would be the quickest to the Metro. I decided to take the unknown path and we started legging it in that direction. About 5 minutes go by and I realized that it would have been faster to go the other way, but we stayed on track. As we were going we ran into a man who called us over. He asked us why we hadn't called him and I was very confused, seeing as I did not recognize him, even though he swore that it was me who he had last spoken to. We instantly got his number and his address and he said that he would be coming to church the following day so we gave him the address to the chapel and make off. We say him the next day at church and he brought his wife and then we made a visit together with Clemxynn for later that night. When we started teaching them, the spirit was felt so strongly and they committed to baptism that night! I played that whole experience back with my companion about how had we not taken the way we did, or if we were not late from our visit. The Holy Ghost really was guiding us and we had no idea. We just went out and did, and the Lord blessed us with that wonderful experience! A bit of a downer this week was that I got very sick. Do you remember how the other Sunday I was feeling a bit under the weather? Yeah, well it got worse and by Tuesday I ended up calling Hermana Pace [the mission president's wife] and she told me to get some good rest and take some medicine. I did but then when I thought I would be okay I got sick by Wednesday night once again and then Thursday I was out for the entire day... It was the first time that I was completely bed-ridden on the mission but it turned out to be an incredible experience. For the first time ever in my mission I asked my companion for a Priesthood Blessing and I could hardly keep the tears back. I felt the power of the spirit and His love so strongly that for the rest of that time I could hardly put up with staying inside all day and not getting out to work. I knew that it was hurting the area but God knew what I would learn from this trial and now I´m back to running order and I´ll be sure to watch out for my health for the remainder of my mission. I know that God loves us and that he is constantly aware of our needs. All we need to do is call upon the powers of Heaven with a pure heart and real intention and he will answer our prayer. I love you all just ever so much, it makes me silly! -- Élder Xander Weston Schindler PS We have to go back, Kate..