Letter dated 16Dec2013

Dear Family, The wait is over family, Fernando is getting baptized on the 21st of December! I got a call from the elders in Valencia last Friday and after much thought and consideration, he has finally decided to move out of the apartment until he gets married so that he can get baptized. So while the new Hobbit movie came out this last Friday, I think I had the better Friday hearing this news! Also, I wish you all, dad, Chris, and Nick, a wonderfully happy birthday for this Saturday as well! It´s going to be a special day for all of us! On Thursday we had our visit with Enrique and we invited him to be baptized on the 4th of January. He has been making incredible progress and now the next step for him is to come to church. We talked about our area in our Ward Council on Sunday and the president of the young women was excited to hear that he is a Tai Chi instructor and asked if he could come to teach people in the church for activities and that could be very helpful for him coming and getting to know more members of the church and feel that welcoming spirit that we all need! We are hoping the best for him and that he will come to know of these things! We also had companion exchanges this week after Zone Conference, which will be my last Zone Conference. It felt strange and this whole week has been filled with that weird feeling when you don´t feel nervous, excited, worried, but rather just normal. But is that normal? Either way, I´m sure that it´s mainly due to my stuffy nose that I´ve had for the past week, which is getting better now. I just really hope it doesn´t get worse for the next few weeks! I love you so much, -- Élder Xander Weston Schindler PS We have to go back, Kate...