Letter dated 26Nov2012

Dear Family, Happy-Week-After-Thanksgiving! How are you all doing? I´m doing- FANTASTIC! We had a fantastic week and I believe that I´m going to be looking at several more weeks like this one in the future. In regards to Thanksgiving, I was blessed to be fed by a wonderful member from the USA who lives here with his family and they prepared an awesome meal for us on Thursday night! I have reason to believe it´s because you had the Elders over for dinner at home last week that we were blessed with this treat, so thank you! I forgot how good biscuits were and I actually ate a ton without stuffing myself. I usually always feel like I´m about to pass out when I eat Thanksgiving dinner, so I was good this time. Our baptism went swimmingly (literally) well and it was a great feeling for me to get back in the water personally ^_^! The service was fantastic and so many members showed up, it was fantastic. I´ll try to get photos from my companion and send them soon. We were disappointed to not see Nicol come to church for her confirmation yesterday, but we´ll be visiting them and going over just how important it is to receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. She´s great and I´m sure the family had something come up that was just unexpected, but we´ll be working hard nevertheless to get her to church this week. We are also incredibly excited to have two more baptisms this Saturday! They are two great girls, Yurimar from Venezuela and Carolina from Ecuador, and they are telling everyone about their baptism. The are really just honestly and sincerely excited for baptism! That would have to be the greatest miracle I saw last week. We had visited the girls two times and both times we asked them about how they felt about baptism and about the church as a whole. They had been taught by Elders a few months ago but then felt that they needed more time to develop their testimonies. In our second lesson with them we asked them once again how they felt about baptism, showing them the video of Jesus being baptized by John the Baptist, and we shared some great scriptures about baptism. We gave them a few seconds to think about it and they both said, individually, ´´Me gustaría´´ (which translates to ´´I would like that´´). As soon as they both said that we both just got huge smiles on our faces (well, they were already there, but they got bigger, that´s for sure!) and we started planning for their baptism. We suggested having it on the 8th of December but they both said ´´Do we really have to wait that long?´´ It kind of caught me off guard, but I knew that they had been taught everything before, had been coming to church regularly, and knew that it would be a blessing in their lives to take this step, so the sooner the better, right! They´ll be baptized on the 1st of December and we´re going to be working with the Ward a whole lot to bring the service together, which should be a great one. I´m so happy to be here on my mission! I've been keeping up the promptness of getting up on time as well. [Missionaries wake up at 6:30 AM.] We had some interesting days because we hardly had time to get to our apartment so we went throughout some of the days with little to no food, then we had our fast for the mission, but overall, we survived and we´re still operating at full capacity! Elder Wiggins is a great guy and we´re really working hard together to get our companionship unity down. We´re open with our feelings and if one of us does something that bothers the other, we tell each other and work on fixing it. I easily see many more blessing here in Terrassasaurus while we´re together and I´m positive that we´ll both see plenty throughout the rest of our missions. He has so much great energy that drives a great personality which I appreciate so very much. I´m excited for the rest of our time together. I´m thankful to have such a wonderful family and I hope that you all love me equally! I´m thankful for all of our opportunities we have in our lives and the blessings that we can receive when we are faithful and obedient. Muchas gracias por su amor y consuelo en mi vida y por todo de mis experiencias! Os quiero mas que puedo decir! Es un montón, a decir lo menos! Élder Xander Weston Schindler P.S. Here´s my new address! Élder Alexander Weston Schindler c/ d´egara 164 Nº 1,1 08225 Terrassa España If you send me anything, I would appreciate a dradle very much ;). But I don´t really want to buy a new camera. If Joseph doesn´t use his camera anymore and if it still works, I´d be down to having that one. If not, then I´ll just borrow my companion´s cameras for the next year. A cheap substitute camera would be nice, but I´d rather get other things, you know what I mean? Also, I see myself staying in Terrassa for a while now, so unless it changes in the future, send stuff (letters and packages) here and tell people via Facebook as well. Thanks! P.P.S. We have to go back, Kate. [Weston's random quote from Lost!]

Letter dated 19Nov2012

Dear Family, What an interesting and eventful first week in Terrassa. I know for sure that it´ll be difficult to top it, but hey, I´ll just let you know how the week went! Sadly, we didn't have a baptism this past Saturday.. he´s been in the hospital since Friday and he only has permission to allow family to into visit him. That was an extremely disappointing day when we heard what happened. We´re trying to find out more of the story, but we´re waiting until we can get in touch with him. We do, however, have a baptism for this Saturday which looks like it will be so good. Her two sisters were baptized two weeks ago and the whole family is incredible. They are from Ecuador and have been living here for a few years. They´re fantastic! It was also great to come to another area again and get to meet tons of people. I´m getting so much better at remembering names when I meet the person for the first time. I used to be the worst in the world but I've been getting so used to learning it within the first few moments of saying hello. Church was also a great day. It´s been the biggest chapel I've been in since... well, it´s the biggest I've been in my entire mission! I can´t wait to get to know the ward even better during the upcoming months! But this next part happened during the week... We had been away the entire day on Thursday and when we arrived at our apartment that night I realized something was missing... my camera. Just to point out, you can´t really misplace a camera of my magnitude. I went through ever emotion possible and every possibility of how it was stolen and I´m positive that our neighbors upstairs stole it. The reason for that is because we have a small patio in the back where all the apartments have back windows and people put their clothes to dry and wash and I´m positive that I could climb up into their apartment if I wanted to. Also, I discovered that they stole my tripod with the camera as well as my Pokedex but also... my milk. They came into our apartment and stole my milk! It was fun calling the police and the guy said ´´...hmmm, well, I can´t think of a solution for you..´´ because when we called we couldn't tell who could have done it for sure. I was thinking to myself ´´Well thanks a lot!´´ The thing that helped the most was the fact that I knew I was bringing the camera on my mission with possibilities that something could happen. I've had it for two years and now, I´m mostly sad that I won´t have the same chance to share the rest of my mission stories like I could have been able to. l have the majority of my photos saved so I´ll be sending those hopefully next week. I´m protecting our apartment like a beast right now as well so if anything else is missing, I´m going to make the police come down and search our neighbor's house. But oh well... I still have the photos so look forward to some Inca memories sometime in the future. Happy birthday Daniel! Sounds like you had a great weekend turning 18! I love you all! Did you know that? Élder Xander Weston Schindler

Letter dated 13Nov2012

Dear Family, Yes, it´s true. Today is Tuesday. I´m happy to be the bearer of news! So.. whether or not you put 1 and 1 together, I have been rescued from the island and am currently recuperating in my new area. Where is that you ask? None other than Terrassa (or Terrassasourus as I´ll be calling it from time to time (^_^) ) which is just a city located just north-west of Barcleona. I safely arrived back in Barcelona this morning and to say the least, it feels good to be back, yet it feels different. I haven´t had enough time here yet to say what it is, but it might just be the cold weather (that´s my bet) but now I have one more area that I´ve left behind and I´m truly going to miss ´lil Inca out in the islands. It was an experience and if I can say one thing that I accomplished it was that I got a far better grasp on this language! What a blessing! From what my new companion, Élder Wiggins, keeps telling me is that Terrassa is the best area in the mission! I´m coming in and for the first time I´ll be serving in a ward! It´s been half a day but Élder Wiggins and I will get along just fine during our time here (I´m praying that I´ll never ever say that I´m serving with a companion with whom I DON´T get along!). I recently passed my 10 month mark, coming closer and closer to the end of the slope but I already know that Terrassa is going to become one of my most memorable experiences of my life. Élder Wiggins, with 8 months in the mission, just sounds so excited when he talks about this city and with good reason! The members here, as he says, are fantastic! Not to mention they baptized two people in the area last Saturday and that we have two more fechas (dates for baptism) for the end of this week! Is it alright if I say that I´m stoked?! My last week in Inca was a good send off for me. I shared my testimony in church and had the chance to say good bye to all the good people of the branch. I also had the chance to say bye to Ricardo who should be getting baptized on the 24th and I pray all the best for him in these next couple of weeks. For my very last day in Inca we helped make cookies (about 88-90 of them! :P) for the birthday party of Cielo! I´d send pictures, yet alas, I forgot my pictures in my briefcase in the apartment. Oops, my bad. Also, I´m wanting to see more pictures of all of you, but in the meantime, I enjoyed the ones you shared of Central Park and of Zachary in the Philippines! My companion doesn´t have the address for letters at the moment, so you´ll just have to wait a week to get that. Letters to the mission office are still good, since I´m not incredibly far and it takes just one hour to get there from where we are stationed here in Terrassa. It´s nice! Ahh, I´m happy! Ya feel me! I love you more than words can say, but they´ll have to work for the moment.. :P Élder Xander Weston Schindler P.S. This is for Andrew. I heard you killed at the show this past weekend! I know you did (and I know that you know that you did) and I wish more than anything that I could see your plays! I´ll have to get a hold of recording I suppose in the future. You know, more than anything, this time is incredibly special for you to develop and become who you are meant to become. You rock. What kind of camera did mom get? Does it work for what you want to do? I can´t wait to hear from you! P.P.S. Daniel, I´ll keep my eye out for that missionary. That will be a great awkward moment to say ´´Hey, I know you. That´s right, you were at my Grandpas piano recital when you were waiting for your visa!´´ Haha! Tell me when you get your papers done too, bro! P.P.P.S. We have to go back, Kate. We have to go back to the island!

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!

Letter dated 2Oct2012

[Dear family and friends, here is the letter we received from Weston earlier today. He is back in Inca! As you can tell, he loves your letters and your notes. Reply to this letter with a response and I will forward it to Weston. Thank you EVERYONE for your support and prayers! Weston's editor - BWS] Dear Family, What a great last week! Not to mention what a great last transfer this has been. I can´t believe how fast the time is going by, but it definitely is moving and moving fast. Today I said good-bye to Elder Swenson once we both recieved our new companions and I feel like we are moving into the new chapter here on the island. Now that we have more Elders here in the island I´m excited to see what the new progress will be here in our areas; his in Manacor and mine back here in little Inca! My companion, Elder Batanero, is from Spain and he loves photography and many other thing that I enjoy as well. I´ll be getting to know him better and better during the next few weeks but I am especially excited to be learning all the Spanish during our time together! (Also, he is a magician, nicknamed The Magician´s Nephew by my ex-companion Elder Carlson. He´s rather quite tricky sometimes! I´ll basically be going up 100 notches higher, improving and critiquing my skills. He and I served in the Gerona district in our separate areas earlier in my mission, during my beginning months in the field. I feel like we´ll be able to have a new kind of experience here in the city different than what I´ve seen here before. He has been saying only positive things and is ready to help me work in the area, improve my speaking ability, and serve the Lord. I know that this will be a time to remember. I will also always remember the time I had with Elder Swenson. We really were able to connect and I honestly can say that he is one of the most humble people I have ever met. He brings a spirit with him that I would love to have everyone feel and his love for the people with kindness and understanding is incredible. He´s going to have a great time working in Manacor and both areas will become even better in the coming month, I know this for a fact. One miracle I was blessed to see happened after our district meeting last week. That night we had a visit with our friend Ema from Brazil and we were wrapping up the lesson but then finally I had to ask what was troubling her. She told us and basically said that for the past month she had no intention to be baptized in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints because she was getting ready for her communion in the Catholic church.. that was hard news, because she made no mention of this previously and it caught us by surprise. At first we basically thought that we had thrown out all of our time spent with her and we took some precious moments to talk to her, address doubts, and make sure we knew exactly where she was coming from. It was sad when we left that lesson and for the rest of the day I felt heavy.. but then finally the next day we went to introduce ourselves and meet a boy whom we had contacted a week before. We arrived and sat down with him, Alex, and his girlfriend, Shela. As the lesson progressed, every heavy feeling I felt left me from the previous night. The simple lesson and the two new kids we were teaching reminded me how powerful our message is and why we´re here on the Earth. I then realized that even if some of these people don´t want to progress with us at this moment, we have already laid an incredible foundation and that they will never forget us in the future. By the end of the week, knowing that I would be leaving the area, we had a visit with Ema and I was able to say farewell and there were no negative feelings and we had a great chance to say farewell. I´m grateful for Jesus and His message and I know that everyone that we meet has an impact from us, one way or another, and that it´s important for us to not get carried down into the pits of woe, so to say. But yes, that was a lot I just wrote you; now stop reading and get on with it! Oh, and I should be sending some pictures in the upcoming week or two! YA! Os quiero, Élder Xander Weston Schindler P.S. I sent the application, and I´ll send it fast when I get it again. [Application for absentee ballot!] Just be sure to give the people the appropriate amount of stamps for the return send off! P.P.S. That´s really weird what happened on my Facebook... I know my leg´s broken but they didn´t let me go home.. They actually told me that I had to stay a few more years in Spain and wait for it to recover! (^_____^) [Weston is talking about a prank one of his friends pulled on Facebook. Weston's leg is NOT really broken!] P.P.P.S. I will be here in Inca for at least 6 more weeks, maybe more. My mailing address is still the same one, and I did get some really awesome letters from friends, so if you read this message, you know that I got it!

Letter dated 24Sept2012

[Dear friends and family, I hope that Fall is treating you well! Here is our latest letter from Weston. He loves hearing from you -- so send a reply and I will pass it along to him! It is so good to hear him sounding so positive! Best wishes! Weston's editor - BWS] Dear Family, Oh, what a good week. For the past while, we´ve been hitting some walls with people but I feel like we finally jumped over quite a few. We had an invitation from our Zone Leaders as a district for every compaionship to get over 20 lessons during the week. Now, I´m not a numbers guy, but Manacor/Inca are quite a bit harder than other areas. But we made a plan that we would meet that goal and guess what? We were able to teach 22 lessons this week! A huge improvement to what the area really ever sees. We also had the great chance to spend time with President Pace for a day, since he came out for our Branch Conference. It was a great pleasure to have a moment to work with our president. It was a fantastic opportunity for me to learn and gain better insight for the work we´re doing here on the island and I feel that I learned a tremendous amount from him. It was especially great while we were visiting a less active member of the Church, Jorge. I was able to see, personally, a great change from him during our visit with our president. He really does want to improve and get back onto the right path and his entire family is special beyond description. We´ll be continuing to visit him and I know for a fact that he wants to see President Pace again as soon as he can. A little bit about Jorge, he has been all around the world, is from Colombia, has been to Japan, all of Europe, Canada, and is learning about 5 different languages, including English from us. He´s fantastic! Most Colombians I know are great people, including a family in Inca that we visit every week. They are just full of love and are just so caring. Let Adam Jensen know that, please! The biggest miracle that we were able to experience happened directly after our time with President Pace. We were walking down the street on the narrow sidewalks and we saw a family coming towards us in the opposite direction. Elder Swenson quickly and quietly said, ´´Let´s talk to them´´ and as soon as we approched them we stopped them. We told them who were were, that we are missionaries of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and that we have a message, one that families can live together forever. The family consisted of the mother and father and 5 children, the oldest being a 9 year old girl and all the rest just running around in every direction. We asked them if it would be possible to visit them in their home. They looked at each other, then said ´´Of course!´´ and gave us their address. We then asked when would it be possible to see them again and the following Sunday worked for them so we set up a time and went on our way. That Sunday we went to the visit, shared the Book of Mormon and the Proclamation to the Family and were able to establish a great friendship with them. They are a little bit rougher around the edges, but all the kids running around reminded me so much of my childhood that I loved every distraction that was going on during the lesson. We saw a blessing and we have plans to see them tomorrow evening. I love you all a ton, I miss you all a bunch, I pray for you all the time, Élder Xander Weston Schindler P.S. During a lesson with a new member we were reading 1 Nephi 2 and at the part where it describes Nephi as being youthful yet large in stature, President Pace took that opportunity to say that Elder Swenson and I personify that description; me being youthful (for real, like a little 10 year old sometimes..) and Elder Swenson since he is a pretty big guy! I thought I´d share that funny experience I had. It´s going into my journal!

Letter dated 17Sept2012

[Dear family and friends, here is Weston's letter that I just received! If you have a message for Weston, simply reply to this note - and I'll send your note to Weston. He LOVES hearing from you! I hope everyone is having a wonderful U.S. Constitution Day! Sincerely, Weston's editor - BWS] Dear Family, I hope that you all had a safe and well protected week. I´ve been well here we had a good week, again! Last week, for our Preparation Day we went to Palma and played an awesome game of vollyball with the other missionaries on the island. Elder Swenson and I were with our Zone Leaders and we tore up the court! It was great to just get outside and break a sweat while NOT wearing a white shirt and tie! Very, very relaxing.. then later we went on splits with the Zone Leaders the next day till Tuesday and I had a really great time in Palma. I was with Elder Kane and he reminds me a lot of Donald and I can see Donald having that same mission spirit and energy when he gets to Scotland. It was also a good break from my area, since it is a hard area but we keep our heads up and are working on both areas, so we´re stretched, but nothing so bad that I´d complain. It was just good to see how a strong area operates and I was able to borrow some ideas that I´ll be using in the future. Tonight we have two Family Home Evenings [a meeting with families that focuses on the family] that we´ll be going to and they should both be really fun. I made some brownies for one of them and yes, they taste fantastic! We´ll be switching back to Manacor tomorrow and then be coming back this Friday. Now that we are getting into this system we should be seeing a lot of changes happening and I´m excited to see them! Next week I´ll be giving another talk (YEAH) [this will be a talk (sermon) in Sacrament Meeting] but this time ít´ll be in Inca. I´ll let you know how it goes! Cuídense, Élder Xander Weston Schindler P.S. I can fax my ballot once I get it, what´s the number I have to send it to? Thanks for getting that all ready daddy!