Joseph's letter dated 31Jan2011

[Dear family and friends, this is the letter we received today from Joseph. I hope you enjoy it! For most of us who are bracing for the BIG STORM of the season -- BEST WISHES! Joseph's editor - BWS]

Hello Family,

I am writing you from Prague today. I went up to Olomouc last night and then rode an early train here so that I can renew my visa and stay for another year or so. [Hopefully not more than another year! BWS] Prague is very pretty. I really think Prague is my favorite city that I have served in. Whenever I come back, I always feel like I am coming home (in a good way, not a bad, distracting way). I came over with my zone leaders, Elder Tall and Elder Weser, as well as Elder Peterson (not my old companion) who live in Olomouc, Olomouc, and Ostrava, respectively. Elder Tall, Elder Peterson and I were all in the same group, so we will be renewing our visas today. Elder Weser will go and eat at TGI Fridays.

It was funny last night. Elder Tall had a large jar of Jiff peanut butter at his apartment and I used some for a dinner last night. It tasted way better than the peanut butter here, even the expensive Skippy brand. I am not saying that you should send me a large jar of Jiff, but I am saying that if you did, I would not complain. At all. Although, please do not send me more candy. I really do not need that. I think I made myself a little sick around Christmas time.

Eva Štulerová is still doing amazingly well. She has been moving and will be moving this week, so we have not had a lot of time to meet with her. She also does not really want us to help her move. That mentality seems rather prevalent here. We still try though.

We had three hours of Church yesterday. Sacrament meeting and then Sunday School lasted for an hour and forty minutes. I like Brother Gaba a lot, he just likes to talk...and talk...and talk. Great man though. He gave Elder Bown and me chocolate that has alcohol as one of the ingredients. It was likely cooked off, but we really are not all that sure.

Our apartment looks great. The new paint job really makes it look good, and since we had to move all of the furniture before they started painting, we were able to rearrange the rooms. I think it looks neater and cleaner. Now we are just working on cleaning out the closet of junk. Missionaries have left a lot of things for us, some of which is rather filthy.

I did end up going to the Doctor last week. I feel all the way better by now; I got some medicine and that helped out a bunch. I will go back for a check up in a couple days. Everything looks good though.

My pants are starting to wear out again. I think I can get them fixed again for about five dollars, but I am not sure. The other ones that match the suit coat should last for still a while. I think I can at least make it to summer before any of the wear starts to be noticeable (do not worry Mom, all of my clothes look good. You can only tell that they are worn when you look on the insides (insert smilely face)).

Elder Bown and I are doing fairly well. He is not really one for pranks or silly behavior, so little satisfaction is gotten from locking him outside. He just reminds me that he has keys too and that he does not react to things like that (note: This was done at a glass door. We could both see and hear one another).

On a miscellaneous note: I found cottage cheese...finally. I really have not been looking all that hard, but I finally found out what it looks like and where to buy it. However, I still do not know the name for it in Czech because it just said Cottage Cheese in English on the container. Oh well. It still tastes as amazing as I remembered it.

Well, that is about all that is new with me. I actually almost ran out of money last month, for the first time on my mission. I think it was all the McDonalds runs. However, we got new money, which is great because a train to Prague costs about twenty dollars one way. Not too bad though, I can fairly easily work it into the budget at this point.

Love you all,
Elder Schindler

Joseph's letter dated 24Jan2011

[Dear family and friends, here is the letter we received this morning from Joseph. We hope that all of you are staying warm and safe! It's been below -0- here in Michigan. The good news is that we didn't have the Polar Bear camp out during last weekend when it was 20 below! Joseph's editor - BWS]

To whom it may concern,

We had an interesting week this week. I was a little sick, so that put a stumbling block into some of our contacting time, but all in all, I think we had a good week.

Sister Štulerová is still doing amazingly well. We taught her about the Word of Wisdom last Tuesday, and we gladly, and somewhat surprisingly, found out that she already lives perfectly by it. She does not smoke, drink, etc.. and we found out that she is rather health conscious, which likely led her to not take these substances. Unfortunately, she has been sick for the past few days. We are praying for her and hope that she recovers soon.

We are teaching an older man named Gejza. Missionaries had been meeting with him for several years. He has heard all the lessons, and even all the discussions (what the lessons used to be back before the dawn of time). He is a rather nice and kind man, but he is currently homeless and has some other issues that we are not quite sure how to work with. [For those of us who were missionaries when we taught "discussions" before the dawn of time, we'll probably feel very old!]

Our apartment is going to be painted this week, so we get to move some of our furniture and study at the church building for a few days. Elder Bown wanted to move everything about a meter away from the wall; I said that a yard would probably be better. I thought it was hilarious, he found it mildly amusing.

I drank about twelve liters of apple juice this week. I normally do not drink juice, but because I was sick, I had that recommended as a cure.

Elder Bown went to go have a cavity filled at the dentist today. He was not pleased when they told them they would not fill the hole in his tooth because it was not a cavity, but rather had been caused by the other tooth in his mouth grinding into it. I thought his reaction was funny, as he is not too pleased to have a hole in his tooth.

Also, since I was ill, I was finally able to finish my workbook exercises for my Czech language levels. I have been putting them off for a while, but since I had time, I worked in them for several hours over a couple days.

Well, thats all for now. Love you.

TTFN,
Elder Schindler

Joseph's letter dated 17Jan2011

[Dear friends and family, we hope your new year is progressing splendidly! We hope you are enjoying Joseph's letters as much as we are. It is good to see his humor coming through. If anyone has a message for Joseph, let me know and I'll pass it along! Joseph's editor - BWS]

Dear Everybody,

Well, I hate to talk about something I do not have the ability to change or improve, but the weather here has been rather warm. It rained a couple times even. Once, in particular, Elder Bown and I were walking down a river walk here in Zlín and about three minutes after we turned around, it started to rain rather hard. Elder Bown was prepared, but I was not, as I had left my umbrella at home. However, we went back home and retreived it, and I also put on a long trenchcoat I found in the closet of our apartment. I also found a movable pull-up bar, but much to our chagrin, three of our door frames are too large for it, and three are too small.

Later that night (please note, the following story is fairly gross and I hope it does not distract from the spirit of my letter, but this was rather interesting) we went to go visit a member, and she took our umbrellas to put them in the tub, in order that, or at least I thought, so that they could dry out. However I got my umbrella back soaking wet, thinking that it had likely rested on its side in a puddle in the tub. It smelled faintly of cat (she has two), and so I kept it at the end of an extended arm until we arrived home. Upon arriving home, I found that it smelled very strongly of cat, because, I am rather sure, one of them urinated on the umbrella and then it sat for several minutes in the feline liquid. It stunk up our apartment for the next day, and I spent about twenty minutes scrubbing it before going to bed. That was probably the grossest thing that has happened to me on my mission. Hope it does not happen to you. Although now, it smells of Adidas body wash (Team Victory) and slightly of cat urine.

Well, I am doing well. I am healthy and my meat consumption has plummeted, although, I have not quite made the change to actually being a vegetarian. (Joseph's companion is a vegetarian.) I think I have said this before, but I really think that I need to stop buying Nutella. [I think this is like chocolate peanut butter.] I think that really needs to change.

We are teaching a really amazing woman. Her name is Eva Štulerová and she was a member referal from a long-time member here named Sister Palusková. We do not get very many of such referalls, but Sister Štulerová is one of the most prepared people I have ever taught on my mission. She loves what we are teaching her and she accepted a commitment to baptism on our second meeting with her last Tuesday. She loves church (even though I was one of the speakers (actually, I did a good job. I spoke about covanents and the protection we have through covenant making)) and she is very excited to learn all about the things we have to teach. Meeting her was really a tender mercy from the Lord. It has been a wonderful experience to meet with her.

I am a little lost in where we are reading together in the Book of Mormon. [Joseph and we are trying to coordinate our reading of the Book of Mormon together!] Could someone write me and let me know where you all are? That would be great. To be honest, I kind of slacked off in reading in the Book of Mormon at night, because I am supposed to read Preach My Gospel in Czech as part of the mission study program (I think because it is shorter). Let me know though, I want to get back on track.

I do have a request. Could you ask the Elders in Bay City how many Elders and Sisters are in the mission there and then how many Zones and districts they have, and about how many missionaries are in each zone and district? I have been curious for a little bit.

Have a great week.

Love,
Elder Schindler

Joseph's letter dated 10Jan2011

[Dear friends and family, here is the letter that we received from Joseph this morning. We hope you enjoy it! We also hope that the New Year is treating you well! Joseph's editor - BWS]

Dear Family and Friends,

I have a few more minutes today then I had last week, and I hope that I will be able to use them well.

Zlín is still rather beautiful. Almost all of the snow has melted in the past few days and it has been quite a bit warmer than it had been for the past two months. It is nice, but it was interesting to go tracting in the rain last Saturday in the middle of January. It was a good experience to write in my journal, although I likely forgot to write it down.

Elder Bown is a very patient missionary. Hopefully I have not done anything to require him to use that gift, but he is very patient and sincerely full of hope. He really wants to see all of the people we work with (many less active members) come back to full activity in the church. He has already been here for almost five months and he really has a wonderful love for the people and the city. It is a pleasure to be serving with him.

The main square is much further from my apartment than in Třebíč. I mention this fact to other missionaries, who then get a little mad at me, stating that although it may be about five times further, one hundred meters is not much further than the twenty meters it was in Třebíč. Then I just smile as they struggle to understand my humor. The church building is right off of the main square and just around the corner from McDonalds (I have been there about four or five times already, once three days in a row). I should probably stop going so often, but it just tastes so good.

The branch here is rather wonderful. We have a great branch president, President Večeřa. He has been a member of the church for about six years, but I can tell that he applies the principle that he is trying to impress on the members, including daily scriptures study. I have rarely seen men who can speak as well and fluidly during church about the gospel and from the scriptures. He really is a giant spiritually (as well as physically; he is rather tall and very muscular (he works in construction of some sort)).

We are building up the area here, so unfortunately, I do not have very many other people to describe to you. One family that we are teaching is rather great, they have two young boys and they lived in Australia for several years, but I still do not know a lot about them. Although I did play some sort of Monkey board game with them last Monday after our meeting. It was rather fun, but we really could not justify playing for more than a couple of minutes.

We were also pleasently surprised that one of the member we home teach brought a friend to our lesson. We taught them about the Restoration, and then this member brought her friend to church. We have second meeting with them tomorrow and we are looking forward to that a lot.

If you have any more information on Joseph Schindler, especially about his life before leaving Europe, please send it my way. [This is Joseph's great great grandfather who was born in Bohemia -- which is part of the Czech Republic.]

I love you and good luck with everything this week.

Love,
Elder Schindler

ps- I live in Zlín , not Zlin (there is a difference, although it really does not matter). [This is important to those of us who have a keyboard that can actually make this mark!]

Joseph's letter dated 3Jan2011

[Dear friends and family, here is the letter we received today from Joseph. I hope you enjoy it! We wish all of you a wonderful and successful New Year! May 2011 be a year of positive growth and adventure for you!

Dear (insert your own name and/or your personal demographic here),

Well, first of all. I have about six minutes to write this, so this will be short.

I love Zlín. It is great here and way pretty. I looks a lot like how I always imagined Saginaw would look (note that I have not ever really spent a lot of time in Saginaw so I let my imagination take over a little bit). The sun is shinning today and that is great. Elder Bown is great, and is a positive and humble missionary. To clarify, he is an American citizen, but he grew up in Germany and Switzerland and speaks German fluently. He is excited too, because in the city next to us, the new missionary there is a German and so they like to speak together at district meetings. However, this puts the rest of us at a disadvantage, so I am often called upon to translate (please note that this means that I usually call upon myself to translate) and I do my best to make up interesting and dynamic conversations. In my "translations", their preferred topics of conversation include camels, thievery, genetically modified hampsters and their sisters).

Family, could you please send me everything that you know about Joseph Schindler [This is Joseph's great, great grandfather who was born in the Czech Republic and who immigrated to the U.S.] (the one whose grave is in SLC and is Austrian, not the rather dashing American who is currently living in Zlín). Aunt Susan and I talked a little about him before I came on my mission, but could you send me everything we have (birthdate, place of birth, everything) this week. Could I have this before Monday? Please do this, this week. I would appreciate it.

I am healthy and well, but I do have to go. Next week the letter home might be better, but I am not making any promises. Thanks to everybody who wrote me, which was everybody back home. I think you all get an A for effort. [One of our family's New Years' resolutions!]

Love you all,

Elder Schindler