[Dear family and friends,
I hope this letter finds you well and healthy. We missed hearing from Joseph yesterday -- but were very relieved to receive this letter today. Spring is certainly a busy time -- we are happy that we haven't seen any snow for about a week now! Spring finds things busy in our home: Weston is finishing his Freshman year of college this week, Daniel is continuing to do exciting things on the Trombone and with Science Olympiad, Andrew is working on his movie and the twins are learning and growing. Julie and I are busy trying to keep up with everyone!
If you have any message you would like me to send to Joseph, just reply to this message and I will send it to him!
Thank you for your friendship, your love and your prayers -- Joseph's editor (BWS)]
Yesterday (Easter Monday) was a large Holiday and so the internet place was closed. We were told to email today instead, so here is my weekly email home.
Yesterday, since we had very little to do, we cleaned the apartment. Since we have ongoing cleaning checks, we would have done so anyway, but that managed to fill up about two hours of our time. Please be aware, our apartment was rather clean before, we just elected to mop and scrub things, plus we were up to clean the apartment stairwell, so we did that too. Then Elder Bown packed (we do not know for sure yet, but President Irwin told him that there is a 99 percent chance that he is leaving Zlín next week) to take advantage of our free time. I started going through a few things and even discovered a few old letters. I found one thing that I need to correct. At one point I said that Třebíč is the smallest city in the ČR [Czech Republic] with missionaries in it. [Trebic is where Joseph served before he moved to Zlin.] That is false. There exist two other cities that are smaller, which used to have sisters in them, but now have Elders. What I should have said was that Třebíč was the smallest city with Elders in it. Now you can rest easy knowing the truth of more things.
Also, thank you for everyone who has sent me mail. It has been greatly appreciated.
I have transfers next week, so I will email on Wednesday of next week.
This week has gone well. It has rained a couple times. On Sunday we walked home for about twenty minutes in the rain after a lesson, which started just minutes after I said "aspon neprší" or "at least it is not raining". Then it came down ferociously. We shared Elder Bown's umbrella. I was rather wet by the time we arrived home however. It was a good day, though. Three of the people we are teaching were at church and the lesson we were teaching to Tonda (Tony) Malina right before coming home went rather well.
On Saturday Elder Bown and I went to a smaller village named Vesela where our Branch President, Roman Večeřa lives. He has been renovating it for quite sometime and we volunteered our services over the weekend. We moved a pile of wood pieces, and then we began chipping away at the cement-like siding on his house. This work required hammer and chisel and It is a lot harder than it looks. Both Elder Bown and I gained a renewed appreciation for the workers who quarried and sculpted the Salt Lake Temple, as seen in the film, The Mountain of the Lord. It hurts. We also discussed the fact how while physical labor is more physically demanding than missionary work, it was nice to be able to see our progress. I also promised to never complain about having to talk to people for three hours in a row again. That is much easier that chiseling at a wall for three hours.
Eva Kopčilová is still doing well, but is still having trouble with her efforts to stop smoking. She really wants to be baptized and quit smoking, but it is such an ingrained habit that she is having a hard time with it. It was so hearbreaking when she asked what would happen if she did not quit smoking. Neither of us had the heart to tell her she could not be baptized. She still has some time, but we are praying fervently for her to have the faith to continue.
I also was on exchanges in Uherské Hradiště last Thursday (which is one of the two cities smaller than Třebíč)(about 10,000 people). I was asked to demonstrate the HokyPoky for the children's English Class. I think I like it even less now than I did as a child, but I am more mature now and I did it with a smile.
Also, on Wednesday, we went up to the city of Kroměřiž to visit one of the families up there. The meeting went well and we were greatly strengthened by the testimony of Brother Mikulenka (he was one of the original converts to the church back during the time that the country was under communism). Then we had to run across town for our bus, which is one of my least favorite things to do as a missionary. However, it was a great evening and that day was the farthest I have run since the MTC (I ran in the morning too by the way).
I love you all and I hope this letter was written well. I think I have treated my letter writing lightly and was not impressed with the quality of some of the past letters that I have sent out. They should be getting better.
Love,
Elder Schindler.
Ps- Congratulations Rebekah on graduating number one at your BYU college! That is quite an acomplishment.
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