Joseph and friends at cool Cathedral

Joseph's letter dated 25Jul2011

[Dear family and friends,

Here is the short letter we received from Joseph today. It sounds like he is happy! He loves hearing from you. Reply to this note - and I will forward your reply to him. Thank you for your prayers and your support of our Joseph. We hope you are staying cool!!!

In preparing a talk that I gave yesterday I came up with an interesting tidbit of information. My great, great, great grandfather Christian Jenson and his 14 year old son, my great, great Grandfather Andrew Jenson came through Michigan from Port Huron to Chicago on July 23rd -- 145 years ago! My great, great Grandpa Owen Roberts and his daughter Catherine, my great, great Grandma came through Detroit during the summer -- 147 years ago! It's fun to find these connections!

Love, Joseph's editor - BWS]

Dear Family,

First of all, Brother M did not get baptized. He was completely ready though and has already passed his interview. Just with logistics, it was decided that this coming Saturday would be the better day for the baptism. He is doing fabulously and is very excited for his upcoming baptism.

I remembered my address. Here it is:

Elder Joseph W. Schindler

Máchova 663/24
37001 České Budějovice 7
Czech Republic

I have been forgetting that for a while, but finally found a letter in the box with the entire address. So there you go. Just put my name at the beginning and end it with the Czech Republic and all should be well. [Don't send any packages to this address; he may not receive packages at this address.]

We are seeing some good things in our area as well. Brother M is progressing well (after all he is preparing for baptism) and we are meeting every day with him to make sure he is as prepared as possible. The spirit we feel at those meetings is very helpful for the rest of our days throughout our various activities.

We also met a professor from BYU last Saturday, and Sunday when he came to church. We were walking away from the main square after having peeked in at the Bohemia Jazz festival going on, when from behind us came the amazing call of, "hey Elders!". He was in town for the Jazz festival and we talked for a little while before showing him where we would meet for church the next day. It was a nice, little experience.

Well I have to run. I love you. Enjoy the picture, it is from a trip we went on with a couple of members from the US and Prague. [You can see the picture in Joseph's blog at: http://josephsmission-brent.blogspot.com/ ]

Love,
Elder Schindler

P.S. Elder Darrington and I wave a hello back to the Andersons. [The Andersons were the missionary couple in Joseph's mission home who were there earlier in his mission. They are now back in Rexburg, ID. They kept very good track of our missionary kids! Did I mention how much we, as parents, love and appreciate our missionary couples!!]

Joseph and companions - wet

Joseph's companion after rainstorm

Joseph after rainstorm

Joseph's letter dated 19Jul2011

[Dear friends and family, we received this letter on Tuesday, but I haven't been able to forward it until today because I was with our Young Men on a High Adventure camping experience on South Manitou Island (which was a fabulous experience)! I will be posting a few more pictures on the blog.

I hope everyone is staying COOL, safe and happy.

Forward your notes to Joseph to me - and I will forward them to him!

Much love, Joseph's editor - BWS]

Hello Everyone,

So my preparation day is today, to begin with. We had a zone conference yesterday and so the schedule was changed to accommodate that change. We had an exceptional conference and we received some welcome and helpful direction from our leaders. Our Zone Leaders spoke and presented to us the importance of being bolder in giving people commitments and inviting people to repent. I think the most helpful part of their time though, was the introduction; when they discussed our own commitment that we made as missionaries to serve with all our heart, might, mind and strength. Both of the Zone leaders are very strong, spiritual missionaires and their love and dedication to their callings was felt.

The Assistants also spoke on the absolute neccessity of working with members and learning to love and serve the members here in the Czech Republic. They exhorted us to build releationships with our local members and to show them that we are dedicated servants of God. Then they urged us to help them gain a testimony of missionary work and to encourage them to share the blessings of the gospel with their friends and family.

President Irwin also reminded and taught us of the necessity of providing those we teach with excellent, and spiritually uplifting experiences at church. He explained that it is our responsibility as missionaires to help people feel as comfortable as possible so that they are free to experience the blessings of feeling the Holy Ghost during church and Sunday School.

In other news, Brother M is getting baptized on Saturday. He has not smoked for several days now and is right on track to continue not to. He is very excited for baptism and is even starting to organize and prepare his family history. We will start to prepare him to go to the temple next week and we are so excited for him.

Elder Darrington and Elder Heath are great companions. Elder Darrington is finishing his mission on a high note with dedicated study and a good, strong desire to share our message with the Czech people. Elder Heath just talks to everyone. This is an amazing companionship and a pleasure to work with them. The picture I sent was taken after we ran from the train station last week to the building in the pouring rain for a lesson we had scheduled. We were soaked.

I still do not have my address Mom. I know the house number, but I still do not have the rest of the information. I will try to get it to you sometime.

However, I have to go. I love you all and miss you. I will be reading Words of Mormon today. Please let me know where you all are.

Love,
Elder Schindler

Joseph in front of cool church

[Dear family and friends, I hope that this note finds all of you well and safe. I hope you are enjoying your summer! Thank you so much for the prayers and support you provide to Joseph. He loves hearing from you! If you have a note you would like me to forward to him, just send it and I will get to to him!

Joseph sent some more pictures which I will be putting up on the blog. Check them out later this afternoon -- at:

http://josephsmission-brent.blogspot.com/

Have a great week! Joseph's editor - BWS]

Dear Family,

So it has only been a couple days since we last spoke [via a very short letter from Joseph!], but I will attempt to bring you all up to speed on everything going on here.

Elder Heath is doing really well. Even as a relatively new missionary, he speaks very well and has an incredible desire to speak with people and share the gospel and his testimony. I think his most impresive quality is his dilligent study. He almost always has his little notebook out and writes down almost every word he sees and hears and then he learns them all. He is a great missionary with whom I am fortunate to be serving here.

Our district [the missionaries in Joseph's city] is also really great. We now have six missionaries down here, two threesomes. I think that I attached a picture of all of us together earlier. The sisters are really great sisters and they are great to work around.

Brother M is almost ready for baptism, he just needs to drop smoking completely. Right now he averages about half a cigarette every day or every other day, but as soon as he stops, he should be completely ready to be baptised. His current baptismal date is for the 23rd of this month and we are praying that he will make the date. He is such a kind and humble man and it has been a pleasure to share the gospel with him. He continues to enjoy church and the activities and even has collaborated quite a list of his ancestors for the genealogy-temple class the the Sister Missionaries have been teaching.

I am feeling well. This past week has been very warm, but that really has not been too bad; I have just been sweating a lot. This week we have to go back to Prague for a conference, and then we all have a Zone conference the next Monday, so it will be a while before we have a normal, regular working week. Despite that, I am looking forward with energy to the upcoming transfer and finding out how to make the most of it.

By the way, I will be reading Jacob 5 tomorrow, as I finally reached that point in my reading. Where are you all reading together? [We just finished 2 Ne 28.] I know I have not been as exact with this as I wanted to be, but I would really like to start sharing some insights, or at least the spirit of reading together from the Book of Mormon.

On a slightly less spiritual note, I will also have to make a trip to the dry cleaners today in order to clean a pair of slacks that were accidentally covered with what I hope was dog droppings last week when Elder Darrington and I took a short walk in the woods while returning to the city center from an appointment. I am not totally sure how it happened, but I think I stepped in it and then hit my leg with my shoe. This will be the first time I have to go to the Dry Cleaners to actually clean something. In the past it has only been to ensure that I do not smell too badly when I talk with people.

I love you all very much. I love your support and think of you often. I would send you my address, but I have forgotten to write it down for a few weeks now. Maybe next week. Have a wonderful week and be safe. Oh, and thank you for all the updates on Weston´s mission papers. Do not forget to continue to fill me in.

S laskou,
Elder J Schindler

(or, as my companions say, Shneidler, which is not as funny as they seem to think)

Joseph's letter dated 7Jul2011

[Dear friends and family, here is a SHORT letter from Joseph. It sounds like he is having a very busy week. We hope that everyone had a safe and fun 4th of July holiday. We enjoyed our visit to Wisconsin to visit with Anne and her family. Send me any notes you would like me to forward to Joseph. Stay cool and stay safe! Joseph's editor - BWS]

Hello,

I am limited on time, but I still love you. Weston, Happy Birthday. [Weston turned 19 yesterday!] Keep me posted in detail with your papers and teeth. [Weston is at the Dentist's office right now! He will have his wisdom teeth extracted in three weeks -- which will be when he can turn in his papers for his mission!]

So I am still with Elder Darrington this transfer, but since he will be going home three weeks early this transfer, I am also with an Elder Heath. I like him so far. He is from Massachusetts, speaks Spanish and speaks Czech really well. I think we will have a great transfer. The sisters are also serving in a threesome, so there are six of us down here in ČBud. [We understand from the mission office that Elder Heath is a brand new Elder - and Joseph is training him and is serving as the District Leader! We love getting notes from the couple missionaries from Joseph's mission!]

I love you still, but I do have to run.

Love,

Elder Schindler

I will write more on Monday. [He better!]