Elder Joseph W. Schindler -- The Czech Republic

I have created a blog to make it easier to share information about Joseph and his mission to the Czech Republic. I hope you enjoy Joseph's experiences and reflections as much as we do!

Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Joseph's letter dated 12Sept2011

[Dear family and friends, I hope this note finds you well and healthy. We are back in school -- everyone seems happy! Our big news for this week was Weston's mission call -- to Barcelona, Spain. He will leave for the Missionary Training Center on January 4. From Joseph's letter, it looks like they will be able to see each other before Weston leaves!

Yesterday we had a new couple who have moved into Bay City (into our Ward) over for dinner. It turns out that Julie and Kristen are 2nd cousins! After dinner we received a very welcome call from a Sister McConkie from SLC who had been traveling in the Czech Republic -- working on a service project -- and she met Joseph and was very impressed with him. She called to tell us how radiant he was! How is that for a couple of wonderful "tender mercies"??

We wish you health, happiness and strength for this upcoming week.

If you have any messages for Joseph, send them to me and I will forward them to Joseph!

Love, Joseph's editor -- BWS]

Dear Family,
Weston Start Learning Spanish Now! One of the only regrets I have on my mission is not working harder and earlier with the language. [We think that Joseph worked pretty hard from Day #1! - Just our humble opinion.] I heard Mr. Calvo has offered to help you out with that. Take advantage of that. Try to get as fluent as you can before the MTC [Missionary Training Center] and when I say fluent, I do not mean just a few words. Do as much as you can to learn Spanish. Study it, learn words, speak it and listen to it as much as possible. You will be that much more prepared then when you get to the mission field. So this is the only phrase I know is spanish, I hope you enjoy it. Somos represantanos del Senor JesuChristo, or Jsme zastupci Pana Ježiše Krista. Look it up, it will be fun. Also, ropa le puerta, which means "clothes the door". The first one is legit, the second is a joke.
So by the way, I will likely come home early to see Weston. I already talked to President Irwin, and he said that was fine. I will keep you posted, but we will most likely see each other. [How exciting!! BWS]
So this week was a lot of fun.
Elder Weaver and I worked hard this week. We did a lot of contacting, and when we were contacting, we talked to everybody. It was great.
Starting with almost nothing in the area has been quite an adventure, but we have taken advantage of it. We already dropped one investigator who would occasionaly meet, but has no interest in becoming a member of the church. Also, we have one left, Mr. C who is also putting off baptism, so we will see how he is doing at our next meeting with him in two weeks.
Our new investigators this week are amazing. The first, Mr. J, was found right at the end of the day and we set up a meeting for a couple days later. He came, took a Book of Mormon, and we have a meeting with him today in the evening with Brother D (one of the members), who, by the way, had a haircut last week. [I can tell there's a story behind this! BWS] Mr. D is a referral from our Zone Leaders and he is quite the guy. He just finished studies at college in Pardubice and he now working in Jihlava. He is a very normal, and appartently successful younger man and seems genuinely interested in the message. He does not really believe in God, but has many fears about his friends and family and we will be working on helping him learn how Christ and the church can help them and also help him understand why we are here on the earth. Our new Investigators number three and four are a married couple we found tracting when we had about forty extra minutes to go finding on Saturday. They answered the door and asked, "Are you Mormons?" We said "yes" and then the wife said, "well, we've been wanting to talk to the Mormons for a while now." We asked if we could come in and we taught a good lesson. They say they are not planning on being converted, but they are open to the message and I am very excited for them.
We have been so blessed this week and we have seen some simply amazing miracles and tender mercies. I cannot explain them all, but the Lord really does bless missionaries who take the command to "Talk to Everybody" seriously.
I love you all a lot. Thank you for your support and love and Weston, send me a note. I want to hear from you.
Love,
Elder Schindler

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