Joseph's letter dated 19Dec2011

[Dear family and friends,

It is with sadness and excitement that I send you what will probably be the last letter we receive from Joseph in the Czech Republic. While the two years has seemed long, it has also seemed short. It has been a wonderful blessing for our family to have Joseph serving in the Czech Republic. We have learned to love these amazing people we have met through Joseph's letters. We are excited to see Joseph -- a week from today!

Thank you for your friendship and your support during these past two years. Thank you for your kind and supportive notes to Joseph.

We love you and wish you a wonderful Christmas season. Remember that the Spirit of Christmas is the Spirit of Christ!

Much love, Joseph's editor - BWS]

Dear Family,

It finally snowed in Jihlava, while we were tracting, and so I was covered in a beautiful blanket of snow for most of our door approaches. I hoped that I would look pitiful enough for people to let me in, but we were only knocking on doors for about 45 min before we had to run for a meeting nearby. I greatly preferred the snow to the sleet that we had been having earlier in the week however and now we do have snow on the ground. We did not get a lot though, but it may snow again in the next week.

I am doing well here. It is not too cold and so I am managing to survive.

I really am enjoying serving with Elder Story. He and I get along really well and he is one of the favorite companions with whom I have served. We are working well together. By the way, Elder Ingalls wants to thank you dad for the note that you wrote him. He thinks that you are cool. He wants to meet you when we do the road trip to Canada after our missions (more details to come). [Elder Ingalls is from Minnesota!]

I got a haircut again today and once again i am reminded that I am balding.

Our area is doing well here. We are meeting with a wonderful man named Brother F, who is just eating up the Book of Mormon and everything we give him. We gave him a conference Liahona [this is the International magazine published by the church] last time and he liked it, even though the first article he read was the sustaining of Church leaders. He liked the other talk that President Uchtdorf gave a lot more. He even came to the branch Christmas party last Friday and got along well with the members.

We also visited the older couple that we found a couple weeks ago. We ended up visiting on their daughter's birthday, and even talked to her on the phone. She was very pleased to hear that we were meeting with them and encouraged us to be patient with her "stubborn" father.

I am looking forward to hearing from you on Sunday. [We are excited to talk to Joseph on Christmas morning!] I hope that time works out for you. If not, just call at a different time after one oclock my time.

Love,
Elder Schindler

Joseph's letter dated 12Dec2011

[Dear family and friends, here is the letter that we received from Joseph today. We can't believe that he will be home in 15 days!

If you have a Christmas greeting you would like me to pass along to him -- send it as a reply - and I'll get it to him next Monday! He LOVES hearing from all of you.

I hope that you are finding Christ in your holiday preparations.

Love, Joseph's editor - BWS]

Dear Family,

So, I do not really know what to say. I have had plenty of time today to write, but I am feeling very lazy and don't know what to write. I even wrote you a letter this morning since I could not sleep, but there were not very many precious jewels of knowledge in that letter either. I will make a championship effort though for the next fifteen minutes and try to give you something worth reading.

First of all, this week has been very warm. There were a few cold days, when we had rain that turned to snow and then to rain again. It was cool to watch but not to stand in. After that though, it has been feeling like spring. I am hoping for snow right around Christmas time. It is pretty, but I don't want it to fall soon enough that I have to walk in it. I am warm enough though and all is well in that regard.

We found some great new people this week. One was found the week before, but we have already met twice and he, Brother F is progressing well. He is reading quite a bit and is very interested in the message. Finally contacting at the end of the day on a Saturday night paid off (I always knew it would, but it finally came). We also found an older married couple, whose daughter was baptized about fifteen years ago here in Jihlava and now lives in California. They had a wonderful poster of the Salt Lake temple in their dining room. We have not been able to find out if they were ever officially taught the gospel, but we are starting to teach them. They are very sweet and wonderful. They even had one of the old, original copies of the Book of Mormon in Czech that said KM on the front (Kniha Mormonova) that implied that it was a book about Karl Marx, a misconception that the early church members took advantage of. I actually asked if I could have it since it means a lot to missionaries here. They gave it to me, with some apple strudel.

We are very happy to be working with Brother J, our branch mission leader. He is doing a wonderful job helping us and helping the work progress here in Jihlava.

Elder Story is great. He and I are loving our time together, although I think we tease each other and talk about basketball more than we should. We are seeing a lot of success together though and I have been really grateful for the opportunity to work with him, even if he is from Utah (just to clarify, that was a joke).

I am well and happy, but unfortunately Ginger Ale Milka chocolate has been on sale at Tesco (Euro version of Walmart, or Meijer) and so I am not sure how long the well and healthy description will be able to apply. We will be having a branch party this Friday at the Page's home (the senior couple here) and are looking forward to that.

I love you all a lot. Keep me in your prayers and I am looking forward to hearing from you next week.

Love,
Elder Schindler

ps-Ginger ale is good, but root beer is better. hint. hint.

pps-You can buy Oreos here now.

Joseph and his District!

Joseph's district - Dec. 2011

Joseph in the kitchen!

Joseph's letter dated 5Dec2011

[Dear friends and family,

I hope you enjoy this short letter from Joseph. While it's short, it let's us know that Joseph is actively working til the end. I can't believe that these letters will soon end. We are so excited to see Joseph again at the end of this month! (December 27)

If you have a message for Joseph (which he would love), just send it as a reply and I will make sure he receives it.

Let me know if you would like to be on the distribution list for our "Barcelona Letters" -- starting in January!

Thank you for your love and your support of Joseph over the past 24 months.

A fun story from our home: Christopher (soon to be 10) has decided he does not like left-overs. Much to his chagrin, Thanksgiving brought us LOTS of left-overs. We (except for Christopher) were enjoying one of our meal of turkey left-overs, and he took a drink of water (that had been chilling in the fridge). He put his glass down in disgust and said, "Is even the water a left-over??!"

Wishing you the merriest of Decembers as you prepare for Christmas!

I will be posting pictures that Joseph sent -- later today on his blog!

Sincerely, Joseph's editor - BWS]

Hi Family,

So this week went well. We had exchanges this week, so I was able to work in Třebíč again for about a day. It was a lot of fun. Elder Spencer is a good person to work with and we were able to see some good successes together.

We also found a couple last week, with whom the Elders met on Wednesday while I was in Třebíč. We set up an appointment again for Saturday, to which only the boy, Tomaš came. We taught him about Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon. He loved it. He loved it so much, he asked if he could to get his girlfriend who was unable to come to the scheduled meeting, so that we could teach her as well. We happily obliged. That was one of the best Saturdays of my mission.

The people with whom we are working are doing well, but I do not have much new to share about them.

I do need to go however, but I love you all and hope that you have a wonderful week.

Love,

Joseph

Joseph's letter dated 28Nov2011

[Dear friends and family, here is the letter we received from Joseph yesterday. I hope you enjoy it as much as we did! If you would like to send a note to Joseph, simply reply to this note -- and I'll forward your note to him. He LOVES hearing from you!

We hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving. We were blessed to be able to spend time with Julie's brother (David and Jennifer) and their sons and family and my niece (Natascia, Andrew and Hazel!) and friends. We ate well -- and enjoyed seeing everyone!

It looks like our beautiful November is ending today - as our first storm is approaching. We hope everyone can stay healthy, warm and safe during this wintry season.

With warmest regards - Joseph's editor - BWS]

Dearest Family,

So not a whole lot has changed in the past few days including my supply [or lack!] of pictures. I still love you a lot though and am grateful that I was able to read letters from three of you today (I am focusing on the good, that three people wrote me and not on the four people who did not (Breston, Brocholas, Bristopher and Brondrew or whatever you changed your names to)). [Can any one crack the code and guess what 4 family members did NOT write to Joseph??!] It sounds like things have settled down a little bit and I hope that they continue to do so.

So here are some cool things that happened in the past few days. One, a potential investigator named Brother T, who I contacted over two months ago happened to be walking along a street that two handsome, dashing missionaries were also walking down (i.e. Elder Story and Elder Schindler). These elegently dressed young men hailed said Brother T and we began talking. He has been going through a rough time trying to get custody of his son, and is worried about him. We set up for a meeting later that day, and he came! We taught about Christ and how He knows his troubles and how he can overcome them. I was so glad we were walking down that street. I was not so glad however that we contacted him right in front of a television playing a Shakira music video. She is definitely not the "guardian of virtue" that Sister Dalten encourages the young women to be. Very hard to ignore since I was standing right in front of it.

Also, we met a young married couple about three weeks ago and we are finally able to meet with them (i.e., every Czech and Slovak missionary's dream). They are quite well traveled and have seen missionaries in several parts of the world. They were a little more interested in getting to know us and why we came on misisons, but we had a fairly good lesson and were able to set some good expectations as to why we meet with people (to help them prepare for baptism). We have high hopes for them.

We did a lot of finding this week and overall I was pleased with what we saw.

I love you all and am enjoying my mission. It is way warm today. We had a rather cool summer and I joked around with my companions that I hoped that the cool summer was an indicator of a mild winter (an act of humor attempting to distract from the possibility of the horror of a frigid winter). We actually are having an unusually warm time here with only a VERY light frosting of snow last week. Now if önly we could have unusually long days leading up to December 21 ( I am not a fan of darkness at four thirty in the afternoon).

I love you. Good luck this week and keep me in your prayers,

Love,

Starší Josef Šindler

Joseph's Thanksgiving, 2011 letter!

[Dear family and friends,

We hope that this letter finds everyone enjoying a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday. We are enjoying Thanksgiving with our Michigan family -- we are grateful for our wonderful families and friends.

We are thankful for the opportunity to have our Joseph on a mission for the past 23 months in the Czech Republic. We have definitely missed him but we have loved hearing about his experiences. Thank you for sharing these experiences with us!

Send me any messages that you have for Joseph and I will forward them to him. He LOVES hearing from you.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

Joseph's editor - BWS]

Dearest, beloved family,

A lot has happened in the past week and a half. Last Wednesday I went to Prague for a conference, which turned out to be rather nice and helpful and then yesterday we returned to Prague for a Zone conference. It really was a wonderful conference for all of us. President Irwin gave a wonderful lesson on the doctrine of Christ as found in the thirty first chapter of second Nephi. [Here is a link for anyone who wants to read this chapter: http://lds.org/scriptures/bofm/2-ne/31?lang=eng] We had a zone discussion during the course of that and we were all very edified. President Irwin especially focused on how our missionary purpose, which is the doctrine of Christ, should drive everything that we do here as missionaries and that we should be constantly thinking about it during our day. Our Zone Leaders (one of which is Elder Ingalls) also helped us learn more about preparation for lessons and how we are to strive to prepare in personal study, come together in companionship study, and then teach so that the people we teach can grow well in the gospel of Jesus Christ. We had a wonderful day, and saw the first little bit of snow here in Jihlava. Maybe it can hold off for another month, but I am not holding my breath.

We are teaching three people right now about whom I am really excited. Sister K, Brother P and Sister E. Sister K has been doing excellently. We have been meeting with her for about two months now, but since she is taking care of her aged mother, has been unable to make it to church on Sunday. However, she has finally been able to arrange to have someone come and watch her mother on Sunday morning and she will be there with us in a couple days. We have been teaching much about baptism and it is so amazing to see her excitement for baptism and for all the things that we teach about. Brother P is about our age and is also preparing for baptism. His only concern is though that he works on Sunday and cannot come to church (he recognized this problem though and told us about it right away). We have been working with him as to how we can ask the Father in faith and that he will really prepare a way for us to follow his commandments. Meeting with him is just amazing and I love seeing all the progress that he is making. Sister E is still trying to find her answer, but she really does have real intent. It has been somewhat of a challenge to answer all of her questions, but it is wonderful to know that we have done all that we can and that the next step relies on her. She is just so close, that Elder Story and I just get so excited planning for those lessons, but we must be patient and wait also for her.

Elder Story is great. We are working very hard together, but we also have a ton of fun together when we are contacting and especially at home. I am so grateful that I can be serving with him at this time.

Thanksgiving should be great today. The Pages, the Senior couple here in Jihlava, are cooking us a Thanksgiving meal and we are very excited for this. [We are so appreciative of these wonderful senior couple missionaries!]

Love you all,

Elder Schindler

ps-I would send pictures, but I do not have any new ones. I may in the next couple weeks though, so I might be sending some through soon. [We hope so!]

Joseph's letter dated 14Nov2011

[Dear family and friends,

I hope you are all doing well. We are already into the middle of November! I hope you all have a safe and wonderful Thanksgiving holiday. I hope that St. Martin's Day has been good to you. (See reference in Joseph's note below.)

Send me any response that you have for Joseph and I will forward it to him. He LOVES hearing from you!

Sincerely, Joseph's editor - BWS]

Dear Family,

So first of all my next Preparation Day will be on Thursday the 24th, so do not expect a note from me next Monday.

This last week we have had a lot of fun. My new companion is hillarious. Elder Story is from Orem, UT and is a fun, happy, great missionary. We have had a lot of fun together and I think that this transfer together will be a blast.

We actually had a very interesting first few days together. Wednesday was transfer day and then we had district meeting on Thursday. Friday was normal, but then on Saturday we went up to Hradec Kralové for a conference with the Elders in our zone, including the Elders in Třebíč, with whom we traveled. Unfortunately, we missed our train back to Jihlava by five minutes and so instead of returning at six thirty, we got back at nine thirty and then we broke our key in the lock to our apartment building. Luckily, we were able to get the broken key out of the lock after playing around with it, but we then had to fit four elders into our small apartment, since the Třebíč Elders could not get back home for another two hours. Then we all went together to Brno for a district conference and then back. Needless to say, I spent much more time in a train than I ever wanted to and am not looking forward to going to Prague this Wednesday, or next Wednesday for that matter.

Sunday was nice though. One of our investigators came to church with us by train. There were a lot of people in the building, but I think it was enjoyed. President Irwin shared a story about his childhood when a group of older kids threw him over a three foot high wall into a pile of horse manure. Then, since he was already "in it", he started throwing the manure at his tormentors. He then reminded all of the members that they are also "in it", refering to the gospel and that they should spread it around as much as they can. We all had a good laugh, and members here were highly encouraged to share the gospel with there families. There was also a story of dillegence of a man for who many years cared for a wasteland, carefully planing and caring for trees for many days and years. Then the trees eventually grew into a large forest and benefited thousands of people. It was a good story about quiet, persistent diligence.

We are doing well here also. I am happy and while it is cold, we still do not have to deal with snow, although we just had Saint Martin's Day, which is supposed to annouce the coming of snow, or rather, permitting the weather that it can snow now.

I love you all and good luck at home. I am sorry that Christopher will waste away before I return [he didn't earn enough food points in his game as a coyote], but try to keep him going as best you can. Andrew, I know that the end of marching band season has left a giant hole in your heart, but be of good courage: it will come around next year again. Daniel have fun recovering from your tooth yanking [Daniel will have his wisdom teeth taken out on November 18 - the day after his birthday!]. I remember watching a lot of Bob Ross when I had my teeth extracted. Weston, could luck working on your goals, and Nicholas, you are super.

Love,

Joseph

Joseph's letter dated 9Nov2011

[Dear family and friends, here is the letter that we received from Joseph this morning. He loves hearing from you. If you want to send him a note, simply respond to this email -- and I will send it along to him. I hope you enjoy this as much as we did! At this season of thanks, we, as a family, are certainly thankful for the many blessings that we enjoy - including wonderful family and friends. I wish all of you a season of happiness, peace and prosperity at this time! Sincerely, Joseph's editor - BWS]

Dearest Family,

The last ten days worked out rather well for us here in Jihlava. We worked rather hard this week and unfortunately had to say goodbye to some people. Brother I is returning to the Ukraine and so we will not be able to meet anymore, but we had a wonderful last meeting. He is still searching for his answer, but I really think that he is close to finding that. We are referring him to the missionaries in the Ukraine and we hope that they will be able to connect and begin meeting with him. We also had a final meeting with an investigator from the seventh day, who we have met with a couple times. The spirit was definitely strong in the meeting and so it was difficult for us when she declined our invitations to continue meeting. However, the work continues on and after a good night's sleep I felt much better.

We are teaching some other great people. One, Sister E, has been learning more and more about the Book of Mormon and about how she can gain a desire to believe. She is curious about the gospel and wants to understand Christ and what we have to teach, but it is the first time that I have really taught someone for more than just a couple meetings who, for now, is just really curious. It always seems that before the lessons about the power of the restoration and the Book of Mormon that the Spirit would have already taken over, or that their curiosity was satisfied. It has been a great experience to think on her needs and how we can help prepare her to receive the restored gospel. We read in Alma 32 this last meeting about how the word is like a seed that we plant in our hearts, but then we need to care for it and give it all of the attention that we can make sure it grows so that we may taste of the fruit and know if it is good. After the lesson we all had felt the spirit and were very happy with the lesson. I think that a real desire to know is starting to overtake her curiosity.

Oh, by the way, I am staying in Jihlava. I sent Elder Weaver off to Brno this morning and Elder Story is my new companion. He is in the same group as Elder Heath, so he has been here in the country for about four months. I, of course, do not know him very well yet, but I likely get to know him in the next few weeks.

I love you all and wish you the best in the next few days. Daniel, that is so great that you are the best Daughter of the American Revolution at Western. [Daniel was chosen to represent his school for the Daughters of the American Revolution Good Citizen Award - which award was issued to Daniel's father - 33 years ago.] Too bad they did not have any actual daughters to represent them, but still, congratulations. Weston, I ate at McDonald's the other day. Thank you for keeping the roots of McD strong back in the States. Andrew, please write me so that I can say something clever as a response to you. Chris, good luck surviving the winter [Christopher recently played a game where he was a coyote trying to get enough food for the Winter -- and he wasn't able to gather enough food to survive] and Nicholas, enjoy your new seat [Nicholas, the best-behaved boy in his class, was assigned to sit in a new seat].

I love you all,

Elder Schindler

Joseph's letter dated 31Oct2011 - Halloween!

[Dear family and friends, I hope that all of you are doing well. I hope that you have had a good October -- and are ready for a GREAT November! I know that some of you have experienced snow already. Fortunately, our snow is waiting. I am hoping that all of you are happy, healthy and well.

Respond to this email with any notes you have for Joseph. He LOVES hearing from you!

Sincerely, Joseph's editor - BWS]

Dearest Family,

This week has flown by rather quickly. We saw some amazing blessings, and everything just seems mushed together. This upcoming week is the last of the the transfer, so my next pday [preparation day] will be on Wednesday the ninth. Looking forward to hearing from you.

So this week.

We were finally able to set up with and connect with a referral whom we have been pursuing for about two months now. His name is Brother M and he is a truck driver and so is often gone. However, he had time this last week and so we met with him on Friday. It turned out that ever since meeting the branch president in Olomouc, and receiving a book of Mormon, he has been reading it every morning before going to work. It was so amazing to see such a humble man who is trying to understand why he is here and who God is. He absolutely loved learning about the Gospel and told us that that is exactly what he wants to do when he meets with us. It was such an amazing testimony builder is so many ways, in seeing this humble seeker of truth, the misisonary work of members and in the converting power of the Book of Mormon.

Also we are meeting with a young woman named Sister E, and while at first it was hard for me to gauge her level of interest and reason for interest, this last meeting we had with her was amazing. We were teaching about prayer and she asked the question, "how can I know if an answer I receive is from me or from God?" It was such a sincere question and after turning to Moroni 10:3-5, and answering it, I notice a definite strenghtening of the presence of the spirit in our lesson. [Here is a link to that scripture! http://lds.org/scriptures/bofm/moro/10?lang=eng] That question was so sincere that I was able to recogize that this investigator really did want to know how to find truth.

We have been working so hard here in Jihlava that it is difficult to realize that the transfer is just about up. We still have one week left, but I know that this week will go by even faster. I am praying for the help I need to keep working hard right until the end and so far I have seen such prayers answered in magnificent ways.

Our new branch mission leader, Jarda K. is just on fire. He is so excited to work with the missionaries and see less active members come back to church that it is just strengthening to be around him. I think that thanks to his help we are going to see some really amazing blessing in our area and in this city in terms of working with members.

Well, I have to run, but I love you all,

love,
Elder Schindler

A new friend!

Companion study

By the city wall

Joseph's district

Ties gone wild

Which tie should I wear?

Reflections

Standing tall!

The upshot!

Serious jousting

Mary Poppins' fun!

Fun on a rainy day!

Joseph's letter dated 24Oct2011

[Dear friends and family, as we finish the last week of October, I hope you are all enjoying some beautiful Fall colors! It is amazing that Christmas is only 2 months away!

Here is Joseph's latest letter. He'd love to hear from you! Send a reply to this note -- and I will forward it to Joseph.

Have a great week!

Joseph's editor - BWS]

Dear Family,

Well, I hope that you all enjoy the pictures I sent home. [I'll post these on the blog later today! BWS]

We all are doing well here and we had an excellent zone conference this past week. [A zone would include around 16 missionaries. BWS]We focused on finding, studying for our investigators and using Preach My Gospel [this is a book the missionaries use] to find solution to our problems.

Brother I is preparing for baptism! We are very excited for him, but we are praying for warmer weather so that he does not have to return to the Ukraine (he works construction here). He is still eating up the Book of Mormon and doing well.

We are also working with a very excited branch. We have Brother O, who just put in his papers to serve a mission and Brother J, who just returned from his mission in Wisconsin. We have such an amazing branch and members to work with here. I think that we will be seeing a lot of good success in the coming weeks.

It has been rather chilly out here for a while, so we are quite bundled up when we go out to work, but other than that, not a whole lot has changed.

Well, I am out of time, but I love you all and wish you all a wonderful week.

Love,

Elder Schindler

Letter dated 10Oct2011

[Dear family and friends, here is the letter that we received from Joseph today. I have included the packing suggestions to Weston -- because I thought it was interesting! I hope this letter finds you well. It is hard to believe that Joseph's mission is coming to an end in December. He LOVES hearing from you! Send your notes and messages and I will make sure he receives them!

Sincerely, Joseph's editor - BWS]

Dearest Family,

Here is my advice for Weston's packing for his mission:

First of all, do not buy everything on that packing list. You do not need that many shirts and you certainly do not need all of the first aid things they suggest. Maybe some neosporin, bandaids and Tylenol. You are going to a First world country, so you can buy anything that you find out you need or need more of down the line. Do not take a two year supply of anything (candy, medicine, batteries, etc..) you can buy it all in Spain. If I were to go on a mission to Europe again, and I am aware your mission will be warmer than mine, the only thing I would make sure to bring from home would be good shoes. You can buy shoes here, but the Rockport, Ecco and Hushpuppy brand of shoes you can buy in the US hold up much better than those here. Also, do not buy a backpack. I would suggest a smaller side bag, or a small backpack with good back support, but that is just me. This is what I would take with me if I were you.

Regarding suits, I do not know how many they suggested, but take that many.

Shirts. Take about five short sleeve and five long sleeve, but you could likely get away with less for now. My favorite shirts are the Stafford shirts at JCPennys. I suppose all of Spain may be warm so maybe you do not need the long sleeve ones.

One sweater (if it will get cold).

Two, nice pairs of shoes.

About fourteen pairs of socks.

about eight ties.

Two tshirts and two exercise shorts.

Pair of jeans

Pajamas

15 pairs of underwear

A pair of running/exercise shoes.

Scriptures. Buy them in the MTC or bring your own (you can buy them at cost in the MTC -- for way cheap).

I would pack on the lighter side if I were you, but if you have any specific questions, ask me. If you could send me the list of recommended items and I can give you my opinion on what you may actually need. Love you all.

I will send a better list next week of what I think you should and maybe should not bring. Please send the list of suggested items, though. I think that would help me adapt my advice for your climate.

Now, to the Letter.

First of all, we were able to watch General Conference. It was fantastic, but it took almost all of our weekend. The rest of the weekend was spent either planning or at our Branch President's mother's house in their garden. We spent a couple hours in the garden, on and off with the rain, turning the earth in the garden with shovels. It was great, and our shoes were covered in mud at the end. I also played a fun game where everytime I found a potato in the ground that had not been found by the pickers, I would throw it at Elder Weaver (he did not enjoy this game quite as much). In the end though we had about ten potatoes to give to the family. They also fed us an excellent Czech meal complete with dessert. Then at the end of the project, they fed us again.

This week went a little more slowly, but in the end everything was good, especially with General Conference. We had exchanges on Wednesday, which was exciting. I worked with Elder R. Bailey, who is in my MTC group, but is not the Elder Bailey from AZ. It was great to be able to work together and encourage each other to make sure we are enduring to the end well. We even found someone who we met with twice again this past week.

I will try to write more next week, but it is time to go.

I love you, and I am sorry but I have to run.

Love,

Elder Schindler

Joseph's letter dated 17Oct2011

Dearest Family,

I hope that you all enjoy the pictures from some past exploits. If you want an explanation on any of them you will have to ask, but that is me and the other people are people standing next to me when the pictures were taken. [I think we knew that! LOL]

This week went rather well. We are having a wonderful time teaching Brother I, who is reading quite a lot in the Book of Mormon everyday. He works on Sunday, so that is his current struggle, but we are hoping to overcome it. He is from the Ukraine, and if he is anything like the normal Ukrainian man, it is easy to see why there is already a temple in Kiev. He is just an amazing, humble person. Even when his leg cramped up when we kneeled down to pray, he was very positive and was not angry at all. Then the next meeting the member we were teaching with also had his leg cramp up. Rather funny, but we will likely stop so that it does not happen to anyone else. I am afraid I am next.

We also added a new member to our branch this week; Jarda K., who just returned from his mission in Wisconsin. He is great and is going to be a wonderful help to us and the branch. In fact, he is teaching with us today, and so I actually have to go soon so that we can make that lesson.

I am now flying into Saginaw and will land at 7:50 pm on the 27th of December.

We have to go and I love you all a lot.

Quickly, I forgot to tell you all that we are reading the Book of Mormon as a misison, ten pages a day. We are right now in Alma fifty and will finish just before the transfer. I do not have time to fully express it now, but I really do love the Book of Mormon. It is just so amazing and full of truth and guidance.

I love you all.

Love,

Elder Schindler

Joseph and new member!

New stuff!

Serious study

Waiting for a train

Joseph and friend

Joseph at castle ruins

Super Joe at castle gate

Super Joe looking at sign!

Which way?

Bridge to Nowhere!

Joseph on bridge

Joseph and companion

Joseph and friend

Joseph with shroom

Companion close-up

Happy Joseph!

Joseph's district - deep in thought

Joseph looking stern

Joseph's letter dated 3Oct2011

[Dear family and friends, it is now October - and the weather is reminding us that it is Autumn! I just hope we have a nice, LONG Autumn. We can wait for the snow. We had a wonderful General Conference. We heard many inspiring messages from Salt Lake. We are very excited about the new temples!

Here is the letter we received from Joseph today. I hope you enjoy it!

Joseph would love to hear from you! Reply to this note and I will forward your message to Joseph.

Stay warm -- and enjoy this first week of October!

Yours, Joseph's editor - BWS]

Hello Family,

This week went well and we saw several amazing miracles and the work is going well here in Jihlava.

Brother D is the first person I wish to speak about. He is one of our new investigators for this week and also attended church with us yesterday. He actually contacted us the other day and said that he wanted to learn more about the Mormon Bible. Since then he has been learning with us and is very curious and interested. He was raised a believer, but stopped believing when he was about eleven or twelve (he is about eighteen now). In the past month or so he has become much more interested in religion and God and that is why he called out to us. We have been very excited to meet with him and it was a great reminder that there are people here who really want to speak with us, we just have to find them first.

The other man I am particularly excited about is Brother. Brother I is from Ukraine and has lived here for over ten years. He was actually originally contacted last transfer and given a Restoration pamphlet. We were contacting last Monday evening and we ran into him near the end of the day. He had read the pamphlet and wanted to know more. We met with him three times this week. He is learning well and is reading the Book of Mormon in his native language. He speaks Czech very well, but we were still happy to have found a Book of Mormon in Ukrainian in our building.

We will be watching General Conference next week, just so you know. [General Conference happens every 6 months -- we hear messages from our church leaders in Salt Lake -- including messages from our prophet and the apostles.] We are looking forward to it and I am eagerly anticipating it.

Well, got to run. I love you all and I am healthy (like almost always).

Thank you. Everybody back home wrote me this week.

Love,

Elder Schindler

Joseph's letter dated 26Sept2011

[Dear family and friends, I hope this letter finds you doing well. We are busy here in Michigan. Things are definitely cooler now -- we know that Winter is on its way. I hope we have a long and colorful Fall. We just finished with the River of Times -- where we reenacted the U.S./Mexico War of 1846. Julie and I demonstrated cooking over the fire. The tortillas we made were a HUGE hit! This year we added Mexican elements to our presentation -- along with our presentation about the Mormon Battalion. We are excited that Weston and Joseph get to see each other for a week before Weston leaves for Barcelona!

Let me know if you have any messages for Joseph. He LOVES hearing from you!

May you have a peaceful and productive week.

Joseph's editor - BWS]

Dear Family,

This week was interesting. We have been working very hard and found some wonderful people, taught some wonderful lessons, but nobody came to church and right now, we have no progressing investigators. We have been working so hard this week and giving so much of ourselves, but we still must be patient this week as I think we will start seeing the blessings of our work come around in the next couple days.

Here are some of the miracles that we saw this week.

Brother P, a boy we taught a couple weeks ago, but with whom we have been having a hard time getting a hold of, rode the same bus that we were riding last week, and so I was finally able to talk to him. It turns out that he has been reading the Book of Mormon that we gave him, that he likes it and thinks that it is interesting. We set up a meeting with him for this next week and are looking forward to that day. We rarely ride that bus, but it was just such an amazing miracle that we were at the right place at the right time.

Another miracle we saw was with a man we had met last week, and set up our meeting for this past week. He came to the meeting, told us he was firm in his own faith and that we would just waste our time with him, and then turned around to leave. However, we started talking to him, and after a few minutes of talking, convinced him that we still wanted to talk to him and explain more about what we believe. He turned out to have many questions for us, which we were able to answer, and we set up a new appointment for this next week. I was just so glad that we were so persistent with him and that because we were, he now has a copy of the Book of Mormon and is learning about the church from us, and not from the Internet/Wikipedia.

Also, I was on exchanges in Třebíč this past week and so I was able to see my old area. It is doing well and I was very grateful for the opportunity to go back and work there for a day. We saw some good things, and two people accepted invitations to be baptized. I also was able to see my old English class, as well as the Branch President's wife and their son. It was a good time.

Well, Got to go, but I love you and wish you a wonderful week,

Love,

Elder Schindler

Joseph's letter dated 19Sept2011

[Dear family and friends, here is Joseph's letter from this week. We hope you are all doing well. Things have turned to Fall here in Michigan. Fall is a beautiful time in our city! We are getting ready to participate in the River of Time -- which is a historical celebration in our town where different group represent different parts of our U.S. history. Our group is representing the U.S. Mexican War of 1846. This year we are adding some Mexican elements to our presentation about the Mormon Battalion!

If you have any messages for Joseph, pass them along and I will forward them to him.

Much love, Joseph's editor - BWS]

So this is the week's update:

This week we taught Brother J, our new investigator from last week. He is doing well and accepted the message and a baptismal date well. Unfortunately, the day after we invited him to be baptized he got a job in Germany (which is outside of our mission boundaries). He left yesterday for Germany and we are in the process of referring him to the missionaries in Germany. I am really excited for him, even if other missionaries are going to be the ones teaching him. Unfortunately, it will be harder to get so many member lessons this week, but we have lessons on our schedule and I am excited to teach them. For a while Brother J thought my first name was Elder, which reminded him of Haldir from the Lord of the Rings. He thought it was a cool name. I think I should stop telling people my name is Elder, it may not be the best since when someone asks for your name in Czech, they want your first name, not just your name in general. He is way cool though, and I think he thought it was funny at the end.

We also taught Brother D, one of the other new investigators from last week, who is currently preparing for baptism. He has just finished studying in college and is quite busy, and so making time for us is difficult, but he does sincerely want to know that these things are true and I think he understands that he will need to make the effort to come to understand. He knows he needs to read and pray, but this week we will need to teach him about the Sabbath and how he must begin attending church if he really wants to receive a witness of the truthfulness of our message. President Svoboda is planning to teach with us tomorrow and I think the lesson will go well.

So, I had been getting a little proud here in Jihlava, and yesterday I think I received the spiritual side-effect of pride. We were dogged several times [people missed their appointments], then it started raining, and I started feeling rather discouraged. However, Elder Weaver kept going well, and we taught one man we met on the Naměstí [I'm not sure what this is] and then had a wonderful lesson with the recently baptized family here in Jihlava. I came home feeling great. I realized that I need to remember that is not me, nor is it my companionship, who is doing the work here, but that it is the Lord's work and that I cannot be using it to gain glory or recongnition for myself. I need to keep working hard, of course, but I do need to return the credit to Lord. I am just the tool (I personally like to think of myself as an ax, strong, bold, sharp and powerful, but that is just a sidethought). The Lord is the Master.

We had a really good zone conference last week and came home very pumped up for the work. We are going to be reading the Book of Mormon together as a misison, ten pages a day, planning on finishing at the end of the transfer, which is the end of the first week of November. I am already enjoying it and very excited for this month, and for general conference.

Well, I am having a blast. Jihlava is wonderful and I am very happy to be back in this district.

Until next week,

and with love,

Elder Schindler

Sending Joseph a package!

Joseph has a new address!

If you are sending him a letter, use this address:

Církev Ježíše Krista Svatých Posledních Dnů

Elder Joseph W. Schindler

Badeniho 1

160 00 Praha 6

Czech Republic

If you are sending him a package (keep it under $28 value):

Církev Ježíše Krista Svatých Posledních Dnů

Badeniho 1

160 00 Praha 6

Czech Republic

If you are sending a package, do NOT include his name. In the bottom right hand corner of the package, put the number - #1132.

Let me know if you have any questions!

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

Joseph's new address

Joseph's mission home has moved -- and he has a new address!

Církev Ježíše Krista Svatých Posledních Dnů

Elder Joseph W. Schindler

Badeniho 1

160 00 Praha 6

Czech Republic

Let me know if you have any questions!

Brent

Joseph's Labor Day letter - 5Sept2011

[Dear family and friends, I hope this letter finds you safe, well and happy on this beautiful Labor Day, 2011. Our boys are starting school tomorrow -- for a new, exciting year! We were hoping that Weston would have received his mission call this last week. He did not -- so we're hoping for this week! We will let you know.

Thank you for your thoughts and prayers on behalf of Joseph. Reply to this note and send a message - and I will forward it to Joseph!

Be safe! Joseph's editor - BWS]

Dear Loved People,

First of all I did get transferred and today is P-day [Preparation Day]. I am in Jihlava. It is in the same district as Třebíč and so I will be going back there a number of times this transfer. The two cities are in the same Kraj, which I think is the equivalent of the same "county", but I think the translation is "region". I already knew almost all the members in the area and I know the city, so the adjustment time has been very short. I am ready to work and to serve. Elder Weave is my companion and he has been out for six months in the country. The Pages are the Senior couple serving here; they are the Humanitarian Aid couple serving here. Then in Třebíč we have Elder Plaizier and Engstrom, who have each been out for four months. I will meet the two Elders in Třebíč tomorrow (I have met Elder Plaizer before, but I am looking forward to getting to know him better). This should be a good district.

My address is now:

Březinova 125

Jihlava 56801

Czech Republic

Keep sendïng any packages to the mission office in Prague. I sent the new address for that too. Enjoy. [I will include both addresses in the blog. ]

So, we are teaching no investigators here in Jihlava, so I have nothing to tell on that hand. This has been quite a shock going from the busiest time of my mission (maybe the same as Prague, I cannot remember), where it was hard to find more than an hour or two to find new people, to almost every day contacting. Already knowing the city has helped a bit, and I think the transition is already made. I just need to talk to everyone. It is so interesting how the best way to feel good about working hard is to work harder. It is so much easier to contact for several hours if you talk to everyone with whom you come in contact for the same time, while talking to most of the people. It is so interesting that working harder is actually easier and a lot more enjoyable.

I left ČBUD in good order. We had to drop a Catholic investigator, Tomáš, who is about eighteen. He has been meeting for a while but has decided he wants to remain in the Catholic church. We had a really good meeting with him my last day about the restoration and the Book of Mormon and the Spirit was very strong, but he said he may want to investigate again, just at this time he has so much going on and just wants to wait. I hope the missionaries look him up in the future. Brother Š is doing well. He still has terrible pneomonia, so we gave him a blessing last week. It means he cannot come to church and he still thinks it is too soon for baptism, but he is doing a lot of the little things (i.e., reading the scriptures, praying, etc.). I hope to hear good things from him.

Brother M (the investigator) is doing well. We changed his date because he will have to be in Prague for treatment that weekend, but he still wants to get baptized. He is a fairly intense man and he came into our meeting and said, "I have to tell you, the 17th will not work" . Thankfully he quickly explained why, and so we just moved the date. Brother M (the new member) is also doing great. He is blessing the sacrament and even teaching with us. He is a great new member.

We even found a cool new investigator last week named Sister D. She says she leans more to science , but she was interested in our message and very attentive. She says that she believe some things about God, but not others. When we first met her it was later at night and already a little dark, but still light enough to see. We asked her to read in the Book of Mormon though and it was too dark to see. However, I asked her if she knew what Boy Scouting was, and she looked at me and said "You are a scout?." I said yes and then pulled out the flashlight I carry around and said the we are always prepared. [The Scout Motto is "Be Prepared."] That is the second time in a year I have used it, but I think it is worth it. It was a little funny. Plus, she is prettier than the average girl, so the sisters were very surprised when they met her the next day. Apparently we do not teach as many women as the Elders do.

Also this past Saturday was the annual Walace Toronto foundation project in Jihlava. [This is a group of Americans who have ties to the Czech Republic and do service projects in the country.] Since transfers were early, I was able to come in the early morning and help out painting benches. I met some more members from around the country as well as the American members who are on the Board of Directors. It was a busy first day, but we managed to fill in some finding time.

Well, that is all for now. I love you and good luck with school and the whole bit. Keep me posted with the stuff going on out in Michigan.

It is raining right now, by the way.

Love,

Elder Schindler