Joseph and Elder McGowan overlooking city

Joseph and Elder Dietrich (Elder from Germany)

Joseph and MTC group - Provo, UT (Dec. 2009)

Joseph's letter dated 21Mar2011

[Dear family and friends, I hope this letter finds everyone well and happy. The calendar says that it is now Spring -- though we haven't convinced the Michigan sky yet. We are expecting two days of wintry precipitation -- and then we're hoping to see some more great days! Thank you so much for your notes to Joseph. He LOVES them! Reply to this email -- and I'll forward them along to Joseph! Have a great week! Joseph's editor -- BWS]

Dear Mom, Dad, Weston, Andrew, Daniel and Christopher and the Nicholas,

Well...I hope you enjoy the pictures. The one is of all of the missionaries who were in the MTC [Missionary Training Center] with me back at Christmas time [2009], the second is me and Elder McGowen, my trainer at Christmas time, the third is of me and Elder Dietrich (he is from Germany), and the last is of Elder Bown, Sister Štulerová and me.

Elder Bown was sick this last week with some sort of cold. He still went out and worked though so we did not go crazy inside, although we did come home early three days and on Friday we did stay home for most of the day. He is a trooper though. He does not let things get in his way. He is better now and he has finally been able to sleep well, so he does not look as tired as he used to look.

I was on exchanges with Elder Bailey last week, if you want to let Elder Peterson know. [Elder Bailey and Elder Peterson are friends from SnowFlake, AZ -- Elder Peterson is one of our missionaries here in Bay City!] He is do well and it was great to go finding with an old friend (we did work though, we did not just talk). He is doing well and happy to be back in Brno (he had been there for six months, then went to Plzn for a transfer and now is back as one of the Zone Leaders).

Most things are about the same as they have been and we were not able to meet with as many people as we would have liked, but we are still working and doing well. Jirka Palica still does not want to pray, but we have committed him to observe the Sabbath day, and with the Word of Wisdom, he has promised to not buy anymore tea, but we are working on stepping that up. Also, one Eternal Investigator [Joseph's term for long-term investigators] we are meeting with, named Bohomir Jelinek, did not want to commit to reading in the Book of Mormon for five minutes everyday, but with some insistence after sacrament meeting on Sunday, he promised to read four minutes every day and to pray. [Sounds like a fair compromise!] He is a great guy, and he comes regularly to church. He just has some hesitations about continuing further.

I love you all and am praying for you.

I will read Moroni, Chapter One today. [That's where we are as a family.] Then I will try to keep up that daily trend. (The guy behind me was just watching a drumming video and with much effort I have been ignoring him for the past few minutes.) [I am sure it reminded Joseph of his days with his drum line!] Well, I have to run again, I think I should outline these letters on Sunday night so that I can write more, but I have to leave and I have nothing...wait, I have one quick story and then I am leaving.

So last Saturday, Sister Štulerovás internet crashed for some reason, and as a result she just spent all day studying the scriptures and then when she saw that sacrament meeting was going to end a little early, she asked if she could also give a talk, to which the branch president happily obliged. It was a great talk about finding success through the gospel and not through the world. That was a great Sunday. [This is the sister who was baptized a couple of weeks ago!]

Well, got to run.

Love,
Elder Schindler

Joseph's letter dated 14Mar2011

[Dear friends and family, here is the letter we received from Joseph this morning. I loves hearing from everyone! Send me a note and I will get it to Joseph! I hope you are enjoying some warmer weather on this White Day! (White Day is a Japanese holiday where the women give the men white chocolate -- as a thank you for the Valentines the women receved on February 14.) And everyone, beward of the Ides of March! Joseph's editor - BWS]

Dear Family,

First of all, Daniel, what on Earth are you doing? You sound like you are involved in everything. You are showing me up in a very good way (I was reading in Alma 29 today and I found a verse near the end when Alma says he is happy in the success of his friends). I guess I will need to start doing more push-ups every morning so that at least I can be bigger than you when I get home...in a long, long time, by the way.

Weston, congrats on your job. That sounds like it will work well for you. I may even visit the Restaurace U Zlatých Oblouků/Kleneb, sometime this week to celebrate. I love you a lot and I want to hear all about the great things you are doing.

Andrew, sorry you had to be a pessimist in the play. It sounds like you ended it well though. [Andrew was a pessimistic cowboy in our Stake Roadshows!]

Christopher and Nicholas, you wrote me! (I just had to look for the exclamation point key). I am glad to hear from you and I hope that Nicholas is feeling better. I love you both a lot.

To mom and dad, thank you for writing me so diligently. I love your letters and cannot wait to hear from you every week. Please, continue to write.

Well, first of all, my suit died. The pants now both have holes in them that can be seen (if I am sitting, but I can still hide them, more or less). Plus since they have already been patched, I think the suit is gone. It lasted me six months though, so no complaining (this was the one I found in Třebíč). This means that I am more or less suitless, unless I absolutely have to wear one. On the other side though, it has been warm enough to go out without coats and jackets. Anyway, the point of this paragraph is to let you know, mom and dad, that my bank account might go down a little sometime in the near future. I will let you know what I end up doing.

So here is the miracle of the week. Elder Bown and I have had a goal to tract for one hour each day this transfer, with the faith that if we do so, we will be able to find families to teach. So last Sunday we went to an area of Zlín for two and a half hours and knocked/rang on 120 doors. We had a couple, rather flimsy "come back in a week" responses, but then we were just about finished, when we saw our bus coming to the nearby stop (note, buses do not run often on Weekends). But we still had one unit of six apartments left, so we decided to stay and finish. Then, on the third to last door, we were able to meet a family, explain why we were here, and set up a solid, concrete return appointment when the whole family could be home together (in two weeks, but we are really looking forward to it). Then we ran and caught the next bus and enjoyed scones cooked in sunflower oil for dinner, and callins snack (I fancy myself a rather good cook and these turned out okay).

We were also able to set up with a potential investigator named Marteta Kostelniková after a couple weeks. She is a very kind individual and works as a nurse at the hospital here in Zlín. She was very excited to receive a copy of the Book of Mormon and when we told her it was hers, for free, she looked liked one of the happiest people I have ever seen. That was a second cool miracle.

Also, miracle number three, Sister Štulerová is reading very well in the Book of Mormon. The other day she asked us why Lehi made a burnt offering. I did not catch that after years of reading in the Book of Mormon. She is feasting on the scriptures, as well as the Conference Ensign and the Gospel Principles manuel. She is great.

Well, I have to run. I love you all and wish you the best.

Love,
Elder Schindler

ps- Tell Zachary good luck from me and could you send me his address? [Joseph's cousin who is leaving in a few days for mission in the Phillipines!]

pps- sorry, no pictures today. Next week, I forgot my camera

Joseph's letter dated 7Mar2011

[Dear family and friends, here is Joseph's letter that we received today. I hope you enjoy it as we did! If you have any messages for Joseph, reply to this e-mail and I will forward them along to Joseph. I hope everyone is enjoying the LONGER March days! Joseph's editor]

Dear Family and friends,

I tried to send some pictures, but I think my memory card is too full for them to load today. I will put them on my camera and try to send them over next week.

It is sad to hear that Weston does not have school this week. [Weston is on his Spring Break.] It must be extra hard for him because every day he has to wake up and watch all his younger brothers go off to school while he has to stay home. I hope he makes it through the week. I am very excited to hear about his mission papers and call. Elder Ingalls' brother got his call a couple weeks ago [to Sweden!] and so I am looking forward to hearing about my own brother's call.

Daniel, congratulations on All Nation-band, or whatever the name is. [Daniel was selected from musicians who attended All-State bands across the country - to attend the All-Nation band in Washington, DC this summer!] It sounds like it is quite an honor and a special opportunity. I know that it came because you worked so hard and I hope that you have a great time in Washington DC. That should be a blast.

This week went well. We finally managed to start meeting with Tomáš again; he is the boyfriend of one of the members here. He is what most missionaries refer to as an "eternal" investigator, as he has been meeting with missionaries off and on for several years. He is a clever, funny young man, and actually, I was surprised to find out after meeting him a couple times, that he speaks English very well. We hope he will start working harder at making time to meet with us and to keep commitments like attending church and reading in the Book of Mormon daily.

We also were blessed with the opportunity to door-knock, or tract (the word we use in Czech is traktovat. Many Czech verbs are very similar to the English words, like prolongovat, parkovat, emailovat, etc.. although stopovat means to hitchhike). We found a young family, who invited us in and we were able to talk about the many blessings that come to our families because of the gospel of Jesus Christ. We will be returning on Friday night (that is a great way to spend a Friday night, by the way). Watching drunk people on the square just is not as inspiring.

Roy, our friend from China, is also doing well. We taught him about the life of Jesus Christ and he listened very intently and really wants to learn all that he can. He could not make it to church, but he is a very kind individual and we are pleased that we have been able to meet him. Jirka Palica is also doing well. I think I mentioned him before, but he is a very nice, quiet man, who is a little hesitent to trust in God. We have been going over the divinity of the Book of Mormon and our lessons with him have been very short and powerful.

Well, I have to run. I read Ether eleven or twelve this morning in Czech because I did not want to outline a lesson or memorize anything in Czech. I am not really sure where we are as a family, but I am around there.

I love you all and have a great week.

Love,
Starší Jozef Vilém Šindler (I finaly found out how to add the marks on the top of capital letters on the key boards here with out using caps-lock)

ps Mom, could you consolidate and send me all of the advice you hava about eating healthy for me and send it to me for next week. I have decided I want to stop eating poorly and so I would appreciate anything you have to say. Love you lots. Bye.

Joseph's letter dated 2Mar2011

Dear Family and friends,

So first of all, I am staying in Zlín, with Elder Bown. Almost every companionship in the mission changed except us, a pair of Zone leaders, the assistants and the senior couples (note: the senior couples always stay the same, because they are married to each other). Plus several of the zones were rearranged and new leaders were called and moved. We received a text last Monday night that we would be staying together, but did not find out until Tuesday morning when I went to turn off our phone alarm. We had both gone to bed early and so we had missed the text.

However, we decided that we would not tell anyone where we were going until today when we got the mission e-mail, so I think we messed several people up with their transfer board predictions since nobody knew what we were doing. It was rather delightful to see the frustration of a couple missionaries who called to ask while we were at lunch, as most people thought Elder Bown was leaving as this is now his fourth transfer in Zlín. We are doing well though and are looking forward to this transfer. [I think a 'transfer' is a 6 week period in Joseph's mission.]

I have only a little time, so I will try to quickly fill you in in a couple other things.

We found a new investigator last week who is a former Satanist. We really do not know what that means, but he is an interesting fellow. We also are now meeting with a man named Roy from Shanghai, China. We were contacting up by the college, when I saw, him. I had talked to him before on exchanges, so it surprised Elder Bown when I just started talking to him. However, he really wanted to know what on earth makes us work so hard, so we now have agreed to meet regularly every Saturday so that he can learn more about Christianity and Western culture.

I have to go, but I promise I will write more next time and let you know all about everything we are doing.

I love you a lot and God be with you,

Starší Jozef Vilém Šindler