Elder Brady Craig Smith: Hola :) Week 4

Hello Everyone :)

this week, i have an enter key that works!! praise the heavens!! so, here is the review of the week :) by the way, spain is the best country in the whole entire world :)

i would like to talk about the park this past saturday. my companion was elder loosle from highland utah! he is a really cool guy and he played golf for SUU! so while we were waiting for the metro to come pick us up, there was this couple just standing there with a bunch of suit cases and they looked like natives. i had a feeling to go talk to them, but i kinda kept pushing it away. the metro still didn´t come, and i still didn´t talk to them. then, the metro STILL DIDN´T COME and i STILL DIDN´T TALK TO THEM!! i had to give myself a pep talk... after 7 minutes of ignoring a feeling, i went up to talk to them... and it turns out they spoke english!! they were catholic but very receptive to the message i was trying to share them. i talked to them about joseph smith and the restored gospel, gave them a BOM (giving someone a BOM in the MTC is the equivalent of a baptism in the real mission field, so go elder smith hehe), and they said they would look into the church!! i am so grateful that heavenly father delayed that stupid train so that i could place that book of mormon with those people and share my testimony. it was such a good reminder to me that god really has his hand in all things.

after that, we ended up giving out 3 more books of mormon!! it was an incredibly successful day and i was so happy :) i had more adrenaline giving out those books than ive ever had for any sports game in my whole life!! it´s weird what the mission will do to you, but i am very grateful for the things i am learning and experiencing. on sunday, elder hammond got called on to give his talk on obedience and he did a fantastic job!! president lovell gave a really good talk and one thing he said that stuck out to me was "he´s not asking us to obey, he´s asking us to become". when i heard that i immediately started bawling!! i can´t think of anything better than becoming like our savior jesus christ. i am so eternally grateful for him and all that he has given me!! he is the best example we have and often times i think we forget just how much he sacrificed for us. i love the Savior so much:)

our progressing investigators are going well and each time we teach "boris" or "sofia" i can say a little more!! its a very good feeling to be able to convey my thoughts with these spanish people. i am not close to being able to say all that i want yet, but im definitely a lot closer than when i got here!! dad remember when you said that provo is nice because you can see your progress with the incoming missionaries every week? yeah so this week we got native spanish speakers. all from spain. so this is their provo mtc. THEY SPEAK SO FAST!! haha so its a little difficult to see my progress when its compared to them, but yeah. its good to have them here, at meals we get to practice our spanish and during sports as well. elder kroff and elder maldonado are actually in my room so when i wake up now all i hear is spanish being rattled off left and right hahaha but im glad because no one else gets these opportunities :)

today in about 2 hours i will be on the metro headed for the REAL MADRID STADIUM WOOO HOOO im so excited!! it´s going to be incredible and every single missionary except for like 3 is going... it´s 3 hermanas that don´t like soccer so it´s understandable haha. my cool experience of the week was last night... we have had some struggles in our district with homesickness in some of the elders (me kinda and others too) and some of the hermanas. as district leader last night, i was able to give a comfort blessing to one of our hermanas!! what a cool experience!! im grateful for this gospel and the blessings that we get from it :) i love you all, thanks for the prayers!! until next week :)

con mucho amor,

elder brady craig smith