Hello All! so i finally finished week 2 and holy cow it was hard!! but
im still here and still going. to anyone planning on serving a
mission... it is the hardest thing i have ever done in my life without
a doubt.. but the most rewarding thing in the whole entire world!!
so, last p day we went to this place called Palacio del Rey. it was a
huge ancient castle that some king lived in... i couldn´t understand
that much because we had little headsets and the lady´s accent was
very thick but it was very beautiful. i took lots of pictures so i
will send them. it was also very reassuring to know that there is
more to madrid than 3 floors of an mtc!! i get so cooped up in here
just sitting in a classroom all day, so i take little walks up and
down the hallways to check on my friends elder hammond and elder
walster. im so glad that they are here with me! i have been making
tons of new friends too, a polynesian elder ngatai (pronounced
nah-tie) who is like 6 foot 5 and 280 pounds hahaha... he is like my
body guard. then there is elder beckstrom who went to spanish fork
high school and he was good friends with elder benson rhees so we have
gotten very close as well!! i will send pictures of all of them. my
companion is good, i have learned to love and appreciate him.
im still here and still going. to anyone planning on serving a
mission... it is the hardest thing i have ever done in my life without
a doubt.. but the most rewarding thing in the whole entire world!!
so, last p day we went to this place called Palacio del Rey. it was a
huge ancient castle that some king lived in... i couldn´t understand
that much because we had little headsets and the lady´s accent was
very thick but it was very beautiful. i took lots of pictures so i
will send them. it was also very reassuring to know that there is
more to madrid than 3 floors of an mtc!! i get so cooped up in here
just sitting in a classroom all day, so i take little walks up and
down the hallways to check on my friends elder hammond and elder
walster. im so glad that they are here with me! i have been making
tons of new friends too, a polynesian elder ngatai (pronounced
nah-tie) who is like 6 foot 5 and 280 pounds hahaha... he is like my
body guard. then there is elder beckstrom who went to spanish fork
high school and he was good friends with elder benson rhees so we have
gotten very close as well!! i will send pictures of all of them. my
companion is good, i have learned to love and appreciate him.
he says some really
funny stuff that just makes me die of laughter
and i think we are
becoming better friends every day. okay, so saturday we
went to the park to
proselyte which is like the best
thing of the week next
to p day because its real life experience!
so my companion was an
elder who was going to
russia named elder kartchner from arizona. he didn´t know that much
spanish and neither did i so it was kinda a mess. anyways, we had a
few good conversations with people, but nothing too serious, mostly
just handed out pass along cards with pictures of the temple on them
because the temple is so beautiful!!! (by the way we go every thursday
morning to the temple and it is another highlight of the week) so when
we were walking out of the park elder kartchner saw a lady sitting on
a bench reading a book so he walked up to her and said... do you like
to read? and she said yes. so he said "here, i have a book for you"
and he handed her a book of mormon and she said thanks and that was
that!! it was easily the easiest placement of a book of mormon in all
of church history. i was amazed!! he was so bold, and he told me
later that he had been praying to just give one book away on his last
park experience. god listens!! then we got back on the metro to come
back to the mtc and there was some old guy who was a total jerk. i
was so mad. he kept saying "how come you 15 year old kids think you
know more than us about god?" then he proceeded to make fun of our
little bit of spanish that we knew and people all around the metro
were laughing at us and his jokes. i felt like crap. i was so mad
and was like there is no way that i can do this for 2 years. elder
kartchner gave me a pep talk on the way back to the mtc which made me
feel better. the whole reason i am here is to help these people
realize what they don´t have!! i just want to help them and they make
fun of us. oh well, there will come a day when everyone realizes
what´s really true and they will beg for it. obviously that guy
wasn´t quite ready yet. sundays here are hard because i miss my home
ward and my family... when mom would scratch my back all during
sacrament... mmmmm... and the girls would massage my hands too. just know
that is very much appreciated and missed!! haha but we always have
really good talks and messages. we have been teaching "investigators"
names sofia and boris. we take things slowly and really focus on
answering their questions and what not. we teach about the
restoration, the plan of salvation, the word of wisdom, the 10
commandments and lots of other stuff. so last funny story...
yesterday for sports we had a big group of us playing ultimate frisbee
in a place called the cage... it is just trashed with beer cans and
stuff and tons of graffiti... it looks dirty but it is so cool because
i love that kind of stuff! anyways, elder ngatai the huge poly was
going for a catch and ran into the cement wall with a chain link fence
on top and literally broke the wall!! he didn´t know that he did it
until we all stopped laughing because he had no clue!! then just as
easy as he smashed this cement wall he picked up and put it back
together!! it was the greatest, funniest thing of all time. i laughed
so hard!! oh and i bought some sick puma soccer shoes so i can fit in
with all the european kids that play soccer with us and kick our
trash... haha i need to get better at futbol or else this will be a
long 2 years!! for p day today we are going to a big mall called La
Gavia so that should be good, maybe i can grab some american food :)
anyways, thanks for all your love and support, i miss you all so
much!! i was blessed with the best family, friends, teachers, coaches,
and everyone else who was in my life. i love you all tons!! until
next week :) con amor, elder brady craig smith
russia named elder kartchner from arizona. he didn´t know that much
spanish and neither did i so it was kinda a mess. anyways, we had a
few good conversations with people, but nothing too serious, mostly
just handed out pass along cards with pictures of the temple on them
because the temple is so beautiful!!! (by the way we go every thursday
morning to the temple and it is another highlight of the week) so when
we were walking out of the park elder kartchner saw a lady sitting on
a bench reading a book so he walked up to her and said... do you like
to read? and she said yes. so he said "here, i have a book for you"
and he handed her a book of mormon and she said thanks and that was
that!! it was easily the easiest placement of a book of mormon in all
of church history. i was amazed!! he was so bold, and he told me
later that he had been praying to just give one book away on his last
park experience. god listens!! then we got back on the metro to come
back to the mtc and there was some old guy who was a total jerk. i
was so mad. he kept saying "how come you 15 year old kids think you
know more than us about god?" then he proceeded to make fun of our
little bit of spanish that we knew and people all around the metro
were laughing at us and his jokes. i felt like crap. i was so mad
and was like there is no way that i can do this for 2 years. elder
kartchner gave me a pep talk on the way back to the mtc which made me
feel better. the whole reason i am here is to help these people
realize what they don´t have!! i just want to help them and they make
fun of us. oh well, there will come a day when everyone realizes
what´s really true and they will beg for it. obviously that guy
wasn´t quite ready yet. sundays here are hard because i miss my home
ward and my family... when mom would scratch my back all during
sacrament... mmmmm... and the girls would massage my hands too. just know
that is very much appreciated and missed!! haha but we always have
really good talks and messages. we have been teaching "investigators"
names sofia and boris. we take things slowly and really focus on
answering their questions and what not. we teach about the
restoration, the plan of salvation, the word of wisdom, the 10
commandments and lots of other stuff. so last funny story...
yesterday for sports we had a big group of us playing ultimate frisbee
in a place called the cage... it is just trashed with beer cans and
stuff and tons of graffiti... it looks dirty but it is so cool because
i love that kind of stuff! anyways, elder ngatai the huge poly was
going for a catch and ran into the cement wall with a chain link fence
on top and literally broke the wall!! he didn´t know that he did it
until we all stopped laughing because he had no clue!! then just as
easy as he smashed this cement wall he picked up and put it back
together!! it was the greatest, funniest thing of all time. i laughed
so hard!! oh and i bought some sick puma soccer shoes so i can fit in
with all the european kids that play soccer with us and kick our
trash... haha i need to get better at futbol or else this will be a
long 2 years!! for p day today we are going to a big mall called La
Gavia so that should be good, maybe i can grab some american food :)
anyways, thanks for all your love and support, i miss you all so
much!! i was blessed with the best family, friends, teachers, coaches,
and everyone else who was in my life. i love you all tons!! until
next week :) con amor, elder brady craig smith
 |
| District 2 on P Day August 27, 2015 |
 |
| Elder Beckstrom, Elder Smith & Elder Hammond |
 |
| District 2 "Let's wear purple or pink" Day |
 |
| My first companion Elder Rosenkilde who headed to Lisbon Portugal this week |
questions and answers
~Do you get our dearelder.com letters and snail mail as well as emails?
yeah i get them, not every day though. i don´t think they check the
mail every day but when they do i get like 3 or 4 at once so its nice.
you guys are so thoughtful!!
~How are your clothes holding up?
my brown shoes are ripping... so we are
going to a big mall in like 2 hours so i might try and find some but
other than that im doing good.
~Are you able to sleep well?
sleeping is alright... im not really
tired during the days but i maybe sleep like 7 hours every day. love
you :)
~How is the homesickness going?
the first 2 weeks i was so homesick but this week i haven;t felt it really at allso thats good. spanish is okay... miss you and yes i love the thoughts :)
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