Hello everyone :)
So yesterday was my first real day in my own ward!!! How crazy!!
It was so much fun and the people are so loving... I feel right at home!
Anyways it was fast and testimony meeting and the counselor in the branch
presidency invited me and elder Peña up to share our testimonies... I don't
think that's legal but nevertheless haha!! So I don't think my heart has ever
pounded more in my life... Or faster... Or I've ever had that much adrenaline!!
I have been waiting my whole life to have my own ward, on my mission, and to
talk to the people for the first time!! Dream come true :) anyways, I
introduced myself and told them how long I'd been here and what not then I
shared my testimony!! I felt pretty good about it, then after the meeting I got
so many compliments on my Spanish!! I felt so overwhelmed, I really don't feel
like it's good yet but people kept saying "you've really only been out for
2 months?! Your Spanish is excellent!" So that made me feel really good :)
then we got to help the teenagers with an exercise about inviting friends to
church which was good, then we went to the primary and talked to the kids about
preparing for missions! I showed the little kids a picture of Kenna and Ellie
and told them that my sisters are getting ready for missions too and they were
obsessed with the picture! Haha so Kenna and Ellie, people here love you guys
:) we went to priesthood which was good, we talked about leadership and then
after church we had ward council and that was also good! So I was very glad we
finally had a real meeting! We have lots of work to do though, but I'm so
excited!!
Okay this is like a funny and cute story, but more funny because
it's weird to call my 21 year old companion from Peru cute hahaha... So, the
other night I was just absolutely starving so I was in the kitchen just chowing
down on tons of nachos and he walks into the kitchen and says... "You wish
I have chip also?" Haha!! He was trying to say "can I have some
nachos?" But he doesn't know how to formulate sentences very well in
English so whatever he thinks just comes out... It was awesome. So I gave him
chips and cheese and he was happy :)
So in Spain you can't knock on doors because there's no such
thing as houses, so you ring the number on the keypad and they answer their
phone in the apartment and decide if they want to let you in or not. So, we
were going to visit an old investigator and we rang the keypad thing and the
door opened without even anyone asking us who we were, which was odd. So I was
all pumped to knock on my first actual door! We went in and up to the door and
when we knocked, a lady wearing nothing but a bra and underwear answered the
door and we were like "hi does Fernando live here anymore?" She said
no and we were like okay thanks the just turned and booked it out of there!!
When we got back outside Elder Peña and I just started laughing!! Elder Peña
yelled "Oh my gosh!!" It was the weirdest, strangest thing that's
ever happened but we got a quality laugh out of it.
This week on Thursday, we had Zone Conference in León, so we got
up really early and went to the bus station to catch our 2 hour ride. Once we
got there, all the missionaries started to show up, and I found Elder Morris
(Gabe)!!!!!! Holy cow it was good to see him :) Zone Conference was awesome, it
was good to be with tons of missionaries again! It made me miss my friends from
the MTC for a little bit but it was all good. Then after, we had
"Intercambio's" which are exchanges, and my companion was Elder
Galeano from Omaha. He has been out for 23 months, so he is legitimately a
professional missionary. He speaks fluent English and Spanish, it was so
incredible! Within the first 15 minutes of us being in the streets of León, we
had already seen like 10 members and one of them took us into a bar and bought
us a Coke and this really good meat, cheese, and bread! We had some good conversations
with the members and tried to do some pass-byes but not many people were home,
so we ended up contacting. It was so much fun to be with someone who speaks
English, and not to mention he was literally a perfect combination of Kyle Peay
and Uncle Jed, who happen to be 2 of my best friends! So Elder Galeano was the
bomb. Literally intercambios were so incredible and I was so happy to serve
with one of my new best friends now :) I want to be just like Elder Galeano, he
can get just about anyone to talk to him and he understands what they need
perfectly!! when I gave him a hug before my bus ride back to Valladolid, I
started crying because I didn't want to leave him (I'm kind of a baby and I cry
a lot) and because he was just such a good example to me in the short 24 hours
we had together.
Sorry my emails are really long, but there's so much I want to
tell you all about! I am loving it here :) I learn so much every day, i know
that Heavenly Father is watching out for all the missionaries in the world. He
has people prepared for Elder Peña and I to find and every day we walk around
in Valladolid talking to everyone. Elder Galeano shared something with me that
I want to share with you to finish... “Lots of days you feel like you have no
success. The mission is not easy nor was it ever meant to be.” He invited me to
look for the positive things in every day, whether it's you learned more
Spanish or held the door open for someone and had a small conversation with
them. Focus on the positive that you have in your life and you will be much
happier :)
I love you all tons and tons, thanks for reading this far, I
promise I'm done now.
Love,
Elder Brady
Craig Smith
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