Welcome to El Ferrol Spain

                  El Ferrol
Brady is headed to the northern most area of the Madrid Mission El Ferrol .  It is a beautiful city on the coast.  We are excited he will discover a different region of Spain. 

Cruise stop in El Ferrol

Santiago De Compostela

The harbor at night

Pics from this week

The Madrid family from Honduras

Christmas Eve

Classic skype family picture 

Abuelita AND family, plus Raul and Nancy 

My second family :) 

SIBLING LOVE ❤

Ward mission leader Daniel

I'm headed NORTH literally!!

ALOHA :) 

I hope everyone had the most wonderful, marvelous, and fantastic Christmas of all time! Mine was really great, I'm happy i was able to be here in B3 with such wonderful missionaries and members to help me celebrate!! Well like I said, transfers were this week and I'm headed north! Like the farthest north that our mission has! My new area is called El Ferrol and its right above A Coruña :) I'm so excited I can hardly stand it! The only thing I really wanted from transfers was to get far away from Madrid and serve on the coast. And I got both of those things, so Heavenly Father must really love me!! Also, elder Morris is serving in A Coruña so we are definitely going to be doing an intercambio and partying it up! My new companion is named Elder Simmons and he's only been out 2 transfers, so I'll be Greenie Breaking again haha :) my new district is just 2 elders and 2 Hermanas so it should be a hoot. My train leaves tomorrow morning at 9 AM and it'll be a good 7 hours to Coruña and then another hour by bus! Wish me luck and I'll send more updates next week. Now more about my last week in B3!

So on Sunday, we gave the priesthood to Carlitos, the 14 year old son of the Honduras family. THAT WAS LIKE THE COOLEST THING OF MY WHOLE MISSION! It felt like all our hard work paid off, and he is really excited to prepare and bless the sacrament for the first time next week. I'm amazed at the change I have seen in that family, I would even consider them my own! They are so awesome and I’m really gonna miss them. It's just gonna be a matter of time before the mom and youngest son get baptized then they can get ready for the temple :) it was a good way to go out with them! 

On Christmas Eve, we went out with the goal of giving Books of Mormon as gifts and for the first 15-20ish minutes or so, we got nothing but hard core rejections. So I decided to pray, ask Heavenly Father to soften the hearts of the people, and let us do our work. Literally 2 seconds after I said amen, I gave the first Book of Mormon of the day to a guy named Freddy from Bolivia and he gave me his number too! After that first initial Book of Mormon, we ended up giving out a total of 21 Books of Mormon and got 7 references!! It was a Christmas miracle! I was so happy and elder Johnson was giddy! But we were so happy that he listened to our prayers and helped us achieve our goal. 

If you know anything about my family's Christmas traditions, you know that we write "I love you because" notes every year. When I read mine this year, I just sat on the couch and cried of happiness!! I am so blessed to have the amazing family and friends that I do. So thanks mom and dad and sissys!! You guys are the BEST :) so good to see your faces on Skype :) I cherish all of our friendships and memories and I'm really excited to see you all in a few months :) but as for now, the people need me here and I need them too! I'm gonna miss B3 like crazy, more than I thought actually but I'm really excited for Ferrol. It's gonna be a good few rainy transfers :) 

Okey dokey that's all I got! The rest of the week just consisted of good byes and contacting and failed lessons. But the area will be left in good hands :) I love you all, I hope you have a great week and you'll be hearing from me soon!! HAPPY NEW YEAR :) ❤🇪🇸😊

Con amor,

Elder brady smith 

PICS FROM THIS WEEK

5 zone Christmas conference last week!!

Caroling last night :)

Merry Christmas from you neighborhood B3 Elders :)

Toledo P-Day today!!

Old Friends hehehe

"YOU'RE NOT SANTA...YOU SMELL LIKE BEEF AND CHEESE!"

Hello Friends and Family!

I hope you are all swell :) we had a nice little week here in B3!! CHRISTMAS IS IN 6 DAYS WHATTTTTTTT IM SOOOO EXCITED!!! I hope you all are too :) here's how the last few days went :)

So we have been giving it 110% in the streets this week, trying to find the people that we know the Lord has prepared for us. One night, we got home a little bit early but I had a strong feeling that we needed to go back out and find someone, even though we were tired and super not excited haha. So we left, and after talking to about 10 people, we finally came upon our new friend Marina :) she was hesitant at first but agreed to give us her number and meet another day. So this week we met up and she was so happy and wants to come on Sunday's with us!! She has a lot of time during the week and wants to meet up a couple times a week. IT WAS A MIRACLE! I was so happy! God answers prayers!!

Last night we went caroling at a residency home for old folks and it was easily the greatest thing I've ever done in my life! I led the music and at the end like all the people were crying tears of joy! Such a great experience :) after we stayed and talked to all the old people and literally every single one of them looked at me and said "MADRE MÍA QUE GUAPO ERES" hahahaha it was so great. I love old people. Singing and service go really well hand in hand and it was an experience I'm never going to forget! We are actually going back this Thursday to visit the people again for one last time before Christmas 😋🎄

Last week in our Christmas conference, president pack showed us a quote from Harold B. Lee that says "You must learn to walk to the edge of the light, and then a few steps into the darkness; then the light will appear and show the way before you." I love this and we can apply it in every aspect of our lives, especially missionary work. Once we start to feel comfortable, we need to push ourselves just a little bit more and then we will start to see miracles. We have tried hard this week to put this quote to the test and have been seeing the results big time. My testimony has been strengthened so much and I know that God has his hand in this work! I just love it out here so much!!

Well, transfers are this Saturday night which also happens to be Christmas Eve! With the amount of time that I have here in B3, there's a high chance that I will be leaving. I'm basically positive I'm leaving haha. So that should make this Christmas a crazy and unforgettable one! I love you all so much, thanks for your letters and Christmas cards, they are the best! I hope you all have a wonderful week leading up to the greatest holiday of all time and for all you missionaries and missionary families, HAPPY SKYPING :) love you all!! MERRY CHRISTmas!!! 🎄⛄❄🎁🎅🏽

Con Amor,

Elder Brady C. Smith

Pics from this week

a big hug from elder smith to all of you :)

turning on the madrid temple lights and the christmas concert!

We painted a house last week!! First time in the mission!

this guys name is smith! what a great guy!

That much closer to SKYPE :))

HELLO FAMILY :) 

Things have been good. It’s been quite a few days!! We went to the temple this morning and i love how i feel right after being there :) it’s a nice little refresher. I listened to the session in Portuguese and it was actually kinda cool how much i could understand! The first 20 minutes it was Italian and then i switched but either way it was the same spirit as always! But i am so excited for Christmas it’s not even funny. Like seriously Christmas as a missionary is really fun. It all depends on your attitude and Elder Johnson and i are determined to make this the best Christmas ever!! Here is a little summary of what has been going on recently :) 

I had a couple of intercambios this week and the first one was with my Spanish buddy Elder Trassierra. He's a mission homie and we had a good day. We mainly hit the streets with some contacting but had a few lessons with some less actives and they just needed a little bit of animo. Then a few days later i went with ELder Holt and he is from Idaho :) we literally had every single lesson fail us and on top of that, his eyes were flipping out the day before so i took one for the team and stayed inside all day sunday after church and took care of him while our companions went to all of our appointments :) it worked out well and elder holt is like one of the biggest mission homies that there is. I'm really happy with the way things are right now :) B3 is bumping hahaha. 

Yesterday we had our big Christmas Zone Conference! It was super awesome. President and Hermana Pack prepared a lot of stuff for us and most of it was about faith. Faith in Finding, Faith in Teaching, Faith in Baptizing, Faith in the Lord. They are very certain that if we increase our faith, we will see miracles. They also invited us to look over what we are doing wrong or things that we can change in our obedience and fix it to be able to see more miracles. It was an awesome conference and i felt the spirit so strongly! After, we had a wonderful cooked meal by Hermana Pack and then played White Elephant by zones :) it was a solid day. 

Elena's husband Angel came to church this last Sunday! We have an appointment set up with them tomorrow and we are going to see what he is thinking now about baptism. I hope that things go well, they told us last week that in the beginning of January they are going back to bolivia, but i wont be here. So he will probably be baptized in Bolivia, but miracles are possible and we still have a week and a half of the transfer here! Pray for their family if you wouldn't mind :) thanks guys!!!!!

Well, i love you all. Isn't Christmas time just the best?!?! I hope you are all enjoying it as much as me :) SHARE THE BUENA PALABRA and ILUMINA EL MUNDO CON LA LUZ DE CRISTO!!! I promise that if we keep strong with the light the world program, we will see miracles :) President told us yesterday that in one of the popular Spanish newspapers, it said that the LIGHT the WORLD video was very popular with the Spanish culture :) it softens hearts, invites the spirit, and makes Christmas time that much better! I will talk to you all next week, have a great one! WE CLOSE TO SKYPE TIME :))))))) 

❄️ @DiO$ chavales ⛄️

con amor,

elder smith

Pics from this week

P day fun J

Waiting for the bus yayyyyyy

My Christmas Tree from home, new haircut and ivory flower tie!

The worst email of my mission.... I'm sorry!

Howdy!

I have like no time haha i am so sorry. But to be honest, not that
much happened this week. Twas a bit slow. But I’m still happy and
things are plugging along :) here is what happened!

We are going really hard with all the new Christmas stuff. Last night
we went to a big Christmas concert at the temple and took a few less
actives and investigators with us! They really seemed to enjoy it :)
they turned all the lights on at the Madrid temple too and it was
almost as good as the Salt Lake temple! Sorry but nothing compares to
salt lake but it was pretty good i guess :) we are really hitting the
streets with the #ILUMINAelMUNDO campaign and showing lots of people
the video. It has gotten us a good amount of references so we are
excited about that!

We met up with a few people this week like Raul and Nancy, Elena,
Erik, Daniel the Dominican, the Madrid's from Honduras, and various
others. I am so happy to see the gospel changing these people’s lives.
Seriously i don’t know what i would do without it. It brings me so much
happiness and i just can’t even describe it. I am grateful for the
chance i have to be a missionary, and with it being Christmas time, it
just makes everything that much better!! Keep on doing all your acts
of service and i can promise you that you will see results!

I have no more time and can't think of anything else cool that
happened. This is definitely the most lame email of my whole mission.
I got super sick last night and only slept about a total of 2 1/2
hours haha so that wasn't fun :/ things are great, we have
intercambios this week and the temple and our Christmas party/zone
conference the next! So next Monday i won’t be emailing but it will be
Wednesday instead and i promise i will have a lot more updates for you
guys then :)

THE CHURCH IS TRUE, GOD LOVES US ALL, AND I HOPE YOU ALL HAVE A
FANTASTIC WEEK :) keep on getting into the Christmas spirit! I'll be
skyping with my family in just 20 short days WOOO HOOO :))

Con Amor,
Elder SMITH

P.s. I seriously am sorry for the short crappy email... i feel bad.
But next week's will make up for it :) so if i didn't respond to you
personally, next week i will for sure!

Pics from this week

My mother from Paraguay and our 22 pound turkey :) 

Elena's Baptism!! 

My battle wound 

P-Day bowling fun :) B3 vs. B9

The district and our ward mission leader 

Zone conference feast!

Food, Elena, and #ILUMINAelMUNDO

Well HHHHEEELLLLLLLLLOOOOO my dearly beloved ones :)

Let me tell you, we had such a fantastic week! Holy cow if we keep having weeks like this I might never come home. The title of the email basically explains all that went on, we ate a lot of food, Elena got baptized, and the church came out with the DOPEST SICKEST MOST BORDERLINE GROTESQUE CHRISTMAS CAMPAIGN known to womankind! So I'll explain all that stuff with more detail now :) 

So thanksgiving was incredible. We had a zone conference that day and learned a lot of stuff about like how to begin teaching and the new Christmas initiative that the church came out with. We will get into that later :) but it was fun. We had a big feast after as a zone and had some nice chatting with other missionaries! Then later that night, we went over to my Paraguayan mother's house and she cooked us a 22 POUND TURKEY HOLY COW it was soooooo good and definitely a Thanksgiving I'll never forget. Being with the people you love and some good food is definitely the best feeling in the world :) We have had sooooooo many eating appointments this week.... I have never eaten so much in my whole life. I need to start running again haha. SOLID THANKSGIVING!

ELENA GOT BAPTIZED :):):) it was a marvelous day. All her family came to support her and she was glowing with happiness! It took her and her son a few times to get the baptismal prayer right and for her to go completely under, but after all, she went under :) her non-member husband was there and when her son got up to bare his testimony, the husband started to cry! He went and talked to the bishops wife and told her that he was gonna be baptized next. We are making some serious progress with them guys so I'm really pumped to see what the future brings with them! And of course Elena got confirmed yesterday so it was just the cherry on top :) SOLID WEEKEND! 

I sure hope you have all seen the new Christmas video called #LIGHTtheWORLD. if not, stop reading this and go look it up. Seriously. It's fire. We have been out in the streets contacting this week and we have been able to share the video and talk a little bit about the acts of service that we can do. I honestly am so hyped to start this puppy up! The members are all on board, the mission, the whole world is gonna be lit up with the light of Christ! So I invite all of you to give your all this Christmas season and light the world with the light of Christ! This is going to be a memorable Christmas if we do it right, I mean there is a freaking giant billboard in NYC's TIMES SQUARE so that means it's super important. It's gonna be a SOLID CHRISTMAS SEASON FOLKS! 

That was my week. Oh and this morning I got in a fight with a grizzly bear and he scratched my forehead really bad! Haha actually it was just the clip on my name tag. It looks bad and kinda stings but I should live. Maybe people will want to talk to me and ask me what happened and I'll get more references! Haha ;) but I'm so happy. And today for p-day we went bowling as B9 and B3 missionaries!! Good stuff :) I love thanksgiving and Christmas so much! I hope you all had a great week and get into the Christmas spirit this coming week :) LOVE YOU ALL!! 

Con Amor,

Elder Brady Smith 

Pics from this week

Outside the Atlético Madrid stadium just before

Atlético played Real Madrid :) 

TURKEY BOWL CREW

TANNER look out for her, she lives in Fuengirola :) 

The Pit today where we played real football  me, elder kiser, elder Gearig, and

elder Reese were definitely the MVP's 

Turkey Week!!! Woooo Hoooo!!

Hola familia :):) 

Well I don't have a ton of time today because we were playing basketball and having the 1st Annual  Spain Madrid Mission  TURKEY BOWL  haha it was so much fun. I have pictures attached at the bottom. But this week was incredibly fun! Kinda slow but things are moving along :) here's the summary!

So, elder Johnson is probably the funniest person next to bryson Gallagher and GHam. I seriously am laughing my butt off 24/7 and he is a really hard worker too. Every night I have to call all the members of our district and do like a check up and then after, I just hand the phone over to elder Johnson and he tells them a joke and all I hear is the people through the other end of the phone laughing their heads off haha! We have been getting along really well and have set our goals and sights high for this transfer. We've got 5 more weeks to make some magic happen here! 

So this week we met up with Nancy's daughter, Violeta! I'm sure you all remember Nancy from Venezuela who left the country last week. Well we talked for a bit with Violeta and she was super cool! She believes a lot in God and really liked the fact that 2 young people would dedicate so much time to serving other people. She has been through a lot of trials in her life and is really open to learning more. So good things will be coming with us and Violeta! And speaking of her mom, Nancy, she called me yesterday! We were eating with some members and the phone rang and when I answered it, I knew immediately who it was! It was so good to hear her voice! I love Nancy so much and she said that she found the missionaries in Venezuela so she is continuing with them :) they are some great people! 

Elena's baptism is this Saturday!! She's so excited for it that it's making me excited too! Her happiness is contagious. For someone that has waited so long for this special day, she is so calm and content. She has taught me a lot just by her example and willingness to follow the Savior. Her son Angel is going to baptize her and it's gonna be the greatest day of all time! Hopefully next week I'll have more to report on the baptism and how it went but for now, keep her in your prayers :) 

With this week being Thanksgiving, I want to give you all a special thanks for the influence you have had in my life. Especially my parents and sisters! The longer I am out, the more I realize how important family is. I would not be here serving or even close to the same person I am today without you 4! I love and miss you guys so much. I am grateful for this Thanksgiving season and all the things my Heavenly Father has blessed me with. I am grateful for the opportunity I have to serve as a full time missionary of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. I love the people I'm serving with my whole heart and I love this country too. I know God sent me here to find my long lost family and friends and bring them closer unto Him. I invite all of you to think about the things you are grateful for and THANK YOUR HEAVENLY FATHER :) all that we have comes from him and isn't it wonderful that we have someone who loves us so much?!?! 

Love you all. Have a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend and go play in a turkey bowl for me! And stuff yourselves full of food, of course :) Oh and PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE send me your Christmas cards! There is nothing I love more than a good Christmas card :) talk to you all soon! 

Con Amor,

Elder brady smith 

Pics from this week

The last meeting with nancy!

Dropping the nino off at the train station for 

VALLADOLOD this morning!

Zone Conference J

One of the eating appts we had yesterday!

Sweater twins.. a parting gift from Elder Jones to me!

Crazy Semana!

Hello all :')

Well it was a crazy good week with an even crazier finish! Keep
reading to find out more :) :) :)

Okey dokey... so remember how last week I said that President always
has a card up his sleeve for transfers? Well folks, he played it :) I
was so surprised when transfer calls came in hahaha it was about the
last thing I was expecting. So, I'm staying a 4th transfer in B3 which
means I'll be here for Thanksgiving and Christmas! But, Elder Jones is
leaving! Normally greenies are in their first areas for about 6 months
so it was really surprising! But guess where he's going?!?! Yep :)
VALLADOLID!!! He will be serving in the exact same companionship that
Elder Peña and I opened just over a year ago! He'll be in my same
piso, he'll be there the exact same time of year as me, he will meet
all the people I know, everything the exact same! I was so blown
away!! I seriously am so excited for him haha he is going to the
greatest place in the whole mission. My new companion in B3 will be
Elder Johnson! He is from Nampa, Idaho and has been out for a year! So
now I will have had 2 Johnson's and a Jones :) he's a great guy so I'm
excited to see what happens these next six weeks! So that's what
happened with transfers :) now here's how the week went!

So Elena passed her baptismal interview :) WOOO HOOO :) she wants to
be baptized on 26th of November in the morning so that all her family
can come to support her. She is kind of a gift that fell from the sky,
but we are still really excited for her. She has been waiting for over
10 years to be legally married and now finally can be baptized! She's
been preparing for a while and I'm just glad we can be here to help
her move on to the next step :) I'll keep y'all updated on how
everything goes with her!

So probably the saddest part of the week... Nancy left Spain :( she
went back to Venezuela! We called her on Thursday (elder jones
birthday) and met up with her, and while we were sitting in a park
talking, she told us that her daughter bought her a ticket back to
Venezuela. Her youngest daughter lives here and Nancy came to try and
help her out, but things didn't end up turning out too well. So, it
literally came as a complete surprise. Right when she said that, i was
like immediately shocked. I am going to miss her soooooo much, when we
said goodbye, she pulled us both in and gave us hugs and besos ;) she
made us sign her Book of Mormon and kept telling us that it was her
most prized possession. I have no doubt that she will be baptized in
Venezuela one day. She lives by the church over there. She has had a
crazy hard life. Her husband was a journalist and one day, some people
didn't like an article that he wrote so they went to his house and
killed him and put a gun to the youngest daughter's head and
threatened to kill her too but didn't. She is one of the strongest
people I have ever met and I am going to miss her sooooooo much.
Change is hard but for her its going to be the best thing right now!

We are doing super duper good with our family from Honduras, we
visited them 3 times this week and the dad was a bit sick, so we gave
him a blessing and he has started to feel a lot better. I think i
mentioned it in my last email, but they finally got married civilly!
And the wife who is catholic, she has been reading so much every day
on LDS.org and the Book of Mormon as well. We take the kids to church
every Sunday and i think we could see some possible baptisms with them
in the coming months. They are literally the greatest family of all
time, they make us the best food in the whole world every time we go
over and i feel so good helping them out. I just love missionary work
so much wooooooooooooowwwwwwwwwwwwww.

MY SON IS GONE! I am so glad i had the chance to serve with elder
jones. He is a machine. Honestly some days it feels more like he
trained me than i trained him. He was only here for 2 transfers, but
he left his mark in a good way. We had like 3 separate eating
appointments yesterday just so the people could say goodbye to him! I
learned so much during our time together and consider him my little
brother who is a lot taller than me haha :) Valladolid needs him right
now and im so sure that he is going to have so much success! Go North
Chaval!!

This morning we went on our final breakfast trip, and as we were
walking in the street, we passed a guy from New York and he was with
his daughter. We started to talk with him and he has a lot of friends
that are mormons and he wished us luck and told us to pray for him.
Then, his 5 year old daughter looked up at him and said "no daddy, we
should pray for them. They need it!" It was the cutest thing in the
world and got me thinking about all the people who have been
supporting me throughout my mission. I promise not a single prayer
goes unnoticed. I am so grateful for the family and friends that all
of you reading this are and have been for me my whole life, especially
during my mission. Things are sooooooo very good right now. I love
this church with everything i've got!

Elder Johnson and i are gonna tear it up this week and you'll hear
from me soon :) have a great one familia y amigos and stay safe!! LOVE
YOU ALL :)))))))))) ❤️❤️

Con Amor,
ELDER smith