2016!!!

Wassssup Fam :)

Hello from rainy Valladolid! Just wanna start off by saying FELIZ AÑO
:) I hope everyone was safe and reflected back on the wonderful 2015
and all the blessings that we received. I'm so excited for 2016... A
whole year dedicated only to serving the Lord and doing missionary
work. What an awesome opportunity it is to be a missionary! I love
waking up every morning and putting on my chapa :) Before I get
started with my weekly review... Here are a few of the things I wanted
to say about 2015...

2015!! Wow!! It was probably the hardest and best year of my life so
far. So many events happened that I am grateful for and helped me get
to where I am right now in Spain. I turned 18 (adulthood baby)! I
received my mission call to the Spain Madrid Mission in March and that
was one of the most special moments of all my life :) I was on a
killer high school baseball team that was very successful and made
lifelong friends that were teammates and coaches. I graduated high
school (which still is a little weird to think about) and Woods Cross
will always have a special place in my heart! Then off to family
vacations, going through the temple, lots of goodbyes to my other
missionary friends, and finally... MISSION TIME :) August 17th was a
very emotional day and full of tears (you all know I'm a cry baby) but
I'm so glad I got on that plane because I have learned more in these 4
1/2 months than I could've ever imagined. Now that I think of it, 2015
was a year of tears; happy and sad, scared and excited, and lots of
endings but tons of beginnings :) Finishing off 2015 in Valladolid was
fun and it's going to be a good month of January here too!

This week was nothing really special, we continued to meet with
Claudia every day and she is officially ready for baptism! Now all we
have to do is wait for her date and there are couple other things we
are trying to figure out with her. But overall, she's so excited and
gets emotional in almost every lesson because the spirit is so strong!
It's been cool to teach someone who is so open and receptive to the
gospel... I wish there were more people here like that haha!! Anyways,
I will keep you all updated on her progress :)

Wednesday was a day full of service. We had district meeting as usual
and then after we went to help Mabel move. She switched her Piso and
her new one is like 5 minutes away so it wasn't too bad. After Mabel,
we went to President Yubero's house and helped them move too! They
bought a house about 40 minutes outside of Valladolid and they had a
ton of stuff. I woke up on Thursday soooooo sore! But their new house
is a lot bigger, has a huge yard, and a swimming pool :) they're very
excited to be out of a Piso and it felt good to take a break from
teaching and serve.

I couldn't help but remember New Year's Eve last year... I had my
wisdom teeth removed and I went to some party with my family in SLC
and all I wanted to do was die! And then after my dad and I flew to
California to enjoy a little college football!! I was in so much pain
hahaha. Needless to say this year was a little bit less painful but I
did still miss the fam. Elder Peña had a good idea to meet up with
Luís and give him a blessing to start off the year well. Really we
just wanted to make sure he wasn't already out partying with his
friends but when we called him he was just at home relaxing and said
he didn't have any plans. After we blessed him, he offered to give us
both blessings and it was incredible! He blessed me to know that God
will always watch over me and that I will be able to help more people
get to the temple. Super cool! It was his second priesthood blessing
ever in his life, the first was last week to Stefan! After the
blessing last week, Stefan was crying and stood up and kissed Luís on
the cheek haha. I'm so proud of Luís and all the progress he has made,
he is getting ready to go to the temple this month and receive his
endowments!! I gave him a tie for his Christmas present and I attached
a picture at the end... We're matching :)

When the clock finally hit 12:00 and it was officially the new year,
people opened up their windows and yelled and screamed like crazy!
There were people throwing beer cans out windows and into the street,
lighting off firecrackers in their piso's, and it was complete
madness! A lot different than Utah! We couldn't sleep with all the
commotion so we set up chairs on our balcony and enjoyed the crazy
Spanish people for a bit. The fireworks here are really loud but I'll
have to say my favorite part was the beer cans haha. The people here
are nuts! Anyways it was a new year I'll never forget :)

Sorry it's another long email! I'm grateful for these experiences I'm
having and wouldn't trade them for anything in the world. I know
Heavenly Father loves every one of us more than we can comprehend. His
plan is perfect and all he wants is for his children to be happy and
return to live with him someday. I hope and pray that we can all make
that one of our New Year's Resolutions, to live worthily and get on
the path to eternal life with Heavenly Father :) thanks for being
awesome and reading this far. Have a wonderful week everybody!! I love
you all <3

Con Amor,

Elder Smith