CRAZY WEEK & THE BEACH!!

Hola Familia y Amigos :)

What a week!! I'm super happy to be here having these experiences. I
know that God has a plan for every single one of us, and yes I know I
say that every week, but it's because I see it more and more in my
life every day. Here's how it all went down...

So Monday through Wednesday I was in a trio with Elders Tree and
Fletcher. That was actually super fun, and I've developed a love for
trio contacting. We split up and go 1 and 2, so I always just picked
the solo position and ended up having a lot of success!! It's hard for
me to not get frustrated sometimes when the people are straight up
jerks to you, but I just have to remember that they aren't prepared
yet. I did my part as a missionary, and one day everyone will know of
the truthfulness of this gospel. On Wednesday night, I picked up Elder
Galvan from the train station!! Haha he is super cool, we have been
having a ton of fun together. He's from California and has been out
for like 19 months, so more than likely he'll finish up his mission
here in Valladolid. He's a convert of 3 years and knows a lot about
the gospel so I'm really excited to learn from him!! All of Wednesday
we just finished unpacking his stuff in the Piso.

Thursday morning we woke up and got our stuff ready to head to A
Coruña! It was about an 8 hour bus ride from Valladolid and along the
way we picked up the missionaries from León and Ponferrada. We got to
A Coruña and went straight to the hotel to dump our stuff in the room
(the hotel was freaking nice haha, it brought back all the days of
baseball and basketball tournaments with my friends and vacations with
the family) then to get food as a zone. When we got back to the hotel,
my ZL Elder Müller told me that Hermana Pack wanted to talk to me. I
instantly felt like there was a rock inside my stomach. So when I got
up to their room, they told me that Grandpa Smith had passed away. I
didn't want to believe it at first, then I just started crying. I
specifically remembered the last time I saw him in person, when he
came to our house when I was set apart. He shared his testimony with
me and it was so strong!! Then I got super happy because I pictured
him giving Grandma Smith a big hug and everyone who knows Grandpa
knows how long he has been waiting for that day. Anyways, President
and Hermana Pack both gave me big hugs and comforted me which was
really nice. I felt Grandpa and Grandma Smith in that moment tell me
that everything was going to be okay. I spent a night reflecting on
Grandpa Smith in my hotel room, just thinking about what an amazing
guy he is. I believe today is his Funeral, and I'm sad I won't be
there but he's here with me in Spain so it's all good :) I love you
Grandpa Smith!!

Friday, we had the chance to listen to Elder Moreira of the 70! He and
his wife came from Portugal to speak to us. Elder Moreira was
hilarious haha, he had me laughing pretty good the whole time. His
wife only speaks Portuguese, but she did give her talk in Spanish and
I was super proud of her for giving it a good effort. She stressed
that Missionary Work is the most important work we'll ever do in our
lives. Elder Moreira talked about change. I wish I would have counted
the amount of times he actually said the word "change", because it was
in the thousands. We are always changing and that's what I loved about
his message, nobody is perfect. Duh. But sometimes we are stubborn and
don't want to change. Accepting change is hard, but in the end, it's
going to shape us into the missionaries that God wants us to become. I
learned a lot from their messages and had a fun time seeing a bunch of
my MTC friends!! Our bus for Valladolid left early Saturday morning,
so we actually got to work in A Coruña for the rest of the day. Elder
Tree served there so he took us on a tour of the city as we contacted
and passed by members. The best part was definitely when we made our
way down towards THE BEACH HOLY COW I MISS THE BEACH haha and
not gonna lie, it was very tempting to sprint into the ocean but I
held back haha. The rest of the night, we had a Noche de Hogar with
the A Coruña missionaries, and after we did an hour of Zumba!! It was
so much fun haha but I was sore the next morning. Just another bit of
info... My good friend Elder Walster and I are professionals at Zumba
now haha. It was nice to see him this weekend :)

Saturday!! 19!! Haha I don't feel any different, but do want to thank
everyone who sent me birthday packages, emails, and letters. It was
Elder Müller's birthday as well and he slept right below me on the
floor on Friday night, so right when the clock hit 12 o'clock, we got
a nice selfie of the birthday boys haha!! We caught our bus back to
Valladolid at 9, then had a Piso check when we got back. We passed!!
All my hard work with cleaning has been paying off haha :) To end the
night, we got a Kebab to celebrate. Only 1 more birthday in the
mission field :)

Sunday was super good, the members really seem to like Elder Galvan so
I'm excited for that. In priesthood, we talked about the literal power
of the priesthood. We as priesthood holders hold the exact same power
as Christ did when he created the world under the direction of
Heavenly Father. HOW COOL!! Sometimes I think we forget just how
sacred the priesthood is, and this lesson was a good reminder to me.
I'm going to try to find more opportunities to magnify my priesthood
this week. Sunday night, we taught a Preach My Gospel class and it was
super successful! The spirit was strong as we taught about chapter 5
which is focused on the Book of Mormon. We invited Claudia and one of
the other Elders Investigators to come and then the "students" taught
the real investigators what they learned from our class!! Claudia and
Angel, the investigators, felt the spirit really strong! I was so
happy, things just worked out perfectly. It was a little miracle to
me, finish the crazy hectic week off with a bang. I just love being a
missionary!!

I'm sorry this email was so long, but thanks for reading this far. I
love the work here. It's hard, and some weeks I just have more to say
than others! Anyways, I love you all a lot. Sometimes I think about
home and how much I miss my friends and family but then remember that
these 2 years are so short and so sacred. I don't want to have any
regrets when I get home. And I'm planning on all of you to be there to
greet me at the airport, okay?! ;) haha well that's all I have for
this week. Love you all! Thanks for everything!!

Con Amor,

Elder Brady Craig Smith