7 Months and Talavera

HEY!

Well another week passed super quick and we had a lot of fun over here
in Talavera! I'm finally starting to get a feel for the city and where
stuff is! Elder Johnson and I are getting along super well, we are
learning a lot from each other and growing together more and more
every day. This week, La Semana Santa starts and so it should make our
missionary work a little more interesting. Spain is literally the most
catholic country in the whole entire freaking universe haha. It's not
easy to be a missionary here but I absolutely love it! Here was a look
at our week :)

We have really been getting into knocking doors and whole buildings
which is super interesting. We literally go from door to door trying
to show the new #Hallelujah video that the church put out for Easter.
It's really cool if you haven't seen it yet... Go look it up :) Lots
of doors are opened and then quickly slammed haha. So, when someone
keeps it open for a minute and we are able to testify of our Savior
and they listen, it's a huge victory for us! There are a lot of great
people here that want to listen to us, we just have to do a lot of
looking for them.

On Wednesday, we went to Toledo for district meeting. TOLEDO is NUTS!
It is a super old looking town, lots of history. We walked up and
down a few super old streets and they are lined one after another with
sword shops! And every single one that we went into, the people made
sure that we remembered that the missionaries have discounts! Haha
after years and years of Mormon Missionaries buying swords, now we
have the discount :) it was pretty funny to see how happy the owners
of these shops got when they saw all the white shirts and ties walking
around haha! I will definitely be getting a sword here! In district
meeting, we did a practice that I really enjoyed. As part of the first
lesson we teach as missionaries, we also do something that I call
"Lesson Alpha". It just means you have to get to know the person
better and try to figure out what their needs are while you are
teaching them. It's something that isn't easy, but it's necessary to
do if you want a good relationship with the investigator. Sometimes in
the lessons, all we do is get to know the people and share a short
testimony and let them know what we would like to do with them. I've
seen the blessings of these "Lesson Alpha's" and know that when we
really take interest in our investigators, they'll feel more open to
what we are teaching of them.

Speaking of investigators... LUCY! Lucy is the bomb.com! She is
literally so ready to be baptized it's insane. This week we taught her
the Plan of Salvation and the Word of Wisdom. They went very well,
actually better than we expected! We kind of had a feeling that if
anything would be a struggle for her, it would be the Word of Wisdom.
We were right, as soon as we brought up Tea and Coffee, she got vocal
and said that she loves her hot drinks! She said it wouldn't be a
problem to stop though, she knows that if she stops the Lord will
bless her even more! Then she asked us if she could still drink hot
chocolate! Hahah oh Lucy... She's so great :) oh and she asked us what
clothes she needs to wear for her baptism, she is just getting this
whole thing planned out all by herself! What a wonderful experience it
is to watch someone be so excited about baptism! This world needs more
Lucy's!

ARTURO! Arturo is a 33 year old guy from Ecuador, one of the nicest
people I have ever met! He got to know the missionaries from one of
his friends and just loves us to death haha. I heard that it was hard
to get into his house to teach him because a lot of the time he is
gone, but there's a secret! He cuts hair and if you schedule a haircut
with him, he never fails! So I called him up and told him that I
needed a haircut and guess what... WE GOT IN :) so while he was
cutting my hair (he is insanely good by the way), we talked about
everything! He is super interested in English so we practiced a lot
and then we got talking about missionary work. He knows a little bit
about Joseph Smith so we talked a lot about that. Another thing about
Arturo... He grows weed haha. He has a big weed plant in his Piso that
we saw when we walked in. So, I just need to find out to get into his
house more often than for my haircuts and how to get this guy to live
the Word of Wisdom! Other than that he's golden! He does want to hang
with us on P-Days and play soccer and then go fishing too! So we will
see how that goes :)

Adelina is also another lady that I met this week, she is an
evangelista but loves us missionaries! She took us to a bar and sat us
down, bought us a Coke, and we talked about God! It was so awesome!
She has been to our church before but isn't really interested in
changing her beliefs. One day, the missionaries knocked on her
neighbor's door but the neighbor didn't want anything to do with them
and so she decided to let them in. Oh, did I mention that she has read
the Book of Mormon 8 times?!?! Haha it was insane!! She knows that
book better than I do! She said right now that she is in Alma 32
again, and that she loves it!! Haha she was such a sweet lady, she
will be super fun to get to know more in my time here :)

Well sorry for the kind of different format this week, but I got to
know the people better which was the important part!! Also, while I
was reading one morning in my personal study, I came across D&C 50:24,
it talks about the Light of Christ. I know that every person has the
Light of Christ in them, it's up to us missionaries to help them
recognize it and get them to shine!! The people here in Talavera are
awesome and I want to help them realize that they are sons and
daughters of a loving God and that their older brother, Jesus Christ,
died for them. I'm loving this mission of mine, I'm really learning to
rely on my Heavenly Father and put my trust in him when things get
tough. Thanks for the support, love you all!

Con Amor,

Elder Smith