Sweeeeeeeeeet week and 8 Months!

Whatttup

To start off, today I hit 8 months. Time is going by sooooo fast that
it's scary! So I'm honestly just going to stop keeping track and I
guess when they give me my plane ticket, I'll come home! ;) This week
was the bomb. Elder Johnson and I went all out and we have been seeing
some of the fruits of our labors! We had more lessons this week than
any other and they were super awesome too! Here it is :)

Someone I haven't talked about yet is Betty. We found her in our first
week here in Talavera. She is 15, from Romania, speaks English, and a
super nice girl. We had met up with her a few times but kinda got to
thinking that she was just in it to talk with 2 Americans. So, we had
"dropped" her but I had a feeling to call her one more time and try to
set something up and so we did. When we got there, she started telling
me all about Lehi's Vision of the pillar of fire story from 1st Nephi
and I was absolutely stunned! I didn't think she would be the one to
actually read but she did! Obviously she's still in chapter 1 but hey,
I had to give her some credit. She really wants to find the truth and
we have been seeing little changes in her. We've started to teach her
siblings, friends, and neighbors too! Betty has been a big help in
finding people these past few weeks haha :)

Lucy... Oh Lucy. This week we taught her about temples and I have
never seen anyone more excited about anything in my entire life! Her
face absolutely lit up when we told her that she could be baptized for
her ancestors and other family members who have passed away. We
brought our Branch Mission Leader, Eduardo, who is a convert and he
was able to tell her about his experiences with the temple. He got
sealed to his wife and daughters in Madrid not too long ago and it was
a great help to the lesson. The spirit flooded the room! I was so
happy! She still doesn't have an exact date for baptism but it will be
coming up this next transfer. She's the best :)

Do you guys remember Arturo, the guy who cut my hair? Well we got in
with him this week without a haircut appointment! He even invited over
a friend to listen to our message too. And it turns out that this
friend was an old investigator too! Anyways, we started off simple,
just talking about Christ and what he did for us. But as the
conversation went on and on, Arturo and his buddy Jorge started asking
us questions about where we came from and where we are going after we
die. THE PLAN OF SALVATION IS SO WONDERFUL! They loved it! They
totally agreed that it made sense and was a logical explanation to all
the deep questions. Jorge asked me a particular question that made me
sad and happy, he said that his mom lives in Talavera too but that
they got in a fight and now they don't talk. They haven't talked for
10 years but they see each other every day out on the streets! He
asked me what I thought he should do, and obviously I said just
forgive her and move on! I'm so glad I have a good relationship with
my own mom and that Mother's Day is coming up soon so I can see her
lovely smiling face :) he said he would try to get in contact with her
and let me know how it went. After the lesson, Arturo whipped out the
chess board and put me in CHECK MATE IN 4 TURNS. I literally blinked
and I was in check mate. It was hilarious hahahahaha I gotta get him
to teach me his ways :)

Okay this is already a long email so I'll save the other people for
next week. I'm so happy to be here serving my mission in Spain. I love
it so much! It's hard and disappointing sometimes, but there's always
something to be grateful for. For P-Day today we went down to Toledo
with Elders Gearig and Bataller. It was so much fun, we went on a nice
hike and had lunch. And I bought some legitimate Toledo Swords 😈
that's all I got for this week! Love you all so much and hope you have
a great week! The Church is True and don't ever forget it!

Con Amor,

ELDER brady CRAIG smith