Monday, June 27, 2016

Caves, JW's, Faith and Heaven :)

What is UP :)

Well it's been like half an hour (or so it seems) since I last wrote so this summary is gonna be kinda small!! But we had a lot of fun in the short time that it has been :) and before I forget, I have to say happy birthday to the craziest uncle on the planet JEBBERZZ :) hope you are having a great day! Here is a little about how the week went!

We had kind of a funny experience the other day, we were finishing up studies and someone rang our doorbell. So I went to answer it, and when I got there I saw some Jehovah's Witnesses! Haha so I opened it and we talked for a minute and he invited me to a big convention that they were having in Madrid and gave me a pamphlet. Obviously I'm not gonna go but it was kinda funny because it definitely caught him off guard to see 2 Mormon missionaries answer the door! Later that day when we were going back to Piso at the end of the day, I noticed a scratch by our timbre thing and asked Elder Baerwaldt if he knew what happened. Then he told me that the JW's put X's by the doors of people who aren't interested! I was so shocked! That's gotta be some sort of property damage or something! Anyways I took a picture and put it at the bottom. I got a good laugh out of it and now they won't bug us anymore thanks to their little mark :) we have actually seen them around a lot down here and they always stop us to talk and are really nice. So as long as we keep the good vibes going, I think we should be in good shape :) 

Yesterday, I had the opportunity to give a talk in church and I decided to talk about Faith. President Nelson shares a story in his April 2014 GC address called "Let Your Faith Show". He says 

"On a recent flight, our pilot announced that we would encounter turbulence during our descent and that all passengers must fasten their seat belts securely. Sure enough, turbulence came. It was really rough. Across the aisle and a couple of rows behind me, a terrified woman panicked. With each frightening drop and jarring bump, she screamed loudly. Her husband tried to comfort her but to no avail. Her hysterical shouts persisted until we passed through that zone of turbulence to a safe landing. During her period of anxiety, I felt sorry for her. Because faith is the antidote for fear, I silently wished that I could have strengthened her faith. Later, as passengers were leaving the aircraft, this woman’s husband spoke to me. He said, “I’m sorry my wife was so terrified. The only way I could comfort her was to tell her that ‘Elder Nelson is on this flight, so you don’t need to worry.’” 

Sometimes, to a certain extent, I feel like the lady on the plane. Stressed outta my mind and wondering what the heck to do! I feel like that's normal, we should be worried but not too much. I love that faith and fear cannot coexist. Every time I think of faith, I think of my wonderful parents. I would not be anything without them. They are 2 of the most faithful people I know in all aspects of their lives. They always encouraged me to work on my own testimony. Although we should have our own testimony, I have a little part of theirs hooked in with mine because they always took time to share theirs with me and were great examples to me. I hope my wife and I can be just like those 2 someday :) JUST GOTTA HAVE FAITH THAT EVERYTHING WILL WORK OUT :) I'm grateful for faith and the peace and comfort it brings into my life. None of us would be able to live without it!

On a different note, today for P-Day, one of our English Class friends, Raquel and her dad took us up to some caves close to Talavera! These babies are stuffed full of stalagmites and stuff, the things that look like giant icicles! It was honestly the coolest thing of all time! Down in this cave, it's a constant 63 degrees with like 90% humidity!! Honestly the coolest thing of all time. After that, they took us to a castle and a cool little spot where we hiked up a mini waterfall that also was chuck full of natural pools! I have never wanted to swim so bad in my whole life! This place was exactly how the celestial kingdom is gonna be. I was in heaven. Oh, did I mention that the Toledo Elders came down too?? :) so that was fun. Then Raquel and her dad took us out to lunch. Honestly the nicest people on the planet. So today was probably the greatest P-Day of the whole mission :) I took tons of pictures so look out for all of those!

Well that's all I got. Hopefully more to report on next week, but I'm still loving it here in Spain! I'm dreading coming home because I feel like this is home now :) I hope you all had a great week and are enjoying a little summer vacation :) we have transfers in 2 weeks so we will see what they bring!! LOVE YOU ALL TO THE MOON AND BACK! 

Con Amor,
eLdeR sMiTH

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