'Twas another week in Talavera :)

Hola folks :)

Well it's been a while since I last wrote but that's okay. Today we
went to the temple as part of our p-day and that was so much fun! I
just love the overwhelming peace that I feel when I'm in the house of
the Lord. Its now been over a year since I went through with my
parents, family, and friends for the first time and I'm looking
forward to many, many more to come! It's such a blessing to have one
in our mission and back in Utah on every corner haha! Today there were
people in our session from Portugal and France, and it made me realize
that I'm so lucky to have the Bountiful Temple just 10 minutes away
from my house rather than having to go to a different country!
Anyways, this week was pretty long and interesting, the work in
Talavera is slow but we are doing all that we can and trusting in the
Lord. Here's a little bit about what happened!

We honestly don't have investigators haha. It's really sad and quite
discouraging to be honest. We decided to drop Pedro for a little bit
because we felt that he wasn't progressing and other than that, we
have "investigators" but I'd consider them more as friends. For
example, Adelina. We meet with her about twice a week and sit down at
a bar and have a coke and talk about God and other religious subjects.
Adelina has been the bomb in helping us find new people! She gives us
references of all her friends that aren't of her faith but sadly, none
of them have amounted to anything yet. Another example is our friend
Guillermo. He likes to meet with us about 3 times a week to practice
his English and talk about the church. He is so fascinated with us and
loves the things that we do, especially the missionaries. He lives in
Talavera during the week but in Madrid on the weekends because of his
job, but I honestly think that if he were to come to church with us,
he would be baptized. He is totally all about family and God, plus he
doesn't drink or smoke or believe in any of that other stuff. So we
really enjoy talking with him and helping him learn and I know that we
are planting seeds for the future! One day he will make the decision
to change for the better :) so as for now in Talavera, we've got lots
and lots of contacting to do :)

Yesterday we had a district meeting and focused completely on Chapter
6 of Preach My Gospel, the attributes of Christ section. I love that
chapter so much and so naturally, I loved the meeting too! Everyone
was assigned 1 or 2 attributes to talk about and relate to the mission
and we had such good participation and comments. I got to talk about
patience which is something that I have been focused on a lot these
past few weeks. I learned bunches and bunches and am really striving
every day to become more like my Savior. It's a long process and I'm
far from perfect, but with his help I know it's possible. After that,
Elder Baerwaldt and I went up to Madrid for intercambios with the Zone
Leaders. I went with Elder Wade (Dwayne, just kidding hehe), a cool
guy from St. George and I learned lots from his example. It was also
the first time that I have ever legitimately worked in Madrid! After
10 months of being in Spain I finally worked in the biggest part of
the mission :) I don't want to say that it's easy, but compared to the
North and Castilla-La Mancha, it's a lot easier haha. We walked around
for about 30 minutes and got 5 references. To put that into
perspective, last week in Talavera, we only received a total of 5
references. That's 7 days versus 30 minutes and the exact same number
of received! Hopefully you all get the idea :) we also extended a
baptismal invitation to one of their Russian investigators and he
accepted for the 30th of July! Then the rest of the day we passed by
lots of less active people and had some really cool spiritual
experiences with them. Overall it was a pretty awesome day and I
definitely wouldn't mind serving in Madrid for a change :)

Today after the temple we played soccer with all the Elders in the
zone it was so much fun! Even though by the end we were all super
dehydrated and sun burnt way bad, we all had a good time :) I almost
had 2 of the coolest headers known to mankind but I just need to get
better at my aim haha. They were both SC Top 10 quality. Something
else kinda important...MY FATHER ELDER PEÑA GOT TRANSFERRED TO MY ZONE
SO I GOT TO SEE HIM AND HUG HIM AND PLAY SOCCER WITH HIM AND TALK TO
HIM and my goodness, I love and miss that little Peruvian so much. He
finishes his mission in 2 short weeks! Oh and before I forget, a big
thank you to the Oswald Family for making the trip out to Madrid and
bringing me that package from my family! I got it this morning and it
made my day even better :)

Well that's all I got this week. I am loving it out here in Spain and
having experiences that I know I couldn't get anywhere else! I love
this work, these people, and my Savior. I hope you all have a
fantastic week and soak up summer and all the sun :) go swimming for
me please hahaha I about jumped in the public swimming pool yesterday
because I was so sweaty! Nothing has ever been more tempting in my
whole life! Talk to you all soon :)

Con Amor,
Elder Brady Smith