Pics from this week

Photo Booth fun at church with the kiddos!!

One of our many eating appointments this week... This one was with
our ward mission leader and his family!

Uncle Elder Brady lol I'm good with kids

I beat Elder Malolo in what are the odds so he had to go the whole
day with his tie backwards :) hahaha

Brady and Brady (elders kiser and smith with the matching ties)

Elder McDade and I after the temple :)

After sports this week, we got this Romanian kids reference and he
really liked us so he gave us these cute little fake doggies :)
what a nice kid!

Elder Malolo

Elder Walster

Life In Madrid

Aloha :))

It has been a great week! I'm loving Madrid more and more each day.
The Spain Madrid mission is the greatest in the whole world and I can
honestly say I am loving every single second of my time out here :) we
went to the temple today and I was sooooooo tired the whole session
haha. I actually fell asleep in the celestial room and woke up and I
was the only one left in there! It was some much needed Spanish
celestial sleep ;) here's my week in a nutshell!

Well we had a few lessons this week with some of our friends but
nothing really super extraordinary to point out. We are actually
headed to go visit Alexander tonight so that should be fun! We have a
lot more less actives and recent converts which we work with and I
absolutely love it. They are the gold mine! They already know the
doctrine, so it's just a matter of being their friend and helping them
come back to church. Our friend Raul and his wife Nancy who are less
actives/recent converts and also struggling with their marriage a bit
both came to all 3 hours of church on Sunday! And they went to a
marriage counseling class too so I'm really happy for them! The work
progresses a little every day so it's fun to watch things grow :)

We have had at least 1 eating appointment every day for the last like
10 days and it is so yawesome. Half of the missionaries in B3 are new
and we have been welcomed in like kings and queens! We have English
classes 2 times a week and on Fridays we have a Noche de Hogar with
the ward and then a huge Zumba activity taught by one of the other
elders here, Elder Malolo! He's an AZ State Linebacker commit and we
get along so well haha. He's like my long lost brother :) there are
always lots of fun things going on around here. We are planning a
Minute to Win it activity in a couple of weeks so I'll let you all
know how that goes too :)

I honestly don't know what else to say... We helped a lady move all
day Saturday and on Sunday she had us over to eat and after the meal,
we all fell asleep on her couch haha. We were just beat from the day
before and all the heat. There is also a lady here named Abuelita who
feeds us every Saturday and she is probably the nicest old lady in the
planet! She converted over 50 years ago and she had President Ezra
Taft Benson over to her house in Bolivia and she made him a milk
shake! HAHA! Then she made us the same one and it was pretty tasty if
I do say so myself ;) there's just lots of little things that go on
around here that I want to say but feel like it would bore all who are
reading this. Oh well I guess haha :) last thing... Last night we ate
with another family (surprise surprise) and they made us the biggest
plate of ribs I have ever seen in my life. And they tasted
sooooooooooooooooo good. I just really love everything about Spain :)

That's all I can remember for this week, I'll be emailing again in
about 5 days or so! Today after the temple we had a Zone Basketball
tournament and our team got wrecked but we still had fun :) currently
we are hanging out with some members by their pool (so tempting to
freaking cannon ball right now) and playing cards and ping pong, just
trying to beat the heat :) I love you all and hope you have a
wonderful week. Happy late Pioneer Day for all you Utah people and
I'll talk to you soon!!

Con Amor,
Elder Brady Smith

Pics from this week

The Sirviche that Rosa and her friends made us... Sooooo good!!

All of us eating with Rosa and her friends... Sorry the pic is
blurry, the normal one won't load onto my iPad!

Panoramic of the greatest zone in the Spain Madrid Mission :)

Friday night after Zumba and Volleyball :):)

Basketball today with all the elders and President Pack :)

B3 n Happy as can be :)

Sup!!

So this week has been so crazy fun I honestly have no idea where to
start. Madrid is so great. B3 is the greatest area known to womankind.
It is honestly weird to be in an area with so many people hahaha I am
pretty used to Talavera still but it's okay! There are 6 missionaries
assigned to our ward and we share a capilla with B9 as well and they
have 6 missionaries too. Needless to say, it's a party :) Elder
Walster and my other good friend Elder Kiser are double training so
that has been a blast! I see them both all the time and it's just
refreshing to see some familiar faces :) we also built another bunk
bed in our Piso so we have had a sleep over with the other elders
every single day of the week so far because our Piso is so well
located. I'm just happy and having a great time out here :) now here's
a little for my week!

There are actually less actives here! I haven't worked with less
actives since Valladolid because in Talavera they basically don't
exist haha so that has been fun. We met up with one guy named Raul who
was actually baptized by my first zone leader Elder Galeano! He is
married to a lady named Nancy and they are a sweet couple. We went
over to their house and watched a part of Meet the Mormons with them
and they loved it! Then they made us dinner and they just rent 1 room
of a Piso so we were all crammed in there on their bed and we ate on
an ironing board! The food was so good but we were sweating sooooo
bad!! I wish I would have got a picture because we were sweating so
bad but it was super fun. I met a handful of other Less actives this
week too and they all seem like great people so we will see what we
can do with them :)

We have a couple of investigators as well and they are progressing
towards baptism so we will see what that brings as well! One guy is
named Alexander and he is from the Dominican Republic so naturally I
already love him ;) we asked him how he was doing with his Book of
Mormon reading and he said that he gets really tired when he reads so
we sat down with him, changed plans, and read from 1 Nephi 8 with him
about Lehi's Vision. I love that story sooooo much and it brings the
spirit so powerfully every time I read it. Alexander understood it
perfectly and he promised us that he would keep reading to find out if
the book was true! It was an awesome lesson :) also earlier in the
week, we met a lady named Rosa who just so happens to be the
girlfriend of a less active guy who is actually starting to come back
to church now. She has never met the missionaries before but we helped
her move a fridge into her new Piso and then she invited us over on
Saturday with some of her other Peruvian friends and they made us
SIRVICHE 😍😍 it was sooooo good and Rosa freaking loves us now. We
went back again last night and had a Noche de Hogar with her and a
family of recent converts so hopefully we can continue meeting with
her and help her boyfriend keep on the right path as well!

On Friday we had a bomb zone conference about increasing our capacity
to love. It was so good. Then we had correlation, English Class, Noche
de Hogar with the ward (the ward here is freaking gigantic haha), and
then finished the night off with a sweet Zumba class and some
volleyball! We honestly had so much fun it was insane. And we had a
new lady come to English class from Venezuela and she stayed for Zumba
and then came on Sunday to church so that was yawesome! It was her
first time ever coming to a Mormon church so I sat next to her in
sacrament and taught her about the sacrament and how to sing the hymns
:) The work here is going great and we are honestly having so much fun
and loving every second. Elder Stout is a stud and I'm so lucky to
have him as a companion. There's so much more I want to say but just
don't have time for, so next week will be chuck full of good stuff :)

As for today, we went to the temple square of Spain and played
basketball I'm the stake center with President Pack! Haha he was
guarding me at one point and I splashed a 3-pointer right in his face
:) YA BOi STILL GOT IT!! But for real I haven't sweat so much in my
whole life. It was a blast!! I love the mission and can't believe I've
been out as long as I have. I hope you all are enjoying summer and
have a wonderful week! I'll talk to you in just 7 short days :):) take
care!!

Con Amor,
Elder Smith

Pics from this week

Elder Peña and I!!

Elder Galvan and I!!

My 2 little brothers :)

As soon as I locked the door yesterday after church, the members
dropped the gate down and locked it and said I wasn't allowed to
leave!! They're the best :)

My 2 little sisters :)

The other greatest family on the planet :) Alfonso, Blanca, Kevin, and Josue!

The Fuentes Family :)

My 2 other parents :)

One of the greatest families in the world :) Eduardo, Taty, Mar, and Esther!

Goodbyes and Madrid... I miss Talavera!

Good Afternoon from MADRID :):)

Well transfers came andddddd... I'M IN MADRID :) I'm super excited to
be up in the biggest part of the mission. My area is called Barrio 3
which means "Ward 3" and its kinda around the area of Carabanchel.
It's kind of in the south of Madrid and I am already loving it and
I've only been here for 6 hours! I am really sad I'm not in Talavera
anymore though, it was one of the hardest days of my mission yesterday
to tell all those wonderful people who I love goodbye! I honestly
wasn't expecting to be transferred so it came by complete surprise.
Talavera will always have a special place in my heart :) I don't have
a ton of time today but I'll try to fit some of the highlights in!

First of all, my new companion is Elder Stout. He is from Morgan, Utah
and graduated the same time as me. Something that is freaking crazy is
that Elders Stout, Baerwaldt, and Johnson were all a trio
companionship in the MTC and now that Elder Stout is my new companion,
I have officially done the impossible! The trifecta has come to pass
haha! And it wasn't like it was over the course of my mission, it was
one after the other after the other! So I feel pretty accomplished :)
I've seen Elder Stout around a bit in the mission and always joked
that he would be my companion some day and now he really is! We
honestly have all the same interests in sports, music, clothes, you
name it. So we are going to be getting along really well and I'm super
excited to see what we can do here in B3 :)

On Wednesday we had a huge mission wide conference on how to use
Family History better and invite all the people we work with to find
their ancestors. It was honestly way cool and this family from the
states flew out to do a special workshop with us. While we were
sitting there in the conference, I was on my iPad doing indexing and
actually found a couple of people who I can request ordinances for and
I got kind of an adrenaline rush! There were a lot of really cool
stories shared of people finding ancestors and the spirit of Elijah
just taking over. So my invitation, thanks to the cool conference, is
to get familiar with the church Family History program and start
helping your family members get their ordinances done! One day when we
are reunited with them, they'll give us a big hug and say thanks :)
after the huge conference, I had some fun intercambios with my boy
Elder Wright :) we partied. Hard.

Well yesterday I stood up to bare my testimony for the last time and
before I could get my little introduction part out, I was bawling
haha. I'm a cry baby. I talked about the importance of families and
the role they play in our lives and how ever since my first day in
Talavera, the branch has been like a little family to me. Even though
they aren't the biggest branch in the world, they definitely have a
strong spirit and I learned how to love every single member. And in
the process I made some lifelong friends too so that's always a bonus
;) visiting the families individually last night was not easy either.
We had a couple of appointments set up and just spent the day saying
bye to a lot of people. Again with the tears thing. The hardest
goodbyes were with my 2 favorite families on earth, our branch mission
leader and the family from El Salvador. I cried as I hugged them all
goodbye (especially Mar and Esther, my two little Spanish/Dominican
sisters) and when my little friend Josue read the note I wrote him, he
broke down in tears and tackled me on the couch and just said I love
you haha. Then he wiped his tears off with my tie :') it was something
I'm definitely never going to forget. I love that place and those
people.

Well that's about it for me this week! As excited as I am for a change
and stuff, I really am going to miss the people in Talavera. Crazy how
fast time flies and how quickly you can get attached to people. 2 of
my other companions, Elder Galvan and Elder Peña are both going home
tomorrow and luckily I got to see them to say goodbye to them as well.
I HATE GOODBYES so I prefer to just say SEE YOU LATER :) wayyyyyy
better and I have a firm testimony that God puts people in our paths
for a reason. He knows what we need to learn and grow and change and
be better. The quicker we accept his will, the happier we will be :)
I'm grateful for everything. Literally everything. I can't put into
words how much I love this church and being a missionary. Sorry this
letter might be a little all over the place but we have been on the
metro and sight seeing and switching companions and all that stuff all
day. It's been crazy. But I'm ready for another week so we will see
how everything goes :) LOVE YOU ALL AND HAVE A FANTASTIC WEEK!!

Con Amor,
Elder Brady Smith

PICS FROM THIS WEEK

i scream, you scream, we were both screaming for ice cream because
it was soooo hot outside hahaha

One more from last week when we were eating with the greatest
family in Talavera :)

Some quality Elder Gearig for all you Elder Gearig Lovers out there! Hahahaha

Goodbye Guillermo! And elder Baerwaldt with the photo bomb hahaha

CRAZY FOR AMERICA AND JESUS!

HAPPY AMERICA DAY!! 🇺🇸

I hope everyone is being super American today and doing something that
pleases them :) my FAM is at Pineview and later this week will be in
POWELL so I'm trunky haha. But for real, HAPPY BIRTHDAY AMERICA :) to
celebrate today, we cleaned the Piso and ate at Burger King. Super
awesome. President and Hermana Pack are coming to around to every Piso
in the mission in July to do a real inspection and if they came today,
we would definitely pass with flying colors. I'm proud of what we did
today even if it wasn't anything that important haha. The week wasn't
too bad, here are some highlights for y'all :')

Well, we had to say our final goodbyes to Guillermo this week which
was really sad. He is back in Madrid for summer vacations with his
family but will return to Talavera in September when I won't be here.
So yeah that kinda sucked actually. He is such a good friend of ours
and as much as I hated answering his questions sometimes, I really
learned a lot from him and always looked forward to our visits. He
asked some of the deepest questions that even I hadn't thought about
before and I've been a member for 19 years!! Even though he wasn't
baptized, I have absolutely no doubt that we planted some good seeds
for him in the future. He is literally perfect for the Gospel and it
would really benefit his wife and daughter as well so let's just hope
for the best in the future :) I put our goodbye picture at the bottom.
One funny story about Guillermo... He is still learning English and so
one day he asked me..."Do you like porn?" But he really meant to say
"popcorn" hahaha so when I explained the difference to him we had a
good laugh and now every time I see him, I just say I LIKE POPCORN :)
he will be missed. We promised to keep in touch so that's cool :)

We visited Pedro this week! I wasn't too stoked about it but we
actually had a way cool lesson with him about Lehi's Vision in the
Book of Mormon. We read verse by verse what happens and he sat there
very quietly and paid very close attention. The spirit filled the room
and when we finished he just said "I remember when elders from 7 years
ago shared this story with me, I love it so much!" So it was a good
afternoon with him and we were able to explain what the fruit on the
tree meant, the great and spacious building, and the iron rod. He now
seems to be taking us a bit more serious, so we will have to see where
things go with him!! He's a pretty good guy :)

Friday was probably one of the best days of my mission!! I had an
intercambio with my BFF on the mission, Elder Gearig!! We had lunch
with Raquel, visited and played some chess with Arturo, had a Coke
with Adelina, learned (and re-learned) how to make Morir Soñando from
the craziest and greatest Dominican on the planet, and then finished
the night by having our weekly Noche de Hogar in the park! We were so
tired by the time we went to bed because we were running from house to
house all day and actually felt a bit sick from all the food and Coke
and Morir Soñando we had consumed haha. After the lesson in the park,
we played KICKBALL and my goodness I forgot how much I miss
KICKBALL/BASEBALL!! It made me trunky haha but it was so much fun to
run around like a crazy little kid for a bit and forget about things
for a second. Just what I needed and I was more than happy to have
ELDER G by my side :) we have definitely gotten a lot closer from
being in the same district for 3 transfers and I am stoked to get back
to the states with him and keep hanging :) it was a really good day
and we are actually a pretty close match at chess ;) lol

Yesterday was a little rough for the comp and I. He wasn't feeling too
hot about stuff so we just took a break on a bench and talked about
all of our differences. We actually had a nice open conversation and
we both left feeling a lot better. Right before we left church, we had
a few members talk to us and give us a nice pat on the back/pump up
talk. And then, God sent us a Dominican Angel named Taty to calm us
down a little bit :) she basically told us that she loves the
missionaries so much because she feels responsible to be their mother
and make it a good experience for them because she hopes people will
do the same for her daughters when they serve their missions. And then
she said something that I'm never going to forget... "my life isn't
perfect, I've got tons of problems, but you gotta have fun through it
all! That's why I'm crazy! Crazy for Jesus Christ!" I have never felt
happier in my whole life when she told me that. It filled me to the
very limit with happiness and I know God knows each one of us
personally. In this instance, it was Taty who was sent to make both of
us feel better :) love that lady with all my heart and she really is
the best Dominican mother I could ever ask for :))

That's all I got for this week!! It was good and I'm learning more and
more about myself every day. I love my Father in Heaven more than ever
before and am extremely grateful for all these experiences, just like
always :) we have transfers next week so we will see what happens!! I
wouldn't mind a change but I'm willing to do what the Lord wants :)
have a FANTABULOUS 4th of July and play baseball or American football
or eat a hot dog or light some fireworks off or something like that
for Elder Smith :) I will talk to you all soon!! Stay classyyyyyyyyyy
;))

con amor,
Elder smith