Monday, August 1, 2016

I'm in line at H&M right now buying socks!

FamBam :):)

Hola from elder smith :) I hope you all are having a spectacular day!
Before I get started, I wanna share 2 quick little stories. First,
last week I forgot to say that President and Hermana Pack came and
inspected our Piso and I'm happy to report that we got the Celestial
Award! WOO HOO :) that means our Piso was pretty much 100% clean and
we got the highest award possible. Then we had interviews with
President and can I just that my mission president is so dope... Holy
schnikes. That guy is so spiritually in-tune it's not even funny. We
got talking about a lot of different stuff and he gave me some really
good advice for the area and other things. Oh and we don't have AC in
our Piso so it's always blazing hot and while we were talking he was
like "I feel like a missionary today with all this sweating!" And I
looked at his forehead and he had 1 bead of sweat running down his
face. By this point my whole back was completely soaked through to my
white shirt and I just smiled and said "Oh President :)" hahaha it was
classic. But then again I'm always sweating here so that's nothing
really new. The second thing is that this week we bought 36 LITERS OF
COCA COLA :) I attached a picture below. It's literally cheaper than
water here somehow so we just stocked the heck up. Probably a once in
a lifetime thing but hey, it was fun :) okay now to the important
stuff haha!!

ALEXANDER! Man I love Alexander. We taught him tithing and
fasting/fast offerings last week and it was the first time I had
taught it since Lucy, my old investigator in Talavera :/ you all
remember what happened with Lucy right? Ok good because I don't want
to get into that again. Anyways, he already knew what tithing was and
is completely on board to pay it so all we had to do was explain
fasting and fast offerings and he loved it! We invited a member named
Jenifer who is a returned missionary to come with us and she did a
great job explaining why we do fast offerings and what fasting is. She
helped so much haha and she is such a homie :) Alexander said it made
perfect sense to help other people and he would be more than willing
to fulfill one of the Lord's commandments. We also set his baptismal
date in stone for the 4th of September and he is so excited! He came
to church yesterday for the 3rd time and was participating actively in
Gospel Principles and soooooo we are just animado outta our minds for
him :) pray that he can stay strong with his commitments por favor!!

Yesterday afternoon we helped the other elders with one of their
lessons. Their investigator is named Shu and he is from Mainland
China! He comes to church every week and brings like 5 of his friends.
It's so hilarious because they don't understand anything but they love
being there! The Temple Square Sister Missionaries from Salt Lake City
were supposed to Skype us but there was a mix up and so we just ended
up doing it with our iPads. He doesn't speak any English or Spanish so
literally we just use Google Translate to talk to him and other apps
that we have and it was a super interesting lesson but we all felt the
spirit so strongly! While we were translating back and forth, Shu
handed us something to read and it said that he came to Spain all
alone, his family is in China but he knows that God is there with him.
Right before we finished, he asked us where he could get a certificate
stating that he is a Christian so it got us talking a bit (more like
typing and translating haha) about baptism. We told him that we are
his friends and if he ever needs anything, we are here for him. The
other elders were talking to him so I looked up how to write in
Chinese "Jesus loves you" and I put it on the back of a Jesus picture
I had and we gave it to him. He left with tears in his eyes and gave
us all a big hug and smile and said thanks :) it really hit home to me
that the spirit is the teacher. It literally doesn't matter what
language you speak because everyone understands the spirit. My iPad
died halfway through the lesson so it was a good thing we had 4 of us
haha! I just wish that Elder Gilbert and Elder Cole could come to
Spain with their Chinese skills and help us teach him because he is a
golden investigator! ;)

We had a bomb Noche de Hogar last night with a super awesome family.
They are from Paraguay and it's a mom with her 4 kids. These kids are
INSANE but so funny and I love them so much. We talked about the plan
of salvation and how we can live with our families again some day for
eternity thanks to the plan. I always love to give the example of
Grandpa Smith passing away in February and how I know he is just
working away in the spirit world and loving being reunited with
Grandma Smith :) it makes me so happy just thinking about it. Long
story short, the Noche de Hogar was incredible. We had super good
participation and had fun at the same time :) and another tiny piece
to the story... in Spain there is this super popular clothing brand
called "John Smith" and while I was walking by a store this week,
everything was on sale and I saw a navy blue t-shirt that said John
Smith on it in white and red lettering. So of course I went in and
bought it :) I'm wearing it right now as I type and it's so
comfortable. I miss grandpa but am glad for his example to me and now
I've got him on my shirt whenever I wanna remember him :) I will
attach a picture. This paragraph probably doesn't make sense but it
was a fun night and it ended off with us giving the kids rides on our
shoulders for like 3 miles :') we were dead when we got to the metro
station hahaha picture attached.

THERES THE WEEK FOR YALL :) miss you all tons. Love you all tons more.
Sorry I wrote a lot but it was a jam packed 5 days! Loving my mission
more and more each day. I will talk to you all next week :):):))

Con Amor,
EEEELDER SSSSMiTH

P.s. I apologize I have been getting super bad at emailing. I feel
like I lose more and more time every week... So if I don't respond
personally, don't take it personally!! I love you all sooo much :)


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