Pics from this week

Our Chinese Investigator Dionisio!

 Parteeeee.ingggg with Stefany and baby Shane after church :)

 BBALL CAMP/Lesson with the kiddos

Exploring dirty Madrid haha

Short and Sweet Week

Good day a todos 😃

Well the last time I wrote, it was a lot so today will probably be a bit shorter. And plus it's only been like 4 days since we chatted last! Here's what's gone down...

So like 2 weeks ago while we were out contacting, we found a father and a son sitting together on a bench in the park. We went up to talk to them and they agreed that it would be ok to go teach them! The dads name is Grober and the sons is Grover. They just recently moved here from Bolivia and are super good people. So we taught them about the Restoration and the Book of Mormon and then on Friday night, the son Grover came to our weekly Noche de Hogar! He loved it and the youth in the ward made him feel so welcomed! And then he came to church with us on Sunday and stayed after for a baptism that the other elders had! He really enjoyed it and so hopefully this week when we meet up with him, we can set a baptismal date! And get his whole family coming to church too :)

We also have this cool Chinese investigator named Dionisio who has lived here in Spain most of his life. He is super smart and speaks English, Chinese, and Spanish all perfectly. He's a little socially awkward but really loves what we teach him. He came to church this Sunday as well and stayed for the baptism and liked what he saw! He has a baptismal date scheduled for the middle of October so pray for him that it can go through! This last time we met up with him, he offered one of the coolest prayers I've ever heard. It was literally like 5 straight minutes of him telling God everything that he was grateful for. He's such a cool guy and we are excited for him :) 

One day this week during some contacting time, we broke off the main streets and found a basketball court with some kids playing and they invited us over for a game. They were only like 12 but we told them if we beat them, they had to listen to us. Guess who won? 😎 so we gave them each a Book of Mormon and they loved it! One kid was like "I've always wanted a bible!" Hahaha it was classic. Then after the lesson, elder jones and I basically did a little camp with them cuz they weren't that great at ball handling so for the next 1/2 hour, we did some fundamental stuff! They invited us back this week so we might pass by and school some chavales again :) 

Well today we went to a huge mall and hung out with some other missionaries. Nothing too special. And GENERAL CONFERENCE IS THIS WEEKEND HOLY SCHNIKES I'M SO EXCITED 😍😍 it might as well be Christmas already cuz I'm that stoked. Oh and we have 2 intercambios scheduled this week so it's gonna be crazy but I'm happy :) I love you all, more to report next week!! Like I say every week, keep enjoying college football for me 🏈 

Con Amor,

Elder Smith

Pics from this week

The Zone

A family we helped move

Elder Chad Romano! What a good kid! 

My cute little 6 year old GF Ana let me pull her tooth out on the bus! 

She said it's only cuz I'm her favorite elder :) 

and thanks to my mom for all the tooth pulling experience haha!

Tri-Zone BOOK OF MORMON Conference 

Kaden Simmonds Brave played for Boog… 

He stayed with me last night for the temple trip today! 

So much fun… he wore my WX baseball shorts !!

Good with kids :)

Looks like The Second Coming hahaha! 

The temple this morning~

Sweater Weather, every-days, and life :)

hola chavales como están?

It's finally a bit chilly outside so I broke out the sweater for the first time since like March! Sooooo nice man. I finally sleep with the sheets on my body and I'm not sweating bullets when I wake up haha! But I miss you guys so much. Honestly some weeks you just miss people more than others and this was one of those weeks. We went freaking hard in the paint though and had lots of success and I've got a couple of new things to tell you about! Oh today we went to the temple and that's why I'm writing on a Wednesday :) let's get to the good stuff 

So we found 4 new investigators last week! CHAAA HOOO! Super yawesome if you ask me. They all have potential so the future is looking bright in Madrid! One of them is a 10 year old kid named Erik and he is best friends with another 10 year old in the ward! His friend in the ward brought him to church and he loved it! He came up to me after the meetings and asked me when he could be baptized! So we will see how that goes, we need permission from his guardians to start teaching him but so far he hasn't missed a day of Book of Mormon reading since last Friday night! What a stud!

Another new person we found is named David. He is from Mali and probably one of the coolest people I have ever met in my whole life. He literally like walked and hitch hiked from his country all the way to Spain. It took him 9 years to finally accomplish the journey but he did it! Since he's been in Spain, he has been thrown in jail 9 times because he didn't have papers to legally be in the country. Now he is all good and looking for some light in his life. He is Muslim but expressed some concerns he had about his own religion, about how nowhere in the Koran or in the Bible it says it's okay to kill people. So he is kinda looking for a change and we've got just what he needs! 

On a different note, we had a little bit of a sad experience this past Saturday. One of our close friends who we have been working with a lot went out and got absolutely wasted. I'm talking like drunk out of his mind. Friday night, his wife called us just bawling and asking us for help because she knew where he was headed and what he was doing and said she would probably need help the next morning. So, she calls us Saturday morning and said she found him passed out in a park and she couldn't get him home alone. We went without hesitation and found him just sitting down by a little fountain. He was so embarrassed that we saw him that way and kept saying he wasn't going to forgive his wife for inviting us to help get him home. It was the saddest thing I've ever seen. So we finally gave him a pep talk, said a little prayer together, and walked him 2 miles home to his house. He smelled of alcohol and was not in good shape. Elder Jones pretty much carried him the whole way because he couldn't walk in a straight line to save his life. He made it home and rested for about 2 hours then went to work drunk. It was a mess. This past Sunday, we went over to their house and it sounds like they are doing a bit better, he apologized we had to see him like that and he said he was going to change for good. I'm definitely never going to forget that experience and anything that was ever appetizing about drinking went down the drain in a matter of about 10 seconds. Hopefully we can visit them a little more often and keep them going strong with their new goals and continue loving them like Jesus would :) 

Things are crazy good, hectic, awesome, everything. So much is happening every day that I wish each and every one of you could experience too. A mission has definitely been the decision I've ever made in my life. And the longer I've been out, the more I've come to realize that there are things to learn here that can't be taught in any other place. I saw an old friend this week, Elder Chad Romano in the MTC (picture attached) and it just made my day! He's got such a sweet spirit to him and I can tell he is so ready to hit the field and work. He wrote me a little note that said "are you still doing your every-days?" (For those who don't know, every-days are little drills in baseball that you do every single day to keep the fundamentals fresh) I got to thinking and although I'm not doing my baseball every-days, I'm doing my spiritual every-days. Praying, reading, studying, practicing, and all the other things that come with being a missionary. Something I loved that Coach Amicone would always say is be "Brilliant in the Basics" and that applies to literally everything in the world. If we are doing our missionary/spiritual every-days, we will eventually become "Brilliant in the Basics". I'm so happy to have this sacred time in my life to serve the people in Spain and my Savior Jesus Christ.

Good heavens this is a long email. Hopefully this isn't a boring email! Sorry! Last thing is we had a tri-zone conference last week (our musical number was awesome 😉) and the main focus was on the Book of Mormon. How we can use it better in our teaching, how we can be more generous with giving it to people and "flood the earth with the Book of Mormon", and how we can help answer the questions of the soul. Not to brag or anything but in the last 7 days, we have given out 28 copies of the Book of Mormon. We are really taking the "flood the earth with the Book of Mormon" seriously as you can see :) I love the Book of Mormon so much. I wake up in the morning and am sooooo excited for a whole hour of personal study where I can just read with no distractions :) It is the greatest book of all time. I learn so much every time I read and feel the spirit so strongly. There is absolutely no way it could come from anyone other than God himself. If you haven't read it, I invite you to do it :) take me up on this offer people seriously. You won't regret it :) and if you are a member, share it! If you love it, you'll share it with those you love! 

Well, my time is up :) I love you all so much. I'm #blessed with the greatest friends and family in the whole world. I hope everyone is being safe, soaking up a little bit of autumn, enjoying college football, and keeping the commandments 😉 I will talk to you all soon! Have a fantastic week!! 

Con todo mi amor,

Elder Brady Craig Smith

Pics from this week

Birthday Party/Noche de Hogar for Bauti :)

Hanging with my 2nd family today in Talavera :) I love them so much!!

Intercambios with my boy elder Trassierra

Chilling feat. Denilson y elder smith

Father Son Graffiti :)

We're plugging along folks!

They call it Scranton...what?! The electric city!

Hahah hello!! Hopefully there's some of you reading this email that
get the Scranton reference... :) We had a pretty good week. Let's just
cut right to the chase shall we?!

We got failed on a lot this week. Like every appointment we had with
investigators fell through except for 1. So that was a bit rough but
it gave us a lot of time to contact and find new people.
Aaaaannnnnnndddddd that's exactly what we did! We found like 3 new
investigators which is super awesome and a ton more references that
hopefully we can call and meet up with this week! Some of them seem
really promising. Like I'm honestly stoked for what we have set up
already! It's going to be crazy hectic but awesome. Hopefully since we
contacted so much this week, maybe we'll be able to teach a bit more
and find more of a balance in that aspect :)

On Saturday we did intercambios with the other elders and I went with
Elder Trassierra! He's a Spaniard and from a place in the south called
Murcia. He is actually from my MTC group so that was fun to reconnect
for a day :) we taught a few lessons and visited a few families in the
ward but the highlight of the day was visiting our family from
Honduras! They made us this typical soup from their country and it was
so freaking good! I have no idea what was in it but I absolutely loved
it. Hondurans know how to cook :) then we taught them after about the
word of wisdom and why it's important to take care of our bodies. The
kids like to drink tea and coffee but they said they would be willing
to stop and see what kind of blessings Heavenly Father has in store
for them :) later that day while we were contacting, I was feeling
bold so I went up to some guy on the street who was smoking and asked
him "do you like to smoke?" And he said "yes" and so I said "well
don't you know it's bad for you?" And he said "yes" and so I started
to tell him that we as Mormons have a "health code" called the word of
wisdom and invited him to learn more about it. He accepted and gave us
his number so we should be meeting up with him this week :) so moral
of the story is just keep the word of wisdom and you will receive lots
of blessings for it!

Tomorrow we have a tri-zone conference in Pavones and the AP's asked
us if we could prepare a musical number. We decided to sing "Come Unto
Christ" which was the 2014 Mutual theme song and yesterday as we were
practicing, the lyrics stuck out to me big time. It says "...and
whenever you may need him, he's the one you're looking for. So let him
in, and he will take away your pain. When you feel his love, you'll
never be the same....he's calling your name, he's waiting for you,
with arms open wide... Come unto Christ." Honestly, this is so
comforting. It relates perfectly to missionary work, we invite people
to come unto him. And when they do, what a marvelous change it is. I'm
so happy to be here in this country sharing the best message in the
whole world. I just hope that they give us the chance to share it with
them :)

I WENT TO TALAVERA TODAY :):) and holy schnikes I miss that place so
much. The people, the city, everything. I forgot just how different it
is than Madrid! I love it so much. So I put pics of that at the bottom
:) elder jones liked it too so it was a successful day :) Good luck to
jLew this week as he enters the MTC :) you'll do great pal. I love
this work, I love my companion, I love the Lord!! Have a wonderful
week everyone and remember, 20-19 😉🙌🏾 #UTENATION

con Amor,
Elder SmeeeeeeeeF

Pics from this week

I got eaten by a graffiti monster this week.

Just clowning around with my buddies in Madrid ;)

Jaycee Carroll!! USU Alumni! He lives in the ward just next to mine
and every time I see him I always just tease him and tell him that
Greg Grant is still better... Hahaha but really he's so cool! And he's
currently playing for Real Madrid :)

This one is for ELDER GEARIG

Talavera crew yesterday! Josue was still crying hahaha I love him so much

Happy Labor Day!!

Hola chavales :)

Another grand week in the books for elders smith and jones :) I think
we have the most American companionship in the whole mission or maybe
in the whole world. Even more so than when I was with elder Johnson
haha! President saw us today and said Elder Jones should consider
changing his last name to Wesson haha ;) good one Pres! But it's all
good, the work is going well and we are getting along great. I feel
super lucky to be training him because it's almost like he came
pre-trained! He's been a fun niño that's for sure ;) here's a bit
about the week!

So there is this guy that we just barely found out about named Omar
who has already been taught everything by older missionaries. He has
been studying abroad/working in South Africa for like the last 3
months but just got back and called us this week! So we went over to
his house and just started getting to know him and then out of the
blue he asked us, "so when can I get baptized?" I WAS LIKE RIGHT NOW
MAN LETS GO FILL THE TUB :) haha but he's a super cool guy and we went
over the baptismal interview questions with him and he knew everything
like perfectly. He was like reading in the Book of Mormon while he was
on vacation and everything! So on the 17th he should be getting
baptized, please keep your fingers crossed for Omar!

Elder Jones was just dying to play basketball this week so I decided
to switch things up a bit and we went and contacted on the court! We
got into a little 2 on 2 match with some drunk Dominican guy and
another guy named Alberto from Ecuador. The weirdest thing is that
they don't backcourt the ball after the rebound, so we lost the first
game because that rule was so weird but then we won the next 4 in a
row by like 15+ points haha. We are like Chris Paul to Blake Griffin
haha. At one point, Elder Jones just destroyed this Dominican guy with
a tomahawk dunk. It was the dopest thing I've ever seen! I just stood
back and was like "that's my boy 😎" hahaha. I'm proud to have him as
a son. After we finished playing, we started talking with the guy
Alberto from Ecuador and he was really interested in our message! He
has studied with literally every church known to womankind but
respects everything and really has a strong belief in God. So we
talked to him a little bit about the godhead and he agreed to meet up
with us again this week and he wants to play more basketball too! So
we picked up a couple of wins and a new investigator which was
yawesome :):)

Tender Mercy of the week : So right now I'm serving in the Madrid West
Stake and that just so happens to include Talavera in it as well.
Yesterday at our church building, they had like seminary graduation or
something and I saw Kevin, Blanca, and Josue! When Josue saw me, he
ran up and immediately started crying! He looked up at me and sowed me
that he was wearing the tie I gave him and everything!!! I JUST LOVE
THEM SOOOOO MUCH and I miss that area too 😩 seriously the greatest
feeling of all time to be loved and missed by an old area holy
schnikes.

This morning for personal study, I was reading about my favorite
missionary companionship of all time from the scriptures. Alma and
Amulek were absolute machines! I love reading their story because they
were so faithful and diligent. They turned to the Lord in everything
they did and really wanted to make him proud. They had success but
also struggled a lot, being spit on and made fun of. I'm so glad to
have Elder Jones because he is the most happy and outgoing person in
the whole world. Someone could be so rude to him but he just shakes it
off and talks to the next person like its no big deal. I honestly feel
like he is training me haha! We set goals this week to become more
like Alma and Amulek and turn to the Lord in everything we do. We have
already seen blessings from this and are excited to see what He has in
store for us this upcoming week :):)

Today for p-day we went to Pavones by the temple and played basketball
with a ton of missionaries. It was sooooo much fun but as I write this
I'm so exhausted hahaha. I saw Elder Gearig and man I miss that guy
haha. Worth it though :) and speaking of Talavera, I'm actually going
down there next week to spend P-Day with the missionaries and members
there! I'm so excited to introduce them to Elder Jones and just see
their smiling faces and see the city again. So stay tuned for that
next week :) I love you all and hope you have a wonderful Labor Day!!

Con Amor,

elder b.c. Smith