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
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