Wednesday, September 21, 2016

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



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