Pics from this week

My mother from Paraguay and our 22 pound turkey :) 

Elena's Baptism!! 

My battle wound 

P-Day bowling fun :) B3 vs. B9

The district and our ward mission leader 

Zone conference feast!

Food, Elena, and #ILUMINAelMUNDO

Well HHHHEEELLLLLLLLLOOOOO my dearly beloved ones :)

Let me tell you, we had such a fantastic week! Holy cow if we keep having weeks like this I might never come home. The title of the email basically explains all that went on, we ate a lot of food, Elena got baptized, and the church came out with the DOPEST SICKEST MOST BORDERLINE GROTESQUE CHRISTMAS CAMPAIGN known to womankind! So I'll explain all that stuff with more detail now :) 

So thanksgiving was incredible. We had a zone conference that day and learned a lot of stuff about like how to begin teaching and the new Christmas initiative that the church came out with. We will get into that later :) but it was fun. We had a big feast after as a zone and had some nice chatting with other missionaries! Then later that night, we went over to my Paraguayan mother's house and she cooked us a 22 POUND TURKEY HOLY COW it was soooooo good and definitely a Thanksgiving I'll never forget. Being with the people you love and some good food is definitely the best feeling in the world :) We have had sooooooo many eating appointments this week.... I have never eaten so much in my whole life. I need to start running again haha. SOLID THANKSGIVING!

ELENA GOT BAPTIZED :):):) it was a marvelous day. All her family came to support her and she was glowing with happiness! It took her and her son a few times to get the baptismal prayer right and for her to go completely under, but after all, she went under :) her non-member husband was there and when her son got up to bare his testimony, the husband started to cry! He went and talked to the bishops wife and told her that he was gonna be baptized next. We are making some serious progress with them guys so I'm really pumped to see what the future brings with them! And of course Elena got confirmed yesterday so it was just the cherry on top :) SOLID WEEKEND! 

I sure hope you have all seen the new Christmas video called #LIGHTtheWORLD. if not, stop reading this and go look it up. Seriously. It's fire. We have been out in the streets contacting this week and we have been able to share the video and talk a little bit about the acts of service that we can do. I honestly am so hyped to start this puppy up! The members are all on board, the mission, the whole world is gonna be lit up with the light of Christ! So I invite all of you to give your all this Christmas season and light the world with the light of Christ! This is going to be a memorable Christmas if we do it right, I mean there is a freaking giant billboard in NYC's TIMES SQUARE so that means it's super important. It's gonna be a SOLID CHRISTMAS SEASON FOLKS! 

That was my week. Oh and this morning I got in a fight with a grizzly bear and he scratched my forehead really bad! Haha actually it was just the clip on my name tag. It looks bad and kinda stings but I should live. Maybe people will want to talk to me and ask me what happened and I'll get more references! Haha ;) but I'm so happy. And today for p-day we went bowling as B9 and B3 missionaries!! Good stuff :) I love thanksgiving and Christmas so much! I hope you all had a great week and get into the Christmas spirit this coming week :) LOVE YOU ALL!! 

Con Amor,

Elder Brady Smith 

Pics from this week

Outside the Atlético Madrid stadium just before

Atlético played Real Madrid :) 

TURKEY BOWL CREW

TANNER look out for her, she lives in Fuengirola :) 

The Pit today where we played real football  me, elder kiser, elder Gearig, and

elder Reese were definitely the MVP's 

Turkey Week!!! Woooo Hoooo!!

Hola familia :):) 

Well I don't have a ton of time today because we were playing basketball and having the 1st Annual  Spain Madrid Mission  TURKEY BOWL  haha it was so much fun. I have pictures attached at the bottom. But this week was incredibly fun! Kinda slow but things are moving along :) here's the summary!

So, elder Johnson is probably the funniest person next to bryson Gallagher and GHam. I seriously am laughing my butt off 24/7 and he is a really hard worker too. Every night I have to call all the members of our district and do like a check up and then after, I just hand the phone over to elder Johnson and he tells them a joke and all I hear is the people through the other end of the phone laughing their heads off haha! We have been getting along really well and have set our goals and sights high for this transfer. We've got 5 more weeks to make some magic happen here! 

So this week we met up with Nancy's daughter, Violeta! I'm sure you all remember Nancy from Venezuela who left the country last week. Well we talked for a bit with Violeta and she was super cool! She believes a lot in God and really liked the fact that 2 young people would dedicate so much time to serving other people. She has been through a lot of trials in her life and is really open to learning more. So good things will be coming with us and Violeta! And speaking of her mom, Nancy, she called me yesterday! We were eating with some members and the phone rang and when I answered it, I knew immediately who it was! It was so good to hear her voice! I love Nancy so much and she said that she found the missionaries in Venezuela so she is continuing with them :) they are some great people! 

Elena's baptism is this Saturday!! She's so excited for it that it's making me excited too! Her happiness is contagious. For someone that has waited so long for this special day, she is so calm and content. She has taught me a lot just by her example and willingness to follow the Savior. Her son Angel is going to baptize her and it's gonna be the greatest day of all time! Hopefully next week I'll have more to report on the baptism and how it went but for now, keep her in your prayers :) 

With this week being Thanksgiving, I want to give you all a special thanks for the influence you have had in my life. Especially my parents and sisters! The longer I am out, the more I realize how important family is. I would not be here serving or even close to the same person I am today without you 4! I love and miss you guys so much. I am grateful for this Thanksgiving season and all the things my Heavenly Father has blessed me with. I am grateful for the opportunity I have to serve as a full time missionary of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. I love the people I'm serving with my whole heart and I love this country too. I know God sent me here to find my long lost family and friends and bring them closer unto Him. I invite all of you to think about the things you are grateful for and THANK YOUR HEAVENLY FATHER :) all that we have comes from him and isn't it wonderful that we have someone who loves us so much?!?! 

Love you all. Have a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend and go play in a turkey bowl for me! And stuff yourselves full of food, of course :) Oh and PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE send me your Christmas cards! There is nothing I love more than a good Christmas card :) talk to you all soon! 

Con Amor,

Elder brady smith 

Pics from this week

The last meeting with nancy!

Dropping the nino off at the train station for 

VALLADOLOD this morning!

Zone Conference J

One of the eating appts we had yesterday!

Sweater twins.. a parting gift from Elder Jones to me!

Crazy Semana!

Hello all :')

Well it was a crazy good week with an even crazier finish! Keep
reading to find out more :) :) :)

Okey dokey... so remember how last week I said that President always
has a card up his sleeve for transfers? Well folks, he played it :) I
was so surprised when transfer calls came in hahaha it was about the
last thing I was expecting. So, I'm staying a 4th transfer in B3 which
means I'll be here for Thanksgiving and Christmas! But, Elder Jones is
leaving! Normally greenies are in their first areas for about 6 months
so it was really surprising! But guess where he's going?!?! Yep :)
VALLADOLID!!! He will be serving in the exact same companionship that
Elder Peña and I opened just over a year ago! He'll be in my same
piso, he'll be there the exact same time of year as me, he will meet
all the people I know, everything the exact same! I was so blown
away!! I seriously am so excited for him haha he is going to the
greatest place in the whole mission. My new companion in B3 will be
Elder Johnson! He is from Nampa, Idaho and has been out for a year! So
now I will have had 2 Johnson's and a Jones :) he's a great guy so I'm
excited to see what happens these next six weeks! So that's what
happened with transfers :) now here's how the week went!

So Elena passed her baptismal interview :) WOOO HOOO :) she wants to
be baptized on 26th of November in the morning so that all her family
can come to support her. She is kind of a gift that fell from the sky,
but we are still really excited for her. She has been waiting for over
10 years to be legally married and now finally can be baptized! She's
been preparing for a while and I'm just glad we can be here to help
her move on to the next step :) I'll keep y'all updated on how
everything goes with her!

So probably the saddest part of the week... Nancy left Spain :( she
went back to Venezuela! We called her on Thursday (elder jones
birthday) and met up with her, and while we were sitting in a park
talking, she told us that her daughter bought her a ticket back to
Venezuela. Her youngest daughter lives here and Nancy came to try and
help her out, but things didn't end up turning out too well. So, it
literally came as a complete surprise. Right when she said that, i was
like immediately shocked. I am going to miss her soooooo much, when we
said goodbye, she pulled us both in and gave us hugs and besos ;) she
made us sign her Book of Mormon and kept telling us that it was her
most prized possession. I have no doubt that she will be baptized in
Venezuela one day. She lives by the church over there. She has had a
crazy hard life. Her husband was a journalist and one day, some people
didn't like an article that he wrote so they went to his house and
killed him and put a gun to the youngest daughter's head and
threatened to kill her too but didn't. She is one of the strongest
people I have ever met and I am going to miss her sooooooo much.
Change is hard but for her its going to be the best thing right now!

We are doing super duper good with our family from Honduras, we
visited them 3 times this week and the dad was a bit sick, so we gave
him a blessing and he has started to feel a lot better. I think i
mentioned it in my last email, but they finally got married civilly!
And the wife who is catholic, she has been reading so much every day
on LDS.org and the Book of Mormon as well. We take the kids to church
every Sunday and i think we could see some possible baptisms with them
in the coming months. They are literally the greatest family of all
time, they make us the best food in the whole world every time we go
over and i feel so good helping them out. I just love missionary work
so much wooooooooooooowwwwwwwwwwwwww.

MY SON IS GONE! I am so glad i had the chance to serve with elder
jones. He is a machine. Honestly some days it feels more like he
trained me than i trained him. He was only here for 2 transfers, but
he left his mark in a good way. We had like 3 separate eating
appointments yesterday just so the people could say goodbye to him! I
learned so much during our time together and consider him my little
brother who is a lot taller than me haha :) Valladolid needs him right
now and im so sure that he is going to have so much success! Go North
Chaval!!

This morning we went on our final breakfast trip, and as we were
walking in the street, we passed a guy from New York and he was with
his daughter. We started to talk with him and he has a lot of friends
that are mormons and he wished us luck and told us to pray for him.
Then, his 5 year old daughter looked up at him and said "no daddy, we
should pray for them. They need it!" It was the cutest thing in the
world and got me thinking about all the people who have been
supporting me throughout my mission. I promise not a single prayer
goes unnoticed. I am so grateful for the family and friends that all
of you reading this are and have been for me my whole life, especially
during my mission. Things are sooooooo very good right now. I love
this church with everything i've got!

Elder Johnson and i are gonna tear it up this week and you'll hear
from me soon :) have a great one familia y amigos and stay safe!! LOVE
YOU ALL :)))))))))) ❤️❤️

Con Amor,
ELDER smith

Pics from this week

Toledo :)

Toledo :)

The wedding for Elena! 

An sweet couple that me and elder kiser found in the metro a few weeks ago :)
 they are from utah! What great people and small world! 

Toledo :)