Grandpa Dave, Uncle Dave & "Smiles" Dave!!

Dave, and my other brother Dave, and my other brother Dave!!!

Looking Good!! Love these kind of letters!

This week at first was a little disappointing, then it got way better!!!!!!!!!

First of all a lot of stuff went down this week. I will try to organize it well but here we go.

First I went to Burgos on an exchange where we saw a huge miracle. A family of 3 was referred. When we got there and asked who was ¨so & so¨ she said that´s me and I am the one that wants to hear about your church. Huge miracle! Also we taught a part member family who came to church and now the nonmember wife wants to be baptized. Now the bad news, when I was there also our Brazilian family dropped us because their old church gave him a calling and he felt obligated to do it. That was hard on us. 

The day after I got back from Burgos I had to go to Pamplona to do a baptism interview and we just made it a whole day thing so we could have Elders in our area working too. She was super prepared and super excited for her baptism. I love baptisms!!!! 

With all this time on the bus I tweeked my back and I was about 50% for a couple of days. I looked like an old man walking on the street trying to contact people. I at least hoped for some sympathy, but no go.   Dang some people are cold!!

We did some yoga and with lots of drugs I got to the point of walking and running to our visits again. We visited Osas and he is prepared to be baptized this Friday. We are so excited for a baptism in the ward. It has been a while. Dang!!! We need this baptism!!!  He is super excited for his baptism. He came to church and we announced the baptism and everyone got excited. 

Then at church on Sunday a Spanish girl walked in that I didn´t know and sat next to a member. After I asked who she was the member told me she was an old investigator who could not be baptized because her parents would not let her. Her parents went out of town and so she decided to come to church. Last time she didn´t really do her part, according to her, such as read and pray about the Book of Mormon. We are excited to see her progress and be baptized.

Also an investigator of the hermanas brought a friend to church and he wants to learn more. Boom! huge miracle!!!

Mom I love you! I thank you first of all for ¨teaching me correct principles and letting me govern myself.¨ I see lots of people missing their moms and I just haven´t felt that as much, (let me explain) and I think it is because my mom taught me that I didn´t always need to be babied. I was not always being smothered by you and having you do everything. That is the best thing you did for me, and if you were to ask me I think I love you more than all those other missionaries that miss their moms!   Its just that mine taught me better. ha Sounds like a great trip you will have to Michigan. I am glad school started well. Could you send me a picture of Riley Lewis. How weird that he is home.  

Things are looking good. Seeing lots of miracles and are hoping to see lots of conversion as well. We love you and thank all of you!

We ask that you pray for Osas, Ania and Elisa as they progress towards baptism. Thank you so much! I love all of you!!!

Investigator Miracles and High Five Funnies

I want to tell y´all how important it is to suffer sometime. I have suffered so much to get to this point that I am now. We have had 9 people on a baptismal date. The work is flourishing in the zone. We are one of the best zones right now in the whole mission. We are seeing huge miracles in the zone. We are getting references from the members, of which I will talk about more later. Some crazy stuff happened and Elder Wilson has made me laugh so much. He is so funny!!!!!!! He is just like Elder Meservey!!! I will write Jake and tell him that because it helps me overcome the hard times of the mission.

Our miracle this week tracks back to the Sunday prior to Elder Wiscombe leaving. We felt that this member had friends that needed the gospel. We visited them and found out that she had been preparing a friend by   inviting her friend to pray and has been inviting her to the church. As we were finishing the visit and after explaining the Book of Mormon the member invited her to be baptized, and she accepted the invitation to be baptized. It really makes me happy that Elder Wilson and I get to see the fruits of Elder Wiscombe´s labors. 

Another miracle was when we finally got a hold of an old contact of Elder Wiscombe´s and I´s. We find out he works right out front of our piso, lives next door to a less active coming back, already knows a member in the church, and..... has a family. A family of 4 (3 of 4 are baptismal age) Boom!!

Elder Wilson says fetch a lot. It makes me laugh a lot. It is so funny! He is super funny!  We were contacting and for some reason I was about 10 feet in front of him and I tried to stop a man but he just put up his hand as if we was waving at us but waving us off. He passes me and with his hand still in the waving position Elder Wilson goes in for the high five and yells ¨¡choca!¨ which means ¨high five!¨. He walked right past him too but I was on the ground laughing and it was exactly what I needed to keep going. Super funny!!!

Maria and Elisa are not progressing as much as they should but vamos.

Osas wants to be baptized yesterday but his wife not as quickly.

Ricardo and his family are excited and we are excited to keep teaching them.

If you could keep them in your prayers and also the whole ward of Vitoria as we try to follow the prophets voice and unite members and missionaries baptizing and teaching non members.

I love all of you!!! I thank all of you and hope 

that Angels watch over and guide you all.

 Élder Smiley

Elder Smiley, Elder Wilson, and their favorite member!!

New companion, Elder Wilson!  The #1 Zone in the church!!!

Grandma Smiley's birthday present to Dave!!

It should be time for some miracles!!

First of all as much of you know it was my birthday last week. Boom! It was great, almost no one found out about it.  The biggest present that was given to me was by Grandma Smiley. She bought me tickets to a huge bull fight here in Vitoria that just happened to be on preparation day and my birthday!!! It was a crazy and super Spanish experience!! I loved it!!!! Great!!!

I am in a hurry today but the week was completely miserable at the beginning. I thought that were going to have to suffer even more. Everyone was firing on us. No one wanted to hear anything and we got a lot of fake numbers and addresses. I was a bit mad! Even to the point that no one went to church. It was a test of my patience.

I kept going with faith and this is where I give myself props. I kept going even when I was completely miserable. That afternoon we found a kid that wants to find out why there are so many churches in the world. He accepted the invitation to be baptized. After that a man that did not believe in Jesus Christ, but wants to believe. He accepted the invitation to be baptized. After that (the biggest miracle of my mission) I got a call from a missionary in Madrid (against the rules) and he told me there is a family in Vitoria that he knew, that is prepared and that I need to pass by today (Sunday). We passed by and BOOM, prepared family! They all accepted invitations and told us of their friends that would also like to hear. Boom!!! Huge miracles!!! We are seeing the fruits of our labors!!! Elder Wilson is a machine!!! He works like a freak!!! He is as crazy as I am and we are making the Zone go crazy!!!  Woooohoooo!!!!! Thank you so much for your prayers and support!! I love all of you and I pray that the promise of Doctrine and Covenants 84:88, that you can have angels to guide and protect y´all.

Please pray for

Osas, Aisha, and Clemente. Baptized on 30th of August.

Mungwar. Baptism 30th of august.

Christian. Baptism 30th of August.

Maria and Elisa. That they can progress!!!! Read the Book of Mormon!!!

Love you all!!!

This is the street Dave lives on, very similar to Spanish Fork streets!!!

Dave sent pictures of the bull fight, but we could not bring any of them up!!!  That happens on about 20% of the pictures he sends, do not know why!!

Great letter, things are looking up!!

This week Elder Wiscombe went out strong. He never got trunky. He never talked about home. He never hinted to the end. He is my example and I will never forget him. He has been one of my favorite companions and I will never forget him. We saw miracles in his last week. Even though Maria and Elisa did not get baptized this week they came to church and they keep progressing. I have faith that they will be baptized. We also had an investigator that came to church that had not come in at least a year. He loved it. My new companion will be Elder Wilson. This is his first time being a zone leader. He is a great missionary and he is in my group. He is as crazy as I am, he loves the mission and I am super excited to work with him. 

We are seeing tons of success in the zone as well and we are going into August strong. I am very excited. I am glad that I have the opportunity to serve a mission. I have learned so much, a lot from my companions and also a lot from the work that we do daily. The daily challenges and the great miracles that god blesses us with. The mission is the best thing that we can possibly do. I am excited for all the miracles that are coming to Vitoria and to the Vitoria zone. We are getting everyone excited.

The members are catching fire. We have been visiting more with the members to try and get them excited about sharing the gospel with their friends. We have upcoming visits with friends of members. Things we have not seen in some time. Next week’s email will be bigger. Lot´s of things are going to be happening and we are inviting someone to be baptized every day because that is what we do in El Faro. Love you all.

I ask that you keep praying and fasting for Maria and Elisa. Also Ricardo, he is a great man we have found and I feel he is prepared. If you could also pray for the members so that they can be excited about missionary work. Thank you and love you all. I thank you for your prayers and your help. I love you and I hope what is best for everyone of you!

Élder Smiley

A few more things super quick. Thank you for all the letters that have been sent my way. I want to personally thank the Chesters, the Young Men, Grandma and Grandpa Smiley, Grandma and Grandpa Stamps, The Johnsons, The Powells and Mom. Thank you!!

I also invite all of you to read the talk by Elder Ballard called Following Up and to do what it invites us to do.

Here is our "Smiley Missionary" just a few years ago, eating breakfast watching TV