Finally, a letter that is a bit up beat!!

We went to San Sebastian for preparation day last week and it was great! The views are incredible and it is a beautiful place. This week was not much easier than the last few weeks but we saw 2 huge miracles.

First we find a man on the street who was so very interested in our message and it is extremely excited to hear what we have for him and his family. I love families!!! The best are finding and teaching families.

The next is that Maria came to church and loved it. Elisa had to work and that was a pity, but Maria came and loved it and she could easily be baptized whenever they would like.  I think that Maria could be baptized this weekend. We are visiting her tonight and we will probably see her tomorrow too. I have got a feeling that miracles are coming this week. It is going to be the month of Vitoria. We are extremely excited what is going on, the Zone is on fire!! The elders are excited. Transfers are coming and a few we need but a few we will miss but they are all excited and there will be huge miracles and baptisms in the month of August. Boom baby!!!

Yesterday we went to Barcelona for Leadership and we came to a conclusion or a goal of having everyone invite someone to be baptized everyday. I was very excited fro the simplicity of the goal but the real impact of the goal. We as a mission have found so many investigators, now we just have to put them all in the water. It was a great experience and a great last concilio for Elder Wiscombe.  

The best part of the last week was the flight back. I sat on the very back of the plane and it was horrible. We hit some nasty turbulence as we flew through a lightning storm. It was so scary but so cool. We are fishtailing on the back and there was a point when the plane just dropped a little. Everyone screamed and people were crying. I sat next to a Chinese man who spoke English and loves the U.S.A., and he was intrigued that G-pa is a Chinese professor and disappointed in me for not learning a little if my G-pa is Chinese. HaHa   On the other side it was patchy, he was a stubborn atheist Spaniard who was just a great man. I loved him but he just wouldn’t accept anything. A bit sad. Great miracles are coming in this mission and I am excited!! I love all of you and I wish the best for all of you!!! Thank you so much!!!

If you could all pray for Maria and Elisa that they could be baptized that would be fantastic.

Also Ricardo and his family. We are excited!!

Love you all!!!

Élder Smiley

San Sebastian with Elder Wiscombe

Elder Wiscombe and I

Beautiful San Sebastian

The Spanish Fork Connection  ---  All Zone Leaders in Spain   ---  Go Dons!

Oh the ups and down (seems like a lot of downs lately) of being a missionary!!

This week was really hard again until Sunday night. We had an incredible miracle yesterday. Boom. This week we just had fired visits and lots of disappointments especially at church. When 1 of our promised 6 came to church I just got super mad. I had just had it. I felt like god had just forgotten about us. I almost cursed God. Pte. Pace had asked us to find in a certain way called pass by´s. Not working. That we should work with the members. Not working! Talk with everyone. Not working! I prayed and asked what he wanted of me. If he wanted something happen here or if we should just roll over and die. I literally felt like I was just suffering. Like there was nothing that we could do except take Satan´s blows. I was just down. All of the miracles of the last 2 weeks just rolled over and died.

I was just at that point last night when we went over to a person that fired us at church (Maria and Elisa). They received us and let us go up. They told us their reasons and they were really good. Things had happened, and they had to fix the emergency. We then said it´s time for baptism and she said yes it is. I need 1 week to read the Book of Mormon and pray about it. We said yes. She thanked us for helping her all this time and for putting up with her. She cried and it was just what I needed.

It was a miracle. It might be the one. The one before Elder Wiscombe goes. I want him to go out punching with a baptism. I have worked so hard so that we could help someone be baptized. That is really all I want. We have also been trying to help Bishop´s family which the majority are inactive and it´s hard on him. We found one of his less active daughters and we are now working with her and her husband to help them come back. They are progressing and I think we will see him in church next Sunday. Plus they have friends who are nonmembers and one is deaf and mute. I think she is prepared for the gospel. I am very excited for these weeks to come.

I´ve got a good feeling about this week. I think that we are going to see some huge miracles. God really tests your faith. I´ve never been tested like this, I think even worse than with Elder Alder. I hope we are blessed for enduring.

I love all of you and I thank you for sending Angels to help the work here in Vitoria Spain through your avid prayers. I love the opportunity to serve my savior Jesus Christ and even sometimes to bleed in his name.  It´s an opportunity you will not and can not get in any other circumstance.

If you could pray for Maria and Elisa we would love that. We´ve got to find then baptize everyone!!!

Élder Smiley

Northern Spain Zone Leaders

After last week, this letter sounds great!!!

I don´t have much to say this week just because the last week I got around to it so late. I want you all to know that the week finished well. We saw miracles and they all came from the members. Let´s just start with the miracles in church. 2 investigators who are members friends came to church after telling us earlier in the week that they just weren´t going to be able to come. (First time in my entire mission and might be the only time in my mission). 2 members invited/brought an investigator to church. This investigator is now super fired up. Boom! We saw a member Saturday night and he told us to invite his friend right next to him to come to church, he didn´t come but we do have a visit with him. We really are receiving tons and tons of blessings and miracles. 

We had interviews with President Pace this morning. Even though our numbers have been down as a companionship he looked at me and told me that he didn´t have to worry about me. He knew that we were working hard, that we were being obedient, and doing exactly what we needed to do. That gave me a lot of comfort to my soul. We talked about the zone for a little bit and how we were going to get the zone excited. At the end of the interview he shared a scripture with me that really made me feel good. He shared a scripture that said that they worked and did all the missionary work AND THEN they saw tons of miracles. It brought peace to my soul that good things are coming. I am going to try and get better at taking more pictures but I will get around to that. Also I don´t know if I told you this but Faith went to the temple and has not missed church since her baptism. She loves the church and is a super strong convert. It is true conversion. We are going to see tons of miracles this week. I can feel them coming.

I love all of you!

I thank all of you!

I know that I am doing exactly what I am supposed to be doing and exactly where I need to be right now even if it is really hard. 

Let´s go out and baptize the world!

Let´s pray for the work of the Lord in the whole world and go out and help someone come back to church, be baptized, repent and come unto their savior. The real work happens when the members are involved.

Let´s go to work

I love all of you!

Élder Smiley

You have to take the good with the bad!!! Great attitude Elder Smiley

This week has been difficult. I have been all over the place. This week alone I went to Bilbao, then to Barcelona, and back to Bilbao, then to Burgos and now today I arrived back in Vitoria.

Pablo dropped us yesterday when I was gone. I am just trudging along trying my hardest to keep going. These times might be even harder than the times we had in Menorca. Something good is coming. It´s got to come! We need a miracle! We need something to keep us moving!  Something is coming. A big miracle is on its way. It´s going to be great week this week.

I love you all and thank you for your prayers and your constant thoughts. Please keep us in your prayers. I really do need them. I thank y´all and love y´all. 

Élder Smiley